Category Archives: Science

Monotonic deshrinking in weighted averaging models

Posted on January 5, 2013 by

Weighted averaging regression and calibration is the most widely used method for developing a palaeolimnological transfer function. Such models are used to reconstruct properties of the past lake environment such as pH, total phosphorus, and water temperature with, it has … Continue reading →

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A new version of analogue for a new year

Posted on January 4, 2013 by

Yesterday I rolled up a new version (0.10-0) of analogue, my R package for analysing palaeoecological data. It is now available from CRAN. There were lots of incremental changes to Stratiplot() to improve the quality of the stratigraphic diagrams produced … Continue reading →

Posted in analogue, Palaeoecology, Palaeolimnology, R | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Processing sample labels using regular expressions in R

Posted on August 15, 2012 by

I am often found in possession of palaeo core data where the sample identifiers contain a core code or label plus the sample depth. Often these are things generated by colleagues who have used other software where for one reason … Continue reading →

Posted in Palaeoecology, Palaeolimnology, R | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

What’s wrong with LOESS for palaeo data?

Posted on July 24, 2012 by

Locally weighted scatterplot smoothing (LOWESS) or local regression (LOESS) is widely used to highlight “signal” in variables from stratigraphic sequences. It is a user-friendly way of fitting a local model that derives its form from the data themselves rather than having … Continue reading →

Posted in Palaeoecology, Palaeolimnology, R, Science, Time series | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Sometimes I am lost for words…

Posted on July 17, 2012 by

Following on from yesterday’s momentous announcements from UK Government and RCUK on opening up access to research outputs funded by the British tax payer, John Wiley & Sons Inc. have announced the Geoscience Data Journal in partnership with the Royal Meteorological Society, … Continue reading →

Posted in OpenAccess, Science | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Quantitative palaeolimnology: my book chapters are finally out!

Posted on April 23, 2012 by

Today I received confirmation that the delayed fifth volume in the Developments in Palaeoenvironmental Research series has been published. The book is titled Data Handling and Numerical methods, though it covers more of the latter and, IMHO, is far more interesting than … Continue reading →

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Thoughts on the proposed RCUK policy on Open Access to research outputs

Posted on April 10, 2012 by

Today is the last day of a consultation by Research Councils UK (RCUK) on its draft policy on Access to Research Outputs [PDF]. The proposals are a clear and strong statement that RCUK-funded research should be made available via open … Continue reading →

Posted in OpenAccess, Science | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Course: Analysing Palaeolimnological Data with R

Posted on April 8, 2012 by

Update: As of 18 April 2012 the course is now fully subscribed. Should you wish to be placed on a waiting list please contact Steve Juggins. Analysing Palaeolimnological Data with R 16th — 20th August 2012, University Marine Biological Station … Continue reading →

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Elsevier on Open Access part 2

Posted on March 31, 2012 by

Somehow I’m on Elsevier’s author mail-out listing and as such I received the first edition of their “Author’s Update” newsletter. Whilst nowhere near as misrepresentative of Open Access as their recent Editor’s Update issue (that I blogged about recently), it is … Continue reading →

Posted in OpenAccess, Science | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Elsevier on Open Access part 1

Posted on March 28, 2012 by

In the past few days I’ve come across two advertorials (articles or editorials if I’m being generous) from Elsevier in the context of newsletters sent to editors and authors. Here I consider the one sent to editors that Ross Mounce (@rossmounce) … Continue reading →

Posted in OpenAccess, Science | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments