#Scholarly Computer Science Research

[fdrpjournals]

The Indian Journal of Computer Science and Technology (INDJCST) is a peer-reviewed academic journal that delivers cutting-edge research and advancements in computer science to scientists, engineers, and technology professionals.

It highlights the latest findings across four key domains: computing (including theory, scientific, cloud, and high-performance computing), systems (such as database, real-time, and operating systems), intelligence (covering robotics, bioinformatics, and artificial intelligence), and applications (encompassing security, networking, software engineering, and more).

[odinsblog]

ON OCTOBER 27TH, after roughly three weeks of campus turmoil surrounding student responses to Hamas’s October 7th attacks and the ensuing Israeli bombardment of Gaza, Harvard president Claudine Gay announced at a Shabbat dinner at Harvard Hillel that she was establishing an advisory group to guide her efforts to combat antisemitism on campus. In a November 9th email, she unveiled its members, a collection of Harvard administrators, alumni, professors, and affiliated rabbis. Her message to the campus community laid out some of the group’s initial plans, including “a robust program of education and training for students, faculty and staff on antisemitism broadly and at Harvard specifically.” The email also offered a clue as to the task force’s orientation: Gay noted that the training would address “the roots of certain rhetoric that has been heard on our campus in recent weeks.” It specifically condemned the phrase “from the river to the sea,” a pro-Palestine slogan that she said conveys “specific historical meanings that to a great many people imply the eradication of Jews from Israel and engender both pain and existential fears within our Jewish community.”

But while Gay’s letter suggests that the task force will explore what she casts as a worrisome relationship between antisemitism and activism for Palestinian rights, none of its members have conducted scholarly research into this supposed intersection. Most notably absent from the advisory group was Derek Penslar, the director of Harvard’s Center for Jewish Studies and a leading scholar of Zionism and its critics. His acclaimed recent book, Zionism: An Emotional State, includes a chapter entitled “Hating Zionism,” on the different motivations that have driven Zionism’s opponents since its creation. Given the relevance of his scholarship, Penslar would have seemed an obvious choice for the advisory group. But according to four faculty members familiar with Jewish studies at Harvard who requested anonymity to discuss internal university affairs, not only was he not selected, he wasn’t even consulted. One professor compared snubbing Penslar to “creating a task force on AI without consulting the chair of the department of computer science.”

Why wasn’t Penslar chosen? One likely factor is that he signed the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA), which states that “criticizing or opposing Zionism” is not necessarily antisemitic. By contrast, most of the people appointed to the advisory group—none of whom have Penslar’s expertise—have made public statements alleging that anti-Zionism is antisemitic, or are affiliated with organizations that hold that view. Though Gay’s email claims that the advisory group is committed to “bringing our teaching and research mission” to bear in the fight against antisemitism, the group’s composition suggests that its members were selected less for their scholarly credentials than for their political beliefs, which align with those of influential donors, some of whom have already withdrawn funding or have threatened to do so.

—Harvard Is Ignoring Its Own Antisemitism Experts

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Aaron Sibarium

Published: Jan 30, 2024

It's not just Claudine Gay. Harvard University's chief diversity and inclusion officer, Sherri Ann Charleston, appears to have plagiarized extensively in her academic work, lifting large portions of text without quotation marks and even taking credit for a study done by another scholar—her own husband—according to a complaint filed with the university on Monday and a Washington Free Beacon analysis.

The complaint makes 40 allegations of plagiarism that span the entirety of Charleston's thin publication record. In her 2009 dissertation, submitted to the University of Michigan, Charleston quotes or paraphrases nearly a dozen scholars without proper attribution, the complaint alleges. And in her sole peer-reviewed journal article—coauthored with her husband, LaVar Charleston, in 2014—the couple recycle much of a 2012 study published by LaVar Charleston, the deputy vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, framing the old material as new research.

Through that sleight of hand, Sherri Ann Charleston effectively took credit for her husband's work. The 2014 paper, which was also coauthored with Jerlando Jackson, now the dean of Michigan State University's College of Education, and appeared in the Journal of Negro Education, has the same methods, findings, and description of survey subjects as the 2012 study, which involved interviews with black computer science students and was first published by the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.

The two papers even report identical interview responses from those students. The overlap suggests that the authors did not conduct new interviews for the 2014 study but instead relied on LaVar Charleston's interviews from 2012—a severe breach of research ethics, according to experts who reviewed the allegations.

"The 2014 paper appears to be entirely counterfeit," said Peter Wood, the head of the National Association of Scholars and a former associate provost at Boston University, where he ran several academic integrity probes. "This is research fraud pure and simple."

Sherri Ann Charleston was the chief affirmative action officer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before she joined Harvard in August 2020 as its first-ever chief diversity officer. In that capacity, Charleston served on the staff advisory committee that helped guide the university's presidential search process that resulted in the selection of former Harvard president Claudine Gay in December 2022, according to the Harvard Crimson.

A historian and attorney by training, Charleston has taught courses on gender studies at the University of Wisconsin, according to her Harvard bio, which describes her as "one of the nation's leading experts in diversity." The site says that her work involves "translating diversity and inclusion research into practice for students, staff, researchers, postdoctoral fellows and faculty of color."

Experts who reviewed the allegations against Charleston said that they ranged from minor plagiarism to possible data fraud and warrant an investigation. Some also argued that Charleston had committed a more serious scholarly sin than Gay, Harvard's former president, who resigned in January after she was accused of lifting long passages from other authors without proper attribution.

Papers that omit a few citations or quotation marks rarely receive more than a correction, experts said. But when scholars recycle large chunks of a previous study—especially its data or conclusions—without attribution, the duplicate paper is often retracted and can even violate copyright law.

That offense, known as duplicate publication, is typically a form of self-plagiarism in which authors republish old work in a bid to pad their résumés. Here, though, the duplicate paper added two new authors, Sherri Ann Charleston and Jerlando Jackson, who had no involvement in the original, letting them claim credit for the research and making them party to the con.

"Sherri Charleston appears to have used somebody else's research without proper attribution," said Steve McGuire, a former political theory professor at Villanova University, who reviewed both the 2012 and 2014 papers.

One-fifth of the 2014 paper, including two-thirds of its "findings" section, was published in the 2012 study, according to the complaint, and three interview responses are identical in both articles, suggesting they come from the same survey.

According to Lee Jussim, a social psychologist at Rutgers University, "it is essentially impossible for two different people in two different studies to produce the same quote." At best, he said, the authors got their wires crossed and mixed up interviews from two separate surveys, both of which just happened to involve 37 participants with the exact same demographic profile. At worst, the authors committed data fraud by framing old survey responses as new ones—a separate and more serious offense.

The Journal of Negro Education did not respond to a request for comment. Sherri Ann Charleston, LaVar Charleston, and Jerlando Jackson did not respond to requests for comment.

Monday's complaint, which was filed anonymously, comes as Harvard is facing questions about the integrity of its research affiliates and the ideology of its diversity bureaucrats, most of whom report to the sprawling office that Sherri Ann Charleston oversees.

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, one of Harvard Medical School's three teaching hospitals, announced in January that it would retract six papers and correct dozens more after some of its top executives were accused of data manipulation. That news came on the heels of a viral essay in which Carole Hooven, a Harvard biologist, described how she had been hounded out of a teaching role by her department's diversity committee after she said in an interview that there are only two sexes.

The school is also facing an ongoing congressional probe over its handling of anti-Semitism and its response to the plagiarism allegations against Gay, which Harvard initially sought to suppress with legal saber-rattling. Half of Gay's published work contained plagiarized material, ranging from single sentences to entire paragraphs, with some of the most severe lifts coming in her dissertation. Though Gay stepped down as president on January 2, she remains a tenured faculty member drawing a $900,000 annual salary.

Some of Charleston's offenses are similar to Gay's. In her 2009 dissertation, for example, Charleston borrows a sentence from Eric Arnesen's 1991 book Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class, and Politics, 1863-1923, without quotation marks and without citing Arnesen's work in a footnote.

She also lifts full paragraphs from her thesis adviser, Rebecca Scott, while making minimal semantic tweaks.

"There's simply not enough difference to consider them original words," said Jonathan Bailey, the founder of the website Plagiarism Today. "Though the sources in those examples are cited"—Charleston includes a footnote to Scott at the end of each passage—"the text either needed to be quoted or properly paraphrased."

Bailey added that the plagiarism of Scott alone merited an investigation—ideally, he said, "by a neutral party with no ties to either the school or the school's critics."

Harvard did not respond to a request for comment. Scott and Arnesen did not respond to requests for comment.

