Much appreciated :-)

Hi,

Does anyone have access to this paper?

GE Lancioni, MF O'Reilly, D Oliva, S Bracalente,
1998
Guiding a Person with Blindness and Intellectual Disability in Indoor Travel with Fewer Auditory Cues
Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness vol 92, issue 9.

Cheers
FP

Sent :-)

Hmz. I missed the within subjects bit... are the questions related? So... say you are looking into whether someone likes chocolate... they will only fit into one of your categories. If there are no other responses that are related to chocolate, say the next thing you are considering is if they like the colour yellow, then the statements are sufficiently independent that i think a chi-square will be acceptable.(But i would want someone cleverer than me to verify this!)

If, however, your statements are related such that you are considering if the participant liked chocolate and whether they then go onto mention galaxy and dairy milk as types of chocolate then your responses would not be independent so chi-square is not applicable and i'm afraid i don't know an alternative off the top of my head.

Unless... there might be a within-subjects variant that i am unaware of...

(My stats is a bit rusty so someone else may need to verify this....)

======= Date Modified 12 Sep 2011 14:52:17 =======
I believe that Pearson's chi square test is for categorical data.... But i may be being a bit thick. I'm sleepy.

Hi,

Does anyone have access to this paper?

Uses of Music in Everyday Life
North, Hargreaves and Hargreaves
in Music Perception vol 22 pages 41-77.

Cheers
Frog

I find that 9-5 doesn't work for me really. My approach is to ensure that i spend (at least) 35 hours a week on my PhD. So, some days i might not hit the office til noon and i might leave at 5. But as long as i work for 35 hours during that week, then that is acceptable. I have realised that i am not the sort of person that can wake up at 7am everyday unless i have a meeting a 9. Even when i worked in a real job, with flexitime i regularly didn't turn up until 1030. It just doesn't suit me. I need sleep.

On the other hand, i know that i quite like working at the weekend (yes i'm crazy!). The office is quiet so i can play my music without having to wear headphones. I am not distracted by other people wanting to talk to me and there are no meetings organised or teaching commitments. So, i tend to do 1 full day at the weekend, and then a couple of half days during the week. I only go above the 35 hours a week if i have deadlines approaching (as i do tomorrow!) in which case i have been at work yesterday and am in the office right now. Though i plan to take Tuesday off to compensate and will be leaving early on Friday as well.

Oh and i use the pomodoro technique when i can - though when others are in the office it can be tricky to go 25 minutes without someone wanting to chat about something or other!

But basically.. my advice is to figure out what works for you. I use the "i'll work when i'm working well and i'll take a break when i'm not being productive" approach. (The break i have taken to write this is part of my 5 minutes between pomodoros!) If you force yourself into a schedule that doesn't suit you then you can start to feel guilty about it. I know people who are constantly working but don't achieve much output. I definitely work for less time than them, but i would say that my output is usually something tangible and useful. And i'm much less stressed out :-)

Thanks, that's very helpful. A precedent like that is just what i was looking for :-)

And i take your comment about intellectual property - that is another of my sups concerns. But the information i have received about what an internship would entail seems to suggest i wouldn't be doing work that is directly related to my project, rather it would be using the processes we adopt in the wider area.

I don't think i'd really mind being cheap labour for them, but i certainly wouldn't want them to steal my ideas.

======= Date Modified 07 Sep 2011 10:45:04 =======
(ooh character limit... sorry i've gone on a bit. I shall bring it to a close)

He didn't answer how he'd come across my work unfortunately.

Anyways, i guess i'm asking if anyone has heard of a student taking a break for an internship? I know it's possible to take leave for medical reasons, but i've never heard of funding bodies allowing it to work somewhere else. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it might be permitted.

Any thoughts will be greatly received.

Cheers
Frog Princess

Hi,

First a bit of background: I am coming to the end of my first year of a science PhD. I am funded by the EPSRC on a DTA scholarship - i am not working on specific project, my work is very much in a bubble - i am the only one working in this area. I am really enjoying my PhD (for the most part), i have loved teaching and see myself working in academia if i can secure a post-doc or teaching position when i complete.

