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Identifying Missing Dictionary Entries With Frequency-Conserving Context Models, Jake Ryland Williams, Eric M. Clark, James P. Bagrow, Christopher M. Danforth, Peter Sheridan Dodds
Identifying Missing Dictionary Entries With Frequency-Conserving Context Models, Jake Ryland Williams, Eric M. Clark, James P. Bagrow, Christopher M. Danforth, Peter Sheridan Dodds
College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications
In an effort to better understand meaning from natural language texts, we explore methods aimed at organizing lexical objects into contexts. A number of these methods for organization fall into a family defined by word ordering. Unlike demographic or spatial partitions of data, these collocation models are of special importance for their universal applicability. While we are interested here in text and have framed our treatment appropriately, our work is potentially applicable to other areas of research (e.g., speech, genomics, and mobility patterns) where one has ordered categorical data (e.g., sounds, genes, and locations). Our approach focuses on the phrase …
Characterizing The Google Books Corpus: Strong Limits To Inferences Of Socio-Cultural And Linguistic Evolution, Eitan Adam Pechenick, Christopher M. Danforth, Peter Sheridan Dodds
Characterizing The Google Books Corpus: Strong Limits To Inferences Of Socio-Cultural And Linguistic Evolution, Eitan Adam Pechenick, Christopher M. Danforth, Peter Sheridan Dodds
College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications
It is tempting to treat frequency trends from the Google Books data sets as indicators of the "true" popularity of various words and phrases. Doing so allows us to draw quantitatively strong conclusions about the evolution of cultural perception of a given topic, such as time or gender. However, the Google Books corpus suffers from a number of limitations which make it an obscure mask of cultural popularity. A primary issue is that the corpus is in effect a library, containing one of each book. A single, prolific author is thereby able to noticeably insert new phrases into the Google …
Effects Of Skeletal Streetscape Design On Perceived Safety, Chester Harvey, Lisa Aultman-Hall, Stephanie E. Hurley, Austin Troy
Effects Of Skeletal Streetscape Design On Perceived Safety, Chester Harvey, Lisa Aultman-Hall, Stephanie E. Hurley, Austin Troy
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications
It is important for planners and urban designers to understand how physical characteristics of urban streetscapes contribute to perceptions of them as safe, comfortable urban spaces. While urban design theory offers numerous suggestions for successful streetscapes there is meager empirical evidence of their effects. We suggest that this is largely due to precision and sample size limitations on audit-based physical design and human perception measurements. This paper overcomes these limitations by identifying a key set of "streetscape skeleton" design variables that can be efficiently measured using a GIS-based method. It then measures these variables on a large and diverse sample …
If You've Seen One Worm, Have You Seen Them All? Spatial, Community, And Genetic Variability Of Tubificid Communities In Montana, Nilanjan Lodh, Donna M. Rizzo, Billie L. Kerans, Stephanie Mcginnis, Nikolaos Fytilis, Lori Stevens
If You've Seen One Worm, Have You Seen Them All? Spatial, Community, And Genetic Variability Of Tubificid Communities In Montana, Nilanjan Lodh, Donna M. Rizzo, Billie L. Kerans, Stephanie Mcginnis, Nikolaos Fytilis, Lori Stevens
College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications
Genetic studies are recognized increasingly as important for understanding naturally occurring disease dynamics and are used to predict host genetic diversity and coevolutionary processes and to identify species composition in ecological communities. Tubifex tubifex, the definitive host of the whirling disease parasite Myxobolus cerebralis, comprises 6 known lineages that vary widely in parasite susceptibility. We used 16S ribosomal DNA (16S rDNA) to identify relationships among genetic variability of 3 oligochaete genera (T. tubifex, Rhyacodrilus spp., and Ilyodrilus spp.; Oligochaeta:Tubificidae), oligochaete assemblage composition, and the presence of whirling disease in 9 locations across 4 watersheds in Montana, USA. We assessed genetic …
