1,720,971 research outputs found
Beyond the Newtonian Paradigm: A Statistical Mechanics of Emergence
Get PDFSince Newton, all classical and quantum physics depends upon the "Newtonian
Paradigm". Here the relevant variables of the system are identified. The
boundary conditions creating the phase space of all possible values of the
variables are defined. Then, given any initial condition, the differential
equations of motion are integrated to yield an entailed trajectory in the phase
space. It is fundamental to the Newtonian Paradigm that the set of
possibilities that constitute the phase space is always definable and fixed
ahead of time. All of this fails for the diachronic evolution of ever new
adaptations in any biosphere. The central reason is that living cells achieve
Constraint Closure and construct themselves. Living cells, evolving via
heritable variation and Natural selection, adaptively construct new in the
universe possibilities. The new possibilities are opportunities for new
adaptations thereafter seized by heritable variation and Natural Selection.
Surprisingly, we can neither define nor deduce the evolving phase spaces ahead
of time. We can use no mathematics based on Set Theory to do so. These ever-new
adaptations with ever-new relevant variables constitute the ever-changing phase
space of evolving biospheres. Because of this, evolving biospheres are entirely
outside the Newtonian Paradigm. One consequence is that for any universe such
as ours there can be no Final Theory that entails all that comes to exist. The
implications are large. We face a third major transition in science beyond the
Pythagorean dream that "All is Number". We must give up deducing the diachronic
evolution of the biosphere. All of physics, classical and quantum, however,
apply to the analysis of existing life, a synchronic analysis. We begin to
better understand the emergent creativity of an evolving biosphere. Thus, we
are on the edge of inventing a physics-like new statistical mechanics of
emergence
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
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