Quantitative Perspectives on Fifty Years of the Journal of the History of Biology

Journal of the History of Biology provides a fifty-year long record for examining the evolution of the history of biology as a scholarly discipline. In this paper, we present a new dataset and preliminary quantitative analysis of the thematic content of JHB from the perspectives of geography, organisms, and thematic fields. The geographic diversity of authors whose work appears in JHB has increased steadily since 1968, but the geographic coverage of the content of JHB articles remains strongly lopsided toward the United States, United Kingdom, and western Europe and has diversified much less dramatically over time. The taxonomic diversity of organisms discussed in JHB increased steadily between 1968 and the late 1990s but declined in later years, mirroring broader patterns of diversification previously reported in the biomedical research literature. Finally, we used a combination of topic modeling and nonlinear dimensionality reduction techniques to develop a model of multi-article fields within JHB. We found evidence for directional changes in the representation of fields on multiple scales. The diversity of JHB with regard to the representation of thematic fields has increased overall, with most of that diversification occurring in recent years. Drawing on the dataset generated in the course of this analysis, as well as web services in the emerging digital history and philosophy of science ecosystem, we have developed an interactive web platform for exploring the content of JHB, and we provide a brief overview of the platform in this article. As a whole, the data and analyses presented here provide a starting-place for further critical reflection on the evolution of the history of biology over the past half-century.Comment: 45 pages, 14 figures, 4 table

Aspects of the motivation for voluntary disclosures: evidence from the publication of value added statements in an emerging economy

This paper investigates the motivation for the voluntary disclosure of financial information by companies in their annual financial statements, by examining aspects of the usefulness of the value added statement. The value added statement is published voluntarily with the annual financial statements and is currently experiencing high levels of publication in South Africa, which is evidently brought about by the high political costs and significant legitimacy threats that companies operating in South Africa are facing. It was found from the literature and from a survey among management that the value added statement was primarily aimed at the employees. Employees have also been regarded as users of financial information in the literature. However, a survey among trade unions in South Africa found that almost no use is made of the value added statement even though the unions make use of other financial information. This indicates that voluntary disclosures do not necessarily satisfy the information needs of their intended audience. The research also indicates that the trade unions might not use the value added statement because they suspect that the statement is being used to reduce political costs and legitimacy threats, and is therefore not reliable. This is a major shortcoming of voluntary disclosures

Az élhetőbb Magyarország esélye

A tanulmány azt a kérdést vizsgálja, hogy társadalmi értelemben mennyire volt sikeres Magyarország átalakulása az elmúlt két évtizedben. Megállapítja, hogy a gazdasági siker és a társadalmi deficit kettőssége mellett az első másfél évtized tartalékai kifulladóban vannak. Az uniós tagság csak esélyt, de nem biztosítékot jelent az új szakasz véghezvitelére. 2007-ben egészen más kihívások előtt áll az ország, mint 1995-ben állt. Ebből is adódóan ezúttal a fenntartható növekedés és az eddigieknél eredményesebb társadalompolitika kettősére, illetőleg a mindezt megalapozó irányok fölvázolására teszünk kísérletet

Geological notes and local details for 1:10 000 sheet TM 49 NW : Thurlton : part of 1:50 000 sheet 162 (Great Yarmouth)

This report describes the geology of the 1:10,000 sheet TM 49 NW (Figure 1) which is included i n the l:5O,OOO Great Yarmouth (162) geological map. The area was first surveyed by J H Blake and C Reid as part of the Old Series oneinch sheets 67 SE (JHB) and 66 SE (CR/JHB) published i n 1882 and 1881 respectively. The primary six-inch survey of the Thurlton area was made by P M Hopson in 1985 under the direction of D r R G Thurrell, Programme Manager, Eastern England Land Survey. Uncoloured dye-line copies of the map can be obtained from the British Geological Survey, Keyworth. The area described covers part of the broad valley near the confluence of the lower Yare and Waveney rivers, together with some gently undulating country which rises towards the south west to a plateau founded on boulder clay

Tidal Streams as Probes of the Galactic Potential

We explore the use of tidal streams from Galactic satellites to recover the potential of the Milky Way. Our study is motivated both by the discovery of the first lengthy stellar stream in the halo (\cite{it98}) and by the prospect of measuring proper motions of stars brighter than 20th magnitude in such a stream with an accuracy of $\sim 4\mu as/$yr, as will be possible with the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM). We assume that the heliocentric radial velocities of these stars can be determined from supporting ground-based spectroscopic surveys, and that the mass and phase-space coordinates of the Galactic satellite with which they are associated will also be known to SIM accuracy. Using results from numerical simulations as trial data sets, we find that, if we assume the correct form for the Galactic potential, we can predict the distances to the stars as a consequence of the narrow distribution of energy expected along the streams. We develop an algorithm to evaluate the accuracy of any adopted potential by requiring that the satellite and stars recombine within a Galactic lifetime when their current phase-space coordinates are integrated backwards. When applied to a four-dimensional grid of triaxial logarithmic potentials, with varying circular velocities, axis ratios and orientation of the major-axis in the disk plane, the algorithm can recover the parameters used for the Milky Way in a simulated data set to within a few percent using only 100 stars in a tidal stream.Comment: Revised version - original algorithm generalised to be applicable to any potential shape. LaTeX, 12 pages including 3 figures. To be published in ApJ Letter

The Murphy-Good plot: a better method of analysing field emission data

Measured field electron emission (FE) current-voltage Im(Vm) data are traditionally analysed via Fowler-Nordheim (FN) plots, as ln{Im/(Vm)**2} vs 1/Vm. These have been used since 1929, because in 1928 FN predicted they would be linear. In the 1950s, a mistake in FN's thinking was found. Corrected theory by Murphy and Good (MG) made theoretical FN plots slightly curved. This causes difficulties when attempting to extract precise values of emission characterization parameters from straight lines fitted to experimental FN plots. Improved mathematical understanding, from 2006 onwards, has now enabled a new FE data-plot form, the "Murphy-Good plot". This plots ln{Im/(Vm)**(2-({\eta}/6)} vs 1/Vm, where {\eta} depends only on local work function. Modern ("21st century") MG theory predicts that a theoretical MG plot should be "almost exactly" straight. This makes precise extraction of well-defined characterization parameters from ideal I_m(V_m) data much easier. This article gives the theory needed to extract characterization parameters from MG plots, setting it within the framework of wider difficulties in interpreting FE Im(Vm) data (among them, use of the "planar emission approximation"). Careful use of MG plots could also help remedy other problems in FE technological literature. It is argued MG plots should now supersede FN plots.Comment: Intended articl

Business as Usual: The response of the corporate sector to the May 2008 xenophobic violence

This work set out to fulfil two principal objectives: to investigate the contribution of the corporate sector with particular reference to the mining sector with its reliance on foreign labour, and thereafter to reflect on civil society's response to the xenophobic violence of May 2008. Explicitly in terms of the future, this work looks to offer insights into the future of civil society activism as reflected through the lens of the xenophobic violence