======= Date Modified 27 Apr 2009 18:39:38 =======
I was in the same situation. I worked for the hospital and here is the reply from human resource department

"According to what you explain below I can confirm that X would be entitled to work 20 hours per week during term time and full time during the vacations and 4 months after the course has ended provided that Xi has leave to remain. A letter from the college addressed to hospital is required in order to confirm that X is still studying with them, the course end date and the vacation dates"

In my understanding, if you can manage to have a letter from university saying that you finished the course, you can start working full-time. Otherwise you risk to be in trouble when applying visa later.

Don't worry. Just do it step by step.

I found the following tutorial is useful which will help you to learn


1. How to use GUI
http://blinkdagger.com/matlab/matlab-gui-graphical-user-interface-tutorial-for-beginners
- Display message on the interface rather than command line
- Get information from user
- Using callback function (what you want to do when user click on button)

2. What other options in GUI
http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/index.html?/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/creating_guis/f10-998412.html
- Learn how to display images in panel. In your case you need two panels. (Check panel component)

I think that all you need to create your program. The rest is as you said using if ... That you can do after you learn how to display two images.

It's quite simple what you want to do. You can do that using GUI programming in Matlab. Please read it up if you haven't.

How you determine matched or no-matched. Do you need Matlab to do that (i.e comparing images) or you have that already with your series of images.

Anyway, if you explain in detail what you want to do (with examples) I might put up something for you.

Lara,

How was it going? Please update. I keep checking website now and then to see your post :p

I used Syncback for WinXp

http://www.download.com/SyncBack/3000-2242_4-10413802.html

When ever I told someone about the advantages of Latex, they always said to me: But Word can do the same. Yes Word can do but it would take a lot longer and the output looks horrible. Try to compare between a thesis with Word and Latex, you can see a big difference.

I would say, spend a day or two and learn Latex you will never regret. I find latex is very convenient for a big file as the dissertation.

1. It manage the figure, table, ref by its self. You don't have to enter figure number. I have a friend you spend nearly a week just to add one more reference in the introduction chapter because she has to edit all numbers.
2. You can work on each individual chapter and link together
3. You don't have to worry about figures. They store figure in different folder. If you need to edit figures, edit it and it will automatically show up in your docs. You don't have to edit the docs.
4. Choose a template and you will never have to worry about the format, just concentrate on your content.

Dear Lara,

Congratulations for getting all chapters done. I did check the forum since this afternoon for your post.

I reckon that it will take you almost three days to print it out (10pm Friday - 3pm Monday) which is too long for A4 printing. The worst thing about the plan is that you can not do anything else after sending it for printing and this weekend will be wasted.

Depending on where you live, you can receive A4 printing within hours. Do not confuse with poster printing. I would suspect that they require 10pm to 3mm is for poster printing. Note that poster printing requires large machine while only standard printer is required for A4. I would look around in town for printing service which can help you out. Printing 300 pages on a good printer dose not take long. The one in my department takes about 15-20 minutes.

Do your department or your college have color printing service? Is there anybody can help you with that because printing takes only half a day if all file is in pdf? For example, if you are near to my department I would offer to print it for free.

As far as I know you can also do soft-bound version for submission so printing and binding can be pretty quick. You might want to check with your university about that.

Good luck with your finishing touch.

Try latex. You will never regret it :)

you beat me on that sneaks :( I am about to write about it :D

Google Notebooks.

If you use firefox, try the Notebooks add-on. If NOT, install firefox and try it. It is very useful tool to clip information from the web.

You can use Notebooks as your paper keeping. The search function is the bonus. It will help you to search through your note.

How to use it.

Nearly all journals now offer web version of the paper. While reading through the paper, if you like any paragraph you can highlight it can send it to Notebooks (one click).

Think about it like a electronic version of your collection of notes while reading papers.

Learn how to use Latex from your first year. It will have a steep learning curve but at the end you would be more relaxed. There are so many Latex template that you can use.

There are several advantages
1. OUTPUT is much better. Your thesis looks very professional with Latex. Latex uses a separated file to manage the document style.
2. Cross references. It can not be easier. Everything is automatic. You do not have to worry about section number, figure number.
3. Update figures very easy. As long as the figure name is unchanged it will be updated automatically.
... AND MORE.

It will save you a lot of headaches.

Lara:

My supervisor told me that the best way to start writing the discussion chapter is to scan through the result sections of previous chapters. I found it quite useful to write a zero draft.

Together with what you have from emails, I think you can produce a zero chapter on time.

Glad to see that you are doing a good job. I have one question for you. I have not seen you mentioning any proofreaders. Did you send your chapters to anybody? If you have someone going through sentences and spell checking your draft, you will be more confidence to hand in for you first supervisor. I am sure it will help a lot toward the end. Remember to give your reader enough time, no one wants to read more than 100 pages at one go :).

All the best, (up)

You are in very good position to defend yourself in the viva because your results have been published. That means your research is original and you contribute to our knowledge. No examiner can challenge you about that.

For you, the most important is to put your results that you have accumulate during your PhD in there and got it in to acceptable version for viva. Think about it: an average version and completed or a polished version for few chapters and uncompleted, which one do you choose? If it not polished enough your will have some corrections to do after the viva. But if it is not completed ...

I like Joan Bolker's book very much. I agree with you about zero version, it make the writing less stressful. However, my favorite from the book is:

THE BEST DISSERTATION IS THE DONE ONE

I am glad to see you being positive again, Lara. We were worried about you.

One more thing that I think it will make you less stressful is that "It will never enough to make correction" in case you are perfectionist.

When you have a version that you think OK. Do not worry too much about polishing any more. Just send it to someone who willing to read. It does not need to be the one can give you critical comments, ie your main supervisor. That's that proofreader for and you will need their help.

I found that for some, it will never be a polished version. Believe me, if you just give them a published paper, they will have comments as it is the first version. It seems that you sup is one of them.