Is fundamentalism a threat to science? Evidence from scientometrics

This article aims to provide scientometric evidence in order to confirm or refute the statement that the “rise in literalist religious thinking in the 1990s devastated science in the Islamic world by promoting the idea that all knowledge could be found in the Koran” published in a Special Report in the New Scientist and to map the literature related to fundamentalism over time and space during the last ten years. We find that despite the rise of fundamentalism, science was thriving in eight Islamic countries (Iran, Jordan, Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, Malaysia, Morocco, and Pakistan) during the period and hence the statement is refuted. The mapping of the “fundamentalist” literature indicates that there are a constant number of articles per year (60 to 70) covering disciplines ranging from religion and sociology to political sciences and international relations. The center of research is revealed to be the Anglo-Saxon world with epicenter the USA. Finally, we identify that the debate of fundamentalism versus science is in an embryonic stage.     

Research emphasis and collaboration in Africa

Scientific co-authorship of African researchers has become a fashionable topic in the recent scientometric literature. Researchers are investigating the effects, modes, dynamics and motives of collaboration in a continental research system which is in an embryonic stage and in different stages of development from country to country. In this article we attempt to provide some additional evidence by examining both patterns of collaboration at country and continental levels and the scientific disciplines emphasised. Our findings indicate that the continent’s research emphasises medical and natural resources disciplines to the detriment of disciplines supporting knowledge based economies and societies. Furthermore, we identify that the collaborative patterns in Africa are substantial higher than in the rest of the world. A number of questions related to research collaboration and its effects are raised.     

A PET study of Turner's syndrome: effects of sex steroids and the X chromosome on brain

Women with Turner's syndrome (TS) allow us to study the neurobiological associates of cognitive and behavioral abnormalities because they lack one/part of one X chromosome, and endogenous estrogen. We studied 13 healthy controls (mean age +/- SD, 28 +/- 6 years) and 16 TS subjects (mean age +/- SD, 26 +/- 6 years). We measured cognitive abilities using neuropsychological tests, and cerebral metabolic rates for glucose with positron emission tomography. Compared to controls, TS subjects had significant absolute hypermetabolism in most brain areas; however, normalized metabolism was significantly lower in TS subjects than controls in the insula and association neocortices bilaterally, and there were significant differences in functional metabolic associations of brain region pairs originating in occipital cortex bilaterally, and within the right hemisphere. There were significant correlations between right-left cognitive and metabolic asymmetries in the TS group. Also, within TS a preliminary analysis demonstrated "X chromosome dosage" effects in language ability and left temporal metabolism, asymmetry of right-left test scores, and parietal metabolism. We hypothesize that within TS: i) generalized brain hypermetabolism reflects global abnormalities in neuron packing; ii) neuronal abnormalities occur in association neocortex that differ in nature or extent from whole brain and are associated with significant differences in normalized metabolism; iii) cognitive deficits are related to brain metabolic abnormalities; and iv) social-behavioral problems may be related to abnormalities of brain metabolism. Moreover, in human brain the X chromosome involved in development of the association neocortices.     

Changes in expression of NR-1 and c-jun mRNA in rat lumbar spinal cord after neonatal common peroneal nerve crush

We have examined the expression of the NR-1 subunit of the glutamate NMDA receptor and the immediate early gene c-jun in lumbar spinal cord following neonatal common peroneal nerve crush. The expression of these two genes was studied up to 12 days post-injury (crush occurring at neonatal day P2). The levels of both NR-1 and c-jun mRNA were increased in spinal cord ipsilateral to the site of crush, the induction of mRNA was shown to occur in a time-dependent manner, peaking at 5 days post-injury. The level of NR-1 mRNA showed the most substantial change following nerve crush, increasing 5 times from 4 h to 5 days post-crush. An increase in expression of NR-1 was also observed in spinal cord contralateral to the injury, although quantitatively this was a smaller effect. These results indicate that early postnatal injury causes a significant increase in the expression of NR-1 mRNA which is most marked at 5 days after injury. This period coincides with that of maximum cell death and indicates that the selective induction of NR-1 could underlie the mechanism of this cell death.     

