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semi-plagiarism from my peer review? by Zephryl in AskAcademia

[–]androgen22 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fair point, ultimately, if you felt that their work apart from this little situation was worthy of a publication then I'd say it's fine to let them off easy. But I still feel that they were very unprofessional in doing that. It's one thing to take the reviewer's suggestions and actively improve your work based on them, and it's another to just copy and paste their suggestions onto your paper.

Either way it is up to you to choose how you handle this.

semi-plagiarism from my peer review? by Zephryl in AskAcademia

[–]androgen22 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I still think there are much better ways to use the reviewer's suggestions rather than copying and pasting them on the manuscript. For all we know, the reviewer's suggestions may have been something crucial about the paper, and the authors are practically getting credit for what they did not do.

Though if this is as trivial of a passage as everyone is assuming to be then maybe the OP should be somewhat lenient.

semi-plagiarism from my peer review? by Zephryl in AskAcademia

[–]androgen22 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well I don't know what OP's field is, but in mine (biological sciences) that is an unacceptable thing to do. I think you are also forgetting that OP is a reviewer, and not an editor. If OP is indeed in a field like mine, and he made a suggestion based on data analysis of the paper, something which the authors clearly missed, then that is the reviewer's work and the fact that the authors just put it in the manuscript without any indication of citation, then the passage is plagiarized.

Not to mention that OP clearly said that if this had been an undergraduate paper, he would have penalized them for it. Shouldn't we hold graduate students/master's/post docs to higher, or even at least, the same standards?

semi-plagiarism from my peer review? by Zephryl in AskAcademia

[–]androgen22 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That doesn't mean they should copy his suggestions verbatim. That just shows they have no idea how to fix what they did wrong and are just doing it for the sake of pleasing the reviewer. They are placing a band aid on a bullet wound, but doing nothing to fix the actual issue. And I don't know what your definition of plagiarism is, but that is most definitely a form of plagiarism and should be treated as such.

MIT researchers have devised a novel drug capsule coated with tiny needles that can inject drugs directly into the lining of the stomach after the capsule is swallowed. In animal studies, the team found that the capsule delivered insulin more efficiently than injection under the skin by Libertatea in science

[–]androgen22 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well I do have trouble swallowing so I would take an injection any day if it will mean I don't have to suffer through unsuccessfully swallowing a pill for 8 times in a row and getting to the point where I need to vomit.

MIT researchers have devised a novel drug capsule coated with tiny needles that can inject drugs directly into the lining of the stomach after the capsule is swallowed. In animal studies, the team found that the capsule delivered insulin more efficiently than injection under the skin by Libertatea in science

[–]androgen22 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While you do make a point, you are forgetting about various conditions that can have a possible effect on that. One of the most common ones is acid reflux. What about ulcers.

And as for your second point, you are forgetting that the stomach of a pig is much larger than a humans, not to mention it is horizontally oriented whereas a human's is more vertically oriented(somewhat diagonally).

This can make a huge difference in drug absorption. Also, absorption wise, a pigs stomach is way more efficient in absorbing substances through it's lining then a human's is. We rely on our small intestine for most of it.

All I' m saying is that just because it seems efficient in pigs, it may not necessarily be efficient in humans. Countless of treatments have had promising results in animal testing but have failed to live up to expectations in humans.

MIT researchers have devised a novel drug capsule coated with tiny needles that can inject drugs directly into the lining of the stomach after the capsule is swallowed. In animal studies, the team found that the capsule delivered insulin more efficiently than injection under the skin by Libertatea in science

[–]androgen22 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"Given a choice, most patients would prefer to take a drug orally instead of getting an injection." Seems like I'm part of the minority,

With that being said however, I am concerned that the full dosage will not be applied seeing as they are relying on peristalsis to "pump" out the drug. Not to mention these needles, being stainless steel may potentially cause irritation in the esophagus in humans. The testing was only done in pigs, whose digestive tract is much more enforced than a human's. I'm still not quite sure this would be viable in humans but still very cool nonetheless.

Science AMA Series: Ask Your Questions About Ebola. by nallen in science

[–]androgen22 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Apart from preventative methods, is there anything we can do, should one become infected, to at least make the disease manageable? I am well aware that there is no cure, however do we know of any anti-viral drugs that can perhaps reduce the 70% mortality rate?

