1,721,040 research outputs found
“AMORE” Decision Support System for probabilistic Ecological Risk Assessment - Part II: Effect assessment of the case study on cyanide
No full textEcotoxicological data are highly important for risk assessment processes and are used for deriving environmental quality criteria, which are enacted for assuring the good quality of waters, soils or sediments and achieving desirable environmental quality objectives. Therefore, it is of significant importance the evaluation of the reliability and relevance of available data for analysing their possible use in the aforementioned processes. In this context, a new methodology which has been developed based on Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) techniques, is being used, demonstrated and tested for analysing the reliability and relevance of ecotoxicological data of cyanide (which are produced through laboratory biotests for individual effects). The proposed methodology is also used for the production of Weighted by Data Quality Species Sensitivity Distributions (SSD-WDQ), as a component of the Ecological Risk Assessment of chemicals in aquatic systems. The SSD-WDQ production resulted in the estimation of environmental quality criteria (hazard concentration affecting 5% and 50% of the species). The proposed work is part of the development of the AMORE Decision Support System (DSS) for the application of probabilistic Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA), presented in the companion paper (Isigonis et al., 2019). The DSS has been tested through a case study on ERA of cyanide in the watershed of river Selune in France. The paper presents the ‘Effect Assessment’ of cyanide, based on the aforementioned methodologies. The main results presented in the paper are the probabilistic analysis of the estimated species sensitivity on cyanide (Effect Assessment) and the calculation of Hazardous Concentration (HCx) of the same contaminant in the Selune river area, based on the functionalities of the DSS. The results are described and discussed in detail, with the use of various graphs and indices. The indices are calculated for all the available ecotoxicological data, as well as for the data on trophic levels or taxonomic groups separately. An effect comparison is presented between the innovative methodologies included in the DSS and the currently existing methodologies
“AMORE” Decision Support System for probabilistic Ecological Risk Assessment - Part I: Exposure and risk assessment of the case study on cyanide
No full textEcological Risk Assessment of chemicals in fluvial systems is a highly researched topic, but its importance for the environmental protection of our planet is vital. Thus, new developments and improvements to existing methodologies are proposed constantly, for providing more advanced tools and more accurate results to researchers and other interested parties. In the field of probabilistic Ecological Risk Assessment, a new Decision Support System is proposed, developed, tested and evaluated. The AMORE DSS is a modular DSS, which incorporates a series of new methodologies, and is built upon the notions of ‘Exposure Assessment’ ‘Effect Assessment’ and ‘Risk Assessment’. The AMORE Decision Support System has been developed as part of the AMORE research project (French National Research Agency project). The DSS provides a set of tools for analysing and integrating both exposure and effect information in order to evaluate the risk for species living on a given contaminated aquatic system in terms of the Potentially Affected Fraction. The DSS has been tested through a case study on ERA of cyanide in the watershed of river Selune in France. The paper presents the ‘Exposure Assessment’ and ‘Risk Assessment’ of the cyanide case study, as well as the complete functionalities of the AMORE DSS. The main results presented in the paper are the statistical analysis of the measured environmental concentrations of cyanide (Exposure Assessment) and the probabilistic ‘Risk assessment’ of the same contaminant in the area of interest, based on the functionalities of the DSS. The results are described and discussed in detail with the use of various graphs and risk indices. The risk indices are calculated for all the available ecotoxicological data, as well as for the data on trophic levels or taxonomic groups separately. A risk comparison is presented between the innovative methodologies included in the DSS and the currently existing methodologies
A Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis based methodology for quantitatively scoring the reliability and relevance of ecotoxicological data
No full textEcotoxicological data are highly important for risk assessment processes and are used for deriving environmental quality criteria, which are enacted for assuring the good quality of waters, soils or sediments and achieving desirable environmental quality objectives. Therefore, it is of significant importance the evaluation of the reliability of available data for analysing their possible use in the aforementioned processes. The thorough analysis of currently available frameworks for the assessment of ecotoxicological data has led to the identification of significant flaws but at the same time various opportunities for improvement. In this context, a new methodology, based on Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) techniques, has been developed with the aim of analysing the reliability and relevance of ecotoxicological data (which are produced through laboratory biotests for individual effects), in a transparent quantitative way, through the use of expert knowledge, multiple criteria and fuzzy logic. The proposed methodology can be used for the production of weighted Species Sensitivity Weighted Distributions (SSWD), as a component of the ecological risk assessment of chemicals in aquatic systems. The MCDA aggregation methodology is described in detail and demonstrated through examples in the article and the hierarchically structured framework that is used for the evaluation and classification of ecotoxicological data is shortly discussed. The methodology is demonstrated for the aquatic compartment but it can be easily tailored to other environmental compartments (soil, air, sediments)
A Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis methodology for quantitatively scoring the relevance and reliability of ecotoxicological data
No full textThe current European legislation (e.g. REACH regulation) and advances in the field of ecotoxicology strongly suggest the reduction, refinement or replacement of animal tests, as well as exploring the advances in the current methods for the evaluation of toxicity. As a result there is clear necessity for researching new ways of applying the existing methods, as well as identifying ways to make more efficient use of the existing ecotoxicological datasets.
