Volume
23
No.
29
Dr. Naylor Lecture - April 9th, 2019
Dr. David Naylor: The Long Road to Precision Healthcare – With a Short Detour into AI
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Jack Poole Hall, Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre
4:00 – 5:00pm
Hosted by President Santa J. Ono
Dr. Naylor is the recipient of the 2018 Henry G. Friesen International Prize in Health Research. One of Canada’s most preeminent health scientists, he has made major scholarly and project contributions with a profound influence on health service delivery, public health and health research funding.
The Friesen Prize, established in 2005 by the Friends of Canadian Institutes of Health Research (FCIHR), recognizes exceptional innovation by a visionary health leader of international stature. The lecture will be followed by a reception.
Poster Session for STAT 450/550 - ESB Atrium March 26th, 2019 9:30AM -11:00AM
Poster Session for STAT 450 & STAT 550
When: March 26th, 9:30-11
Where: ESB Atrium - East Corridor (PME Gallery)
Instructors: Gabriela Cohen Freue, Sara Mostafavi, Estella Qi
STAT 450 and STAT 550 students have worked collaboratively on real case studies brought by researchers from other disciplines. Supervised by graduate students and instructors, STAT 450 students performed various statistical analyses to address their “client’s” questions. STAT 550 students created GitHub repositories to host R-codes, reports, and discussions, enabling an effective communication between collaborators. Results from six exciting projects are presented in this poster session.
Poster 1: Honey Bees
Collaborator: Renata S. Borba (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada)
STAT450: Candy Chow, Alice Hong, Dee Wang, Fan Wu; STAT550: Rachel Lobay, Saif Syed
To explain the effect of pathogens and parasites on honey bee colony-level traits, several bee colonies across Canada were monitored over a two-year period. Accounting for potentially confounding traits, we identify pathogens that affect economically valuable traits, such as honey production.
Poster 2 and e-station: International Experiential Learning
Collaborator: Tamara Baldwin (Office of Regional and International Community Engagement, UBC)
STAT450: Sheng Di, Xinwei Kuang, Hantao Mai, Jinfu Que; STAT550: Lucy Bellemare, Ana Cecilia Leon Morales
The Office of Regional and International Community Engagement (ORICE) at UBC conducted an online survey among alumni of their international experiential learning program to assess its long-term impact. We analyze whether the questionnaire measures the constructs of interest and visualize how well the data collected corresponds to the intended four areas of personal growth.
Poster 3: Particulate Pollution in Lavington, BC
Collaborator: Tom Caope-Arnold, Simone Runyan
STAT450: Jessie Li, Akbar Qazi, Ash Sandhu, Haihong Xie; STAT550: Glenn McGuinness, Tom Peng
The impact of the Pinnacle Renewable Energy pellet plant in Lavington, BC, on the air quality is monitored by the Ministry of Environment via a stationary monitoring station downwind of the factory and a smaller monitoring station upwind. The results from the initial analysis by the Ministry are contentious. We highlight issues with their analysis and how these potentially affect the conclusions whether the factory is a source of pollution.
Poster 4: StandUp UBC
Collaborator: Professor Guy Faulkner (School of Kinesiology, UBC)
STAT450: Sally Bagk, Tiandian Chen, Yuliyan Kopystynski, Alvin Mangaoang ; STAT550: Xinglong Li, Lin Zhang
The StandUp UBC study aims to determine the effect of standing desks on several emotional states. We show that a reduction in sitting time between the start of the intervention and three months into the intervention is associated with positive changes in some emotional states.
Poster 5: Women’s Participation in Engineering
Collaborator: Agnes d’Entremont (Instructor of Mechanical Engineering, UBC)
STAT450: Cameron Huynh, Yueyan Li, Summer Shan, Qiyu Wu; STAT550: Malvika Mitra, Yichen Zhang
The goal of the project is to assess the impact of the introduction of societal engineering disciplines on women’s participation in engineering. We analyze the proportion of females in engineering programs in US engineering schools before and after a new discipline is introduced. Our results suggest that overall female enrollment is higher after the introduction of a societal discipline. Furthermore, some traditional disciplines show increased enrollment after the introduction of certain societal disciplines.
Poster 6: Patterns in WebWork Submissions
Collaborator: Agnes d’Entremont (Instructor of Mechanical Engineering, UBC)
STAT450: Siqi Cheng, Stella Song, Qifan Tang, Ziqi Xu; STAT550: Giorgio Sgarbi, David Xu
In this project we aim to identify patterns in the usage of the online homework submission tool WebWork, and whether there is an association between these patterns and students’ final grades. From homework submissions in two engineering courses, we identify three distinct submission patterns and find evidence that students that submit homework earlier also have higher final grades.
