Finding the Needle in a Haystack: Who are the Most Central Authors Within a Domain?

The speed at which new scientific papers are published has increased dramatically, while the process of tracking the most recent publications having a high impact has become more and more cumbersome. In order to support learners and researchers in retrieving relevant articles and identifying the most central researchers within a domain, we propose a novel 2-mode multilayered graph derived from Cohesion Network Analysis (CNA). The resulting extended CNA graph integrates both authors and papers, as well as three principal link types: coauthorship, co-citation, and semantic similarity among the contents of the papers. Our rankings do not rely on the number of published documents, but on their global impact based on links between authors, citations, and semantic relatedness to similar articles. As a preliminary validation, we have built a network based on the 2013 LAK dataset in order to reveal the most central authors within the emerging Learning Analytics domain.

Progression of left atrial volume index in a population at risk for heart failure:a substudy of the STOP-HF (St Vincent's Screening TO Prevent Heart Failure) trial

AIMS: Limited data are available concerning the evolution of the left atrial volume index (LAVI) in pre-heart failure (HF) patients. The aim of this study was to investigate clinical characteristics and serological biomarkers in a cohort with risk factors for HF and evidence of serial atrial dilatation.

METHODS AND RESULTS: This was a prospective substudy within the framework of the STOP-HF cohort (NCT00921960) involving 518 patients with risk factors for HF electively undergoing serial clinical, echocardiographic, and natriuretic peptide assessment. Mean follow-up time between assessments was 15 ± 6 months. 'Progressors' (n = 39) were defined as those with serial LAVI change ≥3.5 mL/m(2) (and baseline LAVI between 20 and 34 mL/m(2)). This cut-off was derived from a calculated reference change value above the biological, analytical, and observer variability of serial LAVI measurement. Multivariate analysis identified significant baseline clinical associates of LAVI progression as increased age, beta-blocker usage, and left ventricular mass index (all P < 0.05). Serological biomarkers were measured in a randomly selected subcohort of 30 'Progressors' matched to 30 'Non-progressors'. For 'Progressors', relative changes in matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9), tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 1 (TIMP1), and the TIMP1/MMP9 ratio, markers of interstitial remodelling, tracked with changes in LAVI over time (all P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: Accelerated LAVI increase was found to occur in up to 14% of all pre-HF patients undergoing serial echocardiograms over a relatively short follow-up period. In a randomly selected subcohort of 'Progressors', changes in LAVI were closely linked with alterations in MMP9, TIMP1, and the ratio of these enzymes, a potential aid in highlighting this at-risk group.

Investigation of the Effect of Speed on the Dynamic Impact Factor for Bridges with Different Entrance Conditions, 2016

The dynamic interaction of vehicles and bridges results in live loads being induced into bridges that are greater than the vehicle’s static weight. To limit this dynamic effect, the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) currently requires that permitted trucks slow to five miles per hour and span the roadway centerline when crossing bridges. However, this practice has other negative consequences such as the potential for crashes, impracticality for bridges with high traffic volumes, and higher fuel consumption. The main objective of this work was to provide information and guidance on the allowable speeds for permitted vehicles and loads on bridges .A field test program was implemented on five bridges (i.e., two steel girder bridges, two pre-stressed concrete girder bridges, and one concrete slab bridge) to investigate the dynamic response of bridges due to vehicle loadings. The important factors taken into account during the field tests included vehicle speed, entrance conditions, vehicle characteristics (i.e., empty dump truck, full dump truck, and semi-truck), and bridge geometric characteristics (i.e., long span and short span). Three entrance conditions were used: As-is and also Level 1 and Level 2, which simulated rough entrance conditions with a fabricated ramp placed 10 feet from the joint between the bridge end and approach slab and directly next to the joint, respectively. The researchers analyzed and utilized the field data to derive the dynamic impact factors (DIFs) for all gauges installed on each bridge under the different loading scenarios.

