The view from North America

In a thought-provoking paper published in EJIS more than a decade ago, Lyytinen and colleagues asked the question, why does the “old world” perform poorly in high academic impact publishing? This triggered a lively debate on the epistemological and methodological traditions, preferences, and research practices of Europeans versus North Americans that has lasted until today. Is it still true, we asked ourselves, that European scholars generate less academic impact than their North American colleagues? Is the European research context indeed disadvantageous for developing high academic impact research? In this paper, we set out to explore these questions by analysing the Google Scholar profiles of 1713 IS researchers from all over the world. Our findings show that Northern and Western European scholars no longer seem to differ significantly from their North American peers, even though the different research contexts still exercise a certain level of influence. However, is this a development the “old world” desires? We provide an assessment and some suggestions for the future of European IS research.

Introduction: Asian scientists have now increasingly begun to contribute to globalization; yet it is not clear whether publishing in the field of urology is paralleled by elevated cross-continental scientific publishing. Materials and Methods: An exemplary bibliometric analysis of urologic journals from 3 different continents was conducted between 2002 and 2012. Based on the ISI Web of Knowledge Journal Citation Reports, 2 urologic journals with similar impact factors (IFs) in 2013 were selected from Europe (‘British Journal of Urology International', ‘World Journal of Urology'), Asia (‘International Journal of Urology', ‘Asian Journal of Andrology') and North America (‘Urologic Oncology-Seminars and Original Investigations', ‘Urology'). The home continent of the journal, the workplace continental affiliation of the last author, article type (clinical, experimental or review) as well as the IF were documented. Results: Most authors published their manuscripts in journals from the same continent in which they worked. However, a significant increase in cross-continental publishing was apparent from 2002 to 2012. Asians publishing in North America increased from 17% in 2002 to 35% in 2012. Europeans also increased the number of articles they published in North American journals, while publications from North American authors were shifted towards both European and Asian journals. Experimental and clinical articles showed significant increases in cross-continental publishing, while review publishing showed no significant change. The average IF for authors from all 3 continents increased from 2002 to 2012 (p < 0.001). The largest increase in the IF was found for Asian authors (0.11 per year). Conclusions: Cross-continental publication significantly increased during the period from 2002 to 2012. The impact that the Asian authors have experienced was found to be gradually impacting the North American and European colleagues.

Implementation and Impact Evaluation of a Virtual Orthopaedic Continuing Medical Education Conference in a Low-Resource Country

In 2018, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the Engagement and Performance Operations Center (EPOC), a joint project between Indiana University (IU) and the Department of Energy's Energy Science Network (ESnet), to work with domain scientists to accelerate the ability of distributed collaborations to share data in order to reach broader science goals. The goal of this funding was to create an operations center for engagement - including definition of formal processes, tracking of engagements, and funded staff, not simply best effort by volunteers, with a goal of enabling digital societies to better share scientific data.

Prise en charge de la bronchiolite aiguë du nourrisson de moins de 1 an : actualisation et consensus médical au sein des hôpitaux universitaires du Grand Ouest (HUGO)

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) (The Enhanced Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (known as ALMA) is an international astronomy facility. ALMA is a partnership between North America, Europe, and Japan/Taiwan, in cooperation with the Republic of Chile, and is funded in Europe by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and Spain, in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), and in Japan by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) in cooperation with the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of Japan/Taiwan by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), and on behalf of Europe by ESO) combines large collecting area and location on a high dry site to provide it with unparalleled potential for sensitive millimeter/submillimeter spectral line observations. Its wide frequency coverage, superb receivers and flexible spectrometer will ensure that its potential is met. Since the 1999 meeting on ALMA Science (Wootten, ASP Conf. Ser. 235, 2001), the ALMA team has substantially enhanced its capability for line observations. ALMA’s sensitivity increased when Japan joined the project, bringing the 16 antennas of the Atacama Compcat Array (ACA), equivalent to eight additional 12 m telescopes. The first four receiver cartridges for the baseline ALMA (Japan’s entry has brought two additional bands to ALMA’s receiver retinue) have been accepted, with performance above the already-challenging specifications. ALMA’s flexibility has increased with the enhancement of the baseline correlator with additional channels and flexibility, and with the addition of a separate correlator for the ACA. As an example of the increased flexibility, ALMA is now capable of multi-spectral-region and multi-resolution modes. With the former, one might observe e.g. four separate transitions anywhere within a 2 GHz band with a high resolution bandwidth. With the latter, one might simultaneously observe with low spectral resolution over a wide bandwidth and with high spectral resolution over a narrow bandwidth; this mode could be useful for observations of pressure-broadened lines with narrow cores, for example. Several science examples illustrate ALMA’s potential for transforming millimeter and submillimeter astronomy.

