Public transportation in UK viewed as a complex network

In this paper we investigate the topological and spatial features of public transport networks (PTN) within the UK. Networks investigated include London, Manchester, West Midlands, Bristol, national rail and coach networks during 2011. Using methods in complex network theory and statistical physics we are able to discriminate PTNs with respect to their stability; which is the first of this kind for national networks. Moreover, taking advantage of various fractal properties we gain useful insights into the serviceable area of stations. These features can be employed as key performance indicators in aid of further developing efficient and stable PTNs.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figure

Migrant Domestics and Religious Closeness in Yemen

While the presence of Asian women working as domestics in the rich countries of the Arabian Peninsula is a well-known phenomenon, it is less known that also in Yemen a similar trend has occurred. The majority of these women come from Somalia and Ethiopia, but there are Asian women as well. Why are migrant women employed as domestics? And which role does religion play in their employment

Pioneers or Pawns? Women Health Workers in Yemen

From 1993 until 1998, Marina de Regt was employed as an anthropologist in what has been regarded as one of the most successful Dutch-financed projects in Yemen: the Hodeida Urban Primary Health Care Project in the port city of Hodeida. Working together with a group of young women who were trained as health educators (murshidat sihhiyat), she was impressed by their strength and motivation to bring about social change. Yet, gradually she also gained insight into the more ambiguous elements of their work, as their training and employment had ushered i n new forms of social control. Were the murshidat pioneers, successfully transgressing gender boundaries in Yemen, or were they pawns, deployed to realize the agendas of the Dutch donor and the Yemeni state

Shadow Places: Patterns of Spatial Concentration and Incorporation of Irregular Immigrants in the Netherlands

Summary: In Western countries, irregular immigrants constitute a sizeable segment of the population. By combining quantitative and qualitative research methods, this article describes and explains irregular immigrants’ patterns of spatial concentration and incorporation in the Netherlands. So far these spatial patterns have not been described and explained systematically, neither in the Netherlands nor elsewhere. The article shows that illegal residence is selectively embedded in the (urban) social structure in various ways. The authors argue that irregular immigrants are likely to be spatially concentrated and incorporated in similar ways in other Western countries; now and in the foreseeable future

Classificatory Theory in Data-Intensive Science: The Case of Open Biomedical Ontologies

publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticleThis is the author's version of a paper that was subsequently published in International Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Please cite the published version by following the DOI link.Knowledge-making practices in biology are being strongly affected by the availability of data on an unprecedented scale, the insistence on systemic approaches and growing reliance on bioinformatics and digital infrastructures. What role does theory play within data-intensive science, and what does that tell us about scientific theories in general? To answer these questions, I focus on Open Biomedical Ontologies, digital classification tools that have become crucial to sharing results across research contexts in the biological and biomedical sciences, and argue that they constitute an example of classificatory theory. This form of theorizing emerges from classification practices in conjunction with experimental know-how and expresses the knowledge underpinning the analysis and interpretation of data disseminated online.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)The British AcademyLeverhulme Trus