Tracking Latent Domain Knowledge - Mapping Scientific Frontiers: The Quest for Knowledge Visualization - page 246

Fig. 7.13 Schvaneveldtl's “exit” landmark in the landscape of the thematic visualization

While no definitive link between prion disease in cattle and vCJD in humans
has been proven, the conditions are so similar most scientists are convinced that
infection by a BSE prion leads to vCJD in humans. The emergence of vCJD came
after the biggest ever epidemic of BSE in cattle. The fact that the epidemic was in
the UK and most vCJD victims lived in Britain added to evidence of a link. The
British government assured the public that the beef is safe, but in 1996 it announced
there is possibly a link between BSE and CJD. A brief timeline of relevant events is
shown in Table 7.6 .
The British government assured the public that the beef is safe, but in 1996 it
announced there is possibly a link between BSE and vCJD. The central question in
this case study is what scientific literature tells us about the possible link between
BSE and vCJD.
First, we generated a mainstream-driven thematic landscape of the topic of BSE
and CJD by searching the Web of Science with the term “BSE or CJD” (See
Fig. 7.14 ). The strongest specialty Prion Protein is colored in red; the BSE specialty
is in green; and the CJD specialty is in blue. GSS is in purple next to the prion
protein specialty. In particular, the very light color of the vCJD specialty indicates
that this is an area where other specialties overlap.