1,720,964 research outputs found
Climatic correlates of body size in European tenebrionid beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)
No full textTenebrionidae are one of the largest families of
beetles and are known for their adaptations to hot and dry
climates. An increase in body size also increases the volume/
surface area ratio, which reduces transpiration, and hence
water loss. If an increase in body size is an important adaptation
in tenebrionids to cope with increasing aridity, we expect
a correlation between body size and climatic gradients in the
major tenebrionid clades. Alternatively, we can postulate that
arid climates do not drive body size evolution, but rather
select, from a wider fauna containing species of any size,
those that have larger bodies. In this case we expect that drier
regions will host faunas that contain, on average, larger species.
To test the first hypothesis, we correlated inter-specific
body size variation in the main tenebrionid clades with climatic
gradients in Europe.We found only weak trends. To test
the second hypothesis, we regressed mean body size of
European country faunas against climatic characteristics. We
found a strong increase in body size in southern faunas
experiencing hot and dry climates. Therefore, increase in body
size is not a major adaptation in tenebrionid evolution, but
climate is an important filtering factor that determines a prevalence
of larger species in southern Europe
Latitudinal trends in body length distributions of European darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae)
No full textThe largest species of many invertebrate taxa occur in tropical regions. Nevertheless systematic studies on temperature and latitudinal trends in body size distributions of specific taxa have given inconclusive results and did not unequivocally corroborate existing models of body size evolution. We studied regional body size distributions of tenebrionid beetles across Europe to infer climate dependent trends that could be linked to the postglacial colonization of Europe. Even after correction for sample size effects and phylogenetic relatedness we found an increase in average and maximum body length towards southern Europe. Body size distributions were right skewed and skewness and the width of the distribution decreased significantly with temperature, indicating a more homogeneous species composition with respect to body size at lower latitudes. Our study supports the view that maximum size of heterothermic arthropods is limited by ambient temperature, which triggers the rate of metabolism. Our results contradict models that predict an increase in body size at higher latitudes. (C) 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved
Legionnaires' disease on a cruise ship linked to the water supply system: Clinical and public health implications
No full textLegionnaires' disease on a cruise ship linked to the water supply system: Clinical and public health implications
No full textEpidemic of gastroenteritis associated with Norwalk-like virus in a small ligurian town. Probable trasmission through water system
No full text
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
School Bike Sharing Program: Will it Succeed?
Full text linkEncouraging active and sustainable transport modes in order to limit the excessive use of cars, as well as reducing pollutant emissions and creating livable urban environments, has become one of the priorities for policymakers in recent years. The introduction of innovative systems increasingly being introduced in modern cities, such as bike sharing, can certainly contribute to the spread of cycling and thus allow a radical change in the mobility habits of their citizens. This can be especially true for high-school students who are often otherwise accompanied by their parents with private cars. This article aims to assess the influence that a bike sharing program for students has on modal share and on city mobility. As a case study, the city of Palermo was chosen, where the use of the car for home-school trips is prevalent. The "Go2School" project, which involves the creation of a bike sharing program for four schools, with the construction of cycle docks and cycle paths in the nearby areas, will soon become a reality. Thanks to appropriate surveys and questionnaires, a multinomial logit model was calibrated to estimate the modal share towards bike sharing for the students and evaluate the demand for this transport mode
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
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