Bibtax parser: Mashup no more

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Graham

Johnny Depp – Mashup by ~razorwalk on deviantART (http://razorwalk.deviantart.com/art/Johnny-Depp-Mashup-269028630). Downloaded 12 Apr 2013. labelled as free to reuse

In some (many!) posts I have talked about parsing bibtex files. Till now, I have been using PHP, Excel – in fact anything I could find that meant that I did not have to write my own software. I suppose I was producing a form of mashup.

All this seems to work but the problem of mash up is that they are just that and when you return to them, it is quite difficult to follow what you were doing, unless you are super organised which I try to be, but going back to a project seems to take a long time to work out what each part of the mash up is doing, let alone the order in which each element needs to be executed.

Returning to the Bibtex project, I finally decided to take the bull by the horns and write a parser in C++. That is probably a bit of an exagaration as I will only write a parser that can parse Bibtex to the standard I require for the project I need. So I don’t have to worry about getting everything working correctly, just as long as I can extract the relevant parts that I need.

I am part way through the development. For the first time I have really taken to C++ Standard Template Library. Not sure I fully understand it, but I understand enough to have got it working.

I am also trying to write the project as a series of classes, as I have some other ideas, beyond this project where I think I will be able to call on some of these classes. The aim, as with most Computer Scientists is to have a software framework that we are able to reuse for a variety of projects that will lead to (hopefully) that we can publish.

Is typesetting this difficult?

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Graham

Typesetting Machine: Frankfurt Book Fair 2005 by Harald Kucharek, Karlsruhe (downloaded from Google (5 Apr 2013): Labeled as free to reuse)

I am not going to name the journal, or the publisher, but I have just had a very frustrating experience.

I was fortunate enough to have a paper accepted recently and we got to the point where the journal asked me to submit the final set of files so that they could typeset the article.

The paper had quite a few tables in and the journal wanted the final submission to have the tables presented on separate pages, along with a list of the tables. Fortunately, using various latex packages it was not too difficult to do this, although not all Latex packages play nicely with each other and it does take some experimenting.

My frustration though, is what is the publisher going to do with these PDF pages, full of tables, when I also have to submit the source file (i.e. a tex file). Surely, they will construct the tables from the latex files, not use the PDF pages I have supplied?

Another thing they wanted was the text (just the text, not figures or tables) to be sent in single column, double spaced, when the paper (until now) had been two column, single spaced. Again, not that difficult to do with latex but why do they insist on it?

There were a few other things that they needed that, to me, seemed a little redundant.

I can understand that, sometimes, this level of detail might be necessary but surely if the document is written in latex then the publisher can (should) be typesetting the paper using the latex file? Asking for all this other stuff, to me, seems redundant. But then again I am not a typesetter, or a publisher, so maybe there is a good reason?

Anyhow, the important thing is that I have a journal paper accepted!

Latex Editors: WinEdt versus TeXstudio

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Graham

Latex Editor (Downloaded from Google (5 Apr 2013): Labeled as free to reuse

For more years than I care to remember I have been using WinEdt as my latex editor and, to be honest, I quite like it. It does what it says on the tin. Sometimes, it required 2-3 compiles, along with 2-3 bibliography compiles. Actually, that may not be true but I got into the habit of doing that as somebody (many years ago) told me you had to.

Recently, following a discussion with a final year undergraduate student, where I had persuaded him to change from Word to Latex (something I wish I had done during my PhD). A few days after our discussion he told me, and after consulting with his friends, that he had decided to take the plunge.

He later told me that he was using TeXStudio. I had not come across this before but I thought I would take a look. I had recently downloaded the latest version of WinEdt and, although I had bought a license for the previous version, once the trial time was up on the new version (version 7), I would have to buy a new license. This is fine, but TexStudio is free.

I am actually very impressed with TexStudio. I have not investigated all of its functionality yet (and to be fair, nor have I with WinEdt) but I like the fact that when you compile, the PDF is shown within the application, and opening the PDF file in another application is just one click away. I also like the fact that when you compile it seems to resolve everything in one pass. In WinEdt, it is possible to get question marks where the citations should appear as you needed to compile the bibliography.

Overall, I like the look/feel of TexStudio more than WinEdt and it is free to use, so I think I’ll stick with it for now.

It would be interesting to hear if anybody has a different view, or even an opposite view to mine?

What is Operations Research?

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Graham

Radar Sun Dogs

[Go direct to Uni of Nottingham post]

As well as this blog, I also contribute to a blog at The University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus.

Some of the posts I write for the University of Nottingham blog might also be of interest to a wider audience, so I decided to post a link to selective posts on this blog.

The terms Operations Research (American term) and Operational Research (European term) are used interchangeably. The discipline is also referred to as….. [read more]

If you want to see all of the posts I have linked to on this blog, I have listed them under the category UNMC R&KT.

