1,720,997 research outputs found
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
Abusi all’infanzia: una rassegna critica della letteratura
No full textThe aim of our study was to define the frequency of seizures in a population of outpatients attending a cognitive function clinic in Italy and to identify risk factors for seizures in patients with Alzheimer's disease.In this retrospective study, we analyzed our clinical records to gather information on patients' demographic, metabolic, cardiovascular and cognitive features. We sought to determine the significance of abnormal neuroimaging findings and the use of potentially epileptogenic drugs on the onset of seizures. From the records of 583 patients referred to the clinic for cognitive disturbances, we identified 145 patients with Alzheimer's disease.Of these 145 patients, 14 (9.7\%) had a history of complex partial or generalised seizures, or both. Of the risk factors identified, onset of seizures was associated with male gender and none of the patients with seizures had diabetes. The risk of seizure onset was higher in Alzheimer's disease patients with hyperlipaemia and severe dementia. No other risk factors were identified, although hypertensive patients seemed to be protected.Seizures in Alzheimer's disease are frequent and often under-recognized. In elderly patients, especially those with Alzheimer's disease, correct diagnosis and treatment are important to prevent disease from worsening and disability from increasing. Patients with dementia should routinely undergo history-taking designed to elicit a history of seizures and define patients at high risk
Mediterranean Heritage in Transit - (Mis)representations via English
No full textIt is mainly within and around Mediterranean itineraries that the European Union seeks its in/tangible cultural heritage. It aims to develop reflective societies, where knowledge can be created in connection with peoples’ heritage, in keeping with its strategic research agenda. In the same years as the McDonaldization/Starbuckization of society (Ritzer 1993; 2008), aspects of Mediterranean cultures have both survived and flourished beyond their natural boundaries, frequently acquiring new connotations/meanings through the medium of communication in English. Through diverse awareness-raising initiatives, it encourages peoples to repossess and safeguard their own unique, ‘indigenous’ cultures. The focus is on “the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces [...] – that communities recognize as part of their cultural heritage” .
In this arena of contemporary cultural heritage, this volume brings together many different strands of analysis, helping to shed light on the complex and multifaceted phenomena that constitute the vibrant socio-semiotic landscape of the Mediterranean. The latter, in fact, can be seen both as the possible unifying referent of diverse physical and anthropic environments, and as a metonymic embodiment of contemporary social and lingua-cultural paradigm shifts. Such issues have been investigated across a wide range of (transdisciplinary) theoretical analytical frameworks, and also from an educational perspective. Mediterranean Heritage in transit views this vibrant scenario from a dynamic cross-cultural perspective, and investigates the domains of identities and stereotypes, advertising, films, myths and festivals, landscapes, fluid knowledge and new technologies, culture-bound terms, migrating words and food.The book also includes worksheets for each chapter with proposed activities for university students who may be engaged in analyzing webpages, reading and producing tourist brochures, studying subtitling techniques in TV series and comparing multi-language subtitles and dubbing, or replicating experiments, such as implementing a sociolinguistic survey after the design of specific research questions. All these activities are designed to put best practices into effect by enhancing the reading and learning experience and encouraging self-study and self-evaluation in keeping with the theoretical strands proposed in the chapters, thus incorporating research into classroom procedures. The assumption is that a sound method can be successfully reproduced in other contexts: teachers and researchers will be able to transfer their experiences to other contexts, for example by adopting the chapters’ analytical frameworks, methods and contents in other social, linguistic and cultural contexts.
The volume’s principle value, then, can be found in its double design: the chapters can and should be read as research papers and can be utilized both as sources for structuring activities in a range of different classes, and as materials for self-study. The underlying rationale of the book lies in the attempt to bring to the fore the prominent role of English in representing the Mediterranean heritage, although it is a non-Mediterranean language. At the same time it attempts to bridge the gap between academic research and class practice at the university level
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
Food, Family and Females: (Southern) Italy in U.S. Advertising
No full textAt the cross-over of Italian and North American lingua-cultural frameworks the complex issue of national identities plays a pivotal role, which is variously represented and advertised in media communication.
