1,721,442 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
Embodying resilience in urban development processes: suggestions for the future
No full textThe contribution was addressed to explore the main features of a resilient urban system, providing hints for future urban developmen
Enhancing Resilience in face of complex hazardous events: from a conceptual framework toward operational tools
No full textLiterature in disaster field and past events highlight that urban disasters are more and more complex: since the end
of Nineties, the complexity of modern disasters [U+F02D] due to changes of hazards, exposure and vulnerability
of territorial systems and to the interactive mix of such changes [U+F02D] has been stressed and the fact that,
namely in large cities, hazards were shifting from individual phenomena towards an interactive mix of natural,
technological and social events has been underlined (McEntire et al. 2002). Urban disasters, as demonstrated by
events like the Kobe earthquake or the Katrina hurricane, are often characterized as complex chains of hazardous
events, impacts and damages, difficult to prefigure, in face of which cities are less and less resilient.
With respect to these events, the need for a “revolution” in approaching the “disaster problem” and its relevance
for a future sustainable development of urban areas has been largely recognized.
Resilience seems currently represent the key concept for a “shift in thinking” in the field of disaster analysis and
management, due to the opportunity that it provides for dealing with concepts like surprise, cross-scale effects,
non-linearity, change, which are very relevant in complex urban disasters.
According to the ISDR glossary on Disaster Risk Reduction (2009) resilience refers to “the ability of a system,
community or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate to and recover from the effects of a
hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preservation and restoration of its essential basic
structures and functions”.
Nevertheless, although research in the field of natural hazards has largely evolved in the last decades, focusing
more and more on vulnerability and more recently on resilience [U+F02D] both of them currently invoked as
basic means for supporting risk mitigation strategies [U+F02D] up to now a shared theoretical and operative
approach to resilience is still missing. A nourished scientific literature has been developed according to the idea
that reducing vulnerability in face of a given hazard should have surely led to enhance resilience and reduce the
overall risk. Nevertheless, past disasters analysis clearly reveals that mitigation measures addressed to reduce
vulnerability do not necessarily result in an enhancing of resilience.
Thus, based on a research work developed within the 7FP Ensure Project, this paper is addressed to provide a
conceptual framework for interpreting and analyzing resilience, as a key tool for driving risk mitigation strategies
toward an enhancement of urban resilience in face of complex hazards.
In detail, starting from the evolutionary path of the resilience concept and the variety of definitions and specifications
up to now provided (Paton and Johnston, 2001; Godshalk, 2003; Bruneau et al. 2003; Adger et al. 2005;
Norris et. al. 2008), the main attributes, properties or capacities able to make an urban system resilient in face of
complex hazards have been identified. Then, by integrating different approaches and disciplinary perspectives,
these capacities and their mutual influences have been arranged into a three-ring model in respect to the main
phases of the disaster cycle. Finally, based on the conceptual framework, the main indicators for assessing, in
quantitative and/or qualitative terms, urban resilience in face of complex hazards have been provided
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
University students at work with mathematical machines to trace conics
No full textThis paper aims to investigate the way past experience with some tools to draw conics becomes part of the experience of designing a new drawer. In particular, it centres on the thinking processes of a group of university students who have the following task: to design a hyperbola drawer. The analysis is carried out using the perspectives of transfer of learning and instrumental approach, and focuses on utilization schemes and the interplay between scientific and technological aspects
Are mathematics students thinking as Kepler? Conics and mathematical machines
No full textOur interest is the analysis of the thinking processes of some university students who worked on the design of a machine that uses a tightened thread to draw a hyperbola. Previously, the students worked with other machines for conics. We focus on the way past experience becomes part of a new experience, in which making of the machine is the end point of the task. This implies the presence of technological and scientific aspects, whose interplay is fundamental to shape thinking
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