Scientific Research Environment Research Articles

Evolution Characteristics and Influencing Factors of City Networks in China: A Case Study of Cross-Regional Automobile Enterprises

The optimization of the spatial structure of the city network is conducive to the scientific spatial distribution of industries and the promotion of coordinated regional development. This study selected the top 100 automobile enterprises in the Chinese stock market that belong to China’s pillar industry, a total of 1455 headquarters and branches, to establish an enterprise matrix. Based on the ownership linkage model, the evolution characteristics of city networks in China from 2000 to 2020 are revealed, and the influential factors of city networks are discussed using the negative binomial regression model. The findings are as follows: (1) there are significant differences in the status of automobile cities, forming a “pyramid network” hierarchy. (2) The agglomeration area of automobile cities has formed the development region of “4 + 4 + 1”. (3) The city network with hierarchical connections has formed a spatial structure of a “cross–cobweb” in the middle and “trapezoid–diamond” in the periphery. (4) Urban transportation conditions, the scientific research environment, the enterprise agglomeration economy, GDP per capita, and technological proximity positively impact the formation of a city network, but the total export–import volume has a negative impact. Overall, the government can use this study’s results to formulate policies for the automotive industry and urban development.

نقش تطبیق معیارهای تضمین کیفیت و اعتباردهی در تولید دانش

Quality assurance and accreditation are essential components of higher education in Afghanistan. By evaluating knowledge-producing institutions and correctly applying quality enhancement criteria, valuable steps have been taken toward scientific innovation in the country. There are specific indicators for knowledge production and quality enhancement that, together and by adhering to scientific standards, contribute to the practical production of high-quality knowledge. High-quality knowledge production is not possible without the internal coherence of these indicators and elements, which essentially requires the proper alignment of the criteria. The main question is: What is the role of aligning quality assurance and accreditation criteria in knowledge production? It appears that aligning quality assurance and accreditation criteria has a positive impact. This research utilizes a descriptive-analytical method and relies on library resources, articles, and reputable websites. Findings show that aligning quality enhancement criteria in Afghan higher education includes: strategic planning with a forward-looking perspective towards the realities and existing conditions in knowledge-producing institutions, providing effective strategies and tactics for knowledge innovation, contributing to societal development through the education of specialized and knowledgeable workforce, investing in creating an appropriate environment for scientific research by faculty members, staff, and students, as well as providing technological facilities and equipment to facilitate better learning and acquisition of knowledge. These efforts have led to a significant scientific transformation in the higher education system.

Wind Energy Resources at Antarctic Stations Based on ERA5

The harsh scientific research environment of Antarctic stations demands a reliable energy supply; however, traditional methods not only pose a challenge in supply but also harm the environment. Antarctic energy supply has become a new choice for energy development in Antarctica due to its abundant wind energy resources. Using ERA5 10 m wind field reanalysis data, we compared and analyzed the correlation (r) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) between some observation stations and reanalysis data, with correlations above 0.67 and root mean square error below 2.3. This indicates that the accuracy of the ERA5 data is suitable for resource assessment at stations in Antarctica. We assessed the wind energy potential of the Great Wall, Zhongshan, Kunlun and Taishan Stations. The results show that the annual distribution and long-term trend of wind energy at Taishan Station are the best, followed by the Great Wall, Zhongshan and Kunlun Stations. Taishan Station has stable wind direction and abundant wind energy, the average wind power density is 800 W/m2, with an annual growth trend of 2.02 W/m2·yr−1. The effective wind speed occurrence and energy level occurrence are generally above 90% and the coefficient of variation is generally below 0.8. The dominant direction of wind energy is northeast and the wind direction is stable, which is conducive to the development and utilization of wind energy.

