scholarly journals Scientometric analysis of the activities of the International Commission for Continental Erosion (ICCE)

Author(s):  
Valeriy P. Bondarev

Abstract. The article is dedicated to the analysis of the International Commission of Continental Erosion (ICCE) of International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) activity since foundation in 1981. The empirical data is the collections of scientific articles, published in IAHS Red Books after symposiums and workshops, organized by the ICCE. 2460 authors published articles in Red Books, 81 % of them have publication in the one issue. The most active contributors (who have articles in 7 or more issues) compose a group of 39 scientists (1.6 % from the total number of authors). Researchers from 89 countries were published articles in the ICCE issues of Red Books. The activity of the ICCE can be described by a cyclic model of growth. It is shown that the ICCE scientific community is becoming progressively global.

Behaviour ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 130 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 229-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irenaeus J.A. Te Boekhorst ◽  
Paulien Hogeweg

AbstractChimpanzees live in societies that are characterised both by disorder and order. On the one hand, party size fluctuates in a randomlike fashion and party membership is unpredictable ; on the other hand, fundamental party structures are apparent; males are often in all-male parties whereas females remain mostly solitary. The customary sociobiological explanation is based on the assumptions that 1) competition for food favors solitariness (especially in females); 2) chimpanzee males share the costs of territorial defense against rivals from neighbouring communities and 3) genetical relatedness among males within a community compensates for fitness losses due to their competition for food and females. We point to some theoretical flaws in the reasoning that forms the basis of the current neo-Darwinistic model and to the lack of empirical data concerning male relatedness. Most importantly, chimpanzee-like party structures emerge by self-organisation in an artificial "world" in which "CHIMPs" do nothing more than searching for food and mates, without requiring any of the assumptions of the sociobiological model.


2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-61
Author(s):  
Michael Poznic ◽  
Rafaela Hillerbrand

Climatologists have recently introduced a distinction between projections as scenario-based model results on the one hand and predictions on the other hand. The interpretation and usage of both terms is, however, not univocal. It is stated that the ambiguities of the interpretations may cause problems in the communication of climate science within the scientific community and to the public realm. This paper suggests an account of scenarios as props in games of make-belive. With this account, we explain the difference between projections that should be make-believed and other model results that should be believed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (9&10) ◽  
pp. 747-765
Author(s):  
F. Orts ◽  
G. Ortega ◽  
E.M. E.M. Garzon

Despite the great interest that the scientific community has in quantum computing, the scarcity and high cost of resources prevent to advance in this field. Specifically, qubits are very expensive to build, causing the few available quantum computers are tremendously limited in their number of qubits and delaying their progress. This work presents new reversible circuits that optimize the necessary resources for the conversion of a sign binary number into two's complement of N digits. The benefits of our work are two: on the one hand, the proposed two's complement converters are fault tolerant circuits and also are more efficient in terms of resources (essentially, quantum cost, number of qubits, and T-count) than the described in the literature. On the other hand, valuable information about available converters and, what is more, quantum adders, is summarized in tables for interested researchers. The converters have been measured using robust metrics and have been compared with the state-of-the-art circuits. The code to build them in a real quantum computer is given.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Mette Høgh Stæhr ◽  
Lisbeth Madsen

ResumeDet pædagogiske arbejde med børn og unge i fritidsinstitutionerne har de senere år politisk, økonomisk, kompetenceudviklingsmæssigt og forskningsmæssigt været nedprioriteret til trods for institutionernes samfundsmæssige rolle og betydning for børn og unge. Denne artikel diskuterer, hvilken betydning dette har for den faglige ekspertise på området. Gennem analyse af empiri indsamlet i forbindelse med et projekt vedrørende kompetenceudvikling på det fritidspædagogiske område, beskriver artiklen den faglige udvikling i praksis, hvilken viden henholdsvis pædagoger, ledere og organisationer fremhæver som essentiel, hvad dette kan være et udtryk for, og hvorfor netop denne viden sættes i tæt relation til drøftelser vedrørende pædagogisk ekspertise samt kvalitet i fritidsinstitutionerne. Med afsæt i analyser fra en gennemført undersøgelse er artiklens pointe, at pædagogisk kvalitet i fritidsinstitutionerne tager udgangspunkt i pædagogfaglig viden og situationsbunden kundskab om børne- og ungegruppers divergerende hverdagsliv, institutionsliv og interessefællesskaber. Abstract Pedagogical expertise and quality in leisure institutionsWithin the last few years social pedagogical work among children and young people in after school clubs and -centers have not been prioritized politically and economically, with regard to continuing education and when it comes to research despite the societal role and importance these institutions have for the development of children and young people. The article discusses the possible consequences this has had for professional expertise in the field through an analysis of empirical data collected in relation to the project: ‘development of professional courses to professionals working within the field of after school clubs and centres.’ The article takes the reader through a description of the field within the last few years to an analysis of the knowledge that pedagogues, leaders and various organizations evaluate as needed. We will point out that good quality must be found in the relation between knowledge on the one side and capable professionals on the other.


