1,720,955 research outputs found
Comparison of fractal dimension oscillations and trends of rainfall data from Pastaza Province, Ecuador and Veneto, Italy
No full textSince climate trends are getting considerable attention in recent years, we aimed in this study to compare trends and rhythms of complexity (fractal dimension, FD) of rainfall data series between two continents: Latin America and Europe. Two parallel nonlinear methods for calculating FD of a temporal data series, Higuchi's and consecutive differences, were combined with Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to obtain FD oscillations of monthly accumulated rainfall. The data were collected for the last thirty years in Pastaza province, Ecuador and Veneto province, Italy. In order to calculate their FD time dependence, FD(t), moving windows of different lengths (short, 10-20 and long 21-350 samples), were applied. Both methods, each combined with FFT, detected identical (or very similar) rhythms of detrended FD(t) in the two data series, but frequencies with dominant amplitudes differed (4.4 years in Ecuador, 10.3 years in Italy). Long-term FD(t) trends were also studied using optimized long window lengths (~ 200 samples). A linear positive trend was obtained for the Ecuadorian rainfall data over the whole recorded period. Italian fractal trend profile was, however, characterized by two periods: a constant high value for years 1974-1993, followed by a linear decrease for 1993-2005. Trend results, obtained with two different methods, were also similar. Accordance of the results, reported in the present paper by applying these two methods, validates their use as a tool in future fractal meteorological measurements. As well, these results indicate that positive FD trend obtained for Pastaza (Ecuador) and negative trend computed for Veneto (Italy) account for a local or regional phenomenon, most probably caused by extensive deforestation and land use change (Ecuador) and continental or global atmospheric pattern variability (Italy). © 2009
Nonlinear dynamics of meteorological variables: Multifractality and chaotic invariants in daily records from Pastaza, Ecuador
No full textWeather represents the daily state of the atmosphere. It is usually considered as a chaotic nonlinear dynamical system. The objectives of the present study were (1) to investigate multifractal meteorological trends and rhythms at the Amazonian area of Ecuador and (2) to estimate some nonlinear invariants for describing the meteorological dynamics. Six meteorological variables were considered in the study. Datasets were collected on a daily basis from January 1st 2001 to January 1st 2005 (1,460 observations). Based on a new multifractal method, we found interesting fractal rhythms and trends of antipersistence patterns (Fractal Dimension >1.5). Nonlinear time series analyses rendered Lyapunov exponent spectra containing more than one positive Lyapunov exponent in some cases. This sort of hyperchaotic structures could explain, to some extent, larger fractal dimension values as the Kaplan-Yorke dimension was also in most cases larger than two. The maximum prediction time ranged from ξ = 1.69 days (approximately 41 h) for E/P ratio to ξ = 14.71 days for evaporation. Nonlinear dynamics analyses could be combined with multifractal studies for describing the time evolution of meteorological variables. © 2009 Springer-Verlag
Clinical Sensitivity of Fractal Neurodynamics.
No full textAmong the significant advances in the understanding of the organization of the neuronal networks that coordinate the body and brain, their complex nature is increasingly important, resulting from the interaction between the very large number of constituents strongly organized hierarchically and at the same time with “self-emerging.” This awareness drives us to identify the measures that best quantify the “complexity” that accompanies the continuous evolutionary dynamics of the brain. In this chapter, after an introductory section (Sect. 15.1), we examine how the Higuchi fractal dimension is able to perceive physiological processes (15.2), neurological (15.3) and psychiatric (15.4) disorders, and neuromodulation effects (15.5), giving a mention of other methods of measuring neuronal electrical activity in addition to electroencephalography, such as magnetoencephalography and functional magnetic resonance. Conscious that further progress will support a deeper understanding of the tempora..
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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