1,721,023 research outputs found

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The 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 comprehensive study of the river plume in a microtidal setting

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    On the basis of observations and modelling of the plume generated by the Misa River (AN, Italy), we performed a comprehensive study, which integrated different sources of information (field data, numerical simulations, etc.), of the generation and transport mechanisms of river plumes flowing into microtidal environments. First, we analysed images simultaneously acquired by both two shore-based stations and satellite to determine plume fronts and extensions. Then, we correlated such information with the estuarine forcing to recognize the plume generation and transport mechanisms. Being real-life events influenced by a combination of factors, we run numerical simulations to separately study each force and its influence on the plume evolution. We also performed simulations of two real-life cases, to compare the modelled and observed results. We identified the river discharge and the wind as the main generation and transport mechanisms, respectively. Moreover, waves could stir, suspend, and drag plume sediments, even if results showed that a river discharge associated with a return period smaller than 1 year produced a plume denser than 5-year return period waves. The transport mechanisms were responsible for the alongshore extension of the plume. The tide, even if secondarily, affected the plume evolution, depending on its phase shift to the river discharge peak. Particle Tracking Velocimetry from videos acquired by a shore-based station provided the surface velocity field in the final river stretch. This and the contributions by wind and waves were correlated with the plume extension through a power law

    Variations on the Author

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    “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

    Long-term evolution of an inner bar at the mouth of a microtidal river

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    We conducted, for the first time, a study of the long-term evolution of an inner mouth bar in a microtidal environment that complements field observations with detailed numerical modelling of the same morphodynamics. Images collected by a video-monitoring station, from 2016 to 2019, were processed to study the evolution of a persistent inner mouth bar formed inside the highly engineered Misa River estuary (Senigallia, Italy) after years of reduced precipitation and discharges. We developed a semi-automatic procedure to detect the emerged area of this deposit. We seek to quantify the relationship between the long-term evolution of the bar and the forcing from the river, waves and tides. The observed high peaks in river discharge caused a strong downriver bar migration (i.e. almost twice the river width). Conversely, the observed sea storms produced an upriver bar migration smaller than one river width. A much slower and weaker (less than half the river width) upriver migration was also observed during periods of large area accretion and due to mild wave climate. Moreover, results showed that the sea water level variation did not directly impact the morphodynamics of the estuary, affecting the emerged portion of the bar only. Numerical simulations, run with Delft3D, were used to complete the information coming from field observations. After some checks on the proper use of the solver for the scenarios and environments of interest, some parametric simulations were run to highlight the role of the different forcing on the bed evolution. Simulations showed, as expected, erosion of the riverbed and significant downriver migrations (four river widths) during peaks of river discharge comparable to the 1-year return period discharges. Numerical results also showed upriver sediment transport when the wave forcing was dominant, with 10-years return period waves inducing an upriver bar migration in the order of one river width. Then, one real-life event was simulated to inspect the interaction of the various forcing and to compare their effects with the observations. Our analysis provides new insight into the complex morphodynamics in a microtidal estuary when weak river discharge is opposed by sea waves driving upriver sediment transport. A more thorough understanding of the morphodynamics is needed for future forecasting of the formation and evolution of sediment deposits inside estuarine channels that can inhibit both navigation and the flux of sediment from the river to the estuary

    Inotropic therapy is unsuccessful: wrong conceptual target or wrong therapeutic tools?

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    Since a depressed contractility has long been considered the primary defect in patients with heart failure, the use of inotropic agents has been regarded as a logical approach to treat this syndrome. Despite this conceptual framework, these drugs have not yet established themselves in the treatment of chronic heart failure and their long-term use was associated with an excessive mortality while the short-term intravenous administration in critically ill patients produced only acute hemodynamic results without a stable clinical improvement. At least four mechanisms could explain this discrepancy: their arrhythmogenicity, their direct cardiotoxic effects, the downregulation of the beta-adrenoreceptors, and the energetic cost of inotropic intervention. Moreover, in many patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy the reduction in contractility could be considered as a compensatory mechanism since hibernation is able to decrease the metabolic requirements of the heart. The contractile force of the heart can be augmented not only by an increased availability of intracellular calcium for troponin C but also by an increased sensitivity of the contractile proteins to calcium. A new class of inotropes working with this mechanism is now available and could represent a real improvement in this challenging therapeutic area.Since a depressed contractility has long been considered the primary defect in patients with heart failure, the use of inotropic agents has been regarded as a logical approach to treat this syndrome. Despite this conceptual framework, these drugs have not yet established themselves in the treatment of chronic heart failure and their long-term use was associated with an excessive mortality while the short-term intravenous administration in critically ill patients produced only acute hemodynamic results without a stable clinical improvement. At least four mechanisms could explain this discrepancy: their arrhythmogenicity, their direct cardiotoxic effects, the downregulation of the beta-adrenoreceptors, and the energetic cost of inotropic intervention. Moreover, in many patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy the reduction in contractility could be considered as a compensatory mechanism since hibernation is able to decrease the metabolic requirements of the heart. The contractile force of t..

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We 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

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    We 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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