1,720,956 research outputs found
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
Agricultural extension and post-settlement support of land reform beneficiaries in South Africa : the case of Ixopo in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Get PDFMaster of Science in Agriculture (Agricultural Extension and Rural Resource Management)Land reform is a political project which started after World War II in many countries around the world (Japan, Latin America and Africa). In South Africa it started with the advent of democracy in 1994. Experiences around the globe have been perceived by some as unsuccessful. South Africa is no exception in this, with some farms acquired through the land reform programme never used from the day of transfer. Reasons for lack of production range from insecure land tenure rights to the many challenges which hinder the utilization and production on farms. Furthermore, there is poor co-ordination of institutions responsible for post-settlement support.
This study contributes insider perspectives from within the current discussion around how agricultural extension in South Africa can improve sustainable land utilization and production in land reform farms in the context of post-settlement support. The investigation explored the experiences of three beneficiary land owner groups in the Ixopo area of KwaZulu-Natal. Purposive sampling was used to select these farms and the research participants. A total of 29 respondents participated in the study. A qualitative methodology utilising interviews, focus group discussion, Venn diagram and priority ranking as data collection tools contributed to the findings around post-settlement support.
The analysis showed that these three land reform farms have a high potential to succeed if agricultural extension could play a pro-active role in the process of land utilization and production. The stakeholders’ analysis has shown that there is poor co-ordination of stakeholders involved in the post-transfer support in the three land reform farms which participated in this study. The participants’ responses showed that when farmers had access to good quality technical services, they can manage the farm/s. Those who accessed mentorship from Department of Rural Development and Land Reform mentors, reported that they tended to manage their farms rather than facilitate skills transfer to beneficiaries. It was also identified that current land utilization and production is driven by the support available to beneficiary farmers, resorting in unplanned land uses when support is unavailable or inaccessible. The findings suggest that agricultural extension should play a pro-active role in co-ordination that ensures communication between various role players relevant to sustainable land utilization and production, and should also enable the farmers to take an active leading role in sustainable land utilization and production
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
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
A study of public-private partnerships in the development of affordable housing projects: A case of Johannesburg
No full textThis research report investigated public-private partnerships in the development of affordable
housing in Johannesburg. The study evaluated the success of affordable housing projects
developed through the joint efforts of the public and the private sector. It explored how the
private and the public sector help each other in development projects to ensure successful
projects which benefit low to middle (gap market) income households. To do this, the study
utilised two affordable/integrated housing development projects in the Johannesburg area.
These were the Fleurhof project on Main Reef road and the Pennyville development on New
Canada road. Interviews were also conducted to get information from the different stakeholders
involved in affordable housing project developments with regards to their experiences, lessons
learnt and propositions for better and more efficient running of future such projects.
Studies and information received from interviews were evaluated using theoretical frameworks
around affordable housing and public private partnerships as to determine if these projects and
activity happening in the Johannesburg area is in line with theories and policies developed to
guide public-private activity and affordable housing development. The findings from the field
study analysis (case studies and interviews) were used to provide recommendations as to what
can be done for better outcomes in public-private partnership projects in affordable housing
delivery.
From the field work it was found that contrary to the study claims and propositions, publicprivate
partnership housing developments are benefiting the intended income group and that
the private sector has gained confidence and is becoming more and more interested and
involved in such projects. This is not to say that no issues were discovered or raised during the
study. This is why recommendations were brought forward and these are mainly directed to the
public sector. Recommendations include that public sector needs to increase its capacity when
it comes to the area of developing affordable housing projects as lack of capacity results in
unnecessarily lengthy application approval periods which become very costly when it comes to
development. Other recommendations are for better planning and review of procedures for the
public sector to be more efficient as the private sector works on time and need payments and
other procedures to occur on time to avoid setbacks and strains on public private relationships
Assessing the effectiveness of a customer loyalty programme as marketing tool in the Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife resorts
No full textSubmitted in fulfillment of the requirements for a Masters of Management Sciences: Tourism and Hospitality Management, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016.In the hospitality industry, the costs associated with promotions and advertising efforts are greater than those of maintaining relationships with existing customers. However, customer loyalty programmes have been discovered and promoted by different marketing managers and marketing experts in the different industries, as a most prominent and paramount business marketing tool in ensuring customer retention.
The purpose of this research study is to assess the effectiveness of a Customer Loyalty Programme as a marketing tool in the Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife (EKZNW) Resorts. This study strategy is quantitative in nature because of its capability to attain a large number of respondents in a short space of time. The target population of this study is the customer loyalty members of EKZNW, in eight different resorts. Descriptive research was found to be relevant and appropriate for this study. A non-probability sampling, with a convenience sampling technique, was adopted for this research study, to recruit members of the EKZNW Rhino Club’s loyalty programme as participants. It was adopted because it allows for quick gathering of data and is also representative of the population. The sample size for data collection was conducted with 376 respondents that are loyalty programme members of EKZNW. A questionnaire was developed as measuring instrument, with the questions designed to be closed-ended. These questionnaires were personally distributed to the respondents in all the selected resorts of EKZNW.
The findings of the study indicated that the majority of tourists holding EKZNW loyalty programme membership are happy with being Rhino Club members, however, some are not satisfied with the incentives provided. They recommend that the Rhino Card should be designed to allow them to also use it in other provinces’ game parks.
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
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