110 research outputs found
Comparative analysis of machine learning algorithms for author age and gender identification
No full textAuthor profiling is part of information retrieval in which different perspectives of the author are observed by considering various characteristics like native language, gender, and age. Different techniques are used to extract the required information using text analysis, like author identification on social media and for Short Text Message Service. Author profiling helps in security and blogs for identification purposes while capturing authors’ writing behaviors through messages, posts, comments, blogs, comments, and chat logs. Most of the work in this area has been done in English and other native languages. On the other hand, Roman Urdu is also getting attention for the author profiling task, but it needs to convert Roman-Urdu to English to extract important features like Named Entity Recognition (NER) and other linguistic features. The conversion may lose important information while having limitations in converting one language to another language. This research explores machine learning techniques that can be used for all languages to overcome the conversion limitation. The Vector Space Model (VSM) and Query Likelihood (Q.L.) are used to identify the author’s age and gender. Experimental results revealed that Q.L. produces better results in terms of accuracy
Comparative Analysis of Machine Learning Algorithms for Author Age and Gender Identification
No full textAuthor profiling is part of information retrieval in which different perspectives of the author are observed by considering various characteristics like native language, gender, and age. Different techniques are used to extract the required information using text analysis, like author identification on social media and for Short Text Message Service. Author profiling helps in security and blogs for identification purposes while capturing authors’ writing behaviors through messages, posts, comments, blogs, comments, and chat logs. Most of the work in this area has been done in English and other native languages. On the other hand, Roman Urdu is also getting attention for the author profiling task, but it needs to convert Roman-Urdu to English to extract important features like Named Entity Recognition (NER) and other linguistic features. The conversion may lose important information while having limitations in converting one language to another language. This research explores machine learning techniques that can be used for all languages to overcome the conversion limitation. The Vector Space Model (VSM) and Query Likelihood (Q.L.) are used to identify the author’s age and gender. Experimental results revealed that Q.L. produces better results in terms of accuracy
Cyrtodactylus taybacensis Pham & Le & Ngo & Ziegler & Nguyen 2019, sp. nov.
No full textCyrtodactylus taybacensis sp. nov. (Figs. 3–5) Holotype. IEBR 4379 (Field No. SL 2016.400), adult male, collected by A.V. Pham and D.A. Giang on 14 October 2016 in the karst forest near Ca Nang Village (21˚54.440’N, 103˚31.390’E, elevation: 650 m asl.), Ca Nang Commune, Quynh Nhai District, Son La Province, northwestern Vietnam. Paratypes. TBU 0 7, 0 8 (Field Nos. SL 2016.271, 272), adult males collected by A.V. Pham, T. Q.L. Hoang, L. M. Ha, N. B. Song, D. K.K.S. Vanh, and C. A. Lau on 25 September 2016 and IEBR 4380 (Field No. SL 2017.26), adult female, collected by N.B. Song and D. K.K.S. Vanh on 22 June 2017 in the karst forest near Pha Luong Village (21˚36.324’N, 103˚34.540’E, elevation: 720 m asl.), Phong Lai Commune, Thuan Chau District, Son La Province; IEBR 4381 & 4382 (Field Nos. SL2016.403, 405), adult males and TBU 0 9 (Field No. SL 2016.404), adult female collected by A.V. Pham, L. M. Ha, O. V. Dieu and D. A. Giang on 15 October 2016 near Tua Thang Commune, Tua Chua District, Dien Bien Province (21˚56.933’N, 103˚27.803’E, elevation: 610 m asl.). Diagnosis. The new species can be distinguished from other members of the genus Cyrtodactylus by a combination of the following characters: medium size (SVL up to 97.5 mm); dorsal tubercles in 13–16 irregular rows; ventral scale rows 30–38; ventrolateral folds present without interspersed tubercles; each thigh with 11–13 enlarged femoral scales; femoral pores absent in males and females; precloacal pores 11–13 in males, five or 15 pitted scales in females, in a continuous row; postcloacal tubercles two or three; lamellae under toe IV 16–20; subcaudal scales transversely enlarged; dorsal head with dark brown marking, oval, triangle and arched shape; five