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Characterizing the Joint Effect of Diverse Test-Statistic Correlation Structures and Effect Size on False Discovery Rates in a Multiple-Comparison Study of Many Outcome Measures

In their 2009 Annals of Statistics paper, Gavrilov, Benjamini, and Sarkar report the results of a simulation assessing the robustness of their adaptive step-down procedure (GBS) for controlling the false discovery rate (FDR) when normally distributed test statistics are serially correlated. In this study we extend the investigation to the case of multiple comparisons involving correlated non-central t-statistics, in particular when several treatments or time periods are being compared to a control in a repeated-measures design with many dependent outcome measures. In addition, we consider several dependence structures other than serial correlation and illustrate how the FDR depends on the interaction between effect size and the type of correlation structure as indexed by Foerstner s distance metric from an identity. The relationship between the correlation matrix R of the original dependent variables and R~, the correlation matrix of associated t-statistics is also studied. In general R~ depends not only on R, but also on sample size and the signed effect sizes for the multiple comparisons.

Feiveson, Alan H.↗

FDR doesn't Tell the Whole Story: Joint Influence of Effect Size and Covariance Structure on the Distribution of the False Discovery Proportions

As part of a 2009 Annals of Statistics paper, Gavrilov, Benjamini, and Sarkar report results of simulations that estimated the false discovery rate (FDR) for equally correlated test statistics using a well-known multiple-test procedure. In our study we estimate the distribution of the false discovery proportion (FDP) for the same procedure under a variety of correlation structures among multiple dependent variables in a MANOVA context. Specifically, we study the mean (the FDR), skewness, kurtosis, and percentiles of the FDP distribution in the case of multiple comparisons that give rise to correlated non-central t-statistics when results at several time periods are being compared to baseline. Even if the FDR achieves its nominal value, other aspects of the distribution of the FDP depend on the interaction between signed effect sizes and correlations among variables, proportion of true nulls, and number of dependent variables. We show examples where the mean FDP (the FDR) is 10% as designed, yet there is a surprising probability of having 30% or more false discoveries. Thus, in a real experiment, the proportion of false discoveries could be quite different from the stipulated FDR.

Feiveson, Alan H.↗

Global Gene Expression Profiling in Lung Tissues of Rat Exposed to Lunar Dust Particles

The Moon's surface is covered by a layer of fine, potential reactive dust. Lunar dust contain about 1‐2% respirable very fine dust (less than 3 micrometers). The habitable area of any lunar landing vehicle and outpost would inevitably be contaminated with lunar dust that could pose a health risk. The purpose of the study is to analyze the dynamics of global gene expression changes in lung tissues of rats exposed to lunar dust particles. F344 rats were exposed for 4 weeks (6h/d; 5d/wk) in nose‐only inhalation chambers to concentrations of 0 (control air), 2.1, 6.8, 21, and 61 mg/m3 of lunar dust. Animals were euthanized at 1 day and 13 weeks after the last inhalation exposure. After being lavaged, lung tissue from each animal was collected and total RNA was isolated. Four samples of each dose group were analyzed using Agilent Rat GE v3 microarray to profile global gene expression of 44K transcripts. After background subtraction, normalization, and log transformation, t tests were used to compare the mean expression levels of each exposed group to the control group. Correction for multiple testing was made using the method of Benjamini, Krieger, and Yekuteli (1) to control the false discovery rate. Genes with significant changes of at least 1.75 fold were identified as genes of interest. Both low and high doses of lunar dust caused dramatic, dose‐dependent global gene expression changes in the lung tissues. However, the responses of lung tissue to low dose lunar dust are distinguished from those of high doses, especially those associated with 61mg/m3 dust exposure. The data were further integrated into the Ingenuity system to analyze the gene ontology (GO), pathway distribution and putative upstream regulators and gene targets. Multiple pathways, functions, and upstream regulators have been identified in response to lunar dust induced damage in the lung tissue.

