1,721,386 research outputs found
Food taboos during pregnancy: meta-analysis on cross cultural differences suggests specific, diet-related pressures on childbirth among agriculturalists
Full text linkPregnancy is the most delicate stage of human life history as well as a common target
of food taboos across cultures. Despite puzzling evidence that many pregnant women
across the world reduce their intake of nutritious foods to accomplish cultural norms,
no study has provided statistical analysis of cross-cultural variation in food taboos
during pregnancy. Moreover, antenatal practices among forager and agriculturalists
have never been compared, despite subsistence mode being known to affect staple foods
and lifestyle directly. This gap hinders to us from understanding the overall threats
attributed to pregnancy, and their perceived nutritional causes around the world. The
present study constitutes the first cross-cultural meta-analysis on food taboos during
pregnancy. We examined thirty-two articles on dietary antenatal restrictions among
agricultural and non-agricultural societies, in order to: (i) identify cross-culturally
targeted animal, plant and miscellaneous foods; (ii) define major clusters of taboo
focus; (iii) test the hypothesis that food types and clusters of focus distribute differently
between agricultural and non-agricultural taboos; and (iv) test the hypothesis that food
types distribute differently across the clusters of taboo focus. All data were analysed
in SPSS and RStudio using chi-squared tests and Fisher’s exact tests. We detected a
gradient in taboo focus that ranged from no direct physiological interest to the fear
of varied physiological complications to a very specific concern over increased birth
weight and difficult delivery. Non-agricultural taboos were more likely to target
nondomesticated animal foods and to be justified by concerns not directly linked to the
physiological sphere, whereas agricultural taboos tended to target more cultivated and
processed products and showed a stronger association with concerns over increased
birth weight. Despite some methodological discrepancies in the existing literature on
food taboos during pregnancy, our results illustrate that such cultural traits are useful
for detecting perception of biological pressures on reproduction across cultures. Indeed,
the widespread concern over birth weight and carbohydrate rich foods overlaps with
clinical evidence that obstructed labor is a major threat to maternal life in Africa,
Asia and Eurasia. Furthermore, asymmetry in the frequency of such concern across
subsistence modes aligns with the evolutionary perspective that agriculture may have
exacerbated delivery complications. This study highlights the need for the improved
understanding of dietary behaviors during pregnancy across the world, addressing the
role of obstructed labor as a key point of convergence between clinical, evolutionary
and cultural issues in human behavior
Fig. 1. Circuit plan for bio-amplifier. For stages A - H in Scientific note A portable bio-amplifier for electric fish research: design and construction
No full textFig. 1. Circuit plan for bio-amplifier. For stages A - H refer to text. Boxes with dashed lines refer to components external to circuit board. Symbols follow universal engineering protocol.Published as part of Wells, Jonathan K. & Crampton, William G. R., 2006, Scientific note A portable bio-amplifier for electric fish research: design and construction, pp. 295-299 in Neotropical Ichthyology 4 (2) on page 296, DOI: 10.1590/S1679-62252006000200018, http://zenodo.org/record/541869
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
Fig. 2 in Scientific note A portable bio-amplifier for electric fish research: design and construction
No full textFig. 2. External (a) and internal (b) views of the bio-amplifier. a: 1, dipole input; 2, power switch; 3, power LED; 4, BNC output to oscilloscope/digitizer; 5, earphone jack; 6, fine gain control; 7, covered ground stub; 8, coarse gain switch; 9, dipole reversal switch; 10, earphone volume control. b: 1, battery bay (rechargeable batteries removed); 2, battery terminals; 3, circuit board; 4, operational amplifier; 5, resistor; 6, trimmer potentiometer; 7, mount to bracket; 8, electrolytic capacitor; 9, ceramic disk capacitor; 10, 4pF ceramic disk capacitor across R20 as optional high-frequency attenuator.Published as part of Wells, Jonathan K. & Crampton, William G. R., 2006, Scientific note A portable bio-amplifier for electric fish research: design and construction, pp. 295-299 in Neotropical Ichthyology 4 (2) on page 297, DOI: 10.1590/S1679-62252006000200018, http://zenodo.org/record/541869
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
Fig. 1 in Scientific Note Design and construction of an Electric Fish Finder
No full textFig. 1. Circuit plan for Electric Fish Finder. See text for description of stages A - E. Boxes with dashed lines refer to components external to circuit board. IC = integrated circuit.Published as part of Crampton, William G. R., Wells, Jonathan K., Smyth, Charles & Walz, Steven A., 2007, Scientific Note Design and construction of an Electric Fish Finder, pp. 425-428 in Neotropical Ichthyology 5 (3) on page 426, DOI: 10.1590/S1679-62252007000300022, http://zenodo.org/record/541939
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