Chemical genetics: how does it function?

This article highlights recent successes in the field of chemical genetics. It discusses the challenges inherent in this interdisciplinary research field and focuses on the essential role that the biologically aware synthetic chemist can play.     

Are speed enforcement cameras more effective than other speed management measures? An evaluation of the relationship between speed and accident reductions

In this paper, models are developed which enable a prediction of how the impact of speed management schemes on accidents varies both with speed changes and with site and scheme characteristics. It was found that, the impact of schemes with vertical deflections is independent of the change in mean speed: an accident reduction of 44% is predicted by the model irrespective of the impact on speed. For cameras and other types of engineering schemes, a simple relationship between the change in mean speed and the consequent change in accidents is available. For the range of mean speeds typically found on 30 mph roads, the percentage accident reduction per 1 mph speed reduction is around 4% for cameras and 7-8% for schemes with horizontal features. While larger percentage accident reductions are achieved per 1 mph speed reduction on lower speed roads, larger speed reductions and larger overall percentage accident reductions are obtained on roads with higher before mean speeds. It is possible to predict both changes in speeds and accidents before treatment using the models derived from this study and these models confirm that schemes with vertical deflections are most effective in reducing both speeds and accidents.     

Why does library holding format really matter for book impact assessment?: Modelling the relationship between citations and altmetrics with print and electronic holdings

Scientometrics - Scholarly books are important outputs in some fields and their many publishing formats seem to introduce opportunities to scrutinize their impact. As there is a growing interest in...     

Mistakes or deliberate violations? A study into the origins of rule breaking at pedestrian train crossings

Train pedestrian collisions are the most likely to result in severe injuries and fatalities when compared to other types of rail crossing accidents. However, there is currently scant research that has examined the origins of pedestrians’ rule breaking at level crossings. As a result, this study examined the origins of pedestrians’ rule breaking behaviour at crossings, with particular emphasis directed towards examining the factors associated with making errors versus deliberation violations. A total of 636 individuals volunteered to participate in the study and completed either an online or paper version of the questionnaire. Quantitative analysis of the data revealed that knowledge regarding crossing rules was high, although up to 18% of level crossing users were either unsure or did not know (in some circumstances) when it was legal to cross at a level crossing. Furthermore, 156 participants (24.52%) reported having intentionally violated the rules at level crossings and 3.46% (n = 22) of the sample had previously made a mistake at a crossing. In regards to rule violators, males (particularly minors) were more likely to report breaking rules, and the most frequent occurrence was after the train had passed rather than before it arrives. Regression analysis revealed that males who frequently use pedestrian crossings and report higher sensation seeking traits are most likely to break the rules. This research provides evidence that pedestrians are more likely to deliberately violate rules (rather than make errors) at crossings and it illuminates high risk groups. This paper will further outline the study findings in regards to the development of countermeasures as well as provide direction for future research efforts in this area.     

Cell response to magnetic glyconanoparticles: does the carbohydrate matter?

Magnetic nanoparticles have been used in therapeutic and diagnostic approaches in biomedicine for many years. For these applications, it is very important to investigate the nanoparticle-cell interactions. In this study we report a simple method for the preparation of gold-iron nanoparticles protected and functionalized with biologically relevant saccharides (maltose, lactose, and glucose). The nanoparticles were subsequently tested in vitro with a human fibroblast cell line to determine biocompatibility, and the cell-particle interactions, using fluorescence and scanning electron microscopies. Different cellular responses were obtained for each type of glyconanoparticle, demonstrating that the cells can recognize the saccharides on the nanoparticles.     

Accident proneness,does it exist? A review and meta-analysis

Accident related health problems have been suggested to cluster within persons. This phenomenon became known as accident proneness and has been a subject of many discussions. This study provides an overview of accident proneness. Therefore, 79 articles with empirical data on accident rates were identified from databases Embase, Medline, and Psychinfo. First, definitions of accidents varied highly, but most studies focused on accidents resulting in injuries requiring medical attention. Second, operationalisations of accident proneness varied highly. Studies categorised individuals into groups with ascending accident rates or made non-accident, accident, and repetitive accident groups. Third, studies examined accidents in specific contexts (traffic, work, and sports) or populations (children, students, and patients). Therefore, we concluded that no overall prevalence rate of accident proneness could be given due to the large variety in operationalisations. However, a meta-analysis of the distribution of accidents in the general population showed that the observed number of individuals with repeated accidents was higher than the number expected by chance. In conclusion, accident proneness exists, but its study is severely hampered by the variation in operationalisations of the concept. In an effort to reach professional consensus on the concept, we end this paper with recommendations for further research.     

The Pareto managerial principle: when does it apply?

