1,720,959 research outputs found
Immune challenge is reflected in the expression of a male sexual display in the peacock blenny (Salaria pavo)
No simple relationship between male mating attraction and parental care: an example in a fish with exclusive male care
One trait, many signals: different information on male quality is enclosed within the same trait in a blenny fish
Colourful ornaments are traditionally evaluated as one trait. However, they could consist of several components, such as total size, colour intensity and extension, each possibly bearing its own message about one aspect of quality. Males of the blenny Salaria pavo exhibit a colourful head crest and solely care for eggs. During the breeding season, the head crest shows a yellow colouration, the
intensity and relative extension of which are independent of crest size. Here, we show that: (1) carotenoids are responsible for the head crest yellow patch; (2) activating the immune system by injecting the bacterial antigen lipopolysaccharides affects both the intensity and extent of the yellow colouration; and (3) females assess males on the basis of colour patch expression. However, the response of
the yellow patch to the immune challenge was dependent on head crest size. Indeed, males with a larger head crest reacted better to the simulated infection, sustaining a level of yellow patch close to pre-challenge size
The influence of a new artificial structure on fish assemblages of adjacent hard substrata
Deployed for diverse purposes, artificial substrata can, theoretically, act as fish attractors or as fish
producers. We tested these hypotheses by comparing fish assemblages on two artificial hard substrata,
the Ca’ Roman and Sottomarina jetties, before (1994 and 2003) and after (2005 and 2006) the deployment
of a new breakwater in the area. Our results support the fish production hypothesis. A remarkable
increase in richness and abundance of sedentary species was observed on the extant substrata with the
presence of the new barrier. More mobile species showed less definite trends. The net result has been
a total increase in abundance and richness in the area. While fish assemblage showed important
temporal variation in composition before deployment (Ca’ Roman, comparison between 1994 and 2003),
clear trends of increasing abundance were concurrent with the presence of the new barrier. This increase
in abundance, particularly of sedentary species, may be attributed to enhanced connectivity and/or an
improvement in larval retention due to the changes in water circulation connected with the new
breakwater, or to an increase in juveniles and/or adults promoted by changes in environmental conditions.
Indeed, changes in benthic cover were recorded, with an increase of uncovered rock and the
appearance of previously unrecorded algae after breakwater deployment
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
Linking male qualities to multiple display traits: An example in a fish with exclusive male care
Recent theoretical models predict that the relative allocation to advertisement and parental care depends on whether paternal care is necessary for offspring survival: In species with exclusive male care, male investment in attraction is expected to reliably indicate paternal care effort and male phenotypic quality. Previous research, yielding contrasting results, has considered how one trait involved in mate attraction interacts with parental care or a specific aspect of male quality. In the blenny Salaria pavo, we perform a comprehensive analysis of the interplay between overall male attractiveness and male quality, the latter in terms of fertility, condition, and parental care. In this fish, males are larger than females, exhibit two sexually dimorphic traits (head crest and anal glands), and solely care for eggs. We generated a male attractiveness index through principal component analyses of morphological traits and quantified parental effort as the total time spent in egg care.In addition, we analyzed the relationships between specific components of attractiveness and male qualities. In agreement with theory predictions, we found that male overall attractiveness is a reliable indicator of fertility, in terms of sperm number, but is unrelated to body condition and parental care effort, with males able to perform high levels of care regardless of their level of advertisement. However, the relative expression of head crest area appears positively related to sperm number but is traded-off with parental care effort. These findings underline the need, in addressing real patterns, to consider interactions between multiple aspects of male display and quality
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
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