scholarly journals Disentangling the relative merits and disadvantages of parentage analysis and assignment tests for inferring population connectivity

2017 ◽  
Vol 74 (6) ◽  
pp. 1749-1762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark R. Christie ◽  
Patrick G. Meirmans ◽  
Oscar E. Gaggiotti ◽  
Robert J. Toonen ◽  
Crow White
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Differentiation ◽  
Sampling Error ◽  
Parentage Analysis ◽  
Population Connectivity ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Connectivity Matrix ◽  
Local Populations ◽  
Assignment Tests ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
Future Work

AbstractAccurately estimating patterns of population connectivity in marine systems remains an elusive goal. Current genetic approaches have focused on assigning individuals back to their natal populations using one of two methods: parentage analyses and assignment tests. Each of these approaches has their relative merits and weaknesses. Here, we illustrate these tradeoffs using a forward-time agent-based model that incorporates relevant natural history and physical oceanography for 135 Kellet’s whelk (Kelletia kelletii) populations from Southern California. Like most marine organisms, Kellet’s whelks live in large meta-populations where local populations are connected by dispersive larvae. For estimating population connectivity, we found parentage analyses to be relatively insensitive to the amount of genetic differentiation among local populations, but highly sensitive to the proportion of the meta-population sampled. Assignment tests, on the other hand, were relatively insensitive to the proportion of the meta-population sampled, but highly sensitive to the amount of genetic differentiation found among local populations. Comparisons between the true connectivity matrices (generated by using the true origin of all sampled individuals) and those obtained via parentage analyses and assignment tests reveal that neither approach can explain >26% of the variation in true connectivity. Furthermore, even with perfect assignment of all sampled individuals, sampling error alone can introduce noise into the estimated population connectivity matrix. Future work should aim to improve the number of correct assignments without the expense of additional incorrect assignments, perhaps by using dispersal information obtained from related individuals as priors in a Bayesian framework. These analyses dispel a number of common misconceptions in the field and highlight areas for both future research and methodological improvements.

Screening China Emergency Medical Team (CEMT) Members: A Self-Leadership Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 596-601
Author(s):  
Xinxin Hao ◽  
Xiaoxue Li ◽  
Jingchen Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Leadership Strategies ◽  
Medical Team ◽  
Role Clarity ◽  
Publication Type ◽  
Emergency Medical Team ◽  
Emergency Medical ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Depth Interviews

AbstractObjectiveThis study aims at establishing the self-leadership development model (SLM) of China Emergency Medical Team (CEMT) members as a supplement to current selection standards of CEMT members.MethodsRaw dataset was obtained through two ways: in-depth interviews and documentary materials (memoirs and articles). The in-depth interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 12 CEMT members, all of whom have participated in multiple disaster relief activities and have been CEMT members for more than two years. This paper followed a grounded theory methodology dealing with all data.ResultsBased on tasks, the SLM-CEMT consists of three basic parts: (1) making plans; (2) action; and (3) outcomes. Different parts involve various self-leadership strategies, of which five are the original dimensions of previous research (goal-setting, visualizing successful performance, self-talk, self-reward, and self-correcting feedback) and three are new dimensions (role clarity, self-initiative, and self-vigilance).Conclusions:The SLM-CEMT, with the three new parts, provides a new look at screening CEMT members as well as pondering on future research. Based on the SLM-CEMT, administrators could screen more qualified CEMT members. For the limitations, future work will be on the generalization and confirmation of this model.HaoX,LiX,ZhengJ.Screening China Emergency Medical Team (CEMT) members: a self-leadership perspective.Prehosp Disaster Med.2018;33(6):596–601.

scholarly journals The newly created Publicly Available Specification (PAS 141) for reusable electrical/electronic products

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 1135-1147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joao Quariguasi-Frota-Neto ◽  
Andrew Reade ◽  
Azadeh Dindarian ◽  
Andrew Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Electronic Products ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Innovation ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Comprehensive Framework ◽  
Future Work

