Russian spy in Catalonia

UseR!-2012 buzz

2012-01-29T15:38:00.000-08:00

It has been a WHILE since the last time I wrote an entry here. Nonetheless, I'm approaching to le Grande Finale of my doctorating, and this is awesome.

Finally, I have decided to go to the UseR!-2012 conference which will be hosted by Vanderbilt University of Nashville, Tennessee, on June, 12-15, 2012. I must admit that I've been dreaming to attend the conference for three years in a row, but I've never made this happen. This year, I won't let myself miss the event. Also, as still being a grad student, I can get registered for a very low fee (no, my University does not pay for that). So, I've decided to go, and I am willing to give a lighting talk about my research.

Two things to figure out till February, 29*:

format of the abstract
what to give the lighting talk about

*this is when the Early Bird registration ends

There are too many things I would like to tell the world about... I must make my choice and make the presentation really short and sweet. I hope I will find the right topic eventually within the next week or so.

In the meantime, I have come across a lovely R-user group in Barcelona. I am attending the meeting of the group on February, 8, and I must notice that it will be held in one of the most amazing Barceloan's buildings, Parc de Recerca Biomèdica. Can't wait! :-)

Confessions of a Philosophiae-Doctor-to-be

2011-12-04T06:11:00.001-08:00

I have not written to this blog since May, and the hiatus has been caused by the enormous amount of work I've got dealing with my PhD thesis. Or, being more accurate in words, the stress caused by the writing of my dissertation has hampered me from posting here. I have read a gazillion web articles and related literature (like, you know, books) speaking about how to deal with stress and stay positive. My ill attitude to dissertating has made me nervous and whiny, and, yes, you'd rather not ask me how my thesis's going, unless you're my supervisor. A common mistake my Mom always does. She sort of cares, I know, I know.

I like thinking that I'm not alone who's struggling against routine writing willing to come up with a beautiful and well-made piece of artistry aka la Thèse de Doctorat. It is supposed to boost my stocks on the job market, bring me scientific recognition, and - with some luck - make my mother admit that, yes, I can get my stuff done. Also, when booking Ryanair flights I will be able to choose a "Dr" prefix to my name. Isn't it cool to hold in your hand a boarding pass stating that it belongs to Dr. Chica Guapa ("Beautiful Chic", Spanish)?

Anyway, there are a lot of reasons out there why do we want to be (called) doctors. My grandest discovery and deception is that your optimism hits the zero point right when you are so close to the ending. That is, when you are already in the middle of writing the manuscript which is your thesis-to-be and which is narrating about all the important stuff you have discovered. The research is over, and this is the fun part, and now you have to everyday confront the rigorous reality of LaTeX formatting, proper abbreviating in your citations and arguing with your scientific advisor if you should include more sources into the bibliographical review. On the background, you also start doubting whether all of this that you've been writing has any sense at all. You wonder if anyone will ever read your work, and, in an improbable case of the occasion, will they find it boring, absurd etc. etc.

When I had just started my PhD, I was thinking that it is all about doing a fancy research, go abroad for nice whisky tasting conferences, hanging out with handsome AND smart men and choosing a proper dress for the defense of the thesis. Well, it turns out to be not exactly like this.

I don't know what I will do for living when I graduate. However, I am convinced that I will write a book, an article or at least another entry to this blog about what's really happening after you get enrolled to a PhD program. Not that is is a hell on Earth, but you'd rather be an optimist and know what you are really up to.

As a responsible Muscovite :: A clean-up for Moscow’s air

2011-05-15T12:12:00.000-07:00

Air pollution is a major problem of the Moscow city. In the last years, people have been constantly rising concerns on the topic: the smoke above the head is visible to a naked eye, and the air doesn't feel like 'fresh' when inhaling. But after the incandescent summer of 2010, when huge concentrations of toxic substances have been thrown into the atmosphere, the uneven complaints ofthe muscovutes have become clear and loud. The air is dirty, and it is obviously unhealthy.

