The great dissertation hoaxes

“Originality is undetected plagiarism.” - William Ralph Inge, (1860-1954), English author, Anglican priest, and professor of divinity at Cambridge.

Around two weeks ago, Apple Daily, a Hong Kong print newspaper reported an alleged plagiarism committed by a top university official in Lingnan University. In 2013, Herdip Singh, associate vice president and comptroller of Lingnan University submitted his doctoral dissertation at the Tarlac University, Philippines.

Singh

Singh’s dissertation entitled “Corporate Governance in the China Region: Implication to Business Management” was found to be substantially similar to a master’s thesis submitted by Wu Chunshui, a Chinese student at Lund University, Sweden in 2010.

Using Lund University’s plagiarism detection software, it was revealed that the two manuscripts were 96% similar.

Currently, Singh refused to comment on the issue.

This however is not the first time such issue came about in academia. Here are examples of popular people from the past who were alleged (and proven) to commit plagiarism with regards to their dissertations.

German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg

Guttenberg

In 2011, Guttenberg’s doctorate degree from the University of Bayreuth was stripped of him after he admitted copying several sources for his thesis in 2006 without citing them. This issue earned him the moniker as the minister for cut-and-paste, and Baron zu Googleberg. As a consequence, Guttenberg resigned as minister thereby ending his promising political career.

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Putin

Putin claimed to hold a doctorate degree in economic science at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute in 1996. However, it was reported that Putin never really attended the institute. Later, researchers were able to get a copy of his dissertation. After inspection, Putin’s hardly accessible manuscript turned out to be littered with plagiarized content all throughout.

Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King Jr.

King

In the later part of 1980’s, King's doctoral dissertation at Boston University entitled “A Comparison of the Conception of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman” contained exact texts from another dissertation in the same university three years earlier. Further investigation also revealed that his other academic papers as well as his speeches were also plagiarized.

Despite this, Boston University did not revoke his doctorate degree further saying that in fact King’s dissertation made an intelligent contribution to scholarship.

How about you, do you know of anyone who were suspected or found out to have plagiarized their PhD dissertation? You can add to this list by using the comment link below.

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Blogging at IE Matters Conference

Blogging and preparing for the IE Matters Conference at the Holiday Inn Galleria Manila

When my PhD classmate and good friend, Dr. Nelson Faustino took me in as data analysis consultant for the evaluation of the School Electrification and Education (SEEd) Project of the Alliance for Mindanao Off Grid Renewable Energy (AMORE) Program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which at the same time is the centerpiece of his PhD dissertation, I immediately took the offer. Aside from our long standing professional collaboration in several projects of the past which I believe makes our team up becoming as effective every time, I think this would be an opportunity for me to develop my skills in impact evaluation and hopefully provide several opportunities for my academic career.

A landmark of the SEEd-AMORE Program in Marilog, Davao City

True enough, about two years later today I am here at Holiday Inn Manila Galleria for the “Making Impact Evaluation Matter: Better Evidence for Effective Policies and Program”, a conference for impact evaluation at the Asian Development Bank Headquarters in Ortigas, Metro Manila. Our impact evaluation study of SEEd-AMORE found its way through for presentation. This is organized by Asian Development Bank (ADB), International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), and Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).

It’s a dream come true to have the opportunity to meet with impact evaluation professionals from around the world. Furthermore, it makes me proud to be a part of the goals of impact evaluation by providing evidence for development programs necessary for creating better policies and programs for society.

I’ll try my hand at live blogging this time to give you updates as the conference starts at 1:00 PM today.

A glimpse of the ADB Headquarters (building on the left) from my hotel room.

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Three Vital Points in Choosing Your Thesis/Dissertation Topic

So, you are now in your final year in grad school. But before you finish your degree, comes the final rite of passage: your thesis or dissertation.

Have you come up with your desired topic then? Are you having trouble conceptualizing what direction your research will go into?

Some would give you a large list of suggestions on how to choose your research topic. However, it all boils down to three essential factors in your choice of topic. For me, it must be something you know, like, and can.

What You Know
It’s important that you choose a topic that you are very well versed on. This could be on a subject that you are very familiar with for several reasons (e.g. your line of work, your favorite subject, related to your hobby, etc.). Don’t dwell on a topic in which you still have to learn or read more or have limited reference.

You know what I’m talking about: Your knowledge on a certain topic gives you one leap of advantage in terms of time spent in formulating your research outline than having to learn something first before deciding what to write.

