1,721,024 research outputs found
A Spatial Analysis of the Farm Structural Change: The Case Study of Tuscany Region
No full textThis paper aims at investigating the factors affecting relative changes in the average farm size over the period 2000-2010. The objective has been pursued applying an empirical investigation in Tuscany region through observation aggregated at municipality level. By applying spatial analysis and spatial econometric techniques, spatial distribution and determinants of different farm size are detected. Results showing the relevance of spatial analysis, pointed out that farm household and territorial characteristics, such as the productivity, single farm payments and being located at plain altitude, positively affect the average farm size since these agricultural holdings are eased to pursue economies of scale
An Example of Reclamation Consortium Energy Self-Sufficiency using Biomass from Riparian Vegetation
No full textNowadays, energy self-sufficiency cannot ignore the environmental sustainability of how it is achieved. On the other hand, one of the largest waste disposal components of a reclamation consortium is represented by residues derived from habitat maintenance. These residues are mainly formed by riparian vegetation that, from an energy point of view, can represent a renewable biomass. Some practical problems arise when passing from a theoretical approach to the development of an effective supply chain, the main of which is the biomass availability. Since the riparian ecosystem is characterized by a wide variety of landforms and biological communities, the functional supply chain must consider seasonal variability, different biomass composition depending on the land, and, hence, a mean biomass feedstock availability. The presented study has been conducted in a reclamation consortium of Northern Tuscany in Italy and examined the main characteristics of the feedstock and estimating its availability. This information has been used to propose different possible supply and utilization chains: a network of small-scale plants, biomass gasification involving external local utilizers or more complex scenarios dedicated to the production of syngas. Among the two final possible supply chains identified, gasification for syngas production and anaerobic digestion for biogas production, the first option resulted to be more profitable. The possible application to the consortium energy balance has been analyzed and commented, evidencing different technical factors that can influence its value
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
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