Research Topics Research Articles

Black Carbon in Climate Studies: A Bibliometric Analysis of Research Trends and Topics

Black carbon is a short-lived climate warming agent and serves as a crucial factor influencing the climate. Numerous models, observations, and laboratory studies have been conducted to quantify black carbon’s direct or indirect impacts on the climate. Here, we applied bibliometric analysis to identify research trends and key topics on black carbon in the climate field. Based on the Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection database, a total of 4903 documents spanning the period from 2000 to 2023 were retrieved and screened, focusing on the topic of black carbon in the climate field, resulting in the Black-Carbon Climate Local (BCL) dataset. Our study examines the influence and trends of major countries, institutions, and authors in this field. The results show that China and the United States hold leading positions in terms of the number of publications. Based on keyword networks, the BCL dataset is segmented into six distinct research directions, and representative keywords of each direction include biomass burning, radiative forcing, air pollution, aerosol optical depth, optical properties, and biochar. This study helps to identify the current research status and trends of black carbon in the climate, highlighting main research directions and emerging topics.

Charting the Research Status for Bamboo Resources and Bamboo as a Sustainable Plastic Alternative: A Bibliometric Review

With the increasing pollution caused by plastic products, people’s awareness of environmental protection has gradually increased. Based on the advantages of China’s bamboo resources and bamboo industry, the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan launched the ‘Utilizing bamboo as a sustainable alternative to plastic’ initiative in November 2022 to accelerate the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This initiative provides a nature-based solution for global sustainable development, which will have a profound impact on promoting global green development, industrial science and technology, social services, cultural exchanges, and other fields. It has a huge market capacity and application potential. This study aims to understand the research status, hotspots, development trends, and prospects of this initiative. WoS and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) were searched for the relevant literature on ‘utilizing bamboo as a sustainable alternative to plastic bamboo as plastic’ and ‘bamboo resources’ from the establishment of the database to 2024. Bibliometric methods and VOSviewer were used to analyze 1855 literatures with the above two keywords published in the Web of Science core set database from 2000 to 2024. A visual analysis was performed on the number of publications, national research institutions, researchers, number of citations, and research topics of the literature. For example, China, the United States, and India ranked in the top three in terms of the number of articles published, with 1103, 267, and 167, respectively. China had the highest number of citations, reaching 26,607. At the same time, the literature with ‘bamboo’ as the keyword in CNKI was analyzed to understand the species of bamboo currently studied. A literature investigation was carried out around the resource cultivation of the bamboo industry in our country, and it was found that the research on ‘use bamboo as plastic’ and ‘bamboo resources’ had been valued by scholars at home and abroad, and had formed a relatively stable research group. Using scientific and technological innovation to improve the product quality of ‘bamboo instead of plastic’, expanding its application scope and market demand, and realizeing the sustainable industry development of ‘bamboo instead of plastic’ is the current research hotspot and the future development direction.

Neuropsychophysiological Aspects of Soccer Performance: A Bibliometric Analysis and Narrative Review.

In recent years, there has been growing scientific interest in the neuropsychophysiological aspects of soccer performance. The purpose of this study was to conduct a bibliometric analysis to identify and review key topics within the neuropsychophysiological dimensions of soccer performance and identify any research voids that warrant further attention. We retrieved 192 documents from the Scopus database and anayzed the extracted data using VOSviewer software to conduct a bibliometric analysis. We applied both performance analysis techniques (including the number of documents per year, top 20 authors by citations, and top 15 sources by documents) and science mapping analysis (co-authorship, bibliographic coupling, co-citation, and co-occurrence). The co-occurrence analysis identified three main clusters of research themes. The first cluster focused on the relationship between physical performance and cognitive factors, the second on technical-tactical performance, and the third on health and well-being. Our findings emphasize the significant role of neuropsychophysiological factors in all aspects of soccer performance. We highlight the importance of integrating cognitive and physical training to enhance player performance and underscore the need for further research to deepen our understanding of these relationships.

