Who Does This Describe?

[ham]

Note that the only difference between the journal article abstract and the dissertation abstract is the juxtaposition of the last two sentences, and some minor differences in numbers (highlighted above) that appear to be two different ways of saying the same thing.

Now I haven't read either one of those documents, nor do I intend to, but it is not entirely clear why the apparent very minor differences (if any) between those two documents required the combined efforts of fifteen (15) extra researchers to accomplish.

self-plagiarism is common in academia; the same argument may be published in 20 different articles with minor word twists.
In the scientific field (so told me people who were into it ), articles that count most are 'first' or 'second' name ( one's name comes first or second in the otherwise very long list ) as first or second leader in the study.
A man I knew had THIRTY articles published, but never as first or second name, which barely amounts to 'being part of a team' or even 'an institute' and doing little -if anything- to contribute to the research the paper is about.
Much like acting, you get title role, supporting actors, down to stand-ins and people billed as 'drunkard in the alley' or 'lady crossing the street'.
Although both 'Marlon Brando' (I'm just making this up) and Sam Zero 'star' in the Hollywood big-budgeter of the year, Marlon Brando is first lead/title star, while Sam Zero is credited as 'old man crossing the street' or 'policeman n.3'.
So use scholar.google.com and see how many first/second names did George get.