1,720,953 research outputs found

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The 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

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    “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

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    We 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

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    We 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

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We 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

    The Effects of Ozone Exposure on Cardiovascular Pathophysiology

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    It has been commonly accepted until recently that particulate matter (PM) is responsible for the cardiovascular toxicity of air pollution mixtures, while ozone (O3) mainly adversely affects respiratory health. However, there is increasing evidence that O3, independent of PM, is also associated with cardiovascular hospitalizations and mortality, even at levels below current regulatory standards. The mechanisms underlying these epidemiological associations between O3 and cardiovascular disease remain poorly understood. The goal of this dissertation research is to use human biomarker outcomes in real-world exposure scenarios to elucidate plausible mechanisms by which O3 affects cardiovascular health. The findings of this dissertation research are primarily based on a single longitudinal cohort study designed to assess biomarker associations with time-activity-adjusted air pollutant exposures and with indoor air purification interventions, specifically different combinations of a high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter and a particle-removing and O3-producing electrostatic precipitator (ESP). Eighty-nine healthy participants living on a work campus in Changsha City, China were recruited for this study conducted from December 1st, 2014 - January 31st, 2015. The unique quasi-experimental setting of participants all living and working together on a work campus allowed for better characterization of air pollutant exposure effects due to minimal variation in potential confounders. At baseline, workers had a combination of an ESP and a HEPA in the central air handling units (AHUs) of their work and living spaces. During a five-week intervention period from December 6th, 2014 to January 13th, 2015, subjects were split into two groups, both of which had the ESPs turned off and one of which also had the HEPAs removed, and after this intervention original conditions were restored. Biomarkers indicative of inflammation and oxidative stress, arterial stiffness, myocardial function, blood pressure, thrombotic factors, and spirometry were measured at four sessions, one at baseline, two at two and four weeks into the intervention period, and one two weeks after restoring baseline conditions post-intervention. Indoor and outdoor O3 and PM of less than or equal to 2.5 µm in diameter (PM2.5), along with ambient co-pollutants NO2 and SO2, were monitored throughout the study period and combined with time-activity information and filtration conditions of each residence and office. These data were used to estimate 24-hour and 2-week combined indoor and outdoor average exposure concentrations, in addition to exposures in filtered and unfiltered environments. To test the hypothesis that air pollutant exposures observed during this study would be associated with biomarker outcomes, associations between each exposure measure and biomarker were analyzed with single- and two-pollutant linear mixed models. The 24-hour mean O3 exposure concentrations during the study ranged from 1.4 to 19.4 ppb, corresponding with daily 8-hour maximum outdoor concentrations ranging from 3.6 to 60.5 ppb, with all but six days during the study period falling below the WHO 8-hour mean O3 guideline of 50 ppb6. Within this range, in models controlling for a second co-pollutant and other potential confounders, a 10 ppb increase in 24-hour O3 was associated with mean percent increases (95% CIs) of 36.3% (29.9%, 43.0%) in the platelet activation marker soluble P-selectin (sCD62P), 2.8% (0.6%, 5.1%) in diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and 18.1% (4.5%, 33.5%) and 31.0% (0.2%, 71.1%) in the pulmonary inflammation markers fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) and exhaled breath condensate nitrite and nitrate (EBCNN), respectively, as well as a -9.5% (-17.7%, -1.4%) decrease in arterial stiffness marker augmentation index (AI) and a -15.5% (-23.8%, -6.2%) decrease in the systemic oxidative stress marker urinary malondialdehyde (UMDA). A 10 ppb increase in 2-week O3 was associated with increases of 61.1% (37.8%, 88.2%) in sCD62P and 126.2% (12.1%, 356.2%) in EBCNN. In contrast, PM2.5, NO2, and SO2 exposure measures were variably and weakly associated with markers indicating increased arterial stiffness and endothelial cell dysfunction. Only the O3 associations with