Nitrate leaching is the process whereby the nitrate (NO3−) anion moves downwards in the soil profile with soil water. Nitrate leaching is commonly associated with chemical nitrogen (N) fertilizers ...used in agriculture. Nitrate leaching from different sources and contamination of surface and groundwater is a global phenomenon that has prompted social and political pressure to reduce nitrate leaching and contamination of water bodies. This bibliometric study analyzed global trends in nitrate leaching research. The results showed a rising interest in the last decades in this topic; given the growth tendency over the last years, it was envisaged that the importance on nitrate leaching research will continue increasing in the future. Knowledge on nitrate leaching was mostly disseminated through scientific publications (90% of total documents recovered), both as journal articles and reviews, classified in the Scopus database in the Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Sciences areas. Most publications dealt with soil nitrogen losses from agroecosystems and farmlands and the associated impact on the environment; they were published in journals with a focus on the influence of anthropogenic and soil-crop-animal systems in the environment, and on how such changes in the environment impact agroecosystems. Most documents published on nitrate leaching were indisputably from the United States, followed by China, the United Kingdom and Germany. An analysis of the main keywords showed an overall dominance of the soil nitrogen cycle, fertilizer use in agriculture and water quality aspects. The evolution of main crop species involved in nitrate leaching research showed a rising relevance of research conducted with maize, wheat and grasses from 1990 onwards. The most productive institutions in terms of number of documents dealing with nitrate leaching research, h-index and total citations, were located in the United States, China and the Netherlands. The United States Department of Agriculture stood out, followed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Wageningen University and Research. There were clusters of institutions with intercontinental interaction, on nitrate leaching research, between institutions from Europe, Asia and South and North America. Overall, this study has highlighted, from a bibliometric perspective, the rising concern on nitrate leaching. Progress in this field has been made particularly on the impact of the soil-plant-animal system on the environment and agroecosystems, and on fundamental and applied aspects of plant-soil interactions with an emphasis in cropping systems.
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•A rising interest in last decades in nitrate leaching research worldwide•Most research dealt with nitrate leaching from agroecosystems and farmlands•Dominance of soil nitrogen cycle, fertilizer use and water quality research topics•Most research on nitrate leaching conducted in the United States and China•Increasing relevance of research with maize, wheat and grasses from 1990
Grain cereals such as wheat, barley, rice, and maize are the nutritional basis of humans and animals worldwide. Thus, these crop plants are essential in terms of global food security. We conducted a ...bibliometric assessment of scientific documents and patents related to wheat and barley through the Scopus database. The number of documents published per year, their affiliation and corresponding scientific areas, the publishing journals, document types and languages were metricized. The main keywords included in research publications concerning these crops were also analysed globally and clustered in thematic groups. In the case of keywords related to agronomy or genetics and molecular biology, we considered documents dated up to 1999, and from 2000 to 2018, separately. Comparison of the results obtained for wheat and barley revealed some remarkable different trends, for which the underlying reasons are further discussed.
Agriculture is the basis for food production on a global scale. Sustainable agriculture tries to improve or maintain the quality of food without compromising the environment. As sessile organisms, ...plants cannot avoid adverse environmental conditions and contact with other living organisms. The damage caused to plants by other living organisms such as parasites and pathogens (virus, bacteria, fungi, nematodes or insects) brings about what is known as biotic stress. Plants are constantly exposed to biotic stress, which causes changes in plant metabolism involving physiological damages that lead to a reduction of their productivity. To fight biotic stress, plants have developed sophisticated defense mechanisms. Thus, understanding plant defense mechanisms might prevent important crop and economic losses. In this article, a bibliometric analysis of biotic stress is carried out. Different aspects of the publications are analyzed, such as publication type, research field, journal type, countries and their institutions, as well as the keyword occurrence frequency, and finally special attention is paid to the plant studied by the leading countries and institutions. As expected, journals selected by authors to publish their relevant findings are plant-specific journals. However, it should be noted that the fourth position, in terms of the number of publications per journal, is occupied by BMC Genomics journal. Such a journal considers mainly articles on genomics, which indicates the involvement of genetic factors in the control of biotic stress. Analysis of the keywords used in publications about biotic stress shows the great interest in the biotic–abiotic stress interaction, in the gene expression regulation in plants as well as phytohormones in the current research. In short, the great effort made by the scientific community in the biotic and abiotic stresses field with the aim to understand, regulate and control plant damages caused by biotic stress agents will help in the development of sustainable agriculture.
