Promoting Ethical Conduct in Science

Many of you may be wondering why you are required to have training in research ethics. You may believe that you are highly ethical and know the difference between right and wrong. You would never fabricate or falsify data or plagiarize. Indeed, you also may believe that most of your colleagues are highly ethical and that there is no ethics problem in research.

If you feel this way, relax. No one is accusing you of acting unethically. Indeed, the best evidence we have shows that misconduct is a very rare occurrence in research, although there is considerable variation among various estimates.  The rate of misconduct has been estimated to be as low as 0.01% of researchers per year (based on confirmed cases of misconduct in federally funded research) to as high as 1% of researchers per year (based on self-reports of misconduct on anonymous surveys).  See Shamoo and Resnik (2009), cited above.

Clearly, it would be useful to have more data on this topic, but so far there is no evidence that science has become ethically corrupt. However, even if misconduct is rare, it can have a tremendous impact on research. Consider an analogy with crime: it does not take many murders or rapes in a town to erode the community's sense of trust and increase the community's fear and paranoia. The same is true with the most serious crimes in science, i.e. fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism. However, most of the crimes committed in science probably are not tantamount to murder or rape, but ethically significant misdeeds that are classified by the government as 'deviations.' Moreover, there are many situations in research that pose genuine ethical dilemmas.

Will training and education in research ethics help reduce the rate of misconduct in science? It is too early to tell. The answer to this question depends, in part, on how one understands the causes of misconduct. There are two main theories about why researchers commit misconduct. According to the "bad apple" theory, most scientists are highly ethical. Only researchers who are morally corrupt, economically desperate, or psychologically disturbed commit misconduct. Moreover, only a fool would commit misconduct because science's peer review system and self-correcting mechanisms will eventually catch those who try to cheat the system. In any case, a course in research ethics will have little impact on "bad apples," one might argue. According to the "stressful" or "imperfect" environment theory, misconduct occurs because various institutional pressures, incentives, and constraints encourage people to commit misconduct, such as pressures to publish or obtain grants or contracts, career ambitions, the pursuit of profit or fame, poor supervision of students and trainees, and poor oversight of researchers. Moreover, defenders of the stressful environment theory point out that science's peer review system is far from perfect and that it is relatively easy to cheat the system. Erroneous or fraudulent research often enters the public record without being detected for years. To the extent that research environment is an important factor in misconduct, a course in research ethics is likely to help people get a better understanding of these stresses, sensitize people to ethical concerns, and improve ethical judgment and decision making.

Misconduct probably results from environmental and individual causes, i.e. when people who are morally weak, ignorant, or insensitive are placed in stressful or imperfect environments. In any case, a course in research ethics is useful in helping to prevent deviations from norms even if it does not prevent misconduct. Many of the deviations that occur in research may occur because researchers simple do not know or have never thought seriously about some of the ethical norms of research. For example, some unethical authorship practices probably reflect years of tradition in the research community that have not been questioned seriously until recently. If the director of a lab is named as an author on every paper that comes from his lab, even if he does not make a significant contribution, what could be wrong with that? That's just the way it's done, one might argue. If a drug company uses ghostwriters to write papers "authored" by its physician-employees, what's wrong about this practice? Ghost writers help write all sorts of books these days, so what's wrong with using ghostwriters in research?

Another example where there may be some ignorance or mistaken traditions is conflicts of interest in research. A researcher may think that a "normal" or "traditional" financial relationship, such as accepting stock or a consulting fee from a drug company that sponsors her research, raises no serious ethical issues. Or perhaps a university administrator sees no ethical problem in taking a large gift with strings attached from a pharmaceutical company. Maybe a physician thinks that it is perfectly appropriate to receive a $300 finder’s fee for referring patients into a clinical trial.

If "deviations" from ethical conduct occur in research as a result of ignorance or a failure to reflect critically on problematic traditions, then a course in research ethics may help reduce the rate of serious deviations by improving the researcher's understanding of ethics and by sensitizing him or her to the issues.

Finally, training in research ethics should be able to help researchers grapple with ethical dilemmas by introducing researchers to important concepts, tools, principles, and methods that can be useful in resolving these dilemmas. In fact, the issues have become so important that the NIH and NSF have mandated training in research ethics for graduate students.

Ethical Decision Making in Research

Although codes, policies, and principals are very important and useful, like any set of rules, they do not cover every situation, they often conflict, and they require considerable interpretation. It is therefore important for researchers to learn how to interpret, assess, and apply various research rules and how to make decisions and to act in various situations. The vast majority of decisions involve the straightforward application of ethical rules. For example, consider the following case,

Case 1:

The research protocol for a study of a drug on hypertension requires the administration of the drug at different doses to 50 laboratory mice, with chemical and behavioral tests to determine toxic effects. Tom has almost finished the experiment for Dr. Q. He has only 5 mice left to test. However, he really wants to finish his work in time to go to Florida on spring break with his friends, who are leaving tonight. He has injected the drug in all 50 mice but has not completed all of the tests. He therefore decides to extrapolate from the 45 completed results to produce the 5 additional results.

