Research Integrity in Corrosion Research

Research Integrity is becoming increasingly important throughout the scientific community. Issues covered by this all-encompassing term can include good data management and security, use of appropriate research methodology, analysis of data based on sound theoretical foundations and correct use of statistics. Ethical issues such as publication authorship, intellectual property rights, conflict of interest and research misconduct including plagiarism, fabrication and falsification of data are also covered. One of the most significant types of research misconduct is that of scientific fraud. Many well-publicised cases have been reported over the years, most notably in the bioscience, and health/life science fields. Several historical examples are presented which illustrate the nature of such transgressions. A variety of causes have been identified, the misconduct most often being uncovered at a later stage after the findings have been disseminated. Surprisingly much of the research work conducted in some of these areas has proven difficult to replicate resulting in demands for a re-evaluation of all original data leading to the call for open access to all data (Open Science). Although few cases have been reported in the corrosion science area, it has not proven entirely immune from this problem. Some examples reported in the open literature in corrosion science and engineering are presented which illustrate that it is not immune to research misconduct. As scientists and engineers it behooves us to recognize that rigorous standards of ethical behaviour are always required in the conduct of research. However many of the pressures that corrosion researchers face are similar to those of other scientists, particularly research funding and career advancement. Sometimes this can compromise ethics concerning research in the field with damaging consequences to both the individual involved and the institution’s reputations. Sound experimental design with evidence of repeatability of results, high quality journal paper peer-review and editorial processes and verification practices and the need to carefully balance research/scientific needs versus those of industry and commercial enterprises are some of the most important issues of concern

Application of a duplex diffusion layer model to pulse reverse plating

The application of Ibl’s duplex diffusion layer model to the analysis of mass transport in pulse reverse plating with bipolar current pulses has been investigated. Although originally proposed to describe normal pulse plating, Yin has recently extended Ibl’s model to include pulse reverse plating. Using the expressions derived by Yin the pulse limiting current density was determined over a wide range of pulse plating conditions, and then compared to values calculated using more accurate numerical solutions. In general, there was good agreement between the two approaches which demonstrated the essential validity of Yin’s extension to Ibl’s original model. The simplified model is most accurate at long duty cycles, small dimensionless pulse times and for low values of the dimensionless pulse reverse current where its underlying assumptions are most likely to be valid. At very long dimensionless pulse times (i.e. T* > 1) the model becomes increasingly inaccurate and its use in these circumstances cannot be justified

Interference of the T cell and antigen-presenting cell costimulatory pathway using CTLA4-Ig (abatacept) prevents Staphylococcal enterotoxin B pathology

Abstract Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) is a bacterial superantigen that binds the receptors in the APC/T cell synapse and causes increased proliferation of T cells and a cytokine storm syndrome in vivo. Exposure to the toxin can be lethal and cause significant pathology in humans. The lack of effective therapies for SEB exposure remains an area of concern, particularly in scenarios of acute mass casualties. We hypothesized that blockade of the T cell costimulatory signal by the CTLA4-Ig synthetic protein (abatacept) could prevent SEB-dependent pathology. In this article, we demonstrate mice treated with a single dose of abatacept 8 h post SEB exposure had reduced pathology compared with control SEB-exposed mice. SEB-exposed mice showed significant reductions in body weight between days 4 and 9, whereas mice exposed to SEB and also treated with abatacept showed no weight loss for the duration of the study, suggesting therapeutic mitigation of SEB-induced morbidity. Histopathology and magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated that SEB mediated lung damage and edema, which were absent after treatment with abatacept. Analysis of plasma and lung tissues from SEB-exposed mice treated with abatacept demonstrated significantly lower levels of IL-6 and IFN-γ (p &amp;lt; 0.0001), which is likely to have resulted in less pathology. In addition, exposure of human and mouse PBMCs to SEB in vitro showed a significant reduction in levels of IL-2 (p &amp;lt; 0.0001) after treatment with abatacept, indicating that T cell proliferation is the main target for intervention. Our findings demonstrate that abatacept is a robust and potentially credible drug to prevent toxic effects from SEB exposure.</jats:p

Electrochemical copper recovery from galvanic sludge

The feasibility of recovering copper from electronic industrial waste mud (galvanic sludge) using a combination of leaching and electrowinning has been examined. Leaching with sulfuric acid was found to be the most efficient and cost-effective way of extracting the copper from the sludge, and the optimum acid concentration and time were determined. The copper was then extracted by electrowinning in a batch recirculation electrochemical reactor (Porocell™) employing a three-dimensional carbon felt cathode. The influence of applied current, flow rate and the presence of other metal ion contaminates on the rate and current efficiency of copper electrowinning was investigated. An analysis of the experimental data showed that the current efficiency was lower than unity even though the limiting current for copper deposition was not exceeded. This low current efficiency was attributed to the occurrence of a side reaction, most likely the reduction of dissolved oxygen or oxygen-induced corrosion. The influence of this side reaction can be minimized by operating at relatively high currents and low flow rates

Superheavy Dark Matter with Discrete Gauge Symmetries

We show that there are discrete gauge symmetries protect naturally heavy X particles from decaying into the ordinary light particles in the supersymmetric standard model. This makes the proposal very attractive that the superheavy X particles constitute a part of the dark matter in the present universe. It is more interesting that there are a class of discrete gauge symmetries which naturally accommodate a long-lived unstable X particle. We find that in some discrete Z_{10} models, for example, a superheavy X particle has lifetime \tau_X \simeq 10^{11}-10^{26} years for its mass M_X \simeq 10^{13}-10^{14} GeV. This long lifetime is guaranteed by the absence of lower dimensional operators (of light particles) couple to the X. We briefly discuss a possible explanation for the recently observed ultra-high-energy cosmic ray events by the decay of this unstable X particle.Comment: 9 pages, Late