니트(NEET)청년 관련 연구동향 및 도전과제

Objectives This study aims to analyze recent research trends related to NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) youth and to provide implications for future research and support for NEET youth. Methods To analyze research trends related to NEET youth, a total of 58 papers, consisting of 43 domestic journal articles and 15 dissertations related to NEET youth published over 17 years from 2008 to 2024, were selected for analysis. The criteria for analyzing research trends were set in four areas: basic information, research subjects, research methods, and research topics. Results The study showed a significant increase in the number of journal articles and dissertations after 2015. Second, in terms of research subjects, studies focusing on non-job-seeking NEETs accounted for about 63%, followed by studies on mixed-type NEETs and job-seeking NEETs. Third, in terms of research methods, quantitative research was most commonly used in both journal articles and dissertations. The most frequently used analysis methods were overall scale estimation using statistical data and quantitative analysis of determinants leading to NEET status. Finally, regarding research topics, studies on the causes and influencing factors of NEET occurrence and the types and characteristics of NEET youth were the most common in both journal articles and dissertations. However, there is a greater need for research on support programs for NEET youth and measures for preventing and overcoming NEET status. Conclusions Based on the results of this study, discussions and implications for follow-up research and support for NEET youth were described, and recommendations for future research were made.

Transforming Higher Education Towards Economic Development: A Zimbabwean Case Study

This study is a systematic review of research on higher education in Zimbabwe, in particular, it assesses the contribution of higher education towards engendering socio-economic development. This is achieved through identifying higher education activities prioritised in research during the study period which spans a three-year period from 2021 to 2023. This period comes just after the introduction of Education 5.0, which includes innovation and industrialisation. Furthermore, the articles are assessed on whether they address socio-economic development issues. A total of 41 abstracts of research articles were subjected to qualitative content analysis. The findings reveal five major activities that research has focussed on in priority order: teaching and learning; quality in education; management operations and policy; knowledge and research; and equity and equality. Furthermore, while the analysis indicates that the prioritised activities contribute towards socio-economic development, the nuances of balancing political, individual and epistemic priorities affecting higher education institutions are brought to the fore. The identified activities underscore the need for interventions at national, institutional, departmental and individual lecturer levels. However, there are concerns about the de-prioritisation of gender equality and equity in higher learning institutions in Zimbabwe. In conclusion, the research topics not only highlight the complexities and the dynamics faced by higher education institutions in Zimbabwe in playing their expected role of contributing to socio-economic development but also the need to foreground specificity to allow for the identification of effective interventions and processes required to support higher education’s goal of contributing towards economic growth. The study further concludes that the neglect of equity and equality issues may be detrimental to educational outcomes geared towards economic growth.

텍스트 마이닝을 활용한 국내 기본심리욕구 연구 동향 분석

Objectives The purpose of this study is to examine research trends related to basic psychological needs in Korea and identify major research topics and trends. Methods To this end, we analyzed 327 academic papers related to basic psychological needs, which were more than candidates for KCI registration published on the Academic Research Information Service. The data was preprocessed through an R program, and the results of keyword frequency analysis were visualized in a word cloud, and analyzed by topic modeling. Results First, according to the literature status, 327 journals have been published in 106 societies, including the Learner-Centered Curriculum Education Association and the Korean Youth Association. Second, in keyword frequency analysis, terms such as basic psychology, desire, research, relationship, influence, mediation, analysis, autonomy, effectiveness, satisfaction, and competence appeared as top words. Third, topic modeling results were categorized by effects on individual psychological well-being, research methods, relationships with elementary school students and psychological well-being, the influence of young people's home and school environments, the mental health of college students, and relationships with stressors in modern society. Conclusions This study is significant in that it identified the characteristics of basic psychological needs research trends in Korea by applying text mining techniques to a vast amount of information on basic psychological needs, and it can be used as useful basic data for setting the direction of basic psychological needs research and selecting research topics in the future.

A Country-Specific Analysis of CCN Pre-College IFP Business Chinese Scores

With the increasing international status of China, there are more and more Chinese language learners. China actively supports this trend and has implemented a series of policies to encourage foreigners to study in China. There are also many institutions that directly connect with Chinese universities to help more people study Chinese in China. This paper mainly studies the CCN pre-college education alliance’s business Chinese C pathway as the research object, and Chinese scores as the research theme, to analyze the country-specific Chinese scores of business students and analyze the results and propose improvement measures.