What You Like
It’s not enough that you know a great deal about a certain topic. What usually matters is your interest in it. The topic must be something that can grab your 100% commitment. Never choose a topic in which you have the slightest hint that you’ll get bored with it in a short while.

Remember this: If you do something you like and enjoy doing, you can’t stop until you finish it.
 

What You Can
The tendency for people who are too excited to start on something is that they overestimate. What I mean is that sometimes when we feel we know so much about one thing and at the same time extremely enjoy doing it, we seem to think of goals which are way over the roof and eventually impossible to realize. So, what I really meant is to think of a research project which you can implement within your capability.

Hint: Time, Money, and Effort are limiting factors for what type of research you are going to undertake.

I know these three points are not enough to make you finish your thesis or dissertation on time. But it’s a good way to start. Any way, you can share your own thoughts by adding other important points I might have forgotten.

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4 sites where you can download eBooks for free

In one of my previous posts about computers (Computer: a grad student’s best friend) I have emphasized the importance of the internet in the life of a student. One of this is the countless opportunity to download and share eBooks.

The arrival of the internet into our lives is what every grad student should celebrate. eBooks, PDF files, and web pages of every topic we can ever imagine can be surfed, browsed, and searched in the World Wide Web with just a few strokes and few clicks.

You can just imagine yourself carrying all your books around in your laptop or in a CD or a USB drive and read them anywhere and anytime. This is definitely convenient as opposed  to leaving all your books at home and just bringing what you can carry to school (that’s just maybe 1 to 3 books total).

Here are my suggested websites where you can easily search and download thousands of eBooks on a variety of topics.

1. Bookboon.com

As the site says:

On BookBooN.com you can download free ebooks for students and travelers in PDF format. All the books can be downloaded without registration. Our ebooks are legal and written exclusively for Bookboon. They are financed by a few in-book ads.

This is a whole lot of resources for students on any academic subject from business, science, economics, mathematics, etc.

2. Free Book Spot

Website description

Free Book Spot is a free e-books links library where you can find and download free books in almost any category. Do you like ebooks? This is place for you!  We have lots of links to free ebooks in more than 90 categories.  You can find scientific, engineering, programming, fiction and many other books. All books are ready for download without registering.

Superb collection and a whole lot of categories you can search from.

3. Library.nu

This is the new site of Gigapedia.com a large resource of university textbooks in a wide array of academic and non-academic subjects.

From: Filenetworks Blog

Gigapedia has a huge repository of nearly half a million Ebooks relating to various categories both educational and non educational. The site is used by hundreds and thousands of users daily and plenty of new titles get uploaded each day. As you may have guessed, it’s not only free stuff that you can find on Gigapedia – thousands of premium, paid books are shared on the site, with actual files being hosted externally on one click hosting services. While Gigapedia has remained unchanged for the most part during the last couple of years, it seems to be undergoing several major changes right now. GP seems to be moving to a new domain and is now accessible by the URL http://library.nu. As some of you may have noted, Gigapedia was closed for public registrations in the last couple of months. If you were looking forward to open registrations, there’s even better news - All downloads on site are now open to the public and accessible by even unregistered users. 

I found textbooks here with more than a thousand pages. Some eBooks are about 50-100 MB (though not all of them, some are less than 10 MB). Many of the books here are medical books (no wonder they’ve got a thousand pages).

4. PDFBooks

Site description:

The copyright of many well-known books has expired and they now fall into the public domain. The books in the OPEN LITERATURE section of this website were obtained from Project Gutenberg, which is a massive volunteer-driven effort to capture public domain books into an electronic format. Project Gutenberg attempts to store the captured books in as timeless a format as possible, by using only straight text and in limited cases html. The goal of this website was to make many of these books available in the easy-to-read and easy-to-print PDF format. The books are available for download free-of-charge and without requiring user registration.

Free and without registration, what more can you ask for.

There are hundreds of other websites offering free eBooks. This list however are the ones I have been visiting to download materials and resources for study and writing purposes. I have my own library in my hard disk and in a DVD.  And I have them with me every time I travel.

Do you know of any other sites with free eBooks. Please share it here. Use the comment link below.

