A NEW DISEASE OF THE HOP-VINE CAUSED BY PERONOPLASMOPARA HUMULI N. SP.

© 2019 The Authors Background: Over the past two decades, the use of image and performance enhancing drugs (IPEDs) has increased significantly. Once largely confined to professional athletes, IPED use has transcended the elite sporting arena and is now predominantly found among non-elite, recreational gym users. This paper presents research findings from a qualitative study of IPED use and supply in a ‘hardcore’ bodybuilding gym in the north of England. This article makes an original contribution to the field by providing an in-depth account of the use and supply of IPEDs among this population, demonstrating the intersectionality that exists across IPEDs, diverted medication and both licit and illicit substance use and supply. Methods: The findings are based on the research team's privileged access to an independent, ‘hardcore’ body building gym in the north of England. Four fieldworkers undertook overt systematic observations, supplemented by 20 semi-structured interviews. Results: Amongst this sample of bodybuilders, substance use transcended IPEDs to encompass a much broader cocktail of substances all who used IPEDs concomitantly used diverted medication as a means of negating anticipated side-effects, and over half used illegal psychoactive drugs. Furthermore, virtually all of these substances were available to buy via the gym, through fellow gym members and, at times, staff. Conclusion: This article draws three main conclusions. (1) We are witnessing a convergence of IPED use and supply with diverted medication and ‘traditional’ recreational substances. (2) The extensive poly-substance use reported by interviewees in this sample necessitates a review of existing harm reduction advice for IPED users that takes into consideration the full range of substances currently being used. (3) Punitive drug policy reform that aims to reduce IPED markets needs to consider the potential to displace social supply towards more commercially-driven dealing. Harsher drug laws may also risk criminalising and stigmatising IPED users

Crush Test Abuse Stand

The purpose of this system is to simulate an internal short on battery cells by causing deformation (a crushing force) in a cell without penetration. This is performed by activating a hydraulic cylinder on one side of a blast wall with a hydraulic pump located on the other. The operator can control the rate of the crush by monitoring a local pressure gauge connected to the hydraulic cylinder or a load cell digital display located at the hydraulic pump control area. The internal short simulated would be considered a worst-case scenario of a manufacturer fs defect. This is a catastrophic failure of a cell and could be a very destructive event. Fully charged cells are to have an internal short simulated at the center of the length of the cell (away from terminals). The crush can be performed with a .- to 1-in. (.0.6- to 2.5-cm) rod placed crossways to the cell axis, causing deformation of the cell without penetration. The OCV (open-circuit voltage) and temperature of the cells, as well as the pressure and crushing force, are recorded during the operation. Occurrence of an internal short accompanied by any visible physical changes such as venting, fires, or explosions is reported. Typical analytical data examined after the test would be plots of voltage, temperature, and pressure or force versus time. The rate of crushing force can be increased or decreased based on how fast the operator pumps the hydraulic pump. The size of cylinder used to compress the battery cell can be easily changed by adding larger or smaller fittings onto the end of the hydraulic cylinder based on the battery/cell size being tested. The cell is crushed remotely and videotaped, allowing the operator to closely monitor the situation from a safe distance

ChatGPT for Bibliometrics: Potential applications and limitations

This is a preprint version of a chapter to be published in Library Catalogues as Data: Research, Practice, and Usage (Facet Publishing), co-edited by Prof. Melissa Terras and Dr. Sarah Ames.Versión 1. https://hdl.handle.net/10481/91334 Versión 2. https://hdl.handle.net/10481/92547This paper explores the transformative role of ChatGPT in enhancing bibliometric research methodologies across various stages of academic study. It discusses the application of ChatGPT in bibliometric studies across five core research stages: preparation and consultation, data processing, data analysis, results interpretation, and scientific writing. Highlighting ChatGPT's versatility, the paper showcases its utility in streamlining data handling, enhancing analytical depth, and facilitating scholarly communication. With capabilities ranging from querying external APIs to customising responses for specific research needs, ChatGPT may aid the efficiency and efficacy of bibliometric research. Ethical considerations are also discussed, advocating for the integration of ChatGPT to uphold high ethical standards and improve research integrity

The supply of image and performance enhancing drugs (IPED) to local non-elite users in England: Resilient traditional and newly emergent methods

