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Introduction: Towards Refining the Concept of Mobility
No full textBone has an ability to model and remodel itself such that its distribution and material properties reflect factors occurring during the lifetime of an individual. Known factors influencing bone properties range from nonmechanical (e.g., age, sex, diet, health, and hormones) to mechanical ones (e.g., activity level and patterns). A lifetime accumulation of these inputs, therefore, should be reflected in the structure of bone diaphyses at the death of an individual. Inferring the inputs of these factors from long bone diaphyses of long dead individuals, whether Holocene agriculturalists or hunter-gatherers, or earlier human ancestors, depends in part on modern analogues being used to help identify and isolate the contributions of these factors. This chapter is both an introduction to and a synthesis of the collaborative effort that is recounted within the volume, and that is aimed at understanding the impact of human mobility as one such input to diaphyseal form
Preface
No full textFor decades, scientists have relied on the concept of mobility in describing activity
patterns of past and present human populations. Population-level comparisons have
traditionally sought to demonstrate differential mobility (e.g., logistical or residential)
amongst Pleistocene or Holocene Homo groups, using this as a basis for inferring
convergent or contrasting adaptive behavior. For example, shifting from a
hunter-gatherer to a more sedentary agricultural subsistence strategy generally has
been associated with a relative decline in mobility associated with the latter.
Substantial efforts have been devoted towards inferring which musculoskeletal
adaptations best reflect such a potential shift in mobility. The central role of bipedalism
in human locomotion predisposes lower limb musculoskeletal anatomy to feature
prominently in these inferences, although it is important to note that expressions
of mobility in other areas of the postcranium (e.g., the upper limb) are gaining traction
in the field when studying select populations (e.g., coastal or island groups). It
is problematic that often mobility is not defined a priori in precise enough terms to
facilitate comparability of results across studies. Typically, some derivation of an
ethnographic definition of mobility is adopted, whether explicitly recognized or not
(e.g., populations with greater mobility travel farther than populations with lesser
mobility). Usually, in applying the ethnographic definition, unstated motivations for
travel focus on resource acquisition or intergroup relationships (e.g., trading)
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
“From both sides now”: the covariation of fibular ends in extant hominids and morphological correlates to bipedalism and other locomotion strategies
No full textVariations on the Author
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
The Importance of Considering Fibular Robusticity When Inferring the Mobility Patterns of Past Populations
No full textIn this chapter we investigate the lower limb structural rigidity (using cross-sectional geometric properties of the diaphyseal midshaft) within a sample of 124 individuals from the Late Upper Paleolithic, Neolithic and Iron Age from Italy, Medieval Germany, and twenty-first Century Britain (long distance runners, field hockey players, and sedentary controls). Late Upper Paleolithic, Neolithic and Iron Age samples were settled in rugged areas, whereas the other samples inhabited plain areas. The aim of this study is to assess whether fibular diaphyseal properties reflect mobility patterns or terrain properties in past populations. Both fibular rigidity and relative fibular rigidity ratio (fibula/tibia) have been analyzed. Results reveal that Late Upper Paleolithic, Neolithic and Iron Age samples show high fibular rigidity and have values of relative fibular rigidity that are most similar to modern hockey players. The relative fibular diaphyseal rigidity of hockey players has been previously explained as the consequence of their dynamic and repetitive change of direction. Late Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic individuals are thought to have been highly terrestrially mobile, while Iron Age people were probably fairly sedentary. However, all of the three groups lived in areas of uneven terrain. We concluded that fibular rigidity and relative fibular rigidity are influenced by factors that increase foot eversion/inversion such as frequent directional changes and
uneven terrain. The results of this study suggest that inclusion of the fibula provides a valuable additional perspective that complements traditional predictions of mobility patterns based on the femur or the tibia alone
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