Residential planning, driver mobility and CO2 emission

The literature on residences and citizens’ transports has focused on either reforming traffic managing in response to residential relocation or post-evaluation of urban planning policies or the evolution of the urban spatial form. In a city there are hotspots that attract the citizens and most of the transportation in the city arises as the citizens’ movement between their residence and the hotspots. Little scholarly attention has been devoted to the possibility to minimize citizens’ transportation in the city by the urban planning of residential areas. In this paper we propose a method to evaluate the environmental impact (in terms of CO2-emissions) of urban plans of residential areas. The method is illustrated in a Swedish case of a midsize city which is presently preoccupied with urban planning of new residential areas in response to substantial population growth due to immigration. The residential plans aims to increase the compactness and residential density in the current center and sub centers leads to less CO2 emissions compare to urban expansion to the edge of the city. The plans of concentrated apartment buildings are more effective in meeting residential needs and mitigating CO2 emissions than dispersed single-family houses.

What if TTIP Changed the Regulation of Public Services ?Lessons for Europe from Developing Countries

This paper argues that the TTIP negotiators may be underestimating some of the risks associated with the treatment of public services. De facto opening the door to supranational regulation of key public services may be well intended to protect investors. But when the bargaining power of these investors operating in non-competitive markets (which is the case for most public services) becomes excessive as a result, the experience of developing countries in interactions with many of the same large players points to risks. It is likely that outcomes in terms of the usual policy criteria (efficiency, equity and fiscal viability) will not be as positive as promised in an environment in which regulation ends up weaker (because it is captured or less specialized). Ignoring these lessons and failing to internalize them in the design of negotiation is likely to cost Europe.

Nonparametric tests of collectively rational consumption behavior: an integer programming procedure

We present an IP-based nonparametric (revealed preference) testing procedure for rational consumption behavior in terms of general collective models, which include consumption externalities and public consumption. An empirical application to data drawn from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) demonstrates the practical usefulness of the procedure. Finally, we present extensions of the testing procedure to evaluate the goodness-of-…t of the collective model subject to testing, and to quantify and improve the power of the corresponding collective rationality tests.

Oceans of energy? The non-linear trajectory of the emerging wave energy technology

This paper addresses the construction and structuring of a technological niche – i.e. a protected space where promising but still underperforming technologies are stabilized and articulated with societal needs – and discusses the processes that influence niche development and may enable niche breakout. In theoretical terms the paper is grounded on the multi-level approach to sustainability transitions, and particularly on the niche literature. But it also attempts to address the limitations of this literature in what concerns the spatial dimension of niche development. It is argued that technological niches can transcend the narrow territorial boundaries to which they are often confined, and encompass communities and actions that span several spatial levels, without losing some territorial embeddedness. It is further proposed that these features shape the niche trajectory and, therefore, need to be explicitly considered by the niche theoretical framework. To address this problem the paper builds on and extends the socio-cognitive perspective to technology development, introducing a further dimension – space – which broadens the concept of technological niche and permits to better capture the complexity of niche behaviour. This extended framework is applied to the case of an emerging renewable energy technology – wave energy - which exhibits a particularly slow and non-linear development trajectory. The empirical analysis starts by examining how an “overall niche space” in wave energy was spatially constructed over time. Then it investigates in greater detail the niche development processes that took place in Portugal, a country that was among the pioneers in the field, and whose actors have been, from very early stages, engaged in the activities conducted at various spatial levels. Through this combined analysis, the paper seeks to understand whether and how niche development is shaped by processes taking place at different spatial levels. More specifically it investigates the interplay between territorial and relational elements in niche development, and how these different dynamics influence the performance of the niche processes and impact on the overall niche trajectory. The results confirm the niche multi-spatial dynamics, showing that it is shaped by the interplay between a niche relational space constructed by actors’ actions and interactions on/across levels, and the territorial effects introduced by these actors’ embeddedness in particular geographical and institutional settings. They contribute to a more precise understanding of the processes that can accelerate or slow down the trajectory of a technological niche. In addition, the results shed some light into the niche activities conducted in/originating from a specific territorial setting - Portugal - offering some insights into the behaviour of key actors and its implications for the positioning of the country in the emerging field, which can be relevant for the formulation of strategies and policies for this area.

Depois dos 35 anos, quais as intenções reprodutivas dos sul europeus?

