Comprehensive Examination of Novel Altmetrics Data in Relation to Citation Based Impact: A Case Study in the Field of Information Sciences

For a long time, the scholarly impact of a researcher has been evaluated by its citation and publication count. As social media becomes a vital part of our lives, scholars use “Altmetrics” platforms to promote their publications through the use of different social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, CUL (Cite You Like), Mendeley, etc. Twitter is one of the popular and rapidly growing microblogging platforms that is also used in the context of “Altmetrics” as a strong alternative scale to identify quality research work. This research test whether Twitter indicators are helpful to identify quality research work. Our research is based upon a small dataset of 6613 tweets in the field of natural sciences. We compared Twitter indicators (“favorite count and retweet count”) vs. traditional indicator (“citation count”). We also analyzed Twitter text (comments) based on sentiment analysis by using different algorithms. Our research came up with the outcome that neither the favorite count, retweet count, nor the comments were the strong indicators to identify quality research work. These results would help the researchers to understand the role of Twitter indicators to capture quality research work online. Keywords: Altmetrics, Twitter Indicators, Sentiment Analysis, Microblogging

Особенности калмыцкого письменного языка XIX в. (на материале калмыцких писем И. Я. Шмидта (1800–1810 гг.))

Introduction. The article examines some phonetic and morphological features of the Kalmyk language traced in written monuments published by the famous Mongolists John Krueger and Robert Service in the ‘Kalmyk Old-Manuscript Documents of Isaac Jacob Schmidt’ (2002). The book presents facsimiles, transcriptions and translations of epistolary documents into English, which cover the period from 1800 to 1810. Most of the letters — 54 out of 80 — reflect correspondence with the Baga Dorbet Princes Tundutovs, including 18 from Erdeni Taisha, 27 from Tsebek, and 9 more from Jamba Taisha. These written monuments are kept in the archives of the Moravian Brothers Community in Herrnhut (Unitas Fratrum, Eng. ‘United Brothers’) in folder R.15.R.IIa No. 5. Goals. The paper aims at investigating some phonetic and morphological features of the then Kalmyk language discovered in the published letters. Results. The language of I. H. Schmidt’s letters reflects the stage in the development of the Kalmyk language in the late 18th – early 19th centuries characterized by a natural convergence of the phonetic and grammatical norms inherent to the written literary language and living folk speech. The materials of the texts show that the beginning of the 19th century witnessed a process of transition of the combinations -ou and -öü into the long vowels [u:] and [ü:], respectively. It is also noted that in words where the diphthong -iu is historically (traditionally) used, e.g., in the word alčiur — in letters it is transmitted as alčuur, which meets the requirements of live pronunciation. In the language of letters of I. J. Schmidt, when it comes to construct the imperative form of the 2nd person plural, several cases of using the colloquial formant -tan are recorded, instead of the traditional indicator -qtün / -qtun. The past participle, which is historically formed with -qsan / -qsen affixes, also approaches colloquial forms, therefore, there are frequent cases of using -san / -sen forms, which are closer to modern Kalmyk (e.g., xara torγon irsen bolxuna ‘if the black silk arrives’). Linguistic processes associated with the reduction of short vowels of non-first syllables of a word, reduction of morphological formants, etc., are reflected to a greater or lesser extent in the text of the studied monument. Conclusions. Thus, the language of I. Ya. Schmidt’s letters reflects the stage of development of the Kalmyk language at the end of the 18th – beginning of the 19th centuries characterized by a natural convergence of phonetic and grammatical norms of the written literary language and living folk speech.

Defining the economic scope for ecosystem-based fishery management

The emergence of ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) has broadened the policy scope of fisheries management by accounting for the biological and ecological connectivity of fisheries. Less attention, however, has been given to the economic connectivity of fisheries. If fishers consider multiple fisheries when deciding where, when, and how much to fish, then management changes in one fishery can generate spillover impacts in other fisheries. Catch-share programs are a popular fisheries management framework that may be particularly prone to generating spillovers given that they typically change fishers’ incentives and their subsequent actions. We use data from Alaska fisheries to examine spillovers from each of the main catch-share programs in Alaska. We evaluate changes in participation—a traditional indicator in fisheries economics—in both the catch-share and non–catch-share fisheries. Using network analysis, we also investigate whether catch-share programs change the economic connectivity of fisheries, which can have implications for the socioeconomic resilience and robustness of the ecosystem, and empirically identify the set of fisheries impacted by each Alaska catch-share program. We find that cross-fishery participation spillovers and changes in economic connectivity coincide with some, but not all, catch-share programs. Our findings suggest that economic connectivity and the potential for cross-fishery spillovers deserve serious consideration, especially when designing and evaluating EBFM policies.