The popular folk joke "I see what I breathe" no longer entertains the inhabitants of Moscow. Something must be done to protect the lungs and, generally, well-being of people from air pollution. However, prior to taking any measures one should study out what is actually happening in the air, and how it is interfering with health.

Scientific studies of the last decade have established the relationship between air pollution and illnesses, and it is shown that both short-term and chronic exposure to contaminants cause acute health effects. Under “effects” we understand morbidity and mortality, and the outcomes are mostly respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Above those, there is a relationship between long-term exposure to pollution and brain activity. As well, pollutants are known to cathalyse allergies, as impairing the condition of those persons who suffer from them.

Traffic, that in Moscow is severe, is a number one source of such contaminants. Scientists all over the world are involved in assessment of traffic-related air pollution. At the present moment, nearly 4 million cars circulate in the city, and the Moscow region appends some 3 million to this amount.

The most widespread pollutants are: fine particles also referred to as partictulate matter, ground-level ozone, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide. The WHO in its 2005 Air Quality Guidelines sets up the limit values for the concentrations of those pollutants, while the US’s EPA in its National Ambient Air Quality Standards also considers lead. Of those pollutants, particulate matter provoke major anxiety, because it affects people at most. It is represented by tiny particles of solid and liquid substances that are suspended in the atmosphere. Particulates are classified by size i.e. aerodynamic radius, and the smaller they are the most dangerous they get, because once inhaled they subside in the lungs and may interfere with their function. Long-term exposure to particulate matter may provoke a number of cardiovasular and respiratory diseases, and it could even be associated with lung cancer. The resting pollutants are less widespread but nonetheless they affect lungs, heart and brain, and in high concentrations might be deathful.

What could be done for reducing the burden of traffic-related air pollution? The first evident solution that comes into one's mind is: give up on cars! However, it is a totally unprobabilistic measure, especially taking into consideration Moscow's huge distances and the cold weather in winter. Moreover, the effete muscovites won’t trade their comfy cars for a dewy jogging at a chilly day.

Instead, they could opt for electric vehicles. Unlike those with the combustion engine, electric cars do not emit pollutants into the atmosphere, and they could save a penny to their owners considering the permanently increasing oil prices. The only drawback of this solution is that the global infrastructure in its current state does not provide enough charging stations for electric cars. However, according to recent news, Moscow’s energy provider JSC “MOESK” will take care of installing those stations in the city.

Another feasible solution is to use public transport when it could be used. Here the city’s govermnent should step towards the needs of its inhabitants, as increasing the quality and diverisity of means of transport. For instance, common diesel buses could be replaced by hydrogen “zero-emitting” ones, at least, partially - as done by the Transport of London.

At last, muscovites could follow the lead of their European fellows by biking instead of driving. This is not only healthier as being a fitness activity, but also a bike does not emit pollutants, and the cost of manteinance is really low. The disadvantage of biking in Moscow is that due to the climate conditions, it is pertinent for about six months when the weather is relatively warm. There exist some enthusiasts of “snow biking” i.e. riding in winter time, but this option is not sutable for all, and more, it might be traumatic. However, a random car owner could reduce the emissions of their vehicle by up to a half as switching to bike for the “suitable” six months. Not too bad.

Thanks for all of you who've kept heading till here. Do you have any suggestions on the topic?

P. S. There has been a while since the last entry here. The reason for that hiatus is that I have been busy figuring out what my research is actually about. Now, when the things are clearer than ever, I am happy to share some random knowledge I obtain. At least with myself - not to forget things. :-)

R on the iPad: what we've got so far

2010-12-26T10:23:00.000-08:00

I have just received an iPad as a Christmas present from my beloved husband. And there is a question I have already raised concerns about, that is the compatibility of R with the iOS devices. It is proven that R language is successfully compiled by the iPhone development tools, unfortunately, according to the Apple's Terms of Service, no GPL software can be acquired through the App Store. Hereby, either we have to wait till Apple modifies its TOS, or - jailbreak our iPad/iPhone. Then there is a completely described procedure of installing R on the iOS (jailbroken) devices.