Charleston also lifted language from Louis Pérez, an historian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Alejandro de la Fuente, an historian at Harvard; and Ada Ferrer, an historian at New York University, among other scholars.

Charleston cites each source in a footnote but omits quotation marks around language copied verbatim. The omissions violate Harvard's Guide to Using Sources, a document produced for incoming students, which states that quotation marks are required when "you copy language word for word."

Pérez, de la Fuente, and Ferrer did not respond to requests for comment.

The range of examples presented in the complaint, which was also filed to the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, highlights how plagiarism can shade into more severe forms of misconduct when it involves interviews or other data.

In fact, some experts said the term "plagiarism" didn't quite capture the dishonesty of duplicate publication, which is sometimes categorized as a separate offense and accounts for 14 percent of all paper retractions in the life sciences.

"You cannot just republish an old paper as if it is a new paper," Jussim, the Rutgers psychologist, said. "If you do, that is not exactly plagiarism; it's more like fraud."

Wood said the case was really a combination of the two offenses. "Because the second paper, on which Sherri Ann Charleston is one of the three co-authors, recycles so much of the text of the original paper by LaVar J. Charleston, this does have the earmarks of plagiarism, but the plagiarism is compounded by an even larger effort to deceive," he said. "The universities and journals need to investigate."

While scholars can reuse data across multiple papers, they must make clear when they are doing so and provide appropriate attribution to earlier studies, per guidelines from the Office of Research Integrity and the editorial policies of top academic journals, including Nature and Cell.

But the 2014 paper never indicates that it is reusing research from 2012. Instead, it claims to present new data that fill a "gap" in the literature and "corroborate" the 2012 study, among others, and on two occasions refers to survey subjects as "participants in this study."

Those participants appear to be the same people whom LaVar Charleston interviewed in 2012. Both surveys involved the same number of undergraduates, graduate students, Ph.D.s, and students at historically black colleges—all drawn from the same computer science conference—a similarity that experts said was a red flag.

"It is curious that the proportions are identical," said Debora Weber-Wulff, a German computer scientist who researches plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct. "This would be grounds for the universities in question to request the data and investigate."

Jussim agreed. "This seems sufficiently improbable that, absent something saying they are re-reporting an already-published study, it would be fraud," he said.

LaVar Charleston did not respond to a request for comment about whether the two studies used the same interviews. The University of Michigan said it was "committed to fostering and upholding the highest ethical standards in research and scholarship," but declined to comment on the complaint. The University of Wisconsin-Madison told the Free Beacon it had "initiated an assessment in response to the allegations."

The main difference between the papers is a long section in the 2014 article about "culturally responsive pedagogy theory," which the authors say their findings support. Both articles are littered with the tropes of progressive scholarship, including a disclaimer about "positionality"—the authors assure readers that they reflected on their own "racial, gender, and socioeconomic status"—and a lament that computer science is a "White male-dominated field."

Both also criticize the idea that "computing sciences is for nerds, only for White people, [and] only for geniuses."

Such language is typical of the diversity initiatives Charleston oversees. Since 2020, her office has pumped out a stream of materials that bemoan the "weaponization of whiteness," discuss the ins and outs of "white fragility," and urge students to "call out" their peers for "harmful words." One message, signed by Charleston herself, was titled "A Call to Dismantle Intersecting Oppressions."

"We must continue to work against systematic oppression in all its forms—racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, and more," she wrote.

Her office also curates resources for students seeking to become fluent in progressive patois, including a "glossary of diversity, inclusion and belonging (DIB) terms" that provides examples of "gaslighting."

Tactics can include "shooting down the target's ideas," the entry reads—or "taking credit for them."

==

Here we go again...

If you haven't already figured it out, the DEI-related faux-"disciplines" - the "Studies": Ethnic Studies, Women's Studies, Gender Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Media Studies, etc - are the most corrupt, the most ideological with the absolute lowest academic standards of all. All they care about is echoing back the "correct" opinions, not valid scholarship.

And yet, somehow these lunatics and fanatics end up the most powerful people in the asylum.

Harvard needs to fumigate the house, top to bottom.

[claudiosuenaga]

Book Release: The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony (With a Chapter by Cláudio Tsuyoshi Suenaga)

V.J. Ballester-Olmos & Richard W. Heiden (Eds.)

For 76 years, casual observers around the world have reported sightings of aerial phenomena unexplainable to them. More elaborate personal experiences have been reported by others whose testimony speak of close interactions with fantastic flying machines that land, from which strange beings descend, and even kidnap the onlookers. In the absence of compelling physical evidence of the reality of these narrations, how should science study immaterial observations and test these claims? The very standard of reputable witness reliability is at stake here.

The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony is the first major book to comprehensively focus on the discussion and current views on problems and challenges posed by the reliability of UFO testimonies. This is a cross-disciplinary compendium of papers by 60 authors from 14 different countries. They are specialists in social, physical, and biological sciences, including psychology (predominantly) as well as psychiatry, sociology, anthropology, history, philosophy, folklore, religion, journalism, engineering, computing, medicine, education, analysts with experience in the critical study of UFO perceivers, and other professionals. This volume shares thematically convergent ideas about the plausibility of alternate explanations for an alleged close-range UFO phenomenon.

The 57 chapters in this book are divided into seven section headings: Case Studies, Psychological Perspectives, On Witness Testimony, Empirical Research, Anthropological Approach, Metrics and Scaling, and Epistemological Issues. There, the subject matter is analyzed from statistical work to clinical assessment, psychometrics, comparative and evaluation inquiry, and other topic perspectives.

Some extracts from the Foreword, written by Dr. Leonard S. Newman, Professor of Psychology at Syracuse University:

"The contributors to this book include some very smart people. There are all sorts of issues to which they could be devoting their intellectual energy, and all sorts of scholarly and research contributions they could make. They don’t have to write thoughtful and rigorous chapters for a book called The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony, but this is what they have done. And so, the work continues, as attested to by the papers in this volume. I’m not sure if there exists any collection of papers on any topic that can claim to comprehensively summarize everything that is currently known about it. But this one comes pretty close."

This 711-page book has been released online in the Academia.edu portal, from where it can be downloaded for free:

Simultaneously, UPIAR Publishing House (Turin, Italy) has published two softcover, A4 format print editions, one in black & white, another in full color (ISBN: 9791281441002). The book can be purchased through this link:

Four outstanding academics have provided praise notes to this volume. This is what they said:

Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Irvine, USA:

"When ordinary citizens claim to have extraterrestrial encounters, such as seeing UFOs or meeting with alien beings, what should we think? Did the alien abduction really happen or was it a hoax? Is someone deliberately lying? Are they false memories? Readers will be enthralled by the fascinating case histories that are presented in The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony*, a volume where sixty experts examine these issues with depth and insight. These cases teach us a great deal about how humans come to believe they have experienced bizarre events that may have never occurred at all."

Steven Jay Lynn, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Binghamton University (SUNY), USA:

"This captivating book will appeal to anyone interested in UFOs (and who isn’t?), the vagaries of memory, eyewitness perception and misperception, critical analysis of puzzling phenomena, and evaluating scientific vs. pseudoscientific claims. This volume ranks in the elite category of essential reading for students, scientists, and the seriously curious among us, and therefore has my highest recommendation. Bravo!"

Henry Otgaar, Ph.D., Professor of Legal Psychology, Maastricht University, the Netherlands, and Leuven Catholic University, Belgium:

"Claims of UFO sightings and experiences continue to fascinate us. This book has collected a unique and diverse set of case studies and critical articles on how such experiences unfold and what the authenticity of these claims is. The collection of these different articles is truly groundbreaking and is the first-ever complete assemblage concerning the validity of UFO testimony."

Benjamin E. Zeller, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Religion, Lake Forest College, Illinois, USA:

"In referring to extraterrestrial contact, Carl Sagan said that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. This fine book seeks to contextualize what such evidence entails. Its contributors analyze UFO sightings and cases both famous and obscure, recent and historical, and quite international in scope. They draw from an impressive range of methodological, academic, and scientific perspectives, and consider such topics as the nature of cognition, memory, types of belief and testimony, psychology, and the rationality of belief. Skeptics, believers, and scholars of ufology will all find this book fascinating!"

For additional information please contact:

UPIAR Publisher: info@upiar.com

Editor: V.J. Ballester-Olmos, ballesterolmos@yahoo.es

The Objectivity of Witnesses and the Subjectivity of Testemonies

Cláudio Tsuyoshi Suenaga

I had the honor of being one of the select few invited by the distinguished Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, one of the organizers and editors of this impressive scientific-academic book, together with the equally distinguished Richard W. Heiden, to write a paper on the "reliability of the testimony of witnesses of UFOs", a crucial aspect of ufological research, since, in the absence of material evidence of the phenomenon, this is the primary source we deal with, the "raw material", so to speak, to permeate our analyses, even more so for those who not only deals with "second-hand" reports, but gathers them directly from the witnesses themselves, in sometimes harsh and hostile field conditions.

