1,720,994 research outputs found
Sexual dimorphism of metacarpal lengths in catarrhine primates
No full textOver the last 30 years, adult sexual dimorphism in anthropoids and explanations for variation in the levels of sexual dimorphism across primate taxa have been extensively studied. Lacking in these dimorphism studies, however, are details of whether or not long bones also display various levels of dimorphism. In particular no study has examined the pattern of sexual dimorphism in metacarpal lengths in nonhuman primates.
Here, we assess the levels of metacarpal length dimorphism across various mating systems and examine the relationship between metacarpal length dimorphism and other anatomical measures. We predicted that sexual dimorphism in metacarpal lengths would reflect patterns in sexual dimorphism observed in body mass and canine lengths, which covary with intermale competition. Comparisons of sexual dimorphism levels for thirteen catarrhine species (including humans) using the maximum lengths of metacarpals II-V, body mass and canine length were conducted using correlation analyses. The most dimorphic species: M. sphinx, P. anubis, and G. gorilla exhibited average metacarpal length dimorphism levels greater than 20%. C. guereza, T. cristata and P. troglodytes displayed the lowest scores with averages of 5.5-7.5%. Metacarpal length dimorphism was found to be lower than that of canine length and body weight dimorphism, suggesting metacarpal length is likely not a trait associated with sexual selection. Patterns of metacarpal length dimorphism, however, were strongly correlated with body mass dimorphism (r=0.581, p<0.05) and even more similar to patterns of canine length dimorphism (r=0.683, p<0.05)
Locomotor characterization of the sub-fossil lemur Babakotia
No full textPalaeopropithecids or “sloth lemurs” are a diverse clade of large-bodied Malagasy subfossil primates characterized by their suspensory positional behaviors. The most recently discovered genus of the family is Babakotia. This species has been described as more arboreal than Mesopropithecus but less than Palaeopropithecus. A remarkably complete skeleton of Babakotia is housed at the Division of Fossil Primates of the Duke University Primate Center. To further understand arboreal adaptations of Babakotia we compared within bone and between bones articular and cross-sectional diaphyseal proportions of limb long bones of this specimen to suspensory primates (hominoids and monkeys) and true sloths (Choloepus and Bradypus). Results show that Babakotia humeral articular to diaphyseal proportions are generally similar to those of true sloths than to those of apes. Babakotia femoral proportions are also similar to true sloth distributions, but are also similar to lesser apes in their proximal ends (i.e., relative femoral head surface area and superoinferior breadth). Distally, Babakotia is closer to great apes and lesser apes than to monkeys; unfortunately true sloth comparative data are missing for this comparison. Interlimb proportions show that Babakotia’s relative diaphyseal strengths are similar to the mean value for orangutans and in the range of true sloths. As for interlimb articular proportions, Babakotia overlaps with great apes for proximal articulations, but with true sloths for distal articulations. These results provide new evidence on the arboreal adaptations of Babakotia and further highlight similarities with both extant suspensory primates and non-primate slow arboreal climbers and hangers, i.e., true sloths
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
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