Purpose – In 2011, a governmental initiative driven by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills invited the British Standards Institute (BSI) to write and publish a publicly available specification (PAS) for the reuse of waste electrical and electronic equipment entitled PAS 141. The specification's ambitious goals, chief among them to reduce the amount of e-waste generated in the UK, has prompted debate as to whether they are realistic and the extent to which they can be influenced by the certification. The purpose of this paper is to propose a comprehensive framework that can be used in future research to enhance understanding of the mechanisms by which the introduction of PAS 141 certification could lead to the fulfillment of its goals, that is, successful uptake. The authors believe this framework can serve as a roadmap for those interested in the investigation of this novel certification and its effect on the market for reusable electrical and electronic products. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on interviews with reuse organizations and first hand experience as a participant in the steering group that elaborated the certification being investigated, i.e. PAS 141. Findings – It is uncertain whether PAS 141 will fulfill its promises, which are, in the view of the authors, rather ambitious, e.g. reduce e-waste. Furthermore, more research is needed to examine the effect that the introduction of the certification has on the materialization of its goals, and on the complex inter-relationship that exist between the goals and what the authors define as intermediary necessary conditions. Research limitations/implications – This is the first attempt the outline the research needs that arise from the introduction of PAS-141, and the authors believe that there are other equally important questions that are yet to be presented and examined. Practical implications – This paper proposes 28 hypotheses which will help future work to empirically establish: the possibility of PAS-141 attaining its goals and the main necessary conditions for that to happen. This information is pivotal to determine whether the certification is working and to pinpoint opportunities for improvement. Social implications – This works contributes to the understanding of the role of certification on the market of reused products, which employs a large number of people, and in particular, whose coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. Originality/value – Although certification in general has been widely investigated in prior research, scant attention has been paid to certification in the context of electronic products. To the best of the knowledge, this is the first paper of its kind, as it is the first to examine certification in that context.

Invalid estimates of rate of population increase from Glossina (Diptera: Glossinidae) age distributions

1988 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Van Sickle
Keyword(s):  
Sampling Error ◽  
Age Distribution ◽  
Population Increase ◽  
Sampling Errors ◽  
True Rate ◽  
Survivorship Curve ◽  
A Value ◽  
Tsetse Population ◽  
Rate Of Increase ◽  
Highly Sensitive

AbstractSeveral published reports have presented estimates of the rate of increase, r, based on sampled ovarian age distributions from Glossina populations throughout Africa. These estimates are invalid, because an age distribution sampled at one point in time can be equated to a survivorship curve only if r = 0. When such a survivorship curve and a corresponding fecundity schedule are then used to estimate r via the Euler-Lotka equation, the result is a value of r near zero, regardless of the population's true rate of increase. Synthetic sampling from a hypothetical tsetse population confirmed that estimates computed in this fashion are entirely the products of sampling error. Valid estimates of r can sometimes be obtained from an age distribution, using an alternative method, but such estimates are highly sensitive to sampling errors in the distribution.

Rationality, accounting and benchmarking water businesses

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 290-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Pawsey ◽  
Jayanath Ananda ◽  
Zahirul Hoque
Keyword(s):  
Economic Efficiency ◽  
Fair Value ◽  
Water Utilities ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Water Utility ◽  
Capital Input ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Dea Models ◽  
Future Work

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the sensitivity of economic efficiency rankings of water businesses to the choice of alternative physical and accounting capital input measures. Design/methodology/approach Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to compute efficiency rankings for government-owned water businesses from the state of Victoria, Australia, over the period 2005/2006 through 2012/2013. Differences between DEA models when capital inputs were measured using either: statutory accounting values (historic cost and fair value), physical measures, or regulatory accounting values, were scrutinised. Findings Depending on the choice of capital input, significant variation in efficiency scores and the ranking of the top (worst) performing firms was observed. Research limitations/implications Future research may explore the generalisability of findings to a wider sample of water utilities globally. Future work can also consider the most reliable treatment of capital inputs in efficiency analysis. Practical implications Regulators should be cautious when using economic efficiency data in benchmarking exercises. A consistent approach to account for the capital stock is needed in the determination of price caps and designing incentives for poor performers. Originality/value DEA has been widely used to explore the role of ownership structure, firm size and regulation on water utility efficiency. This is the first study of its kind to explore the sensitivity of DEA to alternative physical and accounting capital input measures. This research also improves the conventional performance measurement in water utilities by using a bootstrap procedure to address the deterministic nature of the DEA approach.

scholarly journals Population structuring of the endemic black-cheeked gnateater, Conopophaga melanops melanops (Vieillot, 1818) (Aves, Conopophagidae), in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