Many different research ethics policies would hold that Tom has acted unethically by fabricating data. If this study were sponsored by a federal agency, such as the NIH, his actions would constitute a form of research misconduct, which the government defines as "fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism" (or FFP). Actions that nearly all researchers classify as unethical are viewed as misconduct. It is important to remember, however, that misconduct occurs only when researchers intend to deceive: honest errors related to sloppiness, poor record keeping, miscalculations, bias, self-deception, and even negligence do not constitute misconduct. Also, reasonable disagreements about research methods, procedures, and interpretations do not constitute research misconduct. Consider the following case:

Case 2:

Dr. T has just discovered a mathematical error in a paper that has been accepted for publication in a journal. The error does not affect the overall results of his research, but it is potentially misleading. The journal has just gone to press, so it is too late to catch the error before it appears in print. In order to avoid embarrassment, Dr. T decides to ignore the error.

Dr. T's error is not misconduct nor is his decision to take no action to correct the error. Most researchers, as well as many different policies and codes, including ECU's policies, would say that Dr. T should tell the journal about the error and consider publishing a correction or errata. Failing to publish a correction would be unethical because it would violate norms relating to honesty and objectivity in research.

There are many other activities that the government does not define as "misconduct" but which are still regarded by most researchers as unethical. These are called "other deviations" from acceptable research practices and include:

• Publishing the same paper in two different journals without telling the editors
• Submitting the same paper to different journals without telling the editors
• Not informing a collaborator of your intent to file a patent in order to make sure that you are the sole inventor
• Including a colleague as an author on a paper in return for a favor even though the colleague did not make a serious contribution to the paper
• Discussing with your colleagues confidential data from a paper that you are reviewing for a journal
• Trimming outliers from a data set without discussing your reasons in paper
• Using an inappropriate statistical technique in order to enhance the significance of your research
• Bypassing the peer review process and announcing your results through a press conference without giving peers adequate information to review your work
• Conducting a review of the literature that fails to acknowledge the contributions of other people in the field or relevant prior work
• Stretching the truth on a grant application in order to convince reviewers that your project will make a significant contribution to the field
• Stretching the truth on a job application or curriculum vita
• Giving the same research project to two graduate students in order to see who can do it the fastest
• Overworking, neglecting, or exploiting graduate or post-doctoral students
• Failing to keep good research records
• Failing to maintain research data for a reasonable period of time
• Making derogatory comments and personal attacks in your review of author's submission
• Promising a student a better grade for sexual favors
• Using a racist epithet in the laboratory
• Making significant deviations from the research protocol approved by your institution's Animal Care and Use Committee or Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects Research without telling the committee or the board
• Not reporting an adverse event in a human research experiment
• Wasting animals in research
• Exposing students and staff to biological risks in violation of your institution's biosafety rules
• Rejecting a manuscript for publication without even reading it
• Sabotaging someone's work
• Stealing supplies, books, or data
• Rigging an experiment so you know how it will turn out
• Making unauthorized copies of data, papers, or computer programs
• Owning over $10,000 in stock in a company that sponsors your research and not disclosing this financial interest
• Deliberately overestimating the clinical significance of a new drug in order to obtain economic benefits

These actions would be regarded as unethical by most scientists and some might even be illegal. Most of these would also violate different professional ethics codes or institutional policies. However, they do not fall into the narrow category of actions that the government classifies as research misconduct. Indeed, there has been considerable debate about the definition of "research misconduct" and many researchers and policy makers are not satisfied with the government's narrow definition that focuses on FFP. However, given the huge list of potential offenses that might fall into the category "other serious deviations," and the practical problems with defining and policing these other deviations, it is understandable why government officials have chosen to limit their focus.

Finally, situations frequently arise in research in which different people disagree about the proper course of action and there is no broad consensus about what should be done. In these situations, there may be good arguments on both sides of the issue and different ethical principles may conflict. These situations create difficult decisions for research known as ethical dilemmas. Consider the following case:

Case 3:

Dr. Wexford is the principal investigator of a large, epidemiological study on the health of 5,000 agricultural workers.  She has an impressive dataset that includes information on demographics, environmental exposures, diet, genetics, and various disease outcomes such as cancer, Parkinson’s disease (PD), and ALS.  She has just published a paper on the relationship between pesticide exposure and PD in a prestigious journal.  She is planning to publish many other papers from her dataset.  She receives a request from another research team that wants access to her complete dataset.  They are interested in examining the relationship between pesticide exposures and skin cancer.  Dr. Wexford was planning to conduct a study on this topic. 

