Lmst

I am a researcher at #DundeeUni and interested in health-related quality of life
#HRQoL #Psychometrics

I teach #ResearchMethodology and #ResearchMethods with a focus on #Quantitative methods.

I worked for 7yrs as a #NightshiftEditor and I am still mulling over roles in and sense of #AcademicPublishing

This is mainly a work account, but I also post #Dundee stuff such as #DunDeCofaidh and occasional #Deutsch #Svenska #Gaidhlig (👉 pure work account at BSky)

A bronze statue of a lemming from the game Lemmings looking over the top of a pillar. It hangs on to the pyramidal shaped top with its right hand, looking into the distance shielding its eyes with the left. Palm trees and other flowers like in a park or garden are visible behind. Clouds in the sky, but some blue visible as well.

It’s That Time of Year Again

Today is the last day of August, which, according to my calculations, means that tomorrow is the first day of September. Last week the kids started to go back to school and some of course started for the first time. I think the schools vary in the timetable for new arrivals and returning students, but they’re basically all operating fully from tomorrow, Monday 1st September.

Universities start back a little later, though this also varies. In Maynooth, Orientation Week (for new students) begins on September 15th, and lectures commence for all years on September 22nd, which happens to be the day of the Autumnal Equinox. My first lecture of the new academic year is on that day. I don’t know how many students I’ll have in my class yet. It’s a 4th-year class, and those students don’t register for modules until Friday 12th September, at the end of a week that begins with new students starting to enrol on Monday 8th September.

The first week of September will therefore be a bit quieter in the University than in the local schools. Next week sees a number of conferring ceremonies at which students who completed their studies with the examinations in May will receive their degrees. That includes a number of Physics students, who will graduate on Wednesday 3rd September. Unfortunately, when I tried to register to attend the ceremony, a few weeks ago, I was unable to because it was booked up so I’ll have to send my congratulations virtually. In any case, Conferring ceremonies at Maynooth are not what they used to be. Instead of the atmospheric surroundings of the Aula Maxima, they are now held in the soulless environnment of a lecture theatre. Instead of a nice buffet reception afterwards the graduates used to get, they now get a cup of tea in a paper cup and (if they’re lucky) a very small Danish pastry. It’s quite embarrassing actually. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in future, graduands were told to being their own sandwiches and a thermos flask. Anyway, a PhD student of mine will attend a conferring ceremony at the end of October. I’ll have to ensure I register on time for that one as I will be reading out the title of her thesis. Our first cohort of MSc students will graduate then too.

#AcademicYear #ConferringCeremonies #MaynoothUniversity #StartOfTerm

With a new #AcademicYear starting a pointer to a great resource aimed at #postgraduate research students, but likely useful for others as well:
https://www.dundee.ac.uk/projects/wellbeing-postgraduate-researcher-narratives

This #comic shares stories of postgraduate researchers to highlight how, where, and when to ask for support.

#AcademicChatter #DundeeUni #PGRSupport

Edit: Typo corrected

Picture of a comic cover with a a group of people looking at or in the rough direction of the viewer. They are diverse in many ways, e.g. clad differently, of different ages (although most looking young), different skin tones, at the front is someone with a wheelchair. Their picture seems to be a puzzle, with a big hand coming in and putting the last piece in the top right corner (showing the words "PGR Support"). The comic is titled "Wellbeing - Postgraduate Researcher Narratives", and branded "University of Dundee"

Loose Ends of the Academic Year…

I know most people outside academia thing university staff are on a long holiday between June and September, but that’s not the case. This week we have been trying to sort out some of the loose ends of Academic Year 2024/5 before we start on planning for 2025/6. The matters to be dealt with include undergraduate, taught postgraduate, and research posgraduate.

To start with I’ve had to mark my undergraduate repeat (resit) examinations. The grades need to be checked and uploaded before the appropriate examination board meeting next week. That will resolve a number of progression issues, as well as hopefully allowing some students to retrieve credit from their final year and thus be allowed to graduate.

Another set of tasks related to our taught MSc students. They submitted their dissertations on Monday which now need to be read and graded before another examination board (next Monday). They also have to do their presentations, which take place this Friday (15th August).

The following week, the School leaving certificate results come out, at which point we’ll start to get some idea of how many students we will have entering the first year in September.

Today I heard that my PhD student Aoibhinn, who passed her viva voce examination way back in May, has had her thesis corrections formally approved. She now has to submit a bound copy of the thesis along with an electronic version thereof by September 6th at the latest. Then her degree has to be approved by the Faculty of Science & Engineering (on September 16th) followed by Academic Council on (29th September). Assuming those formalities are observed, she can receive her doctorate at one of the conferring ceremonies at the end of October.

