1,720,960 research outputs found
Indoor air quality in a domestic environment. Combined contribution of indoor and outdoor PM sources
No full textThe impact of outdoor and indoor sources on the chemical composition of particulate matter (PM) collected in a domestic environment was explored. PM2.5 samples were simultaneously collected inside (living room and bedroom) and outside a detached house located in a peri-urban area. The daily concentrations of macro-components and of micro- and trace-elements (soluble and insoluble fractions) were determined over a period of eighteen days and used to obtain detailed information about the variability of PM sources in the outdoor and indoor environments. The most important outdoor contributions to PM mass concentrations were organic and secondary inorganic species, particularly during an atmospheric stability period. A nearby congested road was responsible for the resuspension of soil related species (Si, Ca, Fe). Indoors, PM mass concentration was significantly influenced by the presence of inhabitants and their routine activities. Cigarette smoking was selectively traced by the indoor concentration profile of soluble Cd. Particularly high Cu concentrations in the bedroom were associated with the use of electric appliances equipped with brush motors (vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, electric heater). Exhaust (EC) and non-exhaust (residual Sb, Cu, Mn, Mo and Sn) traffic tracers and biomass burning related species (K and soluble Rb, Cs, Tl) were able to penetrate indoors even when the ventilation of the house was poor. An accurate estimation of the health implications due to the exposure to PM2.5 in indoor, domestic environments must consider indoor and outdoor PM source contributions in detail
Assessment of the link between atmospheric dispersion and chemical composition of PM10 at 2-h time resolution
Full text linkThe concentration of air pollutants is governed by both emission rate and atmospheric dispersion conditions. The role played by the atmospheric mixing height in determining the daily time pattern of PM components at the time resolution of 2 h was studied during 21 days of observation selected from a 2-month field campaign carried out in the urban area of Rome, Italy. Natural radioactivity was used to obtain information about the mixing properties of the lower atmosphere throughout the day and allowed the identification of advection and stability periods. PM10 composition was determined by X-ray fluorescence, ion chromatography, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and thermo-optical analysis. A satisfactory mass closure was obtained on a 2-h basis, and the time pattern of the PM10 macro-sources (soil, sea, secondary inorganics, organics, traffic exhaust) was acquired at the same time scale. After a complete quality control procedure, 27 main components and source tracers were selected for further elaboration. On this database, we identified some groups of co-varying species related to the main sources of PM. Each group showed a peculiar behaviour in relation to the mixing depth. PM components released by soil, biomass burning and traffic exhaust, and, particularly, ammonium nitrate, showed a clear dependence on the mixing properties of the lower atmosphere. Biomass burning components and organics peaked during the night hours (around midnight), following the atmospheric stabilization and increased emission rate. Traffic exhausts and non-exhausts species also peaked in the evening, but they showed a second, minor increase between 6:00 and 10:00 when the strengthening of the emission rate (morning rush hour) was counterbalanced by the dilution of the atmosphere (increasing mixing depth). In the case of ammonium nitrate, high concentrations were kept during the whole night and morning
Performance evaluation of a very-low-volume sampler for atmospheric particulate matter
Full text linkA cheap and small device for sampling atmospheric particulate matter (PM) has been recently developed. It works at a very low flow rate (0.5 L min–1) and is able to collect the atmospheric aerosol on filters, allowing subsequent chemical analyses. The samplings have a long duration (1–2 months), and the devices can be used to make cheap networks over a territory. These very-low-volume samplers (VLVS) can be used to trace long-term concentration variations and to draw up concentration maps of PM and its chemical components. The performance of the VLVS was evaluated in terms of measurement repeatability and of agreement with the results obtained when using a 2.3 m3 h–1 reference sampler (REF). The study period was 1 year. The considered PM components were ions, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), levoglucosan and elements. The repeatability of the measurements was very good for all the examined PM components: the standard deviation of 3 replicates (co-located samplers) over 9 measurement periods was in the range 2.0–5.5% for ions, 10–17% for PAH, 5.2% for levoglucosan and 5.6–16% for elements. It was 8.2% for the PM mass concentration. This satisfactory performance indicates that the VLVSs can be reliably used to evaluate the spatial variability and to draw concentration maps of PM and PM components. A very good agreement with the reference sampler was obtained for ions, with the only exception of ammonium nitrate and ammonium chloride (VLVS values were up to 10–20% lower than the reference values), levoglucosan and elements. In the case of PAH, instead, the ratio VLVS/REF was in the range 1.2–1.6 for 4-ring congeners and 0.4–0.8 for 5-and 6-ring congeners. For all the congeners, anyway, these typical ratios were kept, with small variations, during the whole study period
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
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
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