Sendo a baixa fecundidade comum aos países do sul da Europa e considerando que nas últimas décadas tanto homens como mulheres têm vindo a adiar o nascimento do primeiro e, consequentemente, do segundo filho, interessa estudar os determinantes das intenções de fecundidade, em particular, dos sul europeus com mais de 35 anos, idade a partir da qual se considera que aqueles que não têm filhos ou que têm apenas um adiaram os seus projetos de fecundidade. Recorrendo à base de dados do Eurobarómetro (2011) e a modelos de regressão logística, analisámos os fatores que determinam a intenção de permanecer sem filhos ou com apenas um filho e se questões relacionadas com valores, percepções e expectativas ganham uma maior relevância face às características sociodemográficas. Deste modo, damos especial enfoque ao efeito que os valores e atitudes podem ter no contexto da fecundidade. Os resultados mostram que as percepções dos indivíduos em relação à sua vida e ao estado do país são determinantes para explicar a intenção de permanecer sem filhos ou com apenas um filho. Para os sul europeus, percepções e expectativas negativas em relação ao estado do país são inibidoras no processo da tomada de decisão de ter (mais) filhos, especialmente quando a decisão em causa é transitar para o segundo filho. Este trabalho reporta para a importância de considerar valores e expectativas dos indivíduos em relação à sua vida no geral a ao estado do país como preditores do comportamento reprodutivo. Because low fertility is common in southern European countries and considering that in recent decades both men and women have been postponing the birth of the first and therefore the second child, it is of our interest to study the determinants of reproductive decision-making, particularly of southern Europeans older than 35, age from which it is considered that those who don’t have children or have only one have postponed their fertility intentions. Using the Eurobarometer data (2011) and logistic regression models, we analyse the factors that determine the intention of remaining childless and with only one child. Also, we study if variables related to values, perceptions and expectations gain greater relevance than a set of background variables. Thus, we give a special attention to the effect that values and attitudes can have in the context of reproductive decision-making. The findings show that respondent’s perceptions about their lives and the environment of their country are crucial to explain the intention of remaining childless or with only one child. For southern Europeans, negative perceptions and expectations about the situation of the country inhibit the process of decision-making to have a/another child, especially when the decision at issue is transitioning to the second child. This paper reports to the importance of considering values, perceptions and expectations of individuals regarding their lives and the environment of their country as predictors of fertility behaviour.

Financing social ventures by crowdfunding: The inflluence of entrepreneurs’ personality traits

Purpose – This research aims to understand the role played by social entrepreneurs’ personality traits on the choice between the traditional donation model and social crowdfunding (CF) to finance social projects. Design/methodology/approach – Social CF is examined as an instrument to capture funds for social projects, and the particular case of the Portuguese Social Stock Exchange (PSSE) is presented. The approach is quantitative in nature and the data were collected through a questionnaire that was emailed to non-governmental organizations in Portugal and founders of the projects listed on PSSE. Logistic regression was employed to predict the probability that a social entrepreneur would use PSSE rather than traditional financing. The predictor variables were based on the big five personality traits. Findings – Our investigation reveals that the agreeableness and neuroticism factors were not even considered in the results of the factorial analysis, which indicates the minor importance of these personality traits in the funding decisions of the Portuguese social entrepreneurs. The same applies to the factors of openness to new experiences and extraversion, which, although considered in the logistic analysis, showed no statistical significance. Finally, the conscientiousness personality trait seems to be the only factor that might explain the use of the PSSE platform.Originality/value – Studies on the profile of the social entrepreneurs that use CF for financing social projects are relatively rare, specifically in the context of Social Stock Exchange platforms. Additionally, there is a need to carry out more empirical evidence about the effect of social entrepreneurs’ personality traits on the decision to finance social projects through social CF platforms vis-a-vis the traditional donation model.

Other-Regarding Preferences in General Equilibrium

We study competitive market outcomes in economies where agents have other-regarding preferences. We identify a separability condition on monotone preferences that is necessary and sufficient for one’s own demand to be independent of the allocations and characteristics of other agents in the economy. Given separability, it is impossible to identify other-regarding preferences from market behavior: agents be- have as if they had classical preferences that depend only on own consumption in competitive equilibrium. If preferences, in addition, depend only on the final allocation of consumption in society, the Sec- ond Welfare Theorem holds as long as an increase in resources can be distributed such that all agents are better off. Nevertheless, the First Welfare Theorem generally does not hold. Allowing agents to care about their own consumption and the distribution of consump- tion possibilities in the economy, we provide a condition under which agents have no incentive to make direct transfers, and show that this condition implies that competitive equilibria are efficient given prices.