2007 ◽  
Vol 67 (4 suppl) ◽  
pp. 867-872 ◽  
Author(s):  
VO. Lunardi ◽  
MR. Francisco ◽  
PM. Galetti Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Differentiation ◽  
Atlantic Forest ◽  
Rapd Markers ◽  
Nonparametric Test ◽  
Brazilian Atlantic Forest ◽  
Randomly Amplified Polymorphic Dna ◽  
Molecular Variance ◽  
Local Populations ◽  
Population Structuring ◽  
Significant Genetic Divergence

Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were used to analyze genetic differentiation among three populations of the endemic Black-cheeked Gnateater (Conopophaga melanops melanops) within a larger pristine reminiscent of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Analyses of molecular variance (AMOVA) (phiST = 0.13149, P < 0.0001) and the nonparametric test for homogeneity of the molecular variance (HOMOVA) (B = 0.32337; P = 0.0019) showed a statistically significant genetic divergence among the three Black-cheeked Gnateater populations in a continuous transect of 250 km. Some hypothetic explanations for these results are the sedentary nature of the species and the historical isolation of the populations in refuges during the Pleistocene. The present results suggest that the local populations were naturally differentiated along the entire original range before the recent process of massive deforestation.

scholarly journals The View of Student Teachers on the Teacher’s Profession

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-34
Author(s):  
Petra Trávníčková
Keyword(s):  
Student Teachers ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
University Education ◽  
Future Research ◽  
First Year ◽  
Professional Careers ◽  
University Studies ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Future Work

Abstract Introduction: In recent years, teaching is no longer perceived only as a job, but as a profession. The study focuses on student’s view on the teacher’s profession, which is important in the context of becoming a teacher. During their university studies, student teachers are at the beginning of their professional careers. Their attitudes, values and principles are still evolving. Methods: Building on previous studies, qualitative methodology was applied. The main goals of the research were to describe the changing views of student teachers on the teacher’s profession, and to compare their views in the first and third years of study. Therefore, thematic writing was chosen. Results: The results show that the student teacher’s views change significantly during their university studies. While in the first year, student teachers focus more on the importance of childhood, their own practical experience and the teacher’s influence on a child’s life; in the last year of bachelor´s study, the emphasis is on the teacher’s personality, teaching professionalism and on the teacher as a learner can be observed. This paper can provide evidence that university education for kindergarten teachers is important and it most likely influences their future work. Discussion: The research findings show that it is appropriate to pay attention to how views about the teacher’s profession change. This could broaden the view of the development of the teacher profession concept and could also be a useful tool for modifying the content of future teachers’ education. Limitations: A certain limit of research can be sen in using one method. It would certainly be appropriate to supplement the research with interviews with participants. In my future research I will focus on this issue. Conclusion: 1. The student teachers’ views change significantly during their university studies, 2. The focus moves from their practical experience to the didactic theory. 3. There is a shift from focusing on personality of teachers to their abilities.

scholarly journals Monitoring of Sitting Postures With Sensor Networks in Controlled and Free-living Environments: Systematic Review

10.2196/21105 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. e21105
Author(s):  
Arpita Mallikarjuna Kappattanavar ◽  
Nico Steckhan ◽  
Jan Philipp Sachs ◽  
Harry Freitas da Cruz ◽  
Erwin Böttinger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Pressure Sensors ◽  
Ground Truth ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Measurement Unit ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Medium Quality ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
Future Work

Background A majority of employees in the industrial world spend most of their working time in a seated position. Monitoring sitting postures can provide insights into the underlying causes of occupational discomforts such as low back pain. Objective This study focuses on the technologies and algorithms used to classify sitting postures on a chair with respect to spine and limb movements. Methods A total of three electronic literature databases were surveyed to identify studies classifying sitting postures in adults. Quality appraisal was performed to extract critical details and assess biases in the shortlisted papers. Results A total of 14 papers were shortlisted from 952 papers obtained after a systematic search. The majority of the studies used pressure sensors to measure sitting postures, whereas neural networks were the most frequently used approaches for classification tasks in this context. Only 2 studies were performed in a free-living environment. Most studies presented ethical and methodological shortcomings. Moreover, the findings indicate that the strategic placement of sensors can lead to better performance and lower costs. Conclusions The included studies differed in various aspects of design and analysis. The majority of studies were rated as medium quality according to our assessment. Our study suggests that future work for posture classification can benefit from using inertial measurement unit sensors, since they make it possible to differentiate among spine movements and similar postures, considering transitional movements between postures, and using three-dimensional cameras to annotate the data for ground truth. Finally, comparing such studies is challenging, as there are no standard definitions of sitting postures that could be used for classification. In addition, this study identifies five basic sitting postures along with different combinations of limb and spine movements to help guide future research efforts.

