1,720,970 research outputs found
New secondary materials from recycled agricultural lastic films.
Get PDFThe extensive and expanding use of plastic material in the Italian agriculture for several diverse application results in increased accumulation of plastic waste in rural areas. The current practices adopted by Farmers consist, unfortunately, of a mismanagement of the plastic material that is abandoned or buried in open fields or burnt in a not controlled way, with heavy environmental consequences and a loss of material and energy.
In the present paper, an analysis of the most technical efficient and economically feasible solutions for the management of agricultural plastic waste is given. These solutions represent main results of the European Project “Labelagriwaste” and they enable the analysis and planning of agricultural plastic waste fluxes, together with the possibility to investigate different development scenarios and to consider new planning strategies for the management of agricultural plastic waste
Using the glass fibres in recycling agricultural plastic waste.
No full textThe wide-spread presence of plastic material in municipal and agricultural waste has significantly raised the ecology concern in Europe leading to laws and regulations aimed at controlling and reducing waste production, encouraging recycling and reuse as well. Recycling of plastic waste is not new but is a slowly developing process because using recycled materials is limited due to worse properties of recycled plastics if compared to virgin ones. The mechanical recycling of polymers determines a loss of some of their original chemical, physical and mechanical properties due to the role played by some of the degradation factors they were subjected to during their working life. One of the possibilities to improve the properties of plastic products is using diverse fillers like glass or carbon fibres. In this paper, the properties of plastic profiles obtained through mechanical recycling of agricultural plastic material mixed with glass fibres (70% LDPE + 30% glass fibres) were analyzed. The results of the tensile, bending and compression tests here reported show that the mixture of recycled plastic from agricultural application with a suitable different material could be considered as an interesting option for the improvement of the mechanical characteristics of these new regenerated products, paving the way to an increase in the sustainability of the agricultural applications
Mechanical and spectro-radiometrical characteristics of plastic film from agricultural recycled granule.
No full textIntensive use of plastic in horticulture around Europe is causing the creation of the large amount of plastic waste that need to be dealt with. One possible way to control the amount this waste is its recycling. In this paper the results of a survey investigating the possibilities to producing a new regenerated film through mechanical recycling, from post-consume agricultural plastic films are analyzed. Four recycled films, different in composition, have been extruded and subsequently characterized by mechanical tests and spectro-radiometric analysis. Tensile tests were done in order to define the maximum strength and percentage elongation at break of these new materials while spectro-radiometric analysis allowed the definition of the optical properties, specifically with regard to the transmittance of radiation in the PAR and long IR radiation. The results allow the definition of the main engineering properties of these materials, and the possibilities for further investigation in order to have new products as an economic efficient and environmentally friendly alternative
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
The valorization of vernacular farm buildings for an innovative rural tourism.
No full textThe recent growing research of new ways for widening sustainable tourism opportunities leaded, in many European countries, to the valorisation of some farmyards, together with the working activities usually conducted there. Rural tourism offers new ways for enjoying the agricultural land in close contact with naturally untouched landscapes, often coupled with the unique opportunity to personally look at the preparation of traditional genuine food products, with the possibility to taste and buy them. In this way, rural tourism enables to appreciate some traditional aspects that the new industrialized modern society may have forgotten.
For a sound valorization of rural tourism, a suitable restoration and functional requalification of the farm building plays a central role. With the aim to plan a common approach about new innovative ways for valorising rural tourism, mainly in mountain areas, in the present paper a first analysis focused on the possibilities of exploiting agricultural activities and restoring vernacular farm buildings for rural tourism was conducted, with reference to some areas located into different countries of the Adriatic-Ionian Macro-region. Some vernacular farm buildings, synthesizing in their architectural expression the culture, traditions and ways of life of different generations of rural population, were identified and analyzed in their typology, with the aim to detect and compare their architectural aspects.
The results of this survey enable the drafting of an innovative common protocol for planning suitable technical and economical interventions aimed to the revitalization of mountain rural areas, through the organization of a network focused on the valorization of common agricultural activities and production of local traditional foods, together with the exploitation of rural tourism activities, geared by the restoration of vernacular farm buildings according with specific common specs, able to recover them in such a way to balance at the same time their traditional vocation and the environmental sustainability of the landscape they are incorporated into
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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