4,324 research outputs found
Science mapping with asymmetrical paradigmatic proximity
We propose a series of methods to represent the evolution of a field of science at different levels: namely micro, meso and macro levels. We use a previously introduced asymmetric measure of paradigmatic proximity between terms that enable us to extract structure from a large publications database. We apply our set of methods on a case study from the Complex Systems Community through the mapping of more than 400 Complex Systems Science concepts indexed from a database as large as several millions of journal papers. We will first recapitulate the main properties of our asymmetric proximity measure. Then we show how salient paradigmatic fields can be embedded into a 2-dimensional visualization into which the terms are plotted according to their relative specificity and generality index. This meso-level helps us producing macroscopic maps of the field of science studied featuring the former paradigmatic fields
Diversity and Polarization of Research Performance: Evidence from Hungary
Measuring the intellectual diversity encoded in publication records as a
proxy to the degree of interdisciplinarity has recently received considerable
attention in the science mapping community. The present paper draws upon the
use of the Stirling index as a diversity measure applied to a network model
(customized science map) of research profiles, proposed by several authors. A
modified version of the index is used and compared with the previous versions
on a sample data set in order to rank top Hungarian research organizations
(HROs) according to their research performance diversity. Results, unexpected
in several respects, show that the modified index is a candidate for measuring
the degree of polarization of a research profile. The study also points towards
a possible typology of publication portfolios that instantiate different types
of diversity
Betweenness and Diversity in Journal Citation Networks as Measures of Interdisciplinarity -- A Tribute to Eugene Garfield --
Journals were central to Eugene Garfield's research interests. Among other
things, journals are considered as units of analysis for bibliographic
databases such as the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. In addition to
disciplinary classifications of journals, journal citation patterns span
networks across boundaries to variable extents. Using betweenness centrality
(BC) and diversity, we elaborate on the question of how to distinguish and rank
journals in terms of interdisciplinarity. Interdisciplinarity, however, is
difficult to operationalize in the absence of an operational definition of
disciplines, the diversity of a unit of analysis is sample-dependent. BC can be
considered as a measure of multi-disciplinarity. Diversity of co-citation in a
citing document has been considered as an indicator of knowledge integration,
but an author can also generate trans-disciplinary--that is,
non-disciplined--variation by citing sources from other disciplines. Diversity
in the bibliographic coupling among citing documents can analogously be
considered as diffusion of knowledge across disciplines. Because the citation
networks in the cited direction reflect both structure and variation, diversity
in this direction is perhaps the best available measure of interdisciplinarity
at the journal level. Furthermore, diversity is based on a summation and can
therefore be decomposed, differences among (sub)sets can be tested for
statistical significance. In an appendix, a general-purpose routine for
measuring diversity in networks is provided
Testing the Semantic Homogeneity Constraint: Analogical change and Russian verbs
Although it has been widely assumed in historical linguistics that semantics plays a crucial role in analogical change, it is difficult to pinpoint the contribution of the semantic factor, since meaning and form work closely together in bringing about language change. The purpose of the present article is to shed light on the issue by means of two case studies from Russian, which enable us to isolate the role of semantics. The hypothesis we test is that analogical change is restricted to semantically homogeneous domains. We call this the Semantic Homogeneity Constraint. Two phenomena from Russian conjugation are explored: suffix shift and NU-drop. Although they seem parallel, analogical change occurs in the former, but not in the latter. It is argued that this is because the verbs involved in suffix shift constitute a semantically homogeneous domain, within which analogical change can take place. By contrast, NU-verbs are semantically diverse, and these semantic differences create boundaries which block analogical change. The findings have implications both for Russian and general linguistics. While suffix shift and NU-drop are well-known phenomena in Russian conjugation, they have not been juxtaposed and compared before. Our comparison provides new insights about the differences and similarities of the two phenomena. From the perspective of historical linguistics, the present article contributes to the theory of analogy, insofar as we provide empirical evidence for the Semantic Homogeneity Constraint, which places restrictions on semantic domains where analogical change can take place
Socio-spatial relations: an attempt to move space near society
There is a great effort to include relational attributes within a space perspective.
