Officials said it was too soon to tell whether the uptick signaled a long-term pattern.

Crime rates continued a long-term pattern of large regional disparities, the report showed.

It's the long-term patterns that seem to make the biggest difference with children.

Would it cycle several times, then vanish, or set up a steady, long-term pattern?

Whether the specific shooting was justified or not is under investigation, but the long-term pattern is disturbing.

Over the years, as the data base grows, it will also allow examination of long-term patterns.

But many economists say the long-term pattern, and problem, are quite different.

Short-term study of in-house use cannot safely predict long-term patterns.

All the recent findings say only so much about where the present-day climate fits into the long-term pattern of natural variations.

Though a single year's figures may be of limited significance, they are part of a long-term pattern.