Over 300 million arthropod specimens are housed in North American natural history collections. These collections represent a “vast hidden treasure trove” of biodiversity −95% of the specimen label data have yet to be transcribed for research, and less than 2% of the specimens have been imaged. Specimen labels contain crucial information to determine species distributions over time and are essential for understanding patterns of ecology and evolution, which will help assess the growing biodiversity crisis driven by global change impacts. Specimen images offer indispensable insight and data for analyses of traits, and ecological and phylogenetic patterns of biodiversity. Here, we review North American arthropod collections using two key metrics, specimen holdings and digitization efforts, to assess the potential for collections to provide needed biodiversity data. We include data from 223 arthropod collections in North America, with an emphasis on the United States. Our specific findings are as follows: (1) The majority of North American natural history collections (88%) and specimens (89%) are located in the United States. Canada has comparable holdings to the United States relative to its estimated biodiversity. Mexico has made the furthest progress in terms of digitization, but its specimen holdings should be increased to reflect the estimated higher Mexican arthropod diversity. The proportion of North American collections that has been digitized, and the number of digital records available per species, are both much lower for arthropods when compared to chordates and plants. (2) The National Science Foundation’s decade-long ADBC program (Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections) has been transformational in promoting arthropod digitization. However, even if this program became permanent, at current rates, by the year 2050 only 38% of the existing arthropod specimens would be digitized, and less than 1% would have associated digital images. (3) The number of specimens in collections has increased by approximately 1% per year over the past 30 years. We propose that this rate of increase is insufficient to provide enough data to address biodiversity research needs, and that arthropod collections should aim to triple their rate of new specimen acquisition. (4) The collections we surveyed in the United States vary broadly in a number of indicators. Collectively, there is depth and breadth, with smaller collections providing regional depth and larger collections providing greater global coverage. (5) Increased coordination across museums is needed for digitization efforts to target taxa for research and conservation goals and address long-term data needs. Two key recommendations emerge: collections should significantly increase both their specimen holdings and their digitization efforts to empower continental and global biodiversity data pipelines, and stimulate downstream research.

Funding agencies and research councils around the world rely on peer review to assess the potential impacts of proposed research. This article compares the procedures of two major public science agencies — the US National Science Foundation and the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme — for evaluating ex ante the potential societal impact of research proposals. In this paper we survey the state of the art and discuss some of the conceptual questions that arise in using ex ante peer review to assess the societal impact of scientific research. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Evolution in changing seas.