This concerns two current interpretative tendencies: the first is
related to the idea of de-territorialisation due to the high mobility of
people and goods; the second is centred on the idea that social relations
are increasingly loose and fragmented, giving rise to the âliquid societyâ.
Approaches emphasising the importance of space and the strength
of relations may counter such ideas by showing that many empirical
cases are still interpretable by a robust combined socio-spatial perspective.
The paper will take the polymorphic and structural approach of
authors like Jessop, Brenner and Jones, paying special attention to the
âqualityâ of social relations according to a tradition that began with Simmel
and Mauss, passed through Polanyi, and concluded with Godbout
and Caillé. The paper illustrates the debate on the conjunction between
space and relations, in particular through the view of Schatzki, elaborates
on new or renewed patterns, and gives some examples of where
such theoretical elaborations can be applied. The product is a typology
of âsocio-spatial relationsâ, while examples will be provided in regard to
the issues of globalization, sustainability and governance.Nelle scienze sociali Ăš in corso un grande sforzo per includere aspetti
relazionali allâinterno di una prospettiva spazialista. CiĂČ riguarda due
recenti tendenze interpretative: la prima Ăš legata allâidea di de-territorializzazione
dovuta alla alta mobilitĂ di persone e cose, la seconda Ăš
centrata sullâidea che le relazioni sociali siano progressivamente lasche
e frammentate, dando luogo alla societĂ liquida. Approcci che enfatizzano
lâimportanza dello spazio e la forza delle relazioni possono controbilanciare
tali idee mostrando che molti casi empirici sono ancora
interpretabili attraverso una robusta prospettiva che combina sociale e
spaziale. Il testo considera lâapproccio polimorfo e strutturale di autori
come Jessop, Brenner and Jones, ponendo una particolare attenzione
alla âqualitĂ â delle relazioni sociali secondo una tradizione che parte da
Simmel e Mauss, passa attraverso Polanyi e giunge a Godbout e Caillé.
Il testo illustra il dibattito sulla congiunzione fra spazio e relazioni, in
particolare attraverso la visione di Schatzki, elabora poi un nuovo modello
e descrive infine alcuni casi sui quali applicare tali spunti teorici.
Il prodotto finale Ăš una tipologia di relazioni socio-spaziali, applicate a
tre questioni: globalizzazione, sostenibilitĂ e governance
âFalling into the skyâ: gravity and levity in Pynchonâs Mason & Dixon
My argument follows geographer Gunnar Olsson when he asks âWhat is geography if it is not the drawing and interpreting of a line? And what is the drawing of a line if it is not also the creation of new objects?â Using Thomas Pynchonâs 1997 novel Mason & Dixon about the drawing of the Mason-Dixon line, I explore how the mapmakerâs productive power is never merely reflective but generative too, constructing a world as much as representing one. I question the consequent relation between âabove and below,â drawing on Farinelliâs insight that critique of such constructions must recognise an antagonistic humour in the production of maps and territories. Pynchonâs novel, I argue, is exemplary in the wit with which it pits the anomalous, strange and contingent phenomena of the below against the homogenising, categorising power of above. His approach helps us understand the dark heart of Enlightenment cartography and society
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Symmetry and Historicity in the Game of Life: Modifying Rules to Simulate Evolutionary Dynamics
The Game of Life (GoL) is a paradigmatic computer simulation that exhibits the emergence of complex properties of the whole from relatively simple sets of heuristic rules operating at lower organizational levels. Therefore, it is widely understood as a valuable tool for investigating global properties of evolutionary processes. Cognizant of refined concepts that emerged in recent debates on the central role of historical contingency (historicity) in evolution, we modify the original GoL rules by introducing an updating feedback loop and a probability factor that reflect the degree of historicity in pattern evolution as both stochastic path dependence and sensitivity to initial conditions. We examine this trait in simulations of the emergence and breaking of bilateral and radial symmetries commonly observed in the evolution of life, most prominently as evolving body plans. We show that the implementation of historicity parameters leads to a more realistic sequential and gradual alternating emergence and the breaking of new symmetries than the original set of rules. Apart from its more realistic representations of evolutionary processes, the new approach allows for easier exploration of the parameter space, demonstrates the sequential and gradual emergence and breaking of symmetries, and provides a publicly available and modular simulation tool. We discuss the exploratory potential of the modified GoL platform we designed as an extended thought experiment to study the parameter space defining the historicity of biological processes
Social practice and shared history, not social scale, structure cross-cultural complexity in kinship systems
