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Join SORTEE: The Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

23/2/2021

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by Rose O'Dea

Peruse the website of the Inter-Disciplinary Ecology and Evolution Lab, and you will read that one of Shinichi’s mottos for this group is ‘Think like a scientist and act like one too.’ The way you interpret this motto probably depends on the way you conceptualise a scientist.
 
Perhaps you picture a scientist as someone one who uses critical thinking and rigorous methods to advance human understanding of the way the universe works. This idealised scientist works hard to form reasoned conclusions, trying to avoid the many cognitive biases and logical fallacies that they know they are susceptible to. They are intellectually humble, honest, and value constructive criticism from their peers. They do not hold tightly onto their beliefs, for they are always seeking disconfirming evidence. They are skeptical of authority and anecdote. Nullius in verba — take nobody’s word for it.
 
Or perhaps you have seen how scientists work.
 
Here at I-DEEL we think fondly of that ideal scientist. But our recent lab discussions have focussed on the messy reality of science in practice.
 
For lab meetings we’ve been reading* stories of scientists behaving badly: chasing metrics over answers, using sloppy or unvalidated methods, and ignoring inconvenient evidence. In our idealised vision of science, errors would be quickly caught and corrected. In reality, too many errors go unchecked, and too few rewards are offered for finding them. All this results in a lot of published research that is unreliable and cannot be reproduced.
 
It doesn’t have to be this way. Most scientists want to produce reliable work. They just need the training and the incentives to do so.
 
That’s why, over the last year, myself and other members of I-DEEL have been helping to from the Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. ‘SORTEE’ was launched last December, as a community-driven effort to improve the way ecological and evolutionary research is done and change the way researchers are evaluated.
 
Work is already underway to hold a virtual SORTEE meeting later this year, and you can join the growing community of nearly 500 SORTEE members by going to https://www.sortee.org/join/.
 
This brings us back to the moto ‘Think like a scientist and act like one too.’ I asked Shinichi why he chose this motto for his lab at the University of Otago, and what he originally meant by it. The answer? He wanted to capture the leap that students take when they first join a research lab: they go from memorising facts prescribed in textbooks, to generating and testing their own ideas, and finding answers to unsolved problems.
 
Now, I-DEEL is trying to use those skills to bring the messy reality of science in practice a little closer to our ideals.

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*Recent lab meeting readings:
 
Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, And Wastes Billions
By Richard Harris
https://richardharriswrites.com/
 
The Matter of Facts: Skepticism, Persuasion, and Evidence in Science
By Gareth Leng and Rhodri Ivor Leng
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-matter-of-facts-9780262043885
 
The Art of Statistics: Learning from Data
By David Spiegelhalter
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-art-of-statistics-9780241258767

Hanging on to the Edges:Essays on Science, Society and the Academic Life
By Daniel Nettle
https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/842
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Mass killing for no reason? The paradox of Soviet whaling

24/1/2021

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by Cat Vendl

To Sydney for the whales (well, that was at least one of the reasons)
In 2016, I moved to Sydney to start my PhD at the University of New South Wales. My PhD investigated the airway bacteria in whales and dolphins. Sydney is the perfect place to study whales as every year between June and October thousands of majestic humpback whales roam its coastal waters migrating to and from their breeding grounds. I have always been fascinated by whales and the elegant way they move in the water. The whales and I certainly share the excitement for their fluid habitat.

The dark side of whale research
I was quite curious to learn that the population of currently around 30,000 humpback whales passing by Sydney every year was once severely depleted. In the 1970s and 1980s only a few hundred individuals remained. The culprit was easy to spot as the industrial whaling fleets of the 20th century were infamous. However, the more I learned about the issue the more intrigued I became. It wasn’t ‘just whaling’ that almost wiped out the entire population of east Australian humpback whales. What happened there was a brutal yet surprising event in modern history that a world-leading whale expert once called ‘one of the greatest environmental crimes of the 20th century’. The culprits are long dead, but the memory of their crimes lives on.

The text below was originally published in German in Wissenschaft' (Springer Nature, German version of Scientific American). The photos are reproduced with permission from their current owner.
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Mass killing for no reason? The paradox of Soviet whaling

Japan, Norway and Iceland are the countries we usually associate with whaling. But are they really to blame for the massive decline of whale populations in the 20th century? The truth is much more complicated and includes a secret that was kept for almost 50 years.