Traditional access to image and performance enhancing drugs (IPEDs) for hard-core body builders in serious free weight gyms has often been directly studied through gym owners or those close to them. In the past, the IPED using population was smaller, less mainstream and more reliant on those with the right contacts facilitating access to them. Recent evidence suggests that, as with other illicit drug markets, the IPED market has become more differentiated and has evolved to incorporate both new technologies, such as online pharmacies, as well as the new social and cultural conditions within which IPED use occurs. This chapter will draw on two distinct research studies on IPED supply at the local level: one that explores how and why traditional routes persevere in some local contexts, and a second that looks at how the social supply of IPED between gym users, along with internet sourcing is changing the shape and nature of IPED supply to other non-elite users. In a broader context of drug market differentiation and with a focus on trust, product quality and practice this chapter considers the impact that the changing nature of IPED user/supplier relationships in England

Financial risk management strategies of small to medium illicit drug enterprises: considering low-level money laundering

The illicit drug trade generates billions of dollars in revenue per year, much of which comes from wholesale and retail sales late in the supply chain. Yet, the methods retailers and low-level wholesalers use to launder this revenue remain poorly understood. Using in-depth interviews with illicit drug entrepreneurs in the United States and the United Kingdom, this article analyses laundering strategies among such market actors. Our findings indicate that a significant proportion of their illicit proceeds are disposed of through relatively small-scale ‘everyday’ cash transactions (< $1,000) that are effectively untraceable. For those generating more substantial revenues, a variety of accessible and uncomplicated laundering strategies are employed, such as reporting such revenues as taxable income, using proxies to launder funds, and using revenues as investment capital within small-scale legal enterprise. Ultimately, we identify uncomplicated, yet largely effective, methods of laundering criminal proceeds amongst our sample of low- to medium-level illicit drug sellers. Though the sums at an individual level are relatively trivial, the ‘mass of minor offences’ of this nature likely accounts for a significant share of laundered drug revenues in Western consumer drug markets

H Index Scholar: the h-index for Spanish public universities' professors of humanities and social sciences