Open Source Software Adoption in the Financial Services Industry

Although OSS has gained traction across industries worldwide, few studies have been reported on OSS adoption in the financial industry and even less in the context of developing countries. This paper presents an exploratory overview of the state of OSS adoption in the financial industry using the case of South Africa as a country with the largest and most developed financial sector in Africa. To achieve this, we conducted a qualitative study that leveraged the Technology-Organisation-Environment (TOE) framework, and the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory as theoretical references and used thematic analysis to analyse the data collected from a focus group discussion (FGD) of eight experts from four financial services organisations based in South Africa. The study's findings reveal the state of practice of OSS and the technological, organisational, and environmental factors that affect OSS adoption, and diffusion in financial services organisations in South Africa. We also identified seven research themes that should gain the attention of researchers from now on.

고등교육 질 관련 연구 동향 분석 및 키워드 네트워크 분석 연구

Objectives This study was conducted to explore and analyze research trends related to the quality of higher education in South Korea by utilizing content analysis and keyword network analysis methods. The target period for the analysis includes publications released between 2013 and March 2024. Methods To achieve this, relevant literature on the quality of higher education in South Korea was selected for analysis. Quantitative content analysis was employed to investigate research trends. Additionally, keywords were extracted from the literature, and analyses of keyword occurrence frequency, co-occurrence frequency, centrality, and community were performed to explore keyword network patterns related to higher education quality. Results The results of the analysis are as follows. First, content analysis revealed that research related to the quality of higher education has been generally increasing, influenced by government policies. The most frequently studied topic was found to be ‘performance management and institutional research’. Second, keyword analysis showed that keywords such as ‘learning outcomes’, ‘educational outcomes’, and ‘quality management’ had high frequency and centrality, indicating that related research has been focused on outputs and performance. Additionally, keywords like ‘learning experience’, ‘student engagement’, and ‘faculty-student interaction’ were found to be relatively highly associated with these core keywords. Conclusions The study concludes that research on the quality of higher education in South Korea is influenced by government policies and is primarily focused on outputs and performance. Therefore, there is a need for diverse policy support from the government to diversify and invigorate research topics related to the quality of higher education.

Visualising research trends and hotspots in ferroptosis: a decade of insights into iron-dependent cell death and clinical diseases

ObjectiveTo explore the research hotspots and frontier trends of ferroptosis and its association with clinical diseases both in China and internationally over the past decade.MethodsUtilizing the CNKI, PubMed, and Web of Science literature databases as data sources, we employed CiteSpace 6.2.R4 and VOSviewer software to visualize and analyze the authors, institutions, countries, and keywords related to ferroptosis and clinical diseases from 2013 to 2023.ResultsChina Medical University has published the highest number of studies in the field of ferroptosis and clinical diseases in China. Furthermore, China leads globally in attention to this research area. In 2022, domestic and international scholars exhibited the closest collaboration in this field. The year 2020 saw the most extensive range of sub-studies on ferroptosis and clinical diseases both at home and abroad. The keywords "cancer" and "long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs)" emerged as the most prominent research topics in recent years.ConclusionFuture research on ferroptosis-related diseases, including cancer, heart failure, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease, should further investigate the regulatory mechanisms linking ferroptosis with mitochondria, the Golgi apparatus, and multi-site LncRNA interactions. This could provide valuable insights for subsequent studies on cancer and other diseases in the context of ferroptosis.

The white gene as a transgenesis marker for the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus.

