The correlation between RAE ratings and citation counts in psychology

We counted the citations received in one year (1998) by each staff member in each of 38 university psychology departments in the United Kingdom. We then averaged these counts across individuals within each department and correlated the averages with the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) grades awarded to the same departments in 1996 and 2001. The correlations were extremely high (up to +0.91). This suggests that whatever the merits and demerits of the RAE process and citation counting as methods of evaluating research quality, the two approaches measure broadly the same thing. Since citation counting is both more cost-effective and more transparent than the present system and gives similar results, there is a prima facie case for incorporating citation counts into the process, either alone or in conjunction with other measures. Some of the limitations of citation counting are discussed and some methods for minimising these are proposed. Many of the factors that dictate caution in judging individuals by their citations tend to average out when whole departments are compared

On the Assessment of Stability and Patterning of Speech Movements

Speech requires the control of complex movements of orofacial structures to produce dynamic variations in the vocal tract transfer function. The nature of the underlying motor control processes has traditionally been investigated by employing measures of articulatory movements, including movement amplitude, velocity, and duration, at selected points in time. An alternative approach, first used in the study of limb motion, is to examine the entire movement trajectory over time. A new approach to speech movement trajectory analysis was introduced in earlier work from this laboratory. In this method, trajectories from multiple movement sequences are time- and amplitude-normalized, and the STI (spatiotemporal index) is computed to capture the degree of convergence of a set of trajectories onto a single, underlying movement template. This research note describes the rationale for this analysis and provides a detailed description of the signal processing involved. Alternative interpolation procedures for time-normalization of kinematic data are also considered

Another Civil War: Labor, Capital, and the State in the Anthracite Regions of Pennsylvania, 1840-1868

The Economy of the Civil War Explaining the Role of Labor and Business Fordham University Press has recently reissued Grace Palladino\u27s fine 1990 study of internal divisions during the Civil War in the Pennsylvania coal country, Another Civil War. This is a welcome event,...

Notes on Buster Keaton’s Motion

NOTES ON BUSTER KEATON'S MOTION The origin of cinema was in motion. In 1879, Eadweard Muybridge completed his "zoopraxiscope," named from "zoo" (a combining form meaning 'living being' or 'animal'),"praxis" (the Greek práxis, meaning 'action'), and "scope" (from the Greek skopion, meaning 'to look at carefully'). Muybridge built his contraption at the behest of railroad baron Leland Stanford (founder of Stanford University), who took an active interest in the then-emerging scientific field of Motion Studies. In essence, Stanford challenged Muybridge with a bet as to whether or not he could answer the mystery of whether a horse removes all four legs off the ground at some point while galloping. Using a battery of twelve cameras, Muybridge captured a running horse and projected said images from a rotating glass disk in rapid succession to give the impression of motion: he found a horse does, in fact, lift all four feet..

The Soldier\u27s Pen: Firsthand Impressions of the Civil War

Common Soldiers\u27 Understanding of the Civil War This new work by Robert E. Bonner, the author of several previous books on the Civil War, including an excellent analysis of the Confederacy\u27s flags, draws on the magnificent holdings of the Gilder Lehrman Collection at the New-York Histor...

Crucible of Command: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee--The War They Fought and the Peace They Forged

Commonalities and Divergence in the Careers and Lives of Grant and Lee In his new book, prolific Civil War historian William C. Davis undertakes the ambitious task of writing a dual biography of the conflict\u27s two preeminent commanders, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. It is based virtu...

Individual differences in pain sensitivity are associated with cognitive network functional connectivity following one night of experimental sleep disruption.

Previous work suggests that sleep disruption can contribute to poor pain modulation. Here, we used experimental sleep disruption to examine the relationship between sleep disruption-induced pain sensitivity and functional connectivity (FC) of cognitive networks contributing to pain modulation. Nineteen healthy individuals underwent two counterbalanced experimental sleep conditions for one night each: uninterrupted sleep versus sleep disruption. Following each condition, participants completed functional MRI including a simple motor task and a noxious thermal stimulation task. Pain ratings and stimulus temperatures from the latter task were combined to calculate a pain sensitivity change score following sleep disruption. This change score was used as a predictor of simple motor task FC changes using bilateral executive control networks (RECN, LECN) and the default mode network (DMN) masks as seed regions of interest (ROIs). Increased pain sensitivity after sleep disruption was positively associated with increased RECN FC to ROIs within the DMN and LECN (F(4,14) = 25.28, pFDR = 0.05). However, this pain sensitivity change score did not predict FC changes using LECN and DMN masks as seeds (pFDR > 0.05). Given that only RECN FC was associated with sleep loss-induced hyperalgesia, findings suggest that cognitive networks only partially contribute to the sleep-pain dyad

Red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) ecology during spruce cone failure in Alaska

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1967Observations were made on a red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) population in a mature white spruce (Picea glauca) forest near Fairbanks, Alaska, during two years of spruce cone crop failure (July, 1964, to April, 1966). An adequate supply of old spruce cones, cached in previous years, was available during the first winter. A 67% drop in numbers of the squirrel population followed the second crop failure with the remaining squirrels utilizing spruce buds as their primary food during the winter. Stomach analyses revealed that when present, spruce seed is the major constituent in the diet. In its absence, heavy utilization of mushrooms in summer and spruce buds in winter occurs. Feeding trials conducted with captive red squirrels in March, 1965, and April, 1966, showed that about 194 old cones per day were necessary to sustain a squirrel, approximately 35% more than for cones from the current year's crop. Three squirrels survived for eight days on a diet of only white spruce buds. Analysis of old spruce cones showed that 31% of the seed was potentially viable (filled), but that only 1.4% of the seed germinated. Calorimetric determinations of old seed (minus coat), spruce buds, and mushrooms yielded values of 5,976, 4,986, and 4,552 cal/g respectively. Excavation of middens revealed up to 8,518 old, cached cones per midden, despite a crop failure. In years of normal cone production, squirrels may cut and cache 12,000 to 16,000 cones; the excess accrues each year and eventually a sufficient supply exists to maintain the squirrels through a winter following a cone crop failure