3D quantitative interpretation of archaeomagnetic surveys : application of mathematical modelling to determine depths and physical characteristics of buried materials
Surely this brings us closer to non-invasive archaeology à la Picard? It's got to beat digging around in damp trenches looking for a series of small walls. Hopefully they'll develop this as an app for the tricorder.
Thursday, 23 January 2014
Tarantulas and social spiders : a tale of sex and silk
That's just a really lovely title for a thesis!
Train overcrowding makes you miserable.
I can certainly agree with that very heavily paraphrased conclusion from Nor Diana Mohd Mahudin. I had to peek a bit further when I saw this thesis title:
"Quality of rail passenger experience: the direct and spillover effects of crowding on individual well-being and organisational behaviour."
This researcher looked at the perceptions of over-crowding among key stakeholder institutions in the Malaysian rail industry and found it to be considered a minor problem compared to "capacity, infrastructure, and serive quality issues." But what the author has done has developed an effective measure to determine passengers' experience of overcrowding; this shows that they find it stressful and that this stress has an impact on their life beyond the journey itself. Indeed when you have a look at the author's blog, Beyond Commuting, there are links to wider research that suggest people with a long commute are more likely to divorce!
This research caught my eye because I commuted for a year to study for my MA in Librarianship and the rail journey was utterly soul-destroying and exhausting:
"Quality of rail passenger experience: the direct and spillover effects of crowding on individual well-being and organisational behaviour."
This researcher looked at the perceptions of over-crowding among key stakeholder institutions in the Malaysian rail industry and found it to be considered a minor problem compared to "capacity, infrastructure, and serive quality issues." But what the author has done has developed an effective measure to determine passengers' experience of overcrowding; this shows that they find it stressful and that this stress has an impact on their life beyond the journey itself. Indeed when you have a look at the author's blog, Beyond Commuting, there are links to wider research that suggest people with a long commute are more likely to divorce!
This research caught my eye because I commuted for a year to study for my MA in Librarianship and the rail journey was utterly soul-destroying and exhausting:
- only getting a seat half the time meant I couldn't guarantee I could get any work done on the journey
- hanging around waiting for delayed trains, worrying about getting to lectures on time
- overcrowded trains just make everyone grumpy, rude and generally vile
My conclusion: I hope I never have to commute by train ever again. Good research here, of great value.
Thursday, 16 January 2014
You know that dilemma when you're a professor of surgery but then are awarded a life peerage....how do I write my name?!
You don't? Well, neither do I, but I discovered today how you write your name....
Professor The Lord, as in:
Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham was there ever a more accomplished man? Or a better vindication of immigration?
Eh? You say, where's this coming from?
Well I'm working on EThOS and checking which theses are on there, so I'm working through hundreds of PhD theses from around the UK, a vast trawl through what so far amounts to well over a millennium of academic endeavour. On the way I encounter little things that please me. So I'll share them here.
Professor The Lord, as in:
Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham was there ever a more accomplished man? Or a better vindication of immigration?
Eh? You say, where's this coming from?
Well I'm working on EThOS and checking which theses are on there, so I'm working through hundreds of PhD theses from around the UK, a vast trawl through what so far amounts to well over a millennium of academic endeavour. On the way I encounter little things that please me. So I'll share them here.
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