1,721,318 research outputs found
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
Health risk assessment along wastewater recovery and reuse systems in Kampala, Uganda and Hanoi, Vietnam
Get PDFBackground: Reuse and recovery of wastewater in agriculture and aquaculture has gained traction in the new millennium. In view of continued population growth, increasing scarcity of freshwater and other natural resources, the demand to boost food production and efforts to enhance wastewater reuse will increase in the years to come. Indeed, wastewater reuse and the recovery of water, nutrients and energy can generate promising business opportunities and support livelihoods in poor communities, particularly in urban and peri-urban areas of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Contact with untreated wastewater is associated with microbial and chemical hazards and thus might negatively affect human health. Standardised, quality-controlled methods to assess and manage health risks are available, such as those described in the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for the safe use of wastewater, excreta and greywater. However, the practicability and uptake of these methods have proved difficult in LMICs. There is a paucity of context-specific, quality-based environmental pollution data, epidemiological data and accurate disease burden estimates for highly dynamic environments along wastewater recovery and reuse systems in major urban settings, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Moreover, discharge thresholds and health-based targets need to be reviewed to match the realities of LMICs.
Objectives: This PhD thesis aims to generate evidence of health risks among people living and working along wastewater and faecal sludge management and reuse systems in Kampala, Uganda, a low-income African city, and in Hanoi, Vietnam, a lower-middle-income Asian city. By comparing relevant conditions in these two systems, the thesis seeks to: (i) generate evidence on microbial and chemical contamination and treatment capacities along wastewater management systems; (ii) assess prevalence and risk factors of intestinal parasitic infections in different population groups exposed to wastewater and faecal sludge; (iii) estimate the burden of gastrointestinal infections due to the exposure to wastewater; and (iv) discuss and compare risk assessment approaches and their potential for application along wastewater recovery reuse systems in selected LMICs.
Research partnership: This PhD thesis is embedded in the “Resource Recovery and Reuse” (RRR) project, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Our main partner in this collaborating endeavour is WHO, while other international partners include the International Water Management Institute, the International Centre for Water Management Services, and the Department of Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. In Uganda, we closely work with the Makerere School of Public Health, the Vector Control Division of the Ministry of Health and the National Water and Sewerage Corporation. In Hanoi, our main partner is the Center for Public Health and Ecosystem Research at Hanoi School of Public Health. Moreover, we closely work with the Department of Parasitology at the National Institute of Malaria, Parasitology and Entomology, the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, and the National Institute of Veterinary Research.
Methods: Two accordant case studies were carried out along the major wastewater recovery and reuse systems in Kampala (along the Nakivubo channel) between September and December 2013 and in Hanoi (along the To Lich River) between April and June 2014. A methodological triangulation was performed, including (i) an environmental assessment; (ii) a cross-sectional survey; and (iii) a quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA). In brief, the environmental assessment entailed different standard analyses to observe the variance of microbial contamination (thermotolerant coliforms (TTC), Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp. and helminths (e.g. Ascaris and hookworm eggs) in water at critical control points over a period of two months. In addition, in Kampala, a range of physico-chemical parameters and heavy metal contamination in sediment, soil and plants were measured. Cross-sectional parasitological surveys were conducted to assess intestinal parasitic infections in different population groups (aged ≥18 years) exposed to wastewater and faecal sludge such as sanitation workers, urban farmers and community members living in proximity to wastewater channels. Moreover, comparison groups without exposure to wastewater were included. Stool samples were subjected to the Kato-Katz and formalin-ether concentration methods for the diagnosis of helminth and intestinal protozoa infections. A questionnaire was administered to all participants to identify self-reported signs and symptoms and risk factors for intestinal parasite infections. The QMRA methodology was applied to different scenarios of exposure to wastewater (e.g. farming, flooding of living area, living in informal communities and swimming). Pathogenic strains of norovirus, rotavirus, Campylobacter spp., pathogenic E. coli, pathogenic Salmonella spp., Cryptosporidium spp. and Ascaris lumbricoides were used to estimate annual incidence of gastrointestinal illness and the resulting disease burden.