CODAS method for Pythagorean 2-tuple linguistic MAGDM and applications to quality evaluation of scientific research management in application-oriented universities

The scientific research work of colleges and universities has attracted more and more social attention because of its large number of multidisciplinary scientific and technological talents, hardware facilities and good scientific research environment, and the quality of scientific and technological management work of colleges and universities directly affects the level of scientific and technological work of colleges and universities. Starting from the common problems of scientific research management in colleges and universities, this paper explores the ideas and methods to further promote scientific research work by improving the quality of scientific research management. The quality evaluation of scientific research management in application-oriented universities is classical multiple attribute group decision making (MAGDM). Based on this, we extend the traditional CODAS method to the Pythagorean 2-tuple linguistic sets (P2TLSs) and propose the Pythagorean 2-tuple linguistic CODAS (P2TL-CODAS) method for quality evaluation of scientific research management in application-oriented universities. The P2TL-CODAS method is established and all computing steps are simply presented. Furthermore, we apply the P2TL-CODAS method to evaluate the quality evaluation of scientific research management in application-oriented universities.

Scientific creativity and innovation ability and its determinants among medical postgraduate students in Fujian province of China: a cross sectional study

BackgroundGraduate education is the main approach to training high-level innovative elites. With the expansion of the scale of graduate education in China, it has gradually emerged that the lack of innovation ability of graduate students is recognized as the primary problem in graduate education. How to comprehensively improve the quality of postgraduate teaching has become the core task of educational reform and development. However, data about the current cultivation and development of the innovative ability of graduate students in China is limited.MethodsA questionnaire survey was conducted among medical postgraduate students. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis methods were used to analyze the data to describe the current innovation ability in advanced medical education and potential influence factors.ResultsA total of 1241 medical students were surveyed, according to the results of questionnaire data analysis. The proportion of subjects who participated in the College Student’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation program or any other scientific research programs are fairly high which are 46.82% and 29.20% respectively. Most of the participants are observed with high levels of self-motivation and active learning and have good performance in creative thinking. However, only a small number of participants (16.6%) reported academic achievements such as publications. Most of the students are satisfied with the current scientific research environment and think that the current postgraduate training system is qualified for the cultivation of innovation ability, and expects the inclusion of course specialized in systemic medicine and medical informatics in the curricula. Multiple logistic regression results showed that among the factors studied, gender, medical specialties, and types of master’s degrees are associated with cognition & skills, academic performance, and creativity.ConclusionsIt will be important to incorporate more techniques for creating and improving creativity in the curricula of the current postgraduate education, especially for courses such as systemic medicine and informatics. Guidance in earlier school life can stimulate creativity and an early introduction to scientific research work will facilitate innovative thinking and behavior. Scientific research programs such as the National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training for the universities of PRC have been widely implemented in the undergraduate education system throughout the country. However, the training effectiveness of the current scientific research programs is worth improving.

The Use of Cannabinoids in the Treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD): A Review of the Literature.

Around the world, about 15 to 40% of individuals with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) rely on cannabis and cannabinoids to reduce the need for other medications, as well as increase appetite and reduce pain. Whereas more and more patients continue to report benefits accruing from cannabis and cannabinoid usage in IBD, agreement relative to the use of cannabis and its derivatives in IBD remains unclear. This paper reviewed the interplay between cannabinoid use and IBD disease treatment, remission, or symptom relief. The study was conducted from a systematic review perspective. It involved consulting literature from published original research articles, noting outcomes, and performing a meta-analysis to identify trends and draw conclusions. The selected articles were those that had been published in a 10-year period ranging between 2012 and 2022. The motivation was to ensure recency and also relevance to contemporary scientific research and clinical environment practices. Indeed, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework helped in answering the focal question of the investigation, which revolved around whether cannabinoids are beneficial to IBD treatment and to what extent. The aim of using this protocol was to ensure the satisfaction of the article exclusion and inclusion criteria, as well as ensure the utilization of articles directly contributing to the central subject under investigation. In the findings, it was established that on the one hand, cannabinoid usage in IBD treatment comes with promising results as reported in the majority of the selected studies which reported reduced clinical complications which were assessed using Mayo scores, Crohn's Disease Activity Index (CDAI) score, weight gain, enhanced patient health perception, Lichtiger Index and Harvey-Bradshaw Index or general wellbeing. On the other hand, cannabinoid use remains questionable because evidence of high quality is yet to surface vividly, especially in terms of the mode of administration and the appropriate dose. It is also notable that the findings were characterized by a state of high heterogeneity in terms of the study designs of the studies that were selected, disease activity indices, the duration of treatment by different scholarly researchers, the difference in the modes of administration of cannabinoid and cannabis by different researchers, variations in cannabis dosage, differences in the selected studies' inclusion criteria, and variations in their case definitions. The implication is that whereas the efficacy of cannabinoid use in IBD treatment was reported in most studies, outcome generalizability from the review was highly likely to be restricted. In the future, it is recommended that randomized controlled trials center, set universal parameters for IBD treatment using cannabis and cannabinoids to determine intervention safety and effectiveness as well as having homogenous outcomes that can be compared between different studies. In so doing, the appropriate dose and ideal mode of administration of cannabis and its derivatives might be discerned, ensuring relevance based on patient characteristics such as gender and age, as well as the appropriate administration mode and dose as per IBD symptom severity.