The cricket Gryllus bimaculatus is an emerging model insect of the order Orthoptera that is used in a wide variety of biological research themes. This hemimetabolous species appears highly complementary to Drosophila and other well-established holometabolous models. To improve transgenesis applications in G. bimaculatus, we have designed a transformation marker gene inspired from the widespread Drosophila mini-white+. Using CRISPR/Cas9, we first generated a loss-of-function mutant allele of the Gb-white gene (Gb-w), which exhibits a white eye coloration at all developmental stages. We then demonstrate that transgenic insertions of a piggyBac vector containing a 3xP3-Gb-w+ cassette rescue eye pigmentation. As an application, we used this vector to generate G. bimaculatus lines expressing a centromeric histone H3 variant (CenH3.1) fused to EGFP and validated EGFP-CenH3.1 detection at cricket centromeres. Finally, we demonstrate that Minos-based germline transformation and site-specific plasmid insertion with the ΦC31 integrase system function in G. bimaculatus.

Global Trends and Research Collaborations on Food and Beverages Warning Labels: A Bibliometric Analysis

Background: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) represent a global health challenge, accounting for 74% of deaths worldwide. One of the recommended interventions to reduce the risk of NCDs is the implementation of warning labels (WLs) on food products to alert consumers about high levels of undesirable nutrients, such as sugar or saturated fats. We aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis of scientific literature related to WL policies in food and beverages to evaluate global trends and collaborations. Methods: A bibliometric analysis was performed using the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). Articles published between 1998 and 2023 were retrieved using the search terms “warning labels” AND “food” OR “beverage”. Bibliometric indicators, including publication counts, citations, collaborations, and thematic trends, were analyzed using the Bibliometrix package in R and VOSviewer. Results: We included 255 articles on WLs. Scientific production increased markedly from 2018 onwards, with over 30 articles published annually from 2018 to 2023. The most cited article, by Taillie et al., focused on the impact of Chile’s WL policies. The United States had the largest scientific production, followed by Brazil and Chile. Nutrients was the journal with the most publications on this topic. Conclusions: The growth in WL-related research, particularly in Latin America, reflects the increasing implementation of these policies. These results underscore key collaborations and evolving research themes, from food labeling to broader public health impacts, emphasizing the need for continued evaluation of WL effectiveness.

Intellectual landscape of scholarly work on 21st century skills: A bibliometric and science mapping analysis

A quick search on Google Scholar for the exact phrase ‘21st century skills’ resulted in three thousand plus results. More than two-third of these are dated within the last decade, indicating growing attention to the topic in the academia. The purpose of the current study is to investigate existing literature on 21st century skills by employing techniques of bibliometric and science mapping analysis to provide a helicopter view of scholarly work on 21st century skills. The search was conducted on SCOPUS database during 2021 using the keyword ‘21st century skills’ which produced 1644 results. Further refinements were made using publication year, document type and language reducing the sample size to 1281 documents. Data were analysed employing various bibliometric indicators such as number of publications, contributing authors, institutions and countries, citation, co-citation, and keywords. The results indicated an exponential growth in the number scholarly publication on the topic since 2010. Similarly, a positive trend in average citations was also observed in recent years. USA was the biggest contributor to the number of publications, followed by Indonesia, and Malaysia respectively. With respect to author collaboration, Nussbaum, M. was found the highest collaborator, followed by Griffin P., and Sharples M. while among the institutions, University of Melbourne was at the top. Analysis of the keywords revealed that, specific 21st century skills, learning tools and processes, technological advancement, and education and training are amongst the most common research themes. Findings of the current study provide insights into future research trends on the topic of 21st century skills.

Phishing and the Human Factor: Insights from a Bibliometric Analysis

Academic research on the human element in phishing attacks is essential for developing effective prevention and detection strategies and guiding policymakers to protect individuals and organizations from cyber threats. This bibliometric study offers a comprehensive overview of international research on phishing and human factors from 2006 to 2024. Analysing 308 articles from the Web of Science database, a significant increase in publications since 2015 was identified, highlighting the growing importance of this field. The study revealed influential authors such as Vishwanath and Rao, leading journals like Computers & Security, and key contributing institutions including Carnegie Mellon University. The analysis uncovered strong collaborations between institutions and countries, with the USA being the most prolific and collaborative. Emerging research themes focus on psychological factors influencing phishing susceptibility, user-centric security measures, and the integration of technological solutions with human behaviour insights. The findings highlight the need for increased collaboration between academia and non-academic organizations and the exploration of industry-specific challenges. These insights offer valuable guidance for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to advance their understanding of phishing attacks, human factors, and resource allocation in this critical aspect of digitalisation, which continues to have significant impacts across business and society at large.

