Poverty, Housing, and Market Processes

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68441/2/10.1177_107808747200800108.pd

“Positive” Results Increase Down the Hierarchy of the Sciences

The hypothesis of a Hierarchy of the Sciences with physical sciences at the top, social sciences at the bottom, and biological sciences in-between is nearly 200 years old. This order is intuitive and reflected in many features of academic life, but whether it reflects the “hardness” of scientific research—i.e., the extent to which research questions and results are determined by data and theories as opposed to non-cognitive factors—is controversial. This study analysed 2434 papers published in all disciplines and that declared to have tested a hypothesis. It was determined how many papers reported a “positive” (full or partial) or “negative” support for the tested hypothesis. If the hierarchy hypothesis is correct, then researchers in “softer” sciences should have fewer constraints to their conscious and unconscious biases, and therefore report more positive outcomes. Results confirmed the predictions at all levels considered: discipline, domain and methodology broadly defined. Controlling for observed differences between pure and applied disciplines, and between papers testing one or several hypotheses, the odds of reporting a positive result were around 5 times higher among papers in the disciplines of Psychology and Psychiatry and Economics and Business compared to Space Science, 2.3 times higher in the domain of social sciences compared to the physical sciences, and 3.4 times higher in studies applying behavioural and social methodologies on people compared to physical and chemical studies on non-biological material. In all comparisons, biological studies had intermediate values. These results suggest that the nature of hypotheses tested and the logical and methodological rigour employed to test them vary systematically across disciplines and fields, depending on the complexity of the subject matter and possibly other factors (e.g., a field's level of historical and/or intellectual development). On the other hand, these results support the scientific status of the social sciences against claims that they are completely subjective, by showing that, when they adopt a scientific approach to discovery, they differ from the natural sciences only by a matter of degree

Recent advances in the colorimetric detection of cyanide

This short-review discusses the recent developments in the colorimetric detection of cyanide with different types of receptors. Significant progress in terms of selectivity, sensitivity and straightforwardness has been observed for either organic-, main group- or transition metal-based sensors. Our group has developed a simple and highly specific system for the optical sensing of cyanide based on the conformational switch of commercially available vitamin B12

Specific colorimetric detection of cyanide triggered by a conformational switch in vitamin B12

"Base on"/"base off" coordination of the intramolecular bound benzimidazole nucleobase of vitamin B 12 allows the specific colorimetric detection of millimolar concentrations of cyanide in water. In various competition experiments, it was demonstrated that up to 12 different anions as well as a 1000-fold excess of Cl (-) over CN (-) do no interfere with the sensor. An 8-fold increased sensitivity in the "naked eye" detection of CN (-) was observed when water was replaced by MeOH/H 2O (5%) as a solvent

One-step synthesis of alpha/beta cyano-aqua cobinamides from vitamin B12 with Zn(II) or Cu(II) salts in methanol

This short communication describes the screening of various metal salts for the preparation of cyano-aqua cobinamides from vitamin B12 in methanol. ZnCl(2) and Cu(NO(3))(2)center dot 3H(2)O have been identified as most active for this purpose and represent useful alternatives to the widely applied Ce(III) method that requires excess cyanide

Identification of diastereomeric cyano-aqua cobinamides with a backbone-modified vitamin B12 derivative and with (1)H NMR spectroscopy

A new backbone-modified vitamin B12 derivative with an unusual configuration at the cobalt center has been used for the identification of the two axial diastereomers of cyano-aqua cobinamides (Cbi) by using (1)H NMR spectroscopy

Immobilised vitamin B12 as a biomimetic model for base-off/histidine-on coordination

Immobilisation of vitamin B12 allows synthesising a biomimetic base-off/histidine-on complex that resembles structural features of cobalamin dependent enzyme active sites

Side chains of cobalt corrinoids control the sensitivity and selectivity in the colorimetric detection of cyanide

Substitution of Co(III)-bound water by cyanide allows the rapid colorimetric detection of micromolar amounts of cyanide with cobalt corrinoids. Negatively charged side chains at the periphery of these metal-based sensors increase the selectivity of cyanide versus thiocyanate, the most disturbing anion, by a factor of 30 through additional supramolecular interactions in water