1,721,129 research outputs found
Population studies of a commercially fished bivalve mercenaria mercenaria (L), in Southampton Water
No full textThe hard shell clam Mercenaria mercenaria (L.) is a long-lived animal tolerating wide environmental variations. The animal is an important constituent of the macrobenthic fauna in Southampton Water. A study was made of various aspects of the population in relation to absence of cooling water discharge caused by closure of Marchwood power station, increased fishing activities and the frequent failure of settlement in recent years. The littoral population at 12 sites was sampled in two successive winters. The highest density of clams was at Netley and the lowest at Royal Pier, with actively growing and reproducing populations extending to Solent Breezes and Lee-on-Solent in the eastern Solent. The total stock estimated for littoral sites above Hamble Spit has shown a reduction of about 50% since 1970. The population at present is dominated by large and old individuals originating from settlements in 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1976. These year classes and a recent settlement in 1984 seem to coincide with low river flow during August, September and October of each year. The annual production of littoral Mercenaria populations at both Marchwood and Lee-on-Solent approximated to 3gm-2yr.-1. Although Mercenaria dominates the biomass of the benthic fauna, energetically its role in the ecosystem has been diminished in recent years as a result of change in the population structure towards larger/older individuals. Growth in Mercenaria was analyzed according to the Logistic, the Gompertz and the Monomolecular models. The Gompertz provides an accurate model of ontogenic growth in Mercenaria. Highest predictive growth rate in shell length was found in littoral population at Solent Breezes, Hamble Spit, Weston and Netley. Maximum growth rates in shell length were achieved during the 2nd and 3rd years, whereas maximum growth rates in flesh weight were recorded during the 4th and 5th years, indicating that during the early stages and before gonad maturation a greater proportion of energy is directed to formation of shell rather than in flesh. Monthly gamete counts at Marchwood and Lee-on-Solent permitted assessment of the reproductive cycle, and the consequences of gamete production on variation of growth at both sites were discussed. It appears that at Marchwood a greater proportion of available energy is devoted to gamete production and less to somatic growth than at Lee-on-Solent. The gamete counting also revealed that the peak of spawning occurred at the end of summer and during autumn, this result was supporting data obtained by weekly monitoring of larvae. Results suggest that Mercenaria is capable of spawning at 16oC, which is a lower temperature than that reported in earlier works, indicating a physiological adaptation to local conditions. Growth, survival and environmental factors affecting abundance of planktonic larvae over an 8 days period were studied. It appears that larvae remain in the plankton for about 15 days, at summer temperature. The 12 hours survey of vertical distribution provides evidence that larvae are retained within Southampton Water through behavioural regulation during different stages of the tide. The distribution, seasonal growth and survival of spat throughout the estuary, were investigated. First settlement of the spat in 1984 took place in the latter part of August. The population is seen as stock in decline largely resulting from overfishing and failure of spat settlement in recent years.</p
Thinking outside the box: unconventional artificial intelligence algorithms in the detection and management of liver cirrhosis
No full textA significant proportion of liver patients present withadvanced stages at the time of diagnosis [1] leading toimpaired prognosis and reduced survival probabilities [2].Unsurprisingly, a diagnosis of cirrhosis is independently asso-ciated with all-cause in-hospital mortality [3]. Current path-ways rely on primary care physicians proactively screeningpatients for hepatic fibrosis using dedicated tools, which canbe suboptimal [4]. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is gaining globalattention in the medical field and beyond, with researchexpanding and evolving exponentially. Hence, leveragingeasily applicable AI models based on widely available routinetests may enhance early detection resulting in timely interven-tion and reduction in mortalit
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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