Meanwhile, a web interface for R can be used since the access to internet is available: the RWeb compiles the R code once entered in a text box and returns the output on an html-page. Although the process goes a little slow, we cannot but consider the fact the plotting options are also available (as well as the year of creation of the service: 1998!)

As for Apple App Store, the only "R application" available by now is the R-Chart, the news service of the R language programming community.

However, we hope Apple would reconsider its decision over the R client for its iOS devices - due to the high and spreading demand both on R and mobility.

I personally would be very glad to receive any comments, corrections, news, updates, and hints. Happy holidays everyone!

"Oh, no!", a hint and a quiery

2010-10-25T03:57:00.000-07:00

Remember the superbook on Spatial Statistics? The guy who wrote it (co-), gave a talk in the Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya last Friday. And... your obedient servant was late there while drying here hair at home and looking for a parking spot. NB: Be punctual!

Then, I have a funky dataset of 400 obs and trying to make it more...er... vivid! The point is that I have a Mac, and my only spreadsheet application is the "Numbers" from the iWork package. As far as I know it, it saves data only in its internal format that has a ".numbers" what-a-large extension, or in ".xls". Forget the ".csv"s, ".dbf"s and all extensions you are used to. The data we don't compile, however (God bless the databases administrators!), we receive it as it is. And, if your ".csv"-data is er... laconic you could make it more vivid by making some data mining on your own and adding what you found to your set. For doing that with Mac you have to be able to open your ".csv" as a spreadsheet. You could do that using "Google Docs" by uploading the data, editing it online, and then downloading the vivid dataset as what you want. But you fully depend on your internet connection and the size of your set. Another option is that you use the R command write, save the data as an ".xls"-file, edit it in your "Numbers", then save the result as an ".xls" and read it to R as a new object. Or, if the data is big, you can download one variable, add the data to it in the corresponding order (so you don't have to further sort) and then, read the result to R and merge the two datasets by a key.

Do you have your less lamer tricks to add data to the existing dataset in R? Directly?

Thanks, and don't miss interesting talks!

Lost, lost, lost!

2010-09-24T03:57:00.000-07:00

I haven't written for a while, because my self-organising module was on vacation, i.e. out of order.

Now in September we are all seriously back to work (in Spain it is even called "Operación Setiembre", no translation needed). I have entered in a new field of research, and it is oh-so-spatial, and as far as I barely have any clue of how the spatial data is treated, I stick to a perfect-perfect-perfect book:

Here you can read it online. I have a hard copy from the University's Lib, he-he.

But my problems start when it comes to practice. As I try to install required packages to train new methods, my fancy R editor for Mac OS just hangs!!! Might be, this is due to slow internet connection at the lab, but hardly.

I need a fancier R editor for Mac OS! Any suggestions?

Use R! 2010 conference starts today

2010-07-20T01:28:00.000-07:00

I think you understand the message I try to bring home to you through this image. Though this year the majority of R users is not presented at the conference, it's a nice challenge for the upcoming paper to do some nice research with/on R, write some nice paper about it, and participate in the conference. See you there next year!

And by now all we can and should do is track this conference via internet:

user2010.org

A following strongly readable blog entry talks about the statistics of the conference through the last years, with a code provided for one to program/plot it all by oneself:

R-Chart: Analyze Online R User Conference Data

Friday weirdo

2010-07-16T02:55:00.000-07:00

Though I promised myself I would post twice a week in order to increase self-discipline and track my work flow, when it comes from words to their execution it somehow becomes incredibly hard...

Anyway, this nice and sunny Münchner Friday I would like to remind some of those who try artistic plotting with R that the whole range of colors is available by typing colors().

