1,721,011 research outputs found
Environmental risk analysis of crops for biofuels in the UK
No full textThe past two decades have witnessed significant growth in attention and investment in renewable energy technologies. Replacement of fossil fuels that have long dominated our energy production is favoured as resources are known to be finite and dwindling, leading to increasing prices, as well as the link between their use and global climate change. In 2011, transport accounted for 38% of total national energy consumption with petroleum being the single most used fuel. In terms of how energy use by transport relates to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; in 2011 transport consumed around 55.19 million tonnes of oil equivalent and provisional estimates put emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) at 119 million tonnes (over one quarter of total national CO2 emissions). As a result, biofuels have been increasingly appearing on the agendas of both governments and scientists, and have been picked up by the media and various environmental organisations as a possible means for reducing the GHG contribution from transport. However, the issue is not simple, and there are many who oppose the use of biofuels for various reasons. There are concerns that without a concerted effort to improve the state of knowledge of potential risks and benefits of biofuels, the appropriate long-term development of the technology in the UK may be hindered. The project presented in this thesis was designed to undertake an investigation to identify relevant risks and issues that could inform a risk analysis of the future development, production and use of biofuels in the UK. In the context of biofuels, there is a large and increasing literature in which the associated risks are characterised and assessed scientifically. However, very little research has been done looking at stakeholder opinions, particularly with the public as stakeholders. Increasingly, the media, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the public are concerned about environmental issues and large technological developments that affect the environment and themselves. If any of these groups oppose plans and decisions made then it is possible that they can cause significant disruption or halt progress, despite scientific evidence. Through a series of social science methods involving stakeholders, this project has endeavoured to cast light on the broader understanding and perception of biofuels beyond the academic and research communities and their publications. The primary novel contribution of the thesis is in the insights provided into public awareness, attitudes and perceptions of biofuels, which have previously not been studied in any depth. The data collected and issues identified could potentially be very useful in informing a risk analysis exercise.Working in collaboration with the general public, through focus groups and questionnaires revealed widespread, low level awareness and knowledge of biofuels but little in the way of accurate detailed knowledge of impacts and risks. Public concerns were largely focussed on environmental impacts and personal financial impacts, and their viewswere almost exclusively informed by mass-media sources such as newspapers and television. There was also some evidence of misinformation and awareness of issues that were not considered to be risks by the scientific literature, as well as notable exaggeration of known risks.Public attitudes were deemed to be quite dated, strongly reflecting the view of biofuels presented by the media around 2008, when a number of critical studies were published and shook global confidence in biofuels. With the onset of the global recession, media coverage of biofuels has dropped significantly, and as such, the public have not been exposed to developments in the field.Interviews with expert stakeholders revealed a different picture to the public, and highlighted a completely different perspective – that of threats and risks to the future of biofuels, rather than biofuels as a threat or risk themselves. There was a strong perception amongst the expert stakeholders that the UK and EU governments presented a significant barrier to the potential for biofuels to develop and expand in Europe. Lack of government interest, confidence and action were cited as significant failings that hindered investment necessary to grow a strong biofuel industry.Recommendations for future developments and expansion of biofuels within the EU, should this be deemed appropriate and acceptable, focus on increased government involvement and support to encourage investments that will allow further improvements in the biofuel production process, as well as significant changes in the way scientific information is communicated to the public
Simmons Reef, Mount Blackwood, 57 miles from Melbourne, Victoria [picture] /
No full textRex Nan Kivell Collection NK135.; Exhibited 1994: Gold fever! NLA; Hyde Park Barracks; Gold Museum Ballarat.; Exhibited: Street where you live NLA 1992, Albury 1992, Sydney 1993
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
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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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