1,721,064 research outputs found
From collective to individual radon risk exposure: An insight into the current European regulation
Full text linkRadon (222Rn) is a radioactive gas with well-documented harmful effects; the World Health Organization has confirmed it as a cancerogenic for humans. These detrimental effects have prompted Europe to establish national reference levels to protect the exposed population. This is reflected in European directive 59/2013/EURATOM, which has been transposed into the national regulations of EU Member States. Specifically, the directive requires the identification of Radon Priority Areas to facilitate remediation in regions with high Rn levels. The regulation also includes measures for radiation protection, aiming to safeguard the population collectively and individuals from Rn exposure. These two requirements can be conceptualised and translated into two complementary concepts: collective and individual risk. This work addresses the lack of a standardised methodology at the European level for defining radon (Rn) risk across regions. It provides the first approach to transitioning from collective to individual risk areas (CRAs to IRAs), offering clear insights into the application of European Rn protection regulations. Key challenges have been addressed, including geo-hazard mapping without a response variable, evaluating the performance of Spatial Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, and assessing the use and representativeness of available indoor Rn data to support individual risk assessment. The study also explores the optimal scale for delineating Radon Priority Areas. The effectiveness of this novel approach, which incorporates both collective and individual risk factors in accordance with European regulations, has been tested in a case study in the Bolzano province (north-eastern Italy)
Validation of a database of mean uranium, thorium and potassium concentrations in rock samples of Portuguese geological units, generated of literature data
Full text linkThe European Atlas of Natural Radiation, recently published, contains a collection of maps of Europe showing the
levels of natural sources of radiation. Among the lacunae of the Atlas are maps of U, Th and K concentrations in
rocks due to lack of European-wide geochemical surveys of bedrock units. The objective of this paper is to
investigate the usability of scattered geochemical data of rock samples for large-scale mapping of U, Th and K
concentrations in geological units. For this purpose, geochemical data were compiled from literature sources to
produce a geochemical database (LIT database) that includes 2817 entries of U, Th and K concentrations
measured in rock samples of geological units outcropping in Portugal.
Given the methodical heterogeneity within LIT database, the influence of the geochemical analysis techniques
was assessed through a three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) using geological units, geochemical analysis
techniques and loss on ignition (LOI) as categorical variables. The percentage of variation explained by
geological factors was large (>35%), while the percentage of variation explained by the geochemical analysis
techniques and LOI was generally lower than 5%. The geological factors were the main source of variability in
the data, followed by the error component which can be assumed to represent the true spatial variability of
geochemical concentrations. The pairwise comparison of the least square (LS) means computed through the
ANOVA for each geochemical analysis technique indicates that LIT database can be considered consistent within
itself, thus, reliable.
In order to validate the usability of literature data the terrestrial gamma dose rate (TGDR) calculated from LIT
database (TGDRcalc) was compared to the TGDR displayed in the Radiometric Map of Portugal (TGDRobs). The
correlation between TGDRcalc and TGDRobs was highly significant (p < 0.001) and the results of a paired sample
t-test and Wilcoxon median tests indicate that the differences between the arithmetic means of TGDRcalc and
TGDRobs were not statistically significant (p = 0.126 and p = 0.14, respectively). Distributions of TGDRcalc and
TGDRobs were seemingly equal according to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Anderson-Darling tests. Although,
systematic discrepancies between TGDRcalc and TGDRobs were observed for sedimentary rocks, the compatibility
of the RMP and LIT databases can be considered acceptable, which implies that the estimation of the contents of
terrestrial radionuclides using literature data for large-scale mapping of U, Th and K contents in geological units
is reasonable
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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