Yeshitla, Samrawit A.↗

The Cognition Battery: Developing a Normative Database for Spaceflight and Examining the Impact of Prolonged Isolation and Confinement on Cognitive Performance

INTRODUCTION: Astronauts on future long duration space exploration will be required to execute complex tasks in which even minor errors could have devastating consequences. Intact cognition is critical to maintain exceptional performance standards and it is possible that variability even at the highest ends of the performance spectrum will impact operational tasks. Exposure to spaceflight hazards could compromise cognitive performance, and decrements have been documented under conditions of altered gravity and radiation exposure. The cognitive impacts of prolonged isolation and confinement remain relatively unknown. Traditional neuropsychological assessments cannot support earth independent monitoring, do not have normative comparisons for high functioning individuals, and most are not sensitive enough to detect small performance decrements. The Cognition Battery was developed to address these limitations but currently lacks comprehensive normative data. In this project, we aimed to 1) develop a preliminary normative database for astronauts and astronaut surrogates using the Cognition Battery, and 2) characterize differences in cognitive performance after short and long duration analog missions. PARTICIPANTS & METHODS: We assessed baseline cognitive performance by administering the Cognition Battery to 97 astronaut and astronaut surrogates recruited to approximate astronaut demographics (mean age: 39.38, SD=7.62; 35.1% female; 91.7% advanced degrees). For aim 1, we calculated speed and accuracy outcomes for each subtest and summarized the data with descriptive statistics. We examined the relationship between age and performance with Pearsons’s correlations and the relationship between gender and performance with independent samples t-tests. A subset of individuals on short duration (n=48; mean age: 38.18, SD=7.14; 37.5% female; 91.7% advanced degrees) missions of 45 days and long duration (n=34; mean age: 42.12, SD=8.39; 38.2% female; 94.1% advanced degrees) missions ranging from 4-8 months were administered the Cognition Battery during and after their respective missions. For aim 2, we accounted for practice effects using published corrections, and z-transformed post-mission scores using the full sample’s baseline scores. One-way analysis of covariance tests determined the main effect of analog duration on post-mission performance, after accounting for age and gender. The False Discovery Rate method was applied to adjust for multiple comparisons. RESULTS: In the full normative sample, older age was associated with slower reaction times on a processing speed task (r=.39, p=.02), and men were more accurate on processing speed (t=-2.19, p=.03) and faster on sustained attention (t=2.02, p=.049) and risk-taking tasks (t=2.49, p=.02). We observed a main effect of duration on performance on tasks of visual memory (f(1)=5.62, p=.04), processing speed (f(1)=5.48, p=.03), and sensorimotor functioning (f(1)=39.52, p < .001), such that slower performance was observed after long duration missions relative to short. Only sensorimotor functioning was significant after adjustments for multiple comparisons (adjusted p<.001). DISCUSSION: The full sample represents the largest dataset of cognitive performance assessed by the Cognition Battery available and can be used for further research in spaceflight and high-performance populations. Relationships between performance and key demographic variables suggest future research that include age and gender stratification is needed. Our results also show minimal changes in cognitive performance between longer and shorter periods of isolation and confinement.

S I Dev↗

GWTC-2: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed by LIGO and Virgo During the First Half of the Third Observing Run

We report on gravitational wave discoveries from compact binary coalescences detected by Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo in the first half of the third observing run (O3a) between 1 April 2019 15:00 UTC and 1 October 2019 15:00 UTC. By imposing a false-alarm-rate threshold of two per year in each of the four search pipelines that constitute our search, we present 39 candidate gravitational wave events. At this threshold, we expect a contamination fraction of less than 10%. Of these, 26 candidate events were reported previously in near real-time through GCN Notices and Circulars; 13 are reported here for the first time. The catalog contains events whose sources are black hole binary mergers up to a redshift of ~ 0.8, as well as events whose components could not be unambiguously identified as black holes or neutron stars. For the latter group, we are unable to determine the nature based on estimates of the component masses and spins from gravitational wave data alone. The range of candidate event masses which are unambiguously identified as binary black holes (both objects ≥ 3 M⨀) is increased compared to GWTC-1, with total masses from ∼ 14M⨀ for GW190924 021846 to ∼ 150M⨀ for GW190521. For the first time, this catalog includes binary systems with significantly asymmetric mass ratios, which had not been observed in data taken before April 2019. We also find that 11 of the 39 events detected since April 2019 have positive effective inspiral spins under our default prior (at 90% credibility), while none exhibit negative effective inspiral spin. Given the increased sensitivity of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo, the detection of 39 candidate events in ∼26 weeks of data (∼1.5 per week) is consistent with GWTC-1.

