melancholy scientist

Stats, stats and more Stats

2017-04-11T22:43:22+01:00

Over the past week or so I’ve been tweaking the OLXPortal source code. Now called just XRD Portal it is quite happily running our little XRD department at the School of Materials, UoM. I’m not quite certain for how long that will be the case since the UoM has bought a commercial project to impose on all facilities (could have had mine for free).

So what has that got to do with stats? Well instrinsic within the design of the portal is its ability to generate usage, user, supervisor and school statistics. BUT what to do with all this fantastic lovely data? This is the main problem one faces with large amounts of data. How to best consolidate and provide in a usable format for digestion?

So what are the new updates?

Firstly I’ve clarried to the users what they need to do in order that they can getting booking permissions on equipment. I had to do this since I was getting emails daily from disgruntled users who felt that by filling in some forms online gave them the right to turn up and start using £100K machines. My favourite is someone complaining “why I had not given me permission”? and then they could not figure out how to open the door or if it was safe to do so! I guess that looks bad on me as there are no bad students only bad teachers using the wrong approach. So I’ve now written everything down so they understand WHY you can not book just yet.

Next I’ve been through and released a code idea I had implemented at the very begining of the project. That of safety deletions. What? As part of the process of using equipment each user must undertake a minimum of two online safety tests. The first is a general test which covers their access to facility things like fire exits and emergency procedures. It also includes simple things like out of hours usage and notification on publications and manuscripts, etc. The next test (which could be more than one) is undertaken with machine specific information. Each machine including a risk assessment as when as SOP and other information. These online tests are now self deleting after a finite period from first undertaking that training. This does not remove the users permissions to book or forget what they have done only suspends them until they complete the training online again.

This also links to upgrades to the online tests which now also include random “stupid” questions and statements which means if a user ticks them they will instantly fail as it is proof they have not read the text. It also includes other safe guards to try and ensure that we have evidence that the user has had to take time review the statements not just tick and agree.

But with these upgrades I could name and shame the students (this is fair definition) that have to undertake the test due to failing because they have not read the text properly. I have lists with some students failing 5 or 6 times for the exact same reason! Should I employ these stats? Should I take those users to one side before triaining them and ask why they kept ticking boxes sayings things like “I promise to bring biscuits to the XRD lab everytime I visit” or “I’m a little teapot short and stout”.

Along with these safety updates I’ve unlocked ics generation and some additional shortcuts used for navigation for the admins and of course implemented some new stats generations code.

Stats - that is short for Statistics (lazy that)

To make sure my boss can promote, defend and justify the XRD department’s existence I’ve been generating stats. Initially these stats were just generated when requested. However, last year I created a system which would provide the supervisor and MSc students’ a usage summary and index of all their data at the end of their project. This system is also rolled out for all users at the end of the academic year and the same time as global “general” permissions wiping. So coupled to these reports I am now generating automonously allocation period reports (AP - yes just like the synchrotron days but now only three months long) as well as six month reports as well.

These reports include:

New Registered Users
Machine Usage
by school
by role
by supervisor
by experiment type
machine operating times
the above broken down by machine

Well that is enough for now. The only question(s) now is “Should there be more stats” and “Should these stats be public”?

Guess who’s back

2017-03-29T20:40:26+01:00

Yes the melancholy scientist is back in town and blogging again. Technically I’ve never left town but I moved to a really cool gated community. What? Basically I kept on blogging but I stopped blogging in public.

Why?

(yes the what and why? are back)

I started a new job (3 or 4 years ago) and I basically had some concerns that with that new job there may be a requirement for me to limit what I blogged/posted about. It was also a very exciting time and the quality of my blog posts did suffer as I had little time to properly proof check them. So my blog became a sort of abstract personal diary.

Future Learn – Week 8

2014-03-12T09:14:16+00:00

Course Summary

I was surprised how hard it was some weeks to make the time to sit down and work through this course. I was also surprised by the use of blogging and social media content. I guess overall they were nice surprises. I found it a bit frustrating being asked to use other third party resources to interact with the course material such as Flikr, Conceptboard Realtime board or Twiddla. Why Furture Learn could not incorporate these features into its design was something I found to be a major failing.