I did try artistic plotting and loved the following ones from the default pattern: "turquoise3", "sienna1" and "yellowgreen" (not to be mixed up with "greenyellow"!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)):

The data is taken from the Institut d'Estadistica de Catalunya (IDESCAT).

However, if defaults do not satisty your thirst for art, you can always reach all the RGB palette.

Have nice plots!

tweet with R

2010-07-01T14:27:00.000-07:00

Pals,

I cannot load the twitteR package for R. After reading this brilliant entry on "R bloggers", I crave to do something alike, but fail to set the machine up.

I have downloaded the package and tried to call it, but R doesn't give me the green light. It says:

> library(twitteR)
Loading required package: RCurl
Error: package 'RCurl' could not be loaded
Además: Mensajes de aviso perdidos
In library(pkg, character.only = TRUE, logical.return = TRUE, lib.loc = lib.loc) :
there is no package called 'RCurl'

and when I look up this RCurl (which I have no idea what does) and try to load it manually, R says:

ERROR: dependencies ‘bitops’ are not available for package ‘RCurl’
* removing ‘/Users/lyolya/RCurl’

What shall I do with that, poor stupid me???

Disclaimer

2010-06-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

As I am not able to regularly update the content here, and this blog is valuable to me, I have decided to give it a little more value by transforming it into my personal scientific monitor.

I give myself a command to publish a new entry here at least twice a week in order to see what I have learned, what I have discovered, and how the things are going on in general.

Now I am in Germany, realizing my doctoral practice in Munich. At work I deal with the proportional odds statistical model and make a lot of use of the R software and of its VGAM package in particular. Everything is new to me, due to the fact I am working with Mac since recently. This is my first Mac, and to me it's freaky! I hope I'll get over it soon, and we'll make friends.

Everybody who'll ever use VGAM for proportional odds model prease bear in mind two things:

- ...family=propodds doesn't really work; use the family=cumulative(parallel=TRUE) instead;
- while interpreting the model's summary remember that VGAM accords to the following approach:

logit[P(Y<=y|x)]=a - bx

so the coefficient's impact should be consumed with the opposite sign.

VGAM is tricky but it is a really good stuff.

Excuse me, you are a doctor of WHAT?!

2009-09-30T01:17:00.000-07:00

My work doesn't do forward these days. I dont'k now what could be a reason for it, but it surely makes me suffer. Responsible persons - I modestly rank myself among them - always start to worry about everything in advance. They tend to buy a fire extinguisher when it is burning on the other continent.

My chief is my 'friend on Facebook'. This blog's entries are transmitted there by a link. I could be caught. Nonetheless, I say firmly: I cannot concentrate on what I'm doing right now, and don't think I could even if they close me in a room with no internet access for 24 hours. Not that my recent activity is not so exciting... I'd say it's truly BORING! For me. My mind has a great problem: though I get to the core of things quite fast, I forget them faster, and I cannot perform any sistematic analysis of nothing, because my poor head just refuses to withhold everything at once. I might take this review that I am currently writing as a challenge. As I were making something that really would help me learn to systematize thing and train my memory. But, damn, it's sooooo stressing!

I must confess, sometimes I think I should give up my doctorate and go somewhere else do something else.

Somebody help me please.

