1,721,081 research outputs found
A process for the management of physical infrastructure
No full textPhysical infrastructure assets are important components of our society and our\ud
economy. They are usually designed to last for many years, are expected to be\ud
heavily used during their lifetime, carry considerable load, and are exposed to the\ud
natural environment. They are also normally major structures, and therefore present\ud
a heavy investment, requiring constant management over their life cycle to ensure\ud
that they perform as required by their owners and users.\ud
Given a complex and varied infrastructure life cycle, constraints on available\ud
resources, and continuing requirements for effectiveness and efficiency, good\ud
management of infrastructure is important. While there is often no one best\ud
management approach, the choice of options is improved by better identification and\ud
analysis of the issues, by the ability to prioritise objectives, and by a scientific\ud
approach to the analysis process. The abilities to better understand the effect of\ud
inputs in the infrastructure life cycle on results, to minimise uncertainty, and to\ud
better evaluate the effect of decisions in a complex environment, are important in\ud
allocating scarce resources and making sound decisions.\ud
Through the development of an infrastructure management modelling and analysis\ud
methodology, this thesis provides a process that assists the infrastructure manager in\ud
the analysis, prioritisation and decision making process. This is achieved through\ud
the use of practical, relatively simple tools, integrated in a modular flexible\ud
framework that aims to provide an understanding of the interactions and issues in the\ud
infrastructure management process.\ud
The methodology uses a combination of flowcharting and analysis techniques. It\ud
first charts the infrastructure management process and its underlying infrastructure\ud
life cycle through the time interaction diagram, a graphical flowcharting\ud
methodology that is an extension of methodologies for modelling data flows in\ud
information systems. This process divides the infrastructure management process\ud
over time into self contained modules that are based on a particular set of activities,\ud
the information flows between which are defined by the interfaces and relationships\ud
between them.\ud
The modular approach also permits more detailed analysis, or aggregation, as the\ud
case may be. It also forms the basis of ext~nding the infrastructure modelling and\ud
analysis process to infrastructure networks, through using individual infrastructure\ud
assets and their related projects as the basis of the network analysis process.\ud
It is recognised that the infrastructure manager is required to meet, and balance, a\ud
number of different objectives, and therefore a number of high level outcome goals\ud
for the infrastructure management process have been developed, based on common\ud
purpose or measurement scales. These goals form the basis of classifYing the larger\ud
set of multiple objectives for analysis purposes. A two stage approach that\ud
rationalises then weights objectives, using a paired comparison process, ensures that\ud
the objectives required to be met are both kept to the minimum number required and\ud
are fairly weighted. Qualitative variables are incorporated into the weighting and\ud
scoring process, utility functions being proposed where there is risk, or a trade-off\ud
situation applies.\ud
Variability is considered important in the infrastructure life cycle, the approach used\ud
being based on analytical principles but incorporating randomness in variables where\ud
required. The modular design of the process permits alternative processes to be used\ud
within particular modules, if this is considered a more appropriate way of analysis,\ud
provided boundary conditions and requirements for linkages to other modules, are\ud
met.\ud
Development and use of the methodology has highlighted a number of infrastructure\ud
life cycle issues, including data and information aspects, and consequences of\ud
change over the life cycle, as well as variability and the other matters discussed\ud
above. It has also highlighted the requirement to use judgment where required, and\ud
for organisations that own and manage infrastructure to retain intellectual knowledge\ud
regarding that infrastructure.\ud
It is considered that the methodology discussed in this thesis, which to the author's\ud
knowledge has not been developed elsewhere, may be used for the analysis of\ud
alternatives, planning, prioritisation of a number of projects, and identification of the\ud
principal issues in the infrastructure life cycle
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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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