18 research outputs found

    The data paper: a mechanism to incentivize data publishing in biodiversity science

    Get PDF
    <p/> <p>Background</p> <p>Free and open access to primary biodiversity data is essential for informed decision-making to achieve conservation of biodiversity and sustainable development. However, primary biodiversity data are neither easily accessible nor discoverable. Among several impediments, one is a lack of incentives to data publishers for publishing of their data resources. One such mechanism currently lacking is recognition through conventional scholarly publication of enriched metadata, which should ensure rapid discovery of 'fit-for-use' biodiversity data resources.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>We review the state of the art of data discovery options and the mechanisms in place for incentivizing data publishers efforts towards easy, efficient and enhanced publishing, dissemination, sharing and re-use of biodiversity data. We propose the establishment of the 'biodiversity data paper' as one possible mechanism to offer scholarly recognition for efforts and investment by data publishers in authoring rich metadata and publishing them as citable academic papers. While detailing the benefits to data publishers, we describe the objectives, work flow and outcomes of the pilot project commissioned by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility in collaboration with scholarly publishers and pioneered by Pensoft Publishers through its journals <it>Zookeys</it>, <it>PhytoKeys</it>, <it>MycoKeys</it>, <it>BioRisk</it>, <it>NeoBiota</it>, <it>Nature Conservation</it> and the forthcoming <it>Biodiversity Data Journal</it>. We then debate further enhancements of the data paper beyond the pilot project and attempt to forecast the future uptake of data papers as an incentivization mechanism by the stakeholder communities.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We believe that in addition to recognition for those involved in the data publishing enterprise, data papers will also expedite publishing of fit-for-use biodiversity data resources. However, uptake and establishment of the data paper as a potential mechanism of scholarly recognition requires a high degree of commitment and investment by the cross-sectional stakeholder communities.</p

    Traffic and Related Self-Driven Many-Particle Systems

    Full text link
    Since the subject of traffic dynamics has captured the interest of physicists, many astonishing effects have been revealed and explained. Some of the questions now understood are the following: Why are vehicles sometimes stopped by so-called ``phantom traffic jams'', although they all like to drive fast? What are the mechanisms behind stop-and-go traffic? Why are there several different kinds of congestion, and how are they related? Why do most traffic jams occur considerably before the road capacity is reached? Can a temporary reduction of the traffic volume cause a lasting traffic jam? Under which conditions can speed limits speed up traffic? Why do pedestrians moving in opposite directions normally organize in lanes, while similar systems are ``freezing by heating''? Why do self-organizing systems tend to reach an optimal state? Why do panicking pedestrians produce dangerous deadlocks? All these questions have been answered by applying and extending methods from statistical physics and non-linear dynamics to self-driven many-particle systems. This review article on traffic introduces (i) empirically data, facts, and observations, (ii) the main approaches to pedestrian, highway, and city traffic, (iii) microscopic (particle-based), mesoscopic (gas-kinetic), and macroscopic (fluid-dynamic) models. Attention is also paid to the formulation of a micro-macro link, to aspects of universality, and to other unifying concepts like a general modelling framework for self-driven many-particle systems, including spin systems. Subjects such as the optimization of traffic flows and relations to biological or socio-economic systems such as bacterial colonies, flocks of birds, panics, and stock market dynamics are discussed as well.Comment: A shortened version of this article will appear in Reviews of Modern Physics, an extended one as a book. The 63 figures were omitted because of storage capacity. For related work see http://www.helbing.org

    Effects of creatine supplementation on aerobic power and cardiovascular structure and function

    Full text link
    This project aimed to determine 1) whether creatine (Cr) supplementation affects cardiovascular structure and function and 2) to examine its effect on aerobic power. Eighteen males undertook aerobic testing on a cycle ergometer and echocardiographic assessment of the heart. The experimental group (N=9) ingested 20g·day-1 of Cr for seven days followed by 10g·day-1 for a further 21 days. The control group (N=9) followed an identical protocol ingesting a placebo for the same period. Assessment was performed pre-, mid- (seven days) and post-testing (28 days). A MANOVA with repeated measures was used to test for group differences before and after supplementation. The Cr group demonstrated a significant increase in body mass for the pre-mid (1.0±0.6 kg) and the pre-post (1.5±0.7 kg) testing occasions. Submaximal V̇O2 decreased significantly from the pre-mid and pre-post testing occasions by between 4.8% to 11.4% with Cr supplementation at workloads of 75 W and 150 W. Other oxygen consumption measures and exercise time to exhaustion, for the Cr group, showed decreasing trends that approached significance. Additionally, there was a significant pre-post decrease in maximum heart rate of 3.7%. There were no changes in any of the echocardiographic or blood pressure measures for either group. The present results suggest short term Cr supplementation has no detectable negative effect on cardiac structure or function. Additionally, Cr ingestion improves submaximal cycling efficiency. These results suggest that the increase in efficiency may be related to peripheral factors such an increase in muscle phosphocreatine, rather than central changes

    Behavior of late potentials on the body surface during programmed ventricular stimulation

    Get PDF
    Objectives. This study sought to evaluate the behavior of late potentials on the body surface by signal averaging during programmed stimulation and to correlate the findings with the cycle length of induced ventricular tachycardia. Background. Clinically relevant late potentials may be concealed within the QRS complex and may be missed by the conventional signal-averaged electrocardiogram (SAECG). In contrast, some late potentials may arise from dead-end pathways or pathways not capable of supporting sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT). It has been shown that durations of late potentials in sinus rhythm correlate poorly with VT cycle length. Methods. Signal-averaged electrocardiography during sinus rhythm, right ventricular pacing (S1) and introduction of a right ventricular extrastimulus (S2) was performed in 95 patients: 11 patients with a structurally normal heart and no inducible VT (Group I); 44 with a previous myocardial infarction (MI) and no inducible monomorphic VT (Group II); and 40 with a previous MI and inducible monomorphic VT (Group III). Results. The best subset of SAECG variables and the best cut points for each variable to differentiate between patients with and without VT were first established for each rhythm studied. Total duration of the filtered QRS complex (QRSD) was found to be the only independent predictor of inducibility of VT. When late potentials were defined for these criteria (QRSD ≄113, ≄178 and ≄168 ms for the SAECG during sinus rhythm, S1 and S2, respectively), there was no difference in the incidence of false positive (16% vs. 18%) or false negative (30% vs. 26%) late potentials between sinus rhythm and S1. During S2, there were significantly fewer false positive late potentials (11% vs. 16%) and fewer false negative late potentials (17% vs. 30%) than with sinus rhythm. Compared with sinus rhythm, 31% of the false positive late potentials detected during sinus rhythm were lost, whereas 43% of the false negative late potentials became detectable after S2, resulting in improved sensitivity (83% vs. 70%), specificity (89% vs. 84%) and predictive accuracy (86% vs. 77%, p < 0.05). Among the patients with VT, QRSD during S2 achieved the best correlation with VT cycle length (r = 0.74) and was the only independent predictor of VT cycle length when all SAECG variables were considered. Conclusions. Late potentials revealed by ventricular extrastimuli but concealed during sinus rhythm may be clinically relevant and may explain some of the false negative late potentials and reduced sensitivity of the conventional SAECG in predicting VT. In contrast, those late potentials that are detected during sinus rhythm but lost after ventricular extrastimuli are often clinically irrelevant and may account for the false positive late potentials and reduced specificity of the conventional SAECG.link_to_OA_fulltex
    corecore