Research / Scholarship posts
- March 8, 2013
- 03:58 PM
- 43 views
Breast Cancer Susceptibility: The Role of Rare Variants
by Daniel Koboldt in Massgenomics
About 1 in 8 women in the U.S. will develop breast cancer at some point in her lifetime. In 2013, an estimated 40,000 breast cancer deaths will occur in the U.S. and 300,000 women will be diagnosed with invasive or in situ malignancies. It’s not only one of the most common cancers, but it’s also [...]... Read more »
Gracia-Aznarez FJ, Fernandez V, Pita G, Peterlongo P, Dominguez O, de la Hoya M, Duran M, Osorio A, Moreno L, Gonzalez-Neira A.... (2013) Whole Exome Sequencing Suggests Much of Non-BRCA1/BRCA2 Familial Breast Cancer Is Due to Moderate and Low Penetrance Susceptibility Alleles. PloS one, 8(2). PMID: 23409019
- March 6, 2013
- 08:43 PM
- 223 views
Beyond the Pdf 2 - a disruptive conference
by Eugenio Maria Battaglia in Science to Grok
Scholarly communication across all disciplines is changing profoundly under the influence of new technologies. New models, tools and standards are being developed that aim to enhance, enable or entirely replace formerly ingrained forms of scholarly communication, including publications, courses, conferences and policy. The Beyond the PDF conference brings together scholars, librarians, archivists, publishers and research funders in a lively forum, not just to broaden awareness of current efforts........ Read more »
Priem, J., & Hemminger, B. (2012) Decoupling the scholarly journal. Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience. DOI: 10.3389/fncom.2012.00019
Nature Methods. (2013) Beyond the PDF. Nature Methods, 10(2), 91-91. DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.2363
- March 5, 2013
- 06:27 AM
- 202 views
Does watching the news make you feel more miserable than not watching it?
by Stuart Farrimond in Guru: Science Blog
That’s a really great question. Whether we watch, read, or listen to the news, I’m sure we have all had the feeling of being sick about it; be it the story itself or how it is presented. A huge proportion of our news seems to be negatively biased – but why? The answer has, in [...]... Read more »
Johnston WM, & Davey GC. (1997) The psychological impact of negative TV news bulletins: the catastrophizing of personal worries. British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953), 85-91. PMID: 9061893
Marin, M., Morin-Major, J., Schramek, T., Beaupré, A., Perna, A., Juster, R., & Lupien, S. (2012) There Is No News Like Bad News: Women Are More Remembering and Stress Reactive after Reading Real Negative News than Men. PLoS ONE, 7(10). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0047189
- March 1, 2013
- 09:53 PM
- 177 views
RSPCA Australia Scientific Seminar 2013: Recap
by Cobb & Hecht in Do You Believe In Dog?
Hi Julie, what a week! Thanks for all that great information about The Sounds of Dogs, that was so interesting. I definitely recognise differences in the way my dogs bark. They have very different vocalisations for "strange person at the door", "someone familiar that I'm excited to see at the door" and "Oh my goodness, you just did something that we're not meant to do!" (that last one is ALWAYS Elke 'dobbing' on Caleb - she would have totally been the teacher's pet in a classroom envir........ Read more »
Hazel Susan J., Signal Tania D., & Taylor Nicola. (2011) Can Teaching Veterinary and Animal-Science Students about Animal Welfare Affect Their Attitude toward Animals and Human-Related Empathy?. Journal of Veterinary Medical Education, 38(1), 74-83. DOI: 10.3138/jvme.38.1.74
Yeates James W. (2010) Death is a Welfare Issue. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 23(3), 229-241. DOI: 10.1007/s10806-009-9199-9
- February 27, 2013
- 01:16 PM
- 184 views
#ifihadglass I Would Build an Augmented Biomed Browser
by Eugenio Maria Battaglia in Science to Grok
In the previous post, I’ve described the relationship between environmental factors and the public’s insights. Moreover, what would happen if we have more than an ideal “physical” environment? Will people embrace a brand new world in which virtual components are added to the physical ones?