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Numb3rs, a TV series recommended for students in research and statistics

I’ve watched this TV series called Numb3rs in Cable TV a few years ago and I’ve been hooked to each episode ever since. It’s about two brothers, the older one an FBI agent who constantly consults his younger brother, a math professor, in solving crimes. Each crime is solved using different mathematical analysis tools be it on profiling criminals, predicting their movements, identifying locations of victims, or some IT stuff such as image enhancement of surveillance videos or hacking computer systems.

What hooked me is when I see such stuff as logistic regression, discriminant analysis, randomization, game theory, risk assessment, and other stuff I have encountered in grad school, being used in solving crimes. I have also been motivated of learning more on other analytical tools I have heard for the first time in the show such as Benford’s Law, the Voronoi Diagram, The Riemann Hypothesis, and lots of other stuff that inspires me more to learn math.

Numb3rs opening line for every episode:

We all use math every day; to predict weather, to tell time, to handle money. Math is more than formulas or equations; it's logic, it's rationality, it's using your mind to solve the biggest mysteries we know.

So if you’re a student enrolled in research or statistics right now, I recommend you watch the show in order to appreciate the power of numbers in solving society’s ills. This may motivate you to be more serious about the seemingly boring stuff called math. I haven’t followed the recent episodes lately since I’ve been busy with my online stuff but I think it’s still in AXN.

By the way here’s a description of the series from the Numb3rs Fan Site. 

Rob Morrow stars as FBI agent Don Eppes, who recruits his mathematical genius brother, Charlie (David Krumholtz), to help the Bureau solve a wide range of challenging crimes in Los Angeles. From two very different perspectives, the brothers take on the most confounding criminal cases, aided by Don's partner, Terry Lake (Sabrina Lloyd), and new FBI recruit David Sinclair (Alimi Ballard). Although their father, Alan (Judd Hirsch), is pleased to see his sons working together, he fears their competitive nature will lead to trouble. Charlie's colleague, physicist Dr. Larry Fleinhardt (Peter MacNicol), urges Charlie to focus more on his university studies than on FBI business. Inspired by actual events, NUMB3RS depicts how the confluence of police work and mathematics provides unexpected revelations and answers to the most perplexing criminal questions.

See also: Numb3rs Blog - This is a blog where a professor from Northeastern University's Math department posts mathematical comments on the television show "Numb3rs".

What's on your mind right now? You can share it with us using the comment link below.

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News about 2 grad students: the good and the bad

Recently, I subscribed to Google’s news alert specifically on the topic “grad students”. I did it in order to be updated on whatever comes up in the news involving grad students. Interestingly enough, Google sent an email alert today, and these are the two most interesting news I have found.

1.Bad news first. Look at how university professors in Turkey allow such obscenity to stain the academe as an institution.

BBC News Europe. The news brings us to Bilgi University in Istanbul. Film student Deniz Ozgun made a porn film for his dissertation project. Obviously he failed the review.

It didn’t cause a stir at first. But Deniz gave an interview in a news magazine about how he filmed his project on campus. This caused the uproar among parents which caused the Board of Education to put pressure on the university to act.

The school has already closed its film department as well as fire three professors after the incident. (See Full Story)

2.Here comes the good news: nothing messes with academic freedom.

The Guardian. This brings us to Cambridge University. Computer security student Omar Choudary’s thesis described a flaw in the chip-and-pin (personal identification number) security system that allows criminals to make fraudulent transactions with a stolen bank card using any pin they care to choose. This was posted in the university website as is the practice for all master’s thesis after having passed the review.

However, The UK Cards Association, which represents major UK banks and building societies, asked Cambridge to remove the thesis from their website because allegedly it “places in the public domain a blueprint for building a device which purports to exploit a loophole in the security of chip and PIN.” Cambridge bluntly refused adding that they have already informed the banks about the loopholes since 2009.

Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at the university's Computer Laboratory, in his reply to the UKCA wrote “"You seem to think we might censor a student's thesis, which is lawful and already in the public domain, simply because a powerful interest finds it inconvenient. This shows a deep misconception of what universities are and how we work.” (See Full Story)

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How to use Wikipedia (without citing it)

Wikipedia is the largest repository of encyclopedia articles in the internet today. Depending on the source, Wikipedia claims to have around 2.5 to 3 million article entries in its website. This may have been the greatest invention in the information world as of the moment. However, as I have stressed out in one of my previous posts (Using Wikipedia for research in grad school), issues with reliability of its content have been constantly challenged. A reason for this is that practically anyone can contribute to a Wikipedia article. This makes it vulnerable to pranksters, or anyone who wishes to misinform the public, or advance their political intentions.