Fast-Track Authority and International Trade Negotiations

Fast Track Authority (FTA) is the institutional procedure in the Unites States whereby Congress grants to the President the power to negotiate international trade agreements. Under FTA, Congress can only approve or reject negotiated trade deals, with no possibility of amending them. In this paper, we examine the determinants of FTA voting decisions and the implications of this institutional procedure for trade negotiations. We describe a simple two-country trade model, in which industries are unevenly distributed across con- stituencies. In the foreign country, trade negotiating authority is delegated to the executive, while in the home country Congress can retain the power to amend trade agreements. We show that legislators’ FTA voting behavior depends on the trade policy interests of their own constituencies as well as those of the majority of Congress. Empirical analysis of the determinants of all FTA votes between 1974 (when fast track was first introduced) and 2002 (when it was last granted) provides strong support for the predictions of our model.

Democratic Peace and Electoral Accountability

One of the few stylized facts in international relations is that democracies, unlike autoc- racies, very rarely fight each other. We examine the sustainability of international peace between democracies and autocracies, where the crucial difference between these two po- litical regimes is whether or not policymakers are subject to periodic elections. We show that the fear of losing office can deter democratic leaders from engaging in military con- flicts. Crucially, this discipline effect can only be at work if incumbent leaders can be re-elected, implying that democracies in which the executives are subject to term limits should be more conflict prone. To assess the validity of our predictions, we construct a large dataset on countries with executive term limits. Our analysis of inter-state conflicts for the 1816-2001 period suggests that electoral incentives are indeed behind the democratic peace phenomenon: while democratic dyads are in general less likely to be involved in conflicts than any other dyads, this result does not hold for democracies in which the executive faces binding term limits; moreover, the dispute patterns of democracies with term limits depend on whether the executive is in the last or penultimate mandate.

One Person, Many Votes: Divided Majority and Information Aggregation

In elections, majority divisions pave the way to focal manipulations and coordination failures, which can lead to the victory of the wrong candidate. This paper shows how this flaw can be addressed if voter preferences over candidates are sensitive to information. We consider two potential sources of divisions: majority voters may have similar preferences but opposite information about the candidates, or opposite preferences. We show that when information is the source of majority divisions, Approval Voting features a unique equilibrium with full information and coordination equivalence. That is, it produces the same outcome as if both information and coordination problems could be resolved. Other electoral systems, such as Plurality and Two-Round elections, do not satisfy this equivalence. The second source of division is opposite preferences. Whenever the fraction of voters with such preferences is not too large, Approval Voting still satisfies full information and coordination equivalence.

Trade Liberalization and Organizational Change

We embed a simple incomplete-contracts model of organization design in a standard two-country perfectly-competitive trade model to examine how the liberalization of product and factor markets affects the ownership structure of firms.In our model, managers decide whether or not to integrate their firms, trading off the pecuniary benefits of coordinating production decisions with the private benefits of operating in their preferred ways. The price of output is a crucial determinant of this choice, since it affects the size of the pecuniary benefits. In particular, non-integration is chosen at “low” and “high” prices, while integration occurs at moderate prices. Organizational choices also depend on the terms of trade in supplier markets, which affect the division of surplus between managers. We obtain three main results. First, even when firms do not relocate across countries, the price changes triggered by liberalization of product markets can lead to significant organizational restructuring within countries. Second, the removal of barriers to factor mobility can lead to inefficient reorganization and adversely affect consumers. Third, “deep integration” — the liberalization of both product and factor markets — leads to the convergence of organizational design across countries.

An Afriat theorem for the collective model of household consumption

We provide a nonparametric 'revealed preference’ characterization of rational household behavior in terms of the collective consumption model, while accounting for general (possibly non-convex) individual preferences. We establish a Collective Axiom of Revealed Preference (CARP), which provides a necessary and sufficient condition for data consistency with collective rationality. Our main result takes the form of a ‘collective’ version of the Afriat Theorem for rational behavior in terms of the unitary model. This theorem has some interesting implications. With only a finite set of observations, the nature of consumption externalities (positive or negative) in the intra-household allocation process is non-testable. The same non-testability conclusion holds for privateness (with or without externalities) or publicness of consumption. By contrast, concavity of individual utility functions (representing convex preferences) turns out to be testable. In addition, monotonicity is testable for the model that assumes all household consumption is public.