Structure,trend and prospect of operational research: a scientific analysis for publications from 1952 to 2020 included in Web of Science database

As an important research direction, operational research (OR) has always attracted scholars worldwide. We study the structure, trend and prospect in the OR field by conducting a bibliometric analysis of publications in the period of 1952–2020, which are included in the Web of Science (WoS) database. Using three effective bibliometric tools, namely, VOS viewer, CiteSpace, and Bibliometrix, a total of 5,353 publications were retrieved to show clear visual results using a series of scientific analyses. First, a performance analysis revealed the basic characteristics of publications considering the type distribution, annual trend, quantity and quality. Then, a cooperation analysis presented the influential countries/regions and showed the relationships among countries/regions, institutions and authors during different periods based on bibliometric indicators and co-authorship networks. Moreover, a keyword analysis was conducted to investigate the hot topics and development of the OR field, using co-occurrence analysis, timeline view analysis and evolution analysis. Finally, we discussed the implications and limitations, and summarized the main findings. This study hopes to provide important and valuable references for future research on the OR field.

     

The effects of media properties on the horseradish peroxidase-catalyzed fluorogenic reaction

The effects of media properties including buffers, acidity, solvents and surfactant on horseradish peroxidase-catalyzed fluorogenic reaction were investigated. The results showed that the so-called non-fluorescent hydrogen donors were in fact fluorescent. There existed an acid—base equilibrium in the fluorescent dimer product. For p -hydroxyphenylpropionic acid, a pK_a value of 8.0 for the product was obtained from its titration curve. The product fluorescence increased with higher pH, however, a longer time was needed to reach the reaction equilibrium due to the pH mismatch problem. Cationic micelles cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and cetyltrimethylammonium chloride could reduce the pH mismatch and offered a way to further increase the determination sensitivity. Finally, a micelle-enhanced flow-injection analysis of horseradish peroxidase is suggested.     

Finite-element analysis of planar dielectric waveguide discontinuities

The finite element method is combined with the mode-matching method and the multi-mode network method to analyze the scattering and radiation characteristics of a class of planar dielectric waveguide discontinuities. Unlike the conventional method to treat the radiation as a source-field problem, in the present approach, the dispersion characteristics of dielectric guided-wave structures are calculated first, and then the radiation problem is transferred to the propagation problem of a series of surface-waves and space waves from the viewpoint of scattering, thus the analysis is tremendously simplified.