Gravitational wave detection↗

Follow-up Imaging of Disk Candidates from the Disk Detective Citizen Science Project: New Discoveries and False Positives in WISE Circumstellar Disk Surveys

The Disk Detective citizen science project aims to find new stars with excess 22 m emission from circumstellar dust in the All WISE data release from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. We evaluated 261 Disk Detective objects of interest with imaging with the Robo-AO adaptive optics instrument on the 1.5 m telescope at Palomar Observatory and with RetroCam on the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory to search for background objects at 0 15–12 separations from each target. Our analysis of these data leads us to reject 7% of targets. Combining this result with statistics from our online image classification efforts implies that at most7.9%±0.2% of All WISE-selected infrared excesses are good disk candidates. Applying our false-positive rates to other surveys, we find that the infrared excess searches of McDonald et al. and Marton et al. all have false-positiverates >70%. Moreover, we find that all 13 disk candidates in Theissen & West with W4 signal-to-noise ratio >3are false positives. We present 244 disk candidates that have survived vetting by follow-up imaging. Of these,213 are newly identified disk systems. Twelve of these are candidate members of comoving pairs based on Gaia astrometry, supporting the hypothesis that warm dust is associated with binary systems. We also note the discovery of 22 m excess around two known members of the Scorpius–Centaurus association, and we identifyknown disk host WISEA J164540.79-310226.6 as a likely Sco-Cen member. Thirty of these disk candidates arecloser than 125 pc (including 26 debris disks), making them good targets for both direct-imaging exoplanetsearches.

Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer↗

The X-Ray Variable Sky

A novel approach to search for rapid time variability of every source, whether persistent or transient, within the entire ROSAT detector field has been developed. Semi-automated software statistically tests the photon arrival time event list for source variability and reports significant (greater than 5 sigma) variable enhancement in the photon count rate on time scales ranging from 5-500 seconds. The computational algorithms have been thoroughly tested, and are able to discriminate between false detections induced by instrumental effects, and real X-ray variable sources (XRVs); when carefully scrutinized by the PI. The analysis has proven to be successful, with both periodic and transient XRVs having been found. Some of these are entirely new discoveries, while others have been detected in previous X-ray missions, yet their nature remained elusive since source identification and analysis had yet to be performed. On average, one new (unidentified) XRV is found per ROSAT PSPC field analyzed. In some cases the XRVs show only a transient signature (a burst type event) with no persistent X-ray or other known (optical) counterpart. The ambitious goal of this project was to process as much of the ROSAT PSPC archive data as feasibly possible to discover XRVs and analyze this data.

Stringfellow, Guy↗

Exoplanet Biosignatures: At the Dawn of a New Era of Planetary Observations

The rapid rate of discoveries of exoplanets has expanded the scope of the science possible for the remote detection of life beyond Earth. The Exoplanet Biosignatures Workshop-Without-Walls (EBWWW) held in 2016 engaged the international scientific community across diverse scientific disciplines, to assess the state of the science and technology in the search for life on exoplanets, and to identify paths for progress. The workshop activities resulted in five (5) major review papers which provide: 1) an encyclopedic review of known and proposed biosignatures and models used to ascertain them; 2) an in-depth review of O2 as a biosignature, rigorously examining the nuances of false positives and negatives for evidence of life; 3) a Bayesian framework to comprehensively organize current understanding to quantify confidence in biosignature assessments; 4) an extension of that Bayesian framework in anticipation of increasing planetary data and novel concepts of biosignatures, and 5) a review of the upcoming telescope capabilities to characterize exoplanets and their environment. Because of the immense content of these review papers, this summary provides a guide to their complementary scope and highlights salient features. Strong themes that emerged from the workshop were that biosignatures must be interpreted in the context of their environment, and that frameworks must be developed to link diverse forms of scientific understanding of that context to quantify the likelihood that a biosignature has been observed. Models are needed to explore the parameter space where measurements will be widespread but sparse in detail. Given the technological prospects for large ground-based telescopes and direct imaging from space-based observatories, the detection of atmospheric signatures of a few potentially habitable planets may come before 2030.

spectral imaging↗

The IPAC Image Subtraction and Discovery Pipeline for the Intermediate Palomar Transient Factory

