The Arab world's contribution to solid waste literature: a bibliometric analysis

BACKGROUND: Environmental and health-related effects of solid waste material are considered worldwide problems. The aim of this study was to assess the volume and impact of Arab scientific output published in journals indexed in the Science Citation Index (SCI) on solid waste. METHODS: We included all the documents within the SCI whose topic was solid waste from all previous years up to 31 December 2012. In this bibliometric analysis we sought to evaluate research that originated from Arab countries in the field of solid waste, as well as its relative growth rate, collaborative measures, productivity at the institutional level, and the most prolific journals. RESULTS: A total of 382 (2.35 % of the overall global research output in the field of solid waste) documents were retrieved from the Arab countries. The annual number of documents published in the past three decades (1982–2012) indicated that research productivity demonstrated a noticeable rise during the last decade. The highest number of articles associated with solid waste was that of Egypt (22.8 %), followed by Tunisia (19.6), and Jordan (13.4 %). the total number of citations over the analysed years at the date of data collection was 4,097, with an average of 10.7 citations per document. The h-index of the citing articles was 31. Environmental science was the most researched topic, represented by 175 (45.8 %) articles. Waste Management was the top active journal. The study recognized 139 (36.4 %) documents from collaborations with 25 non-Arab countries. Arab authors mainly collaborated with countries in Europe (22.5 %), especially France, followed by countries in the Americas (9.4 %), especially the USA. The most productive institution was the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, with 6.3 % of total publications. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the expected increase in solid waste production from Arab world, research activity about solid waste is still low. Governments must invest more in solid waste research to avoid future unexpected problems. Finally, since solid waste is a multidisciplinary science, research teams in engineering, health, toxicology, environment, geology and others must be formulated to produce research in solid waste from different scientific aspects

Data-analysis strategies for image-based cell profiling

Image-based cell profiling is a high-throughput strategy for the quantification of phenotypic differences among a variety of cell populations. It paves the way to studying biological systems on a large scale by using chemical and genetic perturbations. The general workflow for this technology involves image acquisition with high-throughput microscopy systems and subsequent image processing and analysis. Here, we introduce the steps required to create high-quality image-based (i.e., morphological) profiles from a collection of microscopy images. We recommend techniques that have proven useful in each stage of the data analysis process, on the basis of the experience of 20 laboratories worldwide that are refining their image-based cell-profiling methodologies in pursuit of biological discovery. The recommended techniques cover alternatives that may suit various biological goals, experimental designs, and laboratories' preferences.Peer reviewe

Translanguaging as Playful Subversion of a Monolingual Norm in the Classroom

A large part of the literature on translanguaging as a pedagogical theory has explored how an inclusive multilingual pedagogy can support students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds to actively participate in the classroom. While much of this literature approaches classroom translanguaging as an instructional strategy designed to promote multilingual interactional practices, we analyse how multilingual practices can also take place as subversive language play in an educational context that is driven by a monolingual norm. Our data are video-recorded lessons from secondary-level Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) classrooms in Finland in which students whose L1 is Finnish are taught History through English. In bilingual educational programmes such as CLIL and immersion, it is not uncommon that teachers normatively assign L2 as the medium of interaction in whole-class talk and that students who share an L1 use it in peer interaction. We investigate how one student’s translanguaging takes place as a reaction to the teacher’s enforcement of the L2-only norm and is treated as ‘language mixing’ by other classroom participants. Drawing on conversation analytic methods, we describe the sequential unfolding and the normative context of the focal student’s translanguaging, as well as the practices of categorisation with which other students respond to his talk. We suggest that situations of normative conflict provide empirical materials to tease apart some differences between translanguaging and code-switching as social phenomena. Further, we argue that the meaning of translanguaging to participants cannot be established without considering its relation to locally upheld norms around language choice, which function as resources for the construction of language play, subversive identities and displays of (non-)investment in education in the present data.peerReviewe