The authorship dilemma: alphabetical or contribution?

Scientific communities have adopted different conventions for ordering authors on publications. Are these choices inconsequential, or do they have significant influence on individual authors, the quality of the projects completed, and research communities at large? What are the trade-offs of using one convention over another? In order to investigate these questions, we formulate a basic two-player game theoretic model, which already illustrates interesting phenomena that can occur in more realistic settings. We find that contribution-based ordering leads to a denser collaboration network and a greater number of publications, while alphabetical ordering can improve research quality. Contrary to the assumption that free riding is a weakness of the alphabetical ordering scheme, when there are only two authors, this phenomenon can occur under any contribution scheme, and the worst case occurs under contribution-based ordering. Finally, we show how authors working on multiple projects can cooperate to attain optimal research quality and eliminate free riding given either contribution scheme.     

Working conditions in the engine department – A qualitative study among engine room personnel on board Swedish merchant ships

The specific problems associated with the work on board within the merchant fleet are well known and have over the years been a topic of discussion. The work conditions in the engine room (ER) are demanding due to, e.g. the thermal climate, noise and awkward working postures. The work in the engine control room (ECR) has over recent years undergone major changes, mainly due to the introduction of computers on board. In order to capture the impact these changes had implied, and also to investigate how the work situation has developed, a total of 20 engine officers and engine ratings were interviewed. The interviews were semi-structured and Grounded Theory was used for the data analysis. The aim of the present study was to describe how the engine crew perceive their work situation and working environment on board. Further, the aim was to identify areas for improvements which the engine crew consider especially important for a safe and effective work environment. The result of the study shows that the design of the ECR and ER is crucial for how different tasks are performed. Design which does not support operational procedures and how tasks are performed risk inducing inappropriate behaviour as the crew members’ are compelled to find alternative ways to perform their tasks in order to get the job done. These types of behaviour can induce an increased risk of exposure to hazardous substances and the engine crew members becoming injured.     

Determination of Inclusion Characteristics in the Asea‐SKF Process using the Modified Spark‐Induced OES Technique as a Complement in Studying the Influence of Top Slag Composition

The spark‐induced modified optical emission spectroscopy (OES) technique developed by Ovako Steel makes it possible to rapidly determine inclusion characteristics in steel samples. In earlier investigations using the modified spark‐induced OES technique for steel samples taken from billets, predicted oxygen contents agreed well with results from conventional melt extraction analyses. In this investigation, samples taken during ladle treatment in an ASEA‐SKF ladle furnace were analysed using the modified OES technique. When comparing the results with inclusion characteristics determined by conventional analysis, similar trends were found. Plant trials were also carried out where three different top slag compositions were used. The purpose was to evaluate if the modified OES technique can be used to study the effect of changes in the refining operation on inclusion characteristics. Results indicated that the modified OES technique could be used to determine the effect of a changed slag composition on the inclusion characteristics in the steel. Since the modified OES method provides rapid feedback of inclusion characteristics, it has the potential of being used for faster optimisation of ladle refining operations.     

Higher-order Hamilton dynamics and Hamilton–Jacobi divergence PDE

This paper, using a non-standard Legendrian duality, investigates the Hamiltonian dynamics and formulates a Hamilton–Jacobi type divergence PDE governed by higher-order Lagrangians.     

Supercritical Fluid Extraction and Chromatography of Lipids in Bilberry

A supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) method has been developed for the extraction of lipids in bilberry. Experimental design was used to optimize pressure, temperature and extraction time using CO₂ as solvent. Best SFE condition for total lipids was 450 bar, 60 °C and 45 min. The SFE method was compared to conventional Bligh & Dyer (B&D) extraction. The amount of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) was found to be 4.84 ± 0.06 mg and 4.564 ± 0.003 mg per g of the freeze‐dried bilberry sample for the developed SFE and B&D methods, respectively, while the amount of total lipids was found to be 54.40 ± 6.06 mg and 65.70 ± 0.67 mg per g of sample for SFE and B&D, respectively. This discrepancy between FAME and total lipids could be explained by the presence of wax esters, sterol esters, carotenoids and phospholipids, as determined by supercritical fluid chromatography.     

Prediction of chromatographic retention and protein identification in liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry

Liquid chromatography coupled on- or off-line with mass spectrometry is rapidly advancing as a tool in proteomics capable of dealing with the inherent complexity in biology and complementing conventional approaches based on two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Proteins can be identified by proteolytic digestion and peptide mass fingerprinting or by searching databases using short-sequence tags generated by tandem mass spectrometry. This paper shows that information on the chromatographic behavior of peptides can assist protein identification by peptide mass fingerprinting in liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. This additional information is significant and already available at no extra experimental cost.     

Using contexts and R-R interval estimation in lossless ECG compression

The paper presents a new lossless ECG compression scheme. The short-term predictor and the coder use conditioning on a small number of contexts. The long-term prediction is based on an algorithm for R-R interval estimation. Several QRS detection algorithms are investigated to select a low complexity and reliable detection algorithm. The coding of prediction residuals uses primarily the Golomb-Rice (GR) codes, but, to improve the coding results, escape codes GR-ESC are used in some contexts for a limited number of samples. Experimental results indicate the good overall performance of the lossless ECG compression algorithms (reducing the storage needs from 12 to about 3-4 bits per sample). The scheme consistently outperforms other waveform or general purpose coding algorithms.     

盐水介质中Ti12Mo5Ta合金的电化学特性(英文)

比较了未再结晶和再结晶Ti12Mo5Ta合金、未再结晶Ti12Mo合金和工业用纯钛(cp-Ti)在0.9%生理盐水(pH 2.3)中37°C下的电化学行为。从阳极极化曲线中得到了极低的钝化电流密度(10-6 A/cm2),这表明所有样品在酸性0.9%NaCl溶液中具有高的耐蚀性能。采用扫描电子显微镜(SEM)观察样品的表面形貌,发现所有样品表面受到了相同的腐蚀,而且经阳极动电位极化测试后的样品表面没有出现点蚀、裂纹或其它缺陷。使用等效电路模拟电化学阻抗谱(EIS)数据,以表征样品表面且更好地理解Mo和Ta的添加对cp-Ti及再结晶的影响。EIS结果证实,在开路电位下,所有样品在0.9%NaCl溶液(pH 2.3)中产生钝化(极化电阻约为105Ω·cm2)。在37°C时,样品在0.9%NaCl溶液中(pH 2.3)的耐蚀性顺序为:再结晶Ti12Mo5Ta未再结晶Ti12Mo5Ta未再结晶Ti12Mocp-Ti。