1,720,987 research outputs found
Environmental forensics: Where techniques and technologies enforce Safety and security programs
No full textSafety and security engineering involve several and complex multidisciplinary activities aimed to preserve people and the environment from hazards and risks. These concepts that were born as "umbrella" terms for the laws, rules; process design is generally applied only for workplaces or related to the employees; indeed, the scenario of related applications is only limited by the typical needs of the specific context. Recently, new methods and applications for detecting, evaluating, and tracking signs of environmental contamination are validating the effectiveness of safety and security engineering tools also in the environmental field. As in a workplace an engineer is called to analyze a complex scenario (e.g. to evaluate a risk, to assess a real danger and, therefore, look for causes to define the dynamics and find a solution), in the same way the environmental forensic scientist has to examine scenarios and actors to define the relationships to reveal source, path and target; in both the same techniques and technologies used in the analyses play a key role. This paper introduces a multidisciplinary strategy that bridges different approaches incorporating remote/proximal sensing applications where techniques and technologies enforce safety and security programs. A part of Campania coast, close to Salerno city in southwestern Italy, was chosen as a test bed of our strategy. All the activities were performed supporting the environmental investigations directed by Salerno Prosecutor Office and also cooperating with Italian police and several Government bodies. This paper provides an example where law enforcement and university research teams collaborate to develop enhanced environmental protection methods
Environmental monitoring and assessment: A multi-scale and multiparameter case study in Campania Region (S Italy) on the recreational seawater quality evaluation
No full textMultiple recreational seawater pollution episodes affected the coasts of Campania region (Southern Italy) during the 2019 summer season (May through September). The region’s population detected evidence of this pollution by a change in the water colour (to green–brown).This pollution was only partially revealed by conventional monitoring and standardized indicators performed by the Campania Region Environmental Protection Agency (ARPAC). Starting with this evidence, a multidisciplinary team that included representatives from both Italian and United States universities, the Regional Environmental Protection Agency, and the Italian Coast Guard, studied the phenomenon and found all three actors of the environmental model source-path-target. The research was performed using the Multi-level and Multi-parametric monitoring (MUM3) framework, following a bottom-up approach, comprising both onsite and remote sampled and sensed data, that begins at the surface level and scales up to determine the extent as well as the source of the pollution. By this approach, the presence of a microalgae bloom (Pyramimonas spp. and Euglena spp.) has been disclosed and it has been related to the higher amount of nutrients loading by river inflows, due to the precipitation anomalies occurred in May 2019 in that site. This study represents the first application of a real testbed of the MUM3 framework that follows a bottom-up approach showing the added value of this multi-scale and multiparameter methodology for environmental monitoring and assessment, where conventional methods often fail
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
Cholesterol derivatives make large part of the lipids from epidermal molts of the desert-adapted Gila monster lizard (Heloderma suspectum)
Full text linkIn order to understand the cutaneous water loss in the desert-adapted and venomous lizard Heloderma suspectum, the microscopic structure and lipid composition of epidermal molts have been examined using microscopic, spectroscopic and chemical analysis techniques. The molt is formed by a variably thick, superficial beta-layer, an extensive mesos-region and few alpha-cells in its lowermost layers. The beta-layer contains most corneous beta proteins while the mesos-region is much richer in lipids. The proteins in the mesos-region are more unstructured than those located in the beta-layer. Most interestingly, among other lipids, high contents of cholesteryl-β-glucoside and cholesteryl sulfate were detected, molecules absent or present in traces in other species of squamates. These cholesterol derivatives may be involved in the stabilization and compaction of the mesos-region, but present a limited permeability to water movements. The modest resistance to cutaneous water-loss of this species is compensated by adopting other physiological strategies to limit thermal damage and water transpiration as previous eco-physiological studies have indicated. The increase of steroid derivatives may also be implicated in the heat shock response, influencing the relative behavior in this desert-adapted lizard
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
Computational prediction of chiroptical properties in structure elucidation of natural products
No full textThis review covers the current status of the quantum mechanical prediction of chiroptical properties, such as electronic CD and optical rotation, as needed for stereochemical assignments in new natural products. The reliability of the prediction of chiroptical properties is steadily increasing, with a parallel decrease in the required computational resources. Now, quantum mechanical calculations for a medium-sized natural product can be reliably performed by natural product chemists on a mainstream PC. This review is aimed to guide natural product chemists through the numerous steps involved in such calculations. Through a concise, but comprehensive, discussion of the current computational practice, enriched by a few illustrative examples, this review provides readers with the theoretical background and practical knowledge needed to select the most appropriate parameters for performing the calculations, to anticipate possible problems, and to critically evaluate the reliability of their computational results. Common reasons for mistakes are also discussed; in particular, the importance of the correct evaluation of conformational ensembles of flexible molecules (an aspect often overlooked in current research) is stressed
HIERARCHICAL MONITORING OF WATER QUALITY: COORDINATING THE SPATIOTEMPORAL RESOLUTION OF MULTILAYER AND MULTISPECTRAL SENSORS TO CHARACTERIZE POLLUTION
No full textDispelling 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
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