We all know that more research should be carried out to create software which supports the most complex and time-consuming portions of the analytical process, so that analysts can respond to incre........ Read more »
Gershon Dublon, & Joseph A. Paradiso. (2012) Tongueduino: hackable, high-bandwidth sensory augmentation. Proceeding CHI EA '12 CHI '12 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1453-1454. DOI: 10.1145/2212776.2212482
- February 27, 2013
- 01:10 PM
- 164 views
Coming soon to a high street near you… horse meat burgers?
by Stuart Farrimond in Dr Stu's Science Blog
A Findus ‘100% beef’ lasagne made from 100% horsemeat now has a market value of over £50 ($75). A bargain. The woes of the processed meat industry may continue unabated. The exposé of recent weeks has been staggering: horsemeat and pork in ‘beef’ burgers, Non-Halal meat in ‘Halal’ meals and, staggeringly, 100% beef lasagne without … Continue reading »... Read more »
SafeFood. (2012) What's in that Bun?. Nutrition Takeout Series. info:/
Lee, C., Seong, P., Oh, W., Ko, M., Kim, K., & Jeong, J. (2007) Nutritional characteristics of horsemeat in comparison with those of beef and pork. Nutrition Research and Practice, 1(1), 70. DOI: 10.4162/nrp.2007.1.1.70
- February 27, 2013
- 07:18 AM
- 156 views
The ENCODE Controversy And Professionalism In Science
by Jalees Rehman in The Next Regeneration
The ENCODE (Encyclopedia Of DNA Elements) project received quite a bit of attention when its results were publicized last year. This project involved a very large consortium of scientists with the goal to identify all the functional elements in the human genome. In September 2012, 30 papers were published in a coordinated release and their extraordinary claim was that roughly 80% of the human genome was "functional". This was in direct contrast to the prevailing view among molecular bi........ Read more »
Graur D, Zheng Y, Price N, Azevedo RB, Zufall RA, & Elhaik E. (2013) On the immortality of television sets: "function" in the human genome according to the evolution-free gospel of ENCODE. Genome biology and evolution. PMID: 23431001
- February 24, 2013
- 06:34 PM
- 213 views
Of Mice and Men Again: New Genomic Study Helps Explain why Mouse Models of Acute Inflammation do not Work in Men
by Laika Spoetnik in Laika's Medliblog
A recent paper published in PNAS [1] caused quite a stir both inside and outside the scientific community. The study challenges the validity of using mouse models to test what works as a treatment in humans. At least this is what many online news sources seem to conclude: “drug testing may be a waste of time”[2], “we are not mice” [3, 4], or a bit more to the point: mouse models of inflammation are worthless [5, 6, 7].
But basically the current study looks only at one ........ Read more »
Seok, J., Warren, H., Cuenca, A., Mindrinos, M., Baker, H., Xu, W., Richards, D., McDonald-Smith, G., Gao, H., Hennessy, L.... (2013) Genomic responses in mouse models poorly mimic human inflammatory diseases. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1222878110
Raven, K. (2012) Rodent models of sepsis found shockingly lacking. Nature Medicine, 18(7), 998-998. DOI: 10.1038/nm0712-998a
Nemzek JA, Hugunin KM, & Opp MR. (2008) Modeling sepsis in the laboratory: merging sound science with animal well-being. Comparative medicine, 58(2), 120-8. PMID: 18524169
Wiersinga WJ. (2011) Current insights in sepsis: from pathogenesis to new treatment targets. Current opinion in critical care, 17(5), 480-6. PMID: 21900767
Khamsi R. (2012) Execution of sepsis trials needs an overhaul, experts say. Nature medicine, 18(7), 998-9. PMID: 22772540
Hotchkiss RS, Coopersmith CM, McDunn JE, & Ferguson TA. (2009) The sepsis seesaw: tilting toward immunosuppression. Nature medicine, 15(5), 496-7. PMID: 19424209
van der Worp, H., Howells, D., Sena, E., Porritt, M., Rewell, S., O'Collins, V., & Macleod, M. (2010) Can Animal Models of Disease Reliably Inform Human Studies?. PLoS Medicine, 7(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000245
ter Riet, G., Korevaar, D., Leenaars, M., Sterk, P., Van Noorden, C., Bouter, L., Lutter, R., Elferink, R., & Hooft, L. (2012) Publication Bias in Laboratory Animal Research: A Survey on Magnitude, Drivers, Consequences and Potential Solutions. PLoS ONE, 7(9). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0043404
- February 24, 2013
- 01:00 PM
- 247 views
Scientizing Art
by TheCellularScale in The Cellular Scale
I've always been fascinated with the way the eye moves around a piece of art. Andrew Wyeth's "Christina's World" (or as I looked up "that painting of a girl in a field looking at a house")This piece by Andrew Wyeth is an obvious example of an artist completely controlling your gaze. There are pretty much no options here. You look at the girl and then you follow her gaze to the house. You probably then take a quick glance at that other house/barn to the left, and then maybe follow the edge of the........ Read more »
Massaro D, Savazzi F, Di Dio C, Freedberg D, Gallese V, Gilli G, & Marchetti A. (2012) When art moves the eyes: a behavioral and eye-tracking study. PloS one, 7(5). PMID: 22624007
- February 21, 2013
- 01:21 PM
- 219 views
‘What Doctors Don’t Tell You’ cites paper that demonstrates there is no such thing as homeopathy
by Lee Turnpenny in The Mawk Moth Profligacies
Does ‘What Doctors Don’t Tell You’ magazine, in an article entitled ‘Homeopathy is more than placebo’, inappropriately cite this paper?... Read more »
Rostock, M., Naumann, J., Guethlin, C., Guenther, L., Bartsch, H., & Walach, H. (2011) Classical homeopathy in the treatment of cancer patients - a prospective observational study of two independent cohorts. BMC Cancer, 11(1), 19. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2407-11-19
- February 19, 2013
- 03:06 PM
- 130 views
Better Journals… Worse Statistics?
