1,720,959 research outputs found
Towards a bottom-up estimation of a standard unit operating cost for bus operators: Methodology and policy implications in Italy
No full textThe paper proposes a bottom-up model for the calculation of unit operating costs of bus operators, with the aim of informing a more realistic calculation of standard costs in public transport. Standard costs are a key input for a more effective allocation of public resources to bus operators in Italy and allow for setting a virtuous circle towards more efficient public transport systems. Based on easy-to-collect data, an explicit dependence of some cost components upon relevant context/service variables faced by bus operators is introduced, ameliorating existing methods currently adopted. This enables bus operators to identify directions to improve their performance and public bodies to resort to more effective standard cost estimations. The viability of the proposed approach is showcased in the real case of Azienda Napoletana Mobilità, the biggest bus operator in the city of Naples (Italy), with examples of company-oriented and policy-oriented implications
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
Accessibility analysis in spatial planning: A case of special economic zones (SEZs) in Campania, Southern Italy
Full text linkThe strategic role of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) at the Italian level has also been underlined by the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan, which has provided an important economic endowment to relaunch the national economy, in general, and the Campania region territorial economy, in particular. Literature and best practices clearly show that many factors determine the success of a SEZ, with transport accessibility being one of the key factors. This study performs a transport accessibility analysis both at national and first/last-leg levels, by comparing the accessibility of the Campania SEZ areas, the other SEZ areas in Italy and all the other Italian local labour systems. The study focuses on the Campania region, as it represents the first Italian pilot project of spatial planning through the establishment of SEZs. The Campania region exhibits, on average, good transport accessibility both at a national level (considering the multi-modal freight Italian transport network) and at a first/last-leg level (considering relevant nodes of the network, such as tollbooths, freight stations, ports, interports and airports). Also, the impact of SEZ implementation on land use planning has been discussed, to provide a useful tool for stakeholders that are interested in revitalizing the area, at different levels: i) land use policymakers, to plan interventions/planning concerning infrastructures and spatial planning; ii) national policymakers, to establish SEZs in other geographical areas; iii) investors, to assess the convenience of investments in this geographical area
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
Ro-Ro/Ro-Pax maritime transport in Italy: A policy-oriented market analysis
No full textThis paper proposes an in-depth analysis of Ro-Ro/Ro-Pax services in the Western Mediterranean, with a focus on Italy. Following an already consolidated research track, a database of Ro-Ro/Ro-Pax services has been built and analysed, enabling policy insights on port connectivity, market positioning of shipping companies across ports and routes, and congestion of Ro-Ro/Ro-Pax port terminals. Furthermore, an adaptation of the well-known GLS-based procedure that updates/estimates o-d flows from traffic measurements has been proposed, to estimate Ro-Ro/Ro-Pax freight flows between ports in a study area, given the total inbound/outbound port throughput and the total weekly capacity of port-to-port services. Application to both a laboratory experiment and to a real case study yielded very effective results. Overall, the presented analyses update earlier contributions in the literature and set the basis for an observatory on Ro-Ro/Ro-Pax services that might be regularly brought up to date and applied also to other countries
Hypergraph-based centrality metrics for maritime container service networks: A worldwide application
No full textCentrality metrics are commonly applied to analyse maritime container service networks, usually modelled as L-graphs (with links representing legs of each service) or P-graphs (with links representing direct port-to-port connections enabled by each service). In fact, maritime container service networks are characterised by routing strategies encompassing multiple alternative routing options between ports – e.g., different sequences of services and/or of transhipment operations in diverse hub ports of call – with an overall transit time depending upon the cumulated frequency of concerned services at loading ports. This resembles exactly the structure of transit networks, modelled usually with a hypergraph-based approach, thus preferable to also represent container service networks. The topology of a hypergraph consists of a dedicated set of links (either in a L- or a P- approach) for each service, and of hyperlinks/waiting links at each port modelling the waiting time as a function of the cumulated frequency of relevant services calling at that port. This allows hypergraphs to account properly for routing strategies in the above sense. Extension of centrality metrics to hypergraphs modelling maritime container services is not straightforward as well and deserves attention. This paper aims to contribute to this topic: theoretical and practical implications of calculation of centrality metrics in hypergraphs are discussed first, by introducing the concepts of HL-graphs and HP-graphs. Then, a new formulation of the betweenness centrality metric consistent with the concept of hyperpath is proposed, leveraging the probability of occurrence of each elemental path in an hyperpath. Finally, an application to a worldwide network of container services related to year 2019 showcases the effectiveness and the easiness of calculation of the new proposed betweenness centrality metric
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