Global Visibility of Open Access Institutional Repositories of SAARC Countries: An Explorative Study

The concept of open access extends perceived advantages to its stakeholders, especially in the preservation of scholarly publications through digital repositories. Open Access (OA) improves collaboration among the authors with the support of global networks. There has been remarkable progress worldwide in creating institutional repositories to provide open access to resources. Open access institutional repositories (OAIR) provide a stable platform to showcase an individual\u27s intellectual works without a hitch. This study explores the visibility of open access institutional repositories of SAARC countries that are reflected in the Directory of Open Access Institutional Repository (DOAR). Collected data has been analyzed and represented in tabular and graphical formats to understand the variables\u27 relationship. The authors also assessed the contribution of SAARC countries concerning repository type, disciplines, languages covered, and software used for building them. The study\u27s finding revealed that out of 128 institutional repositories, the highest number of (14.06%) institutional repositories are registered in 2013 and 2019 and belong to the institutional category. DSpace is the software used for creating the majority of the repositories (60.94%), followed by E-Prints (25%). Three-fourths of the repositories are represented in the English language having its contents in journal articles. Among the SAARC countries, India contributes the highest number of institutional repositories (72.66%). The discipline-wise distribution of institutional repositories shows that the majority (18.40%) of the collection is represented under the category Science in general followed by multidisciplinary (15.74%) and technology in general 51 (12.35%) respectively as a concluding remark, authors elucidated the opportunities and threats associated with the development of OAIR to meet the educational requirements of the academic community

Mapping of Research Productivity of College and Research Libraries News (C&RL News) during 1996-2019: A Scientometric Approach

College and Research Libraries News (C&RL News) is an editorially reviewed publication that publishes news, case studies and other non-research material. The articles in the News do not go through peer review and are meet different standards. This study presents a systematic analysis of the publications in the C&RL News, magazine during the year 1996 to 2019. The analysis provides the understanding of features about highly cited publications. Although the articles in the magazine had been published after an editorial review only and not as other standard peer reviewed policies adopted by reputed journals, it appears in second quartile (Q2) in SCImago Journal Raking among publications of library and information science. The publication data collected from Scopus database has been utilized for analyses and interpretations. Authors have applied scientometric indicators such as collaboration coefficient, annual growth rate, relative growth rate to recognize various dynamics of the magazine. Authors have also analysed the characteristics of the highly cited publications and found that high profile collaborative authorship and addressing the contemporary trending topics are consistent features of highly cited documents, even without having a formal peer-review process

Curcuminoid Binding to Embryonal Carcinoma Cells: Reductive Metabolism, Induction of Apoptosis, Senescence, and Inhibition of Cell Proliferation

Curcumin preparations typically contain a mixture of polyphenols, collectively referred to as curcuminoids. In addition to the primary component curcumin, they also contain smaller amounts of the co-extracted derivatives demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin. Curcuminoids can be differentially solubilized in serum, which allows for the systematic analysis of concentration-dependent cellular binding, biological effects, and metabolism. Technical grade curcumin was solubilized in fetal calf serum by two alternative methods yielding saturated preparations containing either predominantly curcumin (60%) or bisdemethoxycurcumin (55%). Continual exposure of NT2/D1 cells for 4–6 days to either preparation in cell culture media reduced cell division (1–5 µM), induced senescence (6–7 µM) or comprehensive cell death (8–10 µM) in a concentration-dependent manner. Some of these effects could also be elicited in cells transiently exposed to higher concentrations of curcuminoids (47 µM) for 0.5–4 h. Curcuminoids induced apoptosis by generalized activation of caspases but without nucleosomal fragmentation. The equilibrium binding of serum-solubilized curcuminoids to NT2/D1 cells incubated with increasing amounts of curcuminoid-saturated serum occurred with apparent overall dissociation constants in the 6–10 µM range. However, the presence of excess free serum decreased cellular binding in a hyperbolic manner. Cellular binding was overwhelmingly associated with membrane fractions and bound curcuminoids were metabolized in NT2/D1 cells via a previously unidentified reduction pathway. Both the binding affinities for curcuminoids and their reductive metabolic pathways varied in other cell lines. These results suggest that curcuminoids interact with cellular binding sites, thereby activating signal transduction pathways that initiate a variety of biological responses. The dose-dependent effects of these responses further imply that distinct cellular pathways are sequentially activated and that this activation is dependent on the affinity of curcuminoids for the respective binding sites. Defined serum-solubilized curcuminoids used in cell culture media are thus suitable for further investigating the differential activation of signal transduction pathways

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta

Research Productivity and Performance of Journals of Informetrics

This study explores the research productivity and performance of journals of informetrics (JOI) for selected 13 years between 2007-2019. The research productivity was evaluated based on a methodology followed and used in this study: Annual growth rate (AGR), relative growth rate (RGR) and doubling time (Dt); authorship pattern and Authors productivity, degree of collaboration (DC), collaborative index (CI), most productive Institutes, and countries, year-wise distribution of the publications. The Scopus database was consulted for collecting of required data for this study. A total of 978 publications were found during the study period. The study shows that the highest numbers of 106(10.84%) papers were published in 2017 and the lowest 33(3.37%) research articles were published in 2007. It was also observed from the study that multi-authors published the majority of documents. Further, it was revealed that out of 58 countries, the United States contributed (12.40%) alone compared to other countries. The finding exposed that out of six documents types, research articles 863(88.24%) were the more contributed item in this type. The present study shows that the journal of informetrics (JOI) has average performance because of continuous fluctuation in publications\u27 annual growth

