1,720,964 research outputs found
Insular small mammals from Quaternary deposits of Sicily and Flores
No full textThis PhD thesis deals with fossil small mammals from Quaternary deposits from Sicily (Italy) and Flores (Indonesia). It is well known that evolutionary dynamics on islands are quite different than on mainland, because of, amongst the others, the shortage of resources, the reduced interspecific competition and predation, the difficultness in reaching/leaving the island. Therefore many species undergo strong size variation, giving rise to phenomena of gigantism (small mammals) or dwarfism, and a variation in the structure of mammalian communities takes place.
In this thesis faunal associations of two very different islands have been taken into account, in order to record the difference in the effects that distance from the mainland, area of the island, introduction of new species and time have on small mammals community.
Sicily is in fact the largest Mediterranean island and is very close to the mainland, so close that periodically, during low-standing phases of sea level it was connected to Southern Italy and mammals could reach it. Thus the analysis of the material from Isolidda 3 (Trapani), a Middle - Late Pleistocene paleontological site, could record phases of isolation from the mainland, with a very impoverished (only three rodents and one insectivore) and unbalanced fauna, whilst Oriente Cave (Favignana Island) (Late Pleistocene – Holocene) and Cala Mancina Cave (Trapani) (Holocene), two archeological sites, provided evidence of the arrival of small mammals during the LGM or with man. The abundance of the fossil remains collected allowed also the taxonomical and phylogenetical study of the Microtus (Terricola) and Crocidura in Sicily. The study of small mammals of these archeological deposits facilitates, in conjunction with other disciplines, the reconstruction of the palaeo-environment in which Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic people lived .
On the other hand, Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia) (Late Pleistocene – Holocene), the well-known site for the discovery of Homo floresiensis, is located on an oceanic island. It has never been connected to the mainland and the faunal association displays high degrees of endemism, with the presence of three giants rats (Papagomys armandvillei, Papagomys theodorverhoeveni and Spelaeomys florensis), two middle size rats (Paulamys naso and Komodomys rintjanus) and two small rats (Rattus hainaldi and Rattus exulans). Despite the apparent high number of species, the great part of them is strictly related, confirming the long period of isolation. Since Liang Bua represents the richest deposit for many of these species, it was possible to provide an accurate morphometrical description of upper and lower toothrow of the murids. Moreover, it was possible to record the extinction of Spelaeomys florensis, the severe diminution of the other giant rats (P. armandvillei and P. theodorverhoeveni), Paulamys naso and Rattus hainaldi, and the introduction (intentional or accidental) by Neolithic agriculturists of Rattus exulans
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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