I feel that although I did not really takeaway anything from the course that was truly new. I cringed at some of the chemistry and in places just found the way some concepts were presented as terrible. Overall I did actually enjoy the course. If you are not prepared to try new things then you will not know if you like them or not. We do not grow in a vacuum (not technically true - but you get the point).

By the end of the course I was really just looking forward to getting it over and done with. I was powering through the quizzes/test and really not paying enough attention either cooking or cleaning at the same time. I guess this means that I had lost my direction and that problems means that the end of the course sort of died out in a damp squib for me.

I did enjoy the review sessions. I did not really appreciate they were happening nor that they would be considered part of the course content. So I got a bit of a shock when I looked and found my 100 % complete course modules suddenly not so.

I would be really useful to produce a fact sheet/course summary at the end of this with all the websites, and learning resources as well as summaries of each of the modules and what the presenters expected us to takeaway from thos modules. By doing so we can hopefully close the communication loop as they say and understand the viewpoint of the teacher a little more clearly and hopefully the content may become a little bit more - relevant for want of a better word.

I guess my closing summary remark would be do not be afraid of long and short wave radiation - or explaining it to the course. Nor should you be looking at point scoring with shock and awe question/answering type dialogues - I’m thinking about GHGs particularly. You can get the same message across far more clearly by explaining the concepts first then presenting the results rather than going Booo and trying to explain why you did so………..

This was a good introduction to Future learn and a good first attempt at a course by the team. You can tell a lot of effort went into the production of each weeks module. Well done.

Massive Gripe

One thing I did feel let the Future Learn concept down was the requirement to pay for the “Statements of Participation” you were/are not allowed to print a PDF version saying that you completed the course instead you get charged “an introductory price of £24” - WHAT? Really? But I thought Future Learn was…..

> > At FutureLearn, we want to inspire learning for life. We offer a diverse selection of free, high quality online courses from some of the world’s leading universities and other outstanding cultural institutions. > >

Yes the courses are free but if you want evidence you have completed the course for your CPD then well that is not free.

So what evidence will you get? A certificate to be sent through the post - for £24. Is it being hand delivered by the queen for £24? I think this really lets down Future learn as a medium for CPD, a medium for learning in fact. You should be able to access this online and print off a PDF or paper copy yourself for free. If you want to stealth charge for the course you should just bloody well charge on week one.

The future of sciencific communication is really going to be based out of university departments producing interesting online web information. From documentaries to courses. This has to be the way since science of TV is just terrible. So how can we know the good programs from the bad - the science from the Scientology well the simple answer would be the origin. Is the content from a University then we can trust it. So seeing Future learn makes you think yes a great point of learning - great a free high quality online course - until you want some evidence of proof of taking that course then well its not free any more.

> > ## Celebrate progress > > > > We motivate our learners by breaking the journey into small steps. Each step is bite-sized to make the learning visible, help learners see progress quickly and regularly reflect on what they have learnt. We celebrate every step of progress, both small and large. There is no such thing as dropout: we encourage learners to take from the experience as little or as much as they desire. > > > > ## Embrace FutureLearners > > > > We want to create a community of lifelong learners, and provide the stepping stones from one journey to the next. Our visitors are FutureLearners, not students of a particular university. > >

Really how can the above two statements be from the same organisation which charges for proof of completing a course? Sigh - stealth charge for learning - are you liberal democratic?

Consider – for this week AND for the course as a whole:

1. What are the most important themes you have learned?

I’m really struggling to find theme that in this weeks course or over the entire program have been truly new to me. I guess looking at the results of the quiz/final test I learnt to not cook and try and answer the questions at the same time. I also learnt that my understanding of historical terms such as Era, and Eon was not very good at all. Which was sad since during this climate change quiz you felt that at least two questions should be based on those units?

