1,721,152 research outputs found
Environmental changes in Sorbas arid region (Southern Spain) during MIS 5a inferred from a carbonate flowstone from a gypsum cave
No full textPresent climate conditions impede the formation of calcite speleothems in the gypsum caves of the semi-arid region of Sorbas (Southern Spain). However, U-Th dating reveals the uninterrupted deposition of a 46 mm -thick carbonate flowstone in the Sorbas caves from-78 to-71 ka, during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5a. This indicates that the area was vegetated during this period, producing biogenic CO2 in soils necessary for the un-derground deposition of the speleothem, which contrasts with the current unvegetated landscape. During MIS 5a, rainfall recharged the karst aquifer, leading to cave seepage. The development of soils and persistent water infiltration suggests a higher precipitation/evapotranspiration ratio with respect to the present, which was likely favored by lower regional temperatures and a different annual rainfall regime. 818O and 813C analyses testify that the speleothem recorded climate pulses synchronous, and structurally similar, with Greenland interstadial and stadial periods, with relatively wetter conditions recorded during interstadials 21.1, 20 and 19.2, and drier periods during stadials 21.1 and 20. This demonstrates that the climate in the desert-like environment of Sorbas is sensitive to inter-and intra-hemispherical triggers, such as the extent of Northern ice sheets and the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. Interstadials (stadials) were also characterized by a higher (lower) Atlantic/ Mediterranean moisture source ratio. For the first time, we show that carbonate speleothems formed in arid gypsum caves can record reliable palaeoenvironmental information spanning multiple millennia, procuring proxies for detailed palaeoclimate reconstructions. Such speleothems are thus excellent candidates for under-standing past climate dynamics and patterns in desert-like gypsum terrains
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
The last deglaciation in Italy: timing and pattern from a precisely dated stalagmite
No full textThe last deglaciation (Termination I, T-I) was the most recent global-scale climate transition. It involved a drastic temperature increase guiding massive melting of ice sheets, with a concurrent reorganization of inter- and intrahemispherical atmospheric and ocean circulation patterns.
T-I lasted ~3.0 ka (ka = kiloyears before present) in Greenland (NGRIP, 2007), although it was not a linear process. A rapid temperature increase at 14.6±0.3 ka (Bølling-Allerød, BA) was followed by a return towards glacial-like conditions (12.2±0.3 ka, Younger Dryas, YD), before the last warming that led to the Holocene (11.7±0.1 ka). Other secondary climate oscillations characterized T-I too (Cheng et al., 2020). Some of these intra-deglaciation global warmings were particularly rapid, at times occurring at centennial or even decadal timescale. This provides an interesting comparison with the current climate change.
Yet, it is not clear how T-I-related dynamics occurring at the polar regions and/or in the oceans impacted terrestrial environment at mid latitudes, in terms of rainfall and temperature variation and related environmental and ecological changes. This is especially true for the Mediterranean area, considering that its climate is connected – and controlled – by processes occurring in the Atlantic and Arctic. In Italy, T-I records of adequate chronological resolution are virtually absent.
We here present a novel speleothem record from Sant’Angelo Cave (SA1, Ostuni, Apulia) spanning from 47.7±0.1 to 8.9±0.9 ka. In the period from ~20 to ~10 ka, multiple U-Th datings (n=22) resulted in a final age model with an average uncertainty of <0.3 ka and a resolution of ~25 years. Climate proxies (δ18O, n=1045) were anchored to this chronology. The reliability of SA1-δ18O in recording palaeoclimate information was ascertained by a statistically grounded inter-cave replication test with a recently published speleothem record from a nearby site (Columbu et al., 2020). The interpretation of SA1 allows to: 1) accurately and precisely constrain, for the first time in Italy, the timing of the T-I climate pattern; 2) evaluate the impact of BA, YD and Holocene inception in southern Italy, as well as other associated events, especially in terms of rainfall variability; and 3) understand the spatio-temporal relation between the Atlantic/Greenland domain, the Mediterranean realm and monsoonal areas throughout the deglaciation. We discuss this new record within the framework of previous regional studies based on glacial (NGRIP, 2007), marine (Martrat et al., 2007) and continental proxies (Allen et al., 1999; Cheng et al., 2016), with the aim of providing a better comprehension of the timing and structure of T-I in Italy and, by extension, of the central and western Mediterranean area.
Allen J.R.M., Brandt U., Brauer A., Hubbertens H.W., Huntley B., Keller J., Kraml M., Meckeen A., Mingram J., Negendank J.F.W., Nowaczyk N.R., Oberhansli H., Watts W.A., Wulf S. & Zolitschka B. (1999) - Rapid environmental changes in southern Europe during the last glacial period. Science, 400, 740-743.
Cheng H., Edwards R.L., Sinha A., Spötl C., Yi L., Chen S., Kelly M., Kathayat G., Wang X. & Li X. (2016) - The Asian monsoon over the past 640,000 years and ice age terminations. Nature, 534, 640.
Cheng H., Zhang H., Spötl C., Baker J., et al. (2020) - Timing and structure of the Younger Dryas event and its underlying climate dynamics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117, 23408-23417.
Columbu A., Chiarini V., Spötl C., Benazzi S., Hellstrom J., Cheng H. & De Waele J. (2020) - Speleothem record attests to stable environmental conditions during Neanderthal-Modern Human turnover in Southern Italy. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 4, 1188-1195.
Martrat B., Grimalt J.O., Shackleton N.J., de Abreu L., Hutterli M.A. & Stocker T.F. (2007) - Four climate cycles of recurring deep and surface water destabilizations on the Iberian margin. Science, 317, 502-507.
NGRIP, North Greenland Ice Core Project Members. (2004) - High-resolution record of Northern Hemisphere climate extending into the last interglacial period. Nature, 431, 147-151
Local response to global warm pulses over the last 250,000 years: the case of Central Italian gypsum karst
No full textDispelling 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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