1,720,982 research outputs found
Evaluation of Pb and Hg levels in wild migratory water-birds nesting in different areas of Po Delta
No full textEvaluation of Pb and Hg levels in wild migratory water-birds nesting in different areas of Po Delta.
Alessandro Guerrini1, Giorgio Fedrizzi2, Alessandro Andreotti3, Luisa Iannone1, Paola Roncada1
1 Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna – Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche Veterinarie
2 Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna, Reparto Chimico degli alimenti – Bologna
3 ISPRA - Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale, Via Ca' Fornacetta 9, 40064 Ozzano Emilia, Italy
The use of fossil fuels as main energy resource led to metal emissions that spread all over the environment and contaminate ecosystems and food. This has resulted in even serious toxic effects, both in humans and animals. A characteristic feature of some metals is their pronounced biological accumulation and biomagnification in food chains. For these reasons, their monitoring in the environment should be constant over time. This study shows data on Pb and Hg levels in tissues of various species of wild migratory water-birds nesting in different areas of Po Delta. The sampling was carried out from May to July 2016. Analyses were performed according to the internal test method of the IZSLER by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP/MS). The two metals were found in most of the analyzed samples. The maximum levels of Pb were found in the natal down of nestlings (3.5515 mg/kg), and in feathers, femur and humerus of adult birds (5.2363, 15.469 and 12.9760 mg/kg, respectively). In adults the highest concentrations of Hg were found in feathers and liver (6.0144 and 6.1939 mg/kg, respectively) while in nestlings the highest level was found in down (4.9411 mg/kg). The differences between the average concentrations detected in adults and those measured in nestlings can be explained by chronic exposure to metals. This exposure is usually highest at the top of food chains in predatory species. Thus, the birds of prey may be suited for monitoring purposes, but their sampling may be difficult due to their low population densities and high mobility. Moreover, in the present study only birds dead of natural causes were used. In the future, the analysis of a higher number of samples will provide a more complete picture.
Acknowledgments
Authors greatly acknowledge Fabrizio Borghesi, Lorenzo Serra, Stefano Volponi and Alberto Altafini for their collaboration
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Full text link“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
Full text linkWe 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
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe 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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
- …