Development and Prospect of Space Debris Protection Structures for Spacecraft

Background: As the pace of human conquest of space continues to accelerate, the number of spacecraft carrying out various activities in space continues to increase, so that the available orbital space continues to decrease, the amount of space debris continues to increase, and thus the probability of orbiting spacecraft being impacted by space debris is also increasing. Research on the development of protective structures in the current state is conducive to improving the protection performance of spacecraft protective structures against space debris, reducing the occurrence of spacecraft disintegration events and spacecraft collision events, and may also promote the development of many fields through the development of new technologies. Aim: Through the latest application and development of spacecraft, the advantages and disadvantages of various protection structures are summarized, and the development trend of academic and aerospace protection engineering is analyzed. Methods: Through the latest representative patent research methods for spacecraft space debris, research content, and creative structure, the principle and characteristics of the protective structure are demonstrated. Results: By comparing the application of different spacecraft space debris protection structures, the existing problems of the current protection structures are listed, and the potential development paths and research topics are put forward Conclusion: The development of aerospace, military, and other industries benefit from the development of protective structures, and the composite spacecraft space debris protection structures have broad development prospects.

Trends and frontiers of RNA methylation in cancer over the past 10years: a bibliometric and visual analysis.

To highlight the trends and frontiers of RNA methylation in cancer over the past 10years. Research publications on RNA methylation in cancer were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database. VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and Bibliometrix were used to conduct bibliometric and visualization analysis of countries, institutions, authors, journals, and keywords relevant to this field. From 2014 to 2023, research on RNA methylation in cancer has developed rapidly, with an overall increase in the number of publications and citations. China (4320 papers, 115056citations), Sun Yat Sen University (274 papers, 15698 citations), and Zhang, Wei (48 papers, 893 citations) are respectively the countries, institutions, and authors with the highest number of published papers and citations. Frontiers in Oncology (182 papers, 2524 citations) and Molecular Cancer (69 papers, 9224 citations) are the journals with the highest number of published papers and citations in this field, respectively. Co-occurrence analysis of keywords indicates that the research topics can be divided into five clusters: Cluster one: The Role of RNA Methylation in Tumor Heterogeneity, Therapeutic Response, and Prognosis; Cluster two: The Role of Noncoding RNA in RNA Methylation and Tumors; Cluster three: Potential Therapeutic Targets of RNA Methylation in Tumors; Cluster four: The role of RNA methylation in tumor progression and metastasis: A case study of hepatocellular carcinoma and gastric cancer; Cluster five: Regulation mechanisms of m6A methylation in leukemia cell differentiation and tumorigenesis. This is the first comprehensive study using bibliometrics to analyze the trends and frontiers of RNA methylation in cancer over the past 10years, pointing out promising research directions for the future and providing valuable references for researchers in this field.

Research on therapeutic clinical trials including immunotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer: a bibliometric analysis.

Breast cancer, particularly triple-negative (TNBC), is a leading malignancy with aggressive traits and high metastasis rates. Clinical trial is an important tool for optimizing therapeutic strategies in the evaluation of the safety and efficacy for TNBC. Our bibliometric study of TNBC clinical trials aims to assess therapeutic strategies, identify trends, and explore advancements in treatment. We focus on mapping knowledge development, including key research entities and topics, and analyzing research trends and emerging methods. This analysis intends to inform future research, especially in personalized and precision medicine for TNBC. We selected publications on clinical trials for the treatment of TNBC from 1997 to 2024 in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). After an initial screening, we downloaded key data including titles, publication years, authors, countries, institutional affiliations, journals, keywords, and abstracts, and saved them in BibTex format. We then conducted a bibliometric analysis using Bibliometrix in R and VOSviewer to illustrate the prospects, highlights, and trends of TNBC treatment options. Furthermore, to emphasize the hot topics in TNBC treatment strategies, we performed a bibliometric analysis of immunotherapy using the same approach. 1907 publications were included, most of which were from China, Italy, and the United States. The number of annual publications has increased dramatically since 2010. The focus of TNBC clinical trial research has shifted from understanding the biology, such as breast cancer subtyping and genotyping, to novel therapeutic approaches. The major advancement in clinical trials is the switch from late-stage palliative treatment to early preoperative neoadjuvant therapy, as more TNBC cases are discovered at an early stage. Immunotherapy is also highlighted with additional alternatives for advanced or metastasized TNBC, such as targeted inhibitors with unusual mutation rates and antibody drug conjugates (ADC). This investigation made it apparent how immunotherapy has recently made major advancements in TNBC treatment plans and how ADCs, or targeted therapies, are currently popular for TNBC. By identifying significant papers, comprehending trending topics, and collaborating across multiple disciplines, this study may accelerate research on TNBC therapy options.

