ResearchGate and Google Scholar: how much do they differ in publications,citations and different metrics and why?

ResearchGate has emerged as a popular professional network for scientists and researchers in a very short span. Similar to Google Scholar, the ResearchGate indexing uses an automatic crawling algorithm that extracts bibliographic data, citations, and other information about scholarly articles from various sources. However, it has been observed that the two platforms often show different publication and citation data for the same institutions, journals, and authors. While several previous studies analysed different aspects of ResearchGate and Google Scholar, the quantum of differences in publications, citations, and metrics between the two and the probable reasons for the same are not explored much. This article, therefore, attempts to bridge this research gap by analysing and measuring the differences in publications, citations, and different metrics of the two platforms for a large data set of highly cited authors. The results indicate that there are significantly high differences in publications and citations for the same authors captured by the two platforms, with Google Scholar having higher counts for a vast majority of the cases. The different metrics computed by the two platforms also differ in their values, showing different degrees of correlation. The coverage policy, indexing errors, author attribution mechanism, and strategy to deal with predatory publishing are found to be the main probable reasons for the differences in the two platforms.

     

Fresh beef tumbling at different post-mortem times to improve tenderness and proteolytic features of M. longissimus lumborum

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of tumbling at different post-mortem times on the proteolytic features and quality attributes of beef loins (M. longissimus lumborum). Loins (n = 12) were cut into 4 sections and assigned to tumbling at 1, 6 or 11 days post-mortem or non-tumbled control. Upon tumbling, additional ageing was applied to a common post-mortem time of 16 days. In general, tumbling had no considerable impacts on water-holding ability of samples. Tumbling resulted in an immediate decrease in shear force values (WBSF) of beef samples. Tumbling at 1 day post-mortem with no ageing had similar WBSF compared to the non-tumbled controls at 16 days (P > 0.05). With ageing, tumbling increased amounts of protein degradation, myofibrillar fragmentation and calpain-1 autolysis of samples. These results suggest that early post-mortem tumbling coupled with ageing can synergistically impact the tenderness development of beef loins and shorten the necessary ageing period.     

Fabrication of high-efficiency Yb:Y2O3 laser ceramics without photodarkening

High-efficiency Yb:Y₂O₃ laser ceramics were fabricated using the vacuum-sintering plus hot isostatic pressing (HIP) without sintering additives. High-purity well-dispersed nanocrystalline Yb:Y₂O₃ powder was synthesized using a modified co-precipitation method in-house. The green bodies were first vacuum sintered at a temperature as low as 1430°C and then HIPed at 1450°C. Finally, the samples were air annealed at 800°C for 10 h. Although no sintering aids were used, full density of the samples with excellent optical homogeneity and an inline transmission of 80% at 400 nm could be obtained. Moreover, photodarkening phenomenon was not detected in the ceramics. Preliminary laser experiment with the fabricated ceramics in a two-mirror cavity has demonstrated 32 W continuous-wave (CW) output at ∼1077 nm with an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 58.2%. To the best of our knowledge, this is so far the highest CW output power and optical-to-optical conversion efficiency achieved with the Yb³⁺-doped sesquioxide ceramics in a simple two-mirror cavity.     

Depicting the role of gas-solid interactions on the hydrodynamics of converging pneumatic riser

The understanding of the flow characteristics and effect of gas-solid interactions in pneumatic risers is fundamental to investigate to ensure effective design cost-effective operation. Thus, to understand the effect of gas-solid interactions on the hydrodynamics of newly proposed conversing risers, this study mainly focused on predicting pressure drop in the dilute phase pneumatic conveying system. The experiments were conducted in a converging riser having a convergence angle of 0.2693°. Various solid particles such as sago, black mustard, and alumina have been considered to study the effect of particle sizes and density on the pressure drop. The experimental outcomes indicate that the total pressure drop increases with an increase in the solid density and gas mass flow rate. Moreover, smaller particle sizes are also increased the pressure drop. An empirical correlation is developed for the prediction of total pressure drop ΔP_T in converging pneumatic riser via dimensional analysis. All dependent variables such as particle and air density, drag force, acceleration due to gravity, the mass flow rate of air and particle, the diameter of particle and converging riser, the height of converging riser were considered to develop the empirical correlation. The established relationship is tested, and experimental data have been fitted for its validation. The estimated relative error of less than 0.05 proved the significance of the developed correlation. Hence, it can be stated that the established relationship is useful in studying the effects of various parameters on the pressure drop across the length of the conversing riser.     

