International Collaborative Network Research Articles

Radiation Oncology Education Collaborative Study Group Annual Spring Symposium: Initial Impact and Feedback

The Radiation Oncology Education Collaborative Study Group (ROECSG) is an international collaborative network of radiation oncology (RO) professionals with the goal of improving RO education. This report summarizes the first two ROECSG annual symposia including an overview of presentations and analysis of participant feedback. One-day symposia were held in June 2018 and May 2019. Programs included oral and poster presentations, RO education leadership perspectives, and keynote addresses. Post-symposia surveys were collected. Research presentations were recorded and made available online. The 2018 symposium was had 36 attendees from 25 institutions in three countries. The 2019 symposium had 76 individuals from 41 institutions in five countries. Attendees represented diverse backgrounds including attending physicians (46%), residents (13%), medical students (14%), physicists (2%), nurses (1%), and program coordinators (1%). Fifty-five oral presentations were given with 53 released online. Ninety percent of attendees rated the symposium as improving their knowledge of RO educational scholarship, 98% felt the symposium provided the opportunity to receive feedback on RO education scholarship, and 99% felt that the symposium fostered the development of collaborative RO education projects. ROECSG was rated higher than professional organizations in fostering educational scholarship (p<0.001). All attendees felt that the symposium produced new RO education scholarship ideas and provided unique networking opportunities. The first two ROECSG symposia drew a diverse population of attendees and provided unique opportunities for presentation of RO education scholarship. Future ROECSG symposia will be designed to enhance opportunities to present RO education scholarship and to facilitate networking.

Building the integrated observational network of &amp;ldquo;Transparent Ocean&amp;rdquo;

We live in an exciting era for ocean science, particularly when compared to three decades ago when the ocean was vastly underexplored. Progress can only be made through discovery, observation, understanding of the ocean from the surface to the deep sea, from global to local processes, and from physics, biogeochemistry to ecology. Ocean observation is the basis of oceanic scientific research and is a key to global competition in marine science and technology. Breakthroughs depend on innovation in marine observation and exploration technology. Based on the current frontier issues of ocean science, we report ways to build a three-dimensional observation network of “Transparent Ocean”. The network will effectively promote China’s construction of an international collaborative innovation network for marine science. The three-dimensional observation network “Transparent Ocean” focuses on building an intelligent mobile platform and integrates satellites, fixed platforms, vessel network, and submarine observation systems to make the oceans truly transparent. This network includes four sub-programs. (1) An Ocean Star Cluster Program, which resolves ocean variability at sub-meso and sub-week scales with a centimeter-level accuracy, to partially reveal the marine life system and ecosystem with a 10-m vertical interval in the euphotic layer, moving a significant step forward towards a “Transparent Ocean” down to the vicinity of thermocline both dynamically and bio-optically. (2) An Air-Sea Interface Program, which aims to build an observational network that integrates fixed and mobile platforms to achieve a three-dimensional view of key elements/variables of the air-sea interface. (3) A Starry Deep Sea Program, which builds a deep sea observation system with deep Argo, deep gliders, deep-sea autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), intelligent buoys, and other facilities. The system will provide support for information procurement through deep sea navigation and positioning technology. (4) An Undersea Perspective Program, which integrates seabed observation network, communication, navigation and positioning, with intelligent charging technologies to build an intelligent exploration network from water to the seabed. In addition, there is a Deep Blue Brain Project, which will build a marine internet of things with the goal to enhance the ability of intelligent services from data to customers. To date, breakthroughs have been made in research and development of cutting-edge marine technologies, providing new means for ocean observation and exploration. With respect to the ocean observation network, China has built a pilot mooring network with over one hundred sub-surface moorings and almost ten surface buoys in the western Pacific, South China Sea and the Indian Ocean over the past decade. In the next decade, it is essential to integrate observations, process studies and prediction/projection, so as to meet multiple demands of end users.