Dr. Wexford faces a difficult choice. On the one hand, the ethical norm of openness obliges her to share data with the other research team.  Her funding agency may also have rules that obligate her to share data. On the other hand, if she shares data with the other team, they may publish results that she was planning to publish, thus depriving her (and her team) of recognition and priority.  It seems that there are good arguments on both sides of this issue and Dr. Wexford needs to take some time to think about what she should do. One possible option is to share data, provided that the investigators sign a data use agreement.  The agreement could define allowable uses of the data, publication plans, authorship, etc.  

The following are some step that researchers, such as Dr. Wexford, can take to deal with ethical dilemmas in research:

What is the problem or issue?

It is always important to get a clear statement of the problem. In this case, the issue is whether to share information with the other research team.

What is the relevant information?

Many bad decisions are made as a result of poor information. To know what to do, Dr. Wexford needs to have more information concerning such matters as university or funding agency policies that may apply to this situation, the team's intellectual property interests, the possibility of negotiating some kind of agreement with the other team, whether the other team also has some information it is willing to share, etc. Will the public/science be better served by the additional research?

What are the different options?

People may fail to see different options due to a limited imagination, bias, ignorance, or fear. In this case, there may be another choice besides 'share' or 'don't share,' such as 'negotiate an agreement.'

How do ethical codes or policies as well as legal rules apply to these different options?

The university or funding agency may have policies on data management that apply to this case. Broader ethical rules, such as openness and respect for credit and intellectual property, may also apply to this case. Laws relating to intellectual property may be relevant.

Are there any people who can offer ethical advice?

It may be useful to seek advice from a colleague, a senior researcher, your department chair, or anyone else you can trust (?). In the case, Dr. Wexford might want to talk to her supervisor and research team before making a decision.

After considering these questions, a person facing an ethical dilemma may decide to ask more questions, gather more information, explore different options, or consider other ethical rules. However, at some point he or she will have to make a decision and then take action. Ideally, a person who makes a decision in an ethical dilemma should be able to justify his or her decision to himself or herself, as well as colleagues, administrators, and other people who might be affected by the decision. He or she should be able to articulate reasons for his or her conduct and should consider the following questions in order to explain how he or she arrived at his or her decision: .

• Which choice could stand up to further publicity and scrutiny?
• Which choice could you not live with?
• Think of the wisest person you know. What would he or she do in this situation?
• Which choice would be the most just, fair, or responsible?
• Which choice will probably have the best overall consequences?

After considering all of these questions, one still might find it difficult to decide what to do. If this is the case, then it may be appropriate to consider others ways of making the decision, such as going with one's gut feeling, seeking guidance through prayer or meditation, or even flipping a coin. Endorsing these methods in this context need not imply that ethical decisions are irrational or that these other methods should be used only as a last resort. The main point is that human reasoning plays a pivotal role in ethical decision-making but there are limits to its ability to solve all ethical dilemmas in a finite amount of time.

Codes and Policies for Research Ethics

Given the importance of ethics for the conduct of research, it should come as no surprise that many different professional associations, government agencies, and universities have adopted specific codes, rules, and policies relating to research ethics. Many government agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have ethics rules for funded researchers. Other influential research ethics policies include the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors), the Chemist's Code of Conduct (American Chemical Society), Code of Ethics (American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science) Ethical Principles of Psychologists (American Psychological Association), Statements on Ethics and Professional Responsibility (American Anthropological Association), Statement on Professional Ethics (American Association of University Professors), the Nuremberg Code and the Declaration of Helsinki (World Medical Association).

The following is a rough and general summary of some ethical principals that various codes address*:

Honesty

Strive for honesty in all scientific communications. Honestly report data, results, methods and procedures, and publication status. Do not fabricate, falsify, or misrepresent data. Do not deceive colleagues, granting agencies, or the public.

Objectivity

Strive to avoid bias in experimental design, data analysis, data interpretation, peer review, personnel decisions, grant writing, expert testimony, and other aspects of research where objectivity is expected or required. Avoid or minimize bias or self-deception. Disclose personal or financial interests that may affect research.

Integrity

Keep your promises and agreements; act with sincerity; strive for consistency of thought and action.

Carefulness

Avoid careless errors and negligence; carefully and critically examine your own work and the work of your peers. Keep good records of research activities, such as data collection, research design, and correspondence with agencies or journals.

Openness

Share data, results, ideas, tools, resources. Be open to criticism and new ideas.

Respect for Intellectual Property

Honor patents, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property. Do not use unpublished data, methods, or results without permission. Give credit where credit is due. Give proper acknowledgement or credit for all contributions to research. Never plagiarize.

Confidentiality

Protect confidential communications, such as papers or grants submitted for publication, personnel records, trade or military secrets, and patient records.

Responsible Publication

Publish in order to advance research and scholarship, not to advance just your own career. Avoid wasteful and duplicative publication.

