april 1, 2024: a week in the life

this week

WORD COUNT REACHED! This Monday, I cut down my systematic review and meta-analysis publication draft to 4000 words, which is a common word limit set by scholarly journals (and I’m trying to identify the best one to submit to!). My thesis chapter is still mammoth, but now that I have one concise draft, I’ll be able to modify that chapter too. For the rest of the week, I expanded upon my first primary analysis of blood donor data (it may seem like I am constantly expanding those analyses, but I will only include substantive details of a small number of analyses in my final draft). For example, I looked at differences between the relationships between less and more severe versions of a risk factor and an outcome of interest. This week, I also expanded proposals for ideas I previously generated for further analyses of randomised trial data. Finally, I’ve been conducting “mini-vivas” in writing, where I imagine questions that peers and assessors might have and write down my answers. That process has helped me refine both substantive pieces of work I have produced since the beginning of this doctorate.

next week

My most important goal for next week is to wake up earlier. I have found that I enjoy focused working much more in an empty office (though I love having conversations with my colleagues in in-between periods). As I get my sleep schedule on track, I’ll continue to refine my review draft to share with a postdoc colleague and develop some more research ideas inspired by a recent immunology paper. This fortnight has allowed me to expand my disciplinary horizons and straddle applied and methodological statistical work, which has been both terrifying and liberating … I will continue in this fashion until around April 15th, when I have a slew of meetings and presentations to prepare for.

outside the lab

I had pizza for dinner with college friends at a popular place in town on Friday. And on Saturday, I met a neighbour from my MSc days! We went to the Fitzwilliam Museum and spent most of our time there in the gift shop (as I often do).

on the reading list

Brodersen T, Rostgaard K, Lau CJ, Juel K, Erikstrup C, Nielsen KR, Ostrowski SR, Titlestad K, Saekmose SG, Pedersen OBV, Hjalgrim H. The healthy donor effect and survey participation, becoming a donor and donor career. Transfusion. 2023 Jan;63(1):143-155.

weekly photo

A postcard for my visitor from said museum!

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!