The well-known 80/20 Pareto principle and its refinement into “A”, “B”, and “C” categories give rise to a managerial methodology consisting of three steps: classification; differentiation; and resource allocation. This is an easy-to-implement and extremely effective methodology. It starts with the creation of “Pareto diagrams”, i.e. bar charts of attributes and their relative frequency, presented in descending order. Typically, Pareto diagrams are useful in that they provide managers with a summary of practical information, revealing critical attributes. However, sometimes a Pareto diagram is less informative than it might be, because the relative frequency is almost uniform. The objective of this article is to provide an analytical tool (an index) that employs the above-mentioned methodology to measure the closeness of empirical Pareto diagrams to an “ideal” Pareto diagram. The index developed is based upon entropy.     

ALARP—What does it really mean?

This paper examines the requirements that might reasonably be regarded as being implied by the ALARP principle. The principle stipulates that those responsible should reduce risks of death and injury for workers and members of the public to levels that are ‘As Low As Reasonably Practicable’. The main aim of the paper is to resolve the apparent conflict between the ALARP principle on the one hand and, on the other, conventional social cost-benefit analysis. In particular, cost-benefit analysis prescribes that a safety improvement should be undertaken only if the cost of doing so is less than or equal to the resultant benefits, whereas some regulatory agencies interpret ALARP as requiring that the improvement must be undertaken provided that costs are not in ‘gross disproportion’ to benefits, which would clearly include cases in which costs might substantially exceed benefits.     

Controlling quantum phenomena: Why does it appear easy to achieve?

Abstract

The introduction of optimal control theory and associated optimal control experiments have produced many successful results for manipulating quantum systems including those of high complexity. These findings may appear surprising as hundreds of control variables are simultaneously searched to optimize a typical objective. This paper discusses the reason for this attractive behaviour, revealing that the origin lies in the quantum system simply being controllable and undergoing unitary evolution. Under satisfaction of these conditions, the search space landscape for maximizing the probability of making a quantum transition is shown to have no false extrema. Although real systems may not be fully controllable, this result provides the basis to explain the generally successful findings from quantum optimal control simulations and experiments, as well as provides a very positive projection of the future for the field.     

Emergency management: does it have a sufficiently comprehensive understanding of decision-making, process and context?

It is widely recognised in the social and management sciences that the effective support of decision-making requires a multidisciplinary perspective. This trend is also clear in nuclear emergency management (EM). However, communication between disciplines is not easy to maintain in EM contexts when the decision makers (DMs) are likely to be highly stressed. Such circumstances can lead them to revert to the instinctive patterns of perception of their core disciplines, making communication between disciplines difficult and, perhaps, obscuring complex interactions that have not been rehearsed in practice exercises. This paper explores decision making in EM and the nature of the socio-technical issues that will arise, suggesting that despite the lessons of past accidents the research EM community is still not taking a broad enough view of what future incidents may entail.     

Presence of passengers: does it increase or reduce driver's crash potential?

This study examines the impact of passengers on the driver's crash potential on freeways. To estimate the impact, a set of bivariate probit models were developed using the 5-year (1999-2003) crash records on a 36.3-mile stretch of Interstate-4 freeway (I-4) in Orlando, Florida. Bivariate probit models identify the correlation between potentially inter-related choices of three passenger characteristics and three crash characteristics. The analysis using bivariate probit models showed that there exist strong correlations between passenger and crash characteristics. It was found that drivers generally display safer driving behavior when they are accompanied by passengers, and more passengers reduce driver's crash potential. It was also found that younger driver's crash potential increases with the presence of a younger passenger only. In addition, the analysis of crash type using traffic flow parameters at the time of crashes showed that young drivers with only younger passengers are more likely to be involved in single-vehicle crashes in high-speed and low-volume conditions. The findings in this study provide insight into how the presence of passengers has an impact on driver behavior and traffic safety in various conditions.     

Complementarity effect of governance mechanisms on environmental collaboration: does it exist?

This study evaluates the effect of pre-existing relational governance mechanisms on environmental collaboration. Specifically, our study distinguishes between structural and process dimensions of relational governance mechanisms so as to facilitate a more nuanced investigation into the inherent complementarities and performance implications. Using data collected from 145 US firms and a combination of methodologies – three-stage least squares and structural equation modelling, a number of direct, complementary and mediation effects are hypothesised and tested. The three-stage least squares methodology was adopted to overcome endogeneity and simultaneity issues inherent in the hypotheses covering complementarity. Contrary to conventional wisdom, structural and process governance mechanisms were not found to act as complements for environmental collaboration. Instead, the effect of structural mechanisms was found to be completely mediated by the process mechanisms. Thus, process mechanisms of relational governance were found to be much more important in promoting advanced practices such as environmental collaboration. Our results also document the significant mediating role of environmental collaboration. Implications for future research and practice are offered.     

How does the Earth system generate and maintain thermodynamic disequilibrium and what does it imply for the future of the planet?