2. What aspect(s) did you find difficult?

The measures of time in relation to historical events. Or more correctly the use of terms like Eon, Era, etc as answers to the first two quiz questions. Ok I get we are in the anthropocene period but then to ask me which unit of measure of time defines it?

3. What did you find most interesting? And why?

Nothing I guess - sorry.

4. Was there something that you learned that prompted you to do your own research?

Not really.

5. Are there any web sites or other online resource that you found particularly useful in furthering your knowledge and understanding?

Not at this time no.

Future Learn – Week 7

2014-03-09T09:14:16+00:00

This week it was all about “Solutions” there was a “show and tell” aspect as well…..

> > Now that you have an awareness of how buildings can be designed to adapt to climate change, observe how many of these features are in existence near to where you live. > > > > Step 1. Photograph a building or part of an urban landscape that indicates a design that is adapted to a changing climate (particularly wetter winters, higher summer temperatures and more extreme weather). If you can’t find anything, show a building or part of an urban landscape that is clearly NOT adapted. > >

The picture above shows two interesting buildings in the Northern Quarter of Manchester. On the far right is the CIS tower the entire left hand side of the building is covered in photovoltaic cells. This pattern is repeated on the side and reverse aspects as well. This building using electricity generated from the PV to let them keep their lights on all night when no one is working there. No seriously the PV supplied electricity helps reduce the buildings carbon footprint and offset things like air conditioning during the hotter summer months. But this building itself is quite old and the PV panels are a retro fit solution. The picture left and middle are of the Co-op head office directly opposite the CIS tower.

The Co-op head office is one of the most low-energy, sustainable buildings in Europe. It hosts the impressive status of having a BREEAM rating of “Outstanding” .

From its construction materials to its fabrication methods all were design to reduce congestion, construction overheads and waste. Using a modular design the building was built off site and assembled on site with a significantly smaller footprint than the classic build all on site approach.

Using recirculating airflow technology as well as green power sources the building is designed to be big but with a small footprint.

If you also look in the green box in the picture far left you’ll notice a wind turbine located on the roof of a hotel. Again another modern building less than 10 years old and hosting technology to help it reduce its electricity needs.

> > Step 2. Share your photograph. There are many different ways to do this. You could post a link to it on the discussion, from your blog, a Flikr account or any other online file sharing or photo sharing site. > >

Picture shared above was sent as link to discussion area along with a version of the text above.

> > Step 3. Geo tag your photograph to show its location. > >

53 29.293 N 2 14.189 W http://maps.google.com/maps?q=53.48822,-2.23649 U35° R01° 211m 22/02/2014 14:50

> > Step 4. Post a link to your photograph to the discussion and then explain the features of its design in relation to adaptation. > >

Done that.

1. What are the most important themes you have learned this week?

The NIMBY argument was I think being defended by the Professor Patrick Devine-Wright - perhaps he was not but either way I learnt that I still find it difficult to understand the not in my back yard mentality.

2. What aspect of this week did you find difficult?

Trying to get a decent picture of some of the new buildings showing how building design is now incorporating energy saving/generating technology without being blown off my bike, rained on or run-over.

3. What did you find most interesting? And why?

Yes question 1 of the quiz:

"What is the maximum amount of the UK’s electricity requirements that could potentially be generated from renewable sources?"

With the answers of: 5, 11, 17.8, 28.1 and 50%.

When I read that question I read the words “could” and “potentially” and then asked the question with those two words the answer surely is 100% “could potentially” be generated from renewable sources. The answer based on the information within the module was 11% but I think that was the answer to a different question one of:

How much of the UK's current annual (2012-2013) power supply make up is from renewable sources?

With that in mind the question and the answer did not really match together very well in my opinion.

4. Was there something that you learned this week that prompted you to do your own research?

Sorry guys but so far during this course I am not actually learning anything new. I guess the only thing I did learn was possible sources to show the mistake in the wording of question 1 (see below).

I did learn that often the context of the feedback questions is altered in the review. Where people were criticizing the wording of the question this got transmuted into people were wondering why we do not use 100% renewable? Come on guys that is bad form surely?

