1,723,039 research outputs found
Modern finance: a catalyst for truly modern agriculture
No full textThe research gap at the crossroads between financial innovation and innovation in agriculture is the main focus of this paper. It takes inspiration from the fallacies in the financial industry that prevent it to adequately satisfy the needs of a large share of the world population and especially of smallholder farmers, who are mostly underbanked and often have no choice but to rely on informal financial channels; as a consequence, valuable efforts aimed at making of the agricultural sector a truly modern market segment run the risk of being vanished.
What sounds especially appealing is the pursuit of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 and that cover challenging issues, such as ending poverty and hunger, responding to climate change, sustaining natural resources, as well as promoting sustainable agriculture and financial inclusion, in sight of fulfilling the generation pact. Based on these thoughts, the main objective is to investigate the crucial role that the three pillars of the financial system – i.e. financial markets, products and institutions – are likely to play in order to speed up the process of modernization in agriculture: four main areas of interest can be identified that consist of sustainable, inclusive, blended and rural finance, and that embody a set of strategic tools; their support to the agricultural sector ranges from its most traditional side to unprecedented forward steps, such as those that pertain to novel foods and simulated “Martian gardens”.
Focusing on finance, this is a qualitative research that draws upon empirical evidence and success stories: a framework for analysis is provided, in an attempt at promoting rural finance as a specialized discipline from a theoretical point of view and a peculiar market segment for operating purposes, with relevant sub-sets such as agricultural finance, agricultural value chain finance and agricultural microfinance. The proposed analysis allows to state that the financial industry should be called to pursue its modernization as a precondition for moving forward steps in the art of “doing” modern agriculture, being money a scarce resource and innovation a risky, capital intensive process.
The chosen approach has been crafted in order to properly combine the local and global perspectives, as suggested by the wider and wider endorsement of the glocal philosophy, and to join the search for the appropriate mix of competition and cooperation, in line with the co-opetitive vision. Conclusions encompass key messages and recommendations for policy interventions, as well as for further research and development: the rationale behind them features best practices that might be usefully disseminated, to the benefit of both the financial and the agricultural sectors, with related market segments too being involved; academic challenges also surface, that lead to emphasize the need for upgrading financial competence by furthering financial education and literacy, especially in rural areas and even within the context of lifelong learning activities
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
Drug design and screening by in silico approaches
No full textHundreds of millions of people worldwide are affected by infectious diseases caused by Kinetoplastida parasites. Especially in non-industrialized countries, these diseases represent one of the most serious health problems. Since current drugs lack efficacy, specificity, and suffer from several side-effects, there is an urgent need for novel therapeutics. In modern drug discovery, more and more relevance is given to the use of computer-aided (or in silico) techniques. Especially in the early phases of projects, in silico tools based on the knowledge of the target receptor structure (structure-based) or on the chemical structure of active small molecules (ligand-based) are routinely used for discovering and optimizing hit or lead compounds of pharmaceutical interest. Here, in silico approaches for discovering anti-trypanosomal compounds are described and general remarks on computer-aided methods are provided
Morpho-functional defences of Mediterranean sea urchins, Paracentrotus lividus and Arbacia lixula, against fish predators
Full text linkMorpho-functional features potentially involved in defence mechanisms against fish predators (i.e. attachment tenacity, spine length, and test robustness and thickness) have been assessed in two Mediterranean sea urchins, Paracentrotus lividus and Arbacia lixula. All four morpho-functional features were significantly and positively related to individual size for both species of sea urchins. Test robustness (i.e. static load needed to break sea urchin tests) was significantly greater for A. lixula (from 3,450 to 15,000 g depending on size) than for P. lividus (1,180-11,180 g). Attachment tenacity (i.e. force needed to dislodge sea urchins from the rocky substrate) was greater in A. lixula (280-3,300 g) than in P. lividus (110-1,450 g), and the difference tended to decrease in relation to smaller sea urchin size. Spine length was greater in A. lixula (1.5-2.9 cm) than in P. lividus (0.5-2.3 cm), but the difference decreased for larger sea urchin size. Test thickness was slightly greater (but not significantly) in A. lixula (0.35-1.10 mm) than in P. lividus (0.12-0.90 mm). These results provide evidence that morpho-functional features of sea urchins could be involved in affecting predation rates by fishes upon P. lividus and A. lixula, with potential implications for the population structure and distribution patterns of the two sea urchins in shallow rocky reefs
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