scholarly journals Comparison of Two Forced Alignments Systems for Aligning Bribri Speech

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofía Flores Solórzano ◽  
Rolando Coto-Solano
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Speech Recognition ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Automated Speech Recognition ◽  
Recognition Systems ◽  
Para Determinar ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Manual Correction

Abstract: Forced alignment provides drastic savings in time when aligning speech recordings and is particularly useful for the study of Indigenous languages, which are severely under-resourced in corpora and models. Here we compare two forced alignment systems, FAVE-align and EasyAlign, to determine which one provides more precision when processing running speech in the Chibchan language Bribri. We aligned a segment of a story narrated in Bribri and compared the errors in finding the center of the words and the edges of phonemes when compared with the manual correction. FAVE-align showed better performance: It has an error of 7% compared to 24% with EasyAlign when finding the center of words, and errors of 22~24 ms when finding the edges of phonemes, compared to errors of 86~130 ms with EasyAlign. In addition to this, EasyAlign failed to detect 7% of phonemes, while also inserting 58 spurious phones into the transcription. Future research includes verifying these results for other genres and other Chibchan languages. Finally, these results provide additional evidence for the applicability of natural language processing methods to Chibchan languages and point to future work such as the construction of corpora and the training of automated speech recognition systems.  Spanish Abstract: El alineamiento forzado provee un ahorro drástico de tiempo al alinear grabaciones del habla, y es útil para el estudio de las lenguas indígenas, las cuales cuentan con pocos recursos para generar corpus y modelos computacionales. Aquí comparamos dos sistemas de alineamiento, FAVE-align e EasyAlign, para determinar cuál provee mayor precisión al alinear habla en la lengua chibcha bribri. Alineamos una narración y comparamos el error al tratar de encontrar el centro de las palabras y los bordes de los fonemas con sus equivalentes en una corrección manual. FAVE-align tuvo mejor rendimiento, con un error de 7% comparado con 24% de EasyAlign para el centro de las palabras, y con errores de 22~24 ms para el borde de los fonemas, comparado con 86~130 ms con EasyAlign. Además, EasyAlign no pudo detectar el 7% de los fonemas, y al mismo tiempo añadió 58 sonidos espurios a la transcripción. Como trabajo futuro verificaremos estos resultados con otros géneros hablados y con otras lenguas chibchas. Finalmente, estos resultados comprueban la aplicabilidad de los métodos de procesamiento de lengua natural a las lenguas chibchas, y apuntan a trabajo futuro en la construcción de corpus y el entrenamiento de sistemas de reconocimiento automático del habla.

scholarly journals Innovation in the Periphery: A Critical Survey and Research Agenda

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakob Eder
Keyword(s):  
Research Agenda ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Critical Survey ◽  
Functional Perspective ◽  
Future Research Agenda ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Peripheral Areas ◽  
No Innovation ◽  
Future Work

Scholars of the geography of innovation have produced an impressive body of literature over the last decades. However, until recently this research focused on successful core regions, implicitly assuming that there is no innovation in peripheral areas. This view is being increasingly questioned, which is reflected by a rising number of papers, special issues, and edited volumes on innovation outside of agglomerations. Hence, this rapidly emerging field calls for a critical survey. In order to identify a future research agenda, this article conducts a systematic literature review of the work on innovation in the periphery (1960–2016). As such, it explores the recurring themes and key issues of the field and discusses the various periphery concepts applied, ranging from a geographic to a functional perspective on various scales. In doing so, it outlines options for policy makers and suggests avenues for future research: first, the periphery concept needs more refinement. Second, future studies should include systematic comparisons of regions. Third, an evolutionary perspective might provide new insights. Fourth, future work could explore the benefits peripheries offer for certain kinds of innovation. Fifth, urban–rural linkages might be of higher relevance than assumed. Sixth, research should go beyond the well-known examples. Finally, the analysis could be extended by applying a broader understanding of innovation.

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