Impact of Filipino-American Scientists in World Science

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As retired member of the Philippine-American Academy of Science and Engineering (PAASE),I found the following article by Eduardo A. Padlan published in the Philippine Star dated July 15, 2010, very interesting and relevant to my life's experiences. Dr Padlan concluded that in the field of chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology, Filipino-American scientists have made significant impact in world science. This is indeed music to my ears, being a Filipino-American chemist myself ( http://theintelectualmigrant.blogspot.com). Here is the article for your reading pleasure. Thank you Ed, for a very informative and interesting article.

"As a nation, we are not publishing as many scientific papers as many of our neighbors do. Yet, individual Filipino scientists, here and abroad, are making significant contributions to world science. How much are our scientists contributing? How do their contributions compare with the best of the world? What impact has Filipino scientists made on world science?

There are numerous measures of the impact of the scientific work of a scientist. An analysis of the various metrics used in the evaluation of a researcher and his work is the topic of a recent Nature magazine special (print edition: June 17, 2010; available online at http://www.nature.com/news/specials/metrics/index.html. (With apologies, I’ll just use the male reference for writing ease.) One is the number of papers he has published, especially in peer-reviewed journals. An often-used gauge of the quality of one’s work is the number of his publications in “high-impact,” i.e. frequently cited, journals. Another measure is how often his publications are cited by others. There are arguments against the use of any of the measures currently being used, since there are inherent difficulties in the proper assessment of the impact of one’s scientific publications. (The reader is encouraged to read the articles in the Nature special, as well as the article by Peter Lawrence (2007), appropriately titled “The mismeasurement of science.”)

For one thing, the number of papers a scientist has published is a measure of his output — not necessarily the quality of his work. We all know of several individuals in the past who had published only a small number of papers, but whose work is still remembered to this day. One example is Francis Crick of the double-helix fame, who did seminal work not only in molecular biology but also in protein crystallography, but who published only 87 papers (listed in PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/) — several times fewer than the output of a number of scientists I know. Further, the number of papers in which an individual has published as a co-author does not necessarily reflect his true contribution to science.

Indeed, a major difficulty arises from the question of authorship. There is no problem when there is only one author. In a paper with multiple authors, proper attribution of credit is often not straightforward. What did each author contribute to the project and how can it be quantified? One could think of a measure that is somehow related to the order in which the authors are listed. But there is no uniform convention in the listing of authors. Sometimes, the listing of authors is done alphabetically — this is especially true in the old days. These days, the first-listed author is supposed to have contributed more to the project and the last-listed author (the senior author) is supposed to have been the originator of the idea behind the project. That is not always the case. More and more, we see papers where two or more of the authors are noted as having contributed equally to the work. Further, more projects are collaborations of several independent groups, so that the listing of authors is often the result of negotiation and does not necessarily reflect the contribution of the individual authors.

And there is an inherent difficulty in judging the quality of a paper that was published in a “high-impact” journal. A journal’s “impact factor” is based on the number of times the articles in that journal are cited by others, so that it represents the average impact of all the articles which appeared in that journal and is not a measure of the impact of any individual article. The “impact factor” is so misused that the European Association of Science Editors has recommended that “journal impact factors be used only — and cautiously — for measuring and comparing the influence of entire journals, but not for the assessment of single papers, and certainly not for the assessment of researchers or research programs either directly or as a surrogate” (European Association of Science Editors 2007).

A more appropriate measure of a paper’s impact is probably the number of times that that paper is cited by others and a good measure of a scientist’s impact would be the total number of times his publications had been cited. One measure that is gaining acceptance is the “h-index”, which is defined as the number h of a scientist’s publications with at least h citations (Hirsch 2005). Interestingly, the “h-index” appears to obviate the need to correct for the problem associated with multiple authorships and self-citations (Hirsch 2007). But any measure that is used to estimate the impact of a scientist that is based on citations depends on his field or discipline. For example, since there are fewer mathematicians than biologists, the number of citations of a mathematical paper would be expected to be fewer than that of a biological paper. Any comparison should be limited to those in the same or closely related disciplines.

I have chosen to use the “h-index” in assessing the impact of some Filipino scientists on world science — with all the appropriate caveats.