Responsible Mentoring

Help to educate, mentor, and advise students. Promote their welfare and allow them to make their own decisions.

Respect for colleagues

Respect your colleagues and treat them fairly.

Social Responsibility

Strive to promote social good and prevent or mitigate social harms through research, public education, and advocacy.

Non-Discrimination

Avoid discrimination against colleagues or students on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or other factors that are not related to their scientific competence and integrity.

Competence

Maintain and improve your own professional competence and expertise through lifelong education and learning; take steps to promote competence in science as a whole.

Legality

Know and obey relevant laws and institutional and governmental policies.

Animal Care

Show proper respect and care for animals when using them in research. Do not conduct unnecessary or poorly designed animal experiments.

Human Subjects Protection

When conducting research on human subjects, minimize harms and risks and maximize benefits; respect human dignity, privacy, and autonomy; take special precautions with vulnerable populations; and strive to distribute the benefits and burdens of research fairly.
* Adapted from Shamoo A and Resnik D. 2009. Responsible Conduct of Research, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press).

What is Ethics in Research

When most people think of ethics (or morals), they think of rules for distinguishing between right and wrong, such as the Golden Rule ("Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"), a code of professional conduct like the Hippocratic Oath ("First of all, do no harm"), a religious creed like the Ten Commandments ("Thou Shalt not kill..."), or a wise aphorisms like the sayings of Confucius. This is the most common way of defining "ethics": norms for conduct that distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

Most people learn ethical norms at home, at school, in church, or in other social settings. Although most people acquire their sense of right and wrong during childhood, moral development occurs throughout life and human beings pass through different stages of growth as they mature. Ethical norms are so ubiquitous that one might be tempted to regard them as simple commonsense. On the other hand, if morality were nothing more than commonsense, then why are there so many ethical disputes and issues in our society?

One plausible explanation of these disagreements is that all people recognize some common ethical norms but different individuals interpret, apply, and balance these norms in different ways in light of their own values and life experiences.

Most societies also have legal rules that govern behavior, but ethical norms tend to be broader and more informal than laws. Although most societies use laws to enforce widely accepted moral standards and ethical and legal rules use similar concepts, it is important to remember that ethics and law are not the same. An action may be legal but unethical or illegal but ethical. We can also use ethical concepts and principles to criticize, evaluate, propose, or interpret laws. Indeed, in the last century, many social reformers urged citizens to disobey laws in order to protest what they regarded as immoral or unjust laws. Peaceful civil disobedience is an ethical way of expressing political viewpoints.

Another way of defining 'ethics' focuses on the disciplines that study standards of conduct, such as philosophy, theology, law, psychology, or sociology. For example, a "medical ethicist" is someone who studies ethical standards in medicine. One may also define ethics as a method, procedure, or perspective for deciding how to act and for analyzing complex problems and issues. For instance, in considering a complex issue like global warming, one may take an economic, ecological, political, or ethical perspective on the problem. While an economist might examine the cost and benefits of various policies related to global warming, an environmental ethicist could examine the ethical values and principles at stake.

Many different disciplines, institutions, and professions have norms for behavior that suit their particular aims and goals. These norms also help members of the discipline to coordinate their actions or activities and to establish the public's trust of the discipline. For instance, ethical norms govern conduct in medicine, law, engineering, and business. Ethical norms also serve the aims or goals of research and apply to people who conduct scientific research or other scholarly or creative activities. There is even a specialized discipline, research ethics, which studies these norms.

There are several reasons why it is important to adhere to ethical norms in research. First, norms promote the aims of research, such as knowledge, truth, and avoidance of error. For example, prohibitions against fabricating, falsifying, or misrepresenting research data promote the truth and avoid error. Second, since research often involves a great deal of cooperation and coordination among many different people in different disciplines and institutions, ethical standards promote the values that are essential to collaborative work, such as trust, accountability, mutual respect, and fairness. For example, many ethical norms in research, such as guidelines for authorship, copyright and patenting policies, data sharing policies, and confidentiality rules in peer review, are designed to protect intellectual property interests while encouraging collaboration. Most researchers want to receive credit for their contributions and do not want to have their ideas stolen or disclosed prematurely. Third, many of the ethical norms help to ensure that researchers can be held accountable to the public. For instance, federal policies on research misconduct, conflicts of interest, the human subjects protections, and animal care and use are necessary in order to make sure that researchers who are funded by public money can be held accountable to the public. Fourth, ethical norms in research also help to build public support for research. People more likely to fund research project if they can trust the quality and integrity of research. Finally, many of the norms of research promote a variety of other important moral and social values, such as social responsibility, human rights, animal welfare, compliance with the law, and health and safety. Ethical lapses in research can significantly harm human and animal subjects, students, and the public. For example, a researcher who fabricates data in a clinical trial may harm or even kill patients, and a researcher who fails to abide by regulations and guidelines relating to radiation or biological safety may jeopardize his health and safety or the health and safety of staff and students.