In this scope and context, the poster presents a new methodology which intends to assist the optimization of existing methods, by providing a tool for assessing the relevance and reliability of ecotoxicological data for the definition of Species Sensitivity Distributions (SSDs), within the framework of ecological risk assessments (ERA).
In order to estimate a single aggregated reliability score for a given ecotoxicological datum, a ‘Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA)-based’ Weight of Evidence (WoE) methodology has been developed, including a hierarchical structure of 57 evaluation criteria, which was created based on the review of the state of the art frameworks for the assessment of ecotoxicological data.
The methodology is able to integrate different types of inputs and incorporates the use of Fuzzy Logic operators for handling the inherent uncertainty, which appears in the form of unreported information as well as possible lack of knowledge of the experts. A panel of scientific experts on ecotoxicology was involved throughout the development of the methodology for identifying, if any, the relations between criteria and evaluating the hierarchical structure to be used in the aggregation process.
The methodology is planned to be used and tested in case studies, as part of the evaluation and follow up process of the research project “AMORE” (Multi-Criteria Analysis for the Development of a Decision Support Tool for the prevention of Environmental Risks), funded by the National French Research Academy (ANR)
A Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis methodology based on Multi-Attribute Value Theory and Fuzzy Logic for quantitatively scoring the reliability of ecotoxicological data
No full textThe advances in the field of ecotoxicology suggest exploring new ways of applying the current methods for the evaluation of toxicity as well as identifying ways to make more efficient use of the existing ecotoxicological datasets.
In this scope and context, a new methodology is presented which intends to assist the optimization of existing methods, by providing a tool for assessing the relevance and reliability of ecotoxicological data for the definition of Species Sensitivity Distributions (SSDs), within the framework of ecological risk assessments (ERA).
In order to estimate a single aggregated reliability score for a given ecotoxicological datum, a ‘Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA)-based’ Weight of Evidence (WoE) methodology has been developed, including a hierarchical structure of 57 evaluation criteria, which was created based on the review of the state of the art frameworks for the assessment of ecotoxicological data.
The methodology is based on the Multi-Attribute Value Theory (MAVT) and is able to integrate different types of inputs. It incorporates the use of Fuzzy Logic operators for handling the inherent uncertainty, which appears in the form of unreported information as well as possible lack of knowledge of the experts. A panel of scientific experts on ecotoxicology was involved throughout the development of the methodology for identifying, if any, the relations between criteria and evaluating the hierarchical structure to be used in the aggregation process. Expert Knowledge is incorporated in the methodology and was extracted from the panel with the use of direct techniques, i.e. questionnaires and dedicated meetings.
The methodology is planned to be used and tested in case studies, as part of the evaluation and follow up process of the research project “AMORE” (Multi-Criteria Analysis for the Development of a Decision Support Tool for the prevention of Environmental Risks), funded by the National French Research Academy (ANR)
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
- …