This issue caused it to be banned on some universities from being cited as a resource in an academic paper. Although other universities and colleges doesn’t ban its citing outright, professors discourages students from doing it. So if you’re planning to cite Wikipedia as a source for your papers, better think twice because it has been a common understanding among professors that citing encyclopedia is equivalent to laziness and at the very least idiocy of the one doing it.

This doesn’t mean however that we should not use Wikipedia totally. In fact Wikipedia is a very helpful resource in writing an academic paper especially when you are in grad school and that’s even without you citing it. Here are the reasons why:

1.It provides interesting background information on the subject. Almost always, a Wikipedia entry starts with its definition. Furthermore, the history, origin, and the evolution of the concept are explained in the entry. This provides you with a contextual atmosphere when writing an introduction to your intended academic paper.  (ex. It’s much interesting to write about a topic on environmental ethics when you know something about its history and how it has evolved into what it is at the present).

2.The hyperlinks provide you with information on related topics. Internal links in a topic entry leads to other entries in Wikipedia that are related to the topic you are researching. These provide you with a more thorough knowledge of the topic which can be reinforced with your information on the other topics related to it.

3.Reference links leads you to the website where the original literature in which the cited reference in the Wikipedia entry can be viewed. So even if Wikipedia articles are not that reliable, the references for it mostly are. These are the ones that you can cite in order for your academic paper to be reliable too.

4.External links provide you with websites which can supplement the information on a certain topic. Almost always these are also reliable sources of information and more valid as a reference for your intended academic paper.

5.The neutrality policy of Wikipedia encourages contributors to provide the pros and cons of the topic being written. Therefore, an article in Wikipedia can also help you decide where to stand on a certain topic. This helps you in the writing of your conclusion or generalization part of your paper.

The point here is that Wikipedia is helpful in focusing your research through the links being provided. This saves you time from googling for more reliable sources because Wikipedia already has a list of them for each entry. The background on the other hand, helps you to write in context.

Using Wikipedia this way makes you write faster using reliable sources. And writing in context makes your paper a good one.

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Damn Funny Research Part 2 (the Ig Nobel Prizes)

Photo from: theakumalian.com

My previous post talks about the Ig Nobel prizes, a parody of the Nobel prizes given annually to ten unusual or trivial “achievements” in scientific research. Following are more of those funny researches in my list who have won the awards. (Click the graphics to jump to the URL of the journal entries).

5.Some people still think it’s an effective measure.


6.Every job has its own disadvantage.


7.The setback of being in a tropical country.


8.A study on nose picking? Interesting!


How do you like this post? Please feel free to use the comment link below.

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Damn Funny Research Part 1 (the Ig Nobel Prizes)

Photo taken from: improbable.com

My funny researches and experiments posts reveals a list scientific researches that reflects how innovative our scientists are in trying to discover knowledge. However, do you know that these funny researches have its own award giving body? It's called the Ig Nobel Prizes.

The Ig Nobel Prizes is a parody of the Nobel Prizes. These are given every October for ten unusual or trivial "achievements" in scientific research. According to its organizers, the aim of the prizes is to "first make people laugh, and then make them think". This is organized by the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR). The prizes are presented by a group that includes Nobel Laureates at a ceremony held at Harvard University's Sanders Theater.

Each year, ten prizes are awarded in different categories, these includes the Nobel Prize categories of physics, chemistry, physiology/medicine, literature, and peace, and also other categories such as public health, engineering, biology, and interdisciplinary research.

Its name is a play on the word ignoble ("characterized by baseness, lowness, or meanness") and the name "Nobel" after Alfred Nobel. The prizes are presented by genuine Nobel laureates, originally at a ceremony in a lecture hall at MIT but now in Sanders Theater at Harvard University.

In order to have an idea of how amusing these awards are, here is a list of my favorite funny researches which were awarded with the prize. Take note that these were all published in scientific journals. (Click the graphics to jump to the URL of the journal entries).

1.Huh! The F-word can actually reduce pain?


2.Recommendation: If you work in a lab, get a shave man!


3.Conclusion: Full or empty, a beer bottle can serve its purpose.


4.The Cat-Dog battle has inspired a flea competition.


To be continued...