We describe the near real-time transient-source discovery engine for the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF), currently in operations at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), Caltech. We coin this system the IPAC/iPTF Discovery Engine (or IDE). We review the algorithms used for PSF-matching, image subtraction, detection, photometry, and machine-learned (ML) vetting of extracted transient candidates. We also review the performance of our ML classifier. For a limiting signal-to-noise ratio of 4 in relatively unconfused regions, bogus candidates from processing artifacts and imperfect image subtractions outnumber real transients by approximately equal to 10:1. This can be considerably higher for image data with inaccurate astrometric and/or PSF-matching solutions. Despite this occasionally high contamination rate, the ML classifier is able to identify real transients with an efficiency (or completeness) of approximately equal to 97% for a maximum tolerable false-positive rate of 1% when classifying raw candidates. All subtraction-image metrics, source features, ML probability-based real-bogus scores, contextual metadata from other surveys, and possible associations with known Solar System objects are stored in a relational database for retrieval by the various science working groups. We review our efforts in mitigating false-positives and our experience in optimizing the overall system in response to the multitude of science projects underway with iPTF.

methods: analytical – methods: data analysis –↗

FRESIP: A Discovery Mission Concept To Find Earth-Sized Planets Around Solar Like Stars

The current nebular theory postulates that planets are. a consequence of the formation of stars from viscous accretion disks. Condensation from the accretion disk favors the formation of small rocky planets in the hot inner region, and the formation of gas giants in the cool outer region. Consequently, terrestrial-type planet in inner orbits should be commonplace. From geometrical considerations , Borucki and Summers have shown that 1% of planetary systems resembling our solar system should show transits for Earth-sized (or larger) planets. Thus a photometric satellite that uses a wide field of view telescope and a large detector array to simultaneously monitor 5000 target stars should detect 50 planetary systems. To differentiate regularly recurring transits from statistical fluctuations of the stellar flux, one must observe over several orbital periods so that the false positive rate can be reduced to one event or less. A one-meter aperture telescope placed in a halo orbit about either the L1 or L2 Lagrange points and viewing perpendicular to both the orbital and ecliptic planes can view continuously for the required period because neither the Sun, Earth, or Moon would enter the field of view. Model calculations show that the observations should provide statistically significant estimates of the distributions of planetary size, orbital radius, coplanarity, and the frequency of planetary systems that have Earth-sized planets in inner orbits. Because approximately one half of the star systems observed will be binary systems, the frequency of planetary systems orbiting either one or both of the stars can also be determined.

Borucki, William↗

Kepler Planet Detection Mission: Introduction and First Results

The Kepler Mission is designed to determine the frequency of Earth-size and rocky planets in and near the habitable zone (HZ) of solar-like stars. The HZ is defined to be the region of space where a rocky planet could maintain liquid water on its surface. Kepler is the 10th competitively-selected Discovery Mission and was launched on March 6, 2009. Since completing its commissioning, Kepler has observed over 156,000 stars simultaneously and near continuously to search for planets that periodically pass in front of their host star (transit). The photometric precision is approximately 23 ppm for 50% of the 12th magnitude dwarf stars for an integration period of 6.5 hours. During the first 3 months of operation the photometer detected transit-like signatures from more than 200 stars. Careful examination shows that many of these events are false-positives such as small stars orbiting large stars or blends of target stars with eclipsing binary stars. Ground-based follow-up observations confirm the discovery of five new exoplanets with sizes between 0.37 andl.6 Jupiter radii (R(sub J)) and orbital periods ranging from 3.2 to 4.9 days. Ground-based observations with the Keck 1, Hobby-Ebberly, Hale, WIYN, MMT, Tillinghast, Shane, and Nordic Optical Telescopes are used to vet the planetary candidates and measure the masses of the putative planets. Observations of occultations and phase variations of hot, short-period planets such as HT-P-7b provide a probe of atmospheric properties. Asteroseismic analysis already shows the presence of p-mode oscillations in several stars. Such observations will be used to measure the mean stellar density and infer the stellar size and age. For stars too dim to permit asteroseismology, observations of the centroid motion of target stars will be used to measure the parallax and be combined with photometric measurements to estimate stellar sizes. Four open clusters are being observed to determine stellar rotation rates as a function of age and spectral type. Many different types of stellar variability are observed with unprecedented precision and over a wide range of time scales. Solar-like photometric variability of thousands of field stars is being studied to determine how photometric variability and the stellar rotation rates change with stellar age and metallicity. A wide variety of other astrophysical phenomena have also been observed. The data are being analyzed at the Ames Research Center and archived at the MAST at STScI. The Kepler Mission also supports a vigorous Guest Observer Program.

Borucki, William↗