In my contribution entitled "The Objectivity of Witnesses and the Subjectivity of Testimonies", I carried out a critical analysis of the general reference base of the UFO problem, the testimony, seen as a cultural source authentic and indisputable, but which presents serious distortions. One of the main points questioned by me was the exact value of the testimonies, which form the basis of the reports and, therefore, of the UFO phenomenon. I tried to give an adequate scientific treatment to these data and factors relegated to the background by ufologists: the subjective observational parameters, the perceptive aspects, the language and the historical-cultural context of the witness and the psychosociological variables, that is, everything that was disparagingly called "background noise", the "sociological reject" despised in detriment of the "signal".

Consult and keep close at hand, therefore, this, the first major book to comprehensively focus on the discussion and current views on problems and challenges posed by the reliability of UFO testimonies. A cross-disciplinary compendium of papers by 60 authors from 14 different countries.

(large format, 711 pages)

You can download the full 711-page book on my Patreon:

[elsa16744]

Data Analytics in Climate Change Research | SG Analytics 

Corporations, governments, and the public are increasingly aware of the detrimental impacts of climate change on global ecosystems, raising concerns about economic, supply chain, and health vulnerabilities. 

Fortunately, data analytics offers a promising approach to strategize effective responses to the climate crisis. By providing insights into the causes and potential solutions of climate change, data analytics plays a crucial role in climate research. Here’s why leveraging data analytics is essential: 

The Importance of Data Analytics in Climate Change Research 

Understanding Complex Systems 

Climate change involves intricate interactions between natural systems—such as the atmosphere, oceans, land, and living organisms—that are interconnected and complex. Data analytics helps researchers analyze vast amounts of data from scholarly and social platforms to uncover patterns and relationships that would be challenging to detect manually. This analytical capability is crucial for studying the causes and effects of climate change. 

Informing Policy and Decision-Making 

Effective climate action requires evidence-based policies and decisions. Data analytics provides comprehensive insights that equip policymakers with essential information to design and implement sustainable development strategies. These insights are crucial for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to changing conditions, and protecting vulnerable populations. 

Enhancing Predictive Models 

Predictive modeling is essential in climate science for forecasting future climate dynamics and evaluating mitigation and adaptation strategies. Advanced data analytics techniques, such as machine learning algorithms, improve the accuracy of predictive models by identifying trends and anomalies in historical climate data. 

Applications of Data Analytics in Climate Change Research 

Monitoring and Measuring Climate Variables 

Data analytics is instrumental in monitoring climate variables like temperature, precipitation, and greenhouse gas concentrations. By integrating data from sources such as satellites and weather stations, researchers can track changes over time and optimize region-specific monitoring efforts. 

Assessing Climate Impacts 

Analyzing diverse datasets—such as ecological surveys and health statistics—allows researchers to assess the long-term impacts of climate change on biodiversity, food security, and public health. This holistic approach helps in evaluating policy effectiveness and planning adaptation strategies. 

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies 

Data analytics supports the development of strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and enhance resilience. By analyzing data on energy use, transportation patterns, and land use, researchers can identify opportunities for reducing emissions and improving sustainability. 

Future Directions in Climate Data Analytics 

Big Data and Edge Computing 

The increasing volume and complexity of climate data require scalable computing solutions like big data analytics and edge computing. These technologies enable more detailed and accurate analysis of large datasets, enhancing climate research capabilities. 

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning 

AI and ML technologies automate data processing and enhance predictive capabilities in climate research. These advancements enable researchers to model complex climate interactions and improve predictions of future climate scenarios. 

Crowdsourced Datasets 

Engaging the public in data collection through crowdsourcing enhances the breadth and depth of climate research datasets. Platforms like Weather Underground demonstrate how crowdsourced data can improve weather forecasting and climate research outcomes. 

Conclusion 

Data analytics is transforming climate change research by providing innovative tools and deeper insights into sustainable climate action. By integrating modern analytical techniques, researchers can address significant global challenges, including carbon emissions and environmental degradation. As technologies evolve, the integration of climate research will continue to play a pivotal role in safeguarding our planet and promoting a sustainable global ecosystem. 

[indura08]

Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka stands as a beacon of higher education within the verdant landscapes of Belihuloya, nestled in the heart of the Ratnapura District. Established in 1991, it emerged as a testament to Sri Lanka's commitment to fostering academic excellence and expanding educational opportunities across its provinces.

With a robust array of undergraduate and postgraduate programs spanning disciplines as diverse as Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Humanities, Management Studies, and Agricultural Sciences, the university epitomizes academic diversity and intellectual growth.

Its distinguished faculties, including the Faculty of Social Sciences and Languages, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Management Studies, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, and Faculty of Geomatics, serve as bastions of specialized knowledge, each nurturing a rich tapestry of departments dedicated to their respective fields of study. Additionally, the faculties of Computing, Medicine, and Technology further enrich the academic landscape, ensuring a comprehensive educational experience.

At the heart of its mission lies a commitment to research excellence. Research centers, focal points for scholarly inquiry, delve into critical areas such as agriculture, environmental studies, biodiversity, and social sciences. Here, faculty members and students alike immerse themselves in cutting-edge research, driving innovation and pushing the boundaries of knowledge.

Beyond academia, the university fosters a vibrant campus life. It offers extensive facilities for extracurricular pursuits, sports, and cultural events. Student organizations and clubs abound, nurturing leadership, creativity, and camaraderie among the student body.

In line with its ethos of service and community engagement, Sabaragamuwa University actively collaborates with local communities and organizations. Through outreach programs and collaborative initiatives, it addresses pressing societal issues, fostering regional development and social progress.

The accolades garnered over the years bear testament to the university's unwavering commitment to academic excellence. Sabaragamuwa University stands as a pillar of higher education in Sri Lanka, shaping the intellectual landscape and driving socio-economic advancement across the region.

visit our web site to see the greenery of sabaragamuwa university and many more : https://www.sab.ac.lk/

[kimyoonmiauthor]

This week in people trying to overextend their Degrees...

https://twitter.com/ylecun/status/1742233111037870259

Original comment I'm responding to:

I'm afraid you totally misunderstood my point. 1. Many authors I know are more motivated by the impact of their intellectual productions than by the income it might generate through books and other publications. 2. Many of them face the following trade-off: will I give up income in exchange for increased readership by making my book free for download, or will I generate income while decreasing readership by charging for my book? (Note that offering a free download does not preclude also selling physical books). 3. The calculus is this: since the expected income has a 50% chance of being below $2000, I'm not going to drop my day job. Perhaps I should give up on what is likely to be a modest short-term income and maximize prestige and recognition instead. Prestige and recognition through intellectual impact can turn into future income (e.g. by getting a prestigious position). 4. Lots of people in the academic world have made this calculus and have offered their books for free download. Some of them simultaneously offer print version through publishers who don't mind (generally some non-profit university press). 5. Many of those people have realized that the free download, instead of reducing printed sales, actually *increases* sales. There are famous examples. 6. Academics are very familiar with the idea that you don't get paid directly for your writings. Scholarly publications (and talks) do not generate any income (in fact, they can cost money!). The income is indirect: intellectual or artistic impact is a precondition to a position in academia or industry research labs. 7. Computer scientists are also familiar with the concept. It's called open source software. You give away your software for free. Sometimes, your employer pays you to do so. Sometimes, you just want to make a name for yourself by contributing to an important project. 8. A similar phenomenon exists in music, particularly in jazz: a number of jazz musicians achieve financial stability through a teaching position at a university or conservatory. Additional income comes from performance. They get almost nothing from recordings. I'm not suggesting people shouldn't get paid for their work. In fact, I find it quite sad that most people can't live off of their creative work. If you can make a living by selling your books, music, or video games, more power to you! But I'm wondering whether the modus operandi that is prevalent in the academic world and the open source software world could not apply to other types of intellectual and artistic production. It may cause some creative productions to exist that would not otherwise see the light of day because of lack of commercial interest from publishers.

1. Many authors I know are more motivated by the impact of their intellectual productions than by the income it might generate through books and other publications.

Many Who? Did you read #Publishingpaidme? No? Really? Did you see the last person who declared something like this and people jumping on them—it was an agent? You haven't been paying attention. Many who? Cite your sources. Do you have sources or any publishing experience in novels? I have industry experience and I can cite sources beyond one article. Should we start with Bisheng in China?

Authors and writers who do creative works are more desperate, but want to be paid and paid fairly.

Backing into the "many" without citation creates a fallacy. You can do better as someone who teaches at NYU and has a degree teaching computer science. (Though no lie in my last project on story structure, professors were the worst at citations. And yes, I can name names with that and posted long and ranted long about that and their plagiarism.)

2. Many of them face the following trade-off: will I give up income in exchange for increased readership by making my book free for download, or will I generate income while decreasing readership by charging for my book? (Note that offering a free download does not preclude also selling physical books).

This is because society, in general misinterprets creativity and devalues it as a "real skill" It has nothing really to do with your first assumption. Much like AI often pulls from large creative datasets and devalues creativity and artists' skillsets.

Also, this doesn't prove to be true, but then you haven't really looked at selling models for books. There are more complicated things going on that you don't know and aren't accounting for.

Like the psychology of reviewers and trying to game for more reviewers when your book isn't getting attention, which you would know if you knew the last debacle with the whole gaming the Goodreads reviews by over reviewing.

The calculus is this: since the expected income has a 50% chance of being below $2000, I'm not going to drop my day job. Perhaps I should give up on what is likely to be a modest short-term income and maximize prestige and recognition instead. Prestige and recognition through intellectual impact can turn into future income (e.g. by getting a prestigious position).

Ummm… this isn't calculus. Did you take Calculus? I did This seems like a mix of unsupported statistics pulling numbers wherever you feel like it without cross referencing.

You're trying to use fancy words to sound smarter while proving you don't seem to understand basic psychology and don't know how publishing, artists, or self-publishing works.

Most artists don't do things for prestige value. They don't want to be famous. It's more like sharing is caring. This might be your value set, but it's not everyone's. Have you interacted with artists and creatives? The majority of the time we're swapping different techniques and trying to help each other to the top, again, see Xiran's expose on Goodreads debacle.

For those who want to be famous, etc, you know what they preach over and over again? Don't fuck this up for the rest of the artists: Make sure you get paid for your art.

Do you need a name? John Scalzi. He is famous for saying both things.

You need another name? Harlan Ellison. Harlan Ellison argued freaking hard for this. He won court cases for us. He is famous for preaching over and over again to make sure you get paid while also wanting the prestige.

Most artists that want prestige alone don't survive in the publishing industry. It simply doesn't work because you need the skill set to go with it, and there are certainly less masochistic ways to gain prestige.

You have who exactly? Desperation isn't the same as knowing marketing skills.

Lots of people in the academic world have made this calculus and have offered their books for free download. Some of them simultaneously offer print version through publishers who don't mind (generally some non-profit university press).

This isn't calculus either. Many who? This is also false equivalency. There is a faster road and more sure road to this than getting a novel published or a nonfiction book published. You should realize the fallacy of this and also be able to own you just don't know the artists that create the art you're claiming on.

Many of those people have realized that the free download, instead of reducing printed sales, actually increases sales. There are famous examples.

No. It increases customer dissatisfaction, actually to give things away from free. I can cite Mur Lafferty with a lot of interviews with self-publishers. You have who, exactly to back your assertion?

Second one backs the assertion. I could go more academic, but it's not like you're pulling anything to support your assertions, despite being an NYU professor.

It's actually a higher satisfaction rate to charge for your book rather than to give it out for free. You get better reviews. So when people charged 1.99 for their books over free, the amount of reviews and reviewer satisfaction went up. This might be inverse of what you expect, but this is well-known among self-pubbed authors.

Psychologically, this is inverse because sometimes people think cheap is lower quality. And free is the equivalent of a mattress left on the curb–it must be used and worn and not very good–in fact it might have bed bugs.

Academics are very familiar with the idea that you don't get paid directly for your writings. Scholarly publications (and talks) do not generate any income (in fact, they can cost money!). The income is indirect: intellectual or artistic impact is a precondition to a position in academia or industry research labs.

Academics is not the same thing. You're asserting that you know because oranges are also fruit like apples, so growing oranges must be exactly like apples. That's not the case. Because Academia takes a different skill set, but a related skill set from creating books in the creative sphere. It doesn't seem you have enough publishing knowledge to back your claim, so you try to make a related claim and then claim the feelings around it must be the same.

Because the proess of publishing nonfiction and novels and short stories is different from academia, the atmosphere and the reasons why people want to publish or have a publishing career also change. There is a lot of difference in this industry compared to academia.

But it's not. It simply is not. Also, academic papers get better pay than your average article. Ask me how I know this. I fucking looked it up. You get better residuals too, in the form of prestige means you get better pay in your career itself. It doesn't work this way in general publishing. You can fuck up one day and lose your entire career. The publisher says goodbye, no more sorry, you didn't sell well that we no longer want your books. BTW, you need a reference? Brandon Sanderson said this on Writing excuses that he felt lucky that he's been able to have a continued career in this regard.

Computer scientists are also familiar with the concept. It's called open source software. You give away your software for free. Sometimes, your employer pays you to do so. Sometimes, you just want to make a name for yourself by contributing to an important project.

Open source software is totally a different type of field and psychology from what you're arguing here. Also false equivalency and computer science as a core career pays well, that people can do it for prestige? No. They want to innovate the field further and try to find other computer programmers and learn and explore things.

My Dad was a computer engineer. I know this from personal experience of being near computer engineers. I know how they think. I also worked professionally in UX. You're thinking the psychology must be the same without experiencing the people. This is over extending.

A similar phenomenon exists in music, particularly in jazz: a number of jazz musicians achieve financial stability through a teaching position at a university or conservatory. Additional income comes from performance. They get almost nothing from recordings. I'm not suggesting people shouldn't get paid for their work. In fact, I find it quite sad that most people can't live off of their creative work. If you can make a living by selling your books, music, or video games, more power to you! But I'm wondering whether the modus operandi that is prevalent in the academic world and the open source software world could not apply to other types of intellectual and artistic production. It may cause some creative productions to exist that would not otherwise see the light of day because of lack of commercial interest from publishers.

No. You're jumping in order to cover your lack of knowledge of a thing. Focus on the feelings of the publishing industry. Show your knowledge of the people that produce books.

Jazz Musicians don't have the same psychology either.

So, in total, you're confessing you don't know anything about publishing industry, how it operates and who is working in it and for what reasons, but assert you must know because apples are fruit like oranges, so you have to be growing apples and oranges in the exact same way–don't you water them and put them into full sun? So then you must be able to understand that how you grow them and the pests that come onto them and the things the farmers have to care about as an apple grower and an orange grower must be exactly the same.

This is how your argument sounds like. Why not actually do the investigating and stop spitballing and, ya know, act like an academic and ASK THE PEOPLE and stop doing your backfire effect in the wrong way?

Also, it might behoove you to look into scams writers face and why people fall for those scams.

BTW, Anthropology Degree and minor in comp lit. Also published. So yeah, I know what I'm doing when I pick on your argument.

[literaturepublishersjournal]

Toxicity Case Reports Journal

Toxicity Case Reports Journal publishes case reports in Toxicity journal, images in Toxicity Case Reports Journal , journal of Toxicity case reports, case reports in Toxicology journal, journal of Toxicology case reports etc. Toxicity literally means poisonous or noxious and logos refers to the underlying science that explains the adverse effects of toxicity at the organismal level. 

Toxicology is therefore a multidisciplinary field which is at the interface of Biology, Chemistry and Medicine, with a special focus on Pharmacology. The subject discusses the presence of physical, biological and chemical agents in the Biological system and the way they affect its functions. Toxicology places special emphasis on the dosage of toxic substances, the route of exposure, species, age, sex, and the environment.

Toxicology: Case Reports Journal

Journal of Toxicology Case Reports is an Open Access journal published. The Journal publishes original research articles, review articles, and clinical studies in all areas of toxicology. Open access publishing proposes a relatively new model for scholarly journal publishing that provides immediate, worldwide, barrier-free access to the full-text of all published articles. 

Open access allows all interested readers to view, download, print, and redistribute any article without a subscription, enabling far greater distribution of an author's work than the traditional subscription-based publishing model. The journal uses an editorial tracking system that helps in providing good quality in the review process.

Toxicity Case Reports Journal Highlights: Aflatoxins, Cardiac Toxicity, Chemical Toxicology, Developmental Toxicology, Drug Toxicity, Heavy Metal Toxicity, Heavy Metal Toxins, Industrial Hygiene Toxicology, Insecticides Toxicology, Metal Toxicology, Nano Toxicology, Pesticidal Toxicology, Renal Toxicity, Reproductive Toxicology, Skin Toxicology, Tetanus Toxin, Toxicogenomics, Toxicology Reports, Toxicology Testing.

Journal of Forensic Toxicology & Pharmacology

Journal of Forensic Toxicology & Pharmacology: Journal of Forensic Toxicology and Pharmacology is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal and aims to publish articles in all areas of forensic toxicology, forensic science and pharmacology. The field of forensic science has come a long way and this is particularly true in the area of forensic toxicology, which is both fascinating and important for many applications. 

Forensic toxicology is a discipline of forensic science which aids in medical or legal death investigation including disciplines such as analytical chemistry, pharmacology and clinical chemistry. Journal highlights include: Analytical Chemistry, Anthropometry, Clinical Chemistry, Clinical Pharmacology, Computer Forensics, Digital Forensics, Drug Chemistry, Drugs of abuse, Environmental Forensics Fingerprints, Forensic Criminology, Forensic Death Investigation, Forensic Dentistry, Forensic Engineering, Forensic Genetics, Forensic Medicine, Forensic Neuropsychology, Forensic Pathology, Forensic Pharmacology, Forensic Psychiatry, Forensic Science, Forensic Toxicology, Medical and Clinical Toxicology

Related Journals: Forensic Toxicology, Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, Forensic Science International, Forensic Science International: Genetics, Journal of Forensic Sciences, Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, Journal of Analytical Toxicology, Clinical Toxicology, Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology, Journal of Pharmacology and Toxicological Studies

International Journal of Chemical Sciences: International Journal of Chemical Sciences is a peer reviewed Quarterly Research Journal encompassing all the branches of Chemical Sciences like Inorganic, Organic, Physical, Analytical, Biological, Pharmaceutical, Industrial, Environmental, Agro and Soil Chemistry as well as Chemical Physics and Engineering etc

American Journal of Drug Delivery and Therapeutics

American Journal of Drug Delivery and Therapeutics: American Journal of Drug Delivery and Therapeutics is an open access peer reviewed and bi-monthly published research journal that publishes articles in the field of Drug Delivery and Therapeutics. It is an international journal to encourage research publication to research scholars, academicians, professionals and students engaged in their respective fields.

Our mission is to advance research by working to develop and maintain competence, ethics and integrity and the highest professional standards in the specialty for the benefit of the public. The faculty seeks, through its activities, to bring about an improvement in research of the public.

American Journal of Drug Delivery and Therapeutics is an international, peer-reviewed, open access online journal publishing original research, reviews focusing on all aspects of drug delivery systems.

Specific topics in the journal include: The properties and design of drugs, Excipients and drug penetration enhancers, Vaccines, Nanotechnology in therapeutics, Polymers for drug delivery, Drug delivery systems including oral, nasal, pulmonary, parenteral, topical and transdermal Controlled release systems; nanoparticles, microparticles, microcapsules, liposomes. Pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, Biopharmaceutics, Medical devices.

Der Chemica Sinica

Der Chemica Sinica: The primary mission of the Der chemica Sinica is to become the premier source of high quality research from the whole of the world. All authors not only receive fast and comprehensive peer-review but also the article promotion to researchers working in the same field. Der chemica Sinica is peer-reviewed and is published in electronic version. 

The language of the Der chemica Sinica is English.Der chemica Sinica is an Open Access that aims to publish a complete and reliable source of information on discoveries and current developments as original articles, review articles, case reports, short communications, etc. in all areas of the chemistry science and making them available online without any subscriptions to the researchers worldwide. The editors welcome articles in this multidisciplinary field of chemistry.

Chemical Informatics

Chemical Informatics: Chemical Informatics is a vast field that aims to disseminate information regarding the design, structures, creation, dissemination, analysis, visualisation and the use of chemical information. 

Chemical Informatics Journal aims to supply scientists of resources in order to provide the scientific knowledge through the publication of peer-reviewed, high quality, scientific papers and other material on all topics related to Chemical information, Software and databases, Molecular modelling, Computer- aided drug design, Molecular graphics, Data mining techniques, QSAR, Use of chemical structures and their representation in chemical substance and chemical reaction databases. Journal Highlights: Models of Chemistry, Chemical Databases and Maintenance, Chemical Information, QSAR, Data Mining Techniques, Database Software

Related Journals: Journal of Cheminformatics, Journal of Molecular Modeling, Journal of Molecular Structure, Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling, Drug Discovery Today.

Journal of Medical Toxicology and Clinical Forensic Medicine

Journal of Medical Toxicology and Clinical Forensic Medicine: Journal of Medical Toxicology and Clinical Forensic Medicine is a Scholarly Open Access scientific journal which deals with both toxicology and Forensic medicine. Medical Toxicology is nothing but a medical subspecialty concentrating on the analysis, supervision and prevention of harming and additional adversative health issues due to medicines, work-related and ecological contaminants, and organic causes. 

Clinical Forensic Medicine (CFM) is a health field which deals with the collaboration of clinical medicine and the law. It is also involved in the examination of healthcare doctors who are believed to be impaired or may be a possible risk to the public for other reasons. Journal Highlights includes: Forensic Analysis, Forensic Pathology, Toxicology, Forensic Technologies, Forensic Science, Clinical Forensic Analysis, DNA FingerPrinting, Crime investigation, Toxicity Analysis, Jurisdiction

Related Journals: Forensic Nursing, Autopsy, Nanotoxicology, Forensic Science, Journal of Forensic Sciences, Forensic Science International, International Journal of Legal Medicine, Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, Legal Medicine, Toxicology, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Critical Reviews in Toxicology, Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology; Environmental Toxicology, Clinical Toxicology, Journal of Applied Toxicology, The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Journal of Indian Academy of Forensic Medicine, Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, Journal of Clinical Forensic Medicine.

Journal of Heavy Metal Toxicity and Diseases

Journal of Heavy Metal Toxicity and Diseases: Heavy Metal Toxicity refers to an overexposure to lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, chromium or other high density or metallic element that causes irritation or damage to the body. 

Heavy metals can be found naturally in the environment, in homes, or at the workplace. Sudden severe exposures as well as moderate exposures over time can cause toxicity. Depending on the exposure, metals can increase cancer risk, impair production of red and white blood cells, causes Nausea, Vomiting, Rice-water diarrhoea, Encephalopathy, MODS, LoQTS, Painful neuropathy, Blue vomitus, GI irritation/ Haemorrhage, Hemolysis, MODS (ingested); MFF (inhaled), Vomiting, GI Haemorrhage, Cardiac depression, Metabolic acidosis, Very high doses: Haemorrhage, Bone marrow Suppression, Pulmonary Edema, Hepatorenal necrosis.The main aim of this journal is to provide the quality of data on Heavy Metal Toxicity and related diseases due to severe exposure to Heavy Metals.

Related Journals: The New England Journal of Medicine, Blood Transfusion, Medicine and Healthcare Journal, Iron Chelation Therapy Journal, Blood Journal, Scientific World Journal, Global Journal of Medical Research, Occupational Medicine & Health Affairs Journal, Journal of Experimental Botany, Iranian Journal of Toxicology, Journal of Heavy Metals Toxicity and the Environment, International Journal of Toxicology Heavy Metal Poisoning and Cardiovascular Disease, Heavy metal poisoning from Ayurvedic medicines.

Authors are requested to submit their manuscript by using Online Manuscript Submission Portal:https://www.literaturepublishers.org/submit.html

For more information on Literature Publishers - Toxicity Case Reports Journal visit our site:- https://www.literaturepublishers.org/event/Toxicity-Case-Reports-Journal.html

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Antikythera Mechanism

Researchers claim breakthrough in study of 2000 year-old Antikythera mechanism, an astronomical calculator found in sea.

From the moment it was discovered more than a century ago, scholars have puzzled over the Antikythera mechanism, a remarkable and baffling astronomical calculator that survives from the ancient world.

The hand-powered, 2000 year-old device displayed the motion of the universe, predicting the movement of the five known planets, the phases of the moon, and the solar and lunar eclipses.

But quite how it achieved such impressive feats has proved fiendishly hard to untangle.

Now researchers at UCL believe they have solved the mystery – at least in part – and have set about reconstructing the device, gearwheels and all, to test whether their proposal works.

If they can build a replica with modern machinery, they aim to do the same with techniques from antiquity.

“We believe that our reconstruction fits all the evidence that scientists have gleaned from the extant remains to date,” said Adam Wojcik, a materials scientist at UCL.

While other scholars have made reconstructions in the past, the fact that two-thirds of the mechanism are missing has made it hard to know for sure how it worked.

The mechanism, often described as the world’s first analogue computer, was found by sponge divers in 1901 amid a haul of treasures salvaged from a merchant ship that met with disaster off the Greek island of Antikythera.

