Funding data from publication acknowledgements: coverage, uses and limitations

This article contributes to the development of methods for analysing research funding systems by exploring the robustness and comparability of emerging approaches to generate funding landscapes useful for policy making. We use a novel dataset of manually extracted and coded data on the funding acknowledgements of 7,510 publications representing UK cancer research in the year 2011 and compare these 'reference data' with funding data provided by Web of Science (WoS) and MEDLINE/PubMed. Findings show high recall (about 93%) of WoS funding data. By contrast, MEDLINE/PubMed data retrieved less than half of the UK cancer publications acknowledging at least one funder. Conversely, both databases have high precision (+90%): i.e. few cases of publications with no acknowledgement to funders are identified as having funding data. Nonetheless, funders acknowledged in UK cancer publications were not correctly listed by MEDLINE/PubMed and WoS in about 75% and 32% of the cases, respectively. 'Reference data' on the UK cancer research funding system are then used as a case-study to demonstrate the utility of funding data for strategic intelligence applications (e.g. mapping of funding landscape, comparison of funders’ research portfolios)

A low-power photovoltaic system with energy storage for radio communications: Description and design methodology

A low power photovoltaic system was constructed with approximately 500 amp hours of battery energy storage to provide power to an emergency amateur radio communications center. The system can power the communications center for about 72 hours of continuous nonsun operation. Complete construction details and a design methodology algorithm are given with abundant engineering data and adequate theory to allow similar systems to be constructed, scaled up or down, with minimum design effort

Psychosocial Distress: A Case Study of a Male African American Veteran with End-Stage Colon Cancer

This in-depth single-case-study explored the emergent trauma of psychosocial distress of an older male African-American veteran after being diagnosed with end-stage colon cancer. Using a qualitative case study methodology, three in-depth interviews were conducted which identified the following five themes: (1) the emotional impact of being diagnosed with cancer, (2) experiencing inescapable loss of control and independence, (3) adjusting to nursing home placement, (4) lacking social support, and (5) navigating complicated services. The findings expand our understanding of the need for identifying and managing psychosocial distress. Implications for behavioral health practitioners are discussed

On the calculation of percentile-based bibliometric indicators

A percentile-based bibliometric indicator is an indicator that values publications based on their position within the citation distribution of their field. The most straightforward percentile-based indicator is the proportion of frequently cited publications, for instance the proportion of publications that belong to the top 10% most frequently cited of their field. Recently, more complex percentile-based indicators were proposed. A difficulty in the calculation of percentile-based indicators is caused by the discrete nature of citation distributions combined with the presence of many publications with the same number of citations. We introduce an approach to calculating percentile-based indicators that deals with this difficulty in a more satisfactory way than earlier approaches suggested in the literature. We show in a formal mathematical framework that our approach leads to indicators that do not suffer from biases in favor of or against particular fields of science

Mapping research activity on mental health disorders in Europe: study protocol for the Mapping_NCD project

Background: Mental health disorders (MHDs) constitute a large and growing disease burden in Europe, although they typically receive less attention and research funding than other non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This study protocol describes a methodology for the mapping of MHD research in Europe as part of Mapping_NCD, a 2-year project funded by the European Commission which seeks to map European research funding and impact for five NCDs in order to identify potential gaps, overlaps, synergies and opportunities, and to develop evidence-based policies for future research. Methods: The project aims to develop a multi-focal view of the MHD research landscape across the 28 European Union Member States, plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, through a survey of European funding entities, analysis of research initiatives undertaken in the public, voluntary/not-for-profit and commercial sectors, and expert interviews to contextualize the gathered data. The impact of MHD research will be explored using bibliometric analyses of scientific publications, clinical guidelines and newspaper stories reporting on research initiatives. Finally, these research inputs and outputs will be considered in light of various metrics that have been proposed to inform priorities for the allocation of research funds, including burden of disease, treatment gaps and cost of illness. Discussion: Given the growing burden of MHDs, a clear and broad view of the current state of MHD research is needed to ensure that limited resources are directed to evidence-based priority areas. MHDs pose a particular challenge in mapping the research landscape due to their complex nature, high co-morbidity and varying diagnostic criteria. Undertaking such an effort across 31 countries is further challenged by differences in data collection, healthcare systems, reimbursement rates and clinical practices, as well as cultural and socioeconomic diversity. Using multiple methods to explore the spectrum of MHD research funding activity across Europe, this project aims to develop a broad, high-level perspective to inform priority setting for future research

Cumulative Human Impacts on Mediterranean and Black Sea Marine Ecosystems: Assessing Current Pressures and Opportunities