Worldwide research trends on Neanderthals Guil‐Guerrero, José Luis; Manzano‐Agugliaro, Francisco
Journal of quaternary science,
February 2023, 2023-02-00, 20230201, Letnik:
38, Številka:
2
Journal Article
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Research on Neanderthals is a topic of growing interest and it may even be considered that this subject will get more attention in the future. The demise and diets of the various Neanderthal ...populations are controversial issues that promote heated debates. In this work, a bibliometric study of all the publications contained in the Scopus database until 2021 has been conducted, analysing more than 3800 of them. The main authors, institutions and countries researching this subject have been identified, and their future development. Furthermore, the links between the authors, the countries and the topics researched have been analysed through communities detection. The most frequent keyword on this topic is ‘fossil’. Three clearly focused research clusters in this area have been detected: those focused on molecular evolution, those focused on Neanderthal biology, and those focused on palaeoanthropology. Furthermore, it has been noted that the most central countries to the networks of collaboration are the United States, Spain, France and Germany. Research on Neanderthals is in its infancy and the appearance of new clusters is expected, such as those related to the diet and the demise of Neanderthals, considering the growing number of works recently developed on these topics.
The bicycle has gone from being an old-fashioned recreational product to a less polluting means of transport and a compact, ultra-light personal mobility tool. This is how electrical bicycles will be ...used as the pillar that could support individual public transport in large cities worldwide. The objective of this manuscript is to detect how worldwide research on the electric bicycle is being developed, and, especially, around which scientific domains is it clustered, to finally identify the main trends in the field. This study has been carried out based on the Scopus database, where all the publications related to the topic of the electric bicycle have been analyzed up to the year 2017. ¨Therefore, research on the global research trends of this topic was conducted. Its evolution over time shows that since 2008 the growth of publications is much higher than in the previous period. The main countries are China and the USA, and it can be inferred that there are two major trend countries with high environmental awareness, which also have a large population and that the electric bicycle is a suitable and sustainable form of transport. Among the main scientific fields, engineering leads in research. The keyword analysis shows that the central theme is electric, then battery and motor stand out. A community detection was applied to detect the six main clusters of this research, largely dedicated to the following topics: Transportation–Environment, Electrical Engineering, Safety, Batteries, Sporting Goods–Urban Planning, and Mechanical Engineering. This manuscript shows that global research trends about the electric bicycle are increasing, and that it should be considered a means of sustainable urban transport and will therefore contribute to energy saving and sustainable energy.
The massive utilisation in animal feeding of soy or fishmeal poses severe environmental issues. The insects could be a sustainable protein source. This article documents 150 species of insects that ...are currently commercially available in the EPPO (European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization) region and in North America. Furthermore, the various data regarding body composition are analysed. Amino acids and fatty acids of several insect species are compared with the composition of soy and fishmeal as principal protein sources for animal feeding. As a protein source, insects, depending on the species, have an adequate profile of amino acids. The more frequent limiting amino acids are histidine, lysine, and tryptophan, which could be incorporated into the diet. In conclusion, insects appear to be a sustainable source of protein with an appealing quantity and quality and acceptable nutritive properties. In conclusion, the use of insects as a sustainable protein rich feed ingredient in diets is technically feasible, and opens new perspectives in animal feeding.
•The insects could be a renewable and sustainable protein source.•We review the properties of insect meal for animal feed.•Insects as feed ingredient can contribute to animal health.•Insects have great quantity and quality of protein with good nutritive properties.•This opens new perspectives of insect meal as a renewable source of protein.
Worldwide research trends on bronchiolitis in pediatrics Nievas‐Soriano, Bruno José; Martín‐Latorre, María del Mar; Martín‐González, Manuel ...
Pediatric pulmonology,
August 2023, 2023-Aug, 2023-08-00, 20230801, Letnik:
58, Številka:
8
Journal Article
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Background
The COVID‐19 pandemic has led to a significant increase in cases of bronchiolitis among children. As a result, there has been a corresponding increase in the number of publications on this ...topic. It is essential to examine the main areas of focus within the scientific literature to understand the current trends in research on pediatric bronchiolitis. This research aims to analyze the types of scientific advances related to pediatric bronchiolitis, the research trends being pursued, and the countries and research institutions leading these efforts. By understanding these aspects of bronchiolitis research, we can better understand the current state of knowledge and identify areas where further research is needed.
Methods
To conduct a bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature on pediatric bronchiolitis, all relevant publications were retrieved from the Scopus database. The Scopus API and the SW VosViewer software with optimized modularity functions were used. This analysis was intended to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of research on this topic, including the types of scientific advances being developed, the research trends being pursued, and the countries and research institutions leading these efforts.
