ALBERT

Description: SUMMARY The Central Iran plateau appears aseismic during the last few millenniums based on instrumental and historical seismic records. Nevertheless, it is sliced by several strike-slip faults that are hundreds of kilometres long. These faults display along-strike, horizontal offsets of intermittent gullies that suggest the occurrence of earthquakes in the Holocene. Establishing this is crucial for accurately assessing the regional seismic hazard. The first palaeoseismic study performed on the 200-km long, NS striking Anar fault shows that this right-lateral fault hosted three large ( M w ≈ 7) earthquakes during the Holocene or possibly Uppermost Pleistocene for the older one. These three seismic events are recorded within a sedimentary succession, which is not older than 15 ka, suggesting an average recurrence of at most 5 ka. The six optically stimulated luminescence ages available provide additional constraints and allow estimating that the three earthquakes have occurred within the following time intervals: 4.4 ± 0.8, 6.8 ± 1 and 9.8 ± 2 ka. The preferred age of the more recent event, ranging between 3600 and 5200 yr, suggests that the fault is approaching the end of its seismic cycle and the city of Anar could be under the threat of a destructive earthquake in the near future. In addition, our results confirm a previous minimum slip rate estimate of 0.8 ± 0.1 mm yr −1 for the Anar fault indicating that the westernmost prominent right-lateral faults of the Central Iran plateau are characterized by slip rates close to 1 mm yr −1 . These faults, which have repeatedly produced destructive earthquakes with large magnitudes and long recurrence interval of several thousands of years during the Holocene, show that the Central Iran plateau does not behave totally as a rigid block and that its moderate internal deformation is nonetheless responsible for a significant seismic hazard.

Description: Multiple visual pigments, prerequisites for color vision, are found in arthropods, but the evolutionary origin of their diversity remains obscure. In this study, we explore the opsin genes in five distantly related species of Onychophora, using deep transcriptome sequencing and screening approaches. Surprisingly, our data reveal the presence of only one opsin gene (onychopsin) in each onychophoran species, and our behavioral experiments indicate a maximum sensitivity of onychopsin to blue–green light. In our phylogenetic analyses, the onychopsins represent the sister group to the monophyletic clade of visual r-opsins of arthropods. These results concur with phylogenomic support for the sister-group status of the Onychophora and Arthropoda and provide evidence for monochromatic vision in velvet worms and in the last common ancestor of Onychophora and Arthropoda. We conclude that the diversification of visual pigments and color vision evolved in arthropods, along with the evolution of compound eyes—one of the most sophisticated visual systems known.

Description: SUMMARY 10 Be and 36 Cl cosmic ray exposure (CRE) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of offset terraces have been performed to constrain the long-term slip rate of the Dehshir fault. Analysis of cosmogenic 10 Be and 36 Cl in 73 surface cobbles and 27 near-surface amalgams collected from inset terraces demonstrates the occurrence of a low denudation rate of 1 m Ma −1 and of a significant and variable inheritance from exposure prior to the aggradation of these alluvial terraces. The significant concentrations of cosmogenic nuclides measured in the cobbles collected within the riverbeds correspond to 72 ± 20 ka of inheritance. The mean CRE age of the surface samples collected on the older terrace T3 is 469 ± 88 ka but the analysis of the distribution of 10 Be concentration in the near-surface samples discard ages older than 412 ka. The mean CRE age of the surface samples collected on terrace T2 is 175 ± 62 ka but the 10 Be depth profile discard ages older than 107 ka. For each terrace, there is a statistical outlier with a younger age of 49.9 ± 3.3 and 235.5 ± 35.4 ka on T2 and T3, respectively. The late sediments aggraded before the abandonment of T2 and inset levels, T1 b and T1a, yielded OSL ages of, respectively, 26.9 ± 1.3, 21.9 ± 1.5 and 10.0 ± 0.6 ka. For a given terrace, the OSL ages, where available, provide ages that are systematically younger than the CRE ages. These discrepancies between the CRE and OSL ages exemplify the variability of the inheritance and indicate the youngest cobble on a terrace, that minimizes the inheritance, is the most appropriate CRE age for approaching that of terrace abandonment. However, the upper bound on the age of abandonment of a terrace that is young with respect to the amount of inheritance is best estimated by the OSL dating of the terrace material. For such terraces, the CRE measurements are complementary of OSL dating and can be used to unravel the complex history of weathering and transport in the catchment of desert alluvial fans. This comprehensive set of dating is combined with morphological offsets ranging from 12 ± 2 to 380 ± 20 m to demonstrate the Dehshir fault slips at a rate in the range 0.9 mm yr −1 –1.5 mm yr −1 . The variable inheritance exemplified here may have significant implications for CRE dating in arid endorheic plateaus such as Tibet and Altiplano.

