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A list of all the posts and pages found on the site. For you robots out there is an XML version available for digesting as well.
Pages
Hello World
Hello World
Posts
R Markdown, Jekyll, and Footnotes
Published:
I use jekyll to create my website. Jekyll converts Markdown files into the HTML that your browser renders into the pages you see. As others and I have written before, it’s pretty easy to use R Markdown to generate pages with R code and output all together. One thing has consistently eluded me, however: footnotes.
Working with Large Spatial Data in R
Published:
In my research I frequently work with large datasets. Sometimes that means datasets that cover the entire globe, and other times it means working with lots of micro-level event data. Usually, my computer is powerful enough to load and manipulate all of the data in R without issue. When my computer’s fallen short of the task at hand, my solution has often been to throw it at a high performance computing cluster. However, I finally ran into a situation where the data proved too large even for that approach.
Jekyll and HTML Widgets
Published:
I’m currently compiling a list of university-affiliated programs designed to help prepare students for graduate study in political science and assist them in the process of applying to graduate school (a labyrinthine and opaque process in many regards). Since travel costs can be a deciding factor for some students when deciding whether to apply to these programs, I thought it would be nice to also put them on a map.
Extracting UN Peacekeeping Data from PDF Files
Published:
Some coauthors and I recently published a piece in the Monkey Cage on the recent military coup in Mali and the overthrow of president Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta. We examine what the ouster of Keïta means for the future of MINUSMA, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali. One of my contributions that didn’t make the final cut was this plot of casualties to date among UN peacekeepers in the so-called big 5 peacekeeping missions .
Adding Content to an Academic Website
Published:
One thing I haven’t covered in my previous posts on creating and customizing an academic website is how to actually add content to your site. You know, the stuff that’s the reason why people go to your website in the first place? If you’ve followed those guides, your website should be professional looking and already feeling a little bit different from the stock template. However, adding new pages or tweaking the existing pages can be a little intimidating, and I realized I should probably walk through how to do so. Luckily Jekyll’s use of Markdown makes it really easy to add new content!
Customizing an Academic Website
Published:
This is a followup to my previous post on creating an academic website. If you’ve followed that guide, you should have a website that’s professional-looking and informative, but it’s probably lacking something to really make it feel like your own. There are an infinite number of ways you could customize the academicpages template (many of them far, far beyond my abilities) but I’m going to walk you through the process I used to start tweaking my website. The goal here isn’t to tell you how you should personalize your website, but to give you the tools to learn how to implement whatever changes you want to make.
Building an Academic Website
Published:
If you’re an academic, you need a website. Obviously I agree with this since you’re reading this on my website, but if you don’t have one, you should get one. Most universities these days provide a free option, usually powered by WordPress (both WashU and UNC use WordPress for their respective offerings). While these sites are quick to set up and come with the prestige of a .edu URL, they have several drawbacks that have been extensively written on.
Visualizing Police Militarization
Published:
Much has been written lately about the increasing militarization of US law enforcement. One of the most visible indicators of this shift in recent decades is the increased frequency of tactical gear and equipment worn and carried by police officers. However, this pales in comparison to images of police departments bringing armored vehicles to peaceful protests.
Counting Words in a Snap
Published:
14 pt periods. 1.05” margins. 2.1 spaced lines. Times Newer Roman. I’ve seen them all, and I’m tired of trying to catch them. So, I’ve stopped assigning papers in terms of page length and switched to word counts. Unfortunately, counting words is more time-intensive than counting pages.
Better Beamer Presentations the Easy Way
Published:
Everyone knows that Beamer makes frankly terrible presentations without a good deal of help. A well crafted Beamer presentation can be a thing of beauty, especially since you can use knitr or R Markdown to automatically generate tables and figures, but it takes a lot of work.
Checking Progress with Bash
Published:
I’m currently cleaning and wrangling a large (> 2 billion observations) dataset. Due to its size, I’m running code in batch mode on a remote cluster. Not running interactively makes it harder for me to check on my code’s progress.
Fancy Icons and LaTeX Quirks
Published:
I recently updated my CV to add my ORCiD identifier to it up top among the other places to find me online. An ORCiD is an online identifier that persists through any changes to your name, institution, or email address throughout your life.
Combining PDF Documents the Smarter Way
Published:
My previous post on combining multiple PDF files had an important caveat that things would end up in the wrong order if you had files with leading ID numbers that started at 1 and ended at 12, you’d end up with PDFs combined in the order 1, 10, 11, 12, 2, 3, …, 9.