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic_Discover
Some of the world’s leading scientific journals are worryingly lax in ensuring that their papers contain adequate statistical details. So say Italian researchers Tressoldi and colleagues in a provocative paper just out: High Impact = High Statistical Standards? Not Necessarily So They considered all articles published in 2011, that concerned any kind of psychological or [...]... Read more »
Tressoldi PE, Giofré D, Sella F, & Cumming G. (2013) High Impact . PLoS ONE, 8(2). PMID: 23418533
- February 19, 2013
- 03:20 AM
- 210 views
Why Do Most Tomatoes Taste So Bland?
by Andrew Porterfield in United Academics
Have you ever noticed that buying a tomato (or a number of other fruits and vegetables) that has anything resembling taste can be very difficult? It’s not just because it’s winter. Most tomatoes sold in supermarkets are bred to be bland, and some scientists are trying to find a way back to good taste.... Read more »
Tieman D, Bliss P, McIntyre LM, Blandon-Ubeda A, Bies D, Odabasi AZ, Rodríguez GR, van der Knaap E, Taylor MG, Goulet C.... (2012) The chemical interactions underlying tomato flavor preferences. Current biology : CB, 22(11), 1035-9. PMID: 22633806
- February 18, 2013
- 10:06 AM
- 220 views
Editorial Crisis: you won't read all this
by Eugenio Maria Battaglia in Science to Grok
In many field beyond Science we could see a huge editorial crisis. A comprehensive study by the University of Bristol and the journalism school of Cardiff University shows that Politics, Economy, Science, Environmental issues and Religion, are some of the topics that general audience have difficulties to understand.[1]
The research - by means of special algorithms - was made by examining two and a half million articles from nearly 500 different sources in the English language, and comparing t........ Read more »
Flaounas, I., Ali, O., Lansdall-Welfare, T., De Bie, T., Mosdell, N., Lewis, J., & Cristianini, N. (2013) RESEARCH METHODS IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL JOURNALISM. Digital Journalism, 1(1), 102-116. DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2012.714928
- February 13, 2013
- 11:36 PM
- 211 views
Citation impacts in research from USA are at a stable high level for the past three decades
by Usman Paracha in SayPeople
Researchers have found the high level of stable citation impact of researches from USA. On the other hand, an increasing trend in the values of citation impact of researches from France, the UK and Germany in different fields of research from 1981 to 2010 has been found. The citation impact of researches from China is relatively low. Japan showed mix trends (decreasing and increasing) in different subject areas.
This research has been published online in the journal PLoS ONE.
Researche........ Read more »
Bornmann, L., & Leydesdorff, L. (2013) Macro-Indicators of Citation Impacts of Six Prolific Countries: InCites Data and the Statistical Significance of Trends. PLoS ONE, 8(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056768
- February 13, 2013
- 04:32 PM
- 266 views
Dog poo turning green – the power of science
by Cobb & Hecht in Do You Believe In Dog?
