1,720,957 research outputs found
Sustainability of dairy farms in mountainous areas
Full text linkThe general aim of this thesis was to analyze the sustainability of dairy cattle farms in mountainous areas. The studies were conducted in the Eastern Italian Alps, a study area representative of the evolution of livestock systems in mountainous areas
Milk yield and quality of dairy and dual purpose cows reared in single breed and mixed breeds farms in mountain
No full textDairy farms of mountainous areas are characterized by low productivity, but generally the milk is used for the production of high quality and PDO cheeses. For this reason, the initial disadvantage can become an opportunity for the traditional dairy systems. This study was conducted on 473 dairy farms of the Trento province with the aim to verify the effect of farm management (environment) on the variability of the milk yield and quality due to the breed effect (genotype). In particular, the differences between breeds were estimated in mixed farms with different management and feeding strategies. For each farm we collected the following data: number of cow per breed, housing condition (free vs tie stalls), diet administration (Total Mixed Rations vs separate feeding) and quality (percentage of starch, NDF and Crude Protein). Milk production and quality data were collected from test day recording and Consortium of Cooperative Dairies of the Trento Province (CONCAST), for a total of 110,711 milk
analysis. A multiple regression analysis was performed to estimate the genetic contribution corrected for the structural and nutritional sources of variation. At national level, Brown Swiss (BS), Italian Simmental (IS) and two northeastern autochthonous breeds (Rendena – Re – and Alpine Grey – AG) produce much less milk than Italian Friesian (IF): -23.4%, -28.5%, -45.1% and -45.3%, respectively. These differences reflect both genetic and environmental effects on milk production. The estimates
obtained in mixed breed farms of Trento Province, after having taken into account the main structural (herd size, housing condition) and nutritional (TMR, use of silages, NDF%, CP%) sources of variation, shows further lower differences among breeds (BS -13.0%, IS -13.4%, Re -30.6% and AG -30.7%, respect to IF), that reflect more the genetic contribution to phenotype. Taking into account the milk composition, the differences among breeds in terms of daily fat + protein yield (BS -6.7%, IS -10.7%,
Re -33.4%, and AG -29.9%, respect to IF) are even smaller than for milk yield. In conclusion, farm management significantly affects milk yield and quality in mountainous dairy farms and it can strongly reduce the estimates of the differences among the breed of cows
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
Dairy systems in mountainous areas: Farm animal biodiversity, milk production and destination, and land use
No full textThis paper aims to classify the dairy systems of an Alpine area (Trento Province, Italy) and compare them in terms of productivity, milk destination, maintenance of livestock biodiversity, land management, and landscape conservation. A sample of 610 dairy farms was surveyed, and data on their structural and management features were collected. Four different farming systems were identified through a non-hierarchical cluster approach: "Original Traditional" (lactating cows that are moved to highland pastures during summer), "Traditional without summer pastures", "Traditional with silages", and "Modern". "Modem" farms accounted for about one fifth of the total and were characterized by the presence of recent buildings with free animals and milking parlors, large herd sizes and high levels of milk production. The feeding strategy on modern farms consisted of total mixed rations based on silage, and Holstein Friesian was the main breed, whereas local and dual-purpose breeds were rare. "Original Traditional" farms were characterized by the presence of old buildings containing tied animals. These farms were small to medium and consisted of Brown Swiss and local breeds such as Rendena and Alpine Grey, which used mainly local forages and summer Alpine pastures. The GIS analyses of the utilized agricultural areas of each farm also showed that only traditional, low-input systems are able to maintain the steepest meadows and highland pastures. These systems guarantee a high sustainability in terms of livestock biodiversity, environmental impact (stocking and manure densities), and landscape protection (contrasting re-afforestation and managing Alpine pasture). The main concerns for economic and technical sustainability of traditional dairy farms are low productivity, land fragmentation and agricultural mechanization. The data analyzed also showed the strong link between these systems and the production of high value, Protected Designation of Origin cheeses is fundamental for reducing their economic handicap when compared with intensive farming systems
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
- …