Build up conservation research capacity in China for biodiversity governance

To achieve the grand vision of 'Ecological Civilization' and to build a more sustainable Belt and Road Initiative, China's conservation policies must be underpinned by research. However, recent institutional and vertebrate conservation scientists' publication data suggest that China has a growing conservation research capacity deficit. China lacks a pipeline for the training and development of conservation scientists locally and abroad. The network of active conservation scientists is rapidly shrinking and institutions are exhibiting signs of academic inbreeding. Career advancement policies are perversely incentivized away from practical conservation research, thereby constraining capacity building. Comparative data indicate that China severely lags behind the United States and United Kingdom in research quality and capacity. We outline possible recommendations that include developing a different performance evaluation system, promoting training and international exchanges, encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration, and fostering international collaborative networks for China-based conservation scientists. For global biodiversity governance, China must act to make up for considerable shortfalls in conservation research capacity and research collaborative networks.

SCN3A-Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder: A Spectrum of Epilepsy and Brain Malformation.

Pathogenic variants in SCN3A, encoding the voltage-gated sodium channel subunit Nav1.3, cause severe childhood onset epilepsy and malformation of cortical development. Here, we define the spectrum of clinical, genetic, and neuroimaging features of SCN3A-related neurodevelopmental disorder. Patients were ascertained via an international collaborative network. We compared sodium channels containing wild-type versus variant Nav1.3 subunits coexpressed with β1 and β2 subunits using whole-cell voltage clamp electrophysiological recordings in a heterologous mammalian system (HEK-293T cells). Of 22 patients with pathogenic SCN3A variants, most had treatment-resistant epilepsy beginning in the first year of life (16/21, 76%; median onset, 2 weeks), with severe or profound developmental delay (15/20, 75%). Many, but not all (15/19, 79%), exhibited malformations of cortical development. Pathogenic variants clustered in transmembrane segments 4 to 6 of domains II to IV. Most pathogenic missense variants tested (10/11, 91%) displayed gain of channel function, with increased persistent current and/or a leftward shift in the voltage dependence of activation, and all variants associated with malformation of cortical development exhibited gain of channel function. One variant (p.Ile1468Arg) exhibited mixed effects, with gain and partial loss of function. Two variants demonstrated loss of channel function. Our study defines SCN3A-related neurodevelopmental disorder along a spectrum of severity, but typically including epilepsy and severe or profound developmental delay/intellectual disability. Malformations of cortical development are a characteristic feature of this unusual channelopathy syndrome, present in >75% of affected individuals. Gain of function at the channel level in developing neurons is likely an important mechanism of disease pathogenesis. ANN NEUROL 2020;88:348-362.

International collaboration networks for the surveillance of congenital anomalies: a narrative review.

Objective to identify international congenital anomaly surveillance collaboration networks, to list the programs that compose them and to compare their main characteristics. Methods this was a narrative literature review by means of a MEDLINE database search (via PubMed) and searches involving websites, reports and official documents. Results six international congenital anomaly surveillance collaboration networks were identified (ECLAMC, ICBDSR, EUROCAT, BINOCAR, SEAR-NBBD and ReLAMC), comprised of 98 programs present in 58 different countries on all continents, except Africa; the main characteristics regarding type of surveillance, coverage and location were discussed in a comparative manner. Conclusion international collaborative networks are important players for congenital anomaly surveillance, contributing to the understanding of the global epidemiological scenario of these conditions, in addition to acting both to strengthen individual existing programs and also to create surveillance initiatives in unassisted regions.

The Internal Capability of Vietnam Social Sciences and Humanities: A Perspective from the 2008–2019 Dataset