I present the h-index of some of the most published Philippine- and foreign-based Filipino chemists, biochemists, and molecular biologists. The list is necessarily incomplete, since I do not know all the Filipino scientists in those fields, and I apologize for any omission. For reasons of space, I have chosen an arbitrary cutoff. The numbers were obtained on June 2, 2010 (a scientist’s h-index changes with time) and my source of information is Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/), which is free and available to anyone with access to the Internet. The numbers may be different if a different citation database is used (I have no access to other databases other than Google Scholar). An important aspect of a Google Scholar search is the possibility of including citations from patents and I chose that option because those citations reflect the significant contribution of an article to novelty and practical use. The compilation should be made more complete and for all fields, and updated periodically, if we wish to see how our scientists continue to impact world science. At the end of the list, I have added the h-index of two well-known scientists in those fields.

Here’s the list: the h-index (shown in parentheses) of Rigoberto Advincula (33), Lourdes Cruz (40), Sevilla Detera-Wadleigh (39), Pedro Jose (40), Bienvenido Juliano (44), Carlito Lebrilla (31), Baldomero Olivera (63), Michael Purugganan (33), and Florante Quiocho (57); and those of Francis Crick (49) and Linus Pauling (81).

Again, I must emphasize that this is an incomplete list and only for those in the fields of chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology.

The reader can draw his own conclusions. My conclusion? Our kapwa-Filipinos are making a significant impact on world science. The future of Philippine science is bright"!

My congratulations to the above listed Filipino-American Scientists. May your tribe Increase and Keep up with the Good Work! Mabuhay ang PAASE!

Money can buy one form of Happiness Only

Here's the latest article on Money and Happiness. It was written by Rob Stein for the Washington Post dated July 1, 2010. Do you agree with this article?

"Pulling in the big bucks makes people more likely to say they are happy with their lives overall -- whether they are young or old, male or female, or living in cities or remote villages, the survey of more than 136,000 people in 132 countries found.

But the survey also showed that a key element of what many people consider happiness -- positive feelings -- is much more strongly affected by factors other than cold, hard cash, such as feeling respected, being in control of your life and having friends and family to rely on in a pinch.

"Yes, money makes you happy -- we see the effect of income on life satisfaction is very strong and virtually ubiquitous and universal around the world," said Ed Diener, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Illinois who led the study. "But it makes you more satisfied than it makes you feel good. Positive feelings are less affected by money and more affected by the things people are doing day to day."

Previous studies had suggested that money was associated with happiness. But the relationship appeared weak, and earlier work tended to focus on individual countries and global evaluations of life without parsing out the effects on specific positive and negative emotions or examining differences across nations.

The new survey -- the first large international study to differentiate between overall life satisfaction and day-to-day emotions -- makes that crucial distinction, allowing researchers to explore the elusive concept of happiness in much greater nuance.

"It's sort of a new era for the study of well-being," said Daniel Kahneman, a professor emeritus of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University.

The reason for the distinction is probably that when people are asked whether they are "happy," the first thing they do, wherever they are, is take stock of their lives by comparing themselves to their equivalent of "the Joneses" using the most obvious measure: income, several experts said.

"When people evaluate their life, they compare themselves to a standard of what a successful life is, and it turns out that standard tends to be universal: People in Togo and Denmark have the same idea of what a good life is, and a lot of that has to do with money and material prosperity," Kahneman said. "That was unexpected."

But day-to-day positive feelings depend a lot on other things, which also turn out to be fairly universal and therefore help clarify what makes people content, several researchers said.

"The thing I think is exciting about this is money can make you feel better in a limited way," said Barbara L. Fredrickson, a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "But positive feelings like enjoyment and laughing can do a whole lot more for people. They can help people grow and learn and become a more resilient, better version of yourself."

The new survey, dubbed the "first representative sample of planet Earth," was conducted by Gallup and involved detailed questioning in 2005 and 2006 of 136,839 residents age 15 and older. The samples in each country were designed to be nationally representative and represent about 96 percent of the world's population.

"What makes this paper so important is the sample is so huge and covered the entire world," said Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Riverside. "It's really interesting that if you look at countries that are so different -- from rural villagers to people living in a city like Stockholm -- they are all about the same in terms of what makes people happy."

The researchers gathered information about a long list of attributes, including income, whether basic needs such as food and shelter were met, what conveniences the subjects owned and whether they felt their psychological needs were satisfied. The survey asked people to rate their lives on a scale from zero for the worst possible life to 10 for the best. They also reported whether they experienced enjoyment, smiling, laughing, sadness, depression or anger the previous day, whether they felt respected and had family or friends they could count on in an emergency, and how free they were to choose their daily activities, learn new things or do what "one does best."

