Impact factors and peer judgment: The case of regional science journals

Summary This paper discusses the relationship between Journal Impact Factors and the scientific community's judgment of the quality of journals in regional science, a discipline closely related to economics and geography. The paper compares the results of a survey inquiring the quality of journals in the discipline with the impact factors of these journals for a total of five years. The comparison shows that no significant positive correlation between the impact factors and the peer judgments can be found. In many cases the correlation turns out to be negative - in some cases even significantly.     

Compiling bottom-up and mixed derivations into top-down executable logic programs

We present a technique for the compilation of bottom-up and mixed logic derivations into PROLOG-programs. It is obtained as an extension of a program transformation technique called Compiling Control. We illustrate its applications in three different domains: solving numerical problems, integrity checking in deductive databases and theorem proving. The aim is to obtain efficient PROLOG programs for problems in which a non-top-down control is most appropriate.Work partly supported by ESPRIT BRA COMPULOG (project 3012).Supported by the Belgian I.W.O.N.L.-I.R.S.I.A. under contract number 5203. Author for correspondence.Supported by the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research.     

Exudation of Ag and Cu in internally oxidized Ag-Sn-In-(Cu) alloys

Growth and structure of pure Ag layers are investigated on the surface and at grain boundaries of Ag alloys that have been internally oxidized. Two Ag-Sn-In and an Ag-Sn-In-Cu alloy were studied by ion polishing, field emission scanning electron microscopy and optical microscopy. As already known from previous studies Ag atoms diffuse towards the surface. In the present study it is shown that grain boundaries can act as a sink for diffusing Ag atoms in competition with the surface. In the quaternary alloy Ag and Cu diffuse towards the surface simultaneously. The Cu diffusion is confined by the nucleation of CuO particles. The progress of the internal oxidation front is discussed in conjunction with the nucleation of pure Ag crystallites and CuO particles at grain boundaries.     

Planar silver nanowire,carbon nanotube and PEDOT:PSS nanocomposite transparent electrodes

Highly conductive, transparent and flexible planar electrodes were fabricated using interwoven silver nanowires and single-walled carbon nanotubes (AgNW:SWCNT) in a PEDOT:PSS matrix via an epoxy transfer method from a silicon template. The planar electrodes achieved a sheet resistance of 6.6 ± 0.0 Ω/□ and an average transmission of 86% between 400 and 800 nm. A high figure of merit of 367 Ω⁻¹ is reported for the electrodes, which is much higher than that measured for indium tin oxide and reported for other AgNW composites. The AgNW:SWCNT:PEDOT:PSS electrode was used to fabricate low temperature (annealing free) devices demonstrating their potential to function with a range of organic semiconducting polymer:fullerene bulk heterojunction blend systems.     

Determination of glycerol by oxidation with periodic acid

Summary An acidimetric procedure for the determination of glycerol following oxidation with periodic acid has been described. This procedure has been successfully applied to C. P. grade glycerin, spent soap lyes, soap lye crudes, half crudes, saponification crudes, evaporator salt, and mixtures of glycerol with trimethylene glycol and polyglycerols. Factors that influence the determination, such as size of sample, presence of salt and the presence of organic compounds containing hydroxyl groups, have been discussed.