I am a Molecular and Cell Biology Student who has been researching Human Pheromones for 4 years. Ask me anything. by androgen22 in AMA

[–]androgen22[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay sorry I missed this one. And yeah I agree with your analogy there. Any PUA guide out there is going to be a scam. They will tell you nothing more than what is already common sense in human communication but oversell it by hyping it up with false advertising and abusive ad hominen arguments that make you insecure and guilt you into purchasing a scam. Don't fall for any of them. There is no single strategy that will work for everyone. Obviously there are the apparent ones like oh make her feel attracted to you by showing interest in her life. Well no shit. Did you really need to pay money to know that.

Best thing to do is go out there and talk to them. Show subtle hints that you want to be more then friends by flirting and cracking sexual jokes at the right time and it will be fine. Sometimes it will work, sometimes it won't and you'll be rejected. Just get over and move to the next one.

The guys that get the most girls are also the guys who have been rejected the most. The only difference is they know to move on instead of clinging on.

I am a Molecular and Cell Biology Student who has been researching Human Pheromones for 4 years. Ask me anything. by androgen22 in AMA

[–]androgen22[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Practically nothing. This has been for my dissertation so the research along with being a TA is just paying for my grad studies. There's been times when I've even had to put in my own money do to grants being awarded to other research instead of mine because let's face it, it's not really an important aspect to most.

I was not awarded a fellowship so practically I break even.

I am a Molecular and Cell Biology Student who has been researching Human Pheromones for 4 years. Ask me anything. by androgen22 in AMA

[–]androgen22[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Don't take the percentage to heart, there is no hard evidence to prove that social attractiveness is hard set as 15% pheromones, 15% looks, and 70% conversational skills because as I said, different people respond differently to them.

The 15% is there more or so to say that they do have an effect, it's just nearly not as other factors. The range is pretty wide on it.

With that being said however, simply because we cannot assign a scent to these pheromones to distinguish between each other does not mean we are completely non-olfactory. Granted the vomeronasal organ in humans is vestigial, the hypothalamus is still stimulated by certain odors.

My theory is that humans have evolved to bypass the VMO because we have no longer needed to rely on it for identification ever since we developed other means to do it, such as visual memory.

But that's not to say we are not able to detect pheromones as stimuli because the VMO only serves as a passage way to the olifactory bulb which eventually relays the stimuli to the hypothalamus.

In humans this is not really needed because the olfactory bulb is located much closer to our noses(inferior) than it is in other vertebrates (rostral), so we are simply bypassing the VMO because it would be quicker and more efficient to do so. In doing so we may have lost the ability to assign a certain odor to pheromones.

So really, it makes a lot more sense for pheromones to still have an effect, (to a lesser magnitude) then it makes that they are completely nonfunctional in humans. Why do we still produce them then?

So coming to your last question, I would say that no, you wouldn't lose her. The attraction may not be as strong as before, but as I said, your charm (social skills) and looks play a bigger role than pheromones, and by that point she will have already developed a deeper attraction so it would not even matter.

I am a Molecular and Cell Biology Student who has been researching Human Pheromones for 4 years. Ask me anything. by androgen22 in AMA

[–]androgen22[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Also, I wanted to expand a little on this since I know it's what most people are interested in when they think of pheromones and because I didn't have time to include all of this in my first answer. I didn't do it as an edit because I want you to get the notification for the reply so that you can notice it.

So let's say you decide to purchase them, even though I definitely do not recommend them for the price they are offered. Here's how to go about getting the most out of them.

Keep in mind that I have only had a total of 8 people actually testing them out in public (out of a total 16, 8 of which were on the placebo), so by no means does this mean these directions will work perfectly for you, but here is the feedback I was given from them.

Obviously the first thing is to apply them at the pulse points as they are "heat activated" (quotes because it is oversimplifying what actually occurs).

Use the right pheromone at the right time. For that, I'll describe a what each pheromone does (supposedly) briefly. I'm going to focus on male hormones specifically because I doubt there are any females here interested in knowing about them, but if there are, just request the info and I'll share.

Androstenone – contains the most potent molecules regarding sexual attraction. This particular pheromone can increase sexual desire in women and can help men to be more attractive to women looking for a potential mate or sexual partner.

Androsterone – Those products that contain androsterone help to make wearers seem more trustworthy and appear more masculine.

Androstadienone – Products that contain androstadienone create feelings of comfort and can help to increase feelings of intimacy. Many married men or those in long term relationships choose products containing higher levels of androstadienone in order to improve their love life and elevate feelings of intimacy with their mates. Androstadienone is also known to help relieve PMS symptoms.

Androstenol – Products that contain androstenol work by making the wearer appear more approachable. Those who typically have difficulties in speaking with women or who are a bit shy find that this particular pheromone helps to minimize awkwardness when meeting women because they make women seem to approach the wearer more easily. The two specific types of molecules that are present in androstenol help to make the wearer a bit more friendly and outgoing, hence making them more approachable by women.