LEVEL OF JOB PERFORMANCE OF LIBRARY PROFESSIONALS IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN VARANASI BASED ON THE GENDER AND WORK EXPERIENCE

The purpose of this present study was to determine the level of personal characteristics of library professionals on their job performance in four University libraries in Varanasi. The personal characteristics consists of gender and work experience. In this study, the survey research design was adopted to investigate the level of these variables on the job performance of a sample of library professionals from the four university library in Varanasi. The questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the collected data for this study. The results revealed that most of the library and information professionals have an average level of job performance. For data collection was used 14 items questionnaire “Employee level of job performance”. The instrument was validated and a reliability coefficient of +.99 was obtained using test method. Hypotheses were tested using the Chi-square statistical tool. It was also found that there is no association between gender and level of job performance and experience increases the performance of library professionals in University libraries in Varanasi. The recommendations were also made based on the findings of the present study

Global Visibility of Open Access Institutional Repositories of SAARC Countries: An Explorative Study

The concept of open access extends perceived advantages to its stakeholders, especially in the preservation of scholarly publications through digital repositories. Open Access (OA) improves collaboration among the authors with the support of global networks. There has been remarkable progress worldwide in creating institutional repositories to provide open access to resources. Open access institutional repositories (OAIR) provide a stable platform to showcase an individual\u27s intellectual works without a hitch. This study explores the visibility of open access institutional repositories of SAARC countries that are reflected in the Directory of Open Access Institutional Repository (DOAR). Collected data has been analyzed and represented in tabular and graphical formats to understand the variables\u27 relationship. The authors also assessed the contribution of SAARC countries concerning repository type, disciplines, languages covered, and software used for building them. The study\u27s finding revealed that out of 128 institutional repositories, the highest number of (14.06%) institutional repositories are registered in 2013 and 2019 and belong to the institutional category. DSpace is the software used for creating the majority of the repositories (60.94%), followed by E-Prints (25%). Three-fourths of the repositories are represented in the English language having its contents in journal articles. Among the SAARC countries, India contributes the highest number of institutional repositories (72.66%). The discipline-wise distribution of institutional repositories shows that the majority (18.40%) of the collection is represented under the category Science in general followed by multidisciplinary (15.74%) and technology in general 51 (12.35%) respectively as a concluding remark, authors elucidated the opportunities and threats associated with the development of OAIR to meet the educational requirements of the academic community

Global Research Trend on Cyber Security: A Scientometric Analysis

Scientometrics is a quantitative analysis of scholarly literature related to a particular subject or area (well defined by some limits, scope and coverage), which helps to understand different aspects about the scholarly literature’s growth in various dimensions of knowledge. Similarly, this study is a quantitative analysis of the Global research trends in cyber security. Some works related to scientometrics of ‘deception, counter-deception in cyberspace’ had been published in 2011, but we have focused on ‘cyber security’ as the topic of research. For analysis we have utilised the published data available in Scopus database, which is directly related to ‘cyber security’. The data of 2720 documents published on ‘cyber security’ for the period of 2001-2018, have been retrieved from the Scopus database. We have calculated and tabulated various quantitative indicators from the data; then, we have plotted different graphs for these indicators to understand the growth pattern, collaborations, citations, authorship, countrywise contributions, funding, affiliations etc. We found that the United States of America has the highest number of publications in the area of cyber security research followed by the United Kingdom, China, and India. It can be seen as a result of the fact that among the top 15 funding agencies eight funding agencies are from the USA only. Contrary to this, India is the fourth highest contributor in cyber security research with comparatively meagre funding. Further we have also discussed how collaboration has grown over the years with the publication growth and citation growth. We have also found that Cybersecurity has a growing trend of collaboration in research. This study concludes that Indian defence need to focus on Cybersecurity and plan strategically for the future with effective collaborations. Best defence strategy in the cyberspace is preventive measures supported by continuous research

LEVEL OF JOB PERFORMANCE OF LIBRARY PROFESSIONALS IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN VARANASI BASED ON THE GENDER AND WORK EXPERIENCE

The purpose of this present study was to determine the level of personal characteristics of library professionals on their job performance in four University libraries in Varanasi. The personal characteristics consists of gender and work experience. In this study, the survey research design was adopted to investigate the level of these variables on the job performance of a sample of library professionals from the four university library in Varanasi. The questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the collected data for this study. The results revealed that most of the library and information professionals have an average level of job performance. For data collection was used 14 items questionnaire “Employee level of job performance”. The instrument was validated and a reliability coefficient of +.99 was obtained using test method. Hypotheses were tested using the Chi-square statistical tool. It was also found that there is no association between gender and level of job performance and experience increases the performance of library professionals in University libraries in Varanasi. The recommendations were also made based on the findings of the present study

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