1,720,990 research outputs found
Il contratto di foce per la gestione integrata delle risorse idriche nei territori all'interfaccia fiume-mare: il caso del Delta del Po
Get PDFThe national and European framework of tools and initiatives related to planning, management and development of areas characterized by the presence of water resources requires a system-based, collaborative and participatory approach (Barraque, 2001; Kallis et al., 2001; Aubin et al., 2002; Kaika, 2003; Carter, 2007; Vacik et al., 2014). The River Contracts (Bobbio et al., 2008; Magnaghi, 2008; Bastiani, 2011) that "contribute to the definition and implementation of district planning tools at both basin and sub-basin catchment scale as voluntary tools for strategic and negotiated planning pursuing the protection and proper management of water resources, as well as the valorization of riverine territories, together with the safeguard of the hydraulic risk, thus contributing to local development of such areas" (art.43 "River Contracts" DDL 1676 XVII Leg., better known as "Collegato Ambietntale", i.e. set of environmental norms included within the National Stability Law) operate within such a framework.
The research builds on a strong interest in the implementation of the model River Contract in specific areas placed within the river-sea interface, in order to facilitate the implementation of water-management policies and initiatives at local scale (Governa, 2014; Alberton et al., 2011, De Vito, 2011; Armitage, 2008), with the aim to contribute to the sustainable development of these areas according to the revised regulatory framework and the new European programming period objectives. These preliminary issues have allowed developing and deepening the theoretical background as well as the conceptual framework of the research. The key-concepts identified for the purposes of the research are: (i) the peculiarities of the river mouth areas compared to those placed in along the rivers/water bodies; (ii) the state of the art of water-management and governance in Europe and Italy with special regard to participatory approaches and âplace-basedâ policies; (iii) the River Contracts -including both general principles and rules and the most significant experiences developed so far-; (iv) the transition from the traditional River Contract model to the new concept of the Mouth Contract that was developed starting from a number of limitations/weaknesses identified for the former and following the analysis of the main experiences as well as the decision to consider its applicability to the mouth areas.
The overall objective of this PhD thesis is therefore to build a new conceptual model for water governance at the scale of mouth areas placed within the river-sea interface, according to an integrated and participative water-resource management approach and a place-based policy in favour of participative and sustainable local development focused on water.
The logical path which allowed to pursue this overall objective is organised into three parts linked to specific sub-objectives and functional to the orientation of the main research outputs. These sub-objectives are:
⢠defining the new conceptual Mouth Contract model for areas within the river-sea interface, based on the adaptation/development of the traditional River Contract model and moving from the weaknesses identified for the latter (as well as from selected relevant experiences);
⢠testing the new conceptual model in the study area of the Po Delta that is part of the coastal arc of Veneto, through the Po Delta Mouth Contract built on the proper "territorial dimension" as emerging from hydrographic, physical, human and economic characteristics of the area, according to the place-based policy approach;
⢠assessing the exportability of the Mouth Contract model to different areas and comparative analysis with national policies (namely the experimental application of the Mouth Contract for the Po Delta chosen by Veneto Region and the Ministry of Economy and Finance - Department for Development and Economic Cohesion - for the 'implementation of the National Strategy for Internal Areas under the â2014-2020 Italy Partnership Agreementâ).
The final research report, i.e. this thesis, was organized according to the structure described below. The rationale of the research and objectives of the thesis are presented within Chapter 1, "Introduction", while the basic concepts on which the research builds are discussed in Chapter 2, "Background and conceptual framework". These concepts primarily relate to the characterization of the catchment area of river territories as they are traditionally identifed and the specificity of the end portions of the rivers, at the mouth to the sea, to which different characteristics and dynamics must be recognized, but that migh also be house to conflicts related to different uses, fragmentation of skills and a complex and burdensome water resources management. The normative and policy framework for the government and governance of water resources at both European and national level was then addressed, with further considerations on the network governance at the local level. Newtork governance is recognized by literature as an opportunity for development policies, in line with the focus on "territorial dimension" promoted by research in this field. Participatory and intersectoral approaches were then explored in support of the place-based policy and for a better understanding of the most appropriate tools to be taken into account for the development of a new conceptual model based on a participatory process. River Contracts âas they are defined within sectorial and territorial planning- were finally analyzed according to the current national normative framework and based on the most relevant experiences at both national and internatonal scale. The last paragraph of this chapter was devoted to the identification of the weaknesses/limitations of the traditional conceptual model, recognized as not-adequate for the application to mouth areas. These areas were then considered as the main reference for the topics addressed by the following chapters.
