177,684 research outputs found
Electrochemical peroxidation of contaminated water and assessment of the toxicity using existing and novel bioassays
Full text linkThe treatment of wastewater and monitoring of its toxicity is essential before discharging it to
the environment. This study focuses on assessing the toxicity of wastewater following
treatment using the electrochemical peroxidation process (ECP). Three categories of low-cost
toxicity assays were used based on plant cells, microorganisms and invertebrates, all of which
do not require ethical approval or a special licence. In addition, a novel cost-effective device
was developed for assessing wastewater toxicity at low concentrations.
In Chapter 2, the problem of high turbidity of the ECP-treated samples is addressed, by
accelerating particulate settling of the existent compounds. This was achieved by storing the
ECP treated samples at low temperatures. This is an essential step for enhancing the clarity of
the processed samples in order to improve the performance of the toxicity assays. Cont/d
Comparing Ref-Vectors and word embeddings in a verb semantic similarity task
No full textThis work introduces reference vectors (Ref-Vectors), a new kind of word vectors in which the semantics is determined by the property of words to refer to world entities (i.e. objects or events), rather than by contextual information retrieved in a corpus. Ref-Vectors are here compared with state-of-the-art word embeddings in a verb semantic similarity task. The SimVerb-3500 dataset has been used as a benchmark to verify the presence of a statistical correlation between the semantic similarity derived by human judgments and those measured with Ref-Vectors and verb embeddings. Results show that Ref-Vector similarities are closer to human judgments, proving that, within the action domain, these vectors capture verb semantics better than word embeddings
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
"Closing the R&D Gap, Evaluating the Sources of R&D Spending"
Full text linkBoth spending and tax policies have been implemented in the United States with the goal of stimulating private sector research and development (R&D). Karier questions whether current R&D policy, especially the research and experimentation tax credit, can contribute to closing the gap between nondefense expenditures on R&D in the United States and such expenditures in other countries, such as Japan and Germany. He also explores possible changes to our current R&D policy to make it more effective.
Semantic Role Annotation of Instrument Subjects
No full textSemantic role annotation has become widely used in NLP and lexical resource implementation. Even if attempts of standardization are being developed, discordance points are still present. In this paper we consider a problematic semantic role, the Instrument role, which presents differences in definition and causes problems of attribution. Particularly, it is not clear whether to assign this role to inanimate entities occurring as subjects or not. This problem is especially relevant 1- because of its treatment in practical annotation and semantic role labeling, 2- because it affects the whole definition of semantic roles. We propose arguments to sustain that inanimate nouns denoting instruments in subject positions are not instantiations of Instrument role, but are Cause, Agent or Theme. Ambiguities in the annotation of these cases are due to confusion between semantic roles and ontological types
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
The remediation of tributyltin-contaminated dredgins and waters
No full textTributyltin (TBT) is a pollutant, mainly introduced to the environment as a marine anti-fouling agent. The aim of this work was to assess and develop sustainable and cost-effective remediation technologies for TBT-contaminated dredged materials. For this purpose, analytical methods were developed for sediments and sediment leachates.For the sediments, a triple extraction followed by derivatisation and measurement by gas chromatography with pulsed flame photometric detection was employed, avoiding the lengthy concentration step of the organic layer. The TBT detection limit of ca 0.04 mg Sn/kg in sediment was below the suggested limit of 0.1 mg/kg for sea disposal of TBT-contaminated dredgings (OSPAR Commission). For the leachates, derivatisation and extraction into hexane was used. Also, a new procedure, with the potential for automation, was developed for the simultaneous analysis of multiple water samples, based on in situ extraction and derivatisation on C18 solid phase extraction cartridges. No legislative limits existed for TBT in leachates, therefore the detection limits of ca 6-10 ng Sn/L achieved were regarded satisfactory, as they were below or similar to the EQS for coastal and estuarine waters or freshwaters (2-20 ng/L TBT). A pilot investigation was carried out on a dockyard to evaluate the use of X-Ray fluorescence as a screening method for the presence of TBT in sediments. Due to tin contamination such a technique was not suitable for the site examined.Incineration was found to remove TBT but it would incur very high costs. Ultrasonic destruction was not effective enough, even on TBT-spiked water solutions. Carbon products, pure clays, organically modified clays, zero valent iron, fly ash and cements were screened for their abilities to prevent TBT leaching, using a leaching test. The best performer was a powdered activated carbon product which, even mixed with cement that increases the leaching of TBT, delivered a TBT-free (< 5 ng Sn/L) leaching test result 33 days after the mixing. The result showed that this technique could provide a solution for the immobilisation of TBT in contaminated dredgings by mixing this relatively low-cost, multi-purpose and inert additive, with or without cement according to the site specific requirements
Letter from R. R. Zellick, Assistant Trust Officer, Anglo California National Bank of San Francisco, to Joseph R. Goodman, October 2, 1942
No full textLetter from R. R. Zellick, Assistant Trust Officer at The Anglo California National Bank of San Francisco, to Joseph R. Goodman, regarding property owned by Dave Tatsuno. Zellick mentions a dispute between current tenants and Tatsuno, and that Tatsuno has asked Goodman to help locate trustworthy tenants.Personal correspondence, organizational records, government documents, publications, and other papers created or collected by Joseph R. Goodman documenting the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, as well as organized resistance to incarceration. Included in the collection are records of the Japanese Young Men's Christian Association and the Japanese American Citizens' League in San Francisco, including papers of the Japanese YMCA's executive secretary Lincoln Kanai; Sakai family papers; Goodman's correspondence to and from Japanese American incarcerees, organizations opposing forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans, the War Relocation Authority, and others; publications, photographs, and ephemera from the Topaz Relocation Center, where Goodman taught high school; War Relocation Authority records and publications; and newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and reports about forced removal and incarceration created by various government, religious, and civic organizations, in California and nationwide
Medetera varvara Grichanov & Vikhrev, sp. nov.
No full textMedetera varvara Grichanov & Vikhrev sp. nov. (Figs. 1–6) Type material. Holotype 3: Morocco, near Essaouira, 31.563 ºN 9.714 ºW, sand dune, 29 March 2009, N.Vikhrev (ZMU). Paratypes. 2 ƤƤ with same data as holotype, 28 and 29 March (ZMU). Diagnosis. Medetera varvara is related to Egyptian M. albescens (Parent) which differs from the former by silvery-white frons and face, hind coxa bearing three outer setae and fore tarsus unmodified. Ornamentation of fore legs is unknown for other species of Palearctic Medetera including M. albescens which was published with a rather detailed description. In the Afrotropics, only M. luteoscutata Parent, 1936, has a small apicoventral process on tarsomere 1 and 3 of fore leg. Mainly Pantropical Saccopheronta Becker, 1914, a sister genus (Grichanov 1997 b) or “ aberrans ’ group of Medetera species (Bickel 1985, 1987) includes species with thickened or widened tarsomeres 2 and 3 of male fore leg. The absolute majority of medeterine species of the world fauna have no remarkable fore leg decoration. Description. Male (Fig. 1): Length (mm): body 2.0, wing 2.0/ 0.7, antenna 0.7, hypopygium 0.8. Head: Frons, face, clypeus, palpus and postcranium greenish, evenly and densely dusted greyish-white, so frontoclypeal suture between face and clypeus not distinct. Postocular setae white, somewhat thickened, strongly increasing in length downward. Ventral postcranium shining greenish, with row of long white thickened setae. Frons with pair of strong vertical setae and pair of ocellar setae slightly stronger than verticals. Postverticals absent. Face relatively wide; ratio of height of face to its maximal width to height of clypeus to height of palpus, 15 / 8 / 5 / 5. Antennal segments short, with short white hairs; scape and pedicel orange-brownish, grey dusted at apex; postpedicel black, rounded. Stylus subapical, bare, about 2 times as long as ocellar seta. Proboscis short, black, shining, with white hairs. Thorax: Dark, densely grey dusted; mesonotum with 3 narrow bronze stripes distinct in anterior view. Three pairs of strong black dorsocentral setae, slightly decreasing in size anteriorly. Notopleural setae 2, sutural 1, supraalar 1, all black; 1 white humeral seta. Acrostichals very short, biseriate, white, extending to mesonotal flattening. Several white setulae in front of first dorsocentral and sutural setae. Propleuron with 5 white thickened setae, lower one almost 2 times longer than others. Scutellum with pair of strong black median setae, lateral setae absent. Legs: Yellow, except fore legs whitish-yellow, hind tibia darkened at apex, tarsomeres 4 and 5 and apical part of 2 and 3 of mid and hind legs brownish; mid and hind coxae mostly dark, grey dusted, yellow at apex. Fore coxa with dense brush of long white flattened setae on anterior surface. Fore femur and tibia without setae. Fore tarsomeres 1 to 5 each with pair of small brown apical postero- and anteroventral setulae; tarsomeres 2 to 5 each with pair of very small brown ventral setulae; tarsomeres 2 to 4 slightly flattened laterally; apical 1 / 3 of tarsomere 1 and tarsomeres 2 to 4 with comb of white thickened cilia on dorsal surface (Fig. 3). Mid coxa with dense brush of long thickened white setae on anterior surface; mid trochanter with single white seta on anterior position; mid femur without setae. Mid tibia with pair of antero- and posterodorsals at 1 / 4 and long apicoventral seta, all white. Mid tarsus with four brown apical setae on each segment; basitarsus in apical half with 4–5 short brown setulae, somewhat irregularly placed, but in either antero- or posteroventral positions, tarsomere 2 with 3 such setulae, 3 rd with 2 –3, 4th and 5 th with 2 ones each; all these setulae gradually decreasing in size apically. Hind coxa with single white seta on outer surface; hind femur with row of white dorsal setulae in basal half; hind tibia slightly thickened at apex, with posterodorsal