1,720,971 research outputs found
Temporary intercropping of cultivated cardoon in Mediterranean mountain farmlands: A case study from Gennargentu-Mandrolisai (Sardinia, Italy)
Full text linkCultivated cardoon (Cynara cardunculus L. var. altilis DC.) is a versatile crop used both for food and energy production that could play a role in the integrated agro-pastoral systems of Mediterranean mountains. This 3-year experiment focused on I) verifying the adaptability of this crop to mountain environmental conditions and II) testing cultivated cardoon temporary intercropping, during its first year of cultivation, with two forage species as a strategy for weed control and for providing additional fodder production. Two intercropping treatments were considered: cultivated cardoon intercropped with fodder radish (Raphanus sativus var. oleiformis Pers) - FR; cultivated cardoon intercropped with serradella (Ornitopus sativus Brot.) – SR and a control treatment with cultivated cardoon without intercropping – NC. Cultivated cardoon well survived the harsh climatic conditions of Mediterranean mountain areas, even characterised by snow events during the first year of cultivation. Temporary intercropping affected the cultivated cardoon plant density, its height and yield components. After three years from sowing, the legacy effect of intercropping was still evident. Already at the beginning of the second year, in the plots where cultivated cardoon was formerly intercropped with fodder radish, the cultivated cardoon density was significantly higher than under the other two treatments (6.8 plants m-2 vs 2.1 - 2.2 plant m-2). The temporary intercropping contributed on average to a dry matter production of 209 g m-2 ( ± 18.2 g m-2 standard error - SE) for fodder radish and 317 g m-2 ( ± 40.1 g m-2 SE) for serradella. The cultivated cardoon achene yield in the 3 rd year was significantly higher in plots under FR treatment (2.73 t ha-1) than in those under SR treatment (0.90 t ha-1) and NC (0.37 t ha-1). A significantly higher presence of Poaceae weeds was observed when cultivated cardoon was under SR treatment
Concurrent weed growth suppression with essential oils and species-specific response to fractionated coconut oil
Full text linkPlant-derived oils are phytotoxic and thus are potential non-synthetic herbicides. The present study investigated the effectiveness of three essential oils (red thyme, clove bud, cinnamon bark) and a vegetable oil, fractionated coconut oil (FCO), used alone or in 2-way essential/FCO mixes for controlling some troublesome weeds at seedling stage. The tested weeds were mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris L.), crown daisy (Glebionis coronaria (L.) Spach), milk thistle (Sylibum marianum (L.) Gaertn.), dense-flowered mullein (Verbascum densiflorum Bertol.), goosegrass (Eleusine indica L. (Gaertn.)), entireleaf morningglory (Ipomoea hederacea (L.) Jacq.), small-flower morningglory (Jacquemontia tamnifolia (L.) Griseb), large crabgrass (Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop.), hemp sesbania (Sesbania exaltata (Raf.) Rydb. ex A.W. Hill). Greenhouse trials included a negative control (non-treated) and a positive control (glyphosate) and were conducted in Sassari (IT) and Auburn (USA). In both locations, all the essential oils used severely injured weeds by 5 days after treatment (DAT), with least or no recovery by plants, with no harvestable plant biomass 20 DAT. FCO provoked more diverse species-specific responses, reducing biomass of crown daisy, large crabgrass, entireleaf morningglory and hemp sesbania compared to the non-treated control while it stimulated the growth of mugwort, dense-flowered mullein, goosegrass, and small-flower morningglory. Milk thistle was the only plant not influenced by FCO compared to the non-treated control. The essential oils mixed with FCO confirmed high phytotoxic effects with a significant improved action when red thyme oil + FCO was applied to goosegrass. Our research confirms the potential herbicidal effect of some phytotoxic essential oils and the potential beneficial growth effect of FCO to some species
Disentangling the drivers of marginalisation in Mediterranean inlands: A case study in the Sardinian mountains
Full text linkFarmland abandonment is a growing issue in many mountainous regions worldwide, particularly in the Mediterranean basin. The central region of Gennargentu-Mandrolisai in Sardinia (Italy) is particularly susceptible to this trend due to its distinctive topography, its remote localisation and the distance from the primary urban centres of the region. In fact, this region was traditionally suited for agro-silvopastoral systems, but it was included in the national strategy for inland areas mainly because of the demographic decline and land abandonment. This paper aims to identify the main drivers of rural marginalisation, abandonment and de-anthropisation by combining qualitative and quantitative spatial data. Qualitative data were collected from 30 farmers’ interviews targeting young, dynamic, innovative farmers in order to identify possible triggers for maintaining agricultural activities. A diachronic analysis of land use from Corine Land Cover maps at five different dates over thirty ye..
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
Is renal vasculitis in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus a bad prognostic factor?
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