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    Environmental impact of the acid fumarole plume of a passively degassing volcano (Vulcano Island, Italy)

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    Abstract This paper investigates the role played by the fumarolic plume of a passive degassing volcano in the genesis of rock coatings (RC) and in the introduction and re-distribution of metals and trace elements in the surficial environment. At La Fossa active volcano (Vulcano Island) and in the surrounding environment RC develop owing to exposure of the ground surface to the volcanic acid plume produced by the passive degassing of La Fossa. Significant positive anomalies of a wide variety of metals and trace elements (including Bi, Ag, Se, Te, Sb, Pb, As, Cu, Tl and Cd) were observed either in distal and proximal RC. Most of these anomalies are interpreted to be the result of the transport and subsequent deposition of trace elements, likely to form volatile compounds, in the fumarolic plume. Two main processes seem to control the geochemistry of RC: one is represented by the leaching and subsequent deposition of elements from the proximal toward the distal RC; the other is the direct input of trace elements carried by the emitted volcanic aerosol. The fact that most of the trace elements (particularly Pb, As, Tl, Bi, Te, Se, Cd) enriched in the RC of Vulcano are highly toxic and potentially dangerous to health in high concentration, indicates that the atmospheric metal injection by the quiescently degassing La Fossa volcano together with the subsequent deposition and remobilization by means of surficial waters may represent an environmental hazard that should be taken into account in evaluating the potential impact of volcanic air pollution on human health

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The 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
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