Fourth Axis Research Articles

Correspondence factor analysis of the publication patterns of 48 countries over the period 1981-1992

This study illustrates the application of a descriptive multivariate statistical method, Correspondence Factorial Analysis (CFA), to the analysis of a dataset of over 6 million bibliometric entries (data from ISI). CFA is used to show how the 48 most prolific nations stand in relation to each with regard to their publication interests in 17 specific disciplinary areas and one multidisciplinary field over the period 1981–1992. The output of a CFA is a map displaying proximity among variables (countries and disciplines) and constitutes an impartial working document for experts interested in the evaluation of science. The present study focuses on three aspects of a CFA: (1) The normalized “publication patterns” of countries with a common feature (e.g., that belong to the same geopolitical zone, economic union, etc.) can be pooled in order to highlight the position of the union with respect to individual countries; (2) complex CFA maps can be simplified by selecting reference countries or disciplines and observing how the remaining countries and disciplines relate to these references; (3) data on additional countries (new publication profiles) or on additional variables (e.g., socio-economic data on all the countries under study) can be introduced into the CFA maps used as mathematical models. Our CFA of the ISI dataset reveals the scientific interests of nations in relative terms. The main cleavage (the first factorial axis) is between countries that still concentrate on the disciplines of the industrial revolution such as physics and chemistry (or that have turned toward their offspring, materials sciences) and those that have veered toward more “modern” disciplines such as the life sciences (e.g., clinical medicine), the environment, and computer sciences. The second cleavage, along the second factorial axis, is between countries that focus on the agricultural sciences (the land surface) and those interested in the geosciences (the sea, earth's mantle, and mining). The third and fourth axes discriminate even further between earth, life, and abstract sciences highlighting the ostensible relationship between (organic) chemistry and all life science disciplines and between physics and disciplines related to engineering, materials sciences, etc. The CFA maps disclose the specific behavior of each country with respect to these cleavages. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Deterministic versus Individualistic community structure: a test from invasion by Nothofagus menziesii in southern New Zealand

Abstract. The Clements' Deterministic model of plant communities implies that a change in one species, especially a change in the physiognomic dominant, would have profound effects on the remainder of the community. Gleason's Individualistic model suggests there would be little effect.These alternative models are tested by examining the forest composition on both sides of a boundary along which the tree Nothofagus menziesii is slowly invading.Classification of forest composition, excluding N. menziesii, gave little evidence of an effect of N. menziesii on the lower strata: understorey vegetation types were distributed across the boundary. Some differences were found at individual sites, but these were often inconsistent between sites.Ordination, also excluding N. menziesii, similarly showed that none of the first three understorey axes reflected any effect of N. menziesii. The fourth axis was correlated with the presence of N. menziesii, but only when canopy trees were included. It is concluded that specific composition of the canopy in these montane New Zealand evergreen forests has little effect on the understorey, supporting Gleason's Individualistic concept of the community.

Studies on aroma of coffee. Part VIII. Classification of various trade varieties of coffee by coupling of sensory data and multivariate analyses.

Thirty-nine coffee samples (32 arabica and 7 robusta coffees) were classified objectively by two kinds of multivariate analysis (quantification theory 3 and cluster analysis) of sensory data. A cup test was done with respect to seven terms: acidic, sweetish, grassy aroma; earthy odor; robusta odor; off-flavor; and total amount of aroma. Robusta coffees were separated from arabica coffees by quantification theory 3 and cluster analysis of the 39 coffee samples. The aroma profiles of the 32 arabica coffee samples were also characterized by quantification theory 3. By cluster analysis of the scores of the first, second, third, and fourth axes obtained by quantification theory 3, the 32 arabica coffee samples were divided into seven clusters. Consequently, 39 coffee samples were classified into eight groups reflecting the information from the cup test.

‘Paranoid Psychoses’

After a presentation of the traditional principles of diagnosis and a precise definition of terms, the Vienna approach to the classification of delusional conditions is introduced. This approach is multiaxial: the first axis consists of a classification of delusional syndromes based on a cross-sectional description of their structural and constituting elements; on the second axis, the relationship between the delusional world and the real one is described; the third axis is for the recording of delusional contents; the fourth axis serves for an attempt at etiological attribution. The Vienna approach differs principally from the usual systems of classification in that it is purely syndromatological and thus it avoids giving an a priori nosological meaning to the various symptoms making up the delusion (for example, certain delusional themes, certain forms of hallucinations). A definitive nosological diagnosis is only possible when an organic cause is clearly evident, otherwise the suffix '-morphic' (endogenomorphic-schizophrenic, endogenomorphic-cyclothymic, and organomorphic axial syndromes) is added to denote the close resemblance of clinical states to certain disorders whose nosological homogeneity should not be taken for granted. Next, the results of our own catamnestic study on a patient population selected solely on syndromatological grounds are presented. It is shown that no prognostic significance can be attributed to the delusional pictures classified according to their description (paranoic syndromes, systematic and unsystematized paraphrenia); on the other hand, such significance certainly falls to one of the axial syndromes formulated on axis 4 (the endogenomorphic-cyclothymic axial syndrome). Nevertheless, a relatively large portion of the patients eluded attribution to one of the axial syndromes, even after a course of several years. Aside from the possibility that a number of them could be so classified after further cross-sectional evaluation, one may suspect that this group contains patients whose delusional formation stems from a psychogenic etiology; or it may be that these patients represent a third illness entity, distinct from the other two groups of endogenous psychoses.

Dimensionality and factor satisfaction of the body image construct: A gender comparison

The internal structure of the Body Cathexis Scale has been investigated twice with male subjects, but never with female subjects. This study was conducted to determine the dimensionality and factor satisfaction of the body image construct from a female perspective. Another purpose was to determine gender differences in item satisfaction and internal structure of the instrument. The Body Cathexis Scale was administered to 160 college females, and factor analysis with varimax rotation extracted four orthogonal factors: (1) Physical Skills and Fitness, (2) Face and Overall Appearance, (3) Miscellaneous Items, and (4) Weight and Lower Body. Subjects reported the most satisfaction on the second dimension and the least satisfaction on the fourth axis. Meaningful gender differences were observed in the structure of the body image construct and satisfaction on individual body-related items.

Time out of Mind

According to standard physics textbooks, time is a fundamental, not a derived, dimension of reality, which can be bent only in the never‐never wonderland of sub‐atomic and near light‐speed phenomena. Thus posited, time constitutes the fourth axis of the material universe. Indeed, the common mathematical conceptualization is that of a line, the time line.

A note on the dimensions of projections of cells inE n

We answer a question of J. Sternfeld by producing a topological 3-cell in four dimensional Euclidean space whose projection onto the plane of the first two co-ordinate axes is a 2-cell but whose projections onto the 3-spaces determined by the first, second and third as well as the first, second and fourth co-ordinate axes are also 2-cells. We generalize this construction in higher dimensions.