1,720,961 research outputs found
The renewed archaeological research & new discoveries in Singida region (Central Tanzania)
No full textThe Singida Region in Tanzania’s central plateaus is one of the regions in Tanzania with many but undocumented historical and archaeological sites. The region itself is characteristically composed of dazzling granitoid rock shelters with extraordinary rock art sites; together with the Dodoma Region; and especially the Kondoa Irangi, and Usandawe areas, they form a famous belt in central Tanzania with iconic and diversified rock art sites. Also, the region is a key locale and a one-of-a-kind resource for inquiries into the emergence of modern human cognition from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) period to the present time. Our field research which was undertaken between 2021-2022 in Ikungi District, located more than 30 archaeological sites; whereby we excavated two open- air (Nkungi & Ifoneo) and one rock shelter (Itramuka)-from which archaeological excavations exposed well-stratified cultural sequences encompassing lithics, ceramics and metallurgical remains, as well as human remains and animal bones. However, no deliberate efforts that have been directed towards revitalizing the heritage resources of this region to boost cultural tourism. Nevertheless, community engagement in management efforts, conservation and preservation of the historic and archaeological sites of this area have not put in place by various studies. We documented the potential historic and archaeological sites that could be developed for tourism in the region. Thus, this talk calls for a major push towards revitalization of heritage resources conservation and management by actively engaging the local communities in archaeological research because they are truly traditional landowners.-Note: This talk has not gone through a process of peer review, and findings should therefore be treated as preliminary and subject to change.
-Acknowledgement and citation: Itambu, Makarius. 2023. The renewed archaeological research & new discoveries in Singida region (Central Tanzania). Talk Given at Rift Valley Webinar Series 08/02/2023
Opportunistic quarrying and its impact on the Singida cultural landscape
No full textSystematic archaeological research in the Singida region (central Tanzania), which began in 2021, has revealed a significant archaeological heritage that can contribute to improving our knowledge of diachronic settlement dynamics from the Early Stone Age to modern times. However, both the archaeological heritage and the surrounding landscape are deeply affected by the impacts of unregulated economic activities, including diffuse opportunistic quarrying, mining, and agricultural practices. The paper introduces a discussion on the fragile balance between economic development and conservation of the natural and cultural heritage in the area and discusses the medium and long-term actions proposed to mitigate the damage and risks to the natural and cultural heritage through a multidisciplinary and participatory approach
Bed II Phytolith Palaeolandscapes (1.5-1.1 Ma) at Oldupai Gorge, Tanzania
Get PDFThe primary approach for reconstructing ancient plant landscapes is normally through the analysis of environmental proxy data and ultimately the application of the data from plant micro-remains to infer the vegetation patterns, distribution, and nature of past environments. Phytolith analyses serve as an important tool for identifying different micro-ecological niches in which human activities occurred. They are indicative of certain plant types and vegetation patterns, and the way in which plant landscapes respond to regional climate changes. Hence, in order to understand the ancient plant landscape of the Pleistocene Bed II sites of Oldupai Gorge 1.5 to 1.1 million years ago (Ma), a location inhabited by our early ancestors, the phytoliths research was conducted in order to reconstruct the ancient plant environments of Oldupai’s Bed II sites, namely Sam Howard Korongo (SHK), Thiongo Korongo (TK), and Bell’s Korongo (BK) because there is no enough phytolith data from these upper sections of Bed II. The preliminary results from this study indicate that TK and BK sites’ plant landscape was dominated by arboreal plants.
Keywords: Phytolith, hominin, palaeoecology, palaeoenvironments, palaeolandscap
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
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
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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