We begin this issue with a special series of four articles about mining-related risks. Many of these risks date back to the 19th century when large scale mining helped spur industrialization and urbanization in Europe and North America. Please read Engineering Area Editor Yacov Haimes's introduction immediately following this editorial for more detail and perspective about these articles.(1) In the rest of this issue, three articles examine different kinds of dietary risk. Funded by the USAID, C.M. Jolly et al. examine knowledge and perceptions of farmers associated with AF ingestion in Benin, West Africa. AFs are a group of extremely toxic metabolites produced by the fungi Aspergillus flavus and A. paraticus., and human ingestion is highly likely in Benin during the production of groundnuts and maize. After describing instances of hundreds of deaths, the authors surveyed 181 farmers to assess their understanding of the impacts on human and animal health. Gender and education seem to be dominating factors in the perception of barriers to mitigating the effects of AF. Male and older farmers are more aware of the risk but also of the benefits of producing and marketing groundnuts. Another dietary risk is from ingestion of acrylamide, a neurotoxin classified as a probable carcinogen to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Acrylamide can be formed by heating of bread, biscuits, crackers, and breakfast cereals. Enda Cummins et al. focus on what they label the “buoyant” market for French fries in Ireland. They develop a risk assessment model using Monte Carlo simulation in order to estimate the likely human exposure to acrylamide. The authors point to the need for strict control of cooking conditions (correlation coefficient of 0.42 and 0.35 for frying time and temperature, respectively) and blanching procedures (correlation coefficient −0.25) to reduce acrylamide formation. Understanding dietary risks from pesticides is an increasing important public health issue. Marc Kennedy and Andy Hart raise the issue of cumulative measurement errors in assessing pesticide concentration in dietary risk assessments. They propose and test a Bayesian method for assessing cumulative impacts of variability and uncertainty on final risk assessments. The remaining three articles in the issue deal with hurricane forecasting, transit vessel risks and decision-making influences. Seung Ryong Han et al., aim to improve the predictive accuracy of hurricane power outage forecasts. The authors assert that prior studies have developed regression models for estimating the number of power outages in advance of an approaching hurricane. However, these approaches have sometimes not been applicable or have had low predictive accuracy. Their paper offers a generalized additive model (GAM), which they demonstrate provides more accurate results in the Gulf Coast region than prior models. The results of GAM models, however, in the editor's experience, can sometimes be difficult to interpret. The Strait of Istanbul is a narrow body of water linking Asia and Europe (Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea). Ozgecan Uluscu et al. note that annually more than 55,000 ships pass through this congested and difficult to navigate waterway, and roughly 20 percent carry dangerous cargo. They build a model based on probabilistic assessments of accident instigators, situations, consequences and historical data as well as interviews with subject-matter experts. They use scenario analysis to study the behavior of the accident risks, with respect to changes in the surrounding geographical, meteorological and traffic conditions. Finding that local traffic density and pilotage (pilot or tugboat) are main factors affecting the risks, the authors point out that allowing more vessels into the Strait will increase risks to extreme levels. Conversely, scheduling changes that would reduce risks may cause major increases in average vessel waiting times. The result is a policy dilemma. Decision-makers' understanding of risk information is critical to their ability to make informed policy decisions. In a study funded by the National Science Foundation, Nathan Dieckmann and his colleagues from Decision Research explore how lay decision-makers with varying numerical abilities use and trust quantitative likelihood assessments and narrative evidence related to forecasts. They find that people who are more numerate focus more on likelihoods (e.g. there is a 30% chance of an event occurring) whereas the less numerate rely more on narrative evidence, implying that risk forecasters need to take into account the types of information that decision-makers find easiest to evaluate in reporting their results. The issue concludes with a book review by Lisa Robinson of Winston Harrington et al.'s edited volume, Reforming Regulatory Impact Analysis (2009). Robinson finds that the case studies, insightful critiques and recommendations in the book are useful to those interested in the connection between risk assessment and risk management decisions related to EPA's major regulations.

It is our great pleasure to welcome you to GROUP'10. This is the 16th gathering in this influential international conference series which despite sporadic name changes -- from Organizational Information Systems, to Organizational Computing Systems, to Group -- remains focused on the challenges of evaluating and developing socio-technical systems to support collaborative work among individuals, within and across groups, organizations and geo-political boundaries. We find ourselves once again in November on lovely Sanibel Island, Florida. To accommodate changes in the timing of the CSCW conference, the Group community decided to reconvene only 18 months after our last meeting. This provided some challenges, but we are very pleased with the demonstrated commitment to GROUP by our colleagues who have generously donated their time and effort to organize the conference, review papers, lead the Doctoral Colloquium, convene workshops, chair sessions, and be student volunteers. The conference would not be possible without your support. The GROUP'10 call for papers attracted 101 submissions from Asia, Latin America, Europe, and North America. The program committee accepted 27 papers and 9 notes that cover a wide variety of topics. This year included a dedicated reviewing track for technical systems development papers, a critical component of our larger research community. In addition to four pre-conference workshops, we are able to host our third Doctoral Colloquium. Generous funding from the National Science Foundation allows us to bring together 11 advanced Ph.D. students from 5 countries for a multiday program of interaction with leading researchers in our field. The poster program has expanded to two days of integrated sessions this year, highlighting 26 research projects, including those of our Doctoral Colloquium participants.