International collaboration contributes significantly to improving scientific performance in Vietnam, but it also results in Vietnamese researchers depending on foreign partners to get their work published. The current study is an initial effort to examine the domestic research capability of Vietnam’s Social Science and Humanities (SSH) disciplines through scientific productivity. The research focuses on investigating various aspects, including leading Vietnamese authors, solo authors, and gender difference, as well as international and domestic collaboration networks. The study extracts the data of 2040 Vietnamese SSH authors, 1981 foreign authors, and 3160 publications during the period of 2008–2019, from the exclusive Social Sciences and Humanities Peer Awards (SSHPA) database. Findings show a steadily rising contribution from leading domestic authors in SSH research, with an annual growth rate of approximately 22.33%. Moreover, 77.26% of publications are led by Vietnamese researchers. The proportion of publications by Vietnamese authors increased dramatically and surpassed the proportion of internationally collaborated publications in 2019, at 55.83%. The domestic research collaboration network has expanded in an observable manner. However, the participation rate of women in SSH research was relatively low, at an average of 37.30%. While the self-sustaining capacity of SSH researchers and institutes in Vietnam has been rising, gender inequality remains prevalent. In order to further strengthen and promote the scholarly community, as well as their research capacity, and to maintain public trust in SSH research, we recommend that policymakers encourage self-sustaining research, nationwide collaboration, and empower female researchers.

SMART Research: Toward Interdisciplinary River Science in Europe

Interdisciplinary science is rapidly advancing to address complex human-environment interactions. River science aims to provide the methods and knowledge required to sustainably manage some of the planet’s most important and vulnerable ecosystems; and there is a clear need for river managers and scientists to be trained within an interdisciplinary approach. However, despite the science community’s recognition of the importance of interdisciplinary training, there are few studies examining interdisciplinary graduate programmes, especially in science and engineering. Here we assess and reflect on the contribution of a 9-year European doctoral programme in river science: ‘Science for MAnagement of Rivers and their Tidal Systems’ Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate (SMART EMJD). The programme trained a new generation of 36 early career scientists under the supervision of 34 international experts from different disciplinary and interdisciplinary research fields focusing on river systems, aiming to transcend the boundaries between disciplines and between science and management. We analysed the three core facets of the SMART programme, namely: (1) interdisciplinarity, (2) internationalism, and (3) management-oriented science. We reviewed the contents of doctoral theses and publications and synthesised the outcomes of two questionnaire surveys conducted with doctoral candidates and supervisors. A high percentage of the scientific outputs (80%) were interdisciplinary. There was evidence of active collaboration between different teams of doctoral candidates and supervisors, in terms of joint publications (5 papers out of the 69 analysed) but this was understandably quite limited given the other demands of the programme. We found evidence to contradict the perception that interdisciplinarity is a barrier to career success as employment rates were high (97%) and achieved very soon after the defence, both in academia (50%) and the private/public sector (50%) with a strong international dimension. Despite management-oriented research being a limited (9%) portion of the ensemble of theses, employment in management was higher (22%). The SMART programme also increased the network of international collaborations for doctoral candidates and supervisors. Reflections on doctoral training programmes like SMART contribute to debates around research training and the career opportunities of interdisciplinary scientists.

Research priorities for rehabilitation and aging with HIV: a framework from the Canada-International HIV and Rehabilitation Research Collaborative (CIHRRC)

BackgroundPeople living with HIV are living longer, and can experience physical, mental and social health challenges associated with aging and multimorbidity. Rehabilitation is well positioned to address disability and maximize healthy aging. An international collaborative network, called the Canada-International HIV and Rehabilitation Research Collaborative (CIHRRC), works to guide this emerging field. In this article, we report findings from CIHRRC’s aim to identify emerging research priorities in HIV, aging and rehabilitation from the perspectives of people living with HIV, clinicians, researchers, representatives from community organizations and policy stakeholders.MethodsWe conducted a multi-stakeholder multi-method international consultation with people living with HIV, researchers, clinicians and representatives of community-based organizations to identify research priorities in HIV, aging and rehabilitation. Stakeholders identified research priorities during a one-day International Forum comprised of presentations and facilitated discussion. We collated and analyzed data using content analytical techniques, resulting in a framework of research priorities.ResultsSixty-nine stakeholders from countries including Canada (n = 62; 90%), the United Kingdom (n = 5; 7%), United States (n = 1; 1%) and Australia (n = 1; 1%) attended the International Forum on HIV, Aging and Rehabilitation Research. Stakeholders represented community-based organizations (n = 20; 29%), academic institutions (n = 18; 26%), community or institutional healthcare organizations (n = 11; 16%), research or knowledge production organizations (n = 10; 14%), and organizations representing government or industry (n = 10; 14%). The Framework of Research Priorities in HIV, Aging and Rehabilitation includes seven research priorities: (1) nature, extent and impact of disability, concurrent health conditions and chronic inflammation with HIV; (2) prevalence, severity and impact of frailty; (3) community and social participation aging with HIV; (4) strategies for chronic disease management and healthy aging with HIV; (5) facilitators and barriers to access and engagement in, rehabilitation; (6) effectiveness of rehabilitation interventions for healthy aging with HIV; and (7) advancing development and use of patient reported outcome measures in HIV and aging. The Framework highlights methodological considerations to approach the priorities and the importance of knowledge translation and exchange to apply research knowledge into practice, programs and policy.ConclusionsThese priorities offer a foundation for collaboration among international and multidisciplinary teams to advance the field of HIV, aging and rehabilitation in order to promote healthy aging with HIV.

