Yaning Wu

Yaning Wu

PhD student | storyteller | 🇨🇳🇺🇸🇪🇬🇰🇪🇬🇧

february 12, 2024: a week in the life

2 minute read

Published:

this week

I finally produced a complete (bad) draft of my systematic review and meta-analysis this week, as well as using the Endnote extension in Word to generate proper references (future me will be grateful). I also combed through the data I received at the end of last week, performed some simple cleaning, and investigated missing values (which are common in questionnaire data). During that process, I made a few rudimentary results figures describing the study participants, which I hope to include in my final write-up after some modifications.

next week

I want to investigate associations between my variables of interest next week and advance my understanding of the more advanced statistical methods I’ll need to conduct my main analyses. I also look forward to meeting with overseas colleagues who have collaborated with our group in the past to exchange ideas and learnings.

outside the lab

I was brave enough to sing and record Nick Drake’s beloved “Northern Sky” this week (only for myself and any poor neighbours in earshot). And I made some progress on an entrepreneurship project I co-founded with friends. Check us out here, and follow us on LinkedIn if you’d like to stay updated!

on the reading list

Logan M, Shereen A, Priyanka P, Maryan N, Zhen Ling O, Isabel-Cathérine D, et al. Nurture Early for Optimal Nutrition (NEON) participatory learning and action women’s groups to improve infant feeding and practices in South Asian infants: pilot randomised trial study protocol. BMJ Open. 2023;13(11):e063885. (Special shout-out: a new paper published by my former colleagues at Aceso Global Health Consultancy and UCL on an innovative trial in East London :))

weekly photo

IMG_7155 Happy Valentine’s Day.

about me

I’m Yaning (she/her), a PhD candidate in Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge. I am working with colleagues in the Blood and Transplant Research Unit, the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit, and NHS Blood and Transplant (England’s national blood service) to improve the safety and efficiency of voluntary whole blood donation. I’m supervised by the amazing Dr Lois Kim and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research. This is my blog about my journey through this candidature, starting from nine months before my transfer of status. Please feel free to reach out at yw645 [at] cam [dot] ac [dot] uk!

september 9, 2024: a week in the life

2 minute read

Published:

this week

I’ve begun implementing some of the feedback from my first-year assessors, which has led to somewhat drastic (though sorely needed) changes to my proposed work. Broadly, though, I’m plowing forward, and am now trying to improve the fit of some models I would like to use for a discrete-event simulation. I also found some small errors in my code for my first primary analysis, so I have been working to correct those and improve that piece of work before I attempt to adapt it for journal submission. Finally, I met with international collaborators and presented a study proposal with short notice, receiving some interesting and useful feedback!

september 2, 2024: a week in the life

1 minute read

Published:

this week

I have some news … it’s unofficial, but I appear to have passed my first-year assessment! There is a good chance that I will be permitted to continue this adventure, albeit with some changes to my project plans. What an honour to have this opportunity to keep moving forward - I will think of this ruling in the days when I am constantly plagued by the inadequacy of my work.

aug 26, 2024: a week in the life

3 minute read

Published:

this week

My mind is blown! It has been a huge week of trying to understand simulation modelling methods, and a few papers that my supervisor recently shared have been instrumental in that process. Luckily, I’m not alone - I have multiple colleagues using those methods. By Saturday (today), I’ve put together a rough draft for a Methods section of a potential thesis chapter or manuscript. I know I’ll rewrite nearly all of that section in months or years, but I’ve seen countless resources advising me to write early! I’ve also been addressing a final round of comments from two co-authors of my systematic review and meta-analysis and am somewhat heartened that this truly appears to be our final round. Finally, I’ve been saturating a printed copy of my first-year report with tiny post-its, which point out all the mistakes I’ve already found in that work, the changes I’ve since made to my study designs, and the over-ambitiousness of the timelines I originally set. My assessment is happening on Thursday, and I hope I’ll be ready …

aug 19, 2024: a week in the life

2 minute read

Published:

this week

Just on time … I submitted my poster for my Glasgow conference on Monday with a few hours to spare! I resisted the urge to place a tiny illustration of me with my polar bear near my contact details, but we’ll see whether that’ll make it onto the printed version … For the rest of the week, I planned my approach to several primary analyses using our blood donor studies, interrogated my first-year report some more, and made minor revisions to my review manuscript! My working days were a little shorter than they usually are this week as I recovered from a jarring weekend, but I’m okay with my progress.