Query Expansion for Survey Question Retrieval in the Social Sciences

In recent years, the importance of research data and the need to archive and to share it in the scientific community have increased enormously. This introduces a whole new set of challenges for digital libraries. In the social sciences typical research data sets consist of surveys and questionnaires. In this paper we focus on the use case of social science survey question reuse and on mechanisms to support users in the query formulation for data sets. We describe and evaluate thesaurus- and co-occurrence-based approaches for query expansion to improve retrieval quality in digital libraries and research data archives. The challenge here is to translate the information need and the underlying sociological phenomena into proper queries. As we can show retrieval quality can be improved by adding related terms to the queries. In a direct comparison automatically expanded queries using extracted co-occurring terms can provide better results than queries manually reformulated by a domain expert and better results than a keyword-based BM25 baseline.Comment: to appear in Proceedings of 19th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries 2015 (TPDL 2015

VUV Study of Electron Impact Dissociative Excitation of Thymine

Dissociative excitation of thymine following electron impact was studied in the energy range up to 430 eV. Emissions in the vacuum ultra-violet spectral region below 150 nm were studied and found to be dominated by the hydrogen Lyman series. Emission cross section data reveal that Lyman-α excitation displays a broad maximum at an electron impact energy of 160 eV. The probability of extracting other excited atoms from the parent molecule is found to be insignificant. Possible excitation and dissociation mechanisms in the parent molecule are discussed

Production of O(1D) following electron impact on CO2

We have studied the excitation of metastable O(1D) following dissociative excitation of CO2 in the electron impact energy range from threshold to 400 eV. A solid Ne matrix at ∼20 K forms the heart of the detector. This is sensitive to the metastable species through the formation of excited excimers (NeO*), The resultant excimer radiation is readily detected, providing a means of measuring the production of the metastables. Using a pulsed electron beam and time-of-flight techniques, we have measured the O(1D) kinetic energy spectrum and its relative production cross sections as a function of electron impact energy. Threshold energy data are used to gain information about the excitation channels involved. In addition, an emission excitation function for the red photons, emitted in coincidence with the exciting electron pulse, has been measured in the 0–400 eV energy range

Numerical modelling of physical processes governing larval transport in the southern North Sea

A three-dimensional hydrodynamic model (GETM) was coupled with a particle tracking routine (GITM) to study the inter-annual variability in transport paths of particles in the North Sea and English Channel. For validation, a comparison with observed drifter trajectories is also presented here. This research investigated to what extent variability in the hydrodynamic conditions alone (reflecting passive particle transport) contributed to inter-annual variability in the transport of eggs and larvae. In this idealised study, no a priori selection of specific spawning grounds or periods was made and no active behaviour (vertical migration) or mortality was included. In this study, egg and larval development towards coastal nursery areas was based solely on sea water temperature, while settlement areas were defined by a threshold water depth. Results showed strong inter-annual variability in drift direction and distance, caused by a combination of wind speed and direction. Strong inter-annual variability was observed both in absolute amount of settlement in several coastal areas, and in the relative importance of the different areas. The effects of wind and temperature variability are minor for settlement along the western shores of the North Sea and in the English Channel, but have a very significant impact on settlement along the eastern shores of the North Sea. Years with strong south-westerly winds across the Dover Straight resulted in higher settlement figures along its eastern shores of the North Sea (standard deviation 37% of the mean annual settlement value). Settlement in the western Dutch Wadden Sea did not only show inter-annual variability, but patterns were also variable within each year and revealed seasonal changes in the origin of particles: during winter, stronger currents along with colder temperatures generally result in particles originating from further away

Investigation of the soil properties that affect Olsen P critical values in different soil types and impact on P fertiliser recommendations

