Publish-or-Perish Propagates Scientific Malpractice and Neglect

Globally, there is an increase in academic interest. Student enrollment in universities are skyrocketing, suggesting an increased need to hold academic degrees. However, the mass increase in awarded PhDs with the stagnant number of faculty positions is causing a major strain in the academic hiring process. The result of this disparity is a necessary shift from holistically considering each scientist to briefly considering a subset of applicant metrics, for example publication counts. The increased emphasis of publication count metrics in hiring has led to the expression publish-or-perish. The publish-or-perish architecture shifts the focus of scientists away from meticulous scientific practices and contributions to society in order to ensure that they are outputting as many publications as possible. I here consider how the increased strain on the academic architecture is detrimental for faculty applicants and how it is propagating scientific malpractice and neglect.

Asymmetric Globality and South American Narratives of Bourgeois Failure

This chapter shows how, in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century South America, intellectuals witnessed European and U.S. industrial progress, imperial power, and apparent cultural modernity, against which they compared their own nations, usually unfavorably. One major strain of national self-criticism focused on the supposed absence of a genuine bourgeois middle class or, if existent, its inability to carry out the “historical mission” attributed to its European counterpart. The diagnoses ranged from a focus, in midcentury, on the legacies of Spanish oppression, to more radical, materialist, nationalist, vanguardist, and anti-imperialist perspectives in the 1920s. Yet ideologically divergent explanations of middle-class failure often had common themes, many of which persisted into the 1970s and inspired both cultural and dependencia theories of Latin American underdevelopment that still echo today. Finding similar debates in Argentina, Chile, and Peru—countries whose economic and demographic fortunes varied considerably—the chapter shows that narratives of a missing or flawed bourgeoisie may have accurately reflected the knock-on effects of Latin America's successful insertion into the global economy.

Effect of Sinefungin on the attachment of the parasite Leishmania to the macrophages cell line J774G8

The effect of Sinefungin on the attachment of the Leishmania strains L. infantum, L. tropica and L. major to the macrophages cell line J774G8 was studied. Inhibition ofthe attachment to the surface of macrophages was observed to the Sinefungin sensitive strains L. tropica and L. major. This inhibition was obtained only for Sinefungin pretreated promastigotes (72 hours with 2.6 and 26 Μμ Sinefungin) when incubated with macrophages for 2 and 24 hours. After 2 h incubation period of the promastigote forms of the sensitive L. tropica with macrophages, the inhibition of the attachment was 100%, whereas for the sensitive L. major strain the inhibition was 17 and 36% at a concentration of Sinefungin 2.6 and 26 μΜ respectively. The percentage of the inhibition 24 h post infection was in the range of 52 to 77% for the L. tropica strain and from 73 to 86% for the L. major strain for promastigote pretreated with 2.6 and 26 μΜ Sinefungin respectively. Controls showed that Sinefungin was not toxic for the macrophages when used for 3 days at the above mentioned concentrations. Inhibition of the protozoa - macrophage cell line J774G8 adherence was a common finding leading us to the conclusion that Sinefungin is involved actively into that process.

Formability of AA6082-T6 at Warm and Hot Stamping Conditions

Forming limit diagrams (FLDs) of AA6082 at warm/hot stamping conditions were determined by using a specially designed test rig. The tests were carried out at various temperatures from 300 to 450°C and forming speeds ranging from 75 to 400 mm/s. The strain was visualized and measured using ARGUS software provided by GOM. The results clearly show that the formability of AA6082-T6 sheet metal, in terms of the limit major strain, increased by 38.9 % when the forming temperature was increased from 300°C to 450°C at a speed of 250 mm/s, and increased by 42.4 % when the forming speed was decreased from 400 to 75 mm/s at a temperature of 400°C. It was verified that hot stamping is a promising technology for manufacturing complex-shaped components.

Determination of forming limit curve in two-layer metallic sheets using the finite element simulation

Forming limit curve (FLC) is a suitable method for determining the metallic sheets formability. The purpose of the present research is to expose a simulation-based approach to predict the FLC in two-layer metallic sheets. In this paper, the formability of two-layer (AA3004-ST12) metallic sheets, with an aluminum inner layer (in contact with the punch) and a steel outer layer (in contact with the die) was numerically investigated. Two distinct criteria, including the acceleration (i.e. the second time derivatives) of thickness, and major strain extracted from the strain history information of finite element software, were applied to determine the commencement of local necking in FLCs. It shows that the localized necking starts when the acceleration of the thickness or major strain, is maximized. The published experimental results for AA3004/ST12 two-layer metallic sheets were employed in order to evaluate the simulation results. It is shown that the presented methods are noticeably aligned with the published experimental data. By the grace of present methods, the effects of some process parameters on the FLC have been investigated. It is shown that process parameters such as thickness and lay-up of each layer will have significant influences on FLC of two-layer metallic sheets.

Study on the Generalized Holo-Factors Mathematical Model of Dimension-Error and Shape-Error for Sheet Metal in Stamping Based on the Back Propagation (BP) Neural Network

Precision improvement in sheet metal stamping has been the concern that the stamping researchers have engaged in. In order to improve the forming precision of sheet metal in stamping, this paper devoted to establish the generalized holo-factors mathematical model of dimension-error and shape-error for sheet metal in stamping based on BP neural network. Factors influencing the forming precision of stamping sheet metal were divided, altogether ten factors, and the generalized holo-factors mathematical model of dimension-error and shape-error for sheet metal in stamping was established using the back-propagation algorithm of error based on BP neural network. The undetermined coefficients of the model previously established were soluble according to the simulation data of sheet punching combined with the specific shape based on the BP neural network. With this mathematical model, the forecast data compared with the validate data could be obtained, so as to verify the fine practicability that the previously established mathematical model had, and then, it was shown that the generalized holo-factors mathematical model of size error and shape-error had fine practicality and versatility. Based on the generalized holo-factors mathematical model of error exemplified by the cylindrical parts, a group of process parameters could be selected, in which forming thickness was between 0.713 mm and 1.335 mm, major strain was between 0.085 and 0.519, and minor strain was between −0.596 and 0.319 from the generalized holo-factors mathematical model prediction, at the same time, the forming thickness, the major strain, and the minor strain were in good condition.