1,720,982 research outputs found
Christine de Pizan and Her Treatise on Fortifications (1410)
No full textChristine de Pizan/ Cristina da Pizzano (1365–1430) is well known as poet and as author of The Book of the City of Ladies (1405), in which she describes female leaders in history. Instead it’s quite unknown her book Livre des fais d’armes et de chevalrie, written around 1410, translated in English in 1489 and also in 1932 (The Book of fayttes of armes and of chyualrye). Apart from editorial events, this Treatise is important especially because it’s the first to re-cognize the role of technology of medieval warfare and it’s an important source for gunpower weapon technology, as well as for strategy and tactics. Based on Vegetius’s theory on fortifications, she describes—in the second part—new forms and features of fortresses, also introducing parade grounds along the walls, which was an advanced system of defense for the XV century. She has been the first to talk about artillery and its importance to organize (also geometrically) fortresses in a Treatise, while other important authors, such as L. B. Alberti or Filarete, completely ignored this item in their books. The importance of the Book has been recognized by Italian military historians since the XIX century, for example Carlo Promis and Ignazio Calvi
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Design of Individualized Digital Activities Fostering Strategic Planning in Linear Algebra
No full textIn this paper we present the design of the IPSE (Individualized Planned Strategy Environment), an online environment aimed at fostering the strategic planning competence for solving problems in linear algebra. The IPSE is composed by connected digital activities that guide university students in designing a plan and executing its phases by means of procedural steps theoretically justified. A peculiar feature of the IPSE is the individualization of teaching/learning, pursued by specific feedback provided within the activities and methodological choices left to the student. Moreover, we report the outcomes of a pilot study carried on with first year engineering students: relying on the notion of aletheic component of rational behavior [10], we classify some different expressions of it arisen in written problem solving processes by students who worked with the IPSE
To Observe, to Deduce, to Reconstruct, to Know
No full textThis paper deals with a didactic experience gained in courses that are part of the first year of studies for the Schools of Architecture and Design at Politecnico di Milano. One of the themes of these courses concerns geometric problems, in order to introduce students to 3D space. The peculiarity of the didactic method used is, first of all, to induce the student to observe the real object by identifying its geometric characteristics (symmetries, proportions, contours, and surfaces enveloping it). Subsequently, the goal is to teach how to translate the observed form into mathematical language and to draw it on the computer, using a suitable tool of Computer Graphics. The method, consequently, allows to deepen and appreciate, with greater awareness, the characteristics of the studied form. To illustrate the process, we will present applications related to significant and fascinating objects of interest for the public we are addressing
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
- …
