A comparative analysis of 21 literature search engines

With increasing number of bibliographic software, scientists and health professionals either make a subjective choice of tool(s) that could suit their needs or face a challenge of analyzing multiple features of a plethora of search programs. There is an urgent need for a thorough comparative analysis of the available bio-literature scanning tools, from the user’s perspective. We report results of the first time semi-quantitative comparison of 21 programs, which can search published (partial or full text) documents in life science areas. The observations can assist life science researchers and medical professionals to make an informed selection among the programs, depending on their search objectives. 
Some of the important findings are: 
1. Most of the hits obtained from Scopus, ReleMed, EBImed, CiteXplore, and HighWire Press were usually relevant (i.e. these tools show a better precision than other tools). 
2. But a very high number of relevant citations were retrieved by HighWire Press, Google Scholar, CiteXplore and Pubmed Central (they had better recall). 
3. HWP and CiteXplore seemed to have a good balance of precision and recall efficiencies. 
4. PubMed Central, PubMed and Scopus provided the most useful query systems. 
5. GoPubMed, BioAsk, EBIMed, ClusterMed could be more useful among the tools that can automatically process the retrieved citations for further scanning of bio-entities such as proteins, diseases, tissues, molecular interactions, etc. 
The authors suggest the use of PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar and HighWire Press - for better coverage, and GoPubMed - to view the hits categorized based on the MeSH and gene ontology terms. The article is relavant to all life science subjects.
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Evaluation of Seal Integrity of Flexible Food Polytrays by Destructive and Non-Destructive Techniques

The companies which supply military ration packages (MRP) have been suffering significant loss due to high rejection rate (more than 20 %) by the military. The standards set by the military, as far as acceptance of packages is concerned, are very high and conservative. The means employed are also based mostly on visual observation. The aim of the project is to quantitatively device test which reduce the high rejections the companies are incurring. Thus the drive behind this project is to determine the extent to which certain defects affect the seal strength of food trays. Earlier work on this project was used as a guideline to decide the parameters for an optimized test. A package which develops a significant leak under a pressure of 20 psi is considered a defective package irrespective whether it has any visual defects. With the current laboratory set-up, leaks as low as 4-5 cc/minute were identified. The food packages with different defects namely; short seals, entrapped matter, blisters and air bubbles, tunneling, and wrinkles from Stegner and Wornick Co were tested destructively and non-destructively. A destructive burst test was used to test the burst pressures and the leak developed in trays. A computer interface was designed using National Instrument Labview® program which could automatically detect the leak through the seal and measure the pressure in the package while simultaneously increasing the pressure in step mode. Based on the results from the burst test, a systematic study of the burst pressures that different types of defective packages withstood and the correlation with the seal width was carried out. It was found that non-defective trays from both Stegner and Wornick performed equally well averaging 34.2 and 34.4 psi respectively. Blisters and entrapped matter seemed to drastically reduce the average burst pressure for Stegner trays, while Wornick trays with these defects did not show a substantial reduction in the burst pressure. Stegner trays with blisters in their seals sustained the average burst pressure of 23 psi, while those from Wornick performed better than their counterparts sustaining 35 psi. Short seal trays from Wornick were found to perform better than non-defective trays sustaining 37.7 psi, while those from Stegner sustained 28.3 psi. Although burst test gives the quantitative measure of seal strength, it cannot be implemented on the production line to test 100% of the production packages. The stress condition developed in the package as a result of burst test was simulated using a finite element analysis program Femlab®. Simulations were performed to better understand the visual presentation of stresses in the package; especially across the seal. Three-dimensional simulations although more effective; needed the coupling equations between the acrylic plate of a burst chamber and lid of a package. Two-dimensional simulations were performed with varying distances between acrylic plate and lid at constant boundary conditions gave exponential increase in the stress across the seal. Non-destructive techniques such as ultrasonic C-scan inspection and infrared thermography were examined as techniques which could be installed in-line to detect the defects in the seal and reduce the defective packages reaching the consumer. Pulse-echo technique was used for ultrasonic inspection. Only packages with tunneling defects were tested. The presence of tunneling could be seen on the images. But the presence of small diameter channels like 50.8 microns could not be seen at all. So after some experiments the technique was not found of high utility and lacked the reproducibility. The infrared thermography on the other hand showed promise as a useful utility. Polytrays with many kinds of defects were examined using infrared camera. A 100W lamp was used to heat the packages. Differential heat loss across the defect was recorded by the camera. The results from burst tests were complimented using characterization techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The SEM data was also complimented by FTIR/ATR spectroscopy technique to analyze as to which layer was undergoing delamination during the burst. Delamination was seen to occur between PP/PET layers for the trays which burst. Crazing was seen as the failure mechanism for PP