[EN] The H-Index Scholar is a bibliometric index that measures the productivity and scientific impact of the academic production in humanities and social sciences by professors and researchers at public Spanish universities. The methodology consisted of counting their publications and citations received in Google Scholar. The main features and characteristics of the index are explained. Despite technical and methodological problems that Google Scholar might have as a source of information, the authors estimate that they do not affect substantially the calculated h and g indexes, probably being the error lower than 10%. The total population analyzed was 40,993 researchers, but data are displayed only for 13,518 researchers, the ones located in the first tertile of their respective areas.[ES] H Index Scholar es un índice bibliométrico sobre la productividad e impacto científico de la producción académica de los profesores e investigadores de universidades públicas españolas en humanidades y ciencias sociales. Se realiza mediante el recuento de sus publicaciones y de las citas bibliográficas que han recibido en Google Scholar. Se describen las principales funciones y características del producto. A pesar de los problemas técnicos y metodológicos que pueda presentar Google Scholar como fuente de información, los autores estiman que no afectan en lo sustancial a los índices h y g ofrecidos, estando dentro de una tasa de error del 10%. La población total analizada ha sido de 40.993 profesores, de los que se visualiza un total de 13.518 situados en el primer tercil de sus respectivas áreas.Trabajo financiado con cargo al proyecto HAR2011-30383-C02-02 de la Dirección General de Investigación y Gestión del Plan Nacional de I+D+I. Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad.Delgado López, E.; Orduña Malea, E.; Jimenez Contreras, E.; Ruiz Pérez, R. (2014). H Index Scholar: el índice H de los profesores de las universidades públicas españolas en humanidades y ciencias sociales. El Profesional de la Información. 23(1):87-94. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2014.ene.11S8794231Aguillo, I. F., Ortega, J. L., Fernández, M., & Utrilla, A. M. (2010). Indicators for a webometric ranking of open access repositories. Scientometrics, 82(3), 477-486. doi:10.1007/s11192-010-0183-yArchambault, Eric; Larivière, Vincent (2010). "The limits of bibliometrics for the analysis of the social sciences and humanities literature". World social science report: competing in the knowledge society. Unesco, pp. 251-254.Archambault, É., Vignola-Gagné, É., Côté, G., Larivière, V., & Gingrasb, Y. (2006). Benchmarking scientific output in the social sciences and humanities: The limits of existing databases. Scientometrics, 68(3), 329-342. doi:10.1007/s11192-006-0115-zArdanuy, J. (2013). Sixty years of citation analysis studies in the humanities (1951-2010). Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(8), 1751-1755. doi:10.1002/asi.22835Egghe, L. (2006). Theory and practise of the g-index. Scientometrics, 69(1), 131-152. doi:10.1007/s11192-006-0144-7Giménez-Toledo, E., & Román-Román, A. (2009). Assessment of humanities and social sciences monographs through their publishers: a review and a study towards a model of evaluation. Research Evaluation, 18(3), 201-213. doi:10.3152/095820209x471986Gorraiz, J., Purnell, P. J., & Glänzel, W. (2013). Opportunities for and limitations of the Book Citation Index. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(7), 1388-1398. doi:10.1002/asi.22875Hicks, Diana M.; Wang, Jian (2009). "Towards a bibliometric database for the social sciences and humanities" [report]. http://works.bepress.com/diana_hicks/18Hirsch, J. E. (2005). An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(46), 16569-16572. doi:10.1073/pnas.0507655102Jacsó, P. (2008). Google Scholar revisited. Online Information Review, 32(1), 102-114. doi:10.1108/14684520810866010Jacso´, P. (2008). The pros and cons of computing the h‐index using Google Scholar. Online Information Review, 32(3), 437-452. doi:10.1108/14684520810889718Jacsó, P. (2012). Using Google Scholar for journal impact factors and the h‐index in nationwide publishing assessments in academia – siren songs and air‐raid sirens. Online Information Review, 36(3), 462-478. doi:10.1108/14684521211241503Kousha, K., & Thelwall, M. (2007). Google Scholar citations and Google Web/URL citations: A multi-discipline exploratory analysis. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(7), 1055-1065. doi:10.1002/asi.20584Kousha, K., & Thelwall, M. (2007). Sources of Google Scholar citations outside the Science Citation Index: A comparison between four science disciplines. Scientometrics, 74(2), 273-294. doi:10.1007/s11192-008-0217-xKousha, K., Thelwall, M., & Rezaie, S. (2011). Assessing the citation impact of books: The role of Google Books, Google Scholar, and Scopus. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 62(11), 2147-2164. doi:10.1002/asi.21608Leydesdorff, L., & Felt, U. (2012). Edited volumes, monographs and book chapters in the Book Citation Index (BKCI) and Science Citation Index (SCI, SoSCI, A&HCI). Journal of Scientometric Research, 1(1), 28-34. doi:10.5530/jscires.2012.1.7Nederhof, A. J. (2006). Bibliometric monitoring of research performance in the Social Sciences and the Humanities: A Review. Scientometrics, 66(1), 81-100. doi:10.1007/s11192-006-0007-2Orduña-Malea, Enrique (2012). Propuesta de un modelo de análisis redinformétrico multinivel para el estudio sistémico de las universidades españolas. Valencia: Universidad Politécnica de Valencia [tesis doctoral]Orduña-Malea, E., & Ontalba-Ruipérez, J.-A. (2012). Proposal for a multilevel university cybermetric analysis model. Scientometrics, 95(3), 863-884. doi:10.1007/s11192-012-0868-5Orduña-Malea, E., Serrano-Cobos, J., & Lloret-Romero, N. (2009). Las universidades públicas españolas en Google Scholar: presencia y evolución de su publicación académica web. El Profesional de la Informacion, 18(5), 493-500. doi:10.3145/epi.2009.sep.02Thelwall, M. (2002). Research dissemination and invocation on the Web. Online Information Review, 26(6), 413-420. doi:10.1108/14684520210452745Torres-Salinas, D., Ruiz-Pérez, R., & Delgado-López-Cózar, E. (2009). Google Scholar como herramienta para la evaluación científica. El Profesional de la Informacion, 18(5), 501-510. doi:10.3145/epi.2009.sep.03White, H. D., Boell, S. K., Yu, H., Davis, M., Wilson, C. S., & Cole, F. T. H. (2009). Libcitations: A measure for comparative assessment of book publications in the humanities and social sciences. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60(6), 1083-1096. doi:10.1002/asi.2104

Moving carbon between spheres, the potential oxalate-carbonate pathway of Brosimum alicastrum Sw.; Moraceae.