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What is the shortest thesis or dissertation? (just for the sake of asking)

Whoever thought that panel of reviewers think that the longer theses or dissertations are (in terms of pages) the better, may be a bit misinformed. It’s not really the length that counts but the content.

I’ve been thinking of ways to find a research that would spell something big in terms of contribution to society (not big in terms of thickness of the report). What’s should be big (in terms of content) but short (in terms of pages)? But it also got me into thinking, how short is a short thesis or dissertation?

I run Google searches for some of it and found out that although there are such claims for the shortest theses or dissertations, there is no consensus as to which of it got the said title. However here are some of those claims and take note that all of these are in the field of mathematics:

1. John Nash’s dissertation on “Non-Cooperative Games” introduces a concept under the field of game theory which refers to a game having players making decisions independently and the concept of cooperating among the players is self-enforcing and not imposed upon them (Brief Introduction Here). Nash’s paper is a 32-page typewritten technical explanations of handwritten equations in which non-mathematicians (like me) cannot fully appreciate. (Download PDF File).

2. Edmund Landau’s paper entitled “New Proof of the Equation ??!!!?? (punctuations mine)” is popularly cited as the “shortest” based on my Google searches. I can’t seem to find the original version, which was in German, but here’s the 17-page English translation by Michael J. Coons.

3. C.N. Yang’s “On the Angular Distribution in Nuclear Reactions and Coincidence Measurements” is said to be the shortest by far based on my search. In the same way as the above entry, I can’t find the original version. However, after approval by his Ph.D. Committee, Yang published his scientific journal version of the said paper in Physical Review as is the standard practice in most universities. Journal versions most probably have minor revisions thus we can deduce that there is really not much modification from the original dissertation version. You can download the 9-page journal version.

However, I’m not claiming that my search have really been as fruitful as yours. If you think there are other dissertations as short (or even shorter) as those mentioned above, please post those info here using the comment link below.

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A simple technique to detect plagiarism

How can you detect plagiarism? How can you be able to determine if a student’s paper is not his own work but was just copy and pasted from articles in the internet? Here’s a simple technique for the meticulous teacher.

-o0o-

The advent of several websites and search engines offering free articles and information, though an advantage to students can be a disadvantage to teachers. They can be thought to believe that their students have labored enough to write a decent and proper research or term paper when in fact it was plagiarized. The convenience of copy paste technology can in fact create a setback. This may breed laziness, theft, and disrespect among students, the future of our country.

It doesn’t matter if the submitted paper is a hard copy (printed) or soft copy (saved in disks). Here are the steps:

1. Randomly select a part of the student’s submitted paper, one in which you suspect is plagiarized.

A sample of a submitted paper suspected of plagiarism

2. Select a sentence or phrase (around 5-10 words) from that selection and type it into the search box in Google. Enclose the sentence or phrase with quotation marks (this is a Google operator which means you are searching for the exact phrase). Click Search.

Type the text you wish to find in the internet.

3. If the material is directly copied from a certain website article, that website would surely come out in the search results. Happy hunting!

Usually, if it’s a plagiarized paper the, website it came from mostly comes out first after the search

Now try this with one of your student’s papers.

This information is mainly for teachers. However, this will also be a warning to students that plagiarism doesn’t pay. There will always be a way to catch you.

For graduate students, it would be such a same to be caught plagiarizing. Here are some simple rules to follow in order to avoid this:

• When using a direct quote from a book or article (1-2 sentences) always cite the author.
• Do not directly copy one whole paragraph from a source. You can either paraphrase or summarize it. Still don’t forget to cite the author.
• If the idea from a source is a general knowledge or concept, still do not directly copy every word. Tell it in your own way. One technique is to read 3 or more sources about the concept. Put them aside and digest what you have just read and think about how you would present it in your own words. Then write it. Make it a rule not to copy more than three words in succession from an author.

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Using Wikipedia for research in grad school

At grad school you’ll be asked to submit lots of written report. These are in the form of research papers, reaction/critic papers, term papers, etc. The nature of these assignments would require you to cite several written works in order to substantiate your thesis or your main proposition.

There has been lots of debate lately about using Wikipedia for research. Several years ago, a history department from a college in the U.S. banned the citation of Wikipedia on research papers of students. I’m not aware if there are cases in the Philippines that promulgated such policies in colleges and universities.

However, banned or not banned I advice you not to cite Wikipedia in your research papers. Here are some of the reasons.