In search of the right literature search engine(s)

*Background*
Collecting scientific publications related to a specific topic is crucial for different phases of research, health care and ‘effective text mining’. Available bio-literature search engines vary in their ability to scan different sections of articles, for the user-provided search terms and/or phrases. Since a thorough scientific analysis of all major bibliographic tools has not been done, their selection has often remained subjective. We have considered most of the existing bio-literature search engines (http://www.shodhaka.com/startbioinfo/LitSearch.html) and performed an extensive analysis of 18 literature search engines, over a period of about 3 years. Eight different topics were taken and about 50 searches were performed using the selected search engines. The relevance of retrieved citations was carefully assessed after every search, to estimate the citation retrieval efficiency. Different other features of the search tools were also compared using a semi-quantitative method.
*Results*
The study provides the first tangible comparative account of relative retrieval efficiency, input and output features, resource coverage and a few other utilities of the bio-literature search tools. The results show that using a single search tool can lead to loss of up to 75% relevant citations in some cases. Hence, use of multiple search tools is recommended. But, it would also not be practical to use all or too many search engines. The detailed observations made in the study can assist researchers and health professionals in making a more objective selection among the search engines. A corollary study revealed relative advantages and disadvantages of the full-text scanning tools.
*Conclusion*
While many studies have attempted to compare literature search engines, important questions remained unanswered till date. Following are some of those questions, along with answers provided by the current study:
a)	Which tools should be used to get the maximum number of relevant citations with a reasonable effort? ANSWER: _Using PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar and HighWire Press individually, and then compiling the hits into a union list is the best option. Citation-Compiler (http://www.shodhaka.com/compiler) can help to compile the results from each of the recommended tool._
b)	What is the approximate percentage of relevant citations expected to be lost if only one search engine is used? ANSWER: _About 39% of the total relevant citations were lost in searches across 4 topics; 49% hits were lost while using PubMed or HighWire Press, while 37% and 20% loss was noticed while using Google Scholar and Scopus, respectively._ 
c)	Which full text search engines can be recommended in general? ANSWER: _HighWire Press and Google Scholar._
d)	Among the mostly used search engines, which one can be recommended for best precision? ANSWER: _EBIMed._
e)	Among the mostly used search engines, which one can be recommended for best recall? ANSWER: _Depending on the type of query used, best recall could be obtained by HighWire Press or Scopus.

Diffusion and fluctuations of open charmed hadrons in an interacting hadronic medium

Heavy quarks are excellent probes to understand the hot and dense medium formed in ultra-relativistic collisions. In a hadronic medium, studying the transport properties, e.g. the drag ($\gamma$), momentum diffusion ($B_{0}$), and spatial diffusion ($D_{s}$) coefficients of open charmed hadrons can provide useful information about the medium. Moreover, the fluctuations of charmed hadrons can help us to locate the onset of their deconfinement. In this work, we incorporate attractive and repulsive interactions in the well-established van der Waals hadron resonance gas model (VDWHRG) and study the diffusion and fluctuations of charmed hadrons. This study helps us understand the importance of interactions in the system, which significantly affect both the diffusion and fluctuations of charmed hadrons.Comment: 11 pages and 8 captioned figures. Submitted for publicatio

Thermodynamics of a rotating hadron resonance gas with van der Waals interaction

Studying the thermodynamics of the systems produced in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions is crucial in understanding the QCD phase diagram. Recently, a new avenue has opened regarding the implications of large initial angular momentum and subsequent vorticity in the medium evolution in high-energy collisions. This adds a new type of chemical potential into the partonic and hadronic systems, called the rotational chemical potential. We study the thermodynamics of an interacting hadronic matter under rotation, formed in an ultra-relativistic collision. We introduce attractive and repulsive interactions through the van der Waals equation of state. Thermodynamic properties like the pressure ($P$), energy density ($\varepsilon$), entropy density ($s$), trace anomaly ($(\varepsilon - 3P)/T^{4}$), specific heat ($c_{\rm v}$) and squared speed of sound ($c_{\rm s}^{2}$) are studied as functions of temperature ($T$) for zero and finite rotation chemical potential. The charge fluctuations, which can be quantified by their respective susceptibilities, are also studied. The rotational (spin) density corresponding to the rotational chemical potential is explored. In addition, we explore the possible liquid-gas phase transition in the hadron gas with van der Waals interaction in the $T$ -- $\omega$ phase space.Comment: 11 pages and 6 captioned figures. Submitted for publicatio

A novel modified Khatter’s approach for solving Neutrosophic Data Envelopment Analysis