Life satisfaction was directly and strongly correlated with income, with the impact felt equally among all ages, men and women, and rural villagers and urban dwellers in virtually every corner of the globe, the researchers reported in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Although money also influenced emotions, the effect was much weaker. Both positive and negative emotions tended to be affected much more in relation to other psychological and social factors, such as feeling respected, having autonomy, strong social support and working at a fulfilling job.

"What we didn't know before is the extent to which life evaluation and emotional well-being are so distinct," Kahneman said. "When you look at the books about well-being, you see one word -- it's happiness. People do not distinguish."

The findings "are really significant" because "we are finally able to answer the big questions, such as 'What is a good society?' " Shigehiro Oishi, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, wrote in an e-mail. "If the goal of a society is to raise the daily enjoyment of its citizens, then, it seems critical to devise ways to increase the relational wealth of nations (e.g., stronger social network)."

This article corroborates and reinforces my feeling of happiness after I have given myself to help others specifically, my involvement with the Medical Missions to the Province of Marinduque for the last 10 years. I still believe that money is not everything. As a matter of fact the greed for money will cause you unhappiness. Do you Agree? Comments anyone?

Why I volunteer to MI, Inc. Medical Mission in Marinduque

One of the FaceBook users in my group “ Marinduquenos All Over The World” ask me yesterday, why I continue volunteering and giving my time, spend my own money and make a big effort to publicize this project of Marinduque International, Inc.( MI, Inc) via my blogs and Face Book account. I told her because I feel good about it. Moreover, the more I gave of myself ( time, money and my heart), the more I feel good about myself. For those of you who are not familiar with MI, Inc.. It is a non-profit organization registered in US compose of Marinduquenos now residing in US and Canada. Last year, a new chapter from Saudi Arabia joined the eight chapters in US and Canada. For more details please visit the website: www.marinduqueinternational.org

For those of you that had participated in at least one of the six previous medical mission ( 1998-2008), you know in your heart what I meant by “Feeling Good About Yourself.”. Some of you may have different reasons why you had participated previously or have plans of joining this coming mission next year ( February 5-14, 2011). But essentially,volunteering your time, money and your heart is one way of giving back to the poor and needy of Marinduque, the graces and good fortunes you have attained for yourself and your family when you immigrated to US, Canada or other parts of the world.

When you participate in the medical mission, you will touch the lives of many of your poor kababayans from the rural areas of the six towns of Marinduque. Therefore the saying that “the time that you really live is the time when you have touch the lives of others” can now be applied to you. For those of you who had not participated in the medical mission, your participation to this humanitarian project is highly encourage. I hope you will join us.

If you had participated in the previous medical mission, please feel free to add ( via comments) the benefits you have received personally and the reasons why you keep volunteering to this humanitarian project. I am looking forward to your participation next February in Marinduque. Mabuhay kayo Lahat!

My Orchids Collection in Chateau Du Mer Gardens

One of the many reasons why I love Marinduque is that the climate is conducive to growing orchids outside all year round. Most of my orchids bloom almost every four months except during the hot summer months. My gardener waters the orchids every day only in the morning. It takes her at least 25 minutes to water ( spray) the orchids every day( no rain that day). We fertilized every three months. There are aphids and insects ( ants) in some varieties that had to be hand pick and killed, since I am not in favor using insecticides. Here's some of my orchids for your viewing pleasure:





In 1996, when we first built the main house at Chateau Du Mer in Boac, Marinduque, Philippines, I started planting about a dozen orchids in front of the house. Today, I have a collection of more than fifty varieties of dendrobium, phalaenopsis and vandas. The dendrobiums and phalaenopsis cost around 100 to 200 pesos today(about $4 to $8 US dollars),still very cheap compared to US prices here in California. The vandas cost from 250 to 500 pesos depending on the variety and its rarity. My favorite orchid is the Princess Mikasa, a blue orchid(see top photo above). This was a gift from my first cousin from Iloilo about five years ago. I had to hand carry this on the plane to Marinduque. My cousin's primary business is growing orchids. She has more than a thousand plants in her home in Pototan, Iloilo. She attends to all the orchids Shows and Fairs in the Philippines and exhibits her orchids for sale and competes for awards. My other orchids, I purchased them from orchid gardens in Lucena, Quezon as well as locally during agricultural Fairs and at the Flea markets in Gasan and Boac. The other orchids in the photos are dark pink and yellow vandas as well as the purple dendrobium. I also have three cattleyas in my garden.

