1,721,023 research outputs found
The didactic valence of a complex fluvial geomorphosite: dendrochronology, vegetation, petrography and history as tools for an integrated landscape reading
No full textA complex river may represent a precious occasion to understand the dynamicity of a multi disciplinary geo(morpho)site. The Trebbia River, located in the Northern Appennines, is one of the Po tributary flowing towards NE, through Liguria and Emilia Romagna regions. It is well differentiated along its course, so that several geological topics can be analysed in depth through an integrated landscape analysis, conferring the river with an high didactic value. The institution of three SICs (Community Important Sites) along this river represents a starting point that witnesses its importance from a naturalistic point of view as the different morphologies generated by different lithotypes, exemplary of those natural processes that modelled the Earth surface through geological times, witness. The good accessibility to the different scientific and cultural emergences represents in addition an indispensable feature, especially for scholars didactic purposes. Imaging to create an itinerary, particularly addressed to young students, some stops have been chosen to explain the geological and geomorphological setting, vegetation and anthropic settlements characteristics of this fluvial environment. Through the different tools at disposal (dendrochronology, petrography and vegetation) it is possible to configure some exercises to touch by hand the elements constituting the landscape. At last but not the least, the scenic impact of some elements and locations are definitely indisputable and probably means the easiest way to grow curiosity in the public, scholars and not, involved in any didactic or geotourist experience. The upper part of the valley is characterized by two SICs, both instituted in 1995: the San Salvatore Meanders (IT4010006) and the Bobbio-Perino area (IT4010011). This river portion develops across the Bobbio tectonic window and it is characterized by some spectacular scenic valued meanders set on the alternation of the miocenic Arenarie di San Salvatore and Argilliti di Brugnello belonging to the Toscana Nappe. The Trebbia passage through the Bobbio tectonic window, a morphology generated by the concomitant action of the fluvial erosion and tectonic uplifting processes, represents a scientific valence for its geohistorical importance as central tool for the investigation regarding the Northern Appennines thrust belt structure. At the same time it can become a meaningful occasion especially for scholars to approach one of the more complex tectonic concept in a simplified way. At the NE edge of this structure the Barberino Gorges allow the observation of the Ligurian Succession ophiolites relieves. They highlights the linking between geodiversity and biodiversity. The differences in the vegetation that grows on different lithology, as in the specific case on the ophiolites (serpentinofite: Euphorbia spinosa ssp. Ligustica, Sempervivum tectorum), is an evidence of the relation existing between geological substratum and biological diversities, covering the site of an ecological value. The lower valley, from Perino as far as the confluence with the Po River, is characterized by a wider braided riverbed, recognized as a SIC (IT4010016) in 2002. It is a site well predisposed to the examination of the recent evolution of the fluvial terraces and bars through dating of the different geomorphologic surfaces with. Here dendrochronological analysis carried out on bars and at the terrace edges allow to reconstruct the recent river evolution. Some dendrochronological exercises predisposed for the scholars permit them to experiment the scientific methods using the results as a control-instrument. The linkage between geomorphology and human settlements is evident in the case of both the selected cultural emergences located in Bobbio and Rivalta. They allow some reflections on the particular strategies adopted in the settlements choices during medieval and roman times. The scientific attribute, with its geomorphological model, geohistorical, ecological and didactic valences, together with the cultural and scenic attributes, reveal the sites along the Trebbia River to be ideal in order to propose an integrated reading of a river landscape, addressed to different kind of public
Development of the critical zone environment in the highly dynamic landscape of the Forni Glacier forefield: Winds, tree vegetation, pedogenesis and surface waters after glacier retreat
No full textLithological and structural control on Italian mountain geoheritage: opportunities for tourism, outdoor and educational activities
Full text linkMountain landscapes are generated by the interplay of endogenous and exogenous processes, whose reciprocal
importance changes over times. The Italian relief reflects a high geomorphodiversity and an overview on iconic
mountain landscapes, representative of the lithological-structural diversity of the Italian relief, is presented. The study
cases, located along Alps and Apennines and in the Sardinia island, are exemplary for the comprehension of the role
of the substratum in shaping mountain landscapes and of the deriving risk scenario. Moreover, mountain landscapes
are characterized by a high potential for use in terms of: i) ideal open-air natural laboratories for multidisciplinary
educational purposes including geological-geomorphological, historical and ecological topics; ii) possibility of specific
outdoor activities that take advantage of outdoor sports (e.g., climbing, canyoning, speleology). These feasible
and versatile opportunities favour the enhancement of such environments under different perspectives as well as the
involvement of local communities and the socio-economic return deriving from mountain geoheritage management
Earth sciences on the field: educational applications for the comprehension of landscape evolution
No full textThe aim of this paper is to collect and present some educational applications dedicated to the observation and comprehension of the relief and physical landscape evolution at different temporal and spatial scales. The activities were based on the direct contact with the geological-geomorphological contexts. The presented proposals, some of which have been already tested on students of the secondary school of first level, concern: i) the realization of open-air laboratory activities in the alpine environment; in particular simplified dendrochronological procedures were used on scanned wood samples of trees located on deposits and landforms from different origin, to achieve a better comprehension of the modelling process and evolution during time of the physical landscape; ii) the analysis of the fluvial landforms and deposits in educational valued sites to highlight concepts of structural control on fluvial landscape and paleogeography; iii) the observation of sport-climbing walls and of the dependence of progression on the geological and geomorphological structures in order to approach lithotypes and glacial erosion landforms. The link with the concept of geomorphological hazard represented finally an occasion for education to risk. The educational activities herein illustrated represent pilot proposals where fieldwork demonstrated to be essential to fix geological and geomorphological concepts
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
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
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