A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Fine Roots Research in Forest Ecosystems during 1992–2020

(1) Background: Fine roots (≤2 mm in diameter) play a critical role in forest ecosystem ecological processes and has been widely identified as a major research topic. This study aimed to synthesize the global literature based on the Web of Science Core Collection scientific database from 1992 to 2020 and summarize the research trends and prospects on research of fine roots in forest ecosystems. A quantitative bibliometric analysis was presented with information related to authors, countries, institutions, journals, top cited publications, research hotspots, trends, and prospects. (2) Results: The results showed that the amount of publications has increased exponentially. USA, China, and Germany were the most productive countries. Chinese Academy of Science was the most productive institution on fine roots research and also has a key position in both domestic and international cooperation networks. Leuschner C and Hertel D were the most productive authors. Six core journals were confirmed from 471 journals based on Bradford’s law. The distribution of the frequency of authors and the number of their publications were fitted with Lotka’s Law. Author collaboration network was mainly limited in the same countries/territories and institutions. Keywords analysis indicates that the hotspots are biomass, decomposition, and respiration of fine roots, especially under climate change. (3) Conclusion: Our results provide a better understanding of global characteristics and trends of fine roots that have emerged in this field, which could offer reference for future research.

Borneol: A Plant Sourced Terpene with a Variety of Promising Pharmacological Effects

Background: Borneol, a bicyclic monoterpene belonging to the class of camphene is sourced from Blumea balsamifera, Cinnamonum camphora (L.) Presl, Dryobalanops aromatica Gaertner, and the volatile oils extracted from various other plant sources. Chinese Traditional Medicine system documents almost 1000 years of clinical use of borneol as an adjuvant as well as an active in treating various diseases and disorders; mainly pertaining to the central nervous system. Objective: The review aims to provide the insights into the array of pharmacological activities elicited by borneol along with their underlying mechanisms. Methods: Apart from the promising permeation enhancing activity, the scientific database has established strong evidence of a variety of pharmacological effects for borneol. The current work involved critical evaluation of the published and patented literature revealing various pharmacodynamic activities of borneol alone and in combination with other actives. The mechanisms responsible for the same were also investigated. Results: A plethora of studies has revealed a promising antimicrobial, antiparasitic, and antimicrobial adhesion activity of borneol. Anti-inflammatory, analgesic, neuroprotective, and antiepileptic actions of borneol have been elucidated via a number of preclinical studies. Anti-diabetic, anti-hyperlipidemic, antihypertensive, and anticancer effects have also been explored for borneol. Conclusion: The array of pharmacological activities evaluated for borneol alone or in combination with other actives could be attributed to its specific molecular structure, excellent brain permeability, strong antioxidant property, and ability to modulate various inflammatory pathways and precursors. However, more extensive preclinical and mainly clinical studies are warranted before this bicyclic monoterpene can establish as an active pharmaceutical agent.

Metabolic Syndrome and Mental Health in the Time of Covid-19 Pandemic

Introduction. At the end of 2019, China was hit by adisease with pandemic potential. It was anew coronavirus, also called COVID-19 (coronavirus disease). In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the situation apandemic. Those most at risk were people with metabolic syndrome, men- tally ill and the elderly. Metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components have become amonitored issue in the context of mental illnesses. The COVID-19 pandemic, metabolic syn- drome, and mental health have become interrelated. The num- ber of mental illnesses has grown exponentially around the world, having affected several age groups. Methodology. Asearch and selection of articles from the on- line scientific database WOS through bibliometric analysis, using the keywords "COVID-19", "metabolic syndrome","mental illnesses" in the period from 2020 to 2021 to present the relationships between metabolic syndrome and mental ill- nesses during the COVID - 19 pandemic. Conclusion. In the area of publications, the issue of depression during the COVID - 19 pandemic was the most watched topic. Ahigher incidence of metabolic syndrome or its components has been reported in patients suffering from mental illnesses.

Towards Higher Quality of Recycled Plastics: Limitations from the Material’s Perspective

The increasing consumption of plastics and plastic products results in correspondingly substantial volumes of waste, which poses considerable environmental burdens. With the ongoing environmental actions, the application of circular economy on this waste stream is becoming inevitable. In this paper, the topics of plastics recycling, circular economy on plastics, and challenges to plastic waste recycling are critically reviewed. In the first part of this paper, the development of research on plastic recycling was viewed from 1950 until 2020 using the scientific database Web of Science, and 682 related studies were found and used to assess the changing research priorities along that timeline. The following sections discuss the potentials and requirements to enhance the quality of the produced recycled plastic, in connection with the factors that currently limit it. In conclusion, the quality of recycled plastic is generally determined by the homogeneity of the recovered plastic feed. There are various strategies which could be implemented to overcome the hindrances identified in the paper and to improve the quality of the recycled plastic, such as working on enhanced product designs for minimised waste heterogeneity and controlling the materials’ degree of contamination by applying advanced sorting.

