1,721,063 research outputs found
The role of plant volatiles in prediction of floral resource suitability: chemical ecology to enhance conservation biological control.
Plants emit substantial amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which represent a decisive communication channel, governing essential decisions insect have to make, such as choice of food. Understanding these interactions is critically important in Habitat Management and in a broader view in Conservation Biological Control. Suitable flower species must enhance the survival and fecundity of natural enemies but in addition they also need to be highly attractive and thus frequently visited. To date few examples exist that have considered both criteria. In this study we tested the effects of the flowering plants alyssum (Lobularia maritima), buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), French marigold (Tagetes patula) and sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) on the fecundity and olfactory attractiveness of the egg parasitoid Trissolcus basalis, which is an important biological control agent of the stink bug Nezara viridula. Our results showed that access to buckwheat and basil flowers increased the number of parasitoid offspring. However, in olfactometer experiments where T. basalis was allowed to choose between flowering and non-flowering plants, only buckwheat floral scent was attractive. Headspace analyses of the odour emitted by the four plant species revealed very distinct VOC profiles with little overlap in compounds. Buckwheat floral scent was characterised by the presence of short-chain carboxylic acids. Headspace extracts of buckwheat flowers and a reconstituted blend of their major components were significantly attractive when tested in the olfactometer. Furthermore, electrophysiological experiments showed that two main compounds, 3-methylbutanoic acid and 2-methylbutanoic acid, elicited consistent responses in the antennae of T. basalis. Integrating chemo-ecological methods into conservation biological control allowed us to identify a potential resource plant and attractive compounds for field studies
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
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
Monitoring and enhancing the lake’s ecosytem services
Key topics of this talk include what are ecosystem services, the current state of Lake Ellesmere and who is monitoring it. Work WET is undertaking is discussed along with which ecosystem services associated with riparian plantings should be monitored and the economic value ofLake Ellesmere. The presentation finishes with what for the future of Lake Ellesmere
Variations on the Author
“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
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
Population regulation in insect herbivores - top-down or bottom-up?
Recent evidence points to the plant's being a much
more limited resource than previously expected. In
addition to the restraints on feeding and population
growth imposed by such factors as leaf toughness,
the physical environment, plant nutrition, etc.,
recent work points to the role of feeding-induced
chemical changes in the leaves in reducing herbivore
'fitness'. This suggests that population regulation in
herbivores may indeed sometimes be from the
trophic level below that of the herbivore—the plant
itself
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
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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