The structure of the Arts & Humanities Citation Index: A mapping on the basis of aggregated citations among 1,157 journals

Using the Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) 2008, we apply mapping techniques previously developed for mapping journal structures in the Science and Social Science Citation Indices. Citation relations among the 110,718 records were aggregated at the level of 1,157 journals specific to the A&HCI, and the journal structures are questioned on whether a cognitive structure can be reconstructed and visualized. Both cosine-normalization (bottom up) and factor analysis (top down) suggest a division into approximately twelve subsets. The relations among these subsets are explored using various visualization techniques. However, we were not able to retrieve this structure using the ISI Subject Categories, including the 25 categories which are specific to the A&HCI. We discuss options for validation such as against the categories of the Humanities Indicators of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the panel structure of the European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH), and compare our results with the curriculum organization of the Humanities Section of the College of Letters and Sciences of UCLA as an example of institutional organization

Adaptive temporal decimation algorithm with dynamic time window

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Interdisciplinarity among Academic Scientists: Individual and Organizational Factors

Drawing on a wide variety of social science theories, this study investigates the effects of tenure system, university climate for interdisciplinary research (IDR), gender, and industry experience on academic scientists’ engagement in IDR in different disciplines. Using survey and bibliometric data, two dependent variables are generated to measure production aspects of IDR: the self-reported percentage of IDR papers which is from researchers’ own estimate of their IDR papers responding to one survey question, and the calculated percentage of IDR papers which is a combination of two bibliometric indicators of scientists’ borrowing and boundary crossing activities. Results find that our conventional wisdom about the effects of some individual and organizational factors on scientists’ propensity to engage in IDR is outdated, and their effects depend on the disciplinary contexts. These findings suggest science policy makers, funding agencies and university administrators to keep fresh and informed about scientists’ research activities and underlying context and take full into account of distinct characteristics of different disciplines when they make or reform policies to encourage IDR work

Mathematical knowledge and skills expected by higher education in engineering and the social sciences: Implications for high school mathematics curriculum

Cataloged from PDF version of article.One important function of school mathematics curriculum is to prepare high school students with the knowledge and skills needed for university education. Identifying them empirically will help making sound decisions about the contents of high school mathematics curriculum. It will also help students to make informed choices in course selection at high school. In this study, we surveyed university faculty members who teach first year university students about the mathematical knowledge and skills that they would like to see in incoming high school graduates. Data were collected from 122 faculty members from social science (history, law, psychology) and engineering departments (electrical/electronics and computer engineering). Participants were asked to indicate which high school mathematics topics and skills they thought were important to be successful at university education in their field. Results were compared across social science and engineering departments. Implications were drawn for curriculum specialists, students, and mathematics educators

Mathematical knowledge and skills expected by higher education in engineering and the social sciences: Implications for high school mathematics curriculum

One important function of school mathematics curriculum is to prepare high school students with the knowledge and skills needed for university education. Identifying them empirically will help making sound decisions about the contents of high school mathematics curriculum. It will also help students to make informed choices in course selection at high school. In this study, we surveyed university faculty members who teach first year university students about the mathematical knowledge and skills that they would like to see in incoming high school graduates. Data were collected from 122 faculty members from social science (history, law, psychology) and engineering departments (electrical/electronics and computer engineering). Participants were asked to indicate which high school mathematics topics and skills they thought were important to be successful at university education in their field. Results were compared across social science and engineering departments. Implications were drawn for curriculum specialists, students, and mathematics educators. © 2015 by iSER

Energy efficiency opportunities in the service plants of cast iron foundries in Italy

Though in a foundry most of the energy is used in the process plants and particularly in energizing furnaces, service plants require absolutely large amounts of energy, above all as electricity. The most energy consuming service is compressed air preparation, but large amounts are due to lighting, HVAC, pumps and fans. These energy users are common to most of industrial branches with different weights both in absolute and relative terms. This paper reports on the experience of some energy audits carried out in five Italian cast iron foundries allowing to identify the relative importance of different services in this industrial branch. The analysis is based on real data measured during the audits. Energy saving actions were then conceived, comparing the results of new technologies applied in some factory sectors and the energy usage of the previous equipment