Hey Julie,Thanks for the run down on ScienceOnline and ‘Lend a Paw’ month. I completed the survey about my cat’s behaviour, it was quick and easy to do. I also liked your stroking video, but I’ll get back to that later, right now I need to tell you how dog poo (I think you usually say ‘poop’ in the USA?) is turning green.Dog poo is turning greenIt’s turning green and it’s thanks to the power of science. Or perhaps it’s the science of power? It’s easy to ........ Read more »
Miller Rohan, & Howell Gwyneth V.J. (2008) Regulating consumption with bite: Building a contemporary framework for urban dog management. Journal of Business Research, 61(5), 525-531. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2007.07.006
Wells D. L. (2006) Factors Influencing Owners' Reactions to Their Dogs' Fouling. Environment and Behavior, 38(5), 707-714. DOI: 10.1177/0013916505284794
Okoroigwe E.C., Ibeto C.N., & Okpara C.G. (2010) Comparative Study of the Potential of Dog Waste for Biogas Production. Trends in Applied Sciences Research, 5(1), 71-77. DOI: 10.3923/tasr.2010.71.77
Nemiroff Leah. (2007) Design, Testing and Implementation of a Large-Scale Urban Dog Waste Composting Program. Compost Science , 15(4), 237-242. info:other/http://montrealndgdogrun.org/image/downloads/compost studies.pdf
- February 12, 2013
- 02:48 PM
- 138 views
Depressed Patients Seek Primary Care Due to Pain
by Kim Kristiansen in Picture of Pain
More than half of patients with depression in primary care comes due to pain... Read more »
Kim Kristiansen, M.D. (2013) Depressed Patients Seek Primary Care Due to Pain. Picture of Pain Blog. info:/
- February 12, 2013
- 10:45 AM
- 102 views
Your theory is rubbish (but I won’t say it out loud)
by Hadas Shema in Information Culture
Science seems to be full of controversies and conflicts; famous scientists willing to kill and be killed for their pet theories, former students challenging the views of their academic “parents” and so on. My favorite biology professor used to tell about the time when his post-doc advisor, after a lecture given by his former post-doc [...]
... Read more »
Brooks, T. A. (1986) Evidence of Complex Citer Motivations. JASIS. info:/
Hyland, K. (1999) Academic attribution: citation and the construction of disciplinary knowledge. Applied Linguistics, 20(3), 341-367. DOI: 10.1093/applin/20.3.341
MacRoberts, M., & MacRoberts, B. (1984) The Negational Reference: or the Art of Dissembling. Social Studies of Science, 14(1), 91-94. DOI: 10.1177/030631284014001006
- February 10, 2013
- 04:35 PM
- 294 views
Why scientists should play games
by TheCellularScale in The Cellular Scale
I have just finished reading Jane McGonigal's book Reality is Broken: Why games make us better and how they can change the world. It is a fascinating book which presents a strong case for games (including video games) doing good in the world.Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigalI have to admit, part of me wanted to read this book to make me feel better about my own video game habit. It certainly helped solidify the vague ideas I had about what good they might be doing me.Specifically, the book mad........ Read more »
Ferguson, C. (2011) Reality is broken, and the video game research field along with it. PsycCRITIQUES, 56(48). DOI: 10.1037/a0026131
Farhangi, S. (2012) Reality is broken to be rebuilt: how a gamer’s mindset can show science educators new ways of contribution to science and world?. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 7(4), 1037-1044. DOI: 10.1007/s11422-012-9426-y
- February 10, 2013
- 07:51 AM
- 273 views
Write longer Research Papers to increase your chances of Citations
by Usman Paracha in SayPeople
Researchers have found that usually the research articles that are longer get more citations as compared to the less-lengthy articles.
This research has been published online in the journal PLoS ONE.
The citations are considered as the quality of the study and thus show its value and impact on the scientific field. Researchers usually work on several factors, such as impact factor of the journal and study design, while writing a paper that may contribute to the increased citation of the pa........ Read more »
Falagas, M., Zarkali, A., Karageorgopoulos, D., Bardakas, V., & Mavros, M. (2013) The Impact of Article Length on the Number of Future Citations: A Bibliometric Analysis of General Medicine Journals. PLoS ONE, 8(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0049476
- February 9, 2013
- 06:40 AM
- 189 views
Postgraduate education: Time for a rethink
by Dorothy Bishop in bishopblog
According to Lindley and Machin (2012) "It is very clear that the individuals who have done better in terms of wages are those who have acquired higher education qualifications. In turn, the acquisition of higher qualifications has become more skewed towards people from wealthier backgrounds." This issue was highlighted last month when a potential student sued an Oxford college who refused him admission because he did not have sufficient funds to meet their cost of living requirement. ........ Read more »
Lindley, J., & Machin, S. (2012) The Quest for More and More Education: Implications for Social Mobility*. Fiscal Studies, 33(2), 265-286. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-5890.2012.00161.x
topics
join us!
Do you write about peer-reviewed research in your blog? Use ResearchBlogging.org to make it easy for your readers — and others from around the world — to find your serious posts about academic research.
If you don't have a blog, you can still use our site to learn about fascinating developments in cutting-edge research from around the world.