Aims The Oxalate-Carbonate Pathway (OCP) is a biogeochemical process that transfers atmospheric CO2 into the geologic reservoir as CaCO3; however, until now all investigations on this process have focused on species with limited food benefits. This study evaluates a potential OCP associated with Brosimum alicastrum, a Neotropical species with agroforestry potential (ca. 70–200 kg-nuts yr−1), in the calcareous soils of Haiti and Mexico. Methods / results Enzymatic analysis demonstrated significant concentrations of calcium oxalate (5.97 % D.W.) were associated with B. alicastrum tissue in all sample sites. The presence of oxalotrophism was also confirmed with microbiological analyses in both countries. High concentrations of total calcium (>7 g kg−1) and lithogenic carbonate obscured the localised alkalinisation and identification of secondary carbonate associated with the OCP at most sample sites, except Ma Rouge, Haiti. Soils adjacent to subjects in Ma Rouge demonstrated an increase in pH (0.63) and CaCO3 concentration (5.9 %) that, when coupled with root-like secondary carbonate deposits in Mexico, implies that the OCP does also occur in calcareous soils. Conclusions Therefore this study confirms that the OCP also occurs in calcareous soils, adjacent to B. alicastrum, and could play a fundamental and un-accounted role in the global calcium-carbon coupled cycle

Accelerating environmental flow implementation to bend the curve of global freshwater biodiversity loss

Environmental flows (e-flows) aim to mitigate the threat of altered hydrological regimes in river systems and connected waterbodies and are an important component of integrated strategies to address multiple threats to freshwater biodiversity. Expanding and accelerating implementation of e-flows can support river conservation and help to restore the biodiversity and resilience of hydrologically altered and water-stressed rivers and connected freshwater ecosystems. While there have been significant developments in e-flow science, assessment, and societal acceptance, implementation of e-flows within water resource management has been slower than required and geographically uneven. This review explores critical factors that enable successful e-flow implementation and biodiversity outcomes in particular, drawing on 13 case studies and the literature. It presents e-flow implementation as an adaptive management cycle enabled by 10 factors: legislation and governance, financial and human resourcing, stakeholder engagement and co-production of knowledge, collaborative monitoring of ecological and social-economic outcomes, capacity training and research, exploration of trade-offs among water users, removing or retrofitting water infrastructure to facilitate e-flows and connectivity, and adaptation to climate change. Recognising that there may be barriers and limitations to the full and effective enablement of each factor, the authors have identified corresponding options and generalizable recommendations for actions to overcome prominent constraints, drawing on the case studies and wider literature. The urgency of addressing flow-related freshwater biodiversity loss demands collaborative networks to train and empower a new generation of e-flow practitioners equipped with the latest tools and insights to lead adaptive environmental water management globally. Mainstreaming e-flows within conservation planning, integrated water resource management, river restoration strategies, and adaptations to climate change is imperative. The policy drivers and associated funding commitments of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework offer crucial opportunities to achieve the human benefits contributed by e-flows as nature-based solutions, such as flood risk management, floodplain fisheries restoration, and increased river resilience to climate change

Twenty-three unsolved problems in hydrology (UPH) – a community perspective

This paper is the outcome of a community initiative to identify major unsolved scientific problems in hydrology motivated by a need for stronger harmonisation of research efforts. The procedure involved a public consultation through on-line media, followed by two workshops through which a large number of potential science questions were collated, prioritised, and synthesised. In spite of the diversity of the participants (230 scientists in total), the process revealed much about community priorities and the state of our science: a preference for continuity in research questions rather than radical departures or redirections from past and current work. Questions remain focussed on process-based understanding of hydrological variability and causality at all space and time scales. Increased attention to environmental change drives a new emphasis on understanding how change propagates across interfaces within the hydrological system and across disciplinary boundaries. In particular, the expansion of the human footprint raises a new set of questions related to human interactions with nature and water cycle feedbacks in the context of complex water management problems. We hope that this reflection and synthesis of the 23 unsolved problems in hydrology will help guide research efforts for some years to come