1,720,966 research outputs found

    Universal Design in University Environments. Are the New Buildings More Inclusive? A Tool for Equal Design Assessment

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    This study explores the application of Universal Design (UD) principles to university environments, aiming to improve the experiences of students and staff by fostering inclusivity in educational and social spaces. The research began with a literature review and employed the 'Design for All A.U.D.I.T.' tool, developed by Politecnico di Milano. This tool was adapted to evaluate six buildings across two universities in Milan:Politecnico di Milano and Statale University. The buildings ranged from the most recent to medium-aged and the oldest on each campus. The assessment focused on three main categories-physical, social, and sensory-cognitive quality-across eight key areas, including outdoor environments, entrances, halls, horizontal and vertical circulation, restrooms, classrooms, and study/leisure spaces. A binary scoring system was used to calculate the satisfaction of requirements, previously weighted by experts. The evaluation revealed that newer buildings generally scored higher on average (77%) compared to those from the 1960s (62%) and historical ones (67%). Despite higher scores, newer constructions often prioritized educational spaces over social and leisure areas, resulting in a lack of student gathering spaces. Significant issues included poor entrance design, inadequate wayfinding strategies, and a lack of inclusive classroom features, although restroom facilities consistently demonstrated good accessibility. The most recent building atPolitecnico di Milano scored highest overall but struggled in leisure and study rooms, as did the new building at Statale University. This research highlights both the current state and potential for improvement in university architecture through the lens of UD. The study underscores that innovative design does not always equate to user satisfaction and provides an objective tool to aid decision-makers in enhancing the accessibility and inclusivity of university spaces, ultimately improving the well-being of all users

    Ultrafast switching of a metasurface quasi-bound state in the continuum via transient optical symmetry breaking

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    In photonic structures, bound states in the continuum (BICs) have recently attracted huge interest in both fundamental and applied research. Quasi-BIC leaky modes resulting from in-plane symmetry breaking in metasurfaces are particularly relevant to applications, due to their high quality factor, which scales as the squared inverse of the asymmetry parameter. Here, we theoretically propose an innovative approach to switch on quasi-BICs on sub-picosecond timescales via optically induced symmetry breaking in semiconductor metasurfaces. The desired effect is granted by exploiting the spatial inhomogeneities in the distribution of photo-excited hot carriers at the single meta-atom nanometric scale. In our simulations, the quasi-BIC state manifests itself as an ultra-sharp dip in transmission, emerging upon pump arrival, and disappearing completely within the carriers’ diffusion timescale. Our strategy allows to envision reconfigurable platforms with switchable high-Q resonances, with ultrafast recovery beyond the limits of carrier relaxation, typical of previous approaches

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The 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

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    “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

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    We 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

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    We 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

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We 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
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