Climate Change Sentiment On Twitter: An Unsolicited Public Opinion Poll, Emily M. Cody, Andrew J. Reagan, Lewis Mitchell, Peter Sheridan Dodds, Christopher M. Danforth
Climate Change Sentiment On Twitter: An Unsolicited Public Opinion Poll, Emily M. Cody, Andrew J. Reagan, Lewis Mitchell, Peter Sheridan Dodds, Christopher M. Danforth
College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications
The consequences of anthropogenic climate change are extensively debated through scientific papers, newspaper articles, and blogs. Newspaper articles may lack accuracy, while the severity of findings in scientific papers may be too opaque for the public to understand. Social media, however, is a forum where individuals of diverse backgrounds can share their thoughts and opinions. As consumption shifts from old media to new, Twitter has become a valuable resource for analyzing current events and headline news. In this research, we analyze tweets containing the word "climate" collected between September 2008 and July 2014. Through use of a previously developed sentiment …
Zipfs Law Holds For Phrases, Not Words, Jake Ryland Williams, Paul R. Lessard, Suma Desu, Eric M. Clark, James P. Bagrow, Christopher M. Danforth, Peter Sheridan Dodds
Zipfs Law Holds For Phrases, Not Words, Jake Ryland Williams, Paul R. Lessard, Suma Desu, Eric M. Clark, James P. Bagrow, Christopher M. Danforth, Peter Sheridan Dodds
College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications
With Zipfs law being originally and most famously observed for word frequency, it is surprisingly limited in its applicability to human language, holding over no more than three to four orders of magnitude before hitting a clear break in scaling. Here, building on the simple observation that phrases of one or more words comprise the most coherent units of meaning in language, we show empirically that Zipfs law for phrases extends over as many as nine orders of rank magnitude. In doing so, we develop a principled and scalable statistical mechanical method of random text partitioning, which opens up a …
Impacts Of Community-Based Natural Resource Management On Wealth, Food Security And Child Health In Tanzania, Sharon Pailler, Robin Naidoo, Neil D. Burgess, Olivia E. Freeman, Brendan Fisher
Impacts Of Community-Based Natural Resource Management On Wealth, Food Security And Child Health In Tanzania, Sharon Pailler, Robin Naidoo, Neil D. Burgess, Olivia E. Freeman, Brendan Fisher
Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications
Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) is a major global strategy for enhancing conservation outcomes while also seeking to improve rural livelihoods; however, little evidence of socioeconomic outcomes exists. We present a national-level analysis that empirically estimates socioeconomic impacts of CBNRM across Tanzania, while systematically controlling for potential sources of bias. Specifically, we apply a difference-indifferences model to national-scale, cross-sectional data to estimate the impact of three different CBNRM governance regimes on wealth, food security and child health, considering differential impacts of CBNRM on wealthy and poor populations. We also explore whether or not longer-standing CBNRM efforts provide more benefits than …
Notes From The Field: Lessons Learned From Using Ecosystem Service Approaches To Inform Real-World Decisions, Mary Ruckelshaus, Emily Mckenzie, Heather Tallis, Anne Guerry, Gretchen Daily, Peter Kareiva, Stephen Polasky, Taylor Ricketts, Nirmal Bhagabati, Spencer A. Wood, Joanna Bernhardt
Notes From The Field: Lessons Learned From Using Ecosystem Service Approaches To Inform Real-World Decisions, Mary Ruckelshaus, Emily Mckenzie, Heather Tallis, Anne Guerry, Gretchen Daily, Peter Kareiva, Stephen Polasky, Taylor Ricketts, Nirmal Bhagabati, Spencer A. Wood, Joanna Bernhardt
Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications
While there have been rapid advances in assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES), a critical remaining challenge is how to move from scientific knowledge to real-world decision making. We offer 6 lessons from our experiences applying new approaches and tools for quantifying BES in 20 pilot demonstrations: (1) Applying a BES approach is most effective in leading to policy change as part of an iterative science-policy process; (2) simple ecological production function models have been useful in a diverse set of decision contexts, across a broad range of biophysical, social, and governance systems. Key limitations of simple models arise …
