1,720,960 research outputs found

    PM Dimensional Characterization in an Urban Mediterranean Area: Case Studies on the Separation between Fine and Coarse Atmospheric Aerosol

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    Fine particulate matter (PM) is object of particular attention due to its health effects. It is currently regulated by adopting PM2.5 as an indicator to control anthropogenic combustion emissions. Therefore, it is crucial to collect aerosol samples representative of such sources, without including PM from natural sources. Thus, a clean separation between coarse and fine mode aerosol should be set. With this purpose, aerosol size mass distribution was taken in the aerodynamic diameter range from 0.5 to 10 μm. In comparison with a base scenario, characterized by local pollution sources, three case studies were considered, involving desert dust advection, sea salt advection and forest fire aerosol from a remote area. In the base scenario, PM2.5 represented a suitable fine-mode indicator, whereas it was considerably affected by coarse PM in case of desert dust and sea salt aerosol advection. Such interference was considerably reduced by setting the fine/coarse separation at 1.0 μm. Such separation underrepresented fine PM from forest fire long-range transport, nonetheless in the case studies considered, PM1 represented the best indicator of fine aerosol since less affected by coarse natural sources. The data presented clearly support the results from other studies associating the health effects of PM2.5 to PM1, rather than to PM1–2.5. Overall, there is a need to reconsider PM2.5 as an indicator of fine atmospheric aerosol

    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

    Seasonal effects on the physico-chemical characteristics of PM2.1 in Rome: a study by SEM and XPS

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    (A) large body of epidemiological research has shown a significant statistical correlation between acute health effects and the fine fraction of urban particulate (PM2.5). There is still a wide debate over which characteristics of PM are responsible for the adverse health effects. The aim of this study was to evaluate seasonal effects on the composition and physico-chemical characteristics of PM2.1 (particulate with aerodynamic diameter < 2.1 mum) in an urban area of Rome. The role as a "carrier" of carbonaceous particles was thoroughly studied using scanning electron microscopy with an EDS X-ray attachment and photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS). Atmospheric aerosol was analysed by ion chromatography to evaluate the soluble ions collected, by an annular denuder. X-ray microanalysis data were subjected to hierarchical cluster analysis to classify the particles into groups (clusters) of similar chemical composition. We identified four clusters of particles in the PM2.1: carbonaceous particles, soil erosion particles, sulphates and metals. EDX spectra showed the presence of a surface coating containing S or sometimes S, K, Na on a variable percentage of carbonaceous particles. XPS data showed C, O, N, Si, S to be the most abundant elements with only a trace presence of Ca, Na and Fe. XPS spectra in the region of S-2p peak confirm that the sulphur compounds in the PM2.1 are constituted by SO42- anion. The trend of the abundances in weight of S and N obtained by XPS showed an evident peak in summer. A similar summer peak was seen in the abundances of carbonaceous particles with S-coating obtained by SEM/EDX. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

    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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