Identifying Scientific and Technical “Unicorns”

PurposeUsing the metaphor of “unicorn,” we identify the scientific papers and technical patents characterized by the informetric feature of very high citations in the first ten years after publishing, which may provide a new pattern to understand very high impact works in science and technology.Design/methodology/approachWhen we set CT as the total citations of papers or patents in the first ten years after publication, with CT≥ 5,000 for scientific “unicorn” and CT≥ 500 for technical “unicorn,” we have an absolute standard for identifying scientific and technical “unicorn” publications.FindingsWe identify 165 scientific “unicorns” in 14,301,875 WoS papers and 224 technical “unicorns” in 13,728,950 DII patents during 2001–2012. About 50% of “unicorns” belong to biomedicine, in which selected cases are individually discussed. The rare “unicorns” increase following linear model, the fitting data show 95% confidence with the RMSE of scientific “unicorn” is 0.2127 while the RMSE of technical “unicorn” is 0.0923.Research limitationsA “unicorn” is a pure quantitative consideration without concerning its quality, and “potential unicorns” as CT≤5,000 for papers and CT≤500 for patents are left in future studies.Practical implicationsScientific and technical “unicorns” provide a new pattern to understand high-impact works in science and technology. The “unicorn” pattern supplies a concise approach to identify very high-impact scientific papers and technical patents.Originality/valueThe “unicorn” pattern supplies a concise approach to identify very high impact scientific papers and technical patents.

Two-Scale Tomography Based Finite Element Modeling of Plasticity and Damage in Aluminum Foams

In this study, finite element (FE) modeling of open-cell aluminum foams in tension was performed based on laboratory X-ray tomography scans of the materials at two different scales. High-resolution stitching tomography of the initial state allowed local intermetallic particles to be distinguished from internal defects in the solid phase of the foam. Lower-resolution scans were used to monitor the deformation and fracture in situ during loading. 3D image-based FE models of the foams were built to simulate the tensile behavior using a new microstructure-informed Gurson–Tvergaard–Needleman model. The new model allows quantitative consideration of the local presence of brittle intermetallic particles in the prediction of damage. It performs well in the discrimination of potential fracture zones in the foam, and can be easily adapted to any type of architectured material where both the global architecture and local microstructural details should be taken into account in the prediction of damage behavior.

Analytical considerations for comparative transcriptomics of wild organisms

Comparative transcriptomics can now be conducted on organisms in natural settings, which has greatly enhanced understanding of genome-environment interactions. However, important data handling and quality control challenges remain, particularly when working with non-model species outside of a controlled laboratory environment. Here, we demonstrate the utility and potential pitfalls of comparative transcriptomics of wild organisms, with an example from three cyprinid fish species (Teleostei:Cypriniformes). We present computational solutions for processing, annotating and summarizing comparative transcriptome data for assessing genome-environment interactions across species. The resulting bioinformatics pipeline addresses the following points: (1) the potential importance of “essential genes”, (2) the influence of microbiomes and other exogenous DNA, (3) potentially novel, species-specific genes, and (4) genomic rearrangements (e.g., whole genome duplication). Quantitative consideration of these points contributes to a firmer foundation for future comparative work across distantly related taxa for a variety of sub-disciplines, including stress and immune response, community ecology, ecotoxicology, and climate change.

Evaluation of the decision maker's preferences in the selection means of transport

In the process of optimizing each criterion validity coefficients allow to take into account individual preferences of the decision maker. They are therefore one of its most important elements of this process. On the Polish market works very diverse range of vehicles. For the calculation of the validity coefficients for the optimization of the choice of means of transport used DEMATEL method. The application presented method resulted in a quantitative consideration of the actual decision-maker preferences based on fairly simple scientific method, and not only the intuition of the decision maker.