Author(s):  
Сергей Александрович Лебедев ◽  
Сергей Николаевич Коськов

В статье излагается содержание двух базовых концепций неклассической философии и методологии науки: конвенционалистской и консенсуалистской теории природы научного знания и научной истины. Каждая из них является альтернативой двум основным парадигмам классической философии и методологии науки: эмпиризму (позитивизму) и рационализму. С точки зрения конвенционализма научное знание не есть ни описание чистого опыта, ни его обобщение. Но оно не является также и результатом некой априорной интуиции и чистого разума. Согласно конвенционализму научное знание - это система доказательной информации, исходные принципы которой имеют характер условных, конвенциональных истин. Отсюда следует, что любая истина в науке не категорична, а условна и имеет форму «если, то». Консенсуалистская концепция природы научного знания возникла в философии науки второй половины XX в. Она была, с одной стороны, обобщением конвенционализма, а с другой - его отрицанием. Если в конвенционализме основным субъектом научного познания является отдельный ученый, то в консенсуалистской эпистемологии таким субъектом является социальный субъект - научное сообщество. Научное познание имеет принципиально коллективный характер как в плане его получения в силу разделения научного труда, так и в плане его легитимации и оценки. Последние операции всегда являются результатом консенсуса научного сообщества. The article examines the content of two basic conceptions of non-classical philosophy and methodology of science: the conventionalist and consensual theory of the nature of scientific knowledge. Each of them is an alternative to the two main paradigms of classical philosophy and the methodology of science: empiricism (positivism) and rationalism. From the point of view of conventionalism, scientific knowledge is neither a description of pure experience nor a generalization of it. But it is also not the result of some a priori intuition and pure reason. According to conventionalism, scientific knowledge is a system of evidence-based information, the initial principles of which have the character of conditional, conventional truths. It follows that any truth in science is not categorical, but conditional and has the form «if, then». The consensual concept of the nature of scientific knowledge emerged in the philosophy of science of the second half of the twentieth century. It was, on the one hand, a generalization of conventionalism; on the other, a negation of it. If in conventionalism the main subject of scientific knowledge is an individual scientist, then in consensual epistemology such a subject is a social subject - the scientific community. Scientific knowledge has a fundamentally collective character, both in terms of its acquisition by virtue of the division of scientific work, and in terms of its legitimization and evaluation. The latest operations are always the result of a consensus of the scientific community.


Author(s):  
R. J. Wagenet ◽  
J. Bouma

Our lives depend upon and determine the fluxes of water and chemicals in the environment. Atmospheric, aquatic, and terrestrial systems are all characterized by transfer processes that make our lives possible. Some of these processes deliver the air, water, and nutrients that we need to produce food and fiber. Other transfer processes relocate our wastes as environmental contaminants that must be properly managed. As society grows in absolute numbers, so, too, must our concern for maintaining the balance between the wise use of our natural resources in a sustainable manner on the one hand, and the misuse of these resources through short-sightedness and mismanagement on the other hand. Utilization of our resources must be accompanied by protection of them, and knowledge of the role that transfer processes play in this balancing act is important. Management for the long term means that wise decisions in the short term are based on two key issues. First, there is a crucial need to further understand how natural processes, particularly transfer processes, operate. Without this knowledge base, we are unable to formulate logical and lasting solutions to environmental problems. While soil scientists have always focused on tabulating land characteristics in the form of soil surveys, there now is the need to translate these static characterizations into dynamic land qualities, such as soil transfer processes. As important, but less appreciated, is the fact that scientists are becoming increasingly accountable to our clients, the public, for approaches to solve problems that are important to society. This is particularly true for those scientists knowledgeable in transfer processes, for the obvious reasons of public focus on environmental management and pollution prevention. The decisions regarding the impact of our science will be debated, enacted, and enforced outside the scientific community. As we now realize, this means we must consider solutions to environmental problems that are endorsed not only by the scientific community, but also by the public citizenry and regulatory bodies. Many soil and water scientists are experts on transfer processes in the unsaturated zone of the soil.


Author(s):  
Elzbieta Malinowski

Data warehouses (DWs) integrate data from different source systems in order to provide historical information that supports the decision-making process. The design of a DW is a complex and costly task since the inclusion of different data items in a DW depends on both users’ needs and data availability in source systems. Currently, there is still a lack of a methodological framework that guides developers through the different stages of the DW design process. On the one hand, there are several proposals that informally describe the phases used for developing DWs based on the authors’ experience in building such systems (Inmon, 2002; Kimball, Reeves, Ross, & Thornthwaite, 1998). On the other hand, the scientific community proposes a variety of approaches for developing DWs, discussed in the next section. Nevertheless, they either include features that are meant for the specific conceptual model used by the authors, or they are very complex. This situation has occurred since the need to build DW systems that fulfill user expectations was ahead of methodological and formal approaches for DW development, just like the one we had for operational databases.


Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4545 (3) ◽  
pp. 444 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTIAN KROPF ◽  
THEO BLICK ◽  
ANTONIO D. BRESCOVIT ◽  
MARIA CHATZAKI ◽  
NADINE DUPÉRRÉ ◽  
...  

Modern taxonomy and systematics profit from an invaluable tool that has been developed in the course of more than a century by intense discussions and negotiations of generations of zoologists and palaeontologists: The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN 1999, 2012). The main goal of the Code is “to promote stability and universality in the scientific names of animals and to ensure that the name of each taxon is unique and distinct” (Melville 1995, ICZN 1999: 2). The provisions of the Code are generally accepted and thoroughly applied by the scientific community. Exceptions, such as the one described below, are very rare. 


1998 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Shibley Hyde

Henley and colleagues' results, obtained in the process of developing a scale to measure the diversity of feminist attitudes, highlight a dilemma for feminist researchers in psychology. On the one hand, we advocate research based on feminist theory. On the other, we believe that research should begin with the lived experiences of women, from which theory should be generated, rather than forcing women's responses into a predetermined theoretical mold. Several aspects of Henley and colleagues' results contradict feminist theory. I argue that researchers should use empirical data to refine feminist theories.


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