Manchester Metropolitan University

About: Manchester Metropolitan University is a education organization based out in Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 5435 authors who have published 16202 publications receiving 442561 citations. The organization is also known as: Manchester Polytechnic & MMU.

Aeolian processes and the biosphere

Abstract: Ravi, S., D'Odorico, P., Breshears, D. D., Field, J. P., Goudie, A. S., Huxman, T. E., Li, J., Okin, G. S., Swap, R. J., Thomas, A. D., Pelt, S. V., Whicker, J. J., Zobeck, T. M. (2011). Aeolian processes and the biosphere. Reviews of Geophysics, 49 (3).

The Wonder of Data

Abstract: The article considers the productive capacity for wonder that resides and radiates in data, or rather in the entangled relation of data-and-researcher. Wonder is not necessarily a safe, comforting, or uncomplicatedly positive affect. It shades into curiosity, horror, fascination, disgust, and monstrosity. But the price paid for the ruin caused—to epistemic certainty or the comforts of a well-wrought coding scheme—is, after Massumi (2002, p. 19), the privilege of a headache. Not the answer to a question, but the astute crafting of a problem and a challenge: what next?

Crowdsourcing for climate and atmospheric sciences: current status and future potential

Abstract: Crowdsourcing is traditionally defined as obtaining data or information by enlisting the services of a (potentially large) number of people. However, due to recent innovations, this definition can now be expanded to include ‘and/or from a range of public sensors, typically connected via the Internet.’ A large and increasing amount of data is now being obtained from a huge variety of non-traditional sources – from smart phone sensors to amateur weather stations to canvassing members of the public. Some disciplines (e.g. astrophysics, ecology) are already utilizing crowdsourcing techniques (e.g. citizen science initiatives, web 2.0 technology, low-cost sensors), and while its value within the climate and atmospheric science disciplines is still relatively unexplored, it is beginning to show promise. However, important questions remain; this paper introduces and explores the wide-range of current and prospective methods to crowdsource atmospheric data, investigates the quality of such data and examines its potential applications in the context of weather, climate and society. It is clear that crowdsourcing is already a valuable tool for engaging the public, and if appropriate validation and quality control procedures are adopted and implemented, it has much potential to provide a valuable source of high temporal and spatial resolution, real-time data, especially in regions where few observations currently exist, thereby adding value to science, technology and society.

Mundane mobilities, performances and spaces of tourism

Abstract: Tourism is commonly understood as an exception or special time, a period when the normal everyday constraints are suspended: tourists are temporarily immersed in spaces of difference, free from the bounds of home and work, and may transgress their ordinary ‘appropriate’ performances. This article questions the extent to which much mass tourism is ‘extraordinary’, suggesting instead that it is more typically associated with habitual routine, cultural conventions and normative performances which circumscribe what should be gazed upon and visited, and modes of touristic comportment and recording. These conventions are also managed by the directors of the tourist product and encouraged by the production of distinct, serial forms of tourist space in which cultural differences are tamed for easy consumption. The paper argues that such forms of performance and their staging are designed to maximize comfort, a touristic desire that should not necessarily be the focus of critical scorn. On the other hand, so manag...

The subjective meaning of good sleep, an intraindividual approach using the Karolinska Sleep Diary.

Abstract: The present experiment used an intraindividual design to investigate the meaning and measurement of "good sleep" Each of 16 subjects slept in an isolation unit according to a schedule (15 sleeps) designed to give variable quality of sleep Self-rated sleep measures (from the Karolinska Sleep Diary) were obtained after each sleep and subjected to intraindividual regression analyses across time Most subjective sleep measures showed a strong covariation across conditions Subjective quality of sleep mainly involved variables of sleep continuity, in particular, perceived calmness of sleep and sleep efficiency "Sleep quality," "calm sleep," "ease of falling asleep," and ability to "sleep throughout" the time allotted strongly covaried and formed an index of sleep quality Self-rated ease of awakening deviated from the general pattern and was associated with poor sleep quality So was reported dreaming (related to awakenings) It was concluded that most subjective sleep measures tend to covary across conditions and that "good sleep" is mainly a question of sleep continuity