Does international student mobility foster scientific collaboration? Evidence from a network analysis

ABSTRACT The knowledge production capacity of a country depends not only on its internal innovation factors, but also on its ‘social capital’ in the global network. International student mobility networks have become an important component of social capital that affects a country’s knowledge production capacity. This study combines the social network analysis method and econometrics method to visualise and quantitatively evaluate international student mobility and scientific collaboration networks. Using a study period of 2001–2015 and data taken primarily from UNESCO (with the exception of China), we find that international student mobility and scientific collaboration have a high degree of spatial matching. Further, the national positions in scientific collaboration networks have a positive and significant correlation with their positions in international student mobility networks, leading to greater knowledge production and collaborative output.

Big impact of nanoparticles: analysis of the most cited nanopharmaceuticals and nanonutraceuticals research

Abstract Nanopharmaceuticals and nanonutraceuticals research has been lately receiving a lot of scientific attention. We aimed to identify the top 100 most cited original articles of the scientific area, analyze their research themes, major contributors regarding authors, institutions, countries and journals. The bibliometric data was extracted from the Web of Science electronic database. Data was further processed by a bibliometric software, VOSviewer, to generate bubble maps to visualize the results. Inter-institutional and international collaboration networks were constructed to further understand the cooperation between different study centers. Results revealed that over 60% of the articles were published in the 2000s. As of November 2019, the articles were cited 576–3665 times, with 20.1–261.8 citations per year. The majority of the most prolific institutions were based in the United States. Besides the United States, China, South Korea, Canada and Germany contributed heavily to the 100 articles. Some popular themes included drug delivery, tumor, toxicity/biocompatibility and biodistribution. Regarding composition materials, gold, silver and polymeric nanoparticles were the most commonly used.

Macro-level collaboration network analysis and visualization with Essential Science Indicators: A case of social science

Cross-national collaboration has been shaped by internationalization of scientific relationships. To study the synergic network of high quality research patterns, this paper collects a total of 300 top 50 items, in each indicator from the big database, Essential Science Indicators, which lists top-ranking papers, scientists and institutions from 2005 to 2015. First, the country level relations of co-authorship addresses in five indicator variables are extracted in the field of social sciences to build international collaboration networks. The social network analysis (SNA) method was applied to calculate the metrics of vertices, edges, average degree, average shortest path, diameter, clustering coefficient and betweenness centrality to illuminate the structural characters and collaboration patterns. Based on the international collaboration similarities, this paper also visualizes the endemic clustering groups of six networks, as cluster dendrograms, using Hierarchical Clustering (HC) method. Findings illustrate that USA, England and Canada are outstanding countries in the international collaboration networks of five indicators. There are geographical groups in European countries in the collaboration networks of scientists, institutes and countries/territories. It is also found that international collaboration contributes to both highly cited papers in the recent 10 years and hot papers in the recent 2 years in this field, rather than geographical similarity does. Those conclusions are critical for policy makers to produce guidelines on how to encourage researchers to build collaboration networks with high-level scholars in different countries