Implementation of Project-Based Learning Model to Improve Students' Collaboration Skills: Literature Review

Collaboration skills are one of the important skills in 21st-century learning, especially in supporting students to work together to achieve common goals. This article examines the effectiveness of project-based learning models (Project Based Learning or PjBL) in improving students' collaboration skills through a literature review of several relevant studies. This study is a literature review that collects theoretical references related to the problems found. The data in this study were obtained through a literature study, namely a way of collecting data or sources related to research topics from scientific articles searched through Google Scholar over the last 10 years sourced from Google Scholar. The data was analyzed using a descriptive analysis method, which describes facts followed by analysis, providing sufficient understanding and explanation. The results of the study indicate that the implementation of PjBL not only improves collaboration but also encourages creativity and social skills of students. Challenges faced in the implementation of PjBL include the need for teacher training, time management, and management of group dynamics. However, the PjBL model has proven effective in creating an interactive learning process and supporting the achievement of academic and non-academic outcomes.

Study of ablation and shock generation across three orders of magnitude of laser intensity with 100 ps laser pulses

The laser ablation and subsequent shock generation in solid targets plays an important role in a variety of research topics from equation of state models for materials to inertial confinement fusion. One of the long-standing issues is the knowledge of ablation depth in the picosecond time regime. We report on a direct technique for determining the ablation depth in aluminum using x-ray diffraction data from Linac Coherent Light Source at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. This technique gives a direct measurement of the shock wave propagation in the bulk target, enabling an ability to discern early timescale physics from late timescale effects not available in postmortem analysis. We find that the ablation depths only vary by 0.2 μm across three orders of magnitude of laser intensity, while the pressure increased by a factor of 10 following a square root dependence on laser pulse energy. We further observe that the ablation depth in this intensity range (1011–1013 W/cm2 in intensity, corresponding to 0.8–80 J/cm2 in fluence) cannot be modeled by a universal scaling law, given the complexity of the mechanisms governing laser ablation in this intensity regime.

Design and Justice: A Scoping Review in Engineering Design

Abstract Our society faces complex social justice challenges, often exacerbated by existing engineered products and technologies. To avoid unintentionally contributing to social justice, engineering designers play a critical role in creating and studying products and technologies that can aim to address challenges of social injustice. There is a growing priority in the engineering design research community to incorporate justice into design and to do so meaningfully and intentionally. Therefore, there is a need to more deeply understand how scholars have integrated concepts of justice into design and to bring to light areas of future research. In this paper, we conduct a scoping review of design and justice in twelve scholarly venues relevant to the engineering design community. A scoping review allowed for a broad range of topics to be covered to identify major research themes and gaps, and to explore boundaries of the nascent study of design and justice. After searching the relevant venues, we conducted a thematic analysis to capture the major themes in the dataset of papers relating to justice and design. Along with relevant terminology used, we found that scholars connected justice to design in ways that we categorized into three main areas of design: Designers, Design Outcomes, and Design Process. Our analysis highlighted areas of future research in studying justice as relevant to Designers, Outcomes, and Processes, as well as identifying an overall call to redefine the field of design in the pursuit of justice.