The Role of Quality Assurance Criteria and Accreditation in Knowledge Production

Quality assurance and accreditation are essential components of higher education in Afghanistan. Through the evaluation of knowledge-producing institutions and the proper alignment of quality enhancement criteria, valuable steps towards scientific innovation in the country have been taken. Specific indicators have been defined for knowledge production and quality enhancement. These indicators are effectively implemented through unity and adherence to scientific methods to produce practical knowledge. Achieving high-quality knowledge production without internal unity in these processes, which include proper alignment of criteria such as evaluations, requirements, missions, and strategies; community engagement; governance; leadership and management; financial and administrative resources; academic programs; research; faculty and staff; student experiences; quality enhancement and improvement; libraries and information resources; teaching; technology; facilities; perspectives; policies; culture; economy; power; thinking; interactions; and creating a space for dialogue, is not possible. There are also obstacles in knowledge production that would be difficult to overcome without adherence to scientific methods.
 In this research, we found that the alignment of quality enhancement criteria for higher education in Afghanistan, including a strategic program with foresight regarding the realities and existing situations in knowledge-producing institutions, provides effective strategies and tactics for innovation in knowledge. These institutions, through community engagement by educating specialized and well-equipped professionals with up-to-date knowledge, investing in creating a suitable environment for scientific research by professors, employees, and students, and providing facilities and technological equipment to facilitate learning, have brought about significant scientific transformation in the higher education system.

Attitudes and uses of archival materials among science-based anthropologists.

While archival user studies have largely focused on humanities (and adjacent) scholars, this paper focuses on anthropologists engaged in scientific research. Based on qualitative results from an open-ended survey, we investigate how science-based anthropologists perceive and use archives in their work. We ask: How are science-based anthropologists and archaeologists reusing archival data in their research? What difficulties or barriers do they encounter in reusing archival data in scientific contexts? What attitudes or understandings about archival research are held by science-based anthropologists and archaeologists? Our findings primarily add to the body of literature about user experience in archives and more broadly to the emerging literature on archival data reuse. Major findings include (1) barriers and gatekeeping legacies that impact archival research and the ability of researchers to reuse data and (2) mixed perceptions about archives among researchers. We also discuss suggestions made by these communities of practice, and the ways that barriers to archival data reuse may stem from a lack of knowledge about core archival and information infrastructures among researcher communities. Together, this research showcases possible (re)uses of important primary source data in archives among scientific communities but highlights that barriers to access and misperceptions create a gap in exploiting that potential. We argue for a "re-imagining" of anthropological archives as relevant to contemporary communities and scientific pursuits toward a richer scientific research environment.