Free online access to Journal of the Operational Research Society in April 2013

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Graham

Journal of the Operational Research Society

Please don’t miss the opportunity to access Palgrave Macmillan journals free of charge during April 2013. I specifically mention the Journal of the Operational Research Society, as I am an Associate Editor of this journal. The official announcement is as follows:

From April 1-30, 2013 Palgrave Macmillan is offering FREE online access to all its journals, including current content and available online archives.

As a member of the Editorial Team for Journal of the Operational Research Society we wanted you to be aware of this promotion, as it is a great way of introducing the journal and extending its profile. We do hope you’ll share this email and spread the word to your colleagues and contacts!

For more information about the promotion please visit: www.palgrave.com/accessallareas.

Transportation & Logistics: Dissertation Prize 2013

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Graham

Škoda Transportation

Just in case anybody is interested.

Nominations are invited for this years Dissertation Prize Competition sponsored by the INFORMS Society on Transportation Science & Logistics.This award is the oldest and most prestigious honor for doctoral dissertations in the transportation science and logistics area. The award is accompanied by a $500 honorarium for the winner. In addition, the winner and the recipient of an honorable mention (if any) each receives an 8×10 plaque announcing the award.

The following criteria will be used in judging candidate dissertations.

Fundamental contribution and originality of the ideas or methods.
Practical importance or applicability in solving important real problems.
Clarity and excellence of the exposition.

Eligible doctoral dissertations are those completed and submitted between June 1, 2012 and May 31, 2013 in the general area of transportation science and logistics.

To be considered, a dissertation must be nominated by the thesis supervisor, who should submit the following items, all electronically in Adobe PDF format:

A copy of the dissertation (in PDF),

An extended abstract (3-5 pages), separate from thesis (in PDF or MS Word), A letter of nomination from the dissertation supervisor supporting the submission and stating his/her assessment of why the thesis is worthy of the award (in PDF or MS Word), and,

A completed nomination form: TSL Dissertation Prize Nomination Form

Submissions should be sent electronically to Martine Labb, Committee Chair, at mlabbe@ulb.ac.be. The deadline for receipt of submissions is June 30, 2013. The recommendations of the judges will be announced at the INFORMS Annual Meeting during the Transportation & Logistics business meeting.

How would you like to promote your scientific paper in a five minute video

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Graham

Video Camera

[Go direct to Uni of Nottingham post]

As well as this blog, I also contribute to a blog at The University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus.

Some of the posts I write for the University of Nottingham blog might also be of interest to a wider audience, so I decided to post a link to selective posts on this blog.

AudioSlides are short, webcast-style presentations that are shown next to your article on ScienceDirect. This new format provides you with the opportunity to explain your research in your own words, helping readers to understand what your paper is about and appreciate its relevance….. [read more]

If you want to see all of the posts I have linked to on this blog, I have listed them under the category UNMC R&KT.

How academics can engage with policy

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Graham

Newnight Credit Crunch

[Go direct to Uni of Nottingham post]

As well as this blog, I also contribute to a blog at The University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus.

Some of the posts I write for the University of Nottingham blog might also be of interest to a wider audience, so I decided to post a link to selective posts on this blog.

How academics can engage with policy: 10 tips for a better conversation? [read more]

If you want to see all of the posts I have linked to on this blog, I have listed them under the category UNMC R&KT.

Periodic Table of Videos (Hydrogen – 1 – H)

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Graham

Periodic Table of Videos (Captured from http://www.periodicvideos.com/ (3 Mar 2013))

[Go direct to Uni of Nottingham post]

As well as this blog, I also contribute to a blog at The University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus.

Some of the posts I write for the University of Nottingham blog might also be of interest to a wider audience, so I decided to post a link to selective posts on this blog.

In this series, we are presenting videos from the Periodic Table of Videos (Web Site / YouTube) project.

This project shows a short video about each of the chemical elements.

This video looks at Hydrogen, which has an atomic number of 1 and the symbol H.

If you want to see all of the posts I have linked to on this blog, I have listed them under the category UNMC R&KT.

Numberphile (Statistics on Match Day)

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Graham

Screen capture of Numberphile web site (captured 24 Mar 2013)

[Go direct to Uni of Nottingham post]

As well as this blog, I also contribute to a blog at The University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus.

Some of the posts I write for the University of Nottingham blog might also be of interest to a wider audience, so I decided to post a link to selective posts on this blog.

In this series, we are presenting videos from the Numberphile Videos (Web Site) project.

This project is a colllection of videos about numbers. Thhis video is about football match statistics.

If you want to see all of the posts I have linked to on this blog, I have listed them under the category UNMC R&KT.