5. Are there any web sites or other online resource that you found particularly useful in furthering your knowledge and understanding?

These websites were not directly covered in the course but I used them as part of my comments regarding the issue with question 1:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/266403/et_dec_13.pdf

http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

Future Learn – Week 6

2014-03-08T09:14:16+00:00

Future lean questions from week 6. Week 6 was about Impacts on human systems and including topics on how buildings and food production contribute to climate change, how they are impacted by climate change and the general what will be the future.

1. What are the most important themes you have learned this week?

Honestly, nothing really. I was well aware of the implications of buildings and their carbon footprints. I think it was sad that the cement footprint was not explored in a little more detail. I also thought it that it was a little sad that the idea of vertical farming and hydroponics was just discarded out of hand by the end of week review video. Clearly the people making and answering the questions have not spent any time in any Asian cities where building changes happen quickly often new buildings going up in the course of a year replacing “older buildings” some of which are still quite “new”.

It was interesting that there was talk about building design and efficiency and yet when concepts such as vertical farms were raised it just was randomly replaced by discussion about mushroom production from tea bags.

2. What aspect of this week did you find difficult?

Nothing really.

3. What did you find most interesting? And why?

Nothing really. Like I’ve said above most of themes for this week I was aware of. I was interested to note that in terms of food production there was also no mention of fertilisers and their use, the consequences of production and supply of fertilisers in terms of the foot print of the food stuffs.

4. Was there something that you learned this week that prompted you to do your own research?

No, sorry.

5. Are there any web sites or other online resource that you found particularly useful in furthering your knowledge and understanding?

Not really it was the standard stream of sources.

Future Learn – Week 5

2014-03-07T09:14:16+00:00

1. What are the most important themes you have learned this week?

This week it was all about “Impacts on natural systems” and we got two new presenters. One focusing on the cryosphere and the other on the oceans and carbon dioxide uptake.

What aspect of this week did you find difficult?

I found it difficult watching unbalanced chemical formula being flashed across the screen. I also found it rather pointless using hydrochloric acid to dissolve a shell. Why? To show it bubbled? Why not add hydrogen peroxide to yeast or acetic acid to sodium carbonate they would bubble and froth as well. Using HCl(aq) just confuses things when really you are trying to explain the action of the proton source the acid on the shell.

What did you find most interesting? And why?

Nothing springs to mind sorry.

Was there something that you learned this week that prompted you to do your own research?

Not really.

Are there any web sites or other online resource that you found particularly useful in furthering your knowledge and understanding?

None sorry.

Future Learn - Week 4

2014-03-06T09:51:09+00:00

1. What are the most important themes you have learned this week?

Future projections - looking backwards to check the model then looking forwards using the model. It was really nice to see the use of computational methods being explored in this way. Likewise seeing how some methods are calibrated and checked.

2. What aspect of this week did you find difficult?

Not certain I did.

3. What did you find most interesting? And why?

I think I liked seeing the activities of the metoffice being shown. It is often just seen as the place that provides information about the weather and forgotten about the cutting edge climate research and modelling they develop.

4. Was there something that you learned this week that prompted you to do your own research?

No.

5. Are there any web sites or other online resource that you found particularly useful in furthering your knowledge and understanding?

Back in the late 90s I was all about the SETI which lead on to BIONIC and the cure for cancer. More recently these tools have been retrained towards modelling climate change. Only eight months ago I went in search of some BIONIC climate projects only to find that they had either produced windows only code or worse still they had folded and shutdown. It was nice to see in this weeks course that some have survived.

Future Learn - Week 3

2014-03-05T07:14:16+00:00

1. What are the most important themes you have learned this week?

It is a tricky old game trying to identify weather that could be a “sign” of climate change. I think the materials was handle quite well in that regards.

2. What aspect of this week did you find difficult?

Nothing really.

3. What did you find most interesting? And why?

The week 3 feedback video showing the new Nature paper results. It was actually quite interesting and refreshingly cutting edge.