The Earth's chemical composition far from chemical equilibrium is unique in our Solar System, and this uniqueness has been attributed to the presence of widespread life on the planet. Here, I show how this notion can be quantified using non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Generating and maintaining disequilibrium in a thermodynamic variable requires the extraction of power from another thermodynamic gradient, and the second law of thermodynamics imposes fundamental limits on how much power can be extracted. With this approach and associated limits, I show that the ability of abiotic processes to generate geochemical free energy that can be used to transform the surface-atmosphere environment is strongly limited to less than 1?TW. Photosynthetic life generates more than 200?TW by performing photochemistry, thereby substantiating the notion that a geochemical composition far from equilibrium can be a sign for strong biotic activity. Present-day free energy consumption by human activity in the form of industrial activity and human appropriated net primary productivity is of the order of 50?TW and therefore constitutes a considerable term in the free energy budget of the planet. When aiming to predict the future of the planet, we first note that since global changes are closely related to this consumption of free energy, and the demands for free energy by human activity are anticipated to increase substantially in the future, the central question in the context of predicting future global change is then how human free energy demands can increase sustainably without negatively impacting the ability of the Earth system to generate free energy. This question could be evaluated with climate models, and the potential deficiencies in these models to adequately represent the thermodynamics of the Earth system are discussed. Then, I illustrate the implications of this thermodynamic perspective by discussing the forms of renewable energy and planetary engineering that would enhance the overall free energy generation and, thereby 'empower' the future of the planet.     

Reverse-engineering conference rankings: what does it take to make a reputable conference?

In recent years, several national and community-driven conference rankings have been compiled. These rankings are often taken as indicators of reputation and used for a variety of purposes, such as evaluating the performance of academic institutions and individual scientists, or selecting target conferences for paper submissions. Current rankings are based on a combination of objective criteria and subjective opinions that are collated and reviewed through largely manual processes. In this setting, the aim of this paper is to shed light into the following question: to what extent existing conference rankings reflect objective criteria, specifically submission and acceptance statistics and bibliometric indicators? The paper specifically considers three conference rankings in the field of Computer Science: an Australian national ranking, a Brazilian national ranking and an informal community-built ranking. It is found that in all cases bibliometric indicators are the most important determinants of rank. It is also found that in all rankings, top-tier conferences can be identified with relatively high accuracy through acceptance rates and bibliometric indicators. On the other hand, acceptance rates and bibliometric indicators fail to discriminate between mid-tier and bottom-tier conferences.     

Patent protection: does it promote or inhibit the patented technological knowledge diffusion?

Patents not only promote the dissemination of technological knowledge through the disclosure of innovative information, but restrict the use of patented technology by the public within the scope of the law. With this exclusive protection on the premise of information disclosure, it is ambiguous whether patents help or hinder the diffusion of knowledge within the span of patents. This study first constructs a multidimensional index of patented technological knowledge diffusion (PTKD) from spatiotemporal aspects, and compares the differences in technological knowledge diffusion of four types of patents—valid patent (VP), zero-cited patent before expiration (Z-B), zero-cited patent after expiration (Z-A), and non-zero-cited patent before and after expiration (NZ-BA). Then, the impact of patent protection—patent lifetime (PL), the number of independent claims (NIC), the number of words in the first independent claim (NWF)—on the degree of PTKD is explored. The results demonstrate that NZ-BA has the highest level of PTKD in terms of growth rate, technological and geographical breadth and depth, followed by VP. Meanwhile, PL affects the diffusion growth rate and technological and geographical breadth negatively, NIC positively affects the diffusion average speed and technological and geographical depth while NWF only positively affects the technological depth of diffusion. These findings highlight the role of different types of patents in promoting technological innovation and promote a better understanding of the correlation between patent protection and PTKD, which provides support for decision-makers to protect property protection and guides the patentees to protect their long-term economic and technological benefits.

     

Antisemitism and Islamophobia: what does a bibliometric study reveal?

Although Islamophobia and Antisemitism are two phenomena different in their nature, both represent a form of Otherness that entails a complicated inclusion into multi-ethnic societies of modern Europe and the United States. The purpose of the present study is to show how the research literature has portrayed both phenomena in terms of bibliometric data retrieved from the SCIE Clarivate Analytics database. In addition, we were interested to find out if there is a literature that connects Islamophobia and Antisemitism, its direction and influence. Our findings show that because publications and citations on Islamophobia are relatively new, the research in terms of publications draws the attention of academic society in the direction of research of Antisemitism, but the citations count of the literature on Islamophobia exceeds by far that of the literature on Antisemitism. Moreover, we found that although Antisemitism and Islamophobia are distinct trends, there is an interaction between the literatures that discuss both, and the research that combines the analysis of both phenomena gains more influence than research dedicated to each phenomenon separately.