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This paper studies the relationship between the position of individual scientists within co-authorship networks and their scientific performance. Using co-authorship data from African scientists in the Health and Medical Sciences within a timespan of 15 years (2000–2015), we characterize the collaboration networks and calculate centrality measures for each scientist to explore how scientific production and impact can be associated with their position within the network. Our findings reveal that authors who occupy a better position within their network and are deemed to actively collaborate with others also have a higher research impact. In this regard, South African scientists do not differ... 

This paper examines the effect of experiencing a research collaboration between African scientists and their international partners on the African scientists' research impact, measured by scores based on the number of citations and journal impact factor. Using a difference-in-difference regression analysis on publication data of African scientists, the results show that international research collaboration in a given year has a positive and significant effect on research impact, which lasts in the subsequent years. The presence of such permanent effect suggests a sort of 'permanent learning by international collaboration'. The positive effect of international collaboration on research... 

Many research and development projects are being performed worldwide to develop new products and applications for computer-assisted and medical robotic systems. In this paper, an overview of selected state-of-the-art applications of robotic technology in medicine is presented. Four key areas of image-guided surgery, virtual reality in medicine, surgical robots, and robotic rehabilitation systems, are studied. As well, current challenges in research and development are discussed. Copyright  

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to look at the relationship between research in Iranian medical universities, together with their Web Impact Factor (WIF). Design/methodology/approach - The Altavista search engine was chosen because of its advanced search facilities for counting links and having a wider scope of academic web sites than other search engines. It was searched for determining the number of pages, in-links and self-links of 42 web sites of Iranian medical universities. The Web Impact Factor (WIF) was calculated by two formulas and the relationship between the two grades of universities (WIF and ISI) was calculated by using the Spearman's correlation coefficient. Findings -... 

Researchers are faced with huge challenges when undertaking BME research projects in developing countries. Various administrative, technical, economic and even cultural barriers have to be overcome whereas the quality and quantity of the output has to be comparable with the developed world in order to make results publishable. This paper uses a real project context to highlight the major problems and the necessity of a holistic approach which would take into consideration all stakeholders interests. It is only by tackling problems such as relationship between academia-industry and administration efficiency at their root that significant progress can be achieved  

An up-to-date progress of the international laser research and development is given in this article. The number of scientific publications and filed patents are considered as a figure of merit and based on these numbers the growth pace and important aspects are investigated. We have used the Science Finder Scholar search engine, which indexes more than 4000 journals, in different languages, and represents most significant published materials in laser science and engineering. The growth of the laser and related fields are described in terms of resulting scientific publications for the period of 1990-2003. The share of top nations in scientific publications, and in particular laser... 

Corporate entrepreneurship (CE) has been drawing mounting interest in recent decades. Entrepreneurial behavior holds paramount importance in organizational research, since entrepreneurship is essential for modern organizations success. Each scholarly has partly investigated the concept. This paper seeks to present the result of a systematic review of the prominent studies about CE while elaborating on fundamental concepts. To do so, we have conducted statistical analyses of significant 336 studies while categorizing CE literature on a thematic basis. The analyses suggest that CE literature may fall in three main categories, i.e., antecedent, process, and consequence. The paper proceeds to... 

Researchers are faced with huge challenges when undertaking BME research projects in developing countries. Various administrative, technical, economic and even cultural barriers have to be overcome whereas the quality and quantity of the output has to be comparable with the developed world in order to make results publishable. This paper uses a real project context to highlight the major problems and the necessity of a holistic approach which would take into consideration all stakeholders interests. It is only by tackling problems such as relationship between academia-industry and administration efficiency at their root that significant progress can be achieved  

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated dynamic model, based on empirical findings, which can be used in research centers for evaluating the performance of research projects by using multiple attribute utility theory. Design/methodology/approach-In developing the model, the measures by which the performance of research projects could be evaluated are identified by Delphi method and group decision making. These measures are categorized into three general success factors of time, cost and quality. Then a multi-attribute utility function is applied to integrate these dimensions to determine the utility resulting from the performance of the project. Findings-Through... 

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to propose a framework for developing business intelligence systems (BIS). Design/methodology/approach: Following a qualitative research method, a comprehensive framework at organizational and individual level, as well as team level, was developed. Findings: The findings revealed that team-level influential factors play a more significant role in BIS development success. The results also indicate that BIS development relies on suppliers, customers and their relationships, whereas the supplier side has a more significant impact on determining successful development. Drawing on these findings, embedded knowledge, knowledge management process capability... 

This paper deals with the simulation-based design optimization and experimental validation of the characteristics of an in-core silver Self-Powered Neutron Detector (SPND). Optimized dimensions of the SPND are determined by combining Monte Carlo simulations and analytical methods. As a first step, the Monte Carlo transport code MCNPX is used to follow the trajectory and fate of the neutrons emitted from an external source. This simulation is able to seamlessly integrate various phenomena, including neutron slowing-down and shielding effects. Then, the expected number of beta particles and their energy spectrum following a neutron capture reaction in the silver emitter are fetched from the... 

Sensor networks have recently emerged as a premier research topic. Sensor networks pose a number of new conceptual and optimization problems. Some, such as location, deployment, and tracking, are fundamental issues, in that many applications rely on them for needed information. While designing the sensor networks according to performed computation, the limited number of sensors to cover an area will be considered, so the proper placing of this limited number of sensors will cause costs to reduce regarding to coverage and development of the network in the next stage. In this paper we will present a genetic algorithm to solve the designing issue of the sensor network. The most important... 

Applying the available neutron flux for medical and industrial purposes is the most important application of research reactors. The neutron radiography system is used for non-destructive testing (NDT) of materials so that it is one of the main applications of nuclear research reactors. One of these research reactors is the 5 MW pool-type light water research reactor of Tehran (TRR). This work aims to investigate on materials and location of the beam tube (BT) of the TRR radiography system to improve the index parameters of BT. Our results showed that a through-type BT with 20 cm thick carbon neutron filter, 1.2 cm and 9.4 cm of the diameter of inlet (D1) and output (D2) BT, respectively... 

The importance of scientific collaborations is mainly because of the professional learning obtained from the formation of research connections. Each researcher brings a feature and advantage to the research team, such as mastering a particular topic and its subdivisions or improving team thinking. The importance of collaboration is doubled when researchers collaborate at the international level, resulting in access to up-to-date resources and equipment, consequently increasing the quantity, quality, and impact of research activities. The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of international collaboration of faculty members on the centrality of the university network... 

A PC-based digital lock-in amplifier was implemented completely in software (Labview) for photoplethysmograph (PPG) measurement. Experiments carried out to evaluate the performance of the amplifier show that the system can recover the signals up to 40 dB below the interference (ambient light). This system can be customized later to measure the trans-abdominal PPG signal of pregnant women for fetal heart rate detection. ©2007 IEEE  

Pharmaceutical drug Research and Development (R&D) outsourcing to contract research organizations (CROs) has experienced a significant growth in recent decades and the trend is expected to continue. A key question for CROs and firms in similar environments is which projects should be included in the firm's portfolio of projects. As a distinctive contribution to the literature this paper develops and evaluates a business support tool to help a CRO decide on clinical R&D project opportunities and revise its portfolio of R&D projects given the existing constraints, and financial and resource capabilities. A new mathematical programming model in the form of a capital budgeting problem is...