brown dorsal bands between limb insertions. Description of holotype. Adult male, snout-vent length (SVL) 85.7 mm; body elongate (AG/SVL 0.46); head distinct from neck, elongate, depressed (HL/SVL 0.28, HW/HL 0.67, HH/HL 0.41); supranasals in contact with each other anteriorly, separated from each other by a small scale posteriorly; nares oval, surrounded by supranasal, rostral, first supralabial, and three postnasals; loreal region concave; snout long (SE/HL 0.38), round anteriorly, longer than diameter of orbit (OD/SE 0.68); snout scales small, round, granular, larger than those in frontal and parietal regions; eye large (OD/HL 0.26), pupils vertical; upper eyelid fringe with spinous scales; ear opening oval, obliquely directed, small in size (ED/HL 0.07); rostral wider than high (RH/RW 0.74), bordered by first supralabial, nostril and supranasal on each side; mental triangular, as wide as rostral (RW 3.6 mm, MW 3.5 mm), wider than high (ML/MW 0.74); postmentals two, enlarged, in contact with mental anteriorly, first infralabial laterally, and eight small scales posteriorly; supralabials 10/11; infralabials 9/9. Dorsal scales granular; dorsal tubercles round, three or four times larger than the size of adjoining scales, conical, present on occiput, back and tail base, each surrounded by 9 or 10 granular scales, in 15 or 16 irregular longitudinal rows at midbody; ventral scales smooth, medial scales two times larger than dorsal scales, round, subimbricate, in 34–36 longitudinal rows at midbody; lateral skin folds distinct, without tubercles; gular region with homogeneous smooth scales; ventral scales between mental and cloacal slit 177; precloacal groove absent; three rows of enlarged scales present in posterior region of pore-bearing scales; enlarged femoral scales present; femoral pores absent; precloacal pores 13, in a continuous row. Fore and hind limbs moderately slender (ForeaL/SVL 0.18, CrusL/SVL 0.23); dorsal surface of forelimbs covered by small scales, slightly larger than underside scales, without tubercles; dorsal surface of hind limbs covered by distinctly developed tubercles; interdigital webbing weakly developed; subdigital lamellae: finger I 14/ 14 (with 6/6 basally broadened lamellae), finger II 16/15 (7/6), finger III 17/18 (6/6), finger IV 18/18 (7/7), finger V 16/17 (6/5), toe I 15/15 (6/6), toe II 15/16 (6/6), toe III 17/17 (6/6), toe IV 20/19 (9/8), toe V 19/20 (7/7). Tail regenerated; postcloacal tubercles 2/2; dorsal tail base with distinct tubercles; subcaudals distinctly enlarged in the original part, smooth. ……continued on the next page Coloration in life. Ground color of dorsal head and back yellowish brown; snout region yellow with two dark spots; dorsal head with dark marking, oval, triangle and arched shape; a dark stripe extending from posterior corner of eye to above tympanum; labials yellow; neck with some large dark blotches, forming a discontinuous band anteriorly and a continuous band posteriorly; dorsum with five transverse dark brown bands between fore and hind limb insertions, edged in yellow anteriorly and posteriorly; dorsal surface of fore and hind limbs with dark brown blotches; dorsal surface of tail yelowish brown with two dark bands at base, regenerated part greyish cream; chin, throat, chest, belly and lower limbs pinkish white; ventral surface of tail greyish (Fig. 3). Sexual dimorphism and variation. The females differ from male specimens in the absence of hemipenial swellings at the tail base and having a larger size. The males have 11–13 precloacal pores (versus 5 or 15 pitted scales in females). The tails of paratypes (TBU 0 7 and IEBR 4380) are complete, greyish cream with nine dark brown bands, subcaudals distinctly enlarged approximately three fourths of tail length. For other morphological characters see Table 1. Distribution. Cyrtodactylus taybacensis sp. nov. is currently known from Tua Chua District in Dien Bien Province and Thuan Chau and Quynh Nhai districts in Son La Province, Vietnam (Fig. 1). Etymology. Specific epithet “ taybacensis ” is a toponym in reference to the type locality of the species, meaning “from northwestern region”. For the common names we suggest Taybac Bent-toed Gecko (English) and Thạch sùng ngón tây bǻc (Vietnamese). Natural history. Specimens were found at night between 19:00 and 21:00, on trees near limestone cliffs and in rock crevices, approximately 0.5–1.5 m above the ground, at elevations between 600 and 720 m asl. The surrounding habitat was disturbed evergreen karst forest of medium hardwood and shrub. The relative humidity was approximately 75–85% and the air temperature ranged from 25 to 34 o C. Comparisons. We compared the new species with its congeners from Vietnam and neighboring countries in mainland Indochina, including Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, China (Yunnan), Thailand, and peninsular Malaysia based on examination of specimens (see Appendix) and data obtained from the literature (Smith 1917, 1921a, b, 1935; Taylor 1963; Ulber & Grossmann 1991; Ulber 1993; Bauer 2002, 2003; Bauer et al. 