Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31825983›Full record

ArticlePloS one2019

Analyzing and interpreting spatial and temporal variability of the United States county population distributions using Taylor's law.

Meng Xu, Joel E Cohen

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Meng XuDepartment of Mathematics, Pace University, New York, New York, United States of America.ORCID 0000-0002-2569-3654
Joel E CohenLaboratory of Populations, The Rockefeller University and Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America.ORCID 0000-0002-9746-6725

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We study the spatial and temporal variation of the human population in the United States (US) counties from 1790 to 2010, using an ecological scaling pattern called Taylor's law (TL). TL states that the variance of population abundance is a power function of the mean population abundance. Despite extensive studies of TL for non-human populations, testing and interpreting TL using data on human populations are rare. Here we examine three types of TL that quantify the spatial and temporal variation of US county population abundance. Our results show that TL and its quadratic extension describe the mean-variance relationship of county population distribution well. The slope and statistics of TL reveal economic and demographic trends of the county populations. We propose TL as a useful statistical tool for analyzing human population variability. We suggest new ways of using TL to select and make population projections.

Indexed as

Models, BiologicalPopulation DensityDatabases, FactualDemographyEcological and Environmental PhenomenaHumansSpatio-Temporal AnalysisUnited States

Identifiers

PMID31825983
PMCPMC6905577

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.