Another thing I heard today is that Aoibhinn has been awarded a prestigious research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation but she needs her degree certificate before she can start. That’s a stricter policy than elsewhere, but it is Germany. It’s a bit frustrating, but that particular loose end will definitely be tied soon enough, after which Aoibhinn will be off to Germany for two years. Fortunately the start date of the fellowship is flexible. Congratulations to Aoibhinn!

#AcademicYear #AlexanderVonHumboldtFoundation #AlexanderVonHumboldtStiftung #AoibhinnGallagher #BSc #MaynoothUniversity #MSc #researchPostgraduate #taughtPostgraduate #undergraduate

Nominations now open for upcoming Vegas Golden Knights school pep rally https://www.rawchili.com/nhl/135033/ #AcademicYear #August11 #BackToSchoolInitiative #ClarkCountySchoolDistrict #GoldenKnights #GoldenKnights #Hockey #NHL #Nominations #SchoolPepRally #Vegas #VegasGoldenKnights #VegasGoldenKnights #VGKFoundation

Three North Campus residence halls to undergo renovations - Lily Pace #Campus #InstagramPage #News #2030 #academicyear #active #boardoftrustees #campus #campusplans #classrooms #community #corenorth #designs #dormrooms #longrangeplan #plumbing #renovations #studentlife #TheLantern

Opinion: Five under the radar stories from this year’s campus desk - Reilly Ackermann

New #AcademicYear - New #introduction

I am interested in health-related quality of life
#HRQL #Psychometrics

I teach #ResearchMethods modules in the #DundeeUni #ProfDoc
#Interdisciplinary #RD62001 #RD62002

I convene our School's #ResearchEthics committee

My terms as academic editor of 'Quality of Life Research' come to an end, and I am mulling over roles and sense in #AcademicPublishing
#NightshiftEditor

There may be some occasional #Deutsch #Svenska #Gaidhlig and local stuff in my feed.

A bronze cast of a lemming from the computer game "Lemmings" looking directly at the viewer, left hand shading their eyes, with their right hand clinging to a pyramid-shaped stone top. In the background blurred trees that look vaguely like palms and flower beds.

Ready to breathe fire and strut my technical stuff ;-)

Added some stickers to the machine.

Let the new academic year commence!

#lecturer
#academicyear
#ict
#womeninstem

MacBook with stickers: a stray sticker from an actual apple, “assume she is technical and capable of breathing fire” by MiFare_lady, “all the cyber ladies” by Lucinda Sterk, “I void warranties with pride” by Jilles, Wiccon 2023, Angry Nerds Podcast, DIVD, “niet lullen maar patchen” and “every machine is a smoke machine if you use it wrong enough” from blinkyparts

How do we design future buildings & structures that promote environmental ethics, food justice, animal rights &human rights? Kicking of the #academicyear w/ Dartmouth
students to explore sustainable #futurefood systems & their structures (poster design: Phoebe Johannensen).

Steamy #commuterbike ride on the 1st day of the #academicyear. Hope everyone has a great day and stays cool. Will be going through 2 outfits at work today due to excessive heat. #cycling #saynotofossilfuels #readingridingresearch #WeFly #velophant

I forgot to hashtag ☝️ so #uppsala #university #uppsalauniversity #academiclife #academicceremony #academicyear #academiccelebration #phdlife #doctors

Counting sands and stars

Sandy beach

Those who go up in the mountains or just go out in the fields, now in Summer, may sit there at night and count the stars. Though both the stars in the sky and the particles of sand we may find on the beach are too numerous to count. However, there is a gigantic difference between the two.

Sand: a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles. – Sand dunes in the Idehan Ubari, Libya.

Grains of sand are tightly pressed and compacted one against the other to form a beach. Each star, on the other hand, is a world in itself. It can be separated from its nearest neighbour by trillions of miles.

Moses tells God that the Jewish nation is too burdensome for him to carry alone. Why? Because they are comparable to the profusion of stars.

Jehovah, the God of the believers used as slaves in Egypt were multiplied by the Most High and had become like the stars of the heaven in number. (Deuteronomy 1:10)

Deu 1:10-12 RNKJV YHWH your Elohim hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. (11) (YHWH Elohim of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!) (12) How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?

For Moses there was a burden so heavy as to produce weariness not because they were with many, but more because there was so much division between them. For Moses there may have been a similar problem as what we see today. We can find many people who say they love God, but look at that God in different ways and have different ways to serve Him. Some their worship is not liked by others because it goes against the rules made by God Himself.

In Christendom we may see several ‘planets’ or ‘stars’, find a massive quantity like Moses found one that he could not alone lead them. He wasn’t overwhelmed by the number of people. Rather, the problem was qualitative.

Moses implied that if the Jews were spiritually and emotionally unified – were proximate to each other, like sand – their large population would not require arduous leadership.