Herbivorous Caterpillars and the Green Leaf Volatile (GLV) Quandary

Several herbivorous caterpillars contain effectors in their oral secretions that alter the emission of green leaf volatiles (GLVs) produced by the plants upon which the caterpillars are feeding. These effectors include an isomerase, a fatty acid dehydratase (FHD), and a heat-stable hexenal trapping (HALT) molecule. GLVs serve as signaling compounds in plant-insect interactions and inter-and intra-plant communication. However, it is not known whether these GLV-altering effectors are common among herbivorous caterpillars, or the evolutionary context of these effectors in relation to GLV emission by host plants in response to feeding damage. Here, we examined the distribution and activity of the isomerase, FHD, and HALT effectors across 10 species spanning 7 lepidopteran families. Six of the 10 species possessed all three effectors in their oral secretions. Activity from the HALT and FHD effectors was observed in all examined caterpillar species, while activity from the isomerase effector varied in some species and was absent in others. There was no discernable pattern in effector activity based on evolutionary divergence, since individual species within a family did not possess similar mechanisms to alter GLV emission. These data, demonstrating the GLV-altering effectors acting at different steps in the GLV biosynthetic pathway and present in the examined caterpillar species at different combinations with different activities, highlight the importance of these effectors in changing the emission of these compounds during caterpillar herbivory. Understanding the prevalence and roles of GLV-altering effectors and GLV emission itself will open new research areas in the dynamics of plant-insect interactions.

     

Rapid Aging as a Key to Understand Deactivation of Ni/Al2O3 Catalysts Applied for the CO2 Methanation

Catalysis Letters - We developed a rapid aging method for Ni/Al2O3 methanation catalysts mimicking the real aging in the actual application. The method is based on hydrothermal deactivation of the...     

ROS-Mediated Anti-Tumor Effect of Coptidis Rhizoma against Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma Hep3B Cells and Xenografts

Coptidis Rhizoma is the dried rhizome from the Coptis chinensis Franch. that has been shown to have a number of beneficial pharmacological properties including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer effects. However, the anti-cancer effects of Coptidis Rhizoma on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the anti-cancer properties of Coptidis Rhizoma ethanol extract (CR) in HCC Hep3B cells and in a xenograft mouse model. Our results showed that the CR significantly inhibited cell growth and induced apoptosis in Hep3B cells through increased expression of Bcl-2 associated x-protein (Bax) and cleavage of poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP), reduced expression of Bcl-2, and activated caspases. CR also increased the generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), which caused a loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP, ΔΨm) and activation of the mitochondria-mediated intrinsic apoptosis pathway. Moreover, N-acetylcysteine (NAC), a ROS inhibitor, markedly blocked the effects of CR on apoptotic pathways. CR also induced the expression of light chain 3 (LC3)-I/II, a key autophagy regulator, whereas CR-mediated autophagy was significantly suppressed by NAC. In addition, pre-treatment with NAC perfectly attenuated the inhibition of cell invasion and migration of CR-stimulated Hep3B cells. Furthermore, oral administration of CR suppressed Hep3B tumor growth in xenograft mice without toxicity, alterations to body weight, or changes in hematological and biochemical profiles. Taken together, our findings suggest that CR has anti-tumor effects that result from ROS generation, and may be a potential pharmacological intervention for HCC.     

Nanomaterials for Antiangiogenic Therapies for Cancer: A Promising Tool for Personalized Medicine

Angiogenesis is one of the hallmarks of cancer. Several studies have shown that vascular endothelium growth factor (VEGF) plays a leading role in angiogenesis progression. Antiangiogenic medication has gained substantial recognition and is commonly administered in many forms of human cancer, leading to a rising interest in cancer therapy. However, this treatment method can lead to a deteriorating outcome of resistance, invasion, distant metastasis, and overall survival relative to its cytotoxicity. Furthermore, there are significant obstacles in tracking the efficacy of antiangiogenic treatments by incorporating positive biomarkers into clinical settings. These shortcomings underline the essential need to identify additional angiogenic inhibitors that target numerous angiogenic factors or to develop a new method for drug delivery of current inhibitors. The great benefits of nanoparticles are their potential, based on their specific properties, to be effective mechanisms that concentrate on the biological system and control various important functions. Among various therapeutic approaches, nanotechnology has emerged as a new strategy for treating different cancer types. This article attempts to demonstrate the huge potential for targeted nanoparticles and their molecular imaging applications. Notably, several nanoparticles have been developed and engineered to demonstrate antiangiogenic features. This nanomedicine could effectively treat a number of cancers using antiangiogenic therapies as an alternative approach. We also discuss the latest antiangiogenic and nanotherapeutic strategies and highlight tumor vessels and their microenvironments.