Woman looks for money

2009-09-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

I´ve recently read ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ by Robert Kiyosaki, and it has changed my life. This book is a world bestseller, over 17 mln copies sold, written in 1997. However, I came across ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ before, when one of my university colleagues, now very successful young woman, brought the book to some not so exciting math class in order not to die of bore. I thumbed it, liked it but for some reasons didn’t buy it then. Why? I was too busy with things that now have less importance. I still can’t help regretting some things I did when I was younger – and some thing I didn’t.
Nonetheless, the book has fallen into my eyes again, as my beloved husband, an upcoming but very promising young investor, has bought this book in order to learn new tricks. As he has been totally captured by the power book, I couldn’t resist opening it for the second time. And it got me. Suerte que ahora sé leer en español. Luckily, now I can read in Spanish.
It made me overestimate everything I do in my life. Where do I go? What do I want to achieve? The book hasn’t driven me so far forth to know the meaning of my life and fall in Jaga, but it helps change the focus. Earlier at my Catalan class the teacher was astonished when I couldn’t respond the question what I wanted to be in life. Perhaps, she thinks one must have already made a firm choice by the age of 24. This point made was bringing me down till I read ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’. Now I still have no clue of what job I am actually made for, but whatever it is, I want to be rich.
I want to be rich not to worry about how long will my perfect-job-search take me and what will I live upon while looking for my destination. I want to be rich to have better possibilities and to be able to take independent decisions. I want to be rich to travel all over the world and get to know how people live. I want to be rich, and I have three million reasons for it.
Kiyosaki’s book is not a Holy Bible in this sense, but it helps make the first step towards one’s better life. It brings belief in yourself – something the majority of people lacks. I lacked as well. Now I think, if less gifted ones have managed it and got there, why I can’t? Oh yes, I can.
Girls (!) I know intuitively have come around this knowledge and started to make their first savings. Now two friend of mine are starting their own business and another one is about to take an important financial decision impossible without a solid primary input. Solidness of an investment is a relative term, so I talk about 20-something ones in general.
As for me, I also started making savings, but I think I must somehow hasten the accumulation process, so I need to invest. Robert teaches that I should invest. Before I didn’t ever think I was able to.
Now when I have managed to combat my fears, I do know that yes I am perfectly good for doing it. The only thing I repent is that I haven’t done it before.

How a city adherent falls in love with mountains

2009-06-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

We have just gone down the Pyrenees... My God, it was perfect!

Thanks to Gemma who'd made us a very unusual present.

Some four hours surrounded by only rocks and plants, going down along the mountain river joined by Marc, my husband... This was a revelation actually. Pass the track 70 cm wide with a rock on your right and a steep on your left. River rushes far far adown. At this moment you realize human won't ever conquer nature. Imagine you're left there alone, no touristic routes marked in colours, your mobile is out of the coverage at this virgin altitude of 1.700 m and the only living being you come across is an eagle spinning up on high. You'd better not meet him closer, right?

This moment you acknowledge the most precious thing you have is somebody by your side. Generally, in your life. This some very special body is my treasure #1, as well as the advantage of knowing how to go down and return to the city. In this manner, this climbdown is a pure delight. Landscapes are thrilling, but thrilling!

Never ever in my life I have seen nothing like this. A revolution in my head, now to early to calm down.

A Wise Note

2009-05-20T01:26:00.000-07:00

Stop judging people. Just stop doing it, and you gonna be much happier!

Sometimes we all do come across real bithes, bastards and assholes, but twice as often one tags people bad just because their way of thinking does not correlate with his.

I always tend to justify persons that hurt me or that just annoy me, but I'm not an angel myself. Thanks God, my husband is sure of the opposite!

"Some of them want to use you,
Some of them want to get used by you."

Annie Lenox was right. Just it costs so much to start treating this fact as just a fact, nothing esle. Not as a disastrous breach of justice than has happened to you.

Nonetheless, when you are a user, you treat it in I-could-not-but-do-it way. "No pasa nada," as the Spaniards say, I haven't commited any crime. This is just life.

So when you are wise enough to unfix your inflamed look and distract yourself as thinking:

Ok, today I'm used, no, say, I helped somebody, but tomorrow it will be my turn to dinner with Ms Fortune,

you gonna get calmer, richer, stronger, and feel an enormous pile of relief.

Try it. I do it, intend, as I'm still not a guru, but that helps.

Just don't think of the White Bear.

Why cows do not fly?

2009-04-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

Why don't they fly, indeed? Cuz they cannot! This answer, simple as 2×2=5, is evident. But however some cows still have not absorbed this fundamental truth and keep pretending.