Thermal analysis and optimization of an anaerobic treatment system of whey

The whey produced during cheese and cream cheese making process is one of the most important environmental problems dairy industries are facing, due to its high organic load. Anaerobic treatment seems to be a promising solution for this problem, since it not only reduces greatly the organic load but it also produces biogas, which can be then burnt. It is the scope of this study to perform an exergetic and economic analysis of an anaerobic treatment system of whey accompanied by the production of steam resulting from the burning of biogas. The system analyzed extends from the storage of whey, up to the disposal of the treated effluent from the anaerobic reactor, and the exit of the steam to be used in the plant. The exergy analysis is performed treating the system as a steam production plant, while the economic analysis, which is performed using the Net Present Value (NPV) method, is performed treating the system as a natural gas production plant. The exergy efficiency and NPV calculations are followed by a sensitivity analysis and an optimization with respect to some of the parameters used. Moreover, the exergy efficiency and NPV are calculated for three scenarios. The results indicate that the anaerobic treatment of high strength waste such as whey is a sustainable investment, at least for a substantial volume of whey.     

Scientometric impact assessment of a research policy instrument: the case of rating researchers on scientific outputs in South Africa

The influence of the National Research Foundation’s (NRF) rating system on the productivity of the South African social science researchers is investigated scientometrically for the period from 1981 to 2006. Their output performance is mainly indicated by their research publications. Following international best practice in scientometrics as well as the behavioural reinforcement theory, we employed the “before/after control impact (BACI) method”, as well as the well known econometric breakpoint test as proposed by Chow. We use as control group the publications in the field of clinical medicine. The field is not supported by NRF and hence clinical medicine researchers are not affected by the evaluation and rating system. The findings show a positive impact of the NRF programme on the research outputs of social sciences researchers and the implementation of the programme has increased the relevant population of research articles by an average of 24.5% (during the first 5 years) over the expected number of publication without the programme. The results confirm the scientometric findings of other studies (e.g. that of Nederhof) that ratings promulgate research productivity.     

Identification of structural systems by neural networks

A method based on the use of neural networks is developed for the identification of systems encountered in the field of structural dynamics. The methodology is applied to the identification of linear and nonlinear dynamic systems such as the damped Duffing oscillator and the Van der Pol equation. The “generalization” ability of the neural networks is used to predict the response of the identified systems under deterministic and stochastic excitations. It is shown that neural networks provide high fidelity models of unknown structural dynamic systems, which are used in applications such as structural control, health monitoring of structures, earthquake engineering, etc.     

Production and properties of nanoelectrospray emitters used in Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry: implications for determination of association constants for noncovalent complexes

Electrospray ionization (ESI) is extensively used in the analysis of biological compounds; yet some fundamental properties of this technique are not completely understood. It is widely recognized that care should be exercised when noncovalent complexes are being studied by ESI, since weak noncovalent binding can be broken or formed during the desolvation process. In the present work, spectra from the noncovalent complex, vancomycin/diacetyl-L-lysyl-D-alanyl-D-alanine, obtained from ESI and from nanoelectrospray ionization (nanoESI), have been compared. The results indicated that the milder desolvation conditions arising as a result of the smaller sizes of droplets produced in the nanoESI source attenuated effects upon weak bonds in the desolvation process. The association constant values calculated from the relative peak intensities suggest that, when using ESI, the analyzed noncovalent complex dissociated in the condensed phase during the spraying process. The influences of experimental parameters such as tip diameter and coating for nanoESI needles were investigated. Principal component analysis, a multivariate analysis method, was applied to achieve a better evaluation of the spectra obtained using different needle diameters and coatings for the analysis of the noncovalent complex vancomycin/diacetyl-L-lysyl-D-alanyl-D-alanine. It was found that 2-microm tip diameter resulted in more reproducible spectra than the larger tip diameters tested (6-20 microm).