Combining PDF Documents
Published:
How many times have you found that your institution has access to a digital version of a book you need only to discover that it comes in 15 different PDF files?
publications
Benz, A., Meier, M., Mankin, M., Unternaehrer, E., & Pruessner, J. C. (2019). The duration of the cortisol awakening pulse exceeds sixty minutes in a meaningful pattern. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 105, 187-194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.12.225
Wunsch, K., Meier, M., Ueberholz, L., Strahler, J., & Kasten, N. (2019). Acute psychosocial stress and working memory performance: the potential of physical activity to modulate cognitive functions in children. BMC pediatrics, 19(1), 271. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-019-1637-x
Meier, M., Unternaehrer, E., Dimitroff, S. J., Benz, A. B., Bentele, U. U., Schorpp, S. M., ... & Pruessner, J. C. (2020). Standardized massage interventions as protocols for the induction of psychophysiological relaxation in the laboratory: a block randomized, controlled trial. Scientific reports, 10(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71173-w
Meier, M., Wirz, L., Dickinson, P. & Pruessner, J. C. (2020): Laughter yoga reduces the cortisol response to acute stress in healthy individuals, Stress, DOI: 10.1080/10253890.2020.1766018
Meier, M., Unternaehrer, E., Schorpp, S. M., Wenzel, M., Benz, A., Bentele, U. U., ... & Pruessner, J. C. (2020). The Opposite of Stress - The Relationship Between Vagal Tone, Creativity, and Divergent Thinking. Experimental Psychology, 67(2), 150-159. https://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1618-3169/a000483
Bentele, U. U. *, Meier, M. *, Benz, A. B. E., Denk, B., Dimitroff, S., Pruessner, J. C., & Unternaehrer, E. (2021). The impact of maternal care and blood glucose availability on the cortisol stress response in fasted women. Journal of Neural Transmission. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02350-y
Benz, A. B. E., Kloker, L. V., Kuhlmann, T., Meier, M., Unternaehrer, E., Bentele, U. U., Dimitroff, S. J., Denk, B. F., Reips, U.-D., & Pruessner, J. C. (2021). Psychometrische Kennwerte einer deutschen Übersetzung des Parental Bonding Instrument. PPmP-Psychotherapie· Psychosomatik· Medizinische Psychologie. https://doi.org/10.1055/a-1503-5328
Denk, B., Dimitroff, S.J., Meier, M. et al. Influence of stress on physiological synchrony in a stressful versus non-stressful group setting. J Neural Transm (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-021-02384-2
Meier, M., Bentele, U. U., Benz, A. B., Denk, B., Dimitroff, S., Pruessner, J. C., & Unternaehrer, E. (2021). Effects of psychological, sensory, and metabolic energy prime manipulation on the acute endocrine stress response in fasted women. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 105452. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2021.105452
Benz, A. B., Gaertner, R. J., Meier, M., Unternaehrer, E., Scharndke, S., Jupe, C., ... & Pruessner, J. C. (2022). Nature-Based Relaxation Videos and Their Effect on Heart Rate Variability. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.866682
Meier, M., Haub, K., Schramm, M. L., Hamma, M., Bentele, U. U., Dimitroff, S. J., ... & Pruessner, J. C. (2022). Validation of an online version of the Trier Social Stress Test in adult men and women. Psychoneuroendocrinology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.105818
Meier, M., Lonsdorf, T. B., Lupien, S. J., Stalder, T., Laufer, S., Sicorello, M., ... & Puhlmann, L. M. (2022). Open and reproducible science practices in psychoneuroendocrinology: opportunities to foster scientific progress. Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpnec.2022.100144
Hu, X., Meier, M. & Pruessner, J. C. (2023). Challenges and opportunities of diagnostic markers of Alzheimer’s disease based on structural magnetic resonance imaging. Brain and Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.2925
Benz, A., Dimitroff, S., Jeggle, Ch. Gaertner, R., Meier, M., Unternaehrer, E., Bentele, U., Denk, B., Klink, E. & Pruessner, J. C. (2023). Increased empathic distress in adults is associated with higher levels of childhood maltreatment. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-30891-7
Gaertner, R., Kossmann, K., Benz, A., Bentele, U., Meier, M., Denk, B., Klink, E., Dimitroff, S. & Pruessner, J. C. (2023). Relaxing effects of virtual environments on the autonomic nervous system indicated by heart rate variability: A systematic review. Journal of Environmental Psychology.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.102035
Dimitroff, S., Wuerfel, L., Meier, M. (...) & Pruessner, J. C. (2023). Estimation of antibody levels after COVID-19 vaccinations: Preliminary evidence for immune interoception. Biological Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108636
Nebe, S., Reutter, M-, Baker, D., (...) Meier, M. (...) Lonsdorf, T., &, Feld, G. (2023). Enhancing precision in human neuroscience. eLife. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.85980
Meier, M., Martarelli, C.S. & Wolff, W. Is boredom a source of noise and/or a confound in behavioral science research?. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11, 368 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02851-7
Meier, M.* , Sina Kantelhardt *, Laura Gurri, Christina Stadler, Marc Schmid, Vera Clemens, Aoife O’Donovan, Cyril Boonmann, David Bürgin & Eva Unternaehrer (2024). Childhood trauma is linked to epigenetic age deceleration in young adults with previous youth residential care placements, European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 15:1, 2379144, https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2024.2379144
Meier, M., Vinkers, C. H., Pruessner, J. C., & Sep, M. S. C. (2024). Open science needs a standardized data format: Suggestions for the field of psychoneuroendocrinology.Psychoneuroendocrinology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2024.107170