The waters surrounding Australia and New Zealand once had thousands of migrating humpback whales. In 1961 this picture changed and all of a sudden the Southern Ocean resembled a vast aquatic desert. The shore whaling stations in NZ and Australia closed down, as most of the whales were gone. Almost 26,000 humpback whales had disappeared within 2 years and at the time the reason was unknown.
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A secret global player in whaling
The secret was revealed only in 1993 and it became public knowledge who the actual perpetrator was. In only 30 years of intensive whaling (about 1948 to 1975) the Soviet Union (USSR) had not only almost destroyed the humpback whale population around NZ and Australia, but had caught about 370,000 whales in total, mainly in the Southern Ocean. At least 180,000 of those catches were illegal.

The USSR entered industrial whaling on a large scale comparably late in 1946, when most whaling nations had already been part of the business for decades. In the same year, 15 countries came together to create the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) and the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The treaty they all signed (including the USSR), was to end the reckless whaling strategies that had significantly depleted whale populations world-wide. The purpose was not whale conservation as such, but turning commercial whaling into a sustainable industry. The treaty determined catch quotas, introduced minimum sizes for captured animals and completely banned whaling for a few particularly endangered species like the right whale.
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Breaking the treaty in silence
As it turned out, the USSR had little intention to stick to the treaty. Every season the country sent out up to 5 whaling fleets with a large factory ship at its heart. Each populated by up to about 600 crew members, the ships were like floating cities. The processing on board was highly efficient: A whale was taken to pieces within 30 min. Up to 25 smaller catchers and scout boats accompanied each factory ship. What happened to the whale depended on its species: Toothed whales, predominantly sperm whales, were turned into industrial oil and animal food. Only the meat of baleen whales, like blue and humpback whales, was used for human consumption. Their oil provided the base for margarine. A large percentage of all whale carcasses were turned into bone meal and used as fertilizer.

The number of whales killed increased every year. Catcher boats regularly caught more whales than the factory ships could process. Hence the carcasses started rotting while floating behind the catchers. As a result the flensers often stripped off only the blubber of the carcasses and threw the remains back into the ocean.
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The Soviet whaling paradox
Why did the USSR kill so many whales, even though the country had comparatively little use for their products?
The devil lies in the detail of the economic system of the USSR. Being a worker in the Soviet whaling fleet came with many privileges: Salaries were among the highest paid in any industry, due mainly to large performance bonuses. Before the start of every whaling season, the government set monthly and yearly production targets (as they did for every Soviet industry). In whaling this determined the number of whales to be caught. Production targets had to be met. If targets were not met, everyone involved expected punishment. Supervisors reported on the performance of their subordinates and if output was low, employees lost their jobs. On the other hand, if the fleets met or even exceeded the target, the government rewarded employees with generous bonuses. Motivation to meet or even exceed the production target was naturally high. The production output of the previous whaling season often set the target for the upcoming year. Yearly targets inevitably kept increasing at a greater rate. In addition, workers in the whaling industry were well-regarded in the public eye with large celebrations at their home port on their return to the USSR. Newspapers honoured the whaling crews like heroes.

​Soviet whaling was a highly subsidized industry and it quickly developed into a massive financial loss for the country. As with any other industry in the USSR, whaling was not primarily meant to provide communal profit but to show proof of the efficiency and superiority of the communist system. In the case of whaling, proof was provided by being able to kill more whales than any other nation in a relatively short time.
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Soviet whale scientists: Ridiculed and silenced
In theory, catching numbers were in accordance with the conservation status of the targeted whale populations. Almost every factory ship had scientists on board who conducted research on the whales. The scientists regularly submitted recommendations on sustainable yields to government authorities. Most of the time, their advice was ignored. A group of Soviet biologists while well aware that any opposition to the status quo would severely impact their careers, repeatedly criticised the country's whaling practices in the 1960s. One was were eventually summoned to the Minister of Fisheries in Moscow. The biologist stated that if whaling continued at the current rate there wouldn’t be any whales left for their his grandchildren. The Minister of Fisheries responded to these objections by stating that ‘Your grandchildren aren’t the ones who can remove me from my job!’
To avoid being sanctioned for breaking international law, the USSR submitted reports with falsified data to the International Whaling Commission for more than 3 decades. The true dataset was considered highly classified. Ultimately, in 1993 the Russian whale biologist, Alexey Yablokov, who had worked for the whaling industry was the first to break the silence and set off an avalanche of publications about the true nature of Soviet whaling.
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‘The greatest environmental crime of the 20th century’
The commercial whaling activities of countries like England, Denmark, Norway, USA, Japan, South Africa and Chile had already significantly depleted the majority of world-wide whale populations, before the Soviet Union started its massive whaling campaign in the late 1940s. However, the whaling activities of the USSR caused a downward spiral of many populations to the point where the Southern Ocean humpback whales and the North Pacific right whales were almost extinct. The humpback whales were lucky. They have recovered remarkably over the past decades. Their numbers are believed to have almost reached pre-whaling status. However, the North Pacific right whale is currently facing a different fate. Only a few dozens of individuals are left in the eastern North Pacific population, and they may well never recover. Dr Phillip Clapham, a world's leading expert on large whales, called the illegal whaling activities of the USSR ‘one of the greatest environmental crimes of the 20th century’.
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References:
Clapham, P. and Ivashchenko, Y., 2009. A whale of a deception. Marine Fisheries Review, 71, pp.44-52.
Clapham, P., Mikhalev, Y., Franklin, W., Paton, D., Baker, C.S., Ivashchenko, Y.V. and Brownell Jr, R.L., 2009. Catches of humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, by the Soviet Union and other nations in the Southern Ocean, 1947–1973.
Ivashchenko, Y.V., Clapham, P.J. and Brownell Jr, R.L., 2011. Soviet illegal whaling: the devil and the details. Marine Fisheries Review, 73, pp.1-19.
Ivashchenko, Y.V. and Clapham, P.J., 2014. Too much is never enough: the cautionary tale of Soviet illegal whaling. Marine Fisheries Review, 76, pp.1-22.
Rocha, R.C., Clapham, P.J. and Ivashchenko, Y.V., 2014. Emptying the oceans: a summary of industrial whaling catches in the 20th century. Marine Fisheries Review, 76, pp.37-48.
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Lab snorkeling at Little Bay