Description: We use N -body simulations of star cluster evolution to explore the hypothesis that short-lived radioactive isotopes found in meteorites, such as 26 Al, were delivered to the Sun's protoplanetary disc from a supernova at the epoch of Solar system formation. We cover a range of star cluster formation parameter space and model both clusters with primordial substructure and those with smooth profiles. We also adopt different initial virial ratios – from cool, collapsing clusters to warm, expanding associations. In each cluster, we place the same stellar population; the clusters each have 2100 stars and contain one massive 25 M star which is expected to explode as a supernova at about 6.6 Myr. We determine the number of solar (G)-type stars that are within 0.1–0.3 pc of the 25 M star at the time of the supernova, which is the distance required to enrich the protoplanetary disc with the 26 Al abundances found in meteorites. We then determine how many of these G-dwarfs are unperturbed ‘singletons’; stars which are never in close binaries, nor suffer sub-100 au encounters, and which also do not suffer strong dynamical perturbations. The evolution of a suite of 20 initially identical clusters is highly stochastic, with the supernova enriching over 10 G-dwarfs in some clusters, and none at all in others. Typically, only ~25 per cent of clusters contain enriched, unperturbed singletons, and usually only one to two per cluster (from a total of 96 G-dwarfs in each cluster). The initial conditions for star formation do not strongly affect the results, although a higher fraction of supervirial (expanding) clusters would contain enriched G-dwarfs if the supernova occurred earlier than 6.6 Myr. If we sum together simulations with identical initial conditions, then ~1 per cent of all G-dwarfs in our simulations are enriched, unperturbed singletons.

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Erren, Thomas C -- Reiter, Russel J -- Meyer-Rochow, V Benno -- England -- Nature. 2008 Jan 10;451(7175):127. doi: 10.1038/451127c.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18185565" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Meyer-Berthaud, Brigitte -- Decombeix, Anne-Laure -- England -- Nature. 2012 Feb 29;483(7387):41-2. doi: 10.1038/483041a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22382975" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: From determining the optical properties of simple molecular crystals to establishing the preferred handedness in highly complex vertebrates, molecular chirality profoundly influences the structural, mechanical and optical properties of both synthetic and biological matter on macroscopic length scales. In soft materials such as amphiphilic lipids and liquid crystals, the competition between local chiral interactions and global constraints imposed by the geometry of the self-assembled structures leads to frustration and the assembly of unique materials. An example of particular interest is smectic liquid crystals, where the two-dimensional layered geometry cannot support twist and chirality is consequently expelled to the edges in a manner analogous to the expulsion of a magnetic field from superconductors. Here we demonstrate a consequence of this geometric frustration that leads to a new design principle for the assembly of chiral molecules. Using a model system of colloidal membranes, we show that molecular chirality can control the interfacial tension, an important property of multi-component mixtures. This suggests an analogy between chiral twist, which is expelled to the edges of two-dimensional membranes, and amphiphilic surfactants, which are expelled to oil-water interfaces. As with surfactants, chiral control of interfacial tension drives the formation of many polymorphic assemblages such as twisted ribbons with linear and circular topologies, starfish membranes, and double and triple helices. Tuning molecular chirality in situ allows dynamical control of line tension, which powers polymorphic transitions between various chiral structures. These findings outline a general strategy for the assembly of reconfigurable chiral materials that can easily be moved, stretched, attached to one another and transformed between multiple conformational states, thus allowing precise assembly and nanosculpting of highly dynamical and designable materials with complex topologies.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Gibaud, Thomas -- Barry, Edward -- Zakhary, Mark J -- Henglin, Mir -- Ward, Andrew -- Yang, Yasheng -- Berciu, Cristina -- Oldenbourg, Rudolf -- Hagan, Michael F -- Nicastro, Daniela -- Meyer, Robert B -- Dogic, Zvonimir -- R01 EB002583/EB/NIBIB NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2012 Jan 4;481(7381):348-51. doi: 10.1038/nature10769.