Optimization of phosphorus (P) fertiliser use is desired to ensure more sustainable use of fertiliser, economic food production and reduction of eutrophication of water bodies. Presently, the Olsen P values on which fertiliser recommendations are based to achieve optimum yield are frequently the same for all soils. The aim of this study was to identify the properties of different soils that affect their critical Olsen P values in order to develop better, soil specific P fertiliser recommendations. A pot experiment using 10 soils with low available P with different P additions was carried out to investigate the impact of wide-ranging soil properties on the relationship between P addition, resultant Olsen P values and yield response of ryegrass to Olsen P values. The relationship between added P and Olsen P varied greatly between the individual soils. These relationships were affected by pH, manganese oxide, crystalline aluminium oxide and amorphous iron oxide contents of the soil. Different soils had widely varying critical Olsen P values for ryegrass. However, these could not be related to the measured soil properties. Fertiliser recommendations and critical values for optimum yield of ryegrass based on the Olsen P test should be soil specific. The complexity and lack of clarity over which combination of soil properties governs critical Olsen P values calls for further investigation with more soil types and additional soil property measurements to elucidate the different factors controlling critical Olsen P values in different soils

Assessing gender mainstreaming in the education sector: depoliticised technique or a step towards women's rights and gender equality?

In 1995 the Beijing Conference on Women identified gender mainstreaming as a key area for action. Policies to effect gender mainstreaming have since been widely adopted. This special issue of Compare looks at research on how gender mainstreaming has been used in government education departments, schools, higher education institutions, international agencies and NGOs .1 In this introduction we first provide a brief history of the emergence of gender mainstreaming and review changing definitions of the term. In the process we outline some policy initiatives that have attempted to mainstream gender and consider some difficulties with putting ideas into practice, particularly the tensions between a technical and transformative interpretations . Much of the literature about experiences with gender mainstreaming tends to look at organizational processes and not any specificities of a particular social sector. However, in our second section, we are concerned to explore whether institutional forms and particular actions associated with education give gender mainstreaming in education sites some distinctive features. In our last section we consider some of the debates about global and local negotiations in discussions of gender policy and education and the light this throws on gender mainstreaming. In so doing, we place the articles that follow in relation to contestations over ownership, political economy, the form and content of education practice and the social complexity of gender equality

Open Access Publishing - Models and Attributes

The SOAP (Study of Open Access Publishing) project has compiled data on the present offer for open access publishing in online peer-reviewed journals. Starting from the Directory of Open Access Journals, several sources of data are considered, including inspection of journal web site and direct inquiries within the publishing industry. Several results are derived and discussed, together with their correlations: the number of open access journals and articles; their subject area; the starting date of open access journals; the size and business models of open access publishers; the licensing models; the presence of an impact factor; the uptake of hybrid open access. In addition, a number of qualitative features of open access publishing, relevant to understand the present landscape, are described

First results of the FP7 SOAP Project

* About the project * Highlights: Gold OA journals today * Results from the large-scale survey of researcher

Climate and soil micro‐organisms drive soil phosphorus fractions in coastal dune systems

1. The importance of soil phosphorus (P) is likely to increase in coming decades due to the growing atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition originated by industrial and agricultural activities. We currently lack a proper understanding of the main drivers of soil P pools in coastal dunes, which rank among the most valued priority conservation areas worldwide. 2. Here, we evaluated the joint effects of biotic (i.e. microbial abundance and richness, vegetation and cryptogams cover) and abiotic (i.e. pH and aridity) factors on labile, medium‐lability and recalcitrant soil P pools across a wide aridity gradient in the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula. 3. Climate determined the availability of medium‐lability, recalcitrant and total P, but had a minor net effect on labile P, which was positively and significantly related to the presence of plants, mosses and lichens. Medium‐lability P was significantly influenced by soil bacterial richness and abundance (positively and negatively, respectively). 4. Our results suggest that micro‐organisms transfer P from medium‐lability pool to more labile one. At the same time, increases in bacterial richness associated to biofilms might be involved in the thickening of the medium‐lability P pool in our climosequence. 5. These bacterial‐mediated transfers would confer resistance to the labile P pool under future climate change and uncover an important role of soil micro‐organisms as modulators of the geochemical P cycle.This project was financed by FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades-Agencia Estatal de Investigación/Proyect (CGL2017-88124-R), European Research Council (ERC Grant Agreement 647038 [BIODESERT]) and the Fundaçã o para Ciência e Tecnologia (IF/00950/2014) and the FEDER, within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and COMPETE 2020 (UID/BIA/04004/2013). F.T.M. acknowledges support from Generalitat Valenciana (CIDEGENT/2018/041). B.K.S. acknowledge research support on microbes and ecosystem functions from the Australian Research Council (DP170104634) and Research Award from the Humboldt Foundation