A project to describe the phonetic structures of selected endangered languages was outlined in the preceding abstract. Under this project, data have been collected on a number of languages from East Africa, the Indian subcontinent, North America, Taiwan, and the South Pacific, and further fieldwork is planned. The analysis of these data continues to demonstrate that the languages of the world display greater diversity in their phonetic structures than many linguists anticipate. Illustrations will include Dahalo, a Cushitic language with lateral ejective affricates of unusual type and clicks that are invariably nasalized; Toda, a Dravidian language with an unusually rich inventory of consonants confined to code position, including three different coronal trills (each of which may also be palatalized); and Iaai, and Austronesian language with an explanded set of vowels and an unusually large set of voiceless sonorants. Without knowledge of the kind provided by our research, linguists and speech scientists would be in danger of assuming that the phonetic patterns known from familiar languages demonstrate the full range of sounds that can be utilized in possible human languages. [Work supported by the National Science Foundation.]

There has been a resurgence of interest in marine heat flow in the past 10–15 years, coinciding with fundamental achievements in understanding the Earth's thermal state and quantifying the dynamics and impacts of material and energy fluxes within and between the lithosphere and hydrosphere. At the same time, technical capabilities have dwindled to the point that no U.S. academic institution currently operates a seagoing heat flow capacity.In September 2007, a workshop was convened in Salt Lake City with sponsorship from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and participation by scientists and engineers from North America, Europe, and Asia. The primary goals of the workshop were to (1) assess high‐priority scientific and technical needs and (2) to evaluate options for developing and maintaining essential capabilities in marine heat flow for the U.S. scientific community.

duoush d Numerous allied trees, shrubs, and herbs inhabit th conifer-hardwood forests of Horas Their close ancestors occupied middle and high | latitudes into the Middle Miocene (15-16 colder and drier climates NEW Antarctic d (13 m.y.a.), numerous paired Or allied species a n the disjunct segregate forests across Holarctica.duri e Tertiary.The rarity of Tertiary oaks linking Eurasia-North Ameri cor jj day) at the north; fully ries of all oak species occur below latitude 30-35°N and y si seven reach latitude 50°N.P Vo iie into 280 to 300 species was chiefly in response t spreading drier and colder climate iis commenced in e middle Eocene, to increasing topographic diversity in the later Cenozoic, and to fluctua nk Quaternary climate.At times of major climatic shifts or increased relief, oaks responded opportunisticalis, probably by quantum steps (punctuated equilibria) that account for the numerous seri most climates from perhumid montane tropical and temperate regions to the goaded a Hopes and in areas of very d

In the course of my collecting activities for many years in Central America and the West Indies I have accumulated a considerable number of the small Linyphiidae assigned to the Micryphantinae or frequently given independent family status (Micryphantidae). Among those are numerous interesting genera not well known from the Neotropical Region. Recently I have been able to separate out from the collection a number of specimens which I believe to represent new species of the genus Erigone which i.s well known in North America. Descriptions of these are given in the following pages of this paper for the consideration of those who later continue the study of this. genus. I feel certain that careful collecting in Central America and the West Indies will yield numerous additional species. Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic should be especially productive. More careful collecting and matching of males and females is much needed. My own studies of the genus have, thus far, produced only a very small number of known females although other specimens have been under suspicion. Grants GB-ISO.I and GB-5oI3 from the National Science Foundation have furnished financial aid for several collecting trips in Central America, the West Indies and Florida together with my continued research in the Museum of Comparative Zoology for nearly five and one half years. As I have repeatedly acknowledged in my published papers, I am deeply grateful for the help and encouragement received from members of the staff of the. Museum of Comparative Zoology extending over a period of many years.