Lessons from the recent publication scams

The article discusses growing number of scams by agencies, scientists and editors in publishing industry of China. It states that an authorship fee ranging from 1,600 dollars to 26,300 dollars, in journals indexed by Thomson Reuter's Science Citation Index, Thomson Reuter's Social Science Citation Index and Elsevier's Engineering Index. It mentions that that talent based system in academia can also motivate scientists to wrongly inflate their findings

Tectonic geomorphology of the eastern extent of the Kashmir Basin Fault (KBF) zone

The Kashmir Basin Fault (KBF) is exposed as a train of discontinuous active fault traces for a strike length of ~120 km (Shah, 2013), in Kashmir, Himalayas. However, its eastern extent was not mapped previously and therefore, this study demonstrates that the active fault trace extends further east, where the geomorphic expression of active faulting is clear for a distance of ~43 km. The fault shows a very prominent dextral strike-slip motion with little to no dip-slip component associated with it, particularly, on the easternmost portion. Further west it mainly shows dip-slip motion with a slight indication of dextral strike-slip. This new active fault trace extends the total strike length of the KBF zone to ~163 km, which has implications for seismic hazard and the distribution of deformation along the NW portion of the Himalayas

Active fault study along foothill zone of Kumaun sub-Himalaya: Influence on landscape shaping and drainage evolution

The Kumaun Sub-Himalaya region is one of the most active regions falling into Seismic Zone V along the Himalaya. The geomorphology and drainage patterns in the area of active faulting and related growing fold provide significant information on the ongoing tectonic activity. The Kaladungi Fault (KF), an imbricated thrust fault of the Himalayan Frontal Thrust system provides an excellent example of forward and lateral propagation of fault and related folding in both directions along the strike of the fault. The KF has displaced the distal part of the Kaladungi fan surface resulting into formation of south-facing active fault scarp with variable heights along the front. In the east, the uplifted fan surface is ~ 60 m, is comparatively higher in the central part with height of ~ 200 m and ~ 80 m high in the west. The variation in heights along the fault is attributed to lateral propagation of fault and associated fold in both directions (i.e. east and west) from the centre. These clearly testify displacement starting at nucleation in the centre and propagating laterally in an elliptical manner. The northwest and southeast propagation of KF has resulted into diversion of the Dabka and Baur rivers respectively. A marked diversion of the modern Dabka river along its present course from east to west can be traced between Shivlalpur and Karampurtowns, covering a distance of about 10–12 km. Similarly, the Baur river is shifted from west to east by about 5–6 km between Kamola and Kaladungi towns. The diversion of Dabka and Baur rivers can well be justified by the existence of palaeo-wind-gaps through which these rivers flowed earlier during the recent past. The wind-gaps are characterized by about 0.5–1.0 km wide incised valley extending in NE–SWdirection between Kaladungi and Karampur along the frontal zone

Earthquake Education Through the Use of Documentary Movies

Unscientific, false, inaccurate and/or exaggerated reporting about anything in media or other platforms is a serious concern that needs a solution. This is particularly important when reporting about disasters (e.g., earthquakes). The lack of authentic scientific input into about science news reporting may can lead to news disasters, which may can prove to be much more critical and dangerous than say -earthquake disasters. Therefore, this paper explores such a this problem in a portion of NW Borneo and offers solution to improve the existing norms on the earthquake science, education and awareness programs in SE Asia. The explored field location is Sabah, Malaysia, which is targeted to map the level of earthquake science education and awareness of local people, and to examine the co-seismic deformation associated with the 5th June, 2015 earthquake. This event has surprised the local communities because the region is geographically located away from the active tectonic plate boundaries, and has traditionally been considered a low earthquake risk region. This is in contrast to the existence of high earthquake hazard and risk regions in the neighboring Indonesia and the Philippines. Therefore, not surprisingly, the residents of Borneo where puzzled, surprised, and worried when a medium magnitude earthquake occurred and caused significant loss of life and property. The lack of scientific education on the causes, and remedies of earthquake hazards in most of the South and Southeast Asian regions is a reality, which needs a proper solution. Therefore, through this work a small initiative has been started in Sabah, Malaysia where stories from the earthquake victims were recorded after the devastation caused by the June 2015 earthquake. Their real time experiences were blended with the updated scientific data on the occurrence of earthquakes in Borneo, which are mostly gathered from previously published works and the work presented here. The entire work is converted into a small documentary movie that highlights the causes of earthquakes and how it impacts human life