Chapter 3, "Materials and Methods", reports the literature sources and documents used for the research as well as a description of the research methodology with special reference to, the development of the conceptual framework that provides background for the research. The logical process and methodology that enabled the adaptation of the conceptual model, from the River Contract to the Mouth Contract, based on applicability to the study area and extendibility to other areas within the river-sea interface are then presented.. Special attention is paid to the description of the methodology used in the analysis of the territory, in line with the leading concept of the "territorial dimension", as well as to the methodology developed for the identification and assessment of the actors to be involved in the participatory process. The latter includes a description of the existing participatory tools and a special focus on those of them that were selected and adapted in accordance to research needs and the key-features of the new conceptual model.
Chapter 4, "Case study: the Po Delta" describes the innovative issues introduced by the new conceptual Mouth Contract model according to the above-metioned methodology. Specific attention is given to the presentation of the specificities of the hydrographic area as well as the fragmentation of existing skills especially in terms of management of the main water resources due to the failure to implement policies at local level.
Chapter 5, "Results and discussion", finally shows the main research outputs, i.e.: (i) the creation of a new conceptual model for the Mouth Contract; (ii) the application of the latter to the study area of Po Delta, including the discussion of outcomes from the participatory process implemented in accordance with the methodology developed by the research (Thematic Tables); and finally (iii) the results of tests aiming to check the exportability of the model to different mouth areas (as well as different areas) and the orientation of national policies.
Chapter 6 is devoted to the drawing of "Conclusions". The development of the new conceptual model for the Mouth Contract, i.e. the first output of the research, and the results achieved through the successful application to the Po Delta area, show that the implementation ot this participatory planning tool in the areas within the river-sea interface can be strategic and instrumental in promoting local development. By doing so these tools can facilitate the transposition and implementation of policies at the local level thus contributing to overcome the existing fragmentation and complexity in the management of water -and more generally- land resources. As an additional result of the research, the relevance of the model has been confirmed by policy makers who have recognized the contract as a means for facilitating the implementation of the "National Strategy for Internal Areas" - i.e. one out of three strategic options on which the place-based development policy promoted by the National Government through the 2014-2020 Italy Partnership Agreement is focused, the other two being âThe Southâ and âCitiesâ - at the local scale.
Chapter 7, "Bibliography", is organized into two sections distinctly related to the specific and general bibliography including legislation and regulations, programs, plans and projects, guidelines and web links. Chapter 8 consists of "Appendixes" where the main documents developed during the research, in particular during the experimental phase, are reported.
In conclusion it can be stated that, besides the opportunity to further refine the new conceptual model for the Mouth Contract according to the results emerged during its implementation in the study area, the thesis has fully achieved its general objective
Territori all’interfaccia fiume-mare: verso un contratto di foce fra Brenta, Adige, Po di levante, Po e Adriatico
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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
A thermostable archaeal S-adenosylmethionine synthetase: A promising tool to improve the synthesis of adenosylmethionine analogs of biotechnological interest
Get PDFThe naturally and widely occurring sulfonium compound, S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet), one of nature's most versatile molecules, is biosynthesized from methionine and ATP by AdoMet synthetase or methionine adenosyltransferase (MAT) in a 2-step reaction in which the energy-rich sulfonium compound is formed by dephosphorylation of ATP. All living cells, with the only exception of some parasites and infectious agents, express MAT
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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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