Results
A total of 3810 publications were reviewed. We observed an increasing number of publications, particularly in recent years. Of these, 73.7% were articles, 95% were written in English, and 29.4% were from the United States. The main keywords used in these publications included: human, bronchiolitis, child, preschool, preschool child, major clinical study, controlled study, pneumonia, asthma, adolescent, hospitalization, infant, and newborn. These keywords were grouped into six clusters: outpatient management, long‐term consequences, etiology, intensive care management, diagnostic methods, and the main cluster, which focused on hospital treatment and clinical studies.
Conclusions
The bibliometric analysis of bronchiolitis research in pediatrics reveals that there has been a significant increase in the number of publications on this topic, particularly in recent years. Most of these publications are articles written in English and published in the United States. The main keywords used in these studies relate to various aspects of bronchiolitis, including diagnosis, treatment, and long‐term consequences. The results of this analysis suggest that bronchiolitis is a topic of significant interest and concern for researchers and practitioners in the field of pediatrics and that further research is needed to improve our understanding and management of this condition.
The residential sector consumes a significant amount of energy worldwide. Therefore, it is important to study, analyse and implement bioclimatic architectural systems that contribute to the reduction ...of energy consumption while considering the possible construction solutions offered at both passive and active levels. The present study conducted a comprehensive analysis that was stratified into three large blocks. The first block examined the concept of bioclimatic architecture. The second examined the bioclimatic architecture construction strategies as a function of each climate zone with the objective of achieving the greatest climate comfort level within a specific building. Fourteen climate zones were established and recommended according to the possible strategies that would facilitate reductions in energy consumption. The third block analysed the principal scientific research trends in this field and highlighted the use of vernacular architecture strategies, experimentation with bioclimatic architecture construction, application of innovative bioclimatic architecture strategies, promotion of bioclimatic architecture, use of bioclimatic architecture in urban planning, inclusion of bioclimatic lessons in study plans and development of energy saving technologies to support bioclimatic architecture. The extensive review described in this paper allowed us to conclude that certain bioclimatic architecture strategies that have been adopted in specific countries could be exported to other areas with similar climates because they were proven to be good functional design strategies that resulted in large energy saving measures (each in its corresponding climate) related to solar protection, humidification or temperature increases.
The negative consequences of toxic emissions from internal combustion engines, energy security, climate change, and energy costs have led to a growing demand for clean power sources in the automotive ...industry. The development of eco-friendly vehicle technologies, such as electric and hydrogen vehicles, has increased. This article investigates whether hydrogen vehicles will replace electric vehicles in the future. The results showed that fuel-cell cars are unlikely to compete with electric cars. This is due to the advancements in electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, which are becoming more cost-effective and efficient. Additionally, the technical progress in battery electric vehicles (BEVs) is expected to reduce the market share of fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) in passenger vehicles. However, significant investments have been made in hydrogen cars. Many ongoing investments seem to follow the sunk cost fallacy, where decision-makers continue to invest in an unprofitable project due to their already invested resources. Furthermore, even with megawatt charging, fuel-cell trucks cost more than battery-powered electric trucks. The use cases for fuel-cell electric trucks are also much more limited, as their running expenses are higher compared to electric cars. Hydrogen vehicles may be beneficial for heavy transport in remote areas. However, it remains to be seen if niche markets are large enough to support fuel-cell electric truck commercialization and economies of scale. In summary, we believe that hydrogen vehicles will not replace electric cars and trucks, at least before 2050.
Europe has a large tradition of Small Hydropower stations (SHP); these proliferate wherever there was an adequate supply of moving water and a need for electricity. As electricity demand grew many of ...these plants were abandoned. Today with the rising price of energy, SHP can be a solution to help rural electrification, furthermore SHPs do not consume the water that drives the turbines. The advantage of this technology is extremely robust and systems can last for 50 years or more with little maintenance. This paper summarizes an overview of SHP Hydropower in Europe. Hydropower on a small scale, or micro-hydro, is one of the most cost effective energy technologies to be considered for rural electrification in less developed countries. Europe is a market leader of SHP technology. Optimal turbine designs are available and new technical developments offer automated operation of SHP. The present role of SHP in Europe in the development of renewable energy sources is discussed through this paper. The main producers of SHP electricity in Europe are Italy, France, Spain, Germany and Sweden. On the other hand, 10 European countries are ranked based on the total numbers of SHPs: Germany (7,512), Italy (2,427), France (1,935), Sweden (1,901), Spain (1,047), Poland (722), Romania (274), Portugal (155) and UK (120). The research shows that there is a considerable scope for development and optimization of this technology. This opens new perspectives because it has a huge, as yet untapped potential in most areas of Europe and can make a significant contribution to future energy needs.