sCD62P are robust in two-pollutant models and multiple testing p-value correction. These results suggest that O3 exposure enhances cardiovascular disease risk through platelet activation and blood pressure increases at levels lower than those capable of affecting lung function.To examine if the removal of HEPA filtration and ESP in the indoor air purification systems were associated with changes in biomarker outcomes, Bayesian hierarchical generalized ridge regression (GRR) models accounting for subject-specific intercept random effects were used to assess associations between categorical intervention variables while controlling for cumulative pollutant exposures in unfiltered microenvironments, namely outdoors and places other than the offices and dorms. The GRR models allowed for more stable maximized likelihood estimates when model predictors were highly correlated. When factoring in time-activity patterns, subjects without HEPA filtration had total 24-hour PM2.5 exposures on average 37.9 µg/m3 (88.3%) higher than subjects with HEPA filtration, and the removal of the ESPs resulted in a small average reduction of 2.2 ppb (a 32.8% decrease as compared to the overall mean 24-hour O3 exposure) in each subject’s total 24-hour O3 exposure. Despite this large change in PM2.5 exposure, no biomarkers were associated with HEPA removal in any models, but ESP removal was associated with decreases of -17.1% (-23.1%, -11.3%) in sCD62P, -3.6% (-5.5%, -1.4%) in systolic blood pressure (SBP), and -3.3% (-5.9%, -0.7%) in DBP. In addition, though subjects spent an average of 64.5% of their time in filtered locations during each two-week period between sampling visits, cumulative air pollutant exposure in unfiltered environments was associated with increased sCD62P for O3, increased FeNO for PM2.5, and increased EBC MDA and decreased subendocardial viability ratio (SEVR, a marker of myocardial oxygen supply and demand) for SO2. This study suggests that ESP use may result in O3-associated adverse health effects, biomarkers traditionally associated with PM exposure may not show a response weeks into an intervention, and time spent in environments filtered by particulate air filters, though perhaps not ESPs, should be maximized to avoid the health effects of cumulative high exposures in unfiltered locations.These O3 associations with platelet activation and blood pressure are consistent with related results in some studies but not others, and so I hypothesized that age and sex may influence each individual’s response to O3 and account for some of this variability. I tested this hypothesis by assessing pollutant exposure by age or by sex interaction term estimates in association with biomarker outcomes in the GRR models. This statistical analysis was applied not only to the main study conducted in Changsha, but also to a subsequent study conducted in Shanghai with similar exposure and biomarker measurements that had younger study participants with more balanced sex ratio. In addition, the exposure and biomarker data between these two studies were pooled for an additional analysis checking the results from the individual study findings. In the main Changsha Study, significant age by pollutant exposure interaction terms were observed for the associations between 24-hour and 2-week O3 and sCD62P, 2-week O3 and SBP, and 2-week SO2 and PWV. In addition, the association between PWV and 2-week SO2 was significantly higher in men, and the association between PWV and 24h O3 was significantly higher in women, though the latter interaction term became nonsignificant in a sensitivity analysis assessing the independent interaction effect. No interaction terms were significant in the Shanghai Study analysis. In the pooled analysis, the 24-hour O3 exposure by age interaction term was significant for both sCD62P and SBP. Also, the pooled analysis showed that women had a significantly higher association between 24-hour O3 exposure and PWV as had been seen in the Changsha Study, but as in that case this association was not robust to the sensitivity analyses. These results indicate that older individuals are more susceptible to O3-associated effects on platelet activation and blood pressure, which is supported by literature examining age-associated changes in platelets and vascular tone.Taken together these results and the findings in previous research examining cardiovascular pathophysiologic mechanisms, a coherent, plausible mechanistic pathway emerges. In this pathway, O3-associated reaction products in the airway lead to the propagation of signals that activate platelets, which in turn enhance blood pressure and induce a procoagulant state. The findings of this dissertation contribute to the mechanistic understanding of how O3 exposure affects cardiovascular health outcomes.</p

    Author Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902

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    In Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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