1,720,981 research outputs found
The agro-ecosystemic benefits of sustainable management in an Italian olive grove
Full text linkBiotic and abiotic stresses are the main causes of decreased productivity and yield losses for crop species. Conventional agricultural management of fruit orchards (excessive soil tillage, empirical fertilization, burning of pruning material) generates a progressive reduction in organic matter and general soil impoverishment, contributing to agrosystem vulnerability and the appearance of plant disease. The well-being of the plant and the biotic complexity of the whole orchard system are the first “obstacles” to pathogen diffusion. In this study, we experimented with some agronomic methods aimed at increasing microbiological soil fertility and soil water storage capacity, applying sustainable agronomic management (soil cover by spontaneous vegetation, light and annual pruning and reuse of pruning residues within the orchard, irrigation with treated wastewater). We compared the results of conventional and sustainable fruit orchard managements. The experiment was carried out in a mature olive grove (‘Maiatica di Ferrandina’) and the two experimental plots (conventional and sustainable) were followed for more than 10 years. Adoption of sustainable agricultural practices increased the soil organic matter content by 1.1% in the 0-40 cm soil layer and the water infiltration rate 10-fold with respect to conventional management. Soil microbiota in the sustainable plot showed higher biomass and biodiversity. The findings demonstrated that the application of sustainable agricultural practices in fruit orchards has positive results in terms of soil fertility and biodiversity, with benefits to the whole agroecosystem stability
Integrated life-cycle assessment in sustainable and conventional apricot orchards in southern Italy
No full textThis paper focuses on the significance of including soil carbon changes in life-cycle assessments. In apricot orchards located in southern Italy, soil carbon changes (30 cm soil depth) have been estimated (Roth-C) throughout a 20-year lifespan for a sustainable orchard (no tillage, cover crops, application of 15 t ha-1 compost per year) and a conventional orchard (tillage, mineral fertilization and empirical management of water). These estimates were 81.6 (sustainable) and 4.7 (conventional) t ha-1 CO2. Classical life-cycle assessment (LCA) analysis (Simapro 8.0, Ecoinvent v. 3) showed that the overall CO2eq emissions were 147.3 (conventional) and 158.4 (sustainable) t ha-1 when the “cradle to grave” boundary system was used. The inclusion of changes of soil organic carbon (SOC) into LCA analysis (Simapro 8.0, Ecoinvent v. 3) compensated by 55% the overall CO2eq emissions in the sustainable orchard. Effects of the integrated LCA on carbon footprint are also discussed. Results indicated that adoption of the “at farm gate” boundary system has the potential to reveal that sustainable management leads the orchard to be a “sink” of CO2, contributing to the mitigation of the increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration and improvement of the soil quality
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
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
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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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