20/12/2020

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by Erin Macartney

Now that summer has officially begun, members of the I-DEEL lab spent a sunny Sunday snorkeling at Little Bay. While it was a little choppy out the back with some grey nurse sharks loitering around, we found some great sea creatures in the sheltered part of the bay, including some cuttlefish, an octopus, a moray eel, lots of colourful little fish, and some cool shimmery blue algae.
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It was a great way to welcome summer and enjoy some of Sydney’s amazing beaches right at our doorstep!
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Lab BBQ – together again!

10/12/2020

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by Losia Lagisz

After months of complete or semi-isolation, we were finally able to hold a proper i-deel lab get-together. 

We were super lucky with great wether, food and company and a new fantastic place near the campus – a small, but fancy, park near the new apartments at Newmarket. Some lab members even managed to sneak out to test a giant double super-slide in the playground behind the BBQ spot.

Thanks to Cat and Shinichi for organising, and to everybody for showing up and sharing food, drinks and stories!
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Keeping stress at bay during a PhD (and life)

20/11/2020

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by Erin Macartney

My first experience of academic related stress was at 13 when I was studying for my first high school exams. Unfortunately, I got so stressed that I couldn’t sit my exams at all. Since then, I have developed a pretty substantial toolbox of stress management techniques that I use almost on a daily basis. These were particularly useful for getting through my PhD mostly stress free. 

While some of these tools may sounds cliché, they have helped me a lot and hopefully they can help you too. 

1) Spend time on time management 

A PhD can seem like an insurmountable task, and even individual chapters can feel like a steep slope to climb. One of my main ways to make big tasks feel less overwhelming is making mountains into molehills. One way to do this is to set goals at different scales. Firstly, break your large goals (e.g., complete a PhD) down into what you want to achieve in a year (e.g., collect data for a chapter and publish a nearly complete one). The next step is to break these goals into a set of smaller milestones. For example, plan out when you want to have a finalised plan for data collection, when you expect data collection to be done by, and set a predicted date to have submitted your manuscript to a journal. After this, it is much easier to break down your days and weeks into small tasks that will help you get you to your milestones and ultimately achieve your bigger goals. 

I have found that setting these daily and weekly goals really helps me switch off at the end of the day or for the weekend by quieting that nagging back-of-the-mind voice telling me that I should be working. 

Note: Ensure that you set realistic goals otherwise you risk increasing stress. Also, life can get in the way sometimes, so don’t be afraid to be flexible and shuffle things around. 

A couple of helpful tools that can help you plan out your time: 
  • Todoist lets you plan your week as well as create to-do lists for different projects
  • Google Calendar (or any calendar): Use a calendar to plan out your milestones
  • A workflow pipeline (see Fonti’s blog post on research pipelines). Your pipeline should have tasks in each quadrant to prevent a ‘blockage’ so that you have a consistent ‘flow’ of chapters/publications

2) Work out when you work best

One of the benefits of doing a PhD is that you can work whenever works for you. Getting to know when you work best and prioritising that time is so helpful in getting the most out of your day (or night) and prevents you from forcing yourself to work hours that aren’t right for you. For example, I concentrate the best as soon as I wake up. Instead of spending my most productive hours getting