Tendencias mundiales de la implementación de las Normas Internacionales de Información Financiera. Un estudio bibliométrico del período 1989 a 2018

El presente artículo tiene como objetivo describir las principales características bibliográficas de la producción científica mundial relacionada con la implementación de las Normas Internacionales de Información Financiera ―NIIF―. A partir de un análisis descriptivo de la evolución cuantitativa de las citaciones, redes de colaboración internacional, productividad de los principales autores y términos frecuentes en las publicaciones científicas.Se realizó un estudio bibliométrico de revistas científicas indexadas en Scopus a través del software VOSviewer que facilita la visualización de mapas bibliométricos. Lo anterior, permite obtener una visión general de las tendencias de la investigación científica relacionada con la implementación de las NIIF. Este es el primer estudio bibliométrico que informa sobre las principales redes de colaboración y los clústeres temáticos de la produccióncientífica relacionada con la implementación de estas normas en las organizaciones a nivel mundial. La estrategia de búsqueda empleada identificó 1224 documentos de producción científica que permiten visualizar la importancia de este campo de estudio en la literatura académica, lo que se refleja en un incremento del 99 % en el número de publicaciones anuales entre 1989 y 2018. Dada la rigurosidad de la metodología, y el enfoque global delámbito de estudio, los resultados del documento facilitan la identificación efectiva de las direcciones de la investigación sobre la implementación de las NIIF en las organizaciones.

Retrospective and prospective of the hydrogen supply chain: A longitudinal techno-historical analysis

The objective of this study was to investigate the evolution of hydrogen research and its international scientific collaboration network. From the Scopus database, 58,006 relevant articles, published from 1935 until mid-2018, were retrieved. To review this massive volume of publication records, we took a scientometric network analysis approach and investigated the social network of the publication contents based on keywords co-occurrence as well as international collaboration ties.An interesting observation is that despite publications on hydrogen occurring since 1935, the growth of this research field ignited with the Kyoto Protocol of 1997. The publication profile reveals that more than 93% of the existing records have been published over the last two decades. More recently, the accelerated growth of renewables has further motivated hydrogen research with almost 36,000 academic records having been indexed from 2010 till mid-2018. This accounts for ~62% of the total historical publications on hydrogen. The conventional hydrogen production pathway is fossil fuel-based, involving fossil fuel reforming for synthesis gas generation. The keyword analysis also shows a paradigm shift in hydrogen generation to renewables. While all components of hydrogen supply chain research are now growing, the topic areas of biohydrogen and photocatalysis seem to be growing the fastest.Analysis of international collaboration networks also reveals a strong correlation between the increase of collaboration ties on hydrogen research and the publications. Until the 1970s, only 25 countries had collaborated, while this has reached 108 countries as of 2018, with over 17,500 collaboration ties. The collaborations have also evolved into a substantially more integrated network, with a few strong clusters involving China, the United States, Germany, and Japan. The longitudinal network evolution maps also reveal a shift, over the last two decades, from US-Europe centred technology development-interaction to a world in which Asian economies play substantial roles.

Safety of hospital discharge before return of bowel function after elective colorectal surgery.

Ileus is common after colorectal surgery and is associated with an increased risk of postoperative complications. Identifying features of normal bowel recovery and the appropriateness for hospital discharge is challenging. This study explored the safety of hospital discharge before the return of bowel function. A prospective, multicentre cohort study was undertaken across an international collaborative network. Adult patients undergoing elective colorectal resection between January and April 2018 were included. The main outcome of interest was readmission to hospital within 30 days of surgery. The impact of discharge timing according to the return of bowel function was explored using multivariable regression analysis. Other outcomes were postoperative complications within 30 days of surgery, measured using the Clavien-Dindo classification system. A total of 3288 patients were included in the analysis, of whom 301 (9·2 per cent) were discharged before the return of bowel function. The median duration of hospital stay for patients discharged before and after return of bowel function was 5 (i.q.r. 4-7) and 7 (6-8) days respectively (P < 0·001). There were no significant differences in rates of readmission between these groups (6·6 versus 8·0 per cent; P = 0·499), and this remained the case after multivariable adjustment for baseline differences (odds ratio 0·90, 95 per cent c.i. 0·55 to 1·46; P = 0·659). Rates of postoperative complications were also similar in those discharged before versus after return of bowel function (minor: 34·7 versus 39·5 per cent; major 3·3 versus 3·4 per cent; P = 0·110). Discharge before return of bowel function after elective colorectal surgery appears to be safe in appropriately selected patients.