A country is not only represented through its geography and landscapes, arts, products and artefacts, but also through the verbal output and receptivity of its speech community that shares metaphors, images, icons (Hymes 1980), and through the recurring topics (and even commonplaces or truisms) that frequently occur in discursive interactions. Such mis/representation contributes to shape what Anderson defined Imagined Communities (1983). Imagined communities and national identities are not a clear-cut and a once-and-for-all affair: they mainly consist in a dynamic interplay of symbols, clichés and conventional, anachronistic behavioural models, which are easily communicated through media, and commercials. It is by now a shared notion that when exposed to overused representations on a regular basis, viewers absorb biased contents a-critically. In this perspective, Gerbner (1993, 2002) among others illustrated how media are responsible for shaping or ‘cultivating’ viewers’ conceptions of social reality. By acting as a pervasive sixth sense, visual media often construct and broadcast unbalanced portrayals, which are predictably filtered through and mediated by the viewers’ race, socioeconomic status, area of residence, and racial predisposition.
Such stereotypical representations are an effective way of simplifying and diffusing complex notions by representing marked clichéd traits, and may even increase emotional identification, contributing to the creation of cultural boundaries between Us and Others, i.e. insiders and outsiders of one’s specific national community. In our case, Americans of Italian heritage are frequently represented through anachronistic behavioural models, such as the ethnocentric sense of family, fixation on food, and mafia.
Regardless of a multifaceted, ever-developing reality, these cultural etiquettes are perpetuated, often construing derogatory meanings that can alter audience attitudes towards minorities, such as American women of Italian heritage who are frequently represented through anachronistic behavioural models, especially in TV commercials. Indeed, the real societal groups can be very different from the frozen image of the ‘advertised’ communities. In 1980s-1990s US TV commercials, Italian American women were depicted either as caring mothers and good-cooks, or overweight grandmothers wearing housecoats or aprons – often with a funny or ironic effect. The typically Italian deli-food fixation is displayed in the setting of welcoming kitchens, and the sense of family appears to be ethnocentric/clannish. In late 1990s-2010 US TV commercials the evolution and foregrounding of ‘updated’ stereotypes is recognizable, though always revolving around food (facilitated) preparation and consumption as the pivot of family life.
Drawing on selected TV commercials, we investigated from an evaluative semantic (Hunston &Thompson 2000; Martin & White 2005; Bednarek & Martin 2010; Fleitz 2010) and multimodal discourse analysis perspective (van Leeuwen 2008, 2013; Kress-van Leeuwen 2001, 2006) the (mis-)representation of Italian American women in US advertising in a diachronic perspective.
Our analysis highlighted how nation-based stereotypes are re-mediated through inter/intra-textual references in a process of re-semiotization that appears to be a successful social practice and a fundamental component of marketing strategies.
Is there any scope, however, for boundary-crossing, meaningful, informative memes in the contemporary US commercial semiosphere? Are genuine Italian artifacts and products actually advertised? Are authentic cultural values, practices, skills and traditions transmitted? Apparently not. Racisms and gender bias in their variety of forms and instantiations have a long history in advertising, inescapably leading to pervasive stereotyping, that is still being written. Not only Italian Americans, but also (or mainly) African Americans, or Asian Americans etc. are frequently framed into unflattering frozen portrayals by national or local brands and agencies to meet the audience expectations – a privilege of Italian Americans being the Mafia connection, not to mention the ‘Guidos’ and ‘Guidettes’ (Cavaliere 2012). However, with the world of social media acting as ‘taste-police’ and giving immediate feedback, many such campaigns quickly garner criticism for being (overtly) racist and get shut down. In this fluid scenario, we could even speak of a lively cross-media communication (or feedback) and reciprocal influence, which, in the long run, could change the dynamics of advertising. But, for the time being, ‘upgraded’ stereotypes are continuously shaped to meet and reinforce the perceptual expectations of the audience, according to the characteristics of the advertised goods. Such ongoing re-contextualization of the ‘Italian’ social/ethnic group in the US commercial semiosphere is mainly carried out through the advertising practices of quoting, paraphrasing, genre-mixing and hybridization, equivocation, ambiguity and shift in expectations – often leading to final effects of surprise. We can say that advertisers have re-voiced/ mimicked fictional old-worlds thanks to the potential of semiosis for mobility across boundaries and practices. Thus, local meanings and fossilized metaphors are continuously created, which can produce comic, grotesque and even paradoxical effects, and a persuasive, if inaccurate, meta-fictional setting is shaped, where the womanly stereotype is reinforced by the ethnic stereotype, thus creating an updated and more alluring commodification of the ‘Italian caring mamma’ and Womanly Homemaker
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
Blazing a new trail in ERP Integration with NLP and Generative AI through APIs: a fraud examination perspective
No full text- …