Management of marine ecosystems requires spatial information on current impacts. In several marine regions, including the Mediterranean and Black Sea, legal mandates and agreements to implement ecosystem-based management and spatial plans provide new opportunities to balance uses and protection of marine ecosystems. Analyses of the intensity and distribution of cumulative impacts of human activities directly connected to the ecological goals of these policy efforts are critically needed. Quantification and mapping of the cumulative impact of 22 drivers to 17 marine ecosystems reveals that 20% of the entire basin and 60-99% of the territorial waters of EU member states are heavily impacted, with high human impact occurring in all ecoregions and territorial waters. Less than 1% of these regions are relatively unaffected. This high impact results from multiple drivers, rather than one individual use or stressor, with climatic drivers (increasing temperature and UV, and acidification), demersal fishing, ship traffic, and, in coastal areas, pollution from land, accounting for a majority of cumulative impacts. These results show that coordinated management of key areas and activities could significantly improve the condition of these marine ecosystems.JRC.H.1-Water Resource

Port of Portland’s Marine Terminal 6 Contribution to Regional Economic Development

Container cargo shipping service returned to the Port of Portland in Oregon in January 2020 with the regular weekly SM Line service, following more than three years of no container shipping service. Following the global supply chain changes associated with COVID -19, the number of monthly vessel calls at the Port of Portland’s deep-water berth at Terminal 6 has increased regularly to 12 vessel calls in January of 2022. In March of 2022, the largest containership to transit the Columbia river – at 1,100 feet length with capacity of 8,200 containers – arrived at the Port of Portland. The return of container cargo service to the Port of Portland has expanded the effective capacity of international freight movement to and from the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Early indications are that the Port of Portland T6 container service has the potential to significantly contribute to regional economic growth in the Pacific Northwest region. In 2021, the Port of Portland updated its long - term container cargo forecast, which currently shows a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.9% in the reference case scenario and 3.9% CAGR in the high growth scenario.https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/trec_seminar/1230/thumbnail.jp

COVID-19 publications: Database coverage, citations, readers, tweets, news, Facebook walls, Reddit posts

© 2020 The Authors. Published by MIT Press. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00066The COVID-19 pandemic requires a fast response from researchers to help address biological, medical and public health issues to minimize its impact. In this rapidly evolving context, scholars, professionals and the public may need to quickly identify important new studies. In response, this paper assesses the coverage of scholarly databases and impact indicators during 21 March to 18 April 2020. The rapidly increasing volume of research, is particularly accessible through Dimensions, and less through Scopus, the Web of Science, and PubMed. Google Scholar’s results included many false matches. A few COVID-19 papers from the 21,395 in Dimensions were already highly cited, with substantial news and social media attention. For this topic, in contrast to previous studies, there seems to be a high degree of convergence between articles shared in the social web and citation counts, at least in the short term. In particular, articles that are extensively tweeted on the day first indexed are likely to be highly read and relatively highly cited three weeks later. Researchers needing wide scope literature searches (rather than health focused PubMed or medRxiv searches) should start with Dimensions (or Google Scholar) and can use tweet and Mendeley reader counts as indicators of likely importance

Density-dependent, central-place foraging in a grazing herbivore: competition and tradeoffs in time allocation near water

Optimal foraging theory addresses one of the core challenges of ecology: predicting the distribution and abundance of species. Tests of hypotheses of optimal foraging, however, often focus on a single conceptual model rather than drawing upon the collective body of theory, precluding generalization. Here we demonstrate links between two established theoretical frameworks predicting animal movements and resource use: central-place foraging and density-dependent habitat selection. Our goal is to better understand how the nature of critical, centrally placed resources like water (or minerals, breathing holes, breeding sites, etc.) might govern selection for food (energy) resources obtained elsewhere - a common situation for animals living in natural conditions. We empirically test our predictions using movement data from a large herbivore distributed along a gradient of water availability (feral horses, Sable Island, Canada, 2008–2013). Horses occupying western Sable Island obtain freshwater at ponds while in the east horses must drink at self-excavated wells (holes). We studied the implications of differential access to water (time needed for a horse to obtain water) on selection for vegetation associations. Consistent with predictions of density-dependent habitat selection, horses were reduced to using poorer-quality habitat (heathland) more than expected close to water (where densities were relatively high), but were free to select for higher-quality grasslands farther from water. Importantly, central-place foraging was clearly influenced by the type of water-source used (ponds vs. holes, the latter with greater time constraints on access). Horses with more freedom to travel (those using ponds) selected for grasslands at greater distances and continued to select grasslands at higher densities, whereas horses using water holes showed very strong density-dependence in how habitat could be selected. Knowledge of more than one theoretical framework may be required to explain observed variation in foraging behavior of animals where multiple constraints simultaneously influence resource selection