Reply To Garcia Et Al.: Common Mistakes In Measuring Frequency-Dependent Word Characteristics, Peter Sheridan Dodds, Eric M. Clark, Suma Desu, Morgan R. Frank, Andrew J. Reagan, Jake Ryland Williams, Lewis Mitchell, Kameron Decker Harris, Isabel M. Kloumann, James P. Bagrow, Karine Megerdoomian, Matthew T. Mcmahon, Brian F. Tivnan, Christopher M. Danforth
Reply To Garcia Et Al.: Common Mistakes In Measuring Frequency-Dependent Word Characteristics, Peter Sheridan Dodds, Eric M. Clark, Suma Desu, Morgan R. Frank, Andrew J. Reagan, Jake Ryland Williams, Lewis Mitchell, Kameron Decker Harris, Isabel M. Kloumann, James P. Bagrow, Karine Megerdoomian, Matthew T. Mcmahon, Brian F. Tivnan, Christopher M. Danforth
College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Text Mixing Shapes The Anatomy Of Rank-Frequency Distributions, Jake Ryland Williams, James P. Bagrow, Christopher M. Danforth, Peter Sheridan Dodds
Text Mixing Shapes The Anatomy Of Rank-Frequency Distributions, Jake Ryland Williams, James P. Bagrow, Christopher M. Danforth, Peter Sheridan Dodds
College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications
Natural languages are full of rules and exceptions. One of the most famous quantitative rules is Zipf's law, which states that the frequency of occurrence of a word is approximately inversely proportional to its rank. Though this "law" of ranks has been found to hold across disparate texts and forms of data, analyses of increasingly large corpora since the late 1990s have revealed the existence of two scaling regimes. These regimes have thus far been explained by a hypothesis suggesting a separability of languages into core and noncore lexica. Here we present and defend an alternative hypothesis that the two …
Participation And Contribution In Crowdsourced Surveys, Robert Swain, Alex Berger, Josh Bongard, Paul Hines
Participation And Contribution In Crowdsourced Surveys, Robert Swain, Alex Berger, Josh Bongard, Paul Hines
College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications
This paper identifies trends within and relationships between the amount of participation and the quality of contributions in three crowdsourced surveys. Participants were asked to perform a collective problem solving task that lacked any explicit incentive: they were instructed not only to respond to survey questions but also to pose new questions that they thought might-if responded to by others-predict an outcome variable of interest to them. While the three surveys had very different outcome variables, target audiences, methods of advertisement, and lengths of deployment, we found very similar patterns of collective behavior. In particular, we found that: the rate …
Nutrition-Related Policy And Environmental Strategies To Prevent Obesity In Rural Communities: A Systematic Review Of The Literature, 2002-2013, Larissa Calancie, Jennifer Leeman, Stephanie B. Jilcott Pitts, Laura Kettel Khan, Sheila Fleischhacker, R. Evenson Kelly, Michelle Schreiner, Carmen Byker, Clint Owens, Jared Mcguirt, Ellen Barnidge, Wesley Dean, Donna Johnson, Jane Kolodinsky, Emily Piltch, Courtney Pinard, Emilee Quinn, Lauren Whetstone, Alice Ammerman
Nutrition-Related Policy And Environmental Strategies To Prevent Obesity In Rural Communities: A Systematic Review Of The Literature, 2002-2013, Larissa Calancie, Jennifer Leeman, Stephanie B. Jilcott Pitts, Laura Kettel Khan, Sheila Fleischhacker, R. Evenson Kelly, Michelle Schreiner, Carmen Byker, Clint Owens, Jared Mcguirt, Ellen Barnidge, Wesley Dean, Donna Johnson, Jane Kolodinsky, Emily Piltch, Courtney Pinard, Emilee Quinn, Lauren Whetstone, Alice Ammerman
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications
Introduction Residents of rural communities in the United States are at higher risk for obesity than their urban and suburban counterparts. Policy and environmental-change strategies supporting healthier dietary intake can prevent obesity and promote health equity. Evidence in support of these strategies is based largely on urban and suburban studies; little is known about use of these strategies in rural communities. The purpose of this review was to synthesize available evidence on the adaptation, implementation, and effectiveness of policy and environmental obesity-prevention strategies in rural settings. Methods The review was guided by a list of Centers for Disease Control and …