Permeability changes and effect of chemotherapy in brain adjacent to tumor in an experimental model of metastatic brain tumor from breast cancer

Abstract Background: Brain tumor vasculature can be significantly compromised and leakier than that of normal brain blood vessels. Little is known if there are vascular permeability alterations in the brain adjacent to tumor (BAT). Changes in BAT permeability may also lead to increased drug permeation in the BAT, which may exert toxicity on cells of the central nervous system. Herein, we studied permeation changes in BAT using quantitative fluorescent microscopy and autoradiography, while the effect of chemotherapy within the BAT region was determined by staining for activated astrocytes. Methods: Human metastatic breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231Br) were injected into left ventricle of female NuNu mice. Metastases were allowed to grow for 28 days, after which animals were injected fluorescent tracers Texas Red (625 Da) or Texas Red dextran (3 kDa) or a chemotherapeutic agent 14C-paclitaxel. The accumulation of tracers and 14C-paclitaxel in BAT were determined by using quantitative fluorescent microscopy and autoradiography respectively. The effect of chemotherapy in BAT was determined by staining for activated astrocytes. Results: The mean permeability of texas Red (625 Da) within BAT region increased 1.0 to 2.5-fold when compared to normal brain, whereas, Texas Red dextran (3 kDa) demonstrated mean permeability increase ranging from 1.0 to 1.8-fold compared to normal brain. The Kin values in the BAT for both Texas Red (625 Da) and Texas Red dextran (3 kDa) were found to be 4.32 ± 0.2 × 105 mL/s/g and 1.6 ± 1.4 × 105 mL/s/g respectively and found to be significantly higher than the normal brain. We also found that there is significant increase in accumulation of 14C-Paclitaxel in BAT compared to the normal brain. We also observed animals treated with chemotherapy (paclitaxel (10 mg/kg), erubilin (1.5 mg/kg) and docetaxel (10 mg/kg)) showed activated astrocytes in BAT. Conclusions: Our data showed increased permeation of fluorescent tracers and 14C-paclitaxel in the BAT. This increased permeation lead to elevated levels of activated astrocytes in BAT region in the animals treated with chemotherapy

Digital Mapping Of Invasive Acacia Mangium Willd. Trees Along Telisai-Lumut Highway Along The Andulau Forest Reserve

Invasive alien Acacia trees have become a serious environmental problem in Brunei Darussalam, spreading into the vulnerable heath and mixed dipterocarp forest ecosystem where it has started replacing the native flora and contributing to forest fire. In this work, we study the spread of Acacia trees by analyzing images taken by drones along a newly developed highway within the vicinity of Andulau Forest Reserve in Brunei Darussalam. Based on the analysis, we aim to understand the Acacia spread and its habitat preference, which will be a critical factor in planning the future roadmap to maintain a sustainable and healthy forest ecosystem, and safety from potential forest fires. The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) were utilized to capture high-resolution images along the Telisai-Lumut highway and were subsequently analyzed images using ArcGIS software, to map and study the Acacia’s distribution and habitat preferences, which will aid in understanding of Acacia’s rapid dispersion. Our preliminary results show highest Acacia density and numbers closer to the highway. The barren loose sandy soil combined with the open terrain limits local forest tree growth but seems to provide good habitat for Acacia trees. Our results suggest that the highway provides an important dispersal opportunity for Acacia trees, bringing them in direct proximity of an undisturbed forest reserve. This may increase the risk of spread of this species into the forest, and importantly, given the fire proneness of Acacia, may lead to wildfires that threaten the neighbouring forest reserve. Keeping vegetation short and removing Acacia’s close to the highway may mitigate these risks. Efforts such as spreading awareness on Acacia’s invasiveness, identification and removal of Acacia trees, habitat restoration projects and meticulous evaluation for any introduced species should be done