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉The Martin Fisher School of Physics, Brandeis University, 415 South Street, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22217941" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Dislocations represent one of the most fascinating and fundamental concepts in materials science. Most importantly, dislocations are the main carriers of plastic deformation in crystalline materials. Furthermore, they can strongly affect the local electronic and optical properties of semiconductors and ionic crystals. In materials with small dimensions, they experience extensive image forces, which attract them to the surface to release strain energy. However, in layered crystals such as graphite, dislocation movement is mainly restricted to the basal plane. Thus, the dislocations cannot escape, enabling their confinement in crystals as thin as only two monolayers. To explore the nature of dislocations under such extreme boundary conditions, the material of choice is bilayer graphene, the thinnest possible quasi-two-dimensional crystal in which such linear defects can be confined. Homogeneous and robust graphene membranes derived from high-quality epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide provide an ideal platform for their investigation. Here we report the direct observation of basal-plane dislocations in freestanding bilayer graphene using transmission electron microscopy and their detailed investigation by diffraction contrast analysis and atomistic simulations. Our investigation reveals two striking size effects. First, the absence of stacking-fault energy, a unique property of bilayer graphene, leads to a characteristic dislocation pattern that corresponds to an alternating AB B[Symbol: see text]AC change of the stacking order. Second, our experiments in combination with atomistic simulations reveal a pronounced buckling of the bilayer graphene membrane that results directly from accommodation of strain. In fact, the buckling changes the strain state of the bilayer graphene and is of key importance for its electronic properties. Our findings will contribute to the understanding of dislocations and of their role in the structural, mechanical and electronic properties of bilayer and few-layer graphene.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Butz, Benjamin -- Dolle, Christian -- Niekiel, Florian -- Weber, Konstantin -- Waldmann, Daniel -- Weber, Heiko B -- Meyer, Bernd -- Spiecker, Erdmann -- England -- Nature. 2014 Jan 23;505(7484):533-7. doi: 10.1038/nature12780. Epub 2013 Dec 18.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Center for Nanoanalysis and Electron Microscopy, Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg, Cauerstrasse 6, 91058 Erlangen, Germany. ; Interdisziplinares Zentrum fur Molekulare Materialien und Computer-Chemie-Centrum, Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg, Nagelsbachstrasse 25, 91052 Erlangen, Germany. ; Lehrstuhl fur Angewandte Physik, Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg, Staudtstrasse 7, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24352231" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: West Africa is currently witnessing the most extensive Ebola virus (EBOV) outbreak so far recorded. Until now, there have been 27,013 reported cases and 11,134 deaths. The origin of the virus is thought to have been a zoonotic transmission from a bat to a two-year-old boy in December 2013 (ref. 2). From this index case the virus was spread by human-to-human contact throughout Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. However, the origin of the particular virus in each country and time of transmission is not known and currently relies on epidemiological analysis, which may be unreliable owing to the difficulties of obtaining patient information. Here we trace the genetic evolution of EBOV in the current outbreak that has resulted in multiple lineages. Deep sequencing of 179 patient samples processed by the European Mobile Laboratory, the first diagnostics unit to be deployed to the epicentre of the outbreak in Guinea, reveals an epidemiological and evolutionary history of the epidemic from March 2014 to January 2015. Analysis of EBOV genome evolution has also benefited from a similar sequencing effort of patient samples from Sierra Leone. Our results confirm that the EBOV from Guinea moved into Sierra Leone, most likely in April or early May. The viruses of the Guinea/Sierra Leone lineage mixed around June/July 2014. Viral sequences covering August, September and October 2014 indicate that this lineage evolved independently within Guinea. These data can be used in conjunction with epidemiological information to test retrospectively the effectiveness of control measures, and provides an unprecedented window into the evolution of an ongoing viral haemorrhagic fever outbreak.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Carroll, Miles W -- Matthews, David A -- Hiscox, Julian A -- Elmore, Michael J -- Pollakis, Georgios -- Rambaut, Andrew -- Hewson, Roger -- Garcia-Dorival, Isabel -- Bore, Joseph Akoi -- Koundouno, Raymond -- Abdellati, Said -- Afrough, Babak -- Aiyepada, John -- Akhilomen, Patience -- Asogun, Danny -- Atkinson, Barry -- Badusche, Marlis -- Bah, Amadou -- Bate, Simon -- Baumann, Jan -- Becker, Dirk -- Becker-Ziaja, Beate -- Bocquin, Anne -- Borremans, Benny -- Bosworth, Andrew -- Boettcher, Jan Peter -- Cannas, Angela -- Carletti, Fabrizio -- Castilletti, Concetta -- Clark, Simon -- Colavita, Francesca -- Diederich, Sandra -- Donatus, Adomeh -- Duraffour, Sophie -- Ehichioya, Deborah -- Ellerbrok, Heinz -- Fernandez-Garcia, Maria Dolores -- Fizet, Alexandra -- Fleischmann, Erna -- Gryseels, Sophie -- Hermelink, Antje -- Hinzmann, Julia -- Hopf-Guevara, Ute -- Ighodalo, Yemisi -- Jameson, Lisa -- Kelterbaum, Anne -- Kis, Zoltan -- Kloth, Stefan -- Kohl, Claudia -- Korva, Misa -- Kraus, Annette -- Kuisma, Eeva -- Kurth, Andreas -- Liedigk, Britta -- Logue, Christopher H -- Ludtke, Anja -- Maes, Piet -- McCowen, James -- Mely, Stephane -- Mertens, Marc -- Meschi, Silvia -- Meyer, Benjamin -- Michel, Janine -- Molkenthin, Peter -- Munoz-Fontela, Cesar -- Muth, Doreen -- Newman, Edmund N C -- Ngabo, Didier -- Oestereich, Lisa -- Okosun, Jennifer -- Olokor, Thomas -- Omiunu, Racheal -- Omomoh, Emmanuel -- Pallasch, Elisa -- Palyi, Bernadett -- Portmann, Jasmine -- Pottage, Thomas -- Pratt, Catherine -- Priesnitz, Simone -- Quartu, Serena -- Rappe, Julie -- Repits, Johanna -- Richter, Martin -- Rudolf, Martin -- Sachse, Andreas -- Schmidt, Kristina Maria -- Schudt, Gordian -- Strecker, Thomas -- Thom, Ruth -- Thomas, Stephen -- Tobin, Ekaete -- Tolley, Howard -- Trautner, Jochen -- Vermoesen, Tine -- Vitoriano, Ines -- Wagner, Matthias -- Wolff, Svenja -- Yue, Constanze -- Capobianchi, Maria Rosaria -- Kretschmer, Birte -- Hall, Yper -- Kenny, John G -- Rickett, Natasha Y -- Dudas, Gytis -- Coltart, Cordelia E M -- Kerber, Romy -- Steer, Damien -- Wright, Callum -- Senyah, Francis -- Keita, Sakoba -- Drury, Patrick -- Diallo, Boubacar -- de Clerck, Hilde -- Van Herp, Michel -- Sprecher, Armand -- Traore, Alexis -- Diakite, Mandiou -- Konde, Mandy Kader -- Koivogui, Lamine -- Magassouba, N'Faly -- Avsic-Zupanc, Tatjana -- Nitsche, Andreas -- Strasser, Marc -- Ippolito, Giuseppe -- Becker, Stephan -- Stoecker, Kilian -- Gabriel, Martin -- Raoul, Herve -- Di Caro, Antonino -- Wolfel, Roman -- Formenty, Pierre -- Gunther, Stephan -- 095831/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- England -- Nature. 2015 Aug 6;524(7563):97-101. doi: 10.1038/nature14594. Epub 2015 Jun 17.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉1] Public Health England, Porton Down, Wiltshire SP4 0JG, UK [2] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [3] University of Southampton, South General Hospital, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK. ; Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK. ; Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 2BE, UK. ; Public Health England, Porton Down, Wiltshire SP4 0JG, UK. ; 1] Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 2FL, UK [2] Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA [3] Centre for Immunology, Infection and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 2FL, UK. ; 1] Public Health England, Porton Down, Wiltshire SP4 0JG, UK [2] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [3] London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, UK. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Universite Gamal Abdel Nasser de Conakry, Laboratoire des Fievres Hemorragiques en Guinee, Conakry, Guinea [3] Institut National de Sante Publique, Conakry, Guinea. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Institute of Tropical Medicine, B-2000 Antwerp, Belgium. ; 1] Public Health England, Porton Down, Wiltshire SP4 0JG, UK [2] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Institute of Lassa Fever Research and Control, Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Irrua, Edo State, Nigeria. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [3] German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), 38124 Braunschweig, Germany. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, University of Basel, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), 38124 Braunschweig, Germany [3] Institute of Virology, Philipps University Marburg, 35043 Marburg, Germany. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] National Reference Center for Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers, 69365 Lyon, France [3] Laboratoire P4 Inserm-Jean Merieux, US003 Inserm, 69365 Lyon, France. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, B-2020 Antwerp, Belgium. ; 1] Public Health England, Porton Down, Wiltshire SP4 0JG, UK [2] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [3] Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 2BE, UK. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Robert Koch Institute, 13353 Berlin, Germany. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] National Institute for Infectious Diseases (INMI) Lazzaro Spallanzani, 00149 Rome, Italy. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), 38124 Braunschweig, Germany [3] Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, 17493 Greifswald, Insel Riems, Germany. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [3] KU Leuven Rega institute, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [3] Redeemer's University, Osun State, Nigeria. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Centro Nacional de Microbiologia, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] National Reference Center for Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers, 69365 Lyon, France [3] Unite de Biologie des Infections Virales Emergentes, Institut Pasteur, 69365 Lyon, France. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), 38124 Braunschweig, Germany [3] Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, 80937 Munich, Germany. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] National Center for Epidemiology, National Biosafety Laboratory, H-1097 Budapest, Hungary. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Public Health Agency of Sweden, 171 82 Solna, Sweden. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), 38124 Braunschweig, Germany [3] Heinrich Pette Institute - Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology, 20251 Hamburg, Germany. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] KU Leuven Rega institute, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), 38124 Braunschweig, Germany [3] Institute of Virology, University of Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Federal Office for Civil Protection, Spiez Laboratory, CH-3700 Spiez, Switzerland. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Bundeswehr Hospital, 22049 Hamburg, Germany. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Institute of Virology and Immunology, CH-3147 Mittelhausern, Switzerland. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Janssen-Cilag, SE-192 07 Sollentuna, Sweden. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Thunen Institute, D-22767 Hamburg, Germany. ; Eurice - European Research and Project Office GmbH, 10115 Berlin, Germany. ; Centre for Genomic Research, Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK. ; Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 2FL, UK. ; Department of Infection and Population Health, University College London, London WC1E 6JB, UK. ; Research IT, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1HH, UK. ; Advanced Computing Research Centre, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1HH, UK. ; Ministry of Health Guinea, Conakry, Guinea. ; World Health Organization, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland. ; World Health Organization, Conakry, Guinea. ; Medecins Sans Frontieres, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium. ; Section Prevention et Lutte contre la Maladie a la Direction Prefectorale de la Sante de Gueckedou, Gueckedou, Guinea. ; Universite Gamal Abdel Nasser de Conakry, CHU Donka, Conakry, Guinea. ; Health and Sustainable Development Foundation, Conakry, Guinea. ; Institut National de Sante Publique, Conakry, Guinea. ; Universite Gamal Abdel Nasser de Conakry, Laboratoire des Fievres Hemorragiques en Guinee, Conakry, Guinea. ; 1] The European Mobile Laboratory Consortium, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany [2] Laboratoire P4 Inserm-Jean Merieux, US003 Inserm, 69365 Lyon, France.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26083749" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Hα observations centred on galaxies selected from the H i Parkes All-Sky Survey (H i PASS) typically show one and sometimes two star-forming galaxies within the ~15 arcmin beam of the Parkes 64 m H i detections. In our Survey for Ionization in Neutral Gas Galaxies (SINGG) we found 15 cases of H i PASS sources containing four or more emission line galaxies (ELGs). We name these fields Choir groups. In the most extreme case, we found a field with at least nine ELGs. In this paper, we present a catalogue of Choir group members in the context of the wider SINGG sample. The dwarf galaxies in the Choir groups would not be individually detectable in H i PASS at the observed distances if they were isolated, but are detected in SINGG narrow-band imaging due to their membership of groups with sufficiently large total H i mass. The ELGs in these groups are similar to the wider SINGG sample in terms of size, Hα equivalent width and surface brightness. Eight of these groups have two large spiral galaxies with several dwarf galaxies and may be thought of as morphological analogues of the Local Group. However, on average our groups are not significantly H i deficient, suggesting that they are at an early stage of assembly, and more like the M81 group. The Choir groups are very compact at typically only 190 kpc in projected distance between the two brightest members. They are very similar to SINGG fields in terms of star formation efficiency (SFE; the ratio of star formation rate to H i mass), showing an increasing trend in SFE with stellar mass.