The Impact of International Research Collaboration Network Evolution on Chinese Business School Research Quality

The University of Texas at Dallas has proposed 24 top journals (UTD24) covering all areas related to management. UTD24 are currently the most authoritative management journals. Institutions or research scholars who have published papers in these journals are considered to have a high academic level. This study uses the paper quality published by an institution in the UTD24 journals to indicate the research quality of this institution and takes the papers published by Chinese Business School in the UTD24 journals from 2000 to 2018 as the research object. By analyzing the staged evolution process and the research hotspot of international research collaboration network (IRC network) of Chinese Business School, this paper summarizes and analyzes the factors that influence the quality of papers published by Chinese Business School in UTD24 journals: degree centrality of an institution, betweenness centrality of an institution, the degree of attention of an institution, the degree of novelty of an institution, and the number of countries cooperating with the institution. This paper divides paper quality into two parts: the total number of papers and citations per paper of an institution. Among them, degree centrality and betweenness centrality of the institution have a significant positive impact on the total number of papers of the institution. The degree of attention and the number of countries cooperating with the institution have a significant positive impact on citations per paper, and the degree of novelty has a significant negative impact on citations per paper.

Recent patterns and trends in sustainable concrete research in India: A five-year Scientometric review

Research shows that the energy consumption of a facility has a significant relationship with the materials used for its construction. Concrete is a widely used construction material in the building and infrastructure sectors in India due to its low-cost and easy availability. However, it makes significant contributions to Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions due to high embodied energy. Therefore, research on the development, selection, and use of sustainable concrete constitutes an essential research area for the researchers in the fields of material science and the built environment. As a result, a large number of articles have been published on sustainable concrete in the last few years. This paper outlines the recent patterns and trends in the field of sustainable concrete research in the context of India. A total of 439 journal articles published in the last five years (2014–2019) were selected from the Scopus database. Scientometric mapping approach was used to examine the current research focus and advancements in this field. Four major clusters of sustainable concrete research are concrete properties, concrete mix, supplementary/alternative materials, and recycled concrete. Around 60 per cent of the published journal articles come from non-engineering disciplines such as management, environmental sciences and social science, which shows the emerging multidisciplinary nature of this field. The insights into the research clusters, researchers, leading research institutions, and national and international collaborative networks could provide new research opportunities to both novice and experienced researchers.

Changes in the Geographic Pattern of Iran's International Collaboration in Cardiovascular Research: A 15-Year Period

BackgroundCardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) which are considered as the major public health problems, result in substantial increases in economic and health care costs, and are the first leading cause of death worldwide. Clinical research are the backbone of attempts to build and conduct evidence-based policies to perform the best caring of CVDs. International collaborations, increase the quality of research. Therefore, the present study was conducted in order to assess the changes in the geographic pattern of Iran's international cardiovascular research collaborations.MethodsThis study was a systematic review with scientometrics approaches. Numbers and rates of international research collaborations were extracted from the Web of Science database. Results are reported as figures by Graph Pad v6 and Arc GIS v7 software.ResultsThe results showed that, 18.3% of all Iran's cardiovascular research have been conducted with international collaborations. The increasing rates were 14.4%, 16.5%, and 21.3% in the time periods of 2004-2009, 2010-2014, and 2015-2019, respectively. The obtained results indicated that, the United States was the first research partner of Iran in the field of cardiovascular and the other partners were England, Australia, Italy and Poland; respectively.ConclusionThis study provides a global description of a changing pattern of the international research collaboration behavior of Iran and also indicates that the international research collaboration follow a logical trend in the cardiovascular field. Building effective international research collaboration networks as well as encouraging researchers to work in these networks can be considered by policy makers in university levels in the future.