Key biological information for the management of Black Bream in the Vasse-Wonnerup

The Vasse-Wonnerup is a shallow intermittently-open system located near the town of Busselton, Western Australia and is listed under the Ramsar Convention. Despite its ecological importance, the Vasse-Wonnerup is highly modified and suffers from excess nutrients, low oxygen levels, which can lead to fish kills. A major component of the fish that die during these kills is the iconic recreational species Black Bream (Acanthopagrus butcheri). Because Black Bream are a solely estuarine species, i.e. individuals complete their life cycle within the estuary and do not leave, depleted populations of this species cannot be replenished from stocks in the marine environment or from other estuaries. Results from previous studies in the Vasse-Wonnerup demonstrated that, following a major fish kill in April 2013 there was no evidence of recruitment (an increase in juveniles following the birth of new fish) of Black Bream from that year. It was not known, however, whether this was due to the environment at the time of spawning not being conducive for survival or to a lack of sufficient numbers of brood stock (sexually mature fish) and thus whether recruitment would continue to fail in the future. It also became apparent that the good, thorough information required for management of this fish in the Vasse-Wonnerup was lacking. There was thus an urgent need to acquire information on the key biological characteristics of Black Bream and assess the health of this stock in the Vasse-Wonnerup

Instantons and Yang-Mills Flows on Coset Spaces

We consider the Yang-Mills flow equations on a reductive coset space G/H and the Yang-Mills equations on the manifold R x G/H. On nonsymmetric coset spaces G/H one can introduce geometric fluxes identified with the torsion of the spin connection. The condition of G-equivariance imposed on the gauge fields reduces the Yang-Mills equations to phi^4-kink equations on R. Depending on the boundary conditions and torsion, we obtain solutions to the Yang-Mills equations describing instantons, chains of instanton-anti-instanton pairs or modifications of gauge bundles. For Lorentzian signature on R x G/H, dyon-type configurations are constructed as well. We also present explicit solutions to the Yang-Mills flow equations and compare them with the Yang-Mills solutions on R x G/H.Comment: 1+12 page

Tunneling and the Spectrum of the Potts Model

The three-dimensional, three-state Potts model is studied as a paradigm for high temperature quantum chromodynamics. In a high statistics numerical simulation using a Swendson-Wang algorithm, we study cubic lattices of dimension as large as $64^3$ and measure correlation functions on long lattices of dimension $20^2\times 120$ and $30^2\times 120$. These correlations are controlled by the spectrum of the transfer matrix. This spectrum is studied in the vicinity of the phase transition. The analysis classifies the spectral levels according to an underlying $S_3$ symmetry. Near the phase transition the spectrum agrees nicely with a simple four-component hamiltonian model. In the context of this model, we find that low temperature ordered-ordered interfaces nearly always involve a disordered phase intermediate. We present a new spectral method for determining the surface tension between phases.Comment: 26 pages plus 13 Postscript figures (Axis versions also provided), UU-HEP-92/

Sono-electrodeposition transfer of micro-scale copper patterns on to A7 substrates using a mask-less method

A patterned anode tool was used to transfer electrodeposited microstructures on to an un-patterned A7 sized cathode by maintaining very narrow separation (300 µm) between the two electrodes and agitating the fluid in the inter-electrode gap by ultrasonic means. A non-acidic copper solution with a low content of metal ions and additives was used. Limiting current experiments were initially performed to demonstrate that improved and uniform agitation could be maintained within the inter-electrode gap at relatively low ultrasonic powers of 5 to 30 W L-1. The best pattern definition was obtained at a US power of 5 W L-1 and a current density of 20 mA cm-2. Importantly, the results obtained were comparable to those obtained by conventional through-mask plating. A single anode tool could be used to pattern up to five substrates, substantially minimising the amount of lithographic processing required. These results suggest that the proposed technique is a useful mask-less microfabrication process for pattern transfer on to large substrates

Massively-parallel electrical-conductivity imaging of hydrocarbonsusing the Blue Gene/L supercomputer

Large-scale controlled source electromagnetic (CSEM)three-dimensional (3D) geophysical imaging is now receiving considerableattention for electrical conductivity mapping of potential offshore oiland gas reservoirs. To cope with the typically large computationalrequirements of the 3D CSEM imaging problem, our strategies exploitcomputational parallelism and optimized finite-difference meshing. Wereport on an imaging experiment, utilizing 32,768 tasks/processors on theIBM Watson Research Blue Gene/L (BG/L) supercomputer. Over a 24-hourperiod, we were able to image a large scale marine CSEM field data setthat previously required over four months of computing time ondistributed clusters utilizing 1024 tasks on an Infiniband fabric. Thetotal initial data misfit could be decreased by 67 percent within 72completed inversion iterations, indicating an electrically resistiveregion in the southern survey area below a depth of 1500 m below theseafloor. The major part of the residual misfit stems from transmitterparallel receiver components that have an offset from the transmittersail line (broadside configuration). Modeling confirms that improvedbroadside data fits can be achieved by considering anisotropic electricalconductivities. While delivering a satisfactory gross scale image for thedepths of interest, the experiment provides important evidence for thenecessity of discriminating between horizontal and verticalconductivities for maximally consistent 3D CSEM inversions