The evaluation of the performance of decision-making units (DMUs) that use comparable inputs to produce related outputs can be accomplished through a non-parametric linear programming (LP) technique called Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). However, the observed data are occasionally imprecise, ambiguous, inadequate, and inconsistent which may result in incorrect decision-making when these criteria are ignored. Neutrosophic Set (NS) is an extension of fuzzy sets which is used to represent unclear, erroneous, missing, and wrong information. This paper proposes a neutrosophic version of the DEA model, and a novel solution technique for Neutrosophic DEA (Neu-DEA) model. The possibility mean for triangular neutrosophic number (TNN) is redefined and modified the Khatter’s approach to convert directly the Neu-DEA model into its crisp DEA model. As a result, the Neu-DEA model is simplified to a crisp LP problem with a risk parameter (δ ∈ [0, 1]) that represents the attitude of the decision-maker towards taking risk. The efficiency score of the DMUs is computed by using various risk factors and divided into efficient and inefficient groups. The ranking of DMUs is determined by calculating the mean efficiency score of DMUs, which is based on various risk parameters. A numerical example is illustrated here to describe the suggested approach’s flexibility and authenticity and compared with some of the existing approaches

Proton number cumulants in a modified van der Waals hadron resonance gas

An estimate of the proton number cumulants in the hadronic matter is presented considering a van der Waals-type interaction between the constituent particles. We argue that the attractive and repulsive parameters in the VDW hadron resonance gas (VDWHRG) model change as functions of baryochemical potential ($\mu_{B}$) and temperature ($T$). This, in turn, affects the estimation of thermodynamic properties and, consequently, the conserved charge fluctuations. We employ a simple parametrization to bring in the center-of-mass energy ($\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$) dependence on temperature and baryochemical potential and then estimate the proton number cumulants with the modified approach. The modified van der Waals hadron resonance gas model (MVDWHRG) explains the existing experimental data very well.Comment: 9-pages and 6-captioned figures, Submitted for publicatio

Effect of magnetic field on the optical and thermodynamic properties of a high-temperature hadron resonance gas with van der Waals interactions

We study the behavior of a hadronic matter in the presence of an external magnetic field within the van der Waals hadron resonance gas (VDWHRG) model, considering both attractive and repulsive interactions among the hadrons. Various thermodynamic quantities like pressure ($P$), energy density ($\varepsilon$), magnetization ($\mathcal{M}$), entropy density ($s$), squared speed of sound ($c_{\rm s}^{2}$), specific heat capacity at constant volume ($c_{v}$) are calculated as functions of temperature ($T$) and static finite magnetic field ($eB$). We also consider the effect of baryochemical potential ($\mu_{B}$) on the above-mentioned thermodynamic observables in the presence of a magnetic field. Further, we estimate the magnetic susceptibility ($\chi_{\rm M}^{2}$), relative permeability ($\mu_{\rm r}$), and electrical susceptibility ($\chi_{\rm Q}^{2}$) which can help us to understand the system better. With the information of $\mu_{\rm r}$ and dielectric constant ($\epsilon_{r}$), we enumerate the refractive index ($RI$) of the system under consideration. Through this model, we quantify a liquid-gas phase transition in the T-eB-$\mu_B$ phase space.Comment: 18 pages and 5-captioned figures. Submitted for publicatio

Genetic studies in Tilapias

Tilapia as a group have suffered from a lack of detailed genetic research in a number of important applied and basic areas. Sex determination in tilapia is of great importance because of the need to produce monosex populations for aquaculture. In this study sex ratio data produced from a total of 41 intra- and interspecific crosses utilizing pure species have been analysed. The results so far obtained do not support the existing hypothesis of chromosomal sex determination. On the basis of the existing data it seems that sex in these fishes is determined by a polygenic system. Cytogenetic studies on chromosome number, chromosome morphology and DNA content show many similarities between the 7 species belonging to three genera. The DNA value varies between 0.84pg for 0. macrochir and S. galilaeus and up to 1.21pg for O. aureus. The chromosome number (2n = 44, n = 22) is the same in all the species. No heteromorphic sex specific chromosome pair has been found in any species. Arm number (NF) difference in the species indicates the involvement of pericentric inversions in the karyotypic evolution of these species. C-banding of the metaphase chromosomes shows that the heterochromatin is localised around the centromere in all the species of Oreochromis and Sarotherodon, but T. zillii has more heterochromatin with six chromosomes having their short arm completely C-positive. mossambicus and spilurus, two closely related species, can also be distinguished by their C-banding pattern. Comparative growth trials on different species, their hybrids and the effect of hormone treatment on growth performance have all been analysed. Different species showed large differences in growth performance based on SGR and FCR values, when compared under standardized conditions. Comparison between hybrids and their parental species showed no significant heterosis for SGR and FCR except in the hybrid between O. spilurus female and niloticus male. Hormone treatment of fry improved growth performance but did not alter the relative growth found in the untreated group