1,721,164 research outputs found
Assessment of fruit and vegetable residues suitable for renewable energy production: GIS-based model for developing new frontiers within the context of circular economy
Full text linkDue to the necessity of developing renewable energy sources, the anaerobic digestion for producing biomethane has developed significantly in the last years, since it allows to both reduce disposal treatment and produce green energy. In this field, fruit and vegetable wastes have been recently put forward, since they could represent a suitable resource for producing biomethane as a new frontier within the context of a circular economy. This study aims at filling the gap in the knowledge of the production, quantities and biogas potential production of these residues. On this basis, a GIS-based model was developed and applied to the Sicily region by investigating the specific regulatory framework as well as by analysing descriptive statistics. The results of the GIS analyses enabled the localisation of the highest productive territorial areas and highlighted where fruit and vegetable wastes are abundantly located. In this regard, about 7 million Nm3 of biogas could be produced by reusing only the fruit and vegetable residues coming from the three most representative Sicilian wholesale markets among those considered. Finally, the regulatory framework is of crucial importance in inhibiting or supporting the use of the selected biomass in a specific sector, with regard to the case study considered
Net electricity and heat generated by reusing Mediterranean agro-industrial by-products
Full text linkThe necessity to investigate suitable alternatives to conventional fossil fuels has increased interest in several renewable energy resources, especially in biomasses that are widely available and make it possible to reach environmental and socio-economic improvements. Among solutions for bioenergy production, anaerobic digestion technology allows biogas production by reusing agricultural residues and agro-industrial by-products. By considering the basic concepts of the Biogasdoneright® method, the objective of this study was to estimate the theoretical potential net electricity and heat production from anaerobic digestion of citrus pulp and olive pomace highly available worldwide. A model was developed and applied in a study area of the Mediterranean basin, where the biogas sector is still very limited despite the importance of both agricultural and agro-industrial activities, especially with regard to citrus and olive cultivation processing. Firstly, the application of a geographical information system (GIS) software tool allowed the estimation of the biogas potentially produced from citrus pulp and olive pomace re-use. Then, the development of a technical assessment demonstrated that 15.9 GWh electricity and 88,000 GJ heat per year could be generated from these by-products, satisfying approximate 17% of the electricity demand of the agricultural sector of the study area (90.2 GWh y −1 ). The achieved results could be relevant with regard to the intervention priorities established by the European Union related to the planning activities supported by the European Structural and Investment Funds within the Smart Specialisation Strategy
Sustainable Promotion of Traditional Rural Buildings as Built Heritage Attractions: A Heritage Interpretation Methodology Applied in South Italy
Full text linkThe study describes the methodology implemented to include a rural cultural heritage attraction within an existing tourist route, i.e., the Sicilian Roads of Wine (“Strade del vino”). The aim was to promote a traditional rural building (TRB) as a tourist attraction and diversify rural tourism offerings. By promoting TRB and wine and food, the rural tourism sector offers a significant opportunity to achieve sustainable socio-economic development in rural areas, rural diversification, and landscape preservation. The inclusion of the TRB within the visitor route is based on a detailed heritage analysis approach as an operative process which could enable the comprehension and collective use of the cultural sites. The valorization of a traditional rural building with wine cellars and oil mills, located within the Chiaramonte Gulfi (RG) boundary, will be described. The objective is to make an architectural heritage building made with local materials and following the traditional Sicilian building techniques accessible to tourists. Special attention is paid to restore the building by respecting its identity and relevant building regulations and focusing on a complete, sustainable approach regarding social, environmental, and economic factors
Spatial Analyses to Assess the Availability of Sheep Wool as Potential Eco-friendly Material
No full textThe main objective of this work was to investigate the yearly availability of an agricultural co-product, i.e., sheep wool, suitable as eco-friendly material in building sector. Currently, sheep wool is an agricultural special waste contaminated with impurities, with high disposal costs for breeder, and often illegally disposed (e.g., buried or burned), with a strong environmental impact. On the other hand, by considering the green building sector, sheep wool responds to the requirements of green building components because is an eco-friendly material, a surplus, yearly renewable, and totally recyclable. If used instead of common insulation materials (e.g., fiberglass, rock wool, polyurethane foam, polystyrene), or as reinforcement fibre in bio composite materials, sheep wool offers significant benefits for sustainability such as a reduction for both cost of breeding and environmental pollution. In this study, a Geographical Information System (GIS) - based model to locate and quantify the yearly amount of livestock co-production, i.e., sheep wool, coming from dairy sheep breeding, was put forward and was applied in a study area located in Southern Italy highly characterized by this kind of breeding. The GIS-based model results provided the localization and the quantification of the yearly amount of sheep wool in order to evaluate its availability as new eco-friendly material. Moreover, these results could represent basic information for further analysis of the environmental impact related to the logistics and supply phase of sheep wool to a future collection centre
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
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