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    Ecological variation among vegetation cover types and forest stand dynamics in the south-west Jemez Mountains, New Mexico

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    The southwest Jemez Mountains in northern New Mexico have diverse ecosystems ranging from pinyon-juniper woodlands to mixed conifer forests. Primarily due to fire suppression, occasional high intensity wildfires, climate change, and other human related disturbance factors, present ecosystems are significantly different from those in the past. Therefore, forest restoration treatments are planned to mitigate the wildfire risk, decrease the high density of trees, and increase herbaceous biomass. In this context, my primary objectives for this series of studies were to (1) analyze the variation among vegetation types in terms of ecological variables, (2) analyze the trend of change in percent tree canopy cover for past three decades and (3) predict tree density with an integration of field data and satellite imagery. I established 224 vegetation plots representing multiple vegetation types in the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) and the adjacent Santa Fe National Forest areas of northern New Mexico representing multiple vegetation types. In the first analysis, I found higher tree density in the plots planned to be treated than in plots with no planned-treatment. Moreover, I found that variation among vegetation types was primarily due to herbaceous and ground components rather than the tree variables. From the second analysis using LiDAR-estimated canopy cover and Landsat imagery, about 11% of the study area experienced an increase in percent canopy cover for the period of 1987 – 2015. However, about 41% of the area experienced a decrease in percent canopy cover, particularly in the burned areas due to wildfires in 2011 and 2013. From the third analysis, estimated tree densities >100 trees per hectare was prevalent in more than half of the project area and a large proportion of the forested areas had >500 trees per hectare. From these three analyses, I reported dense forests, as indicated by low herbaceous vegetation growth or high bare ground, increasing canopy cover and high density of trees. These findings suggest the need for restoration in these landscapes to reduce wildfire risks and improve understory herbaceous growth. This study demonstrated an integrated methodology of field data and remote sensing data for estimating forest structural attributes of forested landscapes

    Examining Land Use/Land Cover Change and Potential Causal Factors in the Context of Climate Change in Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal

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    In the context of growing tourism and global warming, the fragile landscape of the Himalayas is under immense pressure because of rapid land cover changes in developing countries like Nepal. Remotely sensed data combined with ethnographic knowledge are useful tools for studying such changes. The quantitative change can be measured analyzing satellite images whereas local people’s perceptions provide supportive information. To measure such changes in Sagarmatha National Park of Nepal, Multispectral Scanner (MSS) and Thematic Mapper (TM) images since 1972 were used. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was calculated for different elevation classes and land cover types. These measurements, along with land cover change (1992- 2006) analysis, shows a significant conversion of the areas covered by ice, shrub and grass to rock and soil. Factors including political conflict due to a Maoist rebellion group, inactive park management, increasing tourist demand, and consequent natural resources exploitation helped to explain the change in the forested areas. This is supported by the information from short, informal, semi-structured interviews with local people. However, the local people are unaware of global warming, which has caused the ice melting and glacial lake expansion. Although global causes are out of the immediate control of land managers, better management practices and managed tourism might help alleviate deteriorating Himalayan ecosystems

    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
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