Cloud Computing

The Internet of Services is a vision of the Internet of the Future where not only the software applications are available as a service on the Internet, such as the software itself, but also the tools to develop the software and the platform (servers, storage and communication) to run the software. In this scenario, SaaS cloud computing would represent the software applications that are available as a service in the Internet, while PaaS and IaaS would represent the enablers for the Internet of Services providing the tool services to develop applications and the infrastructure services to run the applications.

Research Challenges
Cloud Computing research addresses the challenges of meeting the requirements of next generation private, public and hybrid cloud computing architectures; and the challenges of allowing applications and development platforms to take advantage of the benefits of cloud computing. We are at the beginning of the road, there are still many technology challenges to be researched and adoption barriers to be overcome. Fortunately because cloud solution architectures include technology components from different fields, many research challenges in Cloud Computing have been already addressed to a certain degree by different research communities, mostly virtualization, Grid and autonomic computing.

Here I do not try to give an exhaustive list of challenges but to briefly describe those challenges that I think should be firstly addressed to unleash the full potential of cloud computing. I organized the challenges in the following six different categories.

Platform Management. Challenges in delivering middleware capabilities for building, deploying, integrating and managing applications in a multi-tenant, elastic and scalable environments.

• Scalability and multi-tenancy of application containers
• Placement optimization algorithms of containers in resources

Cloud-enabled Applications. Challenges in building cloud-enabled applications and platforms to take advantage of the scalability, agility and reliability of the cloud.

• Elastic and scalable applications and frameworks on very large-scale environments
• Self-scaling, self-awareness, self-knowledge, and self-management capabilities of services
• Novel applications of cloud computing
• Power-efficient applications and platforms
• Research challenges in the aggregation of resources from diverse cloud providers adding additional layers of service management

Cloud Aggregation. Research challenges in the aggregation of resources from diverse cloud providers adding additional layers of service management.

• Novel architectural models for aggregation of cloud providers
• Brokering algorithms for high availability, performance, proximity, legal domains, price, or energy efficiency
• Sharing of resources between cloud providers
• Networking in the deployment of services across multiple cloud providers
• SLA negotiation and management between cloud providers
• Additional privacy, security and trust management layers atop providers
• Support of context-aware applications
• Automatic management of service elasticity

Cloud Management. Research challenges in delivering infrastructure resources on-demand in a multi-tenant, secure, elastic and scalable environment.

• Scalable management of network, computing and storage capacity
• Scalable orchestration of virtualized resources and data
• Placement optimization algorithms for energy efficiency, load balancing, high availability and QoS
• Accounting, billing, monitoring and pricing models
• Security, privacy and trust issues in the cloud
• Energy efficiency models, metrics and tools at system and datacenter levels

Cloud Enablement. Research challenges in enhancing platform infrastructure to support cloud management requirements.

• Technologies for virtualization of infrastructure resources
• Virtualization of high performance infrastructure components
• Autonomic and intelligent management of resources
• Implications of Cloud paradigm on networking and storage systems
• Support for vertical elasticity
• Provision of service related metrics

Cloud Interoperability. Challenges to ensure that the available cloud services can work together and interoperate successfully.

• Common and standard interfaces for cloud computing
• Portability of virtual appliances across diverse clouds providers

WHAT TO DO IN MATHEMATICS

Maths Essay – a Basic Guideline

Mathematics is a subject disliked and feared by many students and writing a maths essay is something which most students would love to avoid writing one. Of course, as many students will vouch for, this subject is very taxing and quite difficult to understand. But apart from solving problems and equations, there is also something that is called a math essay which though sounds difficult is actually easy to write. It is like any other research paper writing while keeping in mind to follow the correct essay format and give proper citations and references.

A maths essay will have the outline as below:

Introduction: Like any other research paper introduction all the major issues are to briefly discussed here so that the reader gets an idea of what the paper is all about. The thesis statement will have to be introduced here. When discussing numbers in the essay it is best to introduce all the factors pertaining to those figures here, in the introduction para. A clear and concise format is always preferred so that the reader is immediately and clearly introduced to the major elements of the essay writing and it also creates a positive influence in the reader’s mind. The introduction should be so written that it is interesting and impressive, thus dispelling the fear that an essay on mathematics is always boring.

Body : the main body will discuss all the factors in length that were briefly touched upon, in the introduction paragraph. Since this a maths essay the main body can consist of tables, charts, graphs etc. so as to give a clear and conclusive evidence to support one’s argument. Care must be taken to see that all quoted figures and citations are given proper references to avoid charges of plagiarism.

Conclusion : this para will briefly touch the important points and will re instate the thesis statement or the main argument. Nothing new is to be discussed here. The concluding statement should be strong, convincing and to the point.