A suggested scientific research environment measure SREM in medical faculties

BackgroundCreating a supportive environment for scientific research is vital to improve the quality of research and its impact on development of society. This study outlines the development of a new scale that can measure the scientific research environment of postgraduate medical students. This tool aimed to allow medical institutions to measure their scientific research environment from the researchers' point of view. This may ensure an appropriate scientific research environment for researchers by identifying and overcoming obstacles. MethodsBased on literature, an initial list with 58 items was formulated. After discussing with postgraduate students and academic staff members from Damascus University and the Syrian Virtual University, A 38-item scale remained from the initial list of 58 items. To test the scale, postgraduate medical students (n = 30) were asked to fill the scale and answer 38 questions-with a 5-point Likert scale-twice in two separate occasions. The Pearson's correlation coefficient was performed to study the internal correlation. The internal consistency test was performed with Cronbach's Alpha, and the Test-Retest Reliability was conducted to study the reliability of the scale. Moreover, factor analysis was used to determine the sampling adequacy. ResultsThirty postgraduate medical students at Damascus University completed the 38-item scale. Scale scores in the sample displayed good reliability in relation to published results. Findings, showed an internal correlation among its sub-scales. The results showed an acceptable reliability values such as internal consistency (α = 0.863) and test–retest reliability (ICC = 0.093). KMO had a value bigger than 0.7 (KMO = 0.849) which indicate sampling adequacy, also, Bartlett's test of the sphericity was (1142.76, Df = 91, P-value = 0.000) which prove meaningful of the factor analysis. The results of varimax rotation found that five main factors were retained. ConclusionsThe Scientific Research Environment Measure (SREM), can be suggested as an effective evaluation instrument which can be applied easily to assess the scientific research environment of postgraduate medical students. This would help the decision makers to support teaching, learning, and research environment through implementing new strategies that inspire postgraduate medical students and increase their engagement.

Primary Schoolteachers’ Opinions about Gifted Education Programmes in Distance Education

There is a need for scientific information obtained in scientific research environments related to the delivery of curriculum development training for gifted children by primary school teachers in distance education environments. This study aims to evaluate primary schoolteachers’ views on gifted education programmes that can be given through distance education. The research was carried out with 26 classroom teachers teaching in two different public schools in the spring term of the 2021–2022 academic year. The research was carried out according to the qualitative research model. A semi-structured interview form was created, consisting of interview questions about the quality and opinions of classroom teachers regarding education programmes that can be given through distance education. The validity and reliability analysis of the interview form was carried out within the framework of the opinions of field experts. Although the majority of teachers have gifted students, they need a gifted education programme, with the opinion that this training should be given in the hybrid model. When the gifted education programme for teachers is provided in the hybrid model, it is more effective than other models.

Особливості формування інфраструктури відкритої науки в Україні

The growing complexity of scientific tasks and their resource capacity requires the integration of resources - information, computing, telecommunications, and others are necessary for performing scientific research and for the cooperation of scientists, both at the national and international levels. Now the development of an integrated science infrastructure that is interoperable with the European infrastructure using standards and software tools for information interaction is becoming relevant. The forming of national infrastructure should make use of the results of European initiatives regarding the integration of technical and informational resources and ensuring cooperation in conducting research. The combination of information and computing structures begins with the lowest links - institutional, departmental and national, which later will be integrating into common global infrastructures. The article considers approaches to creating conditions and structures based on the cloud technologies for more effective cooperation of scientific teams working on similar scientific problems. The main tasks for forming the basis of the Open science cloud in Ukraine at the national and institutional levels have been formulated on the basis of a detailed analysis of the experience of developing the European Open Science Cloud and regulatory documents relative to open science cloud in Ukraine. The implementation of these tasks, according to the authors, is significant. The main results of the development joint information environment for scientific research at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine as a prototype of the National Open Science Cloud integrated into the European Open Science Cloud was present.

Optimizing the quality of research in Veterinary Parasitology

Countless research is carried out until new discoveries are transformed into products or services available to the population. This trajectory can be slower and more costly or even impossible when irreproducible data are obtained in the most diverse fields of science. Thus, quality management appears as an essential tool to guarantee the reliability of academic research results. In this work, we demonstrate the applied strategy to implement a Quality Management System (QMS) in a research laboratory in Veterinary Parasitology and we highlight the adaptable quality requirements in this scientific research environment. For this, the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) quality tool was used, and two internal audits were performed, one before and one after implementation. The audits reached 67 (41.36%) and 157 (96.91%) points before and after implementation, respectively, with a significant difference between the moments studied. Thus, we demonstrate that the adoption of QMS principles in research is feasible. The methodology applied in this work can be adopted by managers from other laboratories interested in the implementation of quality standards as a support in the reproducibility of research.

