1,721,087 research outputs found
A Farewell to Ice: A Report from the Arctic by Peter Wadhams (review)
No full textA Farewell to Ice is a fascinating book that addresses the issue of the retreat of the Arctic ice and its implications for our planet in a way that is engaging, scientific, and yet easy to follow and understand. Peter Wadhams is not only an experienced Arctic researcher but also an excellent storyteller who manages to shed light on ice's role in Earth's past, present, and future, while presenting the problem of sea ice retreat in its true dimensions. Wadhams uses a historical review of the formation and evolution of ice on Earth to argue that not only is the ice melting rapidly but also that it is imperative for people to take measures to address this problem without further delay. The Arctic is his main focus; the fate of the ice in the region is vital for the [End Page 132] world's climate and consequently for humanity. Each of the fourteen chapters of the book follows a different issue with the same purpose: to persuade the reader that it is essential that we take action at every possible level to address the climate crisis we have put ourselves in. The book begins with a thorough analysis of the process by which sea ice is formed, a discussion of the importance of summer melt in the Arctic, and an overview of the properties of sea ice. Its retreat is both due to and a cause of climate impacts. Though Wadhams documents his arguments with all kinds of scientific data, he manages to keep the nonscientific reader engaged by using simple examples, such as ice skating over a lake, to explain complex concepts. He also engagingly reflects on his personal experiences, including memories of Arctic expeditions, such as a captivating narrative of an incident in one of his transarctic voyages in a submarine. These elements transmit to the reader almost the whole spectrum of emotions a researcher can feel when working in extreme circumstances in the Arctic. The book answers such questions as why we have witnessed the effects of human-induced climate change in such an apparent way in the twentieth century and not earlier, and why these human-driven effects are accelerating much faster than ever in the past. Halfway through the book, Wadhams argues that, due to Arctic amplification, Arctic Sea ice is decreasing so rapidly that soon humanity will be left with a mainly open ocean. He then describes the serious consequences ice retreat is having for global processes, including for navigation in the Arctic, and oil and seabed exploitation (as well as population growth, food availability, and broader societal change), looking not only at polar issues but also at the planet as a whole. A Farewell to Ice is a bold book, and Peter Wadhams is a bold and excellent writer. Not only does he support his views; he also criticizes and contradicts those who deny the seriousness of the situation, mentioning them by name and indicating why they are wrong. He further argues that many scientists, policy makers, and researchers choose to consciously ignore the observational data "in favor of accepting models that have already shown themselves to be wrong" (p. 88). He urges more research not only on reducing carbon emissions but also on removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and he calls on young scientists, policy makers, and citizens to act in any possible way to prevent major disruption to the planet. [End Page 133
Cutting edge challenges in climate change science II
No full textPresented by Peter Wadhams at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) annual conference. Fall Meeting 201
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Full text link“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
Full text linkWe 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
Full text linkWe 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
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