Maths essay is not only about numbers, graphs and solving problems. It may be written in the form of an analytical essay, a technical essay and even a history essay may be written dealing with the origin and history of mathematics. It all depends on the how the writer wishes to view this subject. Writing on this subject also demands a certain amount of knowledge on mathematics as a subject. This is true for all subjects and all forms of written essay. If one doesn’t have an inkling of what he wishes to write on, then it is best, not to write on that subject rather than make a mess out of it. You may not be an expert on that subject but it is necessary to have some amount of knowledge on it before starting to write.

A maths essay is not always as difficult as it seems. The real trick lies in choosing the topic that interests you the most and then doing some in depth research work on it. You may browse through our sample essays to check out how to create a good essay. If you still find writing an essay on mathematics a difficult problem to solve then help is always available at MasterPapers.com to formulate an essay out of your given equation.

RESEARCH TOPICS IN IT

1. Synthesis of Low Voltage Low Power Dual-VT Static CMOS Circuits
2. A Web-Based Course Management Tool
3. Image Retrieval using Wavelet Based Texture Features
4. Characteristics Of Weighted Feature Vector In Content-Based Image Retrieval Applications
5. A framework for web-enabled distributed GIS
6. Energy Aware Logic Synthesis for VLSI Circuits
7. Synthesis of Low Power High Performance Dual-VT PTL Circuits
8. Segmentation using Saturation Thresholding and its Application in Content-based Retrieval of Images
9. Synthesis of Low Voltage Energy Constraint Static CMOS Circuits
10. Trails of the Killer Tsunami: A preliminary assessment using satellite remote sensing technique
11. An architecture for web-based delivery of software as a service
12. Coordinated problem solving through resource sharing in a distributed environment
13. Fractal Image Compression: a randomized approach
14. P^3- A Power-Aware Polling Scheme with Priority for Bluetooth
15. Traffic Engineering in a typical academic network
16. Application of 2D-Fuzzy Gabor Filters for Change Detection in SAR Image
17. A New Approach to Timing Analysis using Event Propagation and Temporal Logic
18. VLSI Architecture for Three Step Search Algorithm using Multi-Resolution
19. Human color perception in the HSV space and its application in histogram generation for image retrieval
20. How similar are Eucldean distance measure and cosine angle distance measure for nearest neighbor queries?
21. Particle Swarm Optimization for Modeling and Parameter Extraction of On-Chip Spiral Inductors for RFICs
22. Synthesis of Dual-VT Dynamic CMOS Circuits
23. Privacy Protection in Association Rule Mining
24. A Connection Graph based Variable Wire Width Approach to Analog Routing
25. A Flow-based Scheduling Algorithm for Bluetooth Ad-hoc Networks

Suggested Topics For Research Papers

ABORTION

ABUSED WOMEN

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

ACCULTURATION

ACID RAIN

ACQUAINTANCE RAPE

ADOPTION

ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS

ADULT CHILDREN OF DIVORCED PARENTS

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PROGRAMS

AGE DISCRIMINATION

AGE DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT

AGED—ABUSE OF

AGING

BABY BOOM GENERATION

BANKRUPTCY

BIRTH CONTROL

BLACK MUSLIMS

BLACK PANTHER PARTY

BOYCOTTS

BREAST IMPLANTS

BRIBERY

BUDGET DEFICITS

BULIMIA

BURN OUT (PSYCHOLOGY)

BUSING FOR SCHOOL INTEGRATION

CHALLENGER (SPACE SHUTTLE)

CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR ACCIDENT

CHILD ABUSE

CHILDREN IN PORNOGRAPHY

CIVIL RIGHTS

CLONING

COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES

COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT

COMPUTER VIRUSES

CONTRACEPTION

COPYRIGHT

DEATH

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

DISARMAMENT

DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT

DIVORCE

DOWN’S SYNDROME

DRAFT

DROPOUTS

DROUGHTS

DRUG ABUSE

DRUNK DRIVING

ELECTIONS

ELECTORAL COLLEGE

EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION

ENDANGERED SPECIES

ENERGY CONSERVATION

ENGLISH-ONLY MOVEMENT

ENVIRONMENT

EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT

ETHICS

ETHNIC RELATIONS

EUGENICS

EUROPEAN COMMUNITY

FALSE MEMORY SYNDROME

FAMILY DAY CARE

FAMILY VIOLENCE

FARM SUBSIDIES

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

FEMINISM

FERTILIZATION IN VITRO,HUMAN

FETAL TISSUE TRANSPLANTATION

FOOD CONTAMINATION

FOOD LABELING

FOOD PRESERVATIVES

FOOD PRICES

FOOD SHORTAGES

FOOD STAMPS

FOREIGN AID

FOSSIL FUELS

FREEDOM AND ART

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

GENERATION X

GENERATION Y

GENETIC ENGINEERING

GENOCIDE

GRAFFITI

GREEN REVOLUTION

GREENHOUSE EFFECT, ATMOSPHERIC

GUN CONTROL

HATE CRIMES

HAZARDOUS WASTES

HEALTH CARE

HIJACKING

HOLOCAUST, JEWISH (1939-1945)

