Harmonic publication and citation counting: sharing authorship credit equitably – not equally, geometrically or arithmetically

Bibliometric counting methods need to be validated against perceived notions of authorship credit allocation, and standardized by rejecting methods with poor fit or questionable ethical implications. Harmonic counting meets these concerns by exhibiting a robust fit to previously published empirical data from medicine, psychology and chemistry, and by complying with three basic ethical criteria for the equitable sharing of authorship credit. Harmonic counting can also incorporate additional byline information about equal contribution, or the elevated status of a corresponding last author. By contrast, several previously proposed counting schemes from the bibliometric literature including arithmetic, geometric and fractional counting, do not fit the empirical data as well and do not consistently meet the ethical criteria. In conclusion, harmonic counting would seem to provide unrivalled accuracy, fairness and flexibility to the long overdue task of standardizing bibliometric allocation of publication and citation credit

Which activities threaten independent living of elderly when becoming problematic : inspiration for meaningful service robot functionality

Purpose: In light of the increasing elderly population and the growing demand for home care, the potential of robot support is given increasing attention. In this paper, an inventory of activities was made that threaten independent living of elderly when becoming problematic. Results will guide the further development of an existing service robot, the Care-O-bot®. Method: A systematic literature search of PubMed was performed, focused on the risk factors for institutionalization. Additionally, focus group sessions were conducted in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and France. In these focus group sessions, problematic activities threatening the independence of elderly people were discussed. Three separate target groups were included in the focus group sessions: (1) elderly persons (n = 41), (2) formal caregivers (n = 40) and (3) informal caregivers (n = 32). Results: Activities within the International Classification of Functioning domains mobility, self-care, and interpersonal interaction and relationships were found to be the most problematic. Conclusions: A distinct set of daily activities was identified that may threaten independent living, but no single activity could be selected as the main activity causing a loss of independence as it is often a combination of problematic activities that is person-specific. Supporting the problematic activities need not involve a robotic solution Read More: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/17483107.2013.840861Peer reviewe

Non-Abelian Chern-Simons Particles in an External Magnetic Field

The quantum mechanics and thermodynamics of SU(2) non-Abelian Chern-Simons particles (non-Abelian anyons) in an external magnetic field are addressed. We derive the N-body Hamiltonian in the (anti-)holomorphic gauge when the Hilbert space is projected onto the lowest Landau level of the magnetic field. In the presence of an additional harmonic potential, the N-body spectrum depends linearly on the coupling (statistics) parameter. We calculate the second virial coefficient and find that in the strong magnetic field limit it develops a step-wise behavior as a function of the statistics parameter, in contrast to the linear dependence in the case of Abelian anyons. For small enough values of the statistics parameter we relate the N-body partition functions in the lowest Landau level to those of SU(2) bosons and find that the cluster (and virial) coefficients dependence on the statistics parameter cancels.Comment: 35 pages, revtex, 3 eps figures include

Phase behaviour of a model of colloidal particles with a fluctuating internal state

Colloidal particles are not simple rigid particles, in general an isolated particle is a system with many degrees of freedom in its own right, e.g., the counterions around a charged colloidal particle.The behaviour of model colloidal particles, with a simple phenomenological model to account for these degrees of freedom, is studied. It is found that the interaction between the particles is not pairwise additive. It is even possible that the interaction between a triplet of particles is attractive while the pair interaction is repulsive. When this is so the liquid phase is either stable only in a small region of the phase diagram or absent altogether.Comment: 12 pages including 4 figure

Genome-wide association study identifies RNF123 locus as associated with chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain (CWP) is a symptom of fibromyalgia and a complex trait with poorly understood pathogenesis. CWP is heritable (48%–54%), but its genetic architecture is unknown and candidate gene studies have produced inconsistent results. We conducted a genome-wide association study to get insight into the genetic background of CWP. METHODS: Northern Europeans from UK Biobank comprising 6914 cases reporting pain all over the body lasting >3 months and 242 929 controls were studied. Replication of three independent genome-wide significant single nucleotide polymorphisms was attempted in six independent European cohorts (n=43 080; cases=14 177). Genetic correlations with risk factors, tissue specificity and colocalisation were examined. RESULTS: Three genome-wide significant loci were identified (rs1491985, rs10490825, rs165599) residing within the genes Ring Finger Protein 123 (RNF123), ATPase secretory pathway Ca (2+) transporting 1 (ATP2C1) and catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT). The RNF123 locus was replicated (meta-analysis p=0.0002), the ATP2C1 locus showed suggestive association (p=0.0227) and the COMT locus was not replicated. Partial genetic correlation between CWP and depressive symptoms, body mass index, age of first birth and years of schooling were identified. Tissue specificity and colocalisation analysis highlight the relevance of skeletal muscle in CWP. CONCLUSIONS: We report a novel association of RNF123 locus and a suggestive association of ATP2C1 locus with CWP. Both loci are consistent with a role of calcium regulation in CWP. The association with COMT, one of the most studied genes in chronic pain field, was not confirmed in the replication analysis

