1,720,999 research outputs found

    Biodiversity of fungi as bioresources to face diversity of soil threats

    No full text
    Degradation threats affect soils and ecosystems, providing fundamental services for humans and living organisms. Contamination represents a major soil threat and can impair several soil functions, such as biomass production, storage, filtration and transformation of nutrients and water, and biodiversity pool (1). Despite in a smaller measure than in the past, agriculture is one of the major drivers of soil contamination, contributing with pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers added to improve crop yield. More than 3000 different types of pesticides have been used in the European agroecosystems in the past 50 years and less than 0.1% of applied pesticide to crops are estimated to reach target pests while the rest enters the environment (1). Even if contamination can reduce soil biodiversity, in microbial communities tolerant microorganisms can develop (1). Several studies have demonstrated the efficacy of indigenous fungi as a promising tool for soil bioremediation and as bioresources to reverse contamination processes in mid-term (2). The application of fungi as bioresources can also help to prevent or at least reduce the application of agrochemicals, improving at the same time quality and quantity of the yields in the contest of sustainable agricultural practices. Indeed, several soil fungi can act as plant growth promoters, both improving nutrition and stimulating protection against pests (3). Considering the pivotal role of developing nature-based solutions in coping with future challenges (e.g. world population increase, rock phosphate exhaustion), in the last years the Fungal Biodiversity Laboratory of Sapienza University of Rome focused its research mainly on selecting suitable fungal strains as bioresources for agriculture and bioremediation. The biological characterization of historically contaminated sites by DDT and HCH, respectively in Poland and in the Czech Republic, allowed to individuate indigenous fungi suitable for integrated, sustainable and cost-effective solutions for future applications in bioremediation of persistent chlorinated compounds. While, investigations on the ability of saprotrophic fungi to solubilize inorganic phosphates allowed to screen and individuate, among several strains preserved in the culture collection of Fungal Biodiversity Laboratory, a pool of strains applicable to improve phosphorus plant nutrition (4). As appear clear from these experiences, culture collections play a pivotal role in finding and screening microorganisms, which possess interesting traits as bioresources. In fact, the conservation of organisms isolated from specific environments in fungal collections, even after years, can provide useful tools and bioresources to develop new cost-effective and environmentally friendly biotechnologies and improve new feasible practices in a context of sustainable bioeconomy. References 1. Stolte, J., Tesfai, M., Øygarden, L., Kværnø, S., Keizer, J., Verheijen, F., Panagos,P., Ballabio, C. & Hessel, R., 2015. Soil threats in Europe. 2. Ceci, A., Pinzari, F., Russo, F., Persiani, A. M. & Gadd, G. M., 2019. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 103, 53–68. 3. Owen, D., Williams, A. P., Griffith, G. W. & Withers, P. J. A., 2015. Appl. Soil Ecol. 86, 41–54. 4. Ceci, A., Pinzari, F., Russo, F., Maggi, O. & Persiani, A. M., 2018. Ambio. 47, 30–40

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

    Full text link
    The 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 link
    We 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 link
    We 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

    Author Index

    No full text
    Nao informado

    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

    No full text
    We 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 Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902

    No full text
    In Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
    corecore