HOMELESS PERSONS

HOSTAGES

INCEST

INCOME TAX

INFERTILITY

INFLATION

INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY

INSANITY DEFENSE

INSURANCE, MALPRACTICE

INSURANCE, NO-FAULT AUTOMOBILE

INTEGRATION

INTELLIGENCE LEVELS

INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION

INTERNET

INTERNET PORNOGRAPHY

INTERRACIAL ADOPTION

INTERRACIAL DATING

INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE

IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR

IRAN-IRAQ, 1980-1988

MARINE POLLUTION

MASS MEDIA

MASS TRANSIT

MASTECTOMY

MEDICAL CARE

MEDICAL ETHICS

MIGRANT LABOR

MILITIA MOVEMENTS

MINIMUM WAGE

MISSING CHILDREN

NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

NUCLEAR TESTING

NUCLEAR WEAPONS

NURSING HOMES

OBSCENITY (LAW)

OFFSHORE DRILLING

OIL SPILLS

OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING, 1995

OLYMPIC GAMES

ORGANIC GARDENING

ORPHANS

OUTER SPACE

OZONE

PARENTING

PASSIVE SMOKING

PEACE MOVEMENTS

PEER PRESSURE

PERSIAN GULF WAR, 1991

PESTICIDES

PRESIDENTS—UNITED STATES¾ ELECTION

PRESSURE GROUPS

PRISON REFORMERS

PRISONERS OF WAR

PRIVACY, RIGHT OF

PRO-CHOICE MOVEMENT

PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT

PROSTITUTION

RACISM

RADIATION PRESERVATION OF FOOD

RADON

RAIN FORESTS

RAPE

RECESSIONS

RECYCLING (WASTE, ETC.)

REFUGEES

REFUSE AND REFUSE DISPOSAL

RENT CONTROL

RIOTS

RUNAWAY TEENAGERS

SCHOOL VIOLENCE

SCHOOL YEAR

SEARCHES AND SEIZURES

SERIAL MURDERS

SLAVERY

SMOKING

SMUGGLING

SOCIAL SECURITY

SPACE SHUTTLE MISSIONS

SPEED LIMITS

STEALTH AIRCRAFT

TEXTBOOKS

THREE-STRIKE LAW

TRADE-UNIONS

TRANSPLANTATION OF ORGANS, TISSUES, ETC.

TABLOID NEWSPAPERS

TAXATION

UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS

UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES WOMEN

UNITED STATES CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

VASECTOMY

VETERANS

VICTIMS OF CRIME

VIOLENCE IN TELEVISION

WATER CONSERVATION

WATER FLUORIDATION

WATER POLLUTION

WATERGATE AFFAIR, 1972-1974

WELFARE FRAUD

WHITE COLLAR CRIMES

WIRETAPPING

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

WORK ETHIC

How to Write a Research Paper

Finding out how to write research papers effectively

Research paper projects are very common in academia. There are many students who consider themselves familiar enough with research paper writing and feel let down when they score poor grades for their academic research paper projects. This is because even as they might be familiar with the basic requirements of research paper writing they are not sure of how to write a research paper effectively. It is not just about choosing a topic and arguing on a thesis based on the topic. It is about proving your knowledge of the topic and convincing the audience that you have the authority to comment on the matter.
There are various factors which form the building blocks of a good research paper. As the first step of learning how to write research papers impressively, you must learn what all goes into the making of it.  Then you can proceed to learn the various stages involved in the process of composing a research paper. Research paper writing is a systematic process and is best when handled in an organized manner.
Choosing an interesting topic and an impressive thesis
It is hard to say what the best topic for an assignment would be, without seeing the project guidelines. Each research project comes with a specific objective; the topic, most importantly, must be one which fulfills that objective. The topic must also be able to offer you an interesting, authentic thesis and the thesis must be one that can be proved with substantial evidence. A familiar topic that interests you would be perfect.

How students evaluate information and sources when searching the World Wide Web for information

The World Wide Web (WWW) has become the biggest information source for students while solving information problems for school projects. Since anyone can post anything on the WWW, information is often unreliable or incomplete, and it is important to evaluate sources and information before using them. Earlier research has shown that students have difficulties with evaluating sources and information. This study investigates the criteria secondary educational students use while searching the Web for information. 23 students solved two information problems while thinking aloud. After completing the tasks they were interviewed in groups on their use of criteria. Results show that students do not evaluate results, source and information very often. The criteria students mention when asked which criteria are important for evaluating information are not always the same criteria they mention while solving the information problems. They mentioned more criteria but also admitted not always using these criteria while searching the Web.