Ab initio alpha-alpha scattering

Processes involving alpha particles and alpha-like nuclei comprise a major part of stellar nucleosynthesis and hypothesized mechanisms for thermonuclear supernovae. In an effort towards understanding alpha processes from first principles, we describe in this letter the first ab initio calculation of alpha-alpha scattering. We use lattice effective field theory to describe the low-energy interactions of nucleons and apply a technique called the adiabatic projection method to reduce the eight-body system to an effective two-cluster system. We find good agreement between lattice results and experimental phase shifts for S-wave and D-wave scattering. The computational scaling with particle number suggests that alpha processes involving heavier nuclei are also within reach in the near future.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Authorship trends in software engineering

This paper aims to examine authorship trends in software engineering, especially those related to the number of authors, of scientific publications. We collected and mined around 70.000 entries from DBLP for 122 conferences and journals, for the period 1971–2012, in order to process several bibliometric indicators. We provide evidence that the number of authors of articles in software engineering is increasing on average around +0.40 authors/decade. The results also indicate that until 1980, the majority of the articles have a sole author, while nowadays articles with 3 or 4 authors represent almost half of the total.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Gender differences in disability after sickness absence with musculoskeletal disorders: five-year prospective study of 37,942 women and 26,307 men

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Gender differences in the prevalence and occupational consequences of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are consistently found in epidemiological studies. The study investigated whether gender differences also exist with respect to chronicity, measured as the rate of transition from sickness absence into permanent disability pension (DP).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Prospective national cohort study in Norway including all cases with a spell of sickness absence > eight weeks during 1997 certified with a MSD, 37,942 women and 26,307 men. The cohort was followed-up for five years with chronicity measured as granting of DP as the endpoint. The effect of gender was estimated in the full sample adjusting for sociodemographic factors and diagnostic distribution. Gender specific analyses were performed with the same explanatory variables. Finally, the gender difference was estimated for nine diagnostic subgroups.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The crude rate of DP was 22% for women and 18% for men. After adjusting for all sociodemographic variables, a slightly higher female risk of DP remained. However, additional adjustment for diagnostic distribution removed the gender difference completely. Having children and working full time decreased the DP risk for both genders, whereas low socioeconomic status increased the risk similarly. There was a different age effect as more women obtained a DP below the age of 50. Increased female risk of chronicity remained for myalgia/fibromyalgia, back disorders and "other/unspecified" after relevant adjustments, whereas men with neck disorders were at higher risk of chronicity.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Women with MSDs had a moderately increased risk of chronicity compared to men, when including MSDs with a traumatic background. Possible explanations are lower income, a higher proportion belonging to diagnostic subgroups with poor prognosis, and a younger age of chronicity among women. When all sociodemographic and diagnostic variables were adjusted for, no gender difference remained, except for some diagnostic subgroups.</p

XRCC1 Coordinates Disparate Responses and Multiprotein Repair Complexes Depending on the Nature and Context of the DNA Damage

XRCC1 is a scaffold protein capable of interacting with several DNA repair proteins. Here we provide evidence for the presence of XRCC1 in different complexes of sizes from 200 to 1500 kDa, and we show that immunoprecipitates using XRCC1 as bait are capable of complete repair of AP sites via both short patch (SP) and long patch (LP) base excision repair (BER). We show that POLβ and PNK colocalize with XRCC1 in replication foci and that POLβ and PNK, but not PCNA, colocalize with constitutively present XRCC1-foci as well as damage-induced foci when low doses of a DNA-damaging agent are applied. We demonstrate that the laser dose used for introducing DNA damage determines the repertoire of DNA repair proteins recruited. Furthermore, we demonstrate that recruitment of POLβ and PNK to regions irradiated with low laser dose requires XRCC1 and that inhibition of PARylation by PARP-inhibitors only slightly reduces the recruitment of XRCC1, PNK, or POLβ to sites of DNA damage. Recruitment of PCNA and FEN-1 requires higher doses of irradiation and is enhanced by XRCC1, as well as by accumulation of PARP-1 at the site of DNA damage. These data improve our understanding of recruitment of BER proteins to sites of DNA damage and provide evidence for a role of XRCC1 in the organization of BER into multiprotein complexes of different sizes. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 2011. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc