171 research outputs found
Editorial. Multiple outputs from single studies : acceptable division of findings vs. ‘salami’ slicing
No full textIn this information age, transgressions in publishing ethics can readily occur
and many people are concerned that these behaviours are on the rise. The term ‘salami slicing’ is considered to be a publication transgression, carrying
connotations of inappropriate practice and referring to publishing an excessive
number of papers from a single study. Salami slicing describes ‘artificially segmented articles in which related aspects of the same study were published
separately’ (Bailey 2012, p. 212). As implied by this definition, the term suggests that each paper is so thin (akin to slices of salami) and that the whole purpose of multiple outputs is to bolster author CVs, perceived performance and scholarly standing rather than disseminate research findings with integrity. Indeed, the practice is said to be driven primarily by the ambition of authors, particularly from a ‘publish or perish’ culture, with pressure for staff to publish in academic journals for tenure, promotion and other career progression opportunities
Editorial: Multiple outputs from single studies: acceptable division of findings vs. 'salami' slicing
No full textIn this information age, transgressions in publishing ethics can readily occur and many people are concerned that these behaviours are on the rise. The term 'salami slicing' is considered to be a publication transgression, carrying connotations of inappropriate practice and referring to publishing an excessive number of papers from a single study. Salami slicing describes 'artificially segmented articles in which related aspects of the same study were published separately' (Bailey 2012, p. 212). As implied by this definition, the term suggests that each paper is so thin (akin to slices of salami) and that the whole purpose of multiple outputs is to bolster author CVs, perceived performance and scholarly standing rather than disseminate research findings with integrity. Indeed, the practice is said to be driven primarily by the ambition of authors, particularly from a 'publish or perish' culture, with pressure for staff to publish in academic journals for tenure, promotion and other career progression opportunities
Sobrevivência de Listeria monocytogenes em salame tipo italiano de baixa acidez, produzido sob condições brasileiras de fabricação
Get PDFDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Ciências Agrárias. Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciência dos AlimentosO baixo risco dos salames em provocarem a listeriose é atribuído aos obstáculos criados durante processo de fabricação e presentes no produto final. O pH e atividade água baixos, alta concentração de sal e a presença de bactérias ácido-lácticas e seus metabólitos secundários compõe barreiras que impedem o desenvolvimento de Listeria monocytogenes. Neste trabalho avaliou-se o comportamento das curvas de sobrevivência deste patógeno durante o processo de fabricação de salames tipo Italiano pouco ácidos (pH final de 5,2) em três formulações: inoculada com Lactobacillus plantarum, com adição de 2% lactato de sódio e uma formulação sem agentes inibidores intencionais. Cada formulação foi contaminada artificialmente com L. monocytogenes e paralelamente acompanhada por uma testemunha de igual composição. O tamanho das populações de L.monocytogenes foi avaliado semanalmente através de contagem pela técnica de tubos múltiplos (NMP), durante o período de fabricação de quatro semanas. Os salames naturalmente contaminados apresentaram discreto aumento da população de L. monocytogenes no inicio do processo, seguidas por redução até o final da maturação e os salames artificialmente contaminados tiveram redução considerável da contagem de L.monocytogenes, principalmente na formulação com adição de L. plantarum, seguido pela formulação com lactato de sódio e por último a formulação padrão, entretanto não se verificou diferença significativa entre os tratamentos. The low risk of salamis in provoking listeriosis is attributed to the obstacles created during production process and presents in the final product. The pH and low water activity, high concentration of salt and the presence of lactic acid bacteria and their secondary metabolites compose barriers that prevent the development of Listeria monocytogenes. In this work the behavior of the survival curves of this pathogen was evaluated during the production process in salamis Italian type slightly acid (final pH of 5,2) in three formulations: inoculated Lactobacillus plantarum, with addition of 2% sodium lactate and a formulation without intentional inhibitors agents. Each formulation was contaminated artificially with L. monocytogenes and parallel accompanied by a witness sample of equal composition. The size of the populations of L.monocytogenes was weekly evaluated through counting by the technique of multiple tubes (NMP), during the period of production of four weeks. The naturally contaminated sausage had presented discreet increase of the population of L. monocytogenes in the beginning of the process, followed by reduction until the end of the maturation and the salamis artificially contaminated had considerable reduction of the counting of L.monocytogenes, mainly in the formulation with addition of L. plantarum, followed by the formulation with sodium lactate and last the standard formulation, however significant difference was not verified among the treatments
A Case Study of Salami Slicing: Pooled Analyses of Duloxetine for Depression
No full textBACKGROUND: Publishing separate, yet very similar pieces of a single dataset across multiple papers is known as 'salami slicing'. This practice may be motivated by researchers wishing to increase their publication counts and by the desire to increase exposure of their findings. 'Salami slicing' may also be used by the drug industry to help widely disseminate positive findings regarding its products. Journal editors across many scientific disciplines have bemoaned such duplicative publications on several occasions. However, little research has been conducted on the frequency of such publication practices, and findings have been inconsistent. No research has investigated whether 'salami slicing' may also occur in publications presenting results from pooled analyses of clinical trials. METHODS: We examined the scientific literature on duloxetine as a treatment for depression, examining how data from clinical trials were reported across 43 pooled analyses. RESULTS: The vast majority of pooled analyses (88%) had at least one author who was employed by the manufacturer of duloxetine. Several pooled analyses based on highly overlapping clinical trials presented efficacy and safety data that did not answer unique research questions, and thus appeared to qualify as salami publications. Six clinical trials had their data utilized as part of 20 or more separately published pooled analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Such redundant publications add little to scientific understanding and represent a poor use of peer reviewer and editorial resources
Strategic Culture Cult of Defense: Dominant Culture in China's Salami Slicing Geopolitical Strategy
Get PDFChina continues to try to establish norms in international dynamics, especially in Asia, with a "salami-slicing" strategy to expand its influence without triggering major conflicts. This strategy is seen in how China responds to its two territorial disputes; the occupation of islands in the South China Sea and the Indian border. The salami-slicing strategy helps China gradually occupy disputed territories and offers a fait accompli that the other party must accept. This paper will then use Bloomfield's strategic culture framework which emphasizes the existence of dominant and subordinate subcultures. The author finds that in influencing China's policies in territorial disputes, the dominant strategic culture is the Cult of Defense coined by Scobell. This strategic culture has three (3) implications for policy, namely projecting strength when on the verge of crisis and the tendency to take risks, and in the outline of its actions, China will then justify using its power
John Fowles's fiction and the poetics of postmodernism
No full textThis book presents a deconstructive reading of the novels and short stories of John Fowles. As a contemporary novelist, Fowles began as a modernist self-consciously aware of the various narratological problems that he encountered throughout his writings. In his most recent novel, A Maggot, however, he assumes the role of the postmodernist who not only subverts the tradition of narratology, but also poses a series of problems concerning history and politics. Throughout this study, Mahmoud Salami attempts to locate Fowles's fiction in the context of modern critical theory and narrative poetics. He provides a lively analysis of the ways in which Fowles deliberately deployed realistic historical narrative in order to subvert them from within the very conventions they seek to transgress, and he examines these subversive techniques and the challenges they pose to the tradition of narratologySalami presents, for instance, a critique of the self-conscious narrative of the diary form in The Collector, the intertextual relations of the multiplicity of voices, the problems of subjectivity, the reader's position, the politics of seduction, ideology, and history in The Magus and The French Lieutenant's Woman. The book also analyzes the ways in which Fowles uses and abuses the short-story genre, in which enigmas remain enigmatic and the author disappears to leave the characters free to construct their own texts. Salami centers, for example, on A Maggot, which embodies the postmodernist technique of dialogical narrative, the problem of narrativization of history, and the explicitly political critique of both past and present in terms of social and religious dissent. These political questions are also echoed in Fowles's nonfictional book The Aristos, in which he strongly rejects the totalization of narratives and the materialization of societyIndeed, Fowles emerges as a postmodernist novelist committed to the underprivileged, to social democracy, and to literary pluralism. This study clearly illustrates the fact that Fowles is a poststructuralist--let alone a postmodernist--in many ways: in his treatment of narratives, in mixing history with narrative fiction and philosophy, and in his appeal for freedom and for social and literary pluralism. It significantly contributes to a better understanding of Fowles's problematical narratives, which can only be properly understood if treated within the fields of modern critical theory, narratology, and the poetics of postmodernis
LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR MONETARY UNION IN ANGLOPHONE WEST-AFRICA: THE NIGERIAN PERSPECTIVE
No full textPhDEconomic and monetary integration efforts in West Africa over the past several
decades have been highly problematic. However, with the recent commitment of the
international community and key international institutions to assist Africa bring about
economic advancement, such integration can be achieved. It is within this context of
renewed optimism for Africa that this thesis aims to address the role of law and
institutions in facilitating closer economic integration and eventual monetary union
among the Anglophone states of West Africa
This thesis proposes that legal infrastructure and institutions will help achieve and
sustain the WAMZ monetary union. It argues for the development of appropriate
infrastructural "pillars" for such a union, which would be brought about by
comprehensive regional treaty provisions and structures in conjunction with
complementary domestic legal and institutional reforms. It focuses specifically on the
existence of adequate legal and institutional framework for the integration of the
banking markets, central bank independence, and fiscal management in Member
States.
In assessing these issues, a comparative analysis is provided between the Monetary
Union proposed by the Anglophone West African states (WAMZ) and those of the
Francophone West African states (WAMU) and the European Union. Nigeria is used
as a case study in assessing the state of preparedness of the Member States of this
proposed Union, since it has the largest economy in the sub-region and is the main
political driving force behind the project of integration.
This thesis is divided into two parts comprising six chapters. Part one, consisting of
three chapters, considers the legal and institutional requirements for economic
integration. Chapter One presents the preliminary background by considering the
relevant theories of economic integration and by assessing the benefits and possible
drawbacks of such integration within the context of West Africa. Chapter Two
provides a historical analysis of economic regional efforts in Anglophone West
Africa. This assessment shows that failures of these efforts are attributed, in part, to
inadequate legal and institutional arrangements at the regional level. Chapter Three
considers the domestic legal and institutional requirements for effective participation
in an economic integration arrangement and provides a case study on Nigeria.
Chapters Four to Six constitute part two of the work and assess the legal and
institutional framework for the proposed monetary union. This second part considers,
specifically, whether Member States possess the legal and institutional requirements
for the integration of their banking markets, for the preservation of central bank
independence and for the effective conduct of fiscal management. By using
international standards of best practices, these Chapters assess the adequacy of
relevant institutions in Nigeria, which are necessary preconditions for supporting the
proposed monetary union
Multi-pulse decomposition for nonlinear seismic analysis of structural systems
Get PDFLarge sympathetic, resonance-like, structural behaviour to earthquake excitations with analogous frequency content often plays a critical role in determining its maximum seismic response. Earthquake excitation typically contains a broad spectrum of non-stationary frequency content, wave packets, which are difficult to observe from the recorded time series. Therefore, identifying the root cause of large responses (which act sympathically with the input but do not achieve full-resonance) of a structure is problematic. Hence, this paper proposes a new multi-pulse decomposition method of ground motions, through which components of a ground motion within a specific period range are determined. In this method, a ground motion is approximated with a Gauss-Fourier wave packet series. The decomposed components, wave packets, contain information about it’s time-position, frequency, amplitude, pulse width and phase angle. Unlike the Ricker (Morlet) wavelet the Gauss-Fourier wave packet is not limited to symmetrical pulses. One ensemble of 40 near-fault ground motions and one ensemble of 44 far-fault ground motions are used to demonstrate the application and efficiency of the proposed method. The method is shown to be precise in reconstructing the original ground motion using its decomposed components. It is also concluded that the method is accurate in replication of elastic and inelastic response spectra of ground motions within a specific period range. It is demonstrated that for some structure/ground motion combinations, only a few Gauss-Fourier components are required to faithfully describe response behaviour. This highlights that, for these systems, most of the recorded earthquake time series acts like noise on a much simpler wave-packet signal
Engagement of African immigrants in municipal and community initiatives to address food insecurity in Alberta, Canada
No full textSSHRC IDG awarded 2023:Engagement of African immigrants in municipal and community initiatives to address food insecurity in Alberta, Canad
Control of fermented sausage, salami, sausage, and hamburger meatballs produced in meat production facilities applying the ISO Food Security System for food pathogens
No full textIn this study, fermented sausage, salami, sausage, and hamburger meatballs produced by 6 different companies were assessed for pathogen contamination. These firms were either International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 22000-compliant or non-ISO 22000 compliant. Samples were taken 4 times over 4 seasons. The total mesophilic aerobic quantities of Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringens, and Staphylococcus aureus, along with the presence of Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, and Escherichia coli O157:H7, were tested in each sample. In 96 samples, Salmonella spp. (3.12%), L. monocytogenes (17.7%), and E. coli O157: H7 (4.16%) were detected. From the ISO-certified firms, Salmonella spp. were detected in one meatball (8.33%). L. monocytogenes was detected in 7 meatballs (58.31%), one sausage (8.33%), and one salami (8.33%). E. coli O157: H7 was detected in one meatball (8.33%) and one sausage (8.33%). These results indicate that the ISO system by itself is not an effective food security system for public health. All applications of food security related to consumer health are important and must be ensured at all stages of the supply chain, from the general health conditions of animals to the end delivery of products for the consideration of conscious customers.Graduate School of Health Sciences of Selcuk University [2010/039]This study was funded by the Graduate School of Health Sciences of Selcuk University, project number 2010/039. This study is a summary of the corresponding author's similarly titled PhD thesis. We would like to thank Erdem Danyer for editing
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