1,720,969 research outputs found
Current Framework of Italian Agriculture and Changes between the 2010 and 2020 Censuses
Full text linkThis study aims to describe the current framework of the Italian agricultural sector and
the changes that occurred in the decade between the two general censuses of agriculture of 2010
and 2020, and the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) programming period 2014–2020. The
General Census of Agriculture is an economic census carried out to fulfill international and EU
legislation requirements, but also to meet national information needs. It consists in counting farms
and identifying their characteristics. For this study, the official data of the 7th Italian General Census
of Agriculture (GCA) of 2020 were collected, analyzed, and compared to those of the previous
6th GCA of 2010. Farms’ type of activities, structure, digitalization/computerization, innovation,
and workforces’ characteristics were analyzed. Correlations between farms with investments in
innovation and other variables like the age and the educational qualification of entrepreneurs and the
farm’s size (agricultural used area) were calculated. Groups of similar Italian regions for types of farm
and types of farming (segmenting the sector into subsets of regions that share common characteristics),
and groups of similar farming characteristics in the entire agricultural sector, were highlighted. The
results showed a notable positive correlation between farms’ investment in innovation and farms’
size, and a medium but positive correlation also with other two variables, the entrepreneur’s range
of age and educational qualification. Results found groups of regions that are similar in terms of
types of farm and farming types, highlighting that the agricultural sector in Italy is not homogeneous
among all the regions of north, center, and south. Moreover, the discovered different groups of
farming characteristics highlighted the Italian “farm profiles”, i.e., descriptions of key information
about different specific types of farm. The overall analysis of all the results of this study provided
the current situation of the Italian agricultural sector and discussion about its characteristics and
changes during the last ten years. Based on our knowledge, this study is the first one with such a
level of comprehensiveness. Findings are of high interest to academics in agriculture economics and
policy maker, because they contribute to identifying the farms’ and territories’ strategic elements
that require strengthening to foster economic and social development. Moreover these findings may
provide food for thought on the effectiveness of the development strategy of the EU CAP 2023–2027
(through greening and digitization) at the regional and European levels, starting from the baseline
situation of this country, which is certainly one, but which is among the most relevant ones in the
European agri-food system and also globally
Consumption of spices and ethnic contamination in the daily diet of Italians - consumers’ preferences and modification of eating habits
Full text linkCurrently, consumers appear to have diversified characteristics with regard to food tastes and consumption habits. The globalization of markets and the migration phenomenon contributed to the modification of food preferences of consumers who gradually introduce into their eating habits foods and recipes typical of the tradition of foreign countries. In this scenario, also in Italy, it is going to increase the use of “foreign products” with the consequent fusion of traditional cuisine techniques and recipes with ingredients that are typical of foreign countries and cultures. Foods and ingredients originally consumed in Asian or South American countries are increasingly consumed by Italian people, who have notoriously a strong “food identity,” who generally follow the Mediterranean Diet, and who consume typical products of the country. More particularly, the use of “new” or “novel” spices compared to those traditionally used in the preparation of Italian food has grown in the last 10 years. This study is an exploratory survey on the consumption of spices in Sicily (Southern Italy), which is an Italian Region with a high level of immigrated people and a good level of social integration and progressive inclusion. The objective of this study is to know whether and how Sicilian consumers’ consumption preferences, use, and purchasing behaviors with regard to spices changed in the last few years. The results highlight an increasing use of novel spices for the preparation of the traditional recipes and a good appreciation by consumers. These results are interesting because they provide information about spices’ market development and food product marketing and internationalization. The survey gives interesting inputs for reflections about the relationship between food contaminations and social integration and insight into consumers’ preferences in Italy
Circular economy and agritourism: a sustainable behavioral model for tourists and farmers in the post-COVID era.
Full text linkIntroduction: In recent years, issues related to environmental and ecosystem
protection have been given greater consideration than in the past. The goal of
adopting sustainable development models is vigorously pursued in the European
Union and is reflected concretely in the new Common Agricultural Policy 20232027.
The circular economy can certainly be an emerging economic response that
can eectively replace growth models centered on a linear view. Agriculture and
tourism are two crucial sectors where the “green transition” should be encouraged
to help achieve sustainability goals through economic circularity. Agritourism’s
activity may be relevant in contributing to a behavioral change based on ethical
choices. The study aim is to find out if agritourism can be the forerunner for
the green transition. The objective is to know motivations and current level
of awareness and adoption of concrete behaviors of the circular economy by
agritourisms and their guests. The tourists’ preferences for Sicilian agritourism
oerings were also observed. Methods: Two types of surveys were conducted: a Census of the Sicilian
Agritourisms active at an online travel agency and a sampling survey of the
agritourism’s visitors. Results and discussion: The results showed that agritourism by its very nature
carries the green transition, partly due to the enormous financial support of the
new CAP. Second, it is a provider of quality food and ecosystem services, and a
promoter of healthy behaviors and consumption of seasonal and local short-chain
products by visitors, so it can be a vehicle for the adoption of the Mediterranean
Diet as a sustainable lifestyle and food system. Tourists’ propensity to seek out
environmentally friendly products and green services can help to improve ethical,
responsible, and sustainable tourism. A sustainable behavioral model for farmers
and tourists was provided
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
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