Investigating the delay times in academic publishing: An empirical study on publishing delay times in academic journals

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Data Science and Advanced Analytics, specialization in Data ScienceThe aim of this study is to analyze the differences in article publishing delay times from different perspectives. Previous works on the topic suggest there are significant differences between article publication times, which has a direct effect on the author’s personal and professional life. However, as the required dates for the analysis are not available in article databases, the works on the topic are limited to certain publishers/databases. Using the entire Scimago Journal Ranking Q1 journal pool, this study creates a representative and comprehensive article dataset, containing submittance, acceptance and publication dates for over 200,000 sampled articles from 27 different subject areas between 2010-2020. This allows publishing delay times to be analyzed from different perspectives and offers a baseline for any future studies. The study shows clear delay time differences between subject areas. The shortest delay time occurs in Life Sciences articles, with an average delay of 6 months, three times quicker overall than Social Sciences articles. Publication year analysis shows that while delay times are improving over time, this improvement is coming from acceptance to publication time delay, driven by the increase of digital publications. Delay times do not show the same improvement for the more problematic submission to acceptance delay, highlighting the reviewing process. Open Access journals offer an alternative to the traditional publications, and are faster overall, however their performances started to stagnate as number of publications increased each year. Author affiliated country data is not balanced, and the dataset is dominated by submissions from certain countries, namely United States, China, United Kingdom, and Germany, indicating these countries’ overall dominance on the scientific domain. However, matching analysis shows that an affiliated county’s “Global North vs. South”, “English as first language”, and “G7 membership” status do not play a significant role in their subsequent delay times, indicating a fair refereeing

Evaluation of Growth and Survival of Hardwood Trees on Brown and Gray Sandstone

Deciduous forests in the Appalachian region have been greatly disrupted due to surface coal mining since the 1930\u27s. After the passage of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) in 1977, coal mine operators began planting a variety of grasses and legumes as a fast and economical way to re-establish a permanent vegetative cover in order to meet erosion and site stabilization requirements. However, soil compaction and competitive forage species have arrested the re-colonization of native hardwood tree species on these reclaimed sites. In an effort to evaluate tree growth on selected spoils and determine the effects of compaction, three 2.8-ha experimental plots were established at Catenary Coal\u27s Samples Mine in Kanawha County, West Virginia. Two plots were constructed of weathered brown sandstone and the third plot was constructed of un-weathered gray sandstone. Half of each plot was compacted while the other half was non-compacted. Each plot was hydroseeded with a low competition herbaceous cover and planted with eleven hardwood tree species. Soil chemical properties and tree growth have been measured each year since 2005. After eight growing seasons, average tree volume index was nearly ten times greater for trees grown in the brown sandstone treatments, 3853 cm3, compared to 407 cm3 in gray sandstone. Trees growing on compacted treatments had a lower mean volume index, 2281 cm3, than trees growing on non-compacted treatments, 3899 cm3. Average pH of brown sandstone was 5.2 to 5.7 while gray sandstone was 7.9. The gray sandstone has continued to resist breakdown and had much lower fines content (40%) compared to brown sandstone (70%), which influenced nutrient and water-holding capacity. After eight years, brown sandstone showed significantly greater tree growth and survival, and is a more suitable topsoil substitute than gray sandstone on this site.;The second study site was a 2.8-ha experimental plot established at Arch Coal\u27s Birch River mine in Webster County, WV. Half of the plot was constructed of weathered brown sandstone and half was constructed of unweathered gray sandstone. Bark mulch was applied to a small area covering both sandstone types and the ends of the plot were hydroseeded with a low competition herbaceous cover, resulting in eight soil treatments. The plot was then planted with twelve hardwood tree species and soil chemical properties and tree growth have been measured each year since 2008. After six growing seasons, average tree volume index was consistently higher for trees grown on brown sandstone (5,333 cm3) compared to gray sandstone (3,031 cm3). Trees planted on treatments with bark mulch outperformed trees on non-mulched treatments (volume index of 6,187 cm3 vs. 4,194 cm3 ). Hydroseeding with a tree-compatible mix produced greater ground cover (80% vs. 45%) and resulted in greater tree volume index than nonhydroseeded areas (5,809 vs. 3,403 cm3). Soil chemical properties of mulched treatments showed little similarity to those of the underlying sandstone, which suggests the bark mulch overcame the poor characteristics of the gray sandstone parent material for tree growth. The average pH of brown sandstone mine soils was 5.0 to 5.4 and gray sandstone mine soils averaged pH 6.9 to 7.7. The non-mulched gray sandstone material has resisted breakdown and weathering, and still had a high pH and low percentage of fines after six years resulting in slow growth of trees. The mulch treatment on gray sandstone resulted in tree growth similar to brown sandstone alone. After six years, brown sandstone showed about double the growth of trees compared to gray sandstone, and bark mulch was a successful amendment that improved tree growth.;Tree leaves were also collected from three tree species growing on non-hydroseeded treatments at the Birch River mine for nutrient analysis and compared to tree leaves of the same species collected from an un-mined forest within the permitted area of the Birch River mine. Foliar phosphorus was lower in all three tree species on all non-hydroseeded treatments compared to trees growing in the unmined forest. Other nutrients such as potassium were consistently low on the gray sandstone for all species. While many trees growing on these soils, both reclaimed and unmined, are obtaining sufficient amounts of nutrients for growth, the brown sandstone demonstrated many foliar and soil values which were similar to values measured on the unmined forest while the gray treatment seemed to be providing fewer nutrients for adequate growth

Deterioration modeling strategy for pro-active services of commercial vehicles

Abstract-The goal of deterioration modeling is to support the decision on pro-active replacement of parts in components that have a shorter life cycle than the vehicle (commercial vehicle) itself. A method of deterioration modeling is demonstrated and exemplified at a turbo charger that includes expertise on the components and an integrated mathematical-physical description of wear and takes into account the knowledge on endurance strength. The deterioration model input signals are the load histories of the components which have to be stored in the truck in so called load matrices. For these load matrices a storage space requirement analysis is presented that considers the operation time of the truck and the specific commercial vehicle requirements

Evidence of a further emerging threat to lion conservation : targeted poaching for body parts

The African lion, Panthera leo, has, like many of the world’s megafauna, become threatened with extinction over the past century. Loss of habitat and prey, persecution in retaliation of livestock depredation, by-catch by bushmeat poachers and unsustainable trophy hunting are all documented anthropogenic caused threats to lion conservation. Here we present data that indicate the emergence of a further threat to lion conservation: the targeted poaching of lions for body parts. We present lion abundance and mortality data from field surveys in southern Africa between 2011 and 2018 of a resident lion population. The targeted poaching of lions for body parts accounted for 35% of known human caused mortalities across the landscape and 61% of mortalities within Limpopo National Park with a clear increase in this pressure in 2014. Retaliatory killing for livestock conflict accounted for 51% of total mortalities, however in 48% of conflict cases body parts were also removed, suggesting that a demand for body parts may incentivize conflict related killing of lions. The use of poison was the most common means of killing lions and was recorded in 61% of mortalities. Teeth and claws were the body parts harvested most often from illegally killed animals in the study area, with an increase from 2014 onwards. This pressure threatens the viability of the species in our study area and the success of current conservation initiatives. We suggest that the results of this study be viewed as a warning to the global conservation community to be vigilant of the impact that illegal wildlife trade can have on the conservation of lions, just as a similar pressure has already had on other big cat populations.Grants received by KTE from the Wildlife Conservation Network’s Lion Recovery Fund [Grant Number MZ-ACE-01]; National Geographic Big Cats Initiative [Grant Number 916]; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [Grant Number PGSDZ-487542-2016]; the US Fish and Wildlife Service [Grant Number F17AP00822]; the Wilderness Foundation [Grant Number 01-2015,01-2016]; the Ratel Trust [Grant Numbers 05-2016,01-2018]; Panthera Kaplan Graduate Award [Grant Number 10-2014]; Nelson Mandela University Post Graduate Research Scholarship [Numbers NMU PGRS 2014,2015,2016,2017], University of Pretoria Post Graduate Scholarship [Numbers UPPGS 2012,2013] Elephant’s Alive, Biologist Without Borders (Grant No: 2016-01), Wilderness Trust (Grant No. 2014), SATIB Trust and the Wilderness Foundation (Grant No. 2016).http://link.springer.com/journal/10531hj2020Centre for Wildlife Managemen

Reaction Force/Torque Sensing in a Master-Slave Robot System without Mechanical Sensors

In human-robot cooperative control systems, force feedback is often necessary in order to achieve high precision and high stability. Usually, traditional robot assistant systems implement force feedback using force/torque sensors. However, it is difficult to directly mount a mechanical force sensor on some working terminals, such as in applications of minimally invasive robotic surgery, micromanipulation, or in working environments exposed to radiation or high temperature. We propose a novel force sensing mechanism for implementing force feedback in a master-slave robot system with no mechanical sensors. The system consists of two identical electro-motors with the master motor powering the slave motor to interact with the environment. A bimanual coordinated training platform using the new force sensing mechanism was developed and the system was verified in experiments. Results confirm that the proposed mechanism is capable of achieving bilateral force sensing and mirror-image movements of two terminals in two reverse control directions

Membrane contact sites between pathogen-containing compartments and host organelles

Intracellular pathogens survive and replicate within specialised membrane-bound compartments that can be considered as pseudo-organelles. Using the obligate intracellular bacterium Chlamydia as an illustrative example, we consider the modes of lipid transport between pathogen-containing compartments and host organelles, including the formation of static membrane contact sites. We discuss how lipid scavenging can be mediated via the reprogramming of cellular transporters at these interfaces and describe recent data suggesting that pathogen effectors modulate the formation of specific membrane contacts. Further study of these emerging mechanisms is likely to yield new insights into the cell biology of lipid transport and organelle communication, which highlights potential new targets and strategies for future therapeutics

The cytoskeleton in cell-autonomous immunity: structural determinants of host defence

Host cells use antimicrobial proteins, pathogen-restrictive compartmentalization and cell death in their defence against intracellular pathogens. Recent work has revealed that four components of the cytoskeleton — actin, microtubules, intermediate filaments and septins, which are well known for their roles in cell division, shape and movement — have important functions in innate immunity and cellular self-defence. Investigations using cellular and animal models have shown that these cytoskeletal proteins are crucial for sensing bacteria and for mobilizing effector mechanisms to eliminate them. In this Review, we highlight the emerging roles of the cytoskeleton as a structural determinant of cell-autonomous host defence