Category Archives: Research profiling

A scientometric comparative study of single-walled and multi-walled carbon nanotubes research

Research profiling

In the present study, we aim to quantitatively investigate and compare the intellectual landscapes of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) research between 2000 and 2014. The overall intellectual structure of these fields is illustrated by emerging trends of bursting keywords and thematic concentrations of co-cited references. This study is based on two sets of bibliographic records retrieved from the Web of Science database. The SWCNTs dataset contains 18,700 original research and review articles. The MWCNTs dataset, consisting of 23,584 records, is also collected from the database. We find that both domains have scrutinized chemical concepts which underlie the properties of the materials. Recent thematic trends show that MWCNTs research focuses on the improvement of the material while SWCNTs research lays more emphasis on their applications. In conclusion, it is argued that SWCNTs and MWCNTs have co-evolved. At the same time, both fields are distinctively diverging with their own scientific concerns.

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2857163

Author(s): Geet Lahoti, Meen Chul Kim, Jan Youtie, Alan L Porter, Chuck Zhang, Ben Wang, and Diana Hicks
Organization(s): Georgia Institute of Technology
Source: Proceedings of the 78th ASIS&T Annual Meeting: Information Science with Impact: Research in and for the Community
Year: 2015

Human Optimization Research: International Activity (Full-Text)

Research profiling

The present scientometric study was commissioned by the Chief Scientist Network of Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC). It provides an overview of international research activity and collaboration networks in the field of human optimization. This is the second study in a series on human optimization, where the first was focused on the Canadian landscape. To identify major players, their collaboration networks and key research topics in the international landscape, 7,656 references, dated 2005-2015, to relevant unclassified publications were retrieved and analyzed using text mining software and a variety of visualization tools. 114 research topics were categorized into five (non-mutually exclusive) metagroups including Ethics, Physiological issues,
Computational/Cognitive issues, Automation/Robotics and Means of Enhancement. Internationally, research is most focused on Computational/Cognitive issues.
Visualizations of the 114 research topics showed great interconnection between them, displaying three main clusters; which speaks to the fact that research in this domain is quite interdisciplinary. Examining the research momentum of the topics reveals that 33 of the topics can be considered to be emerging (i.e. growing at a notable rate despite a relatively low publication count). While these emerging topics (e.g. transcranial stimulation or neurophysiology), in and of themselves, are not necessarily emerging topics in the broader picture of scientific research, it may be that within the field of human optimization, these topics represent an emerging angle of research. An analysis of the geographic distribution of the publications revealed that the US dominates the field in terms of total number of publications. However, Switzerland has both the greatest rate of collaboration (82%) as well as the highest average annual growth rate for 2012-2015 (70%). Most of the top countries are collaborating with each other. International collaboration networks are rather sparse amongst the top collaborating countries in that the top affiliations may have many different international colleagues but with very few repeated co-publications. Notable exceptions are described in the report. Recommendations for further study include, among others, a formal comparison with the Canadian landscape, additional analysis of the Means of enhancement metagroup, and a deeper exploration of the top countries’ collaboration networks.

FULL-TEXT at NCR paper

Author: Erica Wiseman
Organization: National Research Council of Canada
Source: NRC-CNRC Knowledge Management
Year: 2016

Big Data in the Social Sciences

Citation analysis, Research profiling

Recent emerging technology policies seek to diminish negative impacts while equitably and responsibly accruing and distributing benefits.  Social scientists play a role in these policies, but relatively little quantitative research has been performed to study how social scientists inform the assessment of emerging technologies. This paper addresses this gap by examining social science research on “Big Data” – an emerging technology of wide interest. This paper analyzes a dataset of fields extracted from 488 social science and humanities papers written about Big Data. Our focus is on understanding the multi-dimensional nature of societal assessment by examining the references upon which these papers draw. We find that eight sub-literatures are important in framing social science research about Big Data. These results indicate that the field is evolving from general sociological considerations toward applications issues and privacy concerns. Implications for science policy and technology assessment of societal implications are discussed.