The ship is believed to have foundered in a storm in 1st Century BC, as it passed between Crete and Peloponnese en route to Rome from Asia Minor.

The battered fragments of corroded brass were barely noticed at first, but decades of scholarly work have revealed the object to be a masterpiece of mechanical engineering.

Originally encased in a wooden box one foot tall, the mechanism was covered in inscriptions – a built-in user’s manual – and contained more than 30 bronze gearwheels connected to dials and pointers.

Turn the handle and the heavens, as known to the Greeks, swung into motion.

Michael Wright, a former curator of mechanical engineering at the Science Museum in London, pieced together much of how the mechanism operated and built a working replica, but researchers have never had a complete understanding of how the device functioned.

Their efforts have not been helped by the remnants surviving in 82 separate fragments, making the task of rebuilding it equivalent to solving a battered 3D puzzle that has most of its pieces missing.

Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, the UCL team describe how they drew on the work of Wright and others.

They used inscriptions on the mechanism and a mathematical method described by the ancient Greek philosopher Parmenides to work out new gear arrangements that would move the planets and other bodies in the correct way.

The solution allows nearly all of the mechanism’s gearwheels to fit within a space only 25mm deep.

According to the team, the mechanism may have displayed the movement of the sun, moon and the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn on concentric rings.

Because the device assumed that the sun and planets revolved around Earth, their paths were far more difficult to reproduce with gearwheels than if the sun was placed at the centre.

Another change the scientists propose is a double-ended pointer they call a “Dragon Hand” that indicates when eclipses are due to happen.

The researchers believe the work brings them closer to a true understanding of how the Antikythera device displayed the heavens, but it is not clear whether the design is correct or could have been built with ancient manufacturing techniques.

The concentric rings that make up the display would need to rotate on a set of nested, hollow axles, but without a lathe to shape the metal, it is unclear how the ancient Greeks would have manufactured such components.

[flyfutureeducation-studyabroad]

Tula State University Russia

Located in Tula, Russia, Tula State University Russia (TSU) is a distinguished university renowned for its strong contributions to teaching, research, and innovation as well as its rich academic traditions. TSU, which was founded in 1930, has developed into one of Russia's top institutions, providing a wide variety of undergraduate, graduate, and doctorate programs. As a center of multicultural education, TSU draws students from all over the world with its dedication to academic quality and global perspective.

In order to meet the Soviet Union's increasing demand for technical education, Tula State University was first established as Tula Mechanical Institute. With the addition of faculties in the natural sciences, humanities, and medicine, the university's reach grew over the years. It acquired its present name and standing as a multidisciplinary state university. Today, TSU is a cornerstone of higher education in the Tula region, recognized for its contributions to both regional and national development.

Academic Organization

TSU's well-structured departments and faculties provide a wide variety of programs. These consist of:

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering: This faculty is essential in training students for employment in engineering and manufacturing because of its innovative mechanical systems research and programs.

Faculty of Medicine: With state-of-the-art labs and clinical training facilities, TSU's medical faculty offers programs in general medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy.

The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences offers courses in history, sociology, linguistics, and international relations with an emphasis on fostering critical thinking and analytical abilities.

With a focus on research and innovation, the Faculty of Natural Sciences encompasses fields including biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics.

Faculty of Information Technology: focuses on software engineering, computer science, and cybersecurity, preparing students for high-demand roles in the tech industry.

Campus and Infrastructure

Modern and historic buildings coexist on TSU's campus, which also has cutting-edge amenities for extracurricular and academic pursuits. Important characteristics include:

Libraries: The institution has a large library system that houses a wide range of scholarly materials, including digital archives.

Labs and Research Centers: Outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment, these establishments facilitate innovative research in domains including medical sciences, robotics, and nanotechnology.

Sports Complex: The campus has state-of-the-art sports facilities that host a variety of athletic activities and encourage physical fitness.

Accommodations: TSU offers both local and international students cozy, reasonably priced housing that promotes a lively sense of community.

Cultural & Social Spaces: TSU provides a variety of opportunities for cultural and social interaction, ranging from student clubs to theaters and art studios.

Procedure for Admission

Students worldwide are encouraged to apply at TSU. Usually, the admissions procedure entails:

Application Submission: In addition to the necessary paperwork, such as academic transcripts and evidence of language competency, prospective students must submit an online application.

Admission Exam: Students may have to pass an admission exam or interview, depending on the program.

Visa and Registration: After being accepted, international students are given instructions on how to apply for a student visa and finish the registration procedure.

For deserving students, TSU offers financial aid and scholarships, making it an affordable choice for high-quality education.

Tula State University is a shining example of Russian higher education, fusing academic excellence with a dedication to creativity and international involvement. It is the perfect place for students looking for a top-notch education because of its wide range of programs, state-of-the-art facilities, and encouraging atmosphere. Students at TSU are prepared to succeed in their chosen disciplines and make significant contributions to society, regardless of whether they choose to pursue engineering, medicine, the humanities, or the natural sciences.

[layazone]

The reader

Eytan Bakshy, Itamar Rosenn, Cameron Marlow, and Lada Adamic. 2012. The role of social networks in information diffusion. In Proceedings of the 21st international conference on World Wide Web (WWW '12). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 519–528. https://doi-org.ezproxy.herts.ac.uk/10.1145/2187836.2187907

this article shows that online social networks allow individuals to share information widely and instantly. A large-scale experiment involving 253 million participants studied the impact of social signals on information sharing. The results indicate that sharing with friends significantly increases the sharing speed. Although strong relationships have a greater impact on individuals, the richness of weak relationships makes them more crucial for spreading new information. This highlights the underestimated role of weak relationships in online information dissemination, indicating that they are crucial for the cross network dissemination of ideas and content.

Tufekci, Z. (2014). Engineering the public: Big data, surveillance and computational politics. First Monday, 19(7). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v19i7.4901

This article discusses how digital technology has driven the development of big data and computing practices, making large-scale data collection and advanced modeling possible. These tools enable powerful institutions to operate extremely effectively, but are not open and transparent. This technology covers political, business, and social fields. The author studied six key dynamic drivers: the rise of big data, the shift from demographics to personalized positioning, the opacity of computational models, persuasive applications of behavioral science, real-time experiments achieved through digital media, and the rise of new power intermediaries that master data or social media platforms. These mechanisms have had a profound impact on political activities and reshaped the public sphere.

David A. Cole, Elizabeth A. Nick, Katherine A. Pulliam, Are Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games healthy or not and why? Preliminary support for a Compensatory Social Interaction model, Computers in Human Behavior,Volume 102, 2020, Pages 57-66, ISSN 0747-5632, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.08.012.

This article mentions that massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) provide opportunities for interaction with others, similar to face-to-face group interactions, which can promote cooperation and social support. However, they may also contribute to social aggression and bullying. This study conducted a questionnaire survey on users who frequently participate in MMORPGs and proposed and supported a compensatory social interaction model, suggesting that the use of MMORPGs is associated with higher online social support and health outcomes; And online peer bullying is associated with negative outcomes. These two opposite processes will cancel each other out, and on the surface, the use of MMORPGs seems unrelated to these outcomes. However, subsequent analysis shows that the type of outcome depends on the degree of treatment an individual receives online. The research results were explained from the perspective of a compensatory social interaction model and explored its possible clinical applications.

Parmentier, R.J. (2015) ‘Representation, Symbol, and Semiosis: Signs of a Scholarly Collaboration’, Signs and Society, 3(1), pp. 1–7. doi:10.1086/680470.

This article takes academic cooperation as an example to briefly introduce the history of cooperation between the Semiotics Research Center of Korea International Studies University and the Anthropology Department of Brandeis University, which is itself replaced as a "symbol". By focusing on semiotics, the process of symbols, and advancing the theoretical work of the founders of semiotics, Pierce and Saussure, through interdisciplinary research.

Plass J. L., Homer B. D., MacNamara A., Ober T., Rose M. C., Pawar S., Hovey C. M., Olsen A. (2020). “Emotional design for digital games for learning: The effect of expression, color, shape, and dimensionality on the affective quality of game characters”, Learning and Instruction, Volume 70, pp. 1-13. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2019.01.005.

This article describes the common mechanisms by which emotions and learning processes interact to promote specific learning outcomes based on the EmoGBL (Emotion Synthesis Model in Game Based Learning). Study how the colors, shapes, expressions, and dimensions of game characters evoke emotions in digital games. We investigated learners' perception of emotional quality of these four different visual design features using the forced choice paradigm (Studies 1-3) and PANAS-X and qualitative measurement (Study 4). Participants were shown a series of game characters and reported their emotional reactions. The results indicate that the relative contributions of the four visual attributes to players' perception of emotional quality are strongest in terms of visual design features in terms of expression and dimension, with moderate colors and shapes.