Human cultural populations display remarkable diversity in norms of language and culture, but the variation is not without limit. At the population level, variation between societies may be structured by a range of macro-evolutionary factors including ecological and environmental resources, shared ancestry, spatial proximity, and co-varying social norms. Kinship systems are the semantic paradigms that denote familial social relationships of kin and non-kin, and systems vary by the kinds of salient distinctions that are made (e.g. age, gender, generation) and the extent to which different kinds of kin are called by the same term. Domain-general cognitive principles have also been invoked to explain structured variation in the semantic typology of kinship: that kinship categories are optimised to be maximally distinct and as simple as possible. Here, we explore complementary explanations for an observed typology of kin terms for cousins. The first one derives the typology from a learning bottleneck, which would lead to a correlation between community size and the type of kinship system. The second one derives it from a set of social pressures, particularly marriage and transfer of resources, that might shape kinship systems. Using a global ethnographic database of over a thousand societies we show that marriage rules and shared linguistic affiliation have a significant influence on the type of kinship system found in a society. This remains true if we control for the effect of spatial proximity and cultural ancestry. By combining cognitive and historic approaches to this aspect of kinship, we suggest broader implications for the study of human social cognition in general
Modeling the Behavioral Landscape Ecology of a Reintroduced Carnivore
The American marten (Martes Americana) is an endangered forest carnivore native to the Upper Midwestern United States and culturally significant to local Ojibwe tribes. In this region, the marten faces a number of potential threats to its persistence, including competition, predation, lack of prey availability, lack of recruitment, and lack of population connectivity. To evaluate how marten behavior affects the conservation and management of this species, I developed an individual-based model to simulate marten dispersal and home range establishment. In Chapter 2, I describe the model and the process of calibrating it to perform comparably to real-world martens. I also demonstrate support for a theoretical hypothesis of animal dispersal, that a dispersing individual should be willing to settle in lower quality habitat over time. In Chapter 3, I apply this model to a nearby landscape in the region to determine how land use change, mortality, and asymmetrical landscape configuration affect the ability of martens to disperse and maintain connectivity between populations. Mortality of dispersing individuals had the greatest effect on connectivity, while landscape configuration had the greatest effect on dispersal metrics. In Chapter 4, I used a dynamic landscape simulation model combined with a model of land transformation to extend my IBM to investigate how 100 years of land use and climate change might affect marten populations. In Chapter 5, I demonstrate how behavioral barriers to mating among reintroduced martens from different source populations may be driving declines in genetic diversity in the region. Ultimately, this work shows how tools such as IBMs and population genetics can be used to address real-world conservation problems when experimental field methods are limited by factors such as time, cost, and scarcity. At the same time, these applications can be used to ask important questions of theoretical ecology, ultimately serving both pragmatic and paradigmatic purposes
The Reconstruction of Science Phylogeny
We are facing a real challenge when coping with the continuous acceleration
of scientific production and the increasingly changing nature of science. In
this article, we extend the classical framework of co-word analysis to the
study of scientific landscape evolution. Capitalizing on formerly introduced
science mapping methods with overlapping clustering, we propose methods to
reconstruct phylogenetic networks from successive science maps, and give
insight into the various dynamics of scientific domains. Two indexes - the
pseudo-inclusion and the empirical quality - are introduced to qualify
scientific fields and are used for reconstruction validation purpose.
Phylogenetic dynamics appear to be strongly correlated to these two indexes,
and to a weaker extent, to a third one previously introduced (density index).
These results suggest that there exist regular patterns in the "life cycle" of
scientific fields. The reconstruction of science phylogeny should improve our
global understanding of science evolution and pave the way toward the
development of innovative tools for our daily interactions with its
productions. Over the long run, these methods should lead quantitative
epistemology up to the point to corroborate or falsify theoretical models of
science evolution based on large-scale phylogeny reconstruction from databases
of scientific literature
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