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    Numerical treatment of a magnetized electron fluid model in a 3D simulator of plasma thruster plumes

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    Simulations of energetic plumes from plasma thrusters are of great interest for estimating performances and interactions with the spacecraft. Both in fully fluid and hybrid (particle/fluid) models, the electron population is described by a set of fluid equations whose resolution by different numerical schemes can be strongly affected by convergence and accuracy issues. The case of magnetized plumes is more critical. Here, the numerical discretization of the electron fluid model of a 3D hybrid simulator of plasma plumes was upgraded from a finite-differences (FD) formulation in a collocated grid to a finite-volumes (FV) approach in a staggered grid. Both approaches make use of structured meshes of different resolutions and are compared in two scenarios of interest: 1) an unmagnetized plasma plume around a spacecraft and 2) a magnetized plume expansion in free space. In both physical scenarios, the FD scheme exhibits a global continuity error related to truncation errors that can be reduced only by refining the mesh. The origin of this error is further investigated and explained here. The FV scheme instead can save much computational time using coarser meshes since it is unaffected by these errors due to the conservativeness of its formulation. The physical advantage of the FV scheme over the FD approach is more evident for magnetized plumes with high Hall parameters since it allows us to reach higher anisotropy conditions, here assessed in order to gain insights into the plume magnetization effects, finding that the already foreseen saturation of circulating electric current occurs for Hall parameters of several hundreds

    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
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