1,720,957 research outputs found
Population Dynamics of the African Lion (Panthera leo L.) within the Maasai Mara Region of Southern Kenya
No full textThe newly formed Naboisho Wildlife Conservancy in southern Kenya is a 20,000 hectare ranch that is collectively owned by 500 Maasai tribesman. As a result of this recent, locally-inspired conservancy, numerous tourism investors and non-profit organizations have been invited to develop businesses and research opportunities in order to facilitate the conservancy’s growth and stability. Monitoring and protecting big cat populations that thrive in this landscape is a cornerstone of developing conservancies like Naboisho and is the backbone of the tourism industry in Southern Kenya. In 2010, a research project was established by the Mara Naboisho Lion Project and African Impact to census, identify, and continuously monitor lions within this conservancy. As of September 2012, 59 lions from six different prides have been identified and profiled within Naboisho. This minimum population estimate was achieved through visual observation, ground tracking, and, most recently, with 12 camera traps strategically located to identify remote and elusive lion prides. Individuals were identified by unique whisker spot patterns which, once mapped, were uploaded into a database to ensure no lions were counted twice. GPS coordinates were recorded whenever a sighting was made in order to determine home range sizes for both prides and individuals. Initial results after two years of study have indicated that lion density in the conservancy may constitute one of the highest in the world, placing Naboisho in the center of numerous global conservation initiatives
DIET AND SPACE USE OF THE MARTIAL EAGLE (\u3cem\u3ePOLEMAETUS BELLICOSUS\u3c/em\u3e) IN THE MAASAI MARA REGION OF KENYA
Full text linkThe martial eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus) is a vulnerable species that is declining throughout large portions of its range. There is an urgent need to improve understanding of this species’ ecology to inform its conservation. I equipped 20 adult martial eagles with global positioning system backpack transmitters to characterize diet and space use of the species in the Maasai Mara region of Kenya. The resulting high-resolution transmitter data sets allowed for the rapid location of kills and provided a means to estimate home range size. From November 2016 to April 2018, 191 kills were identified from 206 kill location visits. Martial eagle diet comprised 26 prey species of which hares (two Lepus species, 17.3%), impala fawns (Aepyceros melampus, 13.6%) and helmeted guineafowl (Numida meleagris, 12%) were the most numerous. Sex-based differences in diet were found, with females selecting for heavier prey items (p \u3c 0.001). The average 95% kernel density estimated home range for the duration-of-transmitter-placement (average of 372 days) was 174.5 ± 83.2 km2, a much larger estimate than previously reported. This study is the most extensive to date on martial eagle diet and spatial ecology in eastern Africa, and the first to show dietary differences between the sexes
Data from: Africa's overlooked top predator: towards a better understanding of martial eagle feeding ecology in the Maasai Mara, Kenya
No full text<p>Raptors exert top-down influences on ecosystems via their effects on prey population dynamics and community composition. Most raptors are sympatric with other predators, thus complicating our understanding of their relative influence in these systems. Estimates of kill rates and prey biomass recycling have been used as predation metrics that allow quantitative comparison among species and assessment of the relative role of single species within complex food webs. Few studies have produced findings of kill rates or prey biomass recycling for raptors. We used a supervised machine learning algorithm to behaviourally classify high resolution accelerometer informed GPS locations of tagged adult non-breeding martial eagles <em>Polemaetus bellicosus</em> in the Maasai Mara region of Kenya to estimate kill rates and prey biomass recycling. Eagle locations classified as feeding were clustered using distance and time thresholds to identify kills and calculate kill rates. Identified kill sites were quickly ground-truthed to confirm kills and identify prey species. We estimated kill rates for martial eagles at 0.59 kills/day for males and 0.38 kills/day for females, and we estimated biomass recycling per ground-truthed kill at 1796 g for males and 3860 g for females. From our sample of identified ground-truthed kills, "gamebirds" was the most frequently recorded prey category for male eagles and "small ungulates" was the most frequently recorded prey category for female eagles. These results position martial eagles close to sympatric mammalian top predators in trophic pyramids and provide evidence for their classification as a top predator.</p><p>Funding provided by: Wageningen University & Research<br>Crossref Funder Registry ID: https://ror.org/04qw24q55<br>Award Number: </p><p>Funding provided by: University of Kentucky<br>Crossref Funder Registry ID: https://ror.org/02k3smh20<br>Award Number: </p><p>Funding provided by: BAND foundation<br>Crossref Funder Registry ID: https://ror.org/05wr3m454<br>Award Number: </p><p>Funding provided by: The Peregrine Fund<br>Crossref Funder Registry ID: https://ror.org/03mxy1b19<br>Award Number: </p>
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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