Global scientific trends on aflatoxin research during 1998\u20132017: a bibliometric and visualized study

BackgroundAflatoxins are fungal metabolites associated with contaminated food products. Intake of aflatoxin-contaminated food results in serious health hazards and even death. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the global scientific output of research of aflatoxin by using bibliometric techniques.MethodsThis bibliometric study was conducted using Scopus database and classified the retrieved publications were classified from different aspects, including the countries/region of focus, journals, authors, institutes, citations, and content analysis to discover any hot and emerging topics. In addition, the bibliometric analysis of the international collaborative network and hot research topics were generated by VOSviewer© software version 1.6.10. The publication period was restricted in the search for two decades (1998–2017).ResultsThe search engine of the Scopus database found 9845 documents published in the field of aflatoxin. The USA is the top publishing source in the world (22.85%), followed by China (11.85%), India (9.32%), and Italy (5.25%). In earlier years, researchers focused on terms related to the topics of “sources and biosynthesis of aflatoxin”, “health effects by aflatoxin”, and “detoxification and treatment of aflatoxin”. However, in recent years, researchers pay more attention to the topic of detection and quantification of aflatoxin.ConclusionsThe quantity of research in global aflatoxin has substantially increased over the past two decades. The evaluation of the historical status and development trend in aflatoxin scientific research can guide future research, and ultimately provide the basis for improving management procedures for governmental decisions, healthcare, industries, and educational institutions.

A horizon scan of priorities for coastal marine microbiome research.

Research into the microbiomes of natural environments is changing the way ecologists and evolutionary biologists view the importance of microorganisms in ecosystem function. This is particularly relevant in ocean environments, where microorganisms constitute the majority of biomass and control most of the major biogeochemical cycles, including those that regulate Earth's climate. Coastal marine environments provide goods and services that are imperative to human survival and well-being (for example, fisheries and water purification), and emerging evidence indicates that these ecosystem services often depend on complex relationships between communities of microorganisms (the 'microbiome') and the environment or their hosts - termed the 'holobiont'. Understanding of coastal ecosystem function must therefore be framed under the holobiont concept, whereby macroorganisms and their associated microbiomes are considered as a synergistic ecological unit. Here, we evaluate the current state of knowledge on coastal marine microbiome research and identify key questions within this growing research area. Although the list of questions is broad and ambitious, progress in the field is increasing exponentially, and the emergence of large, international collaborative networks and well-executed manipulative experiments are rapidly advancing the field of coastal marine microbiome research.

Research Development on Sustainable Urban Infrastructure From 1991 to 2017: A Bibliometric Analysis to Inform Future Innovations

AbstractStudies of sustainable urban infrastructure are expanding since the United Nations proposed the concept of sustainability in 1982. The need for more sustainable urban infrastructures led to many research efforts on innovative technologies and development strategies. We analyzed research progress on sustainable urban infrastructure from 1991 to 2017 using bibliometric, keyword co‐occurrence and document cocitation network analysis. An increasing publication number suggests a rapid development of the sustainable urban infrastructure research area, but the development is still in an emerging stage. With respect to the analysis of research themes, we analyzed keyword co‐occurrence networks in the three stages of 1991‐1999, 2000‐2008, and 2009‐2017. We observed substantial expansions and intensive interconnections of research theme clusters on sustainable urban infrastructure. The themes from 2009 to 2017 include “critical infrastructure,” “urban planning and design,” “development need,” “technology innovation,” and “cyber‐physical system.” The United States produced 28.93% of the publications and played a core role in the international collaboration network. We further compared national interests among top productive countries, which highlights different priorities of investing more sustainable urban infrastructures. Finally, we presented an in‐depth analysis of four emerging technology innovations, namely, renewable energy, smart grid, green infrastructure, and cloud computing regarding research directions and challenges. Our results not only provide a valuable reference for researchers who are interested in sustainable urban infrastructures but also put forward the emphasis and orientations of future studies.