1,720,960 research outputs found
Pathogens, Weather Shocks, and Civil Conflicts
Full text linkThis paper documents a statistically strong and quantitatively relevant effect of high exposure to infectious diseases on the risk of civil conflicts. The analysis exploits data on the presence and endemicity of multi-host vector-transmitted pathogens in a country, which is closely related to geo-climatic conditions due to the specific features of these pathogens. Exploiting withincountry variation over time shows that this effect of pathogen exposure is significantly amplified by weather shocks. The results indicate health shocks and the outbreak of epidemics as a potential channel, while we find no evidence that the effect works through alternative channels like income, population dynamics, or institutions
Long-term exposure to malaria and violence in Africa
Full text linkThis paper explores the existence of a link between the long-term exposure to malaria and the frequency of civil conflicts in Africa. Using geographically disaggregated data at the level of grid cells the analysis provides empirical evidence for a humpshaped relationship between the long-run stability and force of malaria transmission and the incidence of civil violence. In line with epidemiological predictions about the acquired immunity to malaria, cells that are characterized by intermediate malaria exposure exhibit higher conflict incidence than cells with very low or very high malaria exposure. We explore the role of the expansion of anti-malaria policies after 2005 in the context of the Roll Back Malaria programme. The results provide suggestive evidence that anti-malaria interventions reduced the incidence of civil violence, but only in areas where adults lack acquired immunity to malaria
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
Aiuto esterno e strategia di sviluppo: quali errori hanno impedito il raggiungimento degli obiettivi prefissati in termini di sviluppo e riduzione della poverta’?
Full text linkNegli anni ’90 si è verificato un progressivo trend discendente dell’assistenza ufficiale allo sviluppo, conseguenza di una sorta di "affaticamento" da aiuto diffusasi tra i paesi del Nord 1 . Il dibattito sull’efficacia degli aiuti ha registrato l’intervento di posizioni molto diverse tra loro, mentre le ricerche econometriche utilizzate hanno portato a risultati contradditori; nonostante ciò, l’evidenza dell’analisi cross country mostra che in media i successi hanno pesato più dei fallimenti, quindi si può affermare che l’aiuto ha funzionato bene. Come si spiega allora la drammatica situazione che metà della popolazione mondiale sta vivendo? Come mai il bilancio di vent’anni di aggiustamento è così negativo, e la comunità internazionale non è in grado di mantenere gli obiettivi fissati all’interno della strategia di riduzione della povertà decisa nelle sedi istituzionali? Attraverso l’analisi dei dati e dei documenti di valutazione delle istituzioni internazionali, si giunge alla conclusione che è mancato un reale impegno da parte dei paesi del Nord e della comunità internazionale ad affrontare il fenomeno della povertà mondiale, nonché la disponibilità all’erogazione delle risorse necessarie, mentre le strategie elaborate sono state fortemente insufficienti e inadeguate rispetto all’obiettivo a lungo termine di sradicamento della povertà. La posizione espressa dal Genoa Non Governmental Iniziative è molto netta: è necessario affrontare in modo urgente il problema con una strategia che consideri prioritario l’obiettivo di medio termine di riduzione della povertà, definita ed implementata dai paesi del Sud con l’aiuto e la collaborazione reale dei paesi del Nord, ma soprattutto è fondamentale rivedere il fenomeno della globalizzazione mondiale, strettamente legato con quello della povertà
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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