I loved actually seeing chemical equations at last shame they were not charge balanced CO3- hmmm CO32- - sigh. I know it was an ad hoc thrown together response but really you’d just removed a proton, H+, from the equation.

I also thought it was interesting that throughout the carbon cycle sink and source discussions the issues of permafrost and potential for carbon dioxide release BUT more importantly the possible triggering of methane release caused by currently inert bacteria could have a dramatic tipping point and acceleration effect.

4. Was there something that you learned this week that prompted you to do your own research?

No sorry.

5. Are there any web sites or other online resource that you found particularly useful in furthering your knowledge and understanding?

Nope sorry.

Future Learn - Week 2

2014-03-04T09:14:16+00:00

Past climate change - was this weeks theme. How can looking backwards help us look forwards and understand climate change? Clearly understand the markers which can be used to identify significant climatic events in the planets past not to mention to understand how factors such as carbon dioxide concentration can be related to global average temperature all help in construction models to predict the future climate of the planet.

How can ice cores provide a record of atmospheric composition?

Ice cores are an interesting scientific measure that we can use to sample the climate composition, temperature, airborne particulates and local wind patterns in an historical context.

As the cores contain dissolved gases, differing isotope ratios and material textures we can use these features as a measures of atmospheric gases, temperature, date and seasonal markers. The particulates captured by snow fall can provide information about volcanic activity as well as pollen. This giving information regarding volcano eruptions and seasonal growth patterns. All this information stored in stratified chronological layers.

1. What are the most important themes you have learned this week?

I quite like the snowball earth. It reminds me of the snowdrop analogy to positive feedback mechanisms. In fact overall understanding positive and negative feedback mechanisms as well as tipping points are going to be crucial in realistically developing solutions to climate change. A case in point is the simple act of reducing carbon soot emissions from cars and factories. Although this has made the air much better for individuals it has had the effect of increasing our average temperature, particularly in the northern hemisphere, by removing the reflective and radiative effects of the particulates in the atmosphere. It is also true that it has reduce soot precipitation on the polar ice caps and this has lead to an increased albedo from the snow which had been reduced by the carbon particulates.

2. What aspect of this week did you find difficult?

The 400 ppm section. Yes we hit 400 ppm but we have technically now dropped below 400 ppm. Not that it makes much difference but I think focusing on these particular numbers do not really help people understand the consequences of GHGs.

3. What did you find most interesting? And why?

The snowball earth and feedback mechanisms as mentioned above. That and the fact you pointed to a dodgey youtube video rip of the BBC documentary!

4. Was there something that you learned this week that prompted you to do your own research?

No sorry.

5. Are there any web sites or other online resource that you found particularly useful in furthering your knowledge and understanding?

Not really.

Future Learn - Week 1

2014-03-03T09:14:16+00:00

To be honest I was not overly impressed with week one of the the Future learn course. It seemed to be focussed on trying to dispel myths than actually provide useful information. The classic “carbon dioxide is the worse green house gas isn’t it?” “NO, other gases such as methane are even worse” type approach really grates. It could have been presented in a much nicer fashion.

Reflect on these key questions:

1. What the key scientific principles that explain climate change including the greenhouse (blanket) effect?

By key scientific principles do you mean the quantum theory to understand radiation absorption and emission, Newtonian principles?

2. What are the key feedback mechanisms that help to explain why our climate is able to “self-regulate”?

I think the key feedback mechanisms is the regulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a function of natural release, capture from weathering of silicate rocks via the carbonate and carbonic acid reactions. This includes the albedo effect of white/bright sources.

3. How can our climate be conceptualised as a system containing a series of components that interact with one another?

I guess by this you mean components such as the atmosphere, the oceans and the land. Then following the energy transfer path and carbon dioxide (and other GHGs) as they cycle, release or are captured between these different environments?

General weekly reflection points:

1. What are the most important themes you have learned this week?

Nothing other than you seemed to be focussing on “shock and awe” in this first week than I expected. Sorry but I really think you could have done this better.