Development of the potential of research activities of students in a technical university

The article deals with the problem of developing the scientific potential of students at a technical university. We pay particular attention to the role of a higher school teacher in the research activities of students. The specificity of the organization and content of scientific activity at the university, as well as factors influencing motivation of students, are considered. The results of a study on the development of the scientific potential of modern university students, conducted based on the Karaganda Technical University, are presented. The analysis revealed a steady trend towards an increase in student engagement, provided that a favorable environment for scientific research is created. It is noted that an important condition for the effective implementation of the creative potential of students in science is the creation of a system of motivation for scientific work, which will increase the attractiveness of pursuing scientific activities and, in the future, will become a guarantor of the competitiveness of future engineers.

Ending Sexual Harassment in Science: Designing and Administering a Survey That Can Lead to an Improved Organizational Climate.

Workplace harassment, particularly sexual harassment, has substantial negative implications for individuals and organizations and for scientific advancement. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is uniquely positioned to lead the effort to prevent sexual harassment in the scientific community and mitigate its detrimental effects. Recognizing the need for benchmark data, NIH developed and validated the 2019 NIH Workplace Climate and Harassment Survey. The goal was to use best practices in survey design methods to create an instrument for rigorous assessment of harassment incidence and organizational climate predictors of sexual harassment in scientific research environments. This article summarizes the processes used to design and administer the NIH survey and provides brief descriptions of 3 products of the process developed to guide scientific institutions wishing to embark on a data-driven approach to assess and prevent harassment: a document detailing survey development and methods, a survey implementation guide, and the key findings obtained from the survey, including recommendations for interventions targeting the organizational climate at NIH and limitations of the survey. The survey identified that 1 in 5 respondents had experienced sexual harassment in the 12 months preceding their participation in the survey and that women, sexual and gender minorities, younger respondents, trainees/students, and individuals with a disability were more likely to have experienced sexual harassment. Those who had experienced sexual harassment during that period were also more likely to have experienced incivility, bullying, and intimidating behaviors in the workplace. NIH intends to use the survey findings as a quality assurance and quality improvement guide to inform future activities to prevent and address harassment across NIH.

Exploration on Scientific Research Data-Targeted Intelligent Recommendation System Using Machine Learning Under the Background of Sustainable Development.

The purpose is to provide researchers with reliable Scientific Research Data (SRD) from the massive amounts of research data to establish a sustainable Scientific Research (SR) environment. Specifically, the present work proposes establishing an Intelligent Recommendation System (IRS) based on Machine Learning (ML) algorithm and SRD. Firstly, the IRS is established over ML technology. Then, based on user Psychology and Collaborative Filtering (CF) recommendation algorithm, a hybrid algorithm [namely, Content-Based Recommendation-Collaborative Filtering (CBR-CF)] is established to improve the utilization efficiency of SRD and Sustainable Development (SD) of SR. Consequently, the present work designs literature and SRD-targeted IRS using the hybrid recommendation under the background of SD. The proposed system’s feasibility is analyzed through experiments. Additionally, the system performance is analyzed and verified from accuracy, diversity, coverage, novelty, and recommendation efficiency. The results show that the hybrid algorithm can make up for the shortcomings of a single algorithm and improve the recommendation efficiency. Experiments show that the accuracy of the proposed CBR-CF algorithm is the highest. In particular, the recommendation accuracy for the single-user system can reach 82–93%, and the recall of all recommended algorithms falls between 60 and 91%. The recall of the hybrid algorithm is higher than that of a single algorithm, and the highest recall is 91%. Meanwhile, the hybrid algorithm has comprehensive coverage, good applicability, and diversity. Therefore, SD-oriented SRD-targeted IRS is of great significance to improve the SRD utilization and the accuracy of IRS, and expand the achievement value of SR. The research content provides a reference for establishing a sustainable SR environment and improving SR efficiency.

\u041c\u04212\u0415: The Meta-Cloud Computing Environment for Interdisciplinary Studies

The Meta-Cloud Computing Environment (MC2E) is a Russian‒Chinese project dedicated to the study of methods and tools for building an information and computing environment for scientific computational experiments and interdisciplinary research, which ended in 2020. Work in this area was focused on the federation principle of organizing computations and data management, providing for the creation of a specialized heterogeneous ecosystem of data centers with virtualized infrastructure and high-performance computers, united by telecommunication resources—a data transmission network. One of the key problems of building such an ecosystem, central to the MC2E project, is the integration of high-performance computers and data processing centers—cloud computing environments based on server clusters. A brief overview of the main results of the project are presented.