First, because it’s not credible. Some articles (not all) were done sloppily by individuals with no such credentials to write an encyclopedia entry. I repeat, not all.

Second, by academic standards, encyclopedia in general are not really acceptable sources for research articles. In the same way you cannot use Encyclopedia Britannica, Grolier’s, or even MSN Encarta as citations. Reason: these are general descriptions of the entries not specific ones.

Third, the content changes every now and then. The content of an article that you have read recently may have changed within the hour if a user in some part of the world edits it. Though the original versions are archived and numbered, this would surely be confusing when what the article says an hour ago is totally opposite to what it says right now.

Fourth, professors may not take your paper seriously. Citing Wikipedia is like citing a popular magazine for your scientific research paper. Reason: These are secondary sources of information meaning they are also citing those information from primary sources. Hint: Look for the primary sources (journals, books, government reports, etc.)

Fifth, your professors may think that you are a lazy student. Going directly to Wikipedia to get information hinders you the experience of real research. That is to painstakingly look for dozens or hundreds of sources, taking notes of some important points of each, filtering out the needed literature, composing an outline that will present and substantiate your main proposition, and writing it. The tendency for some students is to start at Wikipedia, (because it usually comes out first in a Google search). And because it seems that all the needed information is there, they practically stop right there too.

Given the above reasons, I hope that this would give an insight on why citing Wikipedia for your research paper is practically a no no for graduate school.

No, I’m not saying we don’t use Wikipedia at all for our research. It’s one of the wonderful things ever thought of in this era. In my future post I’ll provide you with tips on how to use Wikipedia for your research (without citing it).

Note: If you have comments regarding this post, please fell free to add it below.

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A Consultant's Oath

Without really expecting it, I was hired as a research consultant for a large multinational company. Well, our team of development researchers will be doing an evaluation study of their more than a hundred social development projects.

I'll be away from home and family for about two months. I'll be spending a lot of time in rural communities conducting surveys, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. An awesome job to think that I haven't even finished my PhD yet.

I'm kind of new in this line of work. I am really concerned with the ethics of the job as first priority. I want to know what is really expected of me by my clients in a moralistic sense. Other professional jobs such as accountants, managers, nurses, and physicians have their own pledge dealing with the ethical practice of their expertise.

I can say that I am a development practitioner, a development researcher, I do evaluation studies for projects. Don't they have what they call a development consultant's oath or something?

I Googled it. Not even one search result leads me to it.

So I made up my own.

Remember the Hippocratic Oath for physicians?

Well, I modified it to suit my needs.

Here's my version of A Consultant's Oath.

~o0o~

I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of great consultants in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of my clients, all measures that are required, and avoid causing harm to the company I am serving.

I will remember that there is art to consultancy as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh a researcher’s analysis.

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a company’s welfare.

I will respect the privacy of my clients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of a company’s success or failure. If it is given to me to save a client’s business, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to damage an organization; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not just assess programs, or evaluate a project, but I am serving a trusting company, whose problems may affect its economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to serve my clients.

I will prevent future problems whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.
I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of serving those who seek my expertise.

So help me God.

(A printable file of the Consultant's Oath can be downloaded for free. A Consultant's Oath.)

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Crazy Researches and Experiments (Part 3 of 3)

Here's the third and final part of the mini research conference series of th 1st Grad School Jungle Crazy Research Symposium.

First-Person Shooter Games as a Way of Connecting to People: “Brothers in Blood”

Abstract

This work seeks to understand young adults' motives for online gaming and extends previous research concerning social interaction in virtual contexts. The focus of the study is on Counter-Strike and World of Warcraft… (Read it online)




A Mathematical Model of Sentimental Dynamics Accounting for Marital Dissolution

Abstract

Marital dissolution is ubiquitous in western societies. It poses major scientific and sociological problems both in theoretical and therapeutic terms. Scholars and therapists agree on the existence of a sort of second law of thermodynamics for sentimental relationships. Effort is required to sustain them. Love is not enough… (Read it online)



Why can't you tickle yourself?

Abstract

It is well known that you cannot tickle yourself. Here, we discuss the proposal that such attenuation of self-produced tactile stimulation is due to the sensory predictions made by an internal forward model of the motor system. A forward model predicts the sensory consequences of a movement based on the motor command. When a movement is self-produced, its sensory consequences can be accurately predicted, and this prediction can be used to attenuate the sensory effects of the movement. (Download full text PDF)



Call for papers: We definitely need you contributions for the craziest research and experiments you have ever encountered in the internet. Use the comment link below for your submissions.

