1,720,993 research outputs found
Land quality changes following the conversion of the natural vegetation into silvo-pastoral systems in semi-arid NE Brazil
No full textThe presence of trees in grasslands frequently results in resource islands of higher soil quality. Therefore, some native trees are often preserved or agroforestry species are interplanted when land is cleared for pasture. We evaluated soil quality changes associated with the conversion of a native thorn forest (caatinga) into silvo-pastoral systems in semiarid NE Brazil. Soil nutrients, organic matter, microbial biomass and soil enzymes under native caatinga, the canopy of two preserved native (Ziziphus joazeiro and Spondias tuberosa) and one introduced tree species (Prosopis juliflora), and under a planted pasture of Cenchrus ciliaris were compared. The two preserved tree species maintained high nutrient and organic matter contents and high biological activity levels not only relative to the grass but also relative to the native caatinga. The non-deciduous Z. joazeiro was more effective than the deciduous S. tuberosa, and enriched surface soils by 100 mg P kg(-1). The complete replacement of natural caatinga with C. ciliaris pasture or a C. ciliaris-P. juliflora silvopastoral system had, after 14 years, decreased microbial biomass C and N contents, and ss-glucosidase activity, but did not affect soil nutrient or organic matter status. The biological activity under the trees of the tree-grass association was greater than under grass alone, although P. juliflora did not maintain higher nutrient or organic matter levels. The search for indigenous alternatives to the main agroforestry species may provide viable alternatives for improved land management and the conservation of biodiversity. Microbiological and biochemical parameters responded more readily to changes in land management than chemical fertility indices. They are important indices for the impact of vegetation changes and its associated land quality changes
Organic matter transformations and soil fertility in a treed pasture in semiarid NE Brazil
No full textPlanted silvo-pastoral systems are formed by sparing selected native trees when land is cleared for pasture establishment, or by planting selected species - often known agroforestry species - into the establishing pasture. Isolated trees within pastures and savannas are often associated with 'resource islands', characterized by higher fertility and organic matter levels under the tree canopies. We here examine the processes underlying the differences in fertility and organic matter in a buffel grass ( Cenchrus ciliaris L.) pasture that contained two tree species (Ziziphus joazeiro Mart., Spondias tuberosa Arruda Cam.) preserved from the native thorn forest and a planted agroforestry species (Prospois juliflora Swartz D. C). The objective is to distinguish effects of soil variability from those induced by the presence of trees or the planting of pasture. The delta(13)C signatures of the original ( largely C3) vegetation, the preserved and planted trees, and the planted C4 grass were used to distinguish the provenance of organic matter in the top soil (0 - 15 cm). This allowed the conclusion that all trees maintained C3 derived C at the original thorn forest level, while lower levels under pasture were due to mineralisation of organic matter. The net rates of forest-derived C loss under pasture varied with soil type amounting to between 25 and 50% in 13 years after pasture establishment. Only on Alfisol, C inputs from the pasture compensated for the C3-C losses. Analysis of organic and inorganic P fractions indicated Z. joazeiro and P. juliflora enriched the soil under their canopy with P, whereas S. tuberosa had no positive effect on fertility. A combination of ANOVA and spatial analysis and mapping was used to show vegetation effects
Aharonov-Bohm effect and superoscillations
No full textThe path-integral technique in quantum mechanics provides an intuitive framework for comprehending particle propagation and scattering. Calculating the propagator for the Aharonov-Bohm potential fits into the range of potentials in multiply-connected spaces, with the propagator represented through a series expansion. In this paper, we analyze the Schr & ouml;dinger evolution of superoscillations, showing the supershift properties of the solution to the Schr & ouml;dinger equation for this potential. Our proof is based on the continuity of particular infinite order differential operators acting on spaces of entire functions
EVOLUTION OF SUPEROSCILLATIONS FOR SPINNING PARTICLES
No full textSuperoscillating functions are band-limited functions that can oscillate faster than their fastest Fourier component. These functions appear in various fields of science and technology, in particular they were discovered in quantum mechanics in the context of weak values introduced by Y. Aharonov and collaborators. The evolution problem of superoscillatory functions as initial conditions for the Schrödinger equation is intensively studied nowadays and the supershift property of the solution of Schrödinger equation encodes the persistence of superoscillatory phenomenon during the evolution. In this paper, we prove that the evolution of a superoscillatory initial datum for spinning particles in a magnetic field has the supershift property. Our techniques are based on the exact propagator of spinning particles, the associated infinite order differential operators and their continuity on suitable spaces of entire functions with growth conditions
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
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