Snowball metrics – providing a robust methodology to inform research strategy – but do they help?

Universities and funders need robust metrics to help them develop and monitor evidence-based strategies. Metrics are a part, albeit an important part, of the evaluation landscape, and no single metric can paint a holistic picture or inform strategy. A “basket of metrics” alongside other evaluation methods such as peer review are needed. Snowball Metrics offer a robust framework for measuring research performance and related data exchange and analysis, providing a consistent approach to information and measurement between institutions, funders and government bodies. The output of Snowball Metrics is a set of mutually agreed and tested methodologies: “recipes”. These recipes are available free-of-charge and can be used by anyone for their own purposes. A freely available API: the Snowball Metrics Exchange service (SMX), acts as a free “broker service” for the exchange of Snowball Metrics between peer institutions who agree that they would like to share information with each other and any institution can become a member of the SMX. In this paper, we present a use case where the University of St Andrews reviewed its institutional level KPIs referring to the Snowball Metrics recipes. In conclusion, quantitative data inform, but do not and should not ever replace, peer review judgments of research quality – whether in a national assessment exercise, or for any other purpose. Metrics can support human judgment and direct further investigation to pertinent areas, thus contributing to a fully rounded view on the research question being asked. We suggest using a “basket of metrics” approach measuring multiple qualities and applied to multiple entities

Response of beta diversity to pulses of Ordovician-Silurian mass extinction

Ecologists are increasingly using the fossil record of mass extinction to build predictive models for the ongoing biodiversity crisis. During mass extinctions, major depletions in global (i.e., gamma) diversity may reflect decrease in alpha diversity (i.e., local assemblages support fewer taxa), and/or decrease in beta diversity (such that similar pools of taxa are common to a greater number of local areas). Contrasting the effects of extinction on alpha and beta diversity is therefore central to understanding how global richness becomes depleted over these critical events. Here we investigate the spatial effects of mass extinction by examining changes in alpha, beta, and gamma diversity in brachiopod communities over both pulses of Ordovician-Silurian extinction (;445.2 and ;438.8 million years ago), which had dramatically different causal mechanisms. We furthermore reconstruct geographic range sizes for brachiopod genera to test competing models for drivers of beta diversity change. We find that: (1) alpha and beta diversity respond differently to extinction; (2) these responses differ between pulses of extinction; (3) changes in beta diversity associated with extinction are accompanied by changes in geographic range size; and (4) changes in global beta diversity were driven by the extinction of taxa with statistically small and large ranges, rather than range expansion/contraction in taxa that survive into the aftermath. A symptom of ongoing biotic crisis may therefore be the extinction of specific narrow- or wide-ranging taxa, rather than the global proliferation of opportunistic and ‘‘disaster’’ forms. In addition, our results illustrate that changes in beta diversity on these longer timescales may largely be dictated by emplacement and removal of barriers to dispersal. Lastly, this study reinforces the utility of the fossil record in addressing questions surrounding the role of global-scale processes (such as mass extinctions) in sculpting and assembling regional biotas

DETERMINANTS OF THE MAIZE BOARD-MILLER MARKETING MARGIN IN SOUTH AFRICA : 1977-1993

Determinants of the Maize Board - Miller (MBM) marketing margin for the period 1977-1993 (period defined by data limitations) are identified for a mark-up model using Three-Stage Least Squares Regression (3SLS) and Principal Component Analysis. The MBM margin was positively related to the real miller white maize meal selling price, real variable processing costs, and a change in Maize Board pricing policy after 1987

El Análisis Humanístico de la Acción Directiva

Las organizaciones sostenibles, en todos los sectores de la sociedad deben estar regidas por directivos éticos y responsables, que presten atención a lo que aportan a la sociedad y para la socieda

Influence of climate and cultivar on grain protein concentration of wheat and rye

Non-Peer Reviewe

GMRF Estimation under Topological and Spectral Constraints

International audienceWe investigate the problem of Gaussian Markov random field selection under a non-analytic constraint: the estimated models must be compatible with a fast inference algorithm, namely the Gaussian belief propagation algorithm. To address this question, we introduce the *-IPS framework, based on iterative proportional scaling, which incrementally selects candidate links in a greedy manner. Besides its intrinsic sparsity-inducing ability, this algorithm is flexible enough to incorporate various spectral constraints, like e.g. walk summability, and topological constraints, like short loops avoidance. Experimental tests on various datasets, including traffic data from San Francisco Bay Area, indicate that this approach can deliver, with reasonable computational cost, a broad range of efficient inference models, which are not accessible through penalization with traditional sparsity-inducing norms