Flood Risk Analysis by Building Use in Urban Planning for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation

In this study, focusing on buildings as the smallest unit of urban space, the distribution characteristics of risk factors were examined by building use as an adaptable measure for urban flooding disasters. Flood risk is calculated as a function of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. The flood risk for a building was classified into five classes, and the distribution characteristics of buildings were examined according to England’s flood risk vulnerability classification system, known as Planning Policy Statement 25 (PPS25). After analyzing the risk of flooding in Ulsan Metropolitan City, one of Korea’s representative urban areas, it was found that while Dong-gu District can be considered relatively safe, districts of Jung-gu and Nam-gu, as well as Ulju-gun, have highly vulnerable buildings with red and orange ratings, which include motor vehicles-related facilities, education and welfare facilities, and residential facilities. There has been evidence to prove that urban flood disaster affects topography and the environment, in addition to having a significant effect on adaptability depending on the facility groups that resulted from urbanization. This study is expected to serve as a scientific database for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation to floods during land-use planning, which would eventually allow for systematic management of high-risk buildings through verification of location suitability of buildings by facility group.

Food and Consumer Attitude(s): An Overview of the Most Relevant Documents

Food markets have, at least, two dimensions. One is related to supply, where food marketing, for example, plays a determinant role, namely to promote healthy and balanced consumption. The other dimension is associated with demand, where it is important to understand and bring insights about consumer attitudes, because they have implications on patterns of food consumption. In this framework, the main objective of this research is to suggest an alternative approach for conducting systematic reviews based on bibliometric analysis and implement it on topics about food and consumer attitudes. For this purpose, the most important bibliographic items (authors, sources, organizations, countries and documents) were identified and later the most relevant documents were reviewed. In addition, 908 documents were selected on 11 December 2020 from the Web of Science Core Collection, for the topics “food” and “consumer attitude*”, and analyzed through bibliometric analysis with the support of the VOSviewer and Gephi software. These documents were also benchmarked with those available in the Scopus scientific database. The approach presented here made it possible to highlight the main insights from the scientific literature related to consumer attitudes to food and bring about further contributions to a literature review supported by bibliometric analysis. This proposal may be known as MB2MBA2 (Methodology Based on Benchmarking of Metadata, from scientific databases, and Bibliometric Assessment and Analysis). This systematic review highlights that organic foods, food neophobia, climate change, marketing strategies and interrelationships between motivations–consumer attitudes–perceptions–purchase intentions–purchase decisions (MAPID) deserved special attention. In addition, MAPID interactions are impacted, among other dimensions, by labelling, branding and trust in the information provided. Future research should further address impacts on consumer attitudes towards food, such as those related to climate-smart agriculture, food 4.0, food security and protection, and climate change and malnutrition.

Literature Review of Socioeconomic and Environmental Impacts of High-Speed Rail in the World

Countries considering high-speed rail (HSR) developments face enormous challenges because of their high deployment cost, environmental obstacles, political opposition, and their potentially adverse effects on society. Nevertheless, HSR services are importantly sustainable that can have positive and transformative effects on the economic growth of a nation. This paper systematically reviews and classifies impact areas of HSR deployments around the world as well as the analytical methods used to evaluate those impacts. We have utilized the scholarly scientific database to find articles in HSR systems. By defining some rules, we select 116 articles between 1997 and March 2020. The approach revealed interesting patterns and trends in space, time, and sentiment of the analyzed impacts on society, the economy, and the environment. The findings can inform decision-making about HSR developments and deployments, and the gaps identified in the literature can propose new research opportunities for future studies.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN HYBRID WARFARE: A LITERATURE REVIEW AND CLASSIFICATION

Artificial intelligence contributes greatly to enhance situational awareness, providing early warning and contributing to the decision making process in the hybrid warfare context. Artificial intelligence brings a paradigm shift to “new” wars and threats, powered by increasing availability of military data and rapid progress of artificial intelligence techniques. The purpose of this paper is to identify researchers’ interest in the use of “artificial intelligence” in the “hybrid warfare" environment and to establish the topics they approach. In this respect, the aim of this paper is to produce a literature review by accessing a scientific database in order to perform an analysis on how connected topics, such as: machine learning, data mining, deep learning and artificial neural network are integrated in the military domain.

Design for Disassembly (DfD) in construction industry: a literature mapping and analysis of the existing designs

A systematic search of scientific literature on the topic of Design for Disassembly (DfD) in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry was performed with a special focus on study cases. The results were augmented by electronic magazine search due to the non-representative amount of data found in the scientific database. Results show the domination of wood and steel solutions among architects and engineers designing for disassembly. Frame structural system is preferable. DfD structures are mainly located in Europe but observed in the whole world and growing exponentially since 90'. The database with 117 built DfD study cases is made available online and will be further developed.

Membrane Applications in the Dairy Industry

The membrane separation process is a promising technique to be employed in the dairy industry. It can be used to treat effluents and for the recovery of molecules of interest to add value to product formulations. The study aspired to present the potential industrial use of membranes for dairy industries. Detailed research for scientific articles on the subject was conducted from the Scopus® scientific database, and the use of wastewater treatment in the dairy industry has increased significantly over the years. The findings presented are expected to provide a valuable theoretical framework for producers and industries related to milk production and whose objective is to optimize production performance and expressive benefits from an economic and environmental viewpoint. Moreover, membrane-based wastewater treatment has low energy demand, high volume recovery, significant water quality, multiple applications of purified water, eco-friendly performance, and favorable future perspectives.