1,721,122 research outputs found

    Climate Proof Fresh Water Supply in Coastal Areas and Deltas in Europe

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    In the near future, climate change will likely increase pressures on transition zones such as deltas and coastal areas (IPCC, 2013). This special issue focuses on how to “climate proof” these zones with special concerns for the stresses stemming from droughts and salinization. Coastal zones and Deltas are under pressure worldwide. High water demand in these regions put pressure on the availability of freshwater resources and on coastal ecosystems. This leads to problems like water shortage, overexploitation of groundwater resources, saltwater intrusion, and degradation of wetlands. Economic growth, population increase, and climate change may potentially intensify these problems. This, therefore, is of strategic importance for Europe, which has a long coastline where many human activities are concentrated. Coastal aquifer development is often intensive and prone to induce salinization because of seawater intrusion, up-coning of deep saline water, and residual salinity in aquitards (Custodio 2010). Severity and frequency of droughts appear to have increased in the southern European countries. Minimum river flows are projected to decrease significantly not only in southern and southeastern Europe, but also in many other parts of the continent, especially in summer (EEA 2012). The Mediterranean region is particularly stressed (e.g. Giorgi 2006), due to the combined effect of rising sea levels, increased water demand due to global warming, and reduced aquifer recharge

    Examining innovative designs of agri-environmental schemes in Europe:A case comparison of impact pathways

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    Agri-environmental schemes (AES), a subtype of payments for ecosystem services (PES), aim to address Europe's environmental and climate objectives by incentivising farmers to maintain or shift to farming practices that deliver additional ecosystem services (ES). We develop a theory of change (ToC) for AES, reviewing nine European case studies at different implementation stages, yet all featuring innovative contract solutions to increase ES provision (e.g., water quality, pollination) and enhance bird and grassland biodiversity. Mirroring ecosystem and geographic variety across Europe, we analyse observed strengths and weaknesses in designing, implementing, and evaluating AES, and flag emerging research gaps. Using the comparative case study (CCS) method to analyse case-specific secondary data, we highlight the importance of local contextualization and management customization across landscapes, differentiating contract types to target variable farmer groups. Some regionally implemented schemes outside the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) framework emphasize trust-building and prove well-tailored to local conditions. New result-based schemes may achieve both farmer uptake and incremental ES delivery, depending on ES types and costs. Spatial coordination incentives (agglomeration bonuses and thresholds) stimulate farmer uptake, but their cost effectiveness remains undocumented. Collective AES schemes can work well when collaborative traditions and accumulated social capital are ex-ante present. Mixing incentive policies with regulatory threat may boost AES uptake. Generally, high opportunity costs among intensively producing farms and complex administrative processes constitute key obstacles hampering AES success. Current research mostly measures AES success in terms of farmer participation (ToC outputs), while rigorous environmental impact evaluations (ToC outcomes and impacts) are essentially lacking. Addressing the identified obstacles and research gaps might enhance AES effectiveness, but also provides more educated perspectives on realistic potentials for AES to support European sustainability goals.</p

    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

    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

    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

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We 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
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