(Photo credits: nonsensegamer.com, api.fotolia.com, esquire.com)

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Crazy Researches and Experiments (Part 2 of 3)

As promised here's the second part of yesterday's post. Hope you'll enjoy this as much as you do with the previous one.

Pigeons can discriminate “good” and “bad” paintings by children

Abstract

Humans have the unique ability to create art, but non-human animals may be able to discriminate “good” art from “bad” art. In this study, the researcher investigated whether pigeons could be trained to discriminate between paintings that had been judged by humans as either “bad” or “good”. To do this, adult human observers first classified several children’s paintings as either “good” (beautiful) or “bad” (ugly). Using operant conditioning procedures, pigeons were then reinforced for pecking at “good” paintings. After the pigeons learned the discrimination task, they were presented with novel pictures of both “good” and “bad” children’s paintings to test whether they had successfully learned to discriminate between these two stimulus categories. The results showed that pigeons could discriminate novel “good” and “bad” paintings. (Download full text PDF)

Dogs catch human yawns

Abstract

This study is the first to demonstrate that human yawns are possibly contagious to domestic dogs (Canis familiaris). Twenty-nine dogs observed a human yawning or making control mouth movements. Twenty-one dogs yawned when they observed a human yawning, but control mouth movements did not elicit yawning from any of them. The presence of contagious yawning in dogs suggests that this phenomenon is not specific to primate species and may indicate that dogs possess the capacity for a rudimentary form of empathy. Since yawning is known to modulate the levels of arousal, yawn contagion may help coordinate dog–human interaction and communication. Understanding the mechanism as well as the function of contagious yawning between humans and dogs requires more detailed investigation. (Download full text PDF)

Garlic: A way out of work

Abstract

Two 18-year-old men were seen for second-degree burns to the dorsum of their knees, ankles, and feet. Upon investigation, it was revealed that the burns were self-inflicted and resulted from the application of crushed garlic with the intent of exemption from work. Reviews of the literature reveal that garlic-induced burns have been previously reported; however, only once before as a factitious dermatitis. The sharp demarcation line between normal and abnormal skin should suggest that a burn is not from hot liquids. Health care providers had best be advised of the side effects of natural remedies and be aware of how garlic may be abused to the advantage of an individual. (Read it online)

I'm trying to find enough time for the last installment. Hold on for the last part tomorrow.

(Photo credits: dulemba.blogspot.com, askspikeonline.com, projectobrazil.blogspot.com)

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Crazy Researches and Experiments (Part 1 of 3)

We seem to view research as a serious thing, sometimes scientists are more attuned to the process and forget to laugh once in a while. However, there are some scientific papers which might give you that tickle in the belly once in a awhile.

Safe and Painless Manipulation of Penile Zipper Entrapment

Abstract

Entrapment of prepuce in a zipper is a common cause of prepuceal injury in children. The reported interventions include dismantling the zipper with bone or wire cutters, to circumcision. A quick, simple and non-traumatic approach to the zipper manipulation is presented in which prepuce is instantly released by lateral compression of the zip fastener, using a pliers. (Read it online)

The Pitch Drop Experiment

Summary

A heated sample of pitch (highly viscous liquids which appear solid) is poured into a sealed funnel and allowed it to settle for three years. After that, the seal at the neck of the funnel was cut. This allows the pitch to start flowing. Large droplets form and fall over the period of about a decade. The eighth drop fell on 28 November 2000, 70 years since the pitch was allowed to flow. (Read it online)

The Effect of Country Music on SuicideAbstract

This article assesses the link between country music and metropolitan suicide rates. Country music is hypothesized to nurture a suicidal mood through its concerns with problems common in the suicidal population, such as marital discord, alcohol abuse, and alienation from work. The results of a multiple regression analysis of 49 metropolitan areas show that the greater the airtime devoted to country music, the greater the white suicide rate. The effect is independent of divorce, southernness, poverty, and gun availability. The existence of a country music subculture is thought to reinforce the link between country music and suicide. Our model explains 51% of the variance in urban white suicide rates. (Download full text PDF)

More crazy researches and experiments in my future posts. Please leave a comment.

(Photos: fark.com, grdurand.com, moejackson.com)

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