Results: The environmental assessment revealed high concentrations of bacteria along the major wastewater channels in Kampala and Hanoi (e.g. between 105 and 107 colony forming unit (CFU) per 100 mL). In Kampala, along the Nakivubo channel, the concentration of TTC, biological oxygen demand5 (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total suspended solids (TSS) were 2- to 3-fold higher, when compared with data reported in 2008. Moreover, contamination of bacteria measured in water of the Nakivubo wetland, where urban farming takes place, was above national discharge standards and WHO’s tolerable safety limits for unrestricted irrigation. In Hanoi, the To Lich River water used in wastewater-fed agriculture fields in peri-urban areas showed (beside applied treatment in retention ponds) mean contamination with total coliforms (TC), E. coli and Salmonella spp. of 1.3 × 107, 1.1 × 106 CFU/100 mL and 108 most probable number (MPN)/100 mL, respectively. These values are 110-fold above the Vietnam discharge limits for agriculture reuse and even 260-fold above WHO’s tolerable safety limits for unrestricted irrigation. In both cities, the issue of faecal sludge collection is challenged by the provision of formal and adequate collection services, disposal and reuse solutions. Moreover, industrial pollution is a major issue, while registration and the source control of industries and effluents is lacking, leading to elevated concentration of various heavy metals in the environment.
The cross-sectional survey in Kampala included 915 individuals and revealed that the highest point-prevalence of intestinal parasite infections was found among urban farmers (75.9%), whereas the lowest point-prevalence was found among workers collecting faecal sludge (35.8%). Hookworm was the predominant helminth species (27.8%). Trichuris trichiura, Schistosoma mansoni, A. lumbricoides, and Entamoeba histolytica/E. dispar showed prevalence rates of 15% and above among urban farmers. For all investigated parasite infections, we found significantly higher odds for urban farmers than for the other groups (adjusted odds ratios ranging between 1.6 and 12.9). In Hanoi, the cross-sectional survey included 681 individuals and showed lower point-prevalence rates of intestinal parasite infections than in Kampala. The highest point-prevalence rate of parasitic infection was found among rural farmers (30.2%), with hookworm and T. trichiura being the predominant helminth species (24.8% and 5.4%, respectively). For intestinal parasite infections, we found significantly higher odds for rural farmers than for other groups (adjusted odds ratios 5.8, 95% confidence interval 2.5 to 13.7).
For Kampala, the QMRA estimated an annual disease burden across all 18,204 exposed people of 304,3 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Disease burden per person per year (pppy) was highest among urban farmers, sanitation workers and children in slum communities (0.073, 0.040 and 0.017 DALYs, respectively). For Hanoi, QMRA estimated an annual disease burden across 7,125 exposed people of 62.7 DALYs. Disease burden pppy was highest in urban farmers (0.0122 DALYs pppy), followed by sanitation workers (0.006 DALYs pppy) and rural farmers (0.0004 DALYs pppy).
Conclusions: The findings from this 3-year PhD thesis make an important contribution for a deeper understanding of the nexus of urban wastewater recovery and reuse systems, wastewater pollution and their implications for public health in the context of a major East African and Southeast Asian city. In both cities, and besides considerable differences in applied infrastructures, wastewater treatment capacities are insufficient for reducing the levels of microbial and chemical contamination to tolerable levels that would allow for safe reuse in agriculture. Major health risks were observed along both wastewater recovery and reuse systems. Children living in informal communities in Kampala are at very high risk of gastrointestinal diseases, especially due to rotavirus, and pathogenic E. coli and Salmonella spp. Epidemiological survey estimates revealed that urban farmers using wastewater were especially vulnerable for schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis in Kampala, whereas the high risk for urban farmers in Hanoi was only evident by means of QMRA. Indeed, for urban farmers, QMRA estimates were as high as 0.073 and 0.011 DALYs pppy in Kampala and Hanoi, respectively. These estimates are several thousand-fold above the revised WHO health-based targets and 7 and 6 times higher than the estimates made by the Global Burden of Disease study 2010 for an average Ugandan and Vietnamese, respectively. It is argued that the current health-based targets should be set according to local reference levels (e.g. to estimates made by the Global Burden of Disease study 2010). Promoting sanitation safety planning while combining evidence generated from environmental surveys, epidemiological surveys and QMRA can contribute to the understanding of existing systems and hazards along critical control points to better evaluate further investments in infrastructure and coordinate actions to protect public health. Considering the increasing attention to wastewater in the framework of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), more integrated studies using sanitation safety planning approaches are needed to generate sufficient understanding of reuse situations in rapidly changing urban contexts to minimise detrimental health effects and maximise gains from the recovered water, nutrients and energy in urban areas of LMICs
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
Author Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902
No full textIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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