2. What aspect of this week did you find difficult?

The fact that you failed to really define the real mechanisms involved - you tried to use hand wavy arguments but then they just confused and muddled the problems. It would have made sense to define things like long and short wave radiation at the beginning of week one which you are clearly going to need in the following weeks. I mean you consistently will start using the words “radiation” but not really defining it?

With that said you then tried to capture this failing in the weekly review of the course “webcast” - ironically I did not realise that these were going to happen. If you start out with the information in the review and rebuild the course based on that video it would be much better.

3. What did you find most interesting? And why?

It is interesting to note that actually it is only a relatively short period in our planets history were the Earth has had an oxygen rich (oxidative) atmosphere. Prior to this the atmosphere was reductive, carbon dioxide rich. Of course life on planet Earth at that time was also very different. If we understand that the atmosphere of our planet and climate have been changing constantly often very slowly throughout our planet’s existence then it is interesting to compare points in the planets history. We must remember that we are such a blimp on the planet and if we all die tomorrow there would be no difference to the planets continued existence.

4. Was there something that you learned this week that prompted you to do your own research?

Not really sorry. I pretty much knew and in more depth the information you covered in the course.

5. Are there any web sites or other online resource that you found particularly useful in furthering your knowledge and understanding?

Nothing really.

melancholy scientist

Stats, stats and more Stats

So what are the new updates?

Stats - that is short for Statistics (lazy that)

Guess who’s back

Why?

Future Learn – Week 8

Course Summary

Massive Gripe

1. What are the most important themes you have learned?

2. What aspect(s) did you find difficult?

3. What did you find most interesting? And why?

4. Was there something that you learned that prompted you to do your own research?

5. Are there any web sites or other online resource that you found particularly useful in furthering your knowledge and understanding?

Future Learn – Week 7

1. What are the most important themes you have learned this week?

2. What aspect of this week did you find difficult?

3. What did you find most interesting? And why?

4. Was there something that you learned this week that prompted you to do your own research?

5. Are there any web sites or other online resource that you found particularly useful in furthering your knowledge and understanding?

Future Learn – Week 6

1. What are the most important themes you have learned this week?

2. What aspect of this week did you find difficult?

3. What did you find most interesting? And why?

4. Was there something that you learned this week that prompted you to do your own research?

5. Are there any web sites or other online resource that you found particularly useful in furthering your knowledge and understanding?

Future Learn – Week 5

1. What are the most important themes you have learned this week?

Future Learn - Week 4

1. What are the most important themes you have learned this week?

2. What aspect of this week did you find difficult?

3. What did you find most interesting? And why?

4. Was there something that you learned this week that prompted you to do your own research?

5. Are there any web sites or other online resource that you found particularly useful in furthering your knowledge and understanding?

Future Learn - Week 3

1. What are the most important themes you have learned this week?

2. What aspect of this week did you find difficult?

3. What did you find most interesting? And why?

4. Was there something that you learned this week that prompted you to do your own research?

5. Are there any web sites or other online resource that you found particularly useful in furthering your knowledge and understanding?

Future Learn - Week 2

How can ice cores provide a record of atmospheric composition?

Other Review Questions

1. What are the most important themes you have learned this week?

2. What aspect of this week did you find difficult?

3. What did you find most interesting? And why?

4. Was there something that you learned this week that prompted you to do your own research?

5. Are there any web sites or other online resource that you found particularly useful in furthering your knowledge and understanding?

Future Learn - Week 1

1. What the key scientific principles that explain climate change including the greenhouse (blanket) effect?

2. What are the key feedback mechanisms that help to explain why our climate is able to “self-regulate”?

3. How can our climate be conceptualised as a system containing a series of components that interact with one another?

1. What are the most important themes you have learned this week?

2. What aspect of this week did you find difficult?

3. What did you find most interesting? And why?

4. Was there something that you learned this week that prompted you to do your own research?

5. Are there any web sites or other online resource that you found particularly useful in furthering your knowledge and understanding?