1,720,956 research outputs found
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
Author Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902
No full textIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
Exploring Natural Products as Alternatives to Antibiotics in Mitigating Necrotic Enteritis and Evaluating Their Impact on the Gut Microbiota of Broiler Chickens
No full textNecrotic enteritis (NE), a severe enteric disease in poultry caused by the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium perfringens (Cp), leads to major economic losses worldwide due to reduced growth performance and increased mortality rates in broiler chickens. Damage to the intestinal epithelium caused by coccidia (Eimeria spp.), a protozoan parasite, is a major predisposing factor in NE, facilitating rapid proliferation and toxin production by Cp. Traditionally, antibiotics have been used to effectively control and manage coccidiosis and NE in poultry. However, due to factors like development of antibiotic resistance, government bans, and rise in consumer demand for antibiotic-free poultry products, there is a shift in the industry to reduce reliance on antibiotic growth promoters and investigate natural products as alternatives. The goal of this research was to explore the potential of natural feed additives such as Nigella sativa (black cumin), kefir, and bacteriophage alone and in combination for alleviating NE through both in vitro and in vivo studies in broiler chickens.
Initially, supplementation of black cumin seed oil (BCSO) in poultry feed to combat coccidiosis and reduce NE in broilers was investigated. A commercially available BCSO oil product, selected for its high anti-Cp activity from a preliminary study was used in the animal trials and GC-MS analysis of the product revealed the presence of bioactive compounds p-cymene, thymoquinone, carvacrol, and thymol. Conducted in two phases, trial 1 evaluated three concentrations (1, 2, and 5 mL/kg) and second trial focused on two concentrations (2 and 5 mL/kg) of BCSO. Each in vivo study consisted of Cobb 500 male broiler chicks, with 384 in the first trial and 320 in the second, distributed in a randomized complete block experimental design. The birds were challenged with E. maxima and Cp strain Cp#6 in trial 1 and Cp#4 in trial 2. During the trials, live performance, disease outcomes, and Cp populations were measured. In the first trial using the Cp#6 strain, BCSO concentrations of 2 and 5 mL/kg lowered NE lesion score and mortality rate to 1.6%, compared to 7.8% in the positive control, without any detrimental effect on growth performance. In the second trial with the Cp#4 strain, BCSO decreased NE lesion score and mortality rate to 35.9% from 51.6% in the positive control and also enhanced weight gain during Cp infection in broilers. Additionally, the population of vegetative cells and spores of Cp in cecal samples decreased for all treatments in trial 2. This study underscores the potential of BCSO at 2 and 5 mL/kg in enhancing broiler live performance and reducing NE symptoms caused by two different Cp strains with varying severity, positioning BCSO as a promising natural alternative to traditional antimicrobial feed additives.
Next, to understand the genomic characteristics that contribute to the virulence and antibiotic resistance of Cp strains, whole genome sequencing of Cp#4 and Cp#6 was performed. The sequencing results revealed that Cp#4 genome was 3,771,271 base pairs in length with a GC content of 27.82%, while the Cp#6 genome was 3,469,973 base pairs in length with a GC content of 28.01%, containing 252 and 253 subsystems, respectively. Comparative genomic analysis indicated that Cp#4 is both alpha-toxin and NetB toxin positive, suggesting a more robust virulence factor profile compared to Cp#6, which lacks the NetB toxin i.e. crucial for NE development. Both strains were found to carry additional virulence genes such as alpha-clostripain, collagenase, and perfringolysin O. Furthermore, each strain harbored 8 common antibiotic resistance genes, including those for tetracycline resistance, and 8 phage elements. The genomic exploration of Cp strains Cp#4 and Cp#6 offered valuable insights into the genetic determination of virulence, pathogenicity, and antibiotic resistance, underling the importance to develop a more targeted therapeutic or nontherapeutic approach to combat NE. Due to the more virulent nature of Cp#4, the subsequent animal trials used this strain for inducing NE in chickens.
Due to potential problems such as oxidation and cost effectiveness in using BCSO, the efficacy of black cumin seeds (BCS) and a natural probiotic kefir were assessed as antibiotic alternatives in broiler chickens. An in vivo study was conducted with 384 Cobb 500 male broilers administered with 5% BCS in feed and 20% kefir in drinking water, separately and in combination, as treatments. NE was induced in broilers using E. maxima and Cp (Cp#4) challenges. The results from this study showed that treatments of BCS, kefir, and their combination did not negatively affect broiler performance. BCS treated and the combination treatment had lower NE scores (P\u3e0.05) in comparison to the positive control and exhibited no significant difference (P\u3e0.05) from antibiotic control. Furthermore, there was no significant difference (P\u3e0.05) in mortality rates between the treatment groups and the antibiotic control, with the combination of BCS and kefir lowering mortality to 14.1%, compared to 31.3% in the positive control. In addition, both spores and vegetative cells of Cp decreased for all treatments. The findings from this study suggest that both BCS and kefir proved to be successful in reducing Cp infection and mortality with the combination treatment being most efficacious.
The discovery of some intact BCS seeds in the gizzards and feces of chickens, indicating their incomplete digestion, prompted further evaluation of crushed Nigella sativa (black cumin) seeds (CBCS) and bacteriophage, both individually and in combination, as dietary supplements. Clostridium phage CU1 from the Myoviridae family, with a genome of 51,700 bp and 34.3% GC content and lacking virulence and antibiotic resistance genes, was isolated and characterized. The challenge study involved feeding 384 Cobb 500 male broilers with 5% CBCS in feed, 1:15 bacteriophage (109 PFU/mL) in drinking water from days 19 to 26, both individually and in combination, with E. maximaand Cp#4 challenges. The treatments with CBCS, bacteriophage, and their combination did not negatively impact the broilers\u27 growth performance. Both the CBCS and the combination treatments significantly lowered NE scores (P
Furthermore, the impact of 5% CBCS, 1:15 phage CU1, and their combination on the cecal microbiota of chickens afflicted with NE was analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing. The predominant bacterial phyla identified included Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Cyanobacteria, and Bacteroidetes. While alpha diversity showed no significant changes on day 22 after Cp challenge across treatments, significant alterations in Shannon indices (P=0.05) were observed by day 28, although Chao richness remained unchanged (P\u3e0.05). Beta diversity analysis revealed significant community variation in cecal microbiota profiles (PEubacterium on day 22, and Colidextribacter and DTU089 on day 28 in CBCS treatment group. For bacteriophage treatment, significant genera included Lactobacillus, Anaerostipes, DTU089, [Eubacterium]_nodatum_group, and [Clostridium]_innocuum_group on day 22, while Monoglobus was prominent on day 28. Whereas the combination treatment of CBCS and phage did not have any significant characterizing genera. These results highlight the potential of incorporation of black cumin seeds and bacteriophage alongside nutritional interventions in modifying gut microflora of cecum in chickens, thereby improving gastrointestinal health and alleviating NE.
In summary, natural products of Nigella sativa seeds and oil, kefir, and bacteriophage proved to be effective in mitigating necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens without adversely affecting growth performance. Also, CBCS proved to be more effective in alleviating disease outcomes compared to BCS. Moreover, the combined treatments of black cumin seeds and kefir and crushed back cumin seeds with bacteriophage showed the most promising outcome in reducing lesion scores and morality rates. Therefore, Nigella sativa, kefir, and bacteriophage present viable alternatives to antibiotics for disease prevention in the poultry industry, helping to combat antibiotic resistance
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