1,720,961 research outputs found

    Tracking the spread of Halyomorpha halys in Italy combining citizen science and spatial modelling

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    Native to Asia, the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB) Halyomorpha halys (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) is currently one of the most invasive pests in the world. Extremely polyphagous, once introduced in a new territory, BMSB rapidly becomes a key pest of fruit orchards and other crops. The first detection of BMSB in Italy was in Emilia Romagna in 2012, and now is rapidly dispersing in Northern Italy and in the rest of the country. The detection timely activated a survey that combined active search with citizen science using multimedia channels. Data concerning time and location of the findings and population abundance were collected. The spread of BMSB in Italy was tracked obtaining the current distribution map. To investigate the spatial pattern of dispersal in the early stage of spread, a 116 x 134 km area contain the location of the first detection was considered and divided in 2 x 2 km cells. Rules are specified to define the occupancy of each cell and follow the spread dynamics in a discrete-space and derive a first estimation of the spread rate. Aspects of the temporal population dynamics were investigated estimating the transition probability among different classes of abundance in the cells. Predicting population growth is important since field data in the Northern Italian show that as pest abundance increases the pest becomes a serious threat in fruit orchards. Our findings confirm the potential fast spread of BMSB that could rapidly invade wide areas facilitated by passive transportation at long distance. These preliminary results together with data on phenology, host plants and behaviour collected in the same area could be considered to build more accurate model on the spatial-temporal population dynamics. This model could be used as a tool supporting the design of spread management strategies and guiding crop protection measures

    Tracking the Spread of Sneaking Aliens by Integrating Crowdsourcing and Spatial Modeling: The Italian Invasion of Halyomorpha halys

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    Polyphagous phytophagous organisms that shelter in man-made objects have a higher chance of becoming invasive fast-spreading pests, going undetected during phytosanitary checks and travelling with any type of goods. However, if the same organisms are also a household nuisance, they could be used in crowdsourcing surveys aimed at their early detection and to track their spread in real time. By participating in these surveys, people can be educated on the destructive potential of invasive species and on sustainable management options. However, in order to obtain good-quality data, useful to plant protection stakeholders, a one-to-one approach with people is crucial. The case study is the Italian invasion of Halyomorpha halys, among the most dangerous global crop-threatening pests. A 4-year survey that combined active search and a crowdsourcing approach made the tracking of its spread and investigation of its spatiotemporal dynamics possible, showing the functionality of coordinated multiactor approach in data collection

    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

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We 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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