Development of a Novel Methodology to Assess the Corrosion Threshold in Concrete Based on Simultaneous Monitoring of pH and Free Chloride Concentration

Both the free chloride concentration and the pH of the concrete pore solution are highly relevant parameters that control corrosion of the reinforcing steel. In this paper, we present a method to continuously monitor these two parameters in-situ. The approach is based on a recently developed electrode system that consists of several different potentiometric sensors as well as a data interpretation procedure. Instrumented mortar specimens containing different amounts of admixed chlorides were exposed to accelerated carbonation, and changes in free chloride concentration and pH were monitored simultaneously over time. The results revealed the stepwise decrease in pH as well as corresponding increases in free chlorides, resulting from the release of bound chlorides. For a pH drop of about 1 unit (from pH 13.5 down to pH 12.5), the free chloride concentration increased up to 1.5-fold. We continuously quantified the ratio Cl−/OH− that increased steeply with time, and was found to exceed a critical corrosion threshold long before carbonation can be detected with traditional indicator spray testing, even at admixed chloride contents in the order of allowable limits. These results can strongly influence the decision-making in engineering practice and it is expected to significantly improve condition assessments of reinforced concrete structures.

Data envelopment analysis method in comparison with traditional indicator approach in the assessment of financial condition of Ekstraklasa clubs

The aim of this article is to apply the technical efficiency indicators obtained using the CCR and BCC models of the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which are measures of the financial condition of Ekstraklasa football clubs that played matches, in the highest class in Poland, in the season 2014/2015. Statistical and discriminatory analyses were used in order to examine the interdependence between the performance indicators and the financial condition of clubs illustrated by three indicators: current liquidity, net profitability and debt. The choice of football clubs was determined by the availability of data from reports of Deloitte as well as Ernst & Young. The research shows that there is a strong correlation between performance measures and financial indicators. The analyzed interdependence was confirmed by the results of testing the differences significance of financial indicators between the group of effective and ineffective clubs. Indicator which considerably differentiates clubs and has the greatest impact on results is financial liquidity. The results obtained indicate that measures computed using the CCR and BCC models can be applied to assess the financial condition of sports clubs.

Usage Count: A New Indicator to Detect Research Fronts

Purpose Research fronts build on recent work, but using times cited as a traditional indicator to detect research fronts will inevitably result in a certain time lag. This study attempts to explore the effects of usage count as a new indicator to detect research fronts in shortening the time lag of classic indicators in research fronts detection. Design/methodology/approach An exploratory study was conducted where the new indicator “usage count” was compared to the traditional citation count, “times cited,” in detecting research fronts of the regenerative medicine domain. An initial topic search of the term “regenerative medicine” returned 10,553 records published between 2000 and 2015 in the Web of Science (WoS). We first ranked these records with usage count and times cited, respectively, and selected the top 2,000 records for each. We then performed a co-citation analysis in order to obtain the citing papers of the co-citation clusters as the research fronts. Finally, we compared the average publication year of the citing papers as well as the mean cited year of the co-citation clusters. Findings The citing articles detected by usage count tend to be published more recently compared with times cited within the same research front. Moreover, research fronts detected by usage count tend to be within the last two years, which presents a higher immediacy and real-time feature compared to times cited. There is approximately a three-year time span among the mean cited years (known as “intellectual base”) of all clusters generated by usage count and this figure is about four years in the network of times cited. In comparison to times cited, usage count is a dynamic and instant indicator. Research limitations We are trying to find the cutting-edge research fronts, but those generated based on co-citations may refer to the hot research fronts. The usage count of older highly cited papers was not taken into consideration, because the usage count indicator released by WoS only reflects usage logs after February 2013. Practical implications The article provides a new perspective on using usage count as a new indicator to detect research fronts. Originality/value Usage count can greatly shorten the time lag in research fronts detection, which would be a promising complementary indicator in detection of the latest research fronts.

The oblique phrase and the order of the relative construction

Using data from the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS), the order of the oblique phrase with respect to the verb in a sentence is shown to be a good predictor of the order of the relative clause with respect to its head noun in a relative construction. It is a significantly better predictor of relative construction order than the more traditional indicator, the relative order of the verb and the direct object in a sentence. The difference between these two predictors is demonstrated quantitatively, and then discussed in the context of theories of syntactic head-position harmony.

Power Grid Vulnerability Research Based on the Comprehensive Parameter

One of the main reasons caused the blackout accident is the existence of the power grid vulnerable unit. Therefore, how to find out the existing vulnerable unit accurately becomes a hot topic in the power grid at present. In this article, the problem aiming at the insufficient of grid vulnerability metrics is studied. Firstly, the new comprehensive vulnerability indicator was constructed to remedy the disadvantages of the current indicators of grid vulnerability. Secondly, the calculation process was listed. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of the new indicator and the traditional indicator were analyzed in detail in the IEEE typical example. The result of the example shows that the new indicator built in this article is valid.

Technical performance indicators, IWA best practice for water mains and the first steps in Serbia

Active water loss management has became one of the primary interest of the water utilities in the world. It can make significant saves and investments in new water resources capturing can be justified only if appropriate action is done to minimize loss from the water main. There is some level of unavoidable water loss from the water main. Traditional indicator of water loss, widely adopted in the world, was % of the system input value. It always sounds well to have water loss less than some prescribed value (for instance 10%). Due to efforts of IWA Task Force in the last decade, this approach has been proven to be misleading in may cases, and new way of performance measuring and benchmarking is proposed. This paper presents the basic principles of this methodology and the results of the first step in attempt to approach Serbian water mains to the new standards.