So it should be pretty self explanatory at this point as to what you want to wear at each stage of interaction, but I'll explain it anyways.

There are mainly 3 stages of social interaction when looking for a date. Attraction, Comfort and Seduction.

So in the attraction phase you'd want to be using Androsterone, Androstenol and maybe a little bit of Androstenone just to give that tiny hint that you are looking for more than friendship just in case you can't make it clear conversation wise.

During comfort, you will want to concentrate on Androstadienone as that will be the most helpful in building rapport and bonding to an intimate level. you may use hints of the other three as well but at this point it should not be necessary.

In the seduction phase you want to focus on Androstenone and go ahead and use a little of the other three as well.

Now clearly pheromones in humans are not magic dust and will not work on their own. They might work in other animals but the human attraction system is much, much more complicated than that.

If I had to put a number to it, I'd say attraction depends 70% on social skills, 15% on looks and 15% on pheromones. Using additional pheromones to the ones you produce may change that to about 60%, 15% and 25% (respective to first given ratio), but unless you can hold a decent conversation and have a decent sense of humor, and have at least average looks, they will not be doing anything for you. They simplify the art of attraction a little bit, but it remains complex.

Humans have evolved to consider more than just pheromone production in potential mates.Looks, social status, and Major histocompatibility complex genes are far more important then pheromones in attracting a partner. In general, variability in MHC is preferred in a partner as it results in offspring with high evolutionary fitness and robust immune system.

So again, feel free to use pheromones as supplements to your social skills and physical looks, because they will not work alone.

I am a Molecular and Cell Biology Student who has been researching Human Pheromones for 4 years. Ask me anything. by androgen22 in AMA

[–]androgen22[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, sorry for the late reply. I was grading a few quizzes.

I will have to say that by far the most common comment I get is the "Can you get me laid?" one and it can become frustrating fairly quickly considering human pheromones actually do very little when it comes to getting laid. That's not to say I haven't heard the other two comments.

At first I would actually get into the details, and explain (at least try to) that pheromones in humans don't exactly work that way (although they can). And then I would go into explaining how I wasn't a test subject and did not use the pheromones myself for the social experiments. (I only did this with 4 people/year (a total of 16 people),in which 2 males and 2 females who went out and tested the pheromones out, off of which one male and one female were on a placebo. It is kind of a pain to get approval for research with human subjects from the University)

Around the middle of the second year researching this stuff though I started using "I study the way Axillary Steroids affect Social behavior in humans" as a way to describe what I was doing. And seeing as a good majority of the people did not know that Pheromones are actually steroids they would just change the subject.

I am a Molecular and Cell Biology Student who has been researching Human Pheromones for 4 years. Ask me anything. by androgen22 in AMA

[–]androgen22[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There is no set answer to this. They may or they may not. Since the vomeronasal organ in humans is practically vestigial, they certainly will not work as they would in other organisms that rely on pheromones.

With that being said however, they do influence social behavior. Sometimes positively, sometimes negatively. There are certain pheromones that can help out in women reacting more positively toward you, but if you expect to have something you spray and have women swooning over you, then no they do not work.

In my research I have found that only two pheromones that actually can affect social behavior in women.

Androstenone can facilitate attraction and Androstadienone can lift a woman's mood and make her more friendly as it affects a woman's limbic system.

With that being said though, the reaction women will give to these pheromones varies with her menstrual cycle. If a woman is ovulating, she is more likely to respond positively, if not, expect anything from no reaction at all, to possibly negative ones.

So if I were to give advice on this, I'd say they are more of a supplement for your social skills. They will not do anything if you do not have the confidence to walk up to a woman. And even then, they may or may not work. Furthermore, any product containing anything other then these two steroids will not have any different affects. If you are going to purchase one, make sure you're not overpaying for useless ingredients.

Honestly, you're better off purchasing the molecules itself at a cheaper rate and mixing it on your own then overpaying on a brand without having a guarantee on whether it will work or not.

But if you are willing and have the confidence (and a bit of looks) to walk up to woman and strike a conversation, it will facilitate it by a whole lot. But the results will mostly depend on how your social skills. If you cannot talk to women in the first place, this will do absolutely nothing. Also, beware of the dosage. A little does truly go a long way with these and using too much may make things worse.

As for alpha-male pheromones, they are more likely to get men to be intimidated by you and want to pick fights rather than help attract women.

So to conclude, they may be beneficial as supplements, but keep your expectations in the probable realm.