[global-indian]

Free University of Berlin:

Free University of Berlin: A Prestigious Institution for Academic Excellence

The Free University of Berlin (FU Berlin) is a globally recognized institution known for its research-driven approach and commitment to academic excellence. As one of Germany’s top universities, FU Berlin consistently ranks among the world’s leading institutions, attracting students from all corners of the globe.

Free University of Berlin Ranking: A Symbol of Global Recognition

The Free University of Berlin ranking highlights its excellence in a variety of fields, including social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences. Regularly listed among the top universities in Europe, FU Berlin is especially renowned for its innovative research and diverse academic programs. Its consistent performance in global rankings solidifies its reputation as a hub for scholarly achievement and international collaboration.

Master’s Programs at Free University of Berlin: Unlock Your Potential

For students looking to advance their academic and professional careers, pursuing a Master’s at Free University of Berlin is an excellent choice. FU Berlin offers a wide range of master’s programs in disciplines such as political science, business administration, computer science, and environmental studies. These programs combine theoretical knowledge with practical application, preparing students for leadership roles in their respective fields.

Why Choose FU Berlin?

Global Reputation: Consistently ranked among the top universities worldwide.

Diverse Master’s Programs: A broad selection of fields tailored to meet academic and industry demands.

Innovative Research Environment: Access to cutting-edge research facilities and resources.

[aimlayresearch]

PhD Admission 2025: A Comprehensive Guide for Aspiring Scholars

The pursuit of a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) is a significant milestone for individuals aiming to delve deeper into their field of expertise, contribute to academic research, and achieve scholarly distinction. As we approach the 2025 admission cycle, understanding the key elements of the PhD admission 2025 process is crucial for success. Here, we provide a detailed guide to help you navigate this journey.

Why Pursue a PhD in 2025?

The year 2025 offers unique opportunities for doctoral candidates. With the rapid evolution of interdisciplinary research, technological advancements, and global collaborations, PhD scholars can contribute to cutting-edge developments in their respective fields. Moreover, universities worldwide are increasingly emphasizing innovation, sustainability, and real-world applications, making this an ideal time to embark on a doctoral journey.

Key Steps to Apply for PhD Admission in 2025

Identify Your Research Interest Begin by pinpointing your area of interest. Whether it’s artificial intelligence, environmental science, sociology, or any other field, a clear focus will guide your application process and ensure alignment with potential supervisors and programs.

Choose the Right Institution and Program Research universities and programs that align with your academic and research goals. Consider factors such as faculty expertise, available resources, funding opportunities, and institutional reputation. Platforms like QS World University Rankings and Times Higher Education can provide valuable insights.

Prepare Your Application Documents

Statement of Purpose (SOP): Highlight your academic background, research interests, and career goals.

Research Proposal: Outline your intended research, its significance, and methodology.

Academic Transcripts: Ensure all previous qualifications are documented.

Letters of Recommendation: Obtain endorsements from professors or professionals familiar with your work.

Standardized Tests and Language Proficiency Depending on the institution, you may need to take tests like the GRE or GMAT. Non-native English speakers should provide proof of language proficiency through tests such as TOEFL or IELTS.

Seek Funding Opportunities Explore scholarships, grants, and assistantships. Many universities offer fully funded PhD programs or research assistant positions that cover tuition and provide a stipend.

Prepare for the Interview Be ready to discuss your research proposal, academic background, and motivation. Demonstrating passion, clarity, and knowledge is essential.

Trends to Watch for in 2025 PhD Admissions

Increased Focus on Interdisciplinary Research Universities are encouraging projects that bridge multiple disciplines, such as combining computer science with healthcare or sustainability with business.

Emphasis on Digital and Data-Driven Research With the rise of big data and AI, PhD candidates with skills in data analytics and programming are in high demand.

Global Collaborations and Remote Opportunities The post-pandemic era has normalized virtual research collaborations, offering flexibility and access to global resources.

Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives Many institutions are prioritizing diversity in their doctoral cohorts, providing opportunities for underrepresented groups.

Important Deadlines and Tips

Application Deadlines: Most universities have deadlines between November 2024 and February 2025. Start early to avoid last-minute stress.

Networking: Attend webinars, conferences, and open houses to connect with faculty and current students.

Stay Organized: Use a checklist to track deadlines, required documents, and submission statuses.

Conclusion

PhD admission 2025 in India is a gateway to advancing your academic and professional career. By preparing meticulously and staying informed about the latest trends, you can position yourself as a competitive candidate. Remember, perseverance and passion are key to success in this transformative journey.

Embark on your PhD adventure with confidence and determination, and make 2025 the year your academic dreams take flight!

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Aaron Sibarium

Published: Mar 21, 2024

LaVar Charleston—who once assaulted a police officer—passed off old studies as new research at least five times

The chief diversity officer of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, LaVar Charleston, who also teaches at the university’s school of education, has a decades-long track record of research misconduct, according to a complaint filed with the university on Wednesday and a Washington Free Beacon analysis. That misconduct includes presenting old studies as new research, which he has done at least five times over the course of his career.

The complaint, which was filed anonymously, implicates eight of Charleston’s publications, many of them coauthored, and accuses him of plagiarizing other scholars as well as duplicating his own work. It comes as the university is already investigating Charleston over a separate complaint filed in January, alleging that a 2014 study by him and his wife—Harvard University’s chief diversity officer, Sherri Ann Charleston—is a facsimile of a study he published in 2012.

"This is an extraordinary case of serial misrepresentation and deception," said Peter Wood, the head of the National Association of Scholars and a former associate provost at Boston University. "The closest analogy would be someone who sells the same real estate to five different buyers, all of whom are unaware of the others."

In January, Charleston won a lifetime achievement award for "excellence in higher education." The university trumpeted the award in a press release, praising his "unwavering dedication to creating inclusive environments in academia" and noting his "wealth of academic accolades."

Charleston’s CV, however, appears to have been inflated by duplicate publication, the practice of publishing the same research in multiple journals without attribution. In 2014, for example, he published a pair of papers in two separate journals—the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education and the Journal of Progressive Policy & Practice—that are near-verbatim copies of each other.

Both describe a 15-person focus group conducted by an African-American woman and feature identical quotes from participants, all of whom appear to have been recruited from the same academic conference.

Neither paper indicates the other was published elsewhere—a troubling omission, scholars who reviewed both studies said.

"It is academic misconduct to publish essentially the same paper twice with no acknowledgment of the duplication," Alexander Riley, a sociologist at Bucknell University, told the Free Beacon. "It seems fairly clear that Charleston is gaming the system in order to get more on his CV than is merited by the amount of research he has actually done."

Charleston also appears to have recycled findings and interview responses from his 2010 dissertation, which involved a survey of black computer science students, in four subsequent papers: the 2012 and 2014 studies that were the subject of the previous complaint, as well as two additional studies published in 2016 and 2022.

Each study is framed as a novel survey addressing a gap in the scholarly literature. None cite Charleston’s dissertation or indicate that they are drawing on previously published material.

The odds that different people would give the same quotes across different studies, said Lee Jussim, a professor of psychology at Rutgers University, are about the same as the odds that "monkeys typing on typewriters would reproduce Hamlet."

Charleston did not respond to a request for comment.

The complaint raises serious questions about how a flagship public university vetted one of its top administrators, whose career has been marked not just by questionable research practices but by criminal conduct.

Shortly after joining UW-Madison as a researcher in 2009, Charleston was charged in 2011 with attempting to strangle a police officer, according to documents obtained by the MacIver Institute, a conservative think tank in Wisconsin. He avoided a conviction through the Deferred Prosecution Program, a local initiative run by the district attorney’s office that offers first-time felons the chance to do community service in lieu of jail time and removes their arrest records from public databases.

"Even with a PhD, I’m looked at as a criminal," Charleston said in an interview in 2020. "[I]t has to be because of my color."

The arrest didn’t stop Charleston from climbing the ranks of the school’s diversity bureaucracy. Between 2010 and 2017, he helped to build Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory, which conducts research on "inclusive learning." He became assistant vice chancellor of student diversity at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 2017, then served as the inaugural dean of diversity, equity and inclusion at UW-Madison’s School of Education—the third-ranked education school in the country, according to US News and World Report. He became the chief diversity officer of the entire university in 2021.

Charleston is also a clinical professor of education, has led "anti-racism" workshops for Wisconsin public school teachers, and sits on the state’s Equity and Inclusion Council, which helps "advance diversity, equity, and inclusion practices across Wisconsin state government."