setula at 1 / 4 and ventral apical one, both white; with very short black posterodorsal apical spur; hind tibia on apical 2 / 3, basitarsus and tarsomere 2 on basal 2 / 3 with row of short dense white posteroventral cilia; hind basitarsus short, with 2 apicals: brown anteroventral and white ventral, with small white posteroventral basal tooth and shallow basal excavation; tarsomeres 2 to 5 each with 1–3 brown anteroventral and 2–3 brown apical setulae, these setulae gradually decreasing in size apically. Fore leg length ratio (from coxa to tarsomere 5): 24 / 40 / 35 / 20 / 10 / 8 / 5 / 5, mid leg: 16 / 42 / 45 / 22 / 10 / 8 / 6 / 5, hind leg: 14 / 45 / 51 / 12 / 24 / 14 / 8 / 6. Wings: Hyaline, veins yellow in anterobasal quarter of wing, brown in other parts (Fig. 4). Costa without long hairs. R 1 short, extending to basal third of wing, R 4 + 5 and M 1 + 2 distinctly convergent at apex. Ratio of part of costa between R 2 + 3 and R 4 + 5 to this between R 4 + 5 and M 1 +2, 25/ 5. Ratio of apical to basal part of M 1 +2, 17/ 18. Ratio of cross-vein m-cu to maximal distance between R 4 + 5 and M 1 + 2 to distal part of CuA1, 10/ 11 / 12. Calypter yellow, with white cilia. Halter yellow. Abdomen: Covered with short white setulae, olive-grey dusted, with fore margin of tergites 3 to 5 bronze dorsally; posterior margin of tergite 1 with 5–6 white flattened setae on each side. Tergite 6 slightly longer than tergite 5; segment 7 longer than preceding, with short hairs; segment 8 large, left basolateral, shorthaired. Epandrium (Fig. 5) black, elongate-triangular; hypandrium basoventral, slightly swollen at base, then thinned, pointed at apex; phallus simple, pointed; epandrial lobe small, hardly divided, bearing pair of long simple setae; surstylus and cercus (Fig. 6) dark-brown; cercus fused almost to apex, covered with short white hairs. Female (Fig. 2): Length (mm): body 2.2, wing 2.2; similar to male except lacking male secondary sexual characters. Each hemitergite bearing 1 acanthophorite and 1 simple seta; acanthophorites thin, much longer than cercus; cercus small, with short hairs. Dense brush of thickened white setae on anterior surface of fore and hind coxae, but setae about two times shorter and more equal in length than those of male. Fore tarsi unmodified; tarsomeres 4 and 5 and apical part of 2 and 3 of fore legs brownish, as on mid and hind tarsi. Hind tibia without apical spur; hind basitarsus simple, without basal tooth. Distribution: Morocco. Etymology. The species is named for Varvara Vikhreva who kindly helped to collect flies in Morocco. Habitat: All three specimens of the type series were collected from sandy substrates. This habitat is rather unusual for mainly dendrophilous, sometimes petrophilous species of Medetera, although many species of the Nearctic M. petulca group occur in such habitats (Bickel pers. comm. 2009). Trees on sand dunes were also examined, but all specimens of tree trunk Medetera (M. flavipes Meigen, 1824, and M. pallipes (Zetterstedt, 1843)) collected on the Essaouira dunes (between 24 and 29 March) belong to other species groups of the genus. The senior author observed M. pallidior imagos in Southern Tajikistan (the Tigrovaya Balka Nature Reserve) in July 1978, where they populated rodent holes (to 5 cm in diameter) on a rather dry and flat semidesert plot not far from the border with a large area of riparian marshes. Males and females of the species concentrated around holes, and frightened or disturbed flies dropped immediately into the holes.Published as part of Ya, Igor & Vikhrev, Nikita E., 2009, Mediterranean species of the Medetera plumbella species group with description of a new peculiar species from Morocco (Diptera: Dolichopodidae), pp. 46-52 in Zootaxa 2170 on pages 48-51, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18920
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
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