Fathers' Day is near- Food for Thought-Parenthood

Fathers' Day is just a week from now. The day reminds me of the responsibility of Parenthood. I found the following quotes timeless and applicable to all Fathers and Mothers of Today and of the future.

1. Marriage is an institution, but who wants to live in an institution.

2. The trouble with most average American is that they expect their children to be above average.

3. The best inheritance a parent can give his children is a few minutes of his time each day.

4. A mother of 13 children was asked "how in the world can you have time for 13 children" she replied, "when I had only one child, it took all my time, what more can 13 do?

5. A Chicago psychologist lists these rules for parents to insure their child happiness
Avoid favoritism, do not compare one child to another
Don't be too dominating; don't impose your own ambitions or hobbies
Don't be upset at what your neighbor's children accomplish
Don't remind yourself constantly that you worked harder or had fewer privileges.

6. The fear of depriving our children has produced the most "gifted" generation of children in our history. We shower them with gifts to prove our love, with the inevitable result that the gift of love has degenerated into a love of gifts.
Are we offering things as parent substitutes? Are we offering presents instead of our presence? Are we giving things because we are reluctant to give time or self or our heart?

Some Food for Thought indeed especially on this coming Father's Day! Happy Father's Day to all Fathers in the world!

I am Proud to be A Filipino-American-Philippine Independence Day-112th Anniversary

I am proud to be a Filipino American especially today. In this posting are two filipino songs, Ako ay Filipino, (I am a Filipino) and Dugong Filipino ( Filipino Blood) that echoes my sentiment as a Filipino=American. I hope that the David Balleza Katague Clan here in US will always remember that Filipino blood is on their veins, even if they do not look like and act like Filipinos any more, since they are all born and raised here in US.

June 12, 2010 is 112 years of Philippine independence from Spain(1898). Parades and other festivities are being held in the Philippines to celebrate this event. Since I am not in the Philippines, my contribution to the celebration is this video, a choral presentation of "Ako ay Filipino"(I am a Filipino) by UP Adventist Choir performed in Fresno a couple of years ago. If you have Filipino blood in you, joined this 112th anniversary celebration of Philippine Independence ( from Spain, not US). Philippines Independence from US was July 4,1946. Here's the video for your viewing pleasure. In this video, there are 15 more songs. One of my favorites Filipino patriotic song is Dugong Filipino ( Blood of a Filipino). This was sung and composed by Jonathan Badon, world known Filipino Tenor in the world of Philippine Opera. Jonathan had been to our residence in Silver Spring, Maryland in November 16, 2000 along with several other Philippine opera singers with the Fides Santos-Cuyugan Asensio group-"On Wing of Songs". The other Filipino opera singers in the group are: Lorna Llames ( soprano), Bituin Domicel ( soprano), Nova Ramirez ( mezzo soprano), Marvin Gayramon ( baritone) and Reuel Tica (bass)

If you have not heard about Jonathan Badon, here's his short biography.
The Philippines' prince of operatic-pop is an Aliw Awardee for 2004 Best Male Classical Performer (Philippine version of Tony Awards). He just had a series of performances in Texas, California, and Southeast Asia. Badon is a Bachelor of Music in Voice graduate at the University of the Philippines College of Music as a scholar of the Music Promotion Foundation - Cultural Center of the Philippines. He has performed lead roles in various operas, oratorios, sarzuelas musicales and has done numerous solo concerts in the Philippines as well as in the United States, Canada, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Brunei Darrusalam. He also has represented the Philippines to different music and cultural festivals in Wales, Scotland, Indonesia, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Korea, China, Japan and the United States.

A versatile performer, Jonathan is one of the most sought-after stage and music personalities in the Philippines today. Also known as the Josh Groban of the Philippines, he is the ultimate cross-over artist in his effortless transition from classical to pop singing. It is no wonder that he is the favorite featured performer in Concert at the Park, Paco Park Presents, CCP-Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra Concerts, Teatrino Concerts and Hard Rock Cafe to name just a few.

He is an award winning composer and arranger as well, winning the grand prize in the AFP National Songwriting Contest for “Dugong Pilipino.” His artistry is also revealed in the visual arts. He favors realistic sketches of architectural and historical landmarks of places he has visited. Quite aptly, his extra ordinary talents in music and art featured in a CD which was released in 2002 titled “Sketches and Melodies.” Jonathan had a very successful solo US concert tour last 2005.