1,720,967 research outputs found
Adopting the circular economy approach on food loss and waste: The case of Italian pasta production
No full textFood loss and waste (FLW) is one of the most serious social, economic and environmental issues undermining our planet's sustainability, and by reducing it some UN Sustainable Development Goals may be achieved. The European Commission Circular Economy (CE) Package foresees FLW prevention, but to date few studies have adopted the CE perspective for analysing FLW. In 2017 only 20% of the world's 50 largest food companies have established FLW reduction programs. However, reducing FLW is also beneficial for company economic sustainability since it was observed that for every dollar invested in reducing FLW there is a saving of 14 dollars in operating costs. Therefore, main aim of this research is to quantify the main FLW and their causes along the FSC of the pasta production and to understand if these FLW could be reused according to the CE approach. Based on a single case study analysis, for the first time, this study quantifies FLW along the pasta supply chain, emphasizing FLW valorisation from a CE perspective using the global Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard. Our results show that pasta supply chain is a good example of CE as little is lost. Food losses in the field are very limited (less than 2%), while the straw obtained during the harvest is normally used as animal feed and litter. The losses generated during the grinding of the wheat and pasta production amounted to approximately 2%. In line with previous literature, most FLW occurs during the cultivation and consumption, thus demonstrating that further research is required in order to reduce FLW in these two supply chain phases
Curvature effects on the eigenproperties of axisymmetric thin shells
No full textA set of linear elastic homogeneous isotropic axisymmetric thin shells of revolution with plane projection of radius R varying with the height c of the pole, to keep constant mass, is introduced. Their curvature and dynamical properties depend on the ratio c/R, and their linear dynamics is investigated by standard modal analysis, adopting a commercial code, and accounting for curvature. Natural frequencies for a given mode are linear with c/R, decrease for membrane modes, and increase for transverse modes. Thus, membrane and transverse modes may shift as curvature grows; graphical and numerical results are reported
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
Reusing Food Waste in Food Manufacturing Companies: The Case of the Tomato-Sauce Supply Chain
No full textThe importance of reducing food loss and waste (FLW) has recently been emphasized at a European level with the amendment to the European Waste Framework Directive, according to which the effective reduction of food waste can be carried out by adopting a circularity approach that facilitates the transition to more sustainable management of materials. Likewise, the importance of concentrating on FLW produced within specific food supply chains has emerged as an effective starting point for quantifying the overall amount of wastage produced, emphasizing possible prevention actions as well as re-using and valorising waste. From this perspective, our study focuses on the tomato-sauce supply chain with a threefold aim. Firstly, to quantify the amount of FLW generated along the tomato-sauce supply chain from cultivation to retail; secondly, to understand the most important related causes; and thirdly, to assess if and to what extent FLW can be reused according to the Circular Economy (CE) approach. By adopting the Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard, the analyses focused on the production of the Barilla Tomato and Basil sauce in Italy, as well as the related inventory. It was revealed that this supply chain can be considered an example of a true circular economy, in which almost nothing is lost because more than 85% of the total FLW are valorized into alternative sectors or activities
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
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