Anyways, out of the blue last week i received an email from a talent scout at the most prominent international company in my field. You cannot underestimate just how huge this company is (i don't want to name names or give details of my field as would like to stay fairly anonymous). You could say it is the Manchester United of my research area. But even that is an understatement. For example, i told my gran about this company contacting me and she knew who they were, even though she has very little knowledge of my field.

So, this talent scout basically said "i've come across your work and think you would be a good fit for our company. We are hiring at the moment and I would really encourage you to apply for some of our positions." At first i thought this was a fake (obviously!) but having forwarded the email to colleagues and friends it seemed genuine. I replied stating that I wouldn't be available for a job until 2014 as i am still in early days of phd but would certainly like to talk to him nearer then with regard to a position at the company.

He got back to me suggesting that maybe i could take a break from my PhD for an internship with them. This is huge. Like ENORMOUS. I would be absolutely insane to turn down working for these people (especially as the internship is a paid position!).

My supervisors aren't entirely thrilled at the prospect of me leaving for 3-6 months, but haven't said an outright no. Both can see that it would be a brilliant opportunity. They have stated that they would want the majority of my data collected before i left as they need to be sure that i would come back to complete it. And i agree with them. But they are also not sure what the situation with the EPSRC would be and whether my department would permit it.

Has anyone heard of PhD students taking 6 months out for an internship? I wouldn't consider it if it was, say, the Manchester City of my field... but as it's the United it is the greatest opportunity i will ever come across. Even though i don't see myself working in industry afterwards i believe it would actually help me to get academic positions.

I hope this doesn't seem like boasting. I have never been a straight A student. I didn't get my distinction in my Masters and only a 2.i at Undergrad. So this is a complete surprise. I never thought this company would look twice at me. But my work is a little bit "out there" in it's novelty factor, and they are a very forward thinking, creative company so perhaps that's what they have seen. I tried asking how the scout came across my work (i ha

To be honest, when i was looking for a car i wasn't considering a new one either - but when it came down to it, the only way i could get a car was to pay in the region of £200 a month for a Toyota - they have their own finance arm which i guess is why they can set their own rules. I could have got a used car from them, but that was going to be in the region of £180 a month, plus a bigger deposit and the risk that the car might break down while i'm still studying and i would have to pay to fix it myself. As my new car has 5years warranty, 3 years servicing, and no MOTs for 3 years I basically don't have to pay any extras apart from petrol, tax (£0 in year 1 and only £30 this year) and insurance. Anyways, it was just a suggestion.

And although there are times when it's a bit crappy to still be considered a student there are also some advantages... for example, no liability for council tax, a young person's rail card even when you're over the age of 26 and the NUS discount to name but a few.

A lot of my friends who work in the city and are earning big sums of cash can't understand why I want to be a student living on £13 grand a year. The fact is, i'm not in it for the money, it's a great lifestyle :-) Yes there are times it's stressful, but the good days vastly outweigh the bad. I may not have huge amounts of disposable income, and i may have to live with someone who drives me insane as i can't afford the rent by myself, but in the long run it'll be worth it.

For me, the worst thing about being a student getting paid quarterly - for the most part i have enough money, but in terms when i can't teach i find myself living off baked beans at the end of the quarter :-) I have 2 kittens (sooo cute, and well worth the expense as they keep me relatively sane) but they definitely eat better than i do for the majority of the year.

If you're after big financial rewards, then doing a PhD might not be for you..... or find someone rich to support you. Although i am staunchly a feminist there has been the odd occasion when I wish that I had a rich boyfriend to take me out for a nice dinner and drinks....

Did you try Toyota? They are the *only* company that would give me a car loan, (albeit with my mother as guarantor) and i tried all of them. I got a brand new Toyota Yaris with 5 year guarantee and 3 year's servicing included for £212 a month and just my old car (worth about £300) as a deposit.

All other companies laughed at me when i attempted to organise finance "oh no, we would never finance a student" but Toyota didn't see this as a problem. Might be worth a try.