1,720,988 research outputs found
Direct Access to the Debt Capital Market by Unlisted Companies in Italy. Effect of Changes in Civil Law: an Empirical Investigation
No full textThis paper examines the effects of changes in civil and fiscal law made to facilitate direct access to the debt capital market by unlisted companies in Italy, in order to allow companies (particularly SMEs) to cope with the persisting credit crunch. Despite the slow start, corporate finance regulations have created some "work in progress", so that a greater use of direct financing through bonds, in addition to bank credit, is pratically at hand
Breeding and wintering bird assemblages in a Mediterranean wetland: a comparison using a diversity/dominance approach
No full textWe studied the structure of breeding and wintering bird assemblages in a Mediterranean
wetland of Central Italy with the aim of evaluating seasonal structural changes and the
role of habitat heterogeneity on the avian community. The wintering assemblage showed higher
values of species richness, diversity and evenness. The seasonal differences were represented
through a diversity/dominance approach (species rank/relative occurrence diagram or Whittaker
plots), and the curve obtained for winter showed a significantly shallower slope if compared
with that for the breeding season (Kolmogorov-Smirnov test). K-dominance plots also revealed
a different shape in the accumulation curve of the relative occurrence values between wintering
and breeding season. Whittaker’s β-diversity was higher in winter. In Mediterranean wetlands,
intrinsic constraints (e.g. phenology and ecology of the species) seem to be crucial in determining
the community structure and the shape of diversity/dominance curves. In winter, many species
are vagrant and sparsely distributed, and belong to species-rich taxonomic groups (e.g.,
waders, ducks), while in the breeding season most of species are common and more uniformly
spread. Extrinsic constraints also affect bird assemblages in winter: the presence of water induces
an increase of habitat heterogeneity, expressed by the β-diversity index. These habitat changes
induce an increase of occurrence values, species richness, diversity and evenness. The shape
of the seasonal curves in Whittaker plots followed the MacArthur broken-stick model
Innovazioni e strategie negli istituti di credito speciale in Italia
No full textIl volume mira ad analizzare essenzialmente innovazioni e strategie nel contesto degli istituti di credito speciale presenti in Italia, soffermandosi sul processo di ritrutturazione, sull'evoluzione del mercato del credito a medio-lungo termine e sui comportamenti aziendali. L'indagine considera altresì dati quantitativi a livello ufficiale per la focalizzazione dei principali aspetti gestionali degli istituti di credito speciale per trarre elementi di riflessione sulla loro attività e sul loro futuro operativ
Seasonal changes in bird assemblages of a remnant wetland in a Mediterranean landscape: implications for management
No full textSeasonal bird assemblages (both breeding and wintering) in a Mediterranean remnant
wetland were described by a sample-based approach. Species richness, diversity index and the number of equally
common species had higher values in winter than during the breeding period. At the guild level, wetland-related
species were more represented in winter, either in terms of species richness or of frequency of occurrences. In
winter, the availability of food resources related to seasonally flooded areas and the increment of the habitat heterogeneity
increased the species richness and diversity, especially for wintering wetland-related species. The nature
of the study area, a small remnant wetland embedded in a man-disturbed and land reclaimed landscape, explains
the high rate of synanthropic species either in terms of richness or frequency of occurrences. Among these species,
the Italian Sparrow (Passer italiae) was observed to use intensively the rush beds (Juncetalia maritimi habitat
type) during the breeding period for foraging and fledging, owing to the abundance of suitable prey. Although
these latter results require further studies, the utilization of wetlands by a declining Italian endemic, the Italian
Sparrow, evidenced as these type of habitat may contribute to conserve threatened species other than waterbirds,
providing support during the breeding season.
Key words: wintering season, breeding season, synanthropic species, matrix effect, Passer italiae
Seasonal bird assemblages in a Mediterranean patchy wetland: corroborating the intermediate disturbance hypothesis
No full textThe structure of bird assemblages
recorded in breeding and wintering
period in a Mediterranean wetland of Central
Italy was studied in order to evaluate their seasonal
changes and the influence of land cover
on their parameters. We identified three habitat
macro-types, according to a man-disturbed gradient
(from natural to man-made macro-types).
Bird assemblages showed differences in relation
to season and habitat type, either at quantitative
(species richness, diversity index) or qualitative
level (species composition and turnover, similarity).
In winter, we obtained the higher values
of mean species richness, Margalef richness,
Shannon diversity, and β-diversity. The dendrogram
of similarity showed a major clear-cut division
between seasons, and a secondary division
among habitat macro-types. In winter, assemblages
were more rich and diverse, with a high
turnover among point counts. The semi-natural
habitat macro-types showed always the higher
values of these indexes, with the exception of the
β-diversity, which showed the highest value in
winter but the lowest in the breeding period. The
high mean values of richness (α-diversity) of the
semi-natural habitat macro-types, especially in
the breeding period could be mainly explained by
the ‘intermediate disturbance hypothesis’; on the
contrary, differences in turn-over (β-diversity)
between the seasons are mainly due to seasonal
changes in habitat heterogeneity of this habitat
macro-type (from an arid homogeneous pasture to a patchy flooded one). A pattern of intermediate
disturbance was evident at mean species richness
level (significant values) but not at diversity
index level (not significant values). These results
could imply specific strategies for the management
of small wetlands, focused on maintaining
a regime of natural (flooding) and man-made
(grazing) disturbances.
KEY WORDS: bird assemblages, wetland
patches, frequency, diversity, species turnover, intermediate
disturbance hypothesi
DISTRIBUZIONE SPAZIALE DELL'AVIFAUNA NIDIFICANTE IN RELAZIONE ALLE TIPOLOGIE DI USO/COPERTURA DEL SUOLO
No full textIn spring 2005, an analysis of breeding bird communities in Torre Flavia wetland was carried out by EFP method. Data on community structure were correlated with land use types. Twenty-five breeding bird species were observed and their distribution at local scale was mapped. Anthropophilous species showed a belt-shape pattern respect to the core of the protected area. Species richness did not increase with the environmental heterogeneity. A positive correlation was found between the richness of edge and anthropophilous species and the percentage of anthropogenic disturbed land types
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
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