However, when there is a nation of people, each a star in his own right and alienated from others around him, leading them becomes nightmarish.

Jonathan Hughes, rabbi of Richmond United Synagogue calls unto his co-believers saying

As this mournful time of the Jewish year approaches in the run-up to Tisha B’Av, we need to be reminded of the Jewish togetherness that must be etched into our hearts.

One of the reasons we lost the Temple in Jerusa-lem is baseless hatred. Essentially, everyone was a ‘star’ in his own right, all the people light years away from each other.

The Torah’s clarion call is, as the Beatles would say, ‘come together’.

Indeed, the rabbis teach that every Jewish soul contains elements of every other Jewish soul that has been, is, or will be on this planet. We are one unit.

Also for our Christian community we should think about that problem of unity and remember that, our success will hinge on how connected we feel to each other. Every Christian soul (a living being) should carry in him the link to the master teacher Jeshua and as such also should contain elements of every other Christian soul.

A few months ago we already spoke about the problems of co-operating in Belgium of the different Christadelphian groups. We also had to lick our wounds of the 2013-2014 season. Such a small community, but like all other Christian communities, we did and do find human beings not able to work with each other or being afraid others would runaway with people from their group or would gain more attendance. But we should not be worrying about loosing members, but should worry about getting people closer to God.

It is also not the matter of being a star ourselves, being a gifted or highly celebrated person in the church to whom everybody looks up to, or having all the power. The power belongs to God. It’s about beginning a de-starification process and the forging of sand-like bonds of genuine fraternity. We are taking on the name of being “Brethren in Christ” and as such should be as brothers and sisters be associated for the common purpose or interest, such as to be united in Christ.

Deu 11:13-17 RNKJV And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love YHWH your Elohim, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, (14) That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. (15) And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full. (16) Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other elohim, and worship them; (17) And then YHWH’s wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which YHWH giveth you.

Israel was called to remain faithful to Jehovah, and we as those who are called by Christ Jesus are now also part of that Israel also should be faithful to Him and should not make ourselves other gods or other idols we prefer following instead of the Most High. Jeshua is the cornerstone given by God the Almighty. Though certain people may want to be mighty and do want to have more power than others, we should give ourselves to Christ and be united under him, working all together, working the soil, for the One God. some may expect certain rewards by following certain man but it will be God Who will abundantly bless the people with tokens of His goodness. A person rendering service to God with all his soul, would become an acceptable “living sacrifice” unto Him).

Rom 12:1 RNKJV I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of YHWH, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto YHWH, which is your reasonable service.

It is by the mercies of God, to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well-pleasing to God, which is our spiritual worship and a service which we are willing to share with one another, not conformed to the fashion of this world, but being transformed by the renewal of our mind, that we may learn by experience what is the will of God, what is good, and wellpleasing, and perfect (Romans 12:2).

There is the appeal for us to become co-workers, helping each other, not working against each other, or not considering each other rivals. As individual beings, planets or stars, we may be totally different, but together we are one part of the universe, just some small elements in the creation of God.

In that universe, on this globe, living in this world, we should not be part of this world but should be in unity with Christ, all going for Christ. This going for Christ demands following his instructions to go out in this world, preaching the Good News of the coming Kingdom of God. We should try to enlighten others and to take the yoke from their shoudlers by helping them to find the right path to God.

First of all we should first accept upon ourselves the yoke of heaven’s sovereignty, and afterwards accept upon ourselves the yoke of the commandments. Ceaseless we should strive to humbly accept God’s sovereignty. All that we do each day is then guided by the commitment made before at the end of the day.

Soon having a new academic year, starting a new working season, we should take the sparkles of the Summer-months with us and bring the light of the stars into the ecclesia. Without the internal core the star cannot be bright, so we too do have to have a good core. Our nucleus should have a firm duramen full of bright fire of faith. The pith of our faith should be the Biblical knowledge and our thorough frequent Bible reading and sharing this faith and Bible knowledge with each other.

We look forward to find more writers willing to write for our lifestyle magazines and bringing some interesting exhortations, which shall be able to inspire us to go further in space to go out of the darkness and see more light by even more stars which were first hidden.

We do hope we can get some more people to come to read some of our Christadelphian thoughts, to come to our meetings, showing them some more light on dark paths, showing the way unto the path into the stars

As Moses had to guide his people we also have to find guides to help us to recognise the most truthful Guide, the Bible. As brothers and sisters we should be standing ready to pick up a star, to find something in which we are good and by which we can help others. Each of us has received some talents and those talents we should use for the best. Do not waste those talents, but use them to bring people closer to God.

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Preceding posting:

Belgian Christadelphians 2013 & 2014 in review

A man from the North wanting to have control in Belgium

Delay in publications because attack from outside

Preparation for unity

Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #14 Prayer #12 The other name

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