1,720,959 research outputs found
Conservation Agriculture as an adaptation strategy to drought in Chivi District, Zimbabwe
Get PDFPhD (Geography)Department of Geography and Geo-Information SciencesConservation agriculture (CA) which is an agricultural system with the capabilities of conserving soil and water through its zero to minimal tillage, mulching and crop rotation principles has become popular the world over. This study evaluated CA as an adaptation tool to drought in Chivi district, Zimbabwe. It developed a model to enhance adaptation to drought in Chivi and other areas of similar environment. The VLIR-UOUS (2019) Theory of Change (ToC) principles structured interview checklist was used to review the Logical Framework of CA to establish the project design. Questionnaires, key informant interviews and Focus Group Discussions were used to characterise the nature of CA in Chivi and to assess the socio-economic impact of the project. Official records were used to compare food crop production yields per hectare under conventional and conservation agriculture. Atlas.ti 8‘s capabilities such as Co oc for frequency of occurrence, Co-code Doc Table for numeric analysis, Networks and report tools for visual and text analysis were employed in data analysis. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS version 22) was used for its uni-variate and bivariate analysis capabilities. The findings highlighted weaknesses in the Chivi CA principles and project design. It noted a low adoption of the project with some farmers withdrawing from the project against a downward trend in food production, despite CA having higher yields per hectare. The study also noted low socio-economic impact of CA as a project and its potential outside the project framework. The study concludes that CA has can alleviate the drought effects if the project’s framework is adjusted to suit local contextNR
Development of a Conceptual Framework for Adoption and Sustainable Utilization of Biogas as an Alternative Source of Energy for Emmission
Get PDFPhD (Geography)Department of Geography and Geo-Information SciencesImproved access to modern affordable, sustainable and reliable energy supply is fundamental in the development of any economy and in the achievement of sustainable development goals. However, energy as a resource is increasingly and becoming scare in many countries and subsequently expensive, with a substantial impact on the socio-economic progress, especially in any country that lacks the financial, physical, social and human capital to secure its energy supply. Energy can also be produced though the anaerobic fermentation of biological waste, such as animal excrement, which is methane-rich. Fermentation also produces a nutrient-rich digestate. Biogas can be used for domestic purposes, such as cooking and heating. Furthermore, it can be converted into electricity. Biogas technology is of particular significance in rural households, where energy crisis are common. This thesis therefore aimed at developing an adoption and sustainable utilisation framework of biogas as an alternative source of energy for greenhouse gases emission reduction in the Limpopo Province. The sample involved 72 households with biogas digesters, which were purposively sampled and 128 households without digesters, which were randomly selected. The study was based on the primary data that were elicited using open and closed-ended questionnaires. Empirically, the results of this thesis developed a sustainable, simplified, appropriate and comprehensive framework for biogas adoption and utilisation, including an analysis of important factors that could influence the adoption of this desired technology, for cost-effectiveness and sustainability.NR
Comparison of satellite platform for mapping the distribution of Mauritius thorn (Caesalpinia decapetala) and River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve
Get PDFDATA AVAILABITY STATEMENT: The datasets generated and analysed during this study are not publicly available as they are part of a more extensive study that is currently ongoing but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.Mapping and tracking invasive alien plant species (IAPS) and their invasiveness can be
achieved using remote sensing (RS) and geographic information systems (GIS). Continuous monitoring using RS, GIS and modelling are fundamental tools for informing invasion and management
strategies. Using systematic comparisons, we look at three remote sensing imagery platforms and
how accurately they can be classified within the Vhembe biosphere reserve, Limpopo Province, South
Africa. Supervised classification of National Geospatial Information Colour Digital Aerial Imagery,
DigitalGlobe Worldview 2 and CNES SPOT 6 was performed. The Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM)
algorithm was used to identify the best satellite for species-level classification. The accuracy of the
classifications produced an overall accuracy (OA) of 71% with a Kappa coefficient (KC) of 0.76 for
CDA photographs, an OA of 81% and a KC of 0.80 for Worldview 2, and an OA of 89% with a KC of
0.86 for SPOT 6 imagery. Therefore, SPOT 6 imagery came out as the most suitable for species-level
classification. The classification results from the SPOT 6 imagery were used as input data for further
species distribution modelling of Mauritius Thorn and River Red Gum in the VBR.The University Staff Doctoral Programme, The University of Venda Capacity Development Towards a Higher Degree and DigitalGlobe Foundation.https://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensingGeography, Geoinformatics and MeteorologySDG-13:Climate actionSDG-15:Life on lan
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
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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