1,720,984 research outputs found
Filfla: A case study of the effect of target practice on coastal landforms
No full textFilfla is an islet located in the southernmost point of the Maltese archipelago, at about 5 km southwest of the main island of Malta. The geomorphological features of Filfla, together with the small rocky islet, Filfoletta, located one hundred metres southwest from Filfla, were strongly affected by human impact, as they were used as shooting ranges by military powers until the 1970s. This chapter presents the results of the field survey of the coastal screes surrounding the islet and visual comparisons with local Maltese screes. From these field studies, it was concluded that the consequences of the impact of the bombs still persists. In fact, the cliff surfaces at Filfla are completely bare from vegetation cover and fresh scars were observed. Local fishermen reported that many landslides had occurred during recent years, and they seem to be more frequent than along other Maltese and Gozitan coasts. Moreover, Filfoletta has mostly disappeared after the intense bombing
Bridging natural and cultural values of sites with outstanding scenery: evidence from Gozo, Maltese Islands
Full text linkThe paper focuses on a site of outstanding scenery located along the NW coast of the Island of Gozo (Malta), which was included in the Malta's UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in 1998 on the basis of the four criteria related to natural properties.
The aim of the study is to bridge scientific and cultural values of the Dwejra area by examining in particular its geological and geomorphological features, which have been fundamental in shaping such a spectacular scenery and determining its historical and cultural importance.
The coast of the Maltese Islands, with a series of occupiers over the last ten millennia, has led to the development of a high density of coastal uses. Such uses superimpose on both a diverse range of aesthetic natural qualities and also different cultural properties that have changed over time. Sinkholes were a source of shelter on rectilinear coasts and are now areas that attract visitors due to their outstanding natural beauty. Low sloping limestone coast provided an ideal geological setting for salt panning production, whereas today these are main areas for recreational activities. Along the years, the investigated area has however suffered the pressure of diverse human activities, often leading to conflicting interests and resultant landscape damage. As a result, geo-conservation aspects of this site have often been at the centre of national debates. In the light of these issues, this work aims at providing a better understanding of the geological and geomorphological value of the Dwejra area, in order to strengthen the basis for the setting up of sustainable geo-conservation plan, which includes geotourism issues
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
Sea caves and coastal karst scenery along the maltese coasts: The case study of blue grotto
No full textTens of sea caves and other coastal karst landforms are to be found along the limestone coast of the Maltese Islands. Most of the sea caves develop around the present-day sea level, such as Blue Grotto, which is one of the widest and most spectacular sea cave on the islands. The Blue Grotto karst system is composed by partially submerged chambers, sea arches, gorges and small-scale landforms, such as coastal notches, and speleothems. Such landforms developed at the northwestern side of Wied Babu, in a half a kilometer wide bay near Żurrieq. This chapter presents the results of a detailed geomorphological survey of these coastal and karst landforms and discusses the origin and development of the studied landforms. The close relation with the sea level suggests that the system is partly related to former enlargement of dissolutionally widened karst voids and partly related to present-day marine processes, such as waves, and subaerial processes, including rock collapse. Although most of the species recorded from the environs of Filfla are common elsewhere around the Maltese Islands, in general, the recorded biotopes exhibit high species richness values, which is indicative of a low degree of anthropogenic pressure being exerted on the site
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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