1,720,967 research outputs found
Validating the use of unique trait combinations for measuring multivariate functional richness
1. Quantifying functional trait diversity has provided important new insights for understanding ecosystem processes and functioning. Functional diversity is often partitioned into three components richness, evenness and divergence. Currently, a convex hull is used as a measure of multivariate richness, but this approach has some serious limitations. 2. Consequently, we propose using the number of unique trait combinations (UTCs) as an approach to measure the filled trait space (the hypervolume containing all possible trait combinations) and propose a new index, sUTC, as the amount of filled trait space divided by the trait space range. Like convex hull approaches, UTC can be partitioned into alpha and beta components when used across sites, and the beta component can be further partitioned into turnover and nestedness components. Unlike convex hull approaches, UTC can be used more intuitively with existing diversity measures as it can be used in conjunction with abundance information. We present the concepts these indices are based on and give examples of their use. The new index, sUTC, is compared to the existing indices on the basis of criteria specified in the literature and one novel criterion. We test and evaluate the approach using simulated data and field data. 3. We found that the UTC approach provided a more accurate assessment of functional richness than did the existing indices. 4. The UTC approach is a multivariate approach to measuring functional richness that can accommodate continuous and categorical traits and can account for holes in the trait space
SpatialDemography: a spatially explicit, stage‐structured, metacommunity model
1. The responses of species and populations to changes in the environment (e.g., changes in climate and land use) are often complex and difficult to predict.2. We have created the SpatialDemography model (R package: spatialdemography). The model is a spatially explicit, stage-structured, matrix-based metacommunity model, with the potential for modeling species' and populations' potential responses to environmental heterogeneity and change.3. The SpatialDemography model assumes a cellular landscape populated by organisms with four life stages: a mobile dispersing stage, two sessile non-reproductive stages, and a reproductive adult stage. Individuals are assumed to originate at the center of a given cell and disperse according to a specified dispersal kernel (e.g., log-normal). All adult individuals are capable of producing offspring. The model approach and framework are described in the context of a hypothetical example with multiple competing species in a four cell landscape. In this example simulation, both spatial location and species interactions were important for understanding population dynamics.4. SpatialDemography can be applied to questions where an understanding of transient and long-term demographic responses to spatiotemporal changes is desired. It is primarily applicable to metapopulations and metacommunities of organisms with early dispersal and sessile adults (i.e. modular organisms such as plants and some marine organisms). SpatialDemography differs from other population models in that it is spatially explicit, can incorporate biotic interactions, and is implemented in R
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
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
“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
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
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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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