Preprint available at http://works.bepress.com/jan_youtie/80/

Author(s): Jan Youtie and Alan Porter
Organizations: Georgia Institute of Technology
Source: Science and Public Policy
Year: 2016

Global patent analysis of power lithium-ion battery separator

Patents, Research profiling

The development of technologies related to power lithium-ion battery separator has been taken place in recent years. In order to provide appropriate decision references for the industry development, patent analysis was carried out. On the basis of Derwent Innovation Index (DII), global patents related to power lithium-ion battery separator were analyzed from aspects of global development scale and trend, technology fields, geographic distribution, top assignees. The findings show that power lithium-ion battery separator industry has entered fast-growth stage. In branch technology fields, raw materials are the priority research and development (R&D) areas of power lithium-ion battery separator. Japan has applied for a large number of patents and occupied the leading position. Asahi Kasei Chemicals Corporation, Toray industries, Tonen Chemical Corporation possess strategic advantages over other enterprises in the current competitive situation of international separator market.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnumber=7385791&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D7385791

Author(s): Na Li; Quan Guan ; Siming Tan ; Yunfei Wang ; Zhiyong Chu ; Jin Liu
Organization(s): Qingdao Institute of Science & Tech. Inf.
Source: 2015 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM)
Year: 2015

BIBLIOMETRICAL ANALYSIS OF YANGTZE RESEARCH BASED ON WEB OF SCIENCE FROM 1900 TO 2012

Research profiling

In order to reveal the Yangtze research’s hotspot and development, we chose Web of Science as the data source, using the bibliometric method and Thomson Data Analyzer (TDA), and conducted a quantitative analysis on the number of published papers, countries, institutions, authors, journals, subjects and keywords. The result shows that (1) the Yangtze research could be divided into three stages, i.e., the initial development period, the exploration period and the rapid development period. (2) China published the most papers of Yangtze research, the main foreign countries and institutions come from the United States, Japan, and Australia. (3) Chinese Academy of Science is the major institution for Yangtze research. (4) Domestic and international concerns rest ongeology, environmental science, water resource and meteorology.

Author(s): PENG Nai-zhu, ZHONG Yong-heng
Organization(s): Chinese Academy of Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
Source: RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT IN THE YANGTZE BASIN 2015
Year: 2015

Chinese energy and fuels research priorities and trend: A bibliometric analysis

Research profiling, ST&I policy

This study aims to summarize an overview of Chinese energy and fuels research using comprehensive bibliometric analysis measures based on data extracted from the Science Citation Index Expanded database from 1993 to 2012. Keyword analysis was used to assess and evaluate the priorities, topics and topic shifts using the Thomson Data Analyzer (TDA). In particular, popular topics were demonstrated using bubble charts. The results show that solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen were the most important topics. The priorities of energy and fuels research in China were hydrogen and fuel cells, lithium-ion batteries, biodiesel and biomass, coal, and solar energy, respectively. Of course, lithium-ion batteries have entered substantive application stages in China in 2012. The hydrogen economy has been formed. Biomass and biodiesel research was the popular topic, as well as hydrogen and fuel cells, lithium-ion batteries. But solar energy was not still “hot”. The characteristics of the types of documents, languages, year, journals, institutions and co-publishing countries were analyzed, as well as the keyword occurrence frequencies. It can be stated that 19,089 articles by Chinese authors were published in 106 journals. More than one-third of the articles were published in the Journal of Power Sources, the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy and Bioresource Technology. The Chinese Academy of Science, Tsinghua University, China University of Petroleum, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Zhejiang University were the top five institutions. The USA was the leading inter-collaborative country, followed by Japan, the UK and Canada. The findings presented here provide an overall picture of the development of Chinese energy and fuels research and could also help policy makers assess the impact of the resource allocation decisions made in the past to develop energy policies and strategies for the future.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032115016226

Author(s): Hua-Qi Chen, Xiuping Wang, Li He, Ping Chen, Yuehua Wan, Lingyun Yang, Shuian Jiang
Organization(s): Taizhou University, Zhejiang University
Source: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
Year: 2015

Aesthetics in the age of digital humanities

Network analysis, Research profiling, Science mapping

One of the most difficult but yet unavoidable tasks for every academic field is to define its own nature and demarcate its area. This article addresses the question of how current computational text-mining approaches can be used as tools for clarifying what aesthetics is when such approaches are combined with philosophical analyses of the field. We suggest that conjoining the two points of view leads to a fuller picture than excluding one or the other, and that such a picture is useful for the self-understanding of the discipline. Our analysis suggests that text-mining tools can find sources, relations, and trends in a new way, but it also reveals that the databases that such tools use are presently seriously limited. However, computational approaches that are still in their infancy in aesthetics will most likely gradually affect our understanding about the ontological status of the discipline and its instantiations.