Custom Research Paper Writing: Collect Data and Compile It

It is often mentioned about the importance of introductions and conclusions as well as thesis statements and hypotheses for different types of academic papers. However, these are not the only sections and parts of essays and theses.

Whenever you are assigned to write a research paper, you can find relevant information on this issue on our websites. Besides, you can find here necessary aid for your custom research paper writing. Stages of research papers are the main focus of the preset article. So, it is necessary to emphasize the necessity of making the methodology ad discussion sections more grounded and related to the section of literature review.

Methodology

As a rule, you can find appropriate information for writing your methodology section on the Internet. We can provide you with help and assist you in completing the custom research paper writing process. The less concerned you are about the ethical aspect of custom research papers writing process, the more effective can be the outcome of this fruitful cooperation between you and our writers.

As for the methodology in custom research papers writing, you should mention the selection method, equipment and theories applied, questionnaires and formulas implemented, and other issues related to this section.

Research skills are so important

Doing assignments is something that makes most students anxious and this following article may help if you are learning something new or re-training for a new line of work.

Each subject has its own language and in order to gain the most marks, focus on the most important words in the statement or question. These important words are known as keywords and keywords are broken up into two main groups: process words and content words.

Keywords are the nouns in the assignment question or statement and process words tell you what to do.

Before you tackle your assignment, make sure to research each of these words and take notes so that you understand them fully. These words are important and you must focus on them to gain the most marks.

You cannot understand a subject if you do not understand the language of the subject. Create definitions and notes on the important words for each subject you are studying. Learn your definitions and keep a record of words that you discover as you study.

Each content word should be the start of your research into the topic and the way to produce meaningful research notes on specific points for the assignment.

Process words explain what the reader should do. For example you may be asked to, “discuss”, “explain” or “compare”.

What do they mean? Record each word and it’s meaning by looking them up in the dictionary to get a clear concise explanation.

Contrast is an interesting process word. When this word pops up in your assignment you are meant to say how one thing is the SAME or DIFFERENT to the other. We are basically comparing things.

Refining research topic

To find information while exploring or refining by research topic, enter your phrases as complete
sentences in English. SciFinder® understands which terms are the keywords and how to relate
the terms to one another.
Here are some tips for defining your search.

Research topics should be composed of two or three concepts combined with prepositions,
conjunctions, and other simple parts of speech.
Examples:
• I am interested in the effect of penicillin on milk production in dairy cows
• I am interested in liver apoptosis and nasal apoptosis

How to find your topic

• Consider your personal interests.
• Engage in conversations in class or with classmates.
• Read articles in encyclopedias or dictionaries and review class readings.
• Browse recent issues of journals or magazines in Current Periodicals .

What are the steps for research over any topic

1.  Choosing a Topic

2.  Refining a Topic

3.  Searching for Information

4.  Evaluating Information Sources

5.  Writing a paper

Introduction to research methodoloy

Research is literally everywhere, and knowing about research methods will help us understand how we came to know what we accept as fact. We all know that 4 out of 5 dentists recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum, and that taste-tests show that Burger King's Croissanwich is preferred 2 to 1 over McDonald's Egg McMuffin. We also know that proper nutrition is important for children's development, and that heroin is addictive. The question is: How did we come to know these things?
We learned about these things through research. Someone somewhere did a study and found each of the above findings. While most of us accept the value of good nutrition for children and the dangers of heroin, at least some of us (especially Certs Sugarless Mint and Egg McMuffin fans) would quibble with the other two findings. Just how did the researchers do the studies that found those numbers (by the way, get in the habit of questioning how researchers find their results, even those you agree with)? Who knows, maybe they did the Croissanwich study at Burger King one morning and asked people which sandwich they preferred. The fact that the participants had already gone to Burger King for breakfast meant that they had at least some tolerance for Croissanwiches. What about the dentists? What percentage of them "recommended" candies of any kind? Which dentists participated in the study and what exactly do they prefer about sugarless gum over sugarless mints?
When we ask questions like these, we are questioning the methods the researchers employed in their studies. Research methods are a variety of techniques that people use when studying a given phenomenon. They are planned, scientific, and value-neutral. What that means is that good research methods don't "just happen." Instead, they are deliberately employed in a way that is designed to maximize the accuracy of the results. Assume, for example, that you want to do a survey to assess students' level of satisfaction with the parking situation on your campus. Because no one wants to take time to be interviewed, you are forced to start interviewing the people sitting in their cars waiting for parking places. Since they're bored anyway and have nothing better to do, they agree to answer your questions. Lo and behold, you find that all 50 people you talk to are VERY unhappy about the lack of parking spaces on campus.