Концептуальні проблеми розвитку міждисциплінарності досліджень у галузі міжнародних економічних відносин

In the context of the current Ukrainian realities, given its place, the significance and role in the geo-economic space from the standpoint of economic security the issue of high-quality provision of research in the area of international economic relations and, consequently, training of scientists and researchers in this field is acute. The article discusses the prerequisites and substantiates the need to find a mechanism for improving teaching methods, enhancing the effectiveness of forms and methods of teaching and research based on an interdisciplinary approach, search and development of new theories. The step-by-step algorithm of training / formation of scientists, characteristic features of the current stage of scientific research, communication and cooperation environment, specifics of training doctors of philosophy on the basis of competence approach is analyzed as well as the problems of terminological casuistry, quality of scientific publications, search for topical themes aimed at addressing a number of issues related to increasing the competitiveness of Ukrainian science in the area of international economic relations with a practical focus on strengthening Ukraine's position on the current geoeconomic chessboard. The purpose of the article is to study the prerequisites for reconfiguring the format of scientific research, enriching the research methodology, filling it with interdisciplinary tools.

Management of Federal Property at the University. Could it be Simplified?

A modern Russian university today is a large property complex, the effective use of which is necessary to ensure educational and scientific process problems in regard to academic process. However, universities also have to solve a wide range of social problems related to creating and maintaining a comfortable environment for students and professors, amongst other things engaging various organizations to create social services on campus. Although, characterization of outsourcing practices at universities shows that the existing legal base is incomplete, resulting in long and expensive procedures. All that reduces the universities’ effectiveness in solving an issue of creating a comfortable environment for learning and scientific research. The article analyses the decision-making process for some types of leases and proposes different measures to improve the regulatory framework, controlling the management of state property at universities.

Application and prospect of cutting-edge information technology in biomedical big data.

In recent years, with the development of various high-throughput omics based biological technologies (BT), biomedical research began to enter the era of big data. In the face of high-dimensional, multi-domain and multi-modal biomedical big data, scientific research requires a new paradigm of data intensive scientific research. The vigorous development of cutting-edge information technologies (IT) such as cloud computing, blockchain and artificial intelligence provides technical means for the practice of this new research paradigm. Here,we describe the application of such cutting-edge information technologies in biomedical big data, and propose a forward-looking prospect for the construction of a new paradigm supporting environment for data intensive scientific research. We expect to establish a new research scheme and new scientific research paradigm integrating BT & IT technology, which can finally promote the great leap forward development of biomedical research.

Spatio-Temporal Evolution and Mechanism Analysis of China’s Regional Innovation Efficiency

Improving regional innovation efficiency is the key to developing an innovative country. Exploring the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of regional innovation efficiency is crucial in the formulation of regional policies and the choice of innovation models. This study used the superdata envelopment analysis method with undesirable outputs in evaluating the innovation efficiency of Chinese provinces. To assess the spatial spillover effects of innovation factors, the spatial autocorrelation and spatial Durbin model were adopted to characterize the spatio-temporal evolution, spatial correlation, and mechanisms of innovation efficiency. The highlights of the results are as follows: (1) The time-series changes in innovation efficiency showed a general trend from declining to increasing. (2) There were pronounced regional differences in innovation efficiency. The innovation efficiencies at the provincial level evolved from being decentralized to concentrated. The innovation efficiency was relatively stable in the eastern region and increased significantly in the central and western regions. The east–center–west evolution pattern gradually weakened. (3) The innovative efficiency exhibited spatial dependence, and the spatial agglomeration continued to increase. The extent of hot spots expanded, while cold spots shrunk slightly. (4) The scientific research environment, entrepreneurial environment, labor quality, and market environment were the essential elements that improved innovation efficiency. The impact of the different factors on innovation efficiency at different periods exhibited significant spatial heterogeneity.