Girls, not everybody was born Gisele B. Some of us, yes, have to sweep floors, dream of Prada shoes and sleep with the second best man, not with the first one.

They say it starts after 27 when she's still not arranged, and the biological clock starts telling her she can no more afford six tequilas and wake up Kate Moss the following morning.

I opine it starts earlier. One should be a bitch inborn yes. The problem is that some of us can come over this competence and pull ourselves together. Some - don't. And what's the worst of it, women lose this control with time.

I know one of my age persequting whatever-with-penis. If he is a somebody's man his price even multiplies.

Why do you think I write this pungent post? Not to demonstrate that yes I´m better and I have a man - WOW, but to complain I have to deal with this sort of women and keep my mood high while smiling to them.

Nonetheless, inner concern man could let this cheap genitals buy him once doesn´t let me keep up with "The Secret" optimistic philosophy I try to preach.

Well...

It could make me happy

2009-02-18T22:33:00.000-08:00

Today I feel... jobby.

I woke up recalling in my memory that it had been not so bad go to RT´s newsroom labour mornings/evenings/nights. I felt I lacked the feeling of that I belonged to something, and then felt a strong wish to stick to something once again. This desire hit me like an injection. Well, today I start my routine at the university reseach lab. Hope it will be great! Cuz, more or less, this is exactly the kind of job I always wanted to do.

With this shaky days full of fight with bureacracy, my own lazyness and fatigue I feel I need some spell to calm down. I can't take drugs as non-supporting them and as I do driving classes once again this time. So I stake on infusions.

My driving guru, Candy, told me there was a herb called here "Flor de vaca" (Stanhopea). It is said to have a great sedative effect without suppressing one's reactions. I'm searching for this stuff now.

I tried to practice yoga with my WiiFit, but now I have a...errrr... stumbling period in my fitness activities. I do feel guilty about it - and that's common - but however I do not restart as saying I will do it tomorrow. As we all know from James Bond's soundtrack, "tomorrow never comes".

Today I will try to find some time to re-watch "The Secret" as it might help me lift my spirit up.

Star Wars

2009-02-17T10:00:00.000-08:00

Oh no, I definately will write a book about how I was (am) coming over the Russian-Spanish bureaucracy!

You know since recently I am a doctorate student at the University of Girona, the city I live at. As the university does not pay you salary and you are quite a grown-up while studying this kind of things, I have applied for a research grant. Well, for two actually.
One is the ministry's grant and another one is of the university.

Everything went wrong from the very start. Like the Russian consulate has made me legal translations of the documents that are completely wrong, I have stepped on that way from the wrong side. I don't know, might be, I have wrong face.

I know living in a pro-NATO country for a Russian is wrong, but-but-but... We are all here. And there are loads of us. And, you know, I have seen the lists of the luckies. There are also Russian names inbetween. That automatically means if I have an error, this one is in my DNA.

They say things go the way they must. They also say your own thinking changes the order of life as you are a part of it. I tend to incline to the second point of view. Not because of having paid for changing the story a bit, but also because I'm a stubborn kind, who's self-appraisal suffers from failures like that.

The game is not yet over.

One thing that still does worry me in the middle of this autogenic optimism is that they do it easier. Less stress, less movements. Why on Earth do I have to suffer for that? But well, we, Russians, say that the neighbour's lawn is (or seems) always greener. I don't know what the luckies suffered from. And I don't want to know it.

First

2009-02-15T23:03:00.000-08:00

Hi there! Finally, I've started my non-Russian-speaking-blog.

For those, who speaks my brilliant mother tongue, I say you're always welcome at lyolya-girl.livejournal.com.

By now I live in Spain, in it's part named Catalonia. Not bad. Considering summer coming to the land. :-)

Also I'm 23, Russian and blond. Married. :-)

Well, see you here soon.

Fins aviat, amics!