The Effect of Substituting High Oil Corn as a Replacement for Normal Corn in Nursery Pig Diets

The objective of this study was to determine the production and monetary effects of using High Oil Corn (HOC) in a nursery phase feeding program and monitor growth performance differences through marketing. Two groups of weaned crossbred pigs (n = 293 trial 1; n = 265 trial 2) were segregated by sex and weight into small, medium and heavy groups and allotted to 12 nursery pens. Pigs received one of two dietary treatments which included; a transitional phase I diet for 7 days; a commercial corn soy based phase II diet (NCII) for 14 days and a phase III diet (NCIII) for 7 days; a HOC soy based phase II diet for 21 days and the NCIII diet for 7 days. Body weight, Average daily feed intake and Gain/Feed (G/F) ratios were measured weekly during the nursery period. Pigs were transferred to a grow/finish barn on d 28 post-weaning. Body weight, Backfat (BF) and Longissimus Muscle Area (LMA) at the 10th and last ribs were ultrasonically evaluated 4 times prior to market. Average daily gain of nursery pigs on the three-phase NC diet was greater than pigs fed the HOC two-phase diet at d 21 post-weaning (p = .0034) and 28 post-weaning (p = .0128). ADG for heavy pigs was greater (p = .0001) than that of medium and lightweight pigs and no treatment�weight group interactions were observed (p = .2043). Pigs fed the three-phase diet had greater G/F ratios than pigs fed the HOC two-phase diet at d 21 (p = .0137) and 28 (p = .0134). LEA for pigs fed the three-phase diet was greater than pigs fed the HOC two-phase diet when measured on d 28 at the 10th (p = .0565) and last rib (p = .0370). Even though pigs were fed alike in the grow-finish period, ADG of pigs fed the three-phase nursery diet was greater (p = .0106) than that of pigs fed the HOC two-phase nursery diet. There were no differences in the predicted 114 kg weight (p = .2658). However, economic differences were noted for the two treatments with the HOC two-phase diet lowering the cost of production of marketed animals. There were no treatment differences for average daily lean growth per day (p = .8611) or percentage lean of carcasses (p = .2865). The results did not support removal of the transitional phase I diet and the substitution of HOC for NC in a phase II diet fed to nursery pigs for maximal nursery growth, nor was carcass composition of pigs at marketing adversely affected

A Kriging procedure for processes indexed by graphs

International audienceWe provide a new kriging procedure of processes on graphs. Based on the construction of Gaussian random processes indexed by graphs, we extend to this framework the usual linear prediction method for spatial random fields, known as kriging. We provide the expression of the estimator of such a random field at unobserved locations as well as a control for the prediction error

A set of inequalities in factor analysis

Inequalities relating the communalities to the multiple-correlation coefficients are derived. They are stronger than the well-known inequalities which have played an important role in factor analysis for the past thirty years. Necessary and sufficient conditions for equality are obtained.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45719/1/11336_2005_Article_BF02289534.pd

Skeletal correlates for body mass estimation in modern and fossil flying birds.

Scaling relationships between skeletal dimensions and body mass in extant birds are often used to estimate body mass in fossil crown-group birds, as well as in stem-group avialans. However, useful statistical measurements for constraining the precision and accuracy of fossil mass estimates are rarely provided, which prevents the quantification of robust upper and lower bound body mass estimates for fossils. Here, we generate thirteen body mass correlations and associated measures of statistical robustness using a sample of 863 extant flying birds. By providing robust body mass regressions with upper- and lower-bound prediction intervals for individual skeletal elements, we address the longstanding problem of body mass estimation for highly fragmentary fossil birds. We demonstrate that the most precise proxy for estimating body mass in the overall dataset, measured both as coefficient determination of ordinary least squares regression and percent prediction error, is the maximum diameter of the coracoid's humeral articulation facet (the glenoid). We further demonstrate that this result is consistent among the majority of investigated avian orders (10 out of 18). As a result, we suggest that, in the majority of cases, this proxy may provide the most accurate estimates of body mass for volant fossil birds. Additionally, by presenting statistical measurements of body mass prediction error for thirteen different body mass regressions, this study provides a much-needed quantitative framework for the accurate estimation of body mass and associated ecological correlates in fossil birds. The application of these regressions will enhance the precision and robustness of many mass-based inferences in future paleornithological studies