Reproducibility or Producibility? Metrics and their masters

Reproducibility of indicators and metrics is an important topic as it underlies an increasing part of the approach taken to research evaluation. But reproducibility of metrics is not the critical question. The more important question is around access to the data to create metrics, and around who owns the metrics and the transparency of the algorithms and data elements. In short, is it not about producibility rather than reproducibility? With Dimensions, Digital Science has taken a first step in making publication and citation data more openly available. But, perhaps more importantly, Dimensions links other types of data to the familiar bibliometrics landscape to allow the community to go beyond citation-based indicators. The team at Digital Science believes in the “separation of powers” - data should be developed and hosted by providers and the community should own the metrics used to measure itself. Work has started to collaborate with the scientometric and research management community to support their development and implementation of metrics based on the Dimensions data and platform

Neuroticism and introversion personality charateristics and adolescents’ school social adjustment in a social inclusion in northern education zone of Cross River State

This study was undertaken to determine the influence of Neuroticism and introversion Personality Factors on Adolescents’ School Social Adjustment in a social Inclusion Education, in Northern Education Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria. The sample for the study consists of one thousand and eighteen (1018) students who were randomly selected from senior secondary one classes (SS1) in nineteen (19) purposively selected schools out of the seventy-three (73) schools in the study area. The researcher adopted a causal comparative design also known as the ex-post facto, and data were collected using NEO-PI scale and school social adjustment questionnaire as the main instrument. To guide the study, two research questions were raised and two statement of hypotheses were postulated and tested at 0.05 levels of significant using independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistic. The results from the analyzed data indicated that there is significant difference of neuroticism on early adolescent’s school social adjustment. Sidak post hoc test was performed to show where the difference lies; also, introverts significantly differ from extroverts regarding their school social adjustment. In view of the above findings, it was concluded that Neuroticism factor is significantly related to adolescents’ school social adjustment in the study area in an inclusive education. It was recommended among others, that the effort of teachers, parents, educational psychologist, guidance counselors and the government are needful in all secondary schools to help students overcome the problem of poor adjustments in schools

Structure-based drug design of 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 inhibitors

The enzyme 11β-Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenase 1 (11β-HSD1) catalyses the intracellular biosynthesis of the active glucocorticoid cortisol. Tissue specific dysregulation of the enzyme has been implicated in the development of metabolic syndrome and other associated diseases. Experiments with transgenic mice and prototype inhibitors show that inhibition of 11β-HSD1 in visceral adipose tissue and liver leads to a resistance of diet-induced hyperglycemia and a favourable lipid and lipoprotein profile as compared to controls. 11β-HSD1 inhibition has thus been proposed as an effective strategy to decrease intracellular glucocorticoid levels without affecting circulating glucocorticoid levels that are essential for stress responses. The clinical development of selective and potent drugs has therefore become a priority. In this research, a process of virtual screening employing the novel algorithm UFSRAT (Ultra Fast Shape Recognition with Atom Types) was used to discover compounds which had specific physicochemical and spatial atomic parameters deemed essential for inhibition of 11β-HSD1. The top scoring compounds were assayed for inhibitory activity against recombinant human and mouse enzyme, using a fluorescence spectroscopy approach. In addition, HEK-293 cell based assays with either human, mouse or rat enzymes were carried out using a scintillation proximity assay (SPA). The most potent compound competitively inhibited human 11β-HSD1 with a Kiapp value of 51 nM. Recombinant mouse and human enzyme were expressed, purified and characterised and used in a series of ligand binding assays. Further to this, an X-ray crystal structure of mouse 11β-HSD1 in complex with a tight binding inhibitor – carbenoxolone was solved

Properties of soils of different lithology in the humid tropics of southeastern nigeria

This study evaluated the properties of soils developed on diverse parent materials in Ogoja Local Government Area. Five profile pits on five different parent materials were dug, morphologically delineated and described. The five parent materials were basement complex (BC), mudstone (MS), sandstone (SS), shalestone (SH) and limestone (LS). Morphologically, the soils were deep with varying color, structure, texture and consistency. The results of chemical analyses revealed that the soils have acid pH with means of 5.4, 5.4, 5.4, 5.3 and 5.4 in BC, MS, SS, SH and LS. Organic carbon was low (<15g/kg) across the parent materials while total N was slightly higher in MS, SS and LS with means of 0.04 g kg-1, 0.10 g kg-1, 0.04 g kg-1, 0.10 g kg-1  and 0.20 g kg-1  in BC, MS, SS, SH and LS accordingly. Available P was low (<8mg/kg) across the parent materials with slightly higher value recorded in SH than in other parent materials. Calcium and sodium were the dominant and the least bases respectively with mean values of 3.2 cmol/kg, 3.93 cmol/kg, 3.65 cmol/kg, 3.3 cmol/kg and 3.95 cmol/kg and 0.25 cmol/kg, 0.10 cmol/kg, 0.08 cmol/kg, 0.08 cmol/kg, 0.08 cmol/kg in BC, MS, SS, SH and LS respectively. Exchangeable bases were higher in MS than other soils. Both Al3+ and H+ contributed at the same level to acidity of the soils. Correlation analysis showed that sand correlated negatively and significantly with clay (-0.81), OC (-0.41), TN (-0.42), and Al+++ (-0.78) and positively and significantly with pH (0.72), Ca2+ (0.7), Mg2+ (0.64), K+ (0.56), ECEC (0.71) and BS (0.70).  Correlation between pH and exchangeable bases, available P (0.83), ECEC (0.9) and base saturation (0.83) was significant and positive.  However, most properties had negative and non-significant correlation with each other