Open Access article…. for full-text, click http://www.aestheticsandculture.net/index.php/jac/article/view/30072

Author(s): Ossi Naukkarinen and Johanna Bragge
Organization: Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Aalto University School of Economics
Source: Journal of Aesthetics and Culture
Year: 2016

An informatics-based analysis of developments to date and prospects for the application of microalgae in the biological sequestration of industrial flue gas

Patents, Research profiling, S&T lit

The excessive emission of flue gas contributes to air pollution, abnormal climate change, global warming, and sea level rises associated with glacial melting. With the ability to utilize NOx as a nitrogen source and to convert solar energy into chemical energy via CO2 fixation, microalgae can potentially reduce air pollution and relax global warming, while also enhancing biomass and biofuel production as well as the production of high-value-added products. This informatics-based review analyzes the trends in the related literature and in patent activity to draw conclusions and to offer a prospective view on the developments of microalgae for industrial flue gas biosequestration. It is revealed that in recent years, microalgal research for industrial flue gas biosequestration has started to attract increasing attention and has now developed into a hot research topic, although it is still at a relatively early stage, and needs more financial and policy support in order to better understand microalgae and to develop an economically viable process. In comparison with onsite microalgal CO2 capture, microalgae-based biological DeNOx appears to be a more realistic and attractive alternative that could be applied to NOx treatment.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00253-015-7277-7

Author(s): Xi Zhu, Junfeng Rong, Hui Chen, Chenliu He, Wensheng Hu, Qiang Wang
Organization(s): Chinese Academy of Sciences, SINOPEC Research Institute of Petroleum Processing, Hubei University of Technology
Source: Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology
Year: 2016

Nano-enabled drug delivery systems for brain cancer and Alzheimer’s disease: research patterns and opportunities

Literature Based Discovery, Research profiling,

“Tech mining” applies bibliometric and text analytic methods to scientific literature of a target field. In this study, we compare the evolution of nano-enabled drug delivery (NEDD) systems for two different applications – viz., brain cancer (BC) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) – using this approach. In this process, we derive research intelligence from papers indexed in MEDLINE. Review by domain specialists helps understand the macro-level disease problems and pathologies to identify commonalities and differences between BC and AD. Results provide a fresh perspective on the developmental pathways for NEDD approaches that have been used in the treatment of BC and AD. Results also point toward finding future solutions to drug delivery issues that are critical to medical practitioners and pharmaceutical scientists addressing the brain.

FROM THE CLINICAL EDITOR: Drug delivery to brain cells has been very challenging due to the presence of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Suitable and effective nano-enabled drug delivery (NEDD) system is urgently needed. In this study, the authors utilized “tech-mining” tools to describe and compare various choices of delivery system available for the diagnosis, as well as treatment, of brain cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26115642

Author(s): Jing Ma, Alan Porter, TM Aminabhavi, Donghua Zhu
Organization(s): Beijing Institute of Technology, Georgi
Source: Nanomedicine
Year: 2015

Nano/micro-electro mechanical systems: a patent view

Citation analysis, CTI, Patents, Research profiling, Strategic planning

Combining both bibliometrics and citation network analysis, this research evaluates the global development of micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS) research based on the Derwent Innovations Index database. We found that worldwide, the growth trajectory of MEMS patents demonstrates an approximate S shape, with United States, Japan, China, and Korea leading the global MEMS race. Evidenced by Derwent class codes, the technology structure of global MEMS patents remains steady over time. Yet there does exist a national competitiveness component among the top country players. The latecomer China has become the second most prolific country filing MEMS patents, but its patent quality still lags behind the global average.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11051-015-3273-1

Author(s): Guangyuan Hu and Weishu Liu
Organization(s): Shanghai University of Finance and Economics,Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Source: Journal of Nanoparticle Research
Year: 2015