1,720,957 research outputs found
Government in The Republic of Cyprus: Responding to the Problems of Water Scarcity and Quality
Full text linkWater management is a significant challenge in The Republic of Cyprus. The country is subject to a number of water problems based on scarcity and quality, with these stemming from limited precipitation inputs, drought, the overuse of groundwater, as well as the spatial disparity of supply and demand due to population growth, agriculture, tourism, and climate change. The convergence of these aspects has generated water problems, which necessitate the use of particular problem-solving responses by government that are targeted at securing the provision of water services and sustaining socio-economic development. To understand how government in Cyprus has responded to water management problems this thesis adopts an understanding based on John Dryzek’s (2013) problem-solving rationalities of administrative rationalism, democratic pragmatism, and economic rationalism. These reflect and build on the three methods that societies use to coordinate and organise responses to socio-environmental problems, namely mandatory, voluntary, and economic approaches. The problem-solving rationalities provide a unique way of understanding government problem-solving due to an interpretation that focuses on the specifics of problem-solving, based on; actor roles, motives, and behaviour; rhetoric; the evolution of responses over time; as well as the use of multiple concepts that are brought together to offer a more inclusive conceptualisation. This research adopts a qualitative approach to data collection and utilises semi-structured interviews to understand the views, roles, and experiences of key actors in problem-solving. A case study approach provides an appropriate context and facilitates detailed analysis of the problem-solving rationalities. The Republic of Cyprus offers a unique and appropriate case study setting. This is justified based on; tangible problems of scarcity and quality in practice; the potential to generate new insights in relation to small, Mediterranean, and peripheral EU state experiences; as well as limited previous research understanding government responses and considering actor roles and behaviour when responding to water problems. Based on the findings, Dryzek’s rationalities demonstrated a good level of applicability, with certain aspects shown to be justifiable such as the basis of administrative rationalism, the idea that some civil servants act in the public interest, and evidence of management challenges expected by Dryzek. Some differences were also found in relation to the existence or non-existence of certain methods or constructs; differences in some natural relationships; as well as variability in actor type, role, behaviour, and motivation. A range of emerging themes were identified as a result of the findings. These included; an alternative understanding of the evolutionary format of problem-solving; the role and influence of supranational governance; the importance of aspects such as culture and economic status; as well as the strong influence of politics. Ultimately, the management challenges of the rationalities, similarities and differences found in practice relating to the characteristics of the rationalities, as well as the emerging themes identified through the findings, have been utilised to develop understanding of problem-solving in Cyprus
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
Understanding consumer responses to water efficiency strategies
No full textUnderstanding how consumers engage with and view their water usage is crucial to the design of more effective water demand management policies and programmes. This chapter argues that while consumers of water may be aware of the need for water conservation, with many expressing good intentions, consumers can often appear to be disengaged or discouraged from positively responding to measures designed to prompt the adoption of water-efficient strategies and behaviours. This disengagement, or inability of the consumer to engage with water-efficient strategies, is highlighted as being due to a range of socio-economic variables, such as age, gender, income, education as well as wider issues of emotional involvement, personal responsibility and institutional trust, and the existence of a gap in expressed attitude and actual behaviour. As a consequence, it is argued that the adoption of single-track water efficiency strategies, such as water metering or education campaigns, is unlikely to be sufficient in its own right, particularly in the medium to long term. Instead, it is suggested that the complexity of human behaviour is more openly recognised and that more diverse and innovative approaches to water efficiency are develope
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
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