Human Language Reveals A Universal Positivity Bias, Peter Sheridan Dodds, Eric M. Clark, Suma Desu, Morgan R. Frank, Andrew J. Reagan, Jake Ryland Williams, Lewis Mitchell, Kameron Decker Harris, Isabel M. Kloumann, James P. Bagrow, Karine Megerdoomian, Matthew T. Mcmahon, Brian F. Tivnan, Christopher M. Danforth
Human Language Reveals A Universal Positivity Bias, Peter Sheridan Dodds, Eric M. Clark, Suma Desu, Morgan R. Frank, Andrew J. Reagan, Jake Ryland Williams, Lewis Mitchell, Kameron Decker Harris, Isabel M. Kloumann, James P. Bagrow, Karine Megerdoomian, Matthew T. Mcmahon, Brian F. Tivnan, Christopher M. Danforth
College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications
Using human evaluation of 100,000 words spread across 24 corpora in 10 languages diverse in origin and culture, we present evidence of a deep imprint of human sociality in language, observing that (i ) the words of natural human language possess a universal positivity bias, (ii ) the estimated emotional content of words is consistent between languages under translation, and (iii ) this positivity bias is strongly independent of frequency of word use. Alongside these general regularities, we describe interlanguage variations in the emotional spectrum of languages that allow us to rank corpora. We also show how our word evaluations …
Do Pollinators Contribute To Nutritional Health?, Alicia M. Ellis, Samuel S. Myers, Taylor H. Ricketts
Do Pollinators Contribute To Nutritional Health?, Alicia M. Ellis, Samuel S. Myers, Taylor H. Ricketts
Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications
Despite suggestions that animal pollinators are crucial for human nutritional health, no studies have actually tested this claim. Here, we combined data on crop pollination requirements, food nutrient densities, and actual human diets to predict the effects of pollinator losses on the risk of nutrient deficiency. In four developing countries and across five nutrients, we found that 0 to 56% of populations would become newly at risk if pollinators were removed. Increases in risk were most pronounced for vitamin A in populations with moderate levels of total nutrient intake. Overall, the effects of pollinator decline varied widely among populations and …
Health, Wealth, And Education: The Socioeconomic Backdrop For Marine Conservation In The Developing World, Brendan Fisher, Alicia M. Ellis, Diane K. Adams, Helen E. Fox, Elizabeth R. Selig
Health, Wealth, And Education: The Socioeconomic Backdrop For Marine Conservation In The Developing World, Brendan Fisher, Alicia M. Ellis, Diane K. Adams, Helen E. Fox, Elizabeth R. Selig
Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications
Interacting drivers and pressures in many parts of the world are greatly undermining the long-term health and wellbeing of coastal human populations and marine ecosystems. However, we do not yet have a well-formed picture of the nature and extent of the human poverty of coastal communities in these areas. In this paper, we begin to fill the gap and present a multidimensional picture of the wellbeing of coastal communities, using nationally representative survey data to examine the health, wealth, and educational status of households in over 38000 communities across 38 developing countries. In general, we found high levels of poverty …
A Protocol For Eliciting Nonmaterial Values Through A Cultural Ecosystem Services Frame, Rachelle K. Gould, Sarah C. Klain, Nicole M. Ardoin, Terre Satterfield, Ulalia Woodside, Neil Hannahs, Gretchen C. Daily, Kai M. Chan
A Protocol For Eliciting Nonmaterial Values Through A Cultural Ecosystem Services Frame, Rachelle K. Gould, Sarah C. Klain, Nicole M. Ardoin, Terre Satterfield, Ulalia Woodside, Neil Hannahs, Gretchen C. Daily, Kai M. Chan
Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications
Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology. Stakeholders' nonmaterial desires, needs, and values often critically influence the success of conservation projects. These considerations are challenging to articulate and characterize, resulting in their limited uptake in management and policy. We devised an interview protocol designed to enhance understanding of cultural ecosystem services (CES). The protocol begins with discussion of ecosystem-related activities (e.g., recreation, hunting) and management and then addresses CES, prompting for values encompassing concepts identified in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) and explored in other CES research. We piloted the protocol in Hawaii …