1,721,051 research outputs found

    Gene flow and genetic diversity: a comparison of freshwater bryozoan populations in Europe and North America

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    We have used microsatellite and mitochondrial sequence data to gain insight into patterns of gene flow and genetic diversity among North American and European populations of the freshwater bryozoan Cristatella mucedo. Mitochondrial sequence data reveal numerous, widely distributed, divergent genetic lineages in North America that can be broadly categorized into two groups, one of which is genetically homogeneous and relatively similar to the European haplotypes, the other of which is more diverse. The maximum North American sequence differentiation translates into a divergence time of approximately 1.5 Myr BP. In contrast, European populations contained only three haplotypes that are all closely related. Microsatellite data reveal higher overall levels of genetic diversity in North America than Europe, although levels of within-population genetic variation are similar on the two continents. In North America, two of the three microsatellite loci show bimodal distributions of allele sizes which are significantly associated between the two loci. As a result, two microsatellite lineages are evident, and these are assortatively distributed between the mitochondrial haplotype groupings. The combined mitochondrial and microsatellite data suggest two distinct genetic lineages in North America that may represent cryptic species. Hybridization between the two presumptive species or subspecies may have contributed to the high levels of genetic diversity in North America. The overall lower levels of genetic diversity in Europe can be attributed to postglacial derivation of extant populations from a single mitochondrial lineage, and conformation to a metapopulation structure

    Bryozoan stable carbon and hydrogen isotopes: relationships between the isotopic composition of zooids, statoblasts and lake water

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    We explored the extent to which δ13C and δD values of freshwater bryozoan statoblasts can provide information about the isotopic composition of zooids, bryozoan food and surrounding water. Bryozoan samples were collected from 23 sites and encompassed ranges of nearly 30‰ for δ13C and 100‰ for δD values. δ13C offsets between zooids and statoblasts generally ranged from −3 to +4.5‰, with larger offsets observed in four samples. However, a laboratory study with Plumatella emarginata and Lophopus crystallinus demonstrated that, in controlled settings, zooids had only 0–1.2‰ higher δ13C values than statoblasts, and 1.7‰ higher values than their food. At our field sites, we observed a strong positive correlation between median δ13C values of zooids and median δ13C values of corresponding statoblasts. We also observed a positive correlation between median δD values of zooids and statoblasts for Plumatella, and a positive correlation between median δD values of statoblasts and δD values of lake water for Plumatella and when all bryozoan taxa were examined together. Our results suggest that isotope measurements on statoblasts collected from flotsam or sediment samples can provide information on the feeding ecology of bryozoans and the H isotopic composition of lake water

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    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

    Variations on the Author

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    “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

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    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

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    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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