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010; Ziegler et al. 2002, 2010, 2013; Pauwels & Sumontha 2014; Pauwels et al. 2004, 2013, 2014a, b, 2016; Nguyen et al. 2006, 2014; Hoang et al. 2007; Orlov et al. 2007; Grismer & Ahmad 2008; Ngo 2008, 2011; Ngo & Bauer 2008; Ngo & Chan 2010, 2011; Ngo & Grismer 2010, 2012; Ngo & Pauwels 2010; Ngo et al. 2008, 2010; Sumontha et al. 2010, 2012, 2014; Chan-ard & Makchai 2011; David et al. 2011; Schneider et al. 2011; Luu et al. 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016a, b, c; Grismer et al. 2012, 2016, 2017; Kunya et al. 2014, 2015; Nazarov et al. 2014; Panitvong et al. 2014; Le et al. 2016; Connette et al. 2017; Pham et al. 2017; and Nguyen et al. 2015a, 2017). The new species can be distinguished from other known species of Cyrtodactylus by morphological characters (see Table 2). Below we compared the new species from the closely related species from northern Vietnam and northern Laos. In general appearance, Cyrtodactylus taybacensis sp. nov. is similar to C. bichnganae Ngo & Grismer, C. cf. bichnganae, C. bobrovi Nguyen, Le, Pham, Ngo, Hoang, Pham & Ziegler, C. chauquangensis Hoang, Orlov, Ananjeva, Johns, Hoang & Dau, C. cucphuongensis Ngo & Chan, C. huongsonensis Luu, Nguyen, Do & Ziegler, C. martini Ngo, C. puhuensis Nguyen, Yang, Le, Nguyen, Orlov, Hoang, Nguyen, Jin, Rao, Hoang, Che, Murphy & Zhang, C. otai Nguyen, Le, Pham, Ngo, Hoang, Pham & Ziegler, C. spelaeus Nazarov, Poyarkov, Orlov, Nguyen, Milto, Martynov, Konstantinov & Chulisov, C. soni Le, Nguyen, Le & Ziegler, C. sonlaensis Nguyen, Pham, Ziegler, Ngo & Le, C. vilaphongi Schneider, Nguyen, Duc Le, Nophaseud, Bonkowski & Ziegler, C. wayakonei Nguyen, Kingsada, Rösler, Auer & Ziegler. Cyrtodactylus taybacensis sp. nov. differs from C. bichnganae by having more precloacal pores in males (11–13 vs. 10) and the absence of femoral pores on each thigh in males (vs. 9); from C. bobrovi by having fewer ventral scale rows (30–38 vs. 40–45), the presence of enlarged femoral scales (vs. absent), the presence of enlarged subcaudals (vs. absent), more preloacal pores in males (11–13 vs. 5), and fewer lamellae under toe IV (16–20 vs. 21–22); from C. chauquangensis by the presence of enlarged femoral scales (vs. absent) and having more precloacal pores in males (11–13 vs. 6); from C. cucphuongensis by the presence of precloacal pores in males (vs. absent), having fewer ventral scale rows (30–38 vs. 42), fewer lamellae under finger IV (17–19 vs. 21) and under toe IV (16–20 vs. 24); from C. huongsonensis by having more enlarged femoral scales on each thigh (11–14 vs. 7–9), more precloacal pores in males (11–13 vs. 6), and fewer ventral scale rows (30–38 vs. 41–48); from C. martini by having more precloacal pores in males (11–13 vs. 4), fewer ventral scale rows (30–38 vs. 39–43), and fewer lamellae under toe IV (16–20 vs. 22–24); from C. puhuensis by having more precloacal pores in males (11–13 vs. 5) and fewer lamellae under toe IV (16–20 vs. 23); from C. otai by having more preloacal pores in males (11–13 vs. 7–8), the presence of enlarged femoral scales (vs. absent), and the presence of enlarged subcaudals (vs. absent); from C. soni by having more enlarged femoral scales on each thigh (11–14 vs. 8–9), more precloacal pores in males (11–13 vs. 6–8), the absence of femoral pores in males (vs. 6–8 on each thigh), and fewer ventral scale rows (30–38 vs. 41–45); from C. sonlaensis by its larger size (SVL reaching 97.5 mm vs. 83.2 mm), the absence of femoral pores in males (vs. 13–15 on each thigh), more precloacal pores in males (11–13 vs. 8), and fewer enlarged femoral scales on each thigh (11–14 vs. 15–17); from C. spelaeus by having more precloacal pores in males (11–13 vs. 8–9) and fewer lamellae under toe IV (16–20 vs. 22–24); from C. vilaphongi by the presence of enlarged subcaudals (vs. absent), the presence of of enlarged femoral scales (vs. absent), and the presence of pitted scales in females (vs. absent); and from C. wayakonei by having fewer dorsal tubercle rows (13–16 vs. 16–19), the presence of enlarged femoral scales (vs. absent), and more precloacal pores in males (11–13 vs. 6–8). Morphologically, Cyrtodactylus taybacensis sp. nov. resembles C. cf. bichnganae. However, the new species can be distinguished from the latter by having more precloacal pores in males (11–13 vs. 7–9 in C. cf. bichnganae) and the absence of femoral pores on each thigh in males (vs. 3–10 in C. cf. bichnganae).Published as part of Pham, Anh Van, Le, Minh Duc, Ngo, Hanh Thi, Ziegler, Thomas & Nguyen, Truong Quang, 2019, A new species of Cyrtodactylus (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from northwestern Vietnam, pp. 360-380 in Zootaxa 4544 (3) on pages 364-369, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4544.3.3, http://zenodo.org/record/261839
The Hirsch spectrum: a novel tool for analysing scientific journals
No full textThis paper introduces the Hirsch spectrum (h-spectrum) for analyzing the academic reputation of a scientific journal. h-Spectrum is a novel tool based on the Hirsch (h) index. It is easy to construct: considering a specific journal in a specific interval of time, h-spectrum is defined as the distribution representing the h-indexes associated to the authors of the journal articles. This tool allows defining a reference profile of the typical author of a journal, compare different journals within the same scientific field, and provide a rough indication of prestige/reputation of a journal in the scientific community. h-Spectrum can be associated to every journal. Ten specific journals in the Quality Engineering/Quality Management field are analyzed so as to preliminarily investigate the h-spectrum characteristic
Assessment of Acculturation: Issues and Overview of Measures
No full textPublicly available acculturation measures are systematically reviewed based on three criteria: scale descriptors (name of the scale, authors, year, target group, age group, subscales, and number of items), psychometric properties (reliabilities) and conceptual and theoretical structure (acculturation conditions, acculturation orientations, acculturation outcomes, acculturation attitudes, acculturation behaviors, conceptual model and life domains). Majority of the reviewed acculturation measures are short, single-scale instruments that are directed to specific target groups. Additionally, they mainly assess behavioral acculturation outcomes than acculturation conditions and orientations. Regarding the psychometric properties; most measures have an adequate internal consistency; yet cross-cultural validity of the instruments have not been reported. Guidelines for choosing or developing acculturation instruments are provided in the chapter
Analysis of the Hirsch index's operational properties
No full textThe h-index is a relatively recent bibliometric indicator for assessing the research output of scientists, based on the publications and the corresponding citations. Due to the original characteristics of easy calculation and immediate intuitive meaning, this indicator has become very popular in the scientific community. Also, it received some criticism essentially because of its ‘‘low" accuracy. The contribution of this paper is to provide a detailed analysis of the h-index, from the point of view of the indicator operational properties. This work can be helpful to better understand the peculiarities and limits of h and avoid its misuse. Finally, we suggest an additional indicator ðf Þ that complements h with the information related to the publication age, not compromising the original simplicity and immediacy of understandin
Distribution of soil tardigrades as revealed by molecular identification across a large-scale area of Australia
No full textTardigrades, also known as ‘water bear’ or ‘moss piglet’, inhabit diverse environments ranging from marine to freshwater and terrestrial habitats. They occupy various trophic levels in the micro-food web attributed to their different feeding preferences and different predators, which also heralds the complexity of their ecological functions. Therefore, understanding the ecological preference of tardigrades and their interactions with other organisms is crucial for uncovering the changes in ecosystem functions performed by these organisms under future scenarios of climate change. Here, we investigated the diversity and community composition of tardigrades, and their driving factors from 194 soil samples across south and eastern Australia, based on amplicon sequencing of 18S rRNA gene. We further validated the presence or absence of tardigrades in selected soil samples using morphological detection. Eleven tardigrade genera were observed in 53 