2019 Urbino Summer School in Paleoclimatology
Scholarships from NSF for 2019 Urbino Summer School in Paleoclimatology (USSP)
10-26 July - Urbino, Italy
The 16th Urbino Summer School in Paleoclimatology (10-26 July; www.urbinossp.it/) will provide graduate students with an intensive program on reconstructing the history and dynamics of paleoclimate through an integrated series of lectures, investigations, case studies, and field and laboratory analyses.
To promote U.S. graduate student participation in this international experience, the National Science Foundation is providing support for scholarships to cover airfare, stipend, and course expenses (including lodging). Interested students in U.S. graduate programs should email a single pdf file comprised of a one-page CV and a one-page statement on how the USSP would benefit their professional development as a researcher and educator to nsfusspscholarship@gmail.com. In addition, students should request their primary adviser to email a recommendation letter directly to the above email address. Members of historically underrepresented groups are encouraged to apply.
Deadline for receipt of application materials, including recommendation letters, is 15 April 2019.
Questions about these scholarships? Please contact NSF at nsfusspscholarship@gmail.com.
UBC Emeritus College Symposium: Scholarship in the Future University - April 11 and 12, 2019
The UBC Emeritus College would like inform you of the College’s Symposium: Scholarship in the Future University, 11-12 April, Liu Institute, any parts of which you are welcome to attend. We ask that you bring the symposium to the attention of your colleagues. The symposium is being held to celebrate the recent establishment of the College, first and only one if it's kind in Canada.
To register for sessions, please follow this link: https://emerituscollege.ubc.ca/symposium2019 and click on Symposium Registration.
Employment Opportunities
3 Years Postdoctoral Position in Global Change Impact on Plankton Food Webs and Ecosystem Services
This position is part of the BMBF-funded project PlanktoSERV in the junior working group led by Dr. Cédric Meunier (https://www.awi.de/en/science/junior-groups/planktoserv.html). The aim of this project is to realistically assess the impact of global change on plankton individuals, populations, and communities, and to provide a robust understanding of future ecosystem services alterations. This project supports three PhD students and two postdocs. We are looking for a highly motivated and driven postdoc (m/f/d) with excellent analytical skills.
Planktonic organisms are at the base of aquatic food webs and, while being crucial for the functioning of ecosystems, they are particularly sensitive to environmental change. The impact global change has on planktonic food webs may in turn alter ecosystem services such as nutrient turnover, provision of food to higher trophic levels, and carbon sequestration/export. Despite the urgent need to understand and predict how global change will influence ecosystem services provided by planktonic food webs, there is still a striking lack of information on the cumulative effects of multiple drivers. Without understanding the synergistic or antagonistic effects of those stressors, it is obvious that we cannot predict alterations in ecosystem services, making it difficult to efficiently manage coastal ecosystems.
This project will realistically assess the impact of simultaneous changes in temperature, pH, and nutrients on planktonic food webs, and will provide a robust evaluation of how ecosystem services provided by plankton are and will be affected by abiotic changes. To do so, you will conduct ecological network analyses and trait-based modeling work to numerically describe changes in planktonic food webs. This will allow to (1) understand how global change affects the structure of planktonic food webs, (2) quantify alterations in interaction strengths between different components of the food web, and (3) evaluate cascading effects on ecosystem services. This work will be primarily based on extensive data collected during numerous micro- and mesocosm experiments, as well as from the unique long-term dataset of Helgoland Roads.
You will also gain supervising experience by working together with bachelor and master students, as well as with the three PhD students already working in PlanktoSERV. You will present scientific results at international conferences and will be given the opportunity to teach at Bremen University. You will also closely collaborate with the other postdoc of PlanktoSERV responsible of communicating ecological results to stakeholders and decision makers to optimize mitigation strategies.
Requirements
• PhD degree in Ecology or Aquatic Sciences
• strong experience in ecological or statistical modelling including programming skills
• profound knowledge of plankton ecology
• good publication record • strong team player skills
• strong cooperation and communication skills in English language written and oral
You are expected to develop an independent line of research targeting the sensitivity of plankton food webs to environmental drivers. You are therefore required to submit a two-pages research proposal together with the other application documents.
For further information please contact Dr. Cédric Meunier (Cedric.Meunier@awi.de, +49(4725)819-3143).
The position is limited to 3 years, expected starting date September 1st, 2019. The salary will be paid in accordance with the German Tarifvertrag des öffentlichen Dienstes (TVöD Bund), up to salary level 13. The place of employment will be Helgoland.
To apply, click here.