The complaint calls into question the originality of the feted diversity scholar, who draws a $280,000 salary from UW-Madison and oversees tutoring services for students.

"The two 2014 papers do indeed appear to be two versions of the same paper," Riley said. "I don't see the two as distinct from one another in any substantive way."

Both papers also share a prominent coauthor: Jerlando Jackson, now the dean of the Michigan State University College of Education, who advised Charleston’s dissertation at UW-Madison and also coauthored one of the studies based on it. The overlap raises additional questions about norms of academic integrity at education schools and within the field of DEI scholarship, which has come under intense scrutiny in recent months amid a drip-drip of plagiarism scandals.

"Either [Charleston and Jackson] are ignorant of this principle of research publication ethics," Riley said, referring to rules against duplicate publication, "or they were both aware of what they were doing."

Jackson did not respond to a request for comment.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison said it"takes all allegations of research misconduct seriously" and that it would investigate the complaint. Charleston, the school added, is a "valued member of the University of Wisconsin-Madison leadership team and we continue to support his work."

Wednesday’s complaint marks the fourth time this year that a DEI official has been hit with charges of research misconduct. In addition to Sherri Ann Charleston, Harvard’s chief diversity officer, plagiarism allegations have been made against Shirley Green, the Title IX coordinator for Harvard Extension School, and Alade McKen, the chief diversity officer of Columbia Medical School. The deluge followed the downfall of former Harvard president Claudine Gay, who resigned in January after half of her published work was found to contain plagiarized material.

Unlike those other officials, who work for private universities with lavish endowments, Charleston is a government employee subject to a state budget. His role was on the chopping block last year after Wisconsin Republicans proposed a budget that would have cut $32 million from the UW system—the exact amount it spends on DEI initiatives.

A watered-down version of the proposal still drew fierce blowback from the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, which in December rejected a deal to cap DEI staff in exchange for pay raises and a new engineering school. The board reversed course after news broke that it had prioritized positions like Charleston’s over $800 million in additional funding.

That money has subsidized a scholar who appears to have little new to say. The four studies based on Charleston’s dissertation, which was submitted to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, are strikingly similar to each other, regurgitating not just interview results but entire pages of text.

Each one discusses the challenges faced by African-American science students and argues, among other things, that mentorship can promote success in computer science. Three of the four studies include identical descriptions of survey participants, whose testimonials form the backbone for each paper.

"I know of no other cases where a researcher has simply repeated his dissertation findings like a broken record for twelve years," Wood said.

While scholars can reuse data as much as they like and often turn their dissertations into peer-reviewed articles, they are expected to provide appropriate attribution to earlier research if it has already appeared in an academic journal. Failure to do so can result in retractions and infringe on the copyright of the publisher.

Duplicate publication is sometimes considered a more serious offense than plagiarism because, on top of stealing a journal’s intellectual property and padding a scholar’s CV, it biases meta-analyses—papers that aggregate the results of prior studies and use them to make statistical generalizations about a body of research. Some meta-analyses in education focus on the very issues Charleston’s work has addressed, including the effects of mentorship and diversity training.

Riley, the Bucknell sociologist, argued that the four studies didn’t quite meet the bar for "unethical behavior" because they were all based on a single dissertation, unlike the pair of papers from 2014. But, he added, the redundancies were revealing nonetheless.

"I gather that there are a lot of people doing this in the DEI universe—basically reiterating the same claims over and over and over again in different venues," Riley said. "The field draws such people to it more or less naturally, given the orthodoxy on which it is based."

The complaint also accuses Charleston of plagiarizing other scholars in his dissertation and some of his peer-reviewed papers, including the one from 2012. He lifts several passages from a Ph.D. thesis by Leslie Pendleton Graham, who earned her Ph.D. in counselor education in 1997, without citing her in a footnote or parentheses.

He also borrows from a dissertation by Craig Alan Green, who earned his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 2008, without any sort of attribution.

The complaint points out that by recycling a plagiarism-laden thesis, Charleston ensured his subsequent work would contain plagiarism.

"Much of LaVar’s scholarly work since the dissertation lifts language from the dissertation verbatim," the complaint reads. "But the dissertation is full of plagiarism. So LaVar’s peer-reviewed work has plagiarism throughout."

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How To Write And Publish A Technical Research Paper In iJRASET

Publishing a technical research paper is a cornerstone of academic and professional growth, serving as a platform to share innovations and insights. iJRASET (International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology) is among the leading paper publishing journals, offering a respected venue for researchers to publish groundbreaking work. Its rigorous standards and diverse readership make it an ideal choice for those aiming to excel in research paper publication and effectively disseminate their findings.

Understanding iJRASET’s Scope and Requirements

Before crafting your technical research paper, familiarize yourself with iJRASET’s scope. The journal covers a broad array of disciplines, including applied sciences, engineering technologies, and computational advancements. As one of the most reputable journals to publish research papers, iJRASET emphasizes adherence to submission guidelines such as word count, formatting, and originality. Non-compliance can lead to rejection or delays, underscoring the need for meticulous preparation.

Selecting a Relevant Technical Topic

The choice of topic can significantly influence the impact of your technical research paper. Prioritize originality and relevance by identifying unresolved problems or emerging trends in your field. For instance, topics like AI-driven solutions for sustainable engineering or advancements in nanotechnology align well with iJRASET's focus areas. Innovative thinking paired with practical applications enhances your chances of successful technical paper publishing in journals like iJRASET.

Conducting In-Depth Research

High-quality research forms the backbone of any technical research paper. Utilize reputable databases, scholarly journals, and experimental data to build a robust foundation. Systematically analyze existing literature to uncover gaps and formulate unique hypotheses. Employ advanced tools like simulation software or statistical programs to enhance the depth of your study, ensuring it meets the standards expected by paper publishing journals.

Drafting a Clear Research Framework

A well-defined framework organizes your technical research paper effectively. Start by articulating clear objectives and hypotheses, which serve as the guiding principles for your study. Develop a detailed methodology that outlines experimental setups, computational models, or theoretical approaches. This clarity not only aids your writing but also ensures your paper adheres to the expectations of research paper publication in prestigious journals.

Writing a Technically Sound Manuscript

Technical research demands precision and clarity. Craft an engaging introduction that contextualizes your study and explains its significance. Use concise language to describe methods and results, ensuring every detail contributes to the paper’s objectives. Support findings with tables, graphs, and charts for visual clarity. Avoid excessive jargon; instead, focus on making complex concepts accessible, which is crucial for successful technical paper publishing in journals.

Ensuring Proper Formatting and Referencing

Formatting plays a critical role in maintaining professional standards. iJRASET mandates specific styles for headings, citations, and layouts, similar to other reputable journals to publish research papers. Follow these meticulously to ensure your paper meets journal requirements. Proper referencing not only credits original sources but also bolsters the credibility of your technical research paper, enhancing its value in the realm of research paper publication.

Reviewing and Refining the Manuscript

Even the most brilliant technical research paper benefits from thorough review. Proofread for grammatical errors, technical accuracy, and logical flow. Pay attention to formatting consistency and adherence to submission guidelines. Consider seeking feedback from peers or mentors to gain fresh perspectives. This iterative process enhances the overall quality of your manuscript, positioning it favorably for technical paper publishing in journals like iJRASET.

Submitting Your Paper to iJRASET

The submission process is straightforward yet requires careful attention to detail. Visit the iJRASET website and access the submission portal. Prepare supplementary documents, such as author declarations or plagiarism reports, as per the guidelines. Double-check the uploaded files to avoid errors, ensuring all elements are correctly formatted and complete. This meticulousness is essential for ensuring a smooth research paper publication experience.

Handling Feedback and Revisions

Feedback from iJRASET reviewers is invaluable for refining your technical research paper. Approach critiques constructively, addressing comments with clear explanations or additional research if necessary. Revisions should be implemented methodically, ensuring each aspect of the feedback is thoroughly addressed. Professionalism in your responses fosters positive reviewer interactions, a key to successful technical paper publishing in journals.

Post-Publication Insights

Publication marks the beginning of a new chapter. Share your technical research paper across professional networks, academic forums, and social media platforms to maximize visibility. iJRASET's wide reach amplifies the impact of your research, opening doors to collaborations and professional opportunities. Leveraging publication in prestigious paper publishing journals like iJRASET not only enhances your academic profile but also inspires future research endeavors.

Conclusion

Publishing a technical research paper in iJRASET is a rewarding experience, reflecting a commitment to excellence in technical research. By following these steps, researchers can navigate the process effectively, contributing meaningful insights to their field and advancing their professional aspirations. This guide underscores the importance of meticulous preparation, aligning with the highest standards of research paper publication.