samples, predominantly from coastal soils, with Eremobiotus as the most dominant genus. Notably, mean annual temperature (MAT) was the most important factor influencing the presence of tardigrades, revealing a decreased relative abundance of tardigrades as MAT increased. Other abiotic factors, including soil pH, total nitrogen, and mean annual precipitation, as well as biotic factors, including bacteria, fungi, protists, algae and nematodes, were also critical to the distribution of tardigrades, as revealed by structural equation modelling. Morphological identification broadly aligned with our molecular findings; it also illustrated the sporadic distribution pattern of tardigrades. Taken together, our findings provide the first empirical evidence for the relationships between soil tardigrades and the environmental factors using environmental DNA and demonstrated the importance of both biotic and abiotic factors in shaping the large-scale distribution patterns of soil tardigrades. Additionally, our findings imply a certain degree of feasibility for soil tardigrade researches using environmental DNA, and highlight the potential risk of a decline in tardigrade communities in the face of increasing global temperatures.Zi-Yang He, Hang-Wei Hu, Bao-Anh Thi Nguyen, Qing-Lin Chen, Anthony Weatherley, Michael Nash, Li Bi, Keren Wu, Ji-Zheng H
On the use of Biplot analysis for multivariate bibliometric and scientific indicators
No full textBibliometric mapping and visualization techniques represent one of the main pillars in the field of scientometrics. Traditionally, the main methodologies employed for representing data are Multi-Dimensional Scaling, Principal Component Analysis or Correspondence Analysis. In this paper we aim at presenting a visualization methodology known as Biplot analysis for representing bibliometric and science and technology indicators. A Biplot is a graphical representation of multivariate data, where the elements of a data matrix are represented according to dots and vectors associated with the rows and columns of the matrix. In this paper we explore the possibilities of applying the Biplot analysis in the research policy area. More specifically we will first describe and introduce the reader to this methodology and secondly, we will analyze its strengths and weaknesses through three different study cases: countries, universities and scientific fields. For this, we use a Biplot analysis known as JK-Biplot. Finally we compare the Biplot representation with other multivariate analysis techniques. We conclude that Biplot analysis could be a useful technique in scientometrics when studying multivariate data and an easy-to-read tool for research decision makers
Oxidization of squalene, a human skin lipid: a new and reliable marker of environmental pollution studies
No full textNeoproterozoic subduction along the Ailaoshan zone, South China : geochronological and geochemical evidence from amphibolite
No full textThis study was supported by China Natural Science Foundation (41190073 and 41372198), National Basic Research Program of China (2014CB440901) and Natural Environment Research Council (grant NE/J021822/1).Lenses of amphibolites occur along the Ailaoshan suture zone at the southwestern margin of the Yangtze Block, South China. Petrological, geochemical and zircon U-Pb geochronological data indicate that they are divisible into two coeval groups. Group 1, represented by the Jinping amphibolite, has mg-number of 71-76 and (La/Yb)cn ratios of 7.2-7.7, and displays a geochemical affinity to island arc volcanic rocks. Group 2 amphibolites occur at Yuanyang and are characterized by high Nb contents (14.3-18.4 ppm), resembling Nb-enriched basalts. The epsilon(Nd)(t) values for Group 1 range from -3.45 to -2.04 and for Group 2 from +4.08 to +4.39. A representative sample for Group 1 yields a U-Pb zircon age of 803 7 Ma, whereas two samples for Group 2 give U-Pb zircon ages of 813 +/- 11 Ma and 814 +/- 12 Ma. Petrogenetic analysis suggests that Group 1 originated from an orthopyroxene-rich source and Group 2 from a mantle wedge modified by slab-derived melt. In combination with other geological observations, these amphibolites are inferred to constitute part of an early Neoproterozoic (similar to 815-800 Ma) arc-back-arc basin system. The Neoproterozoic amphibolites and related rocks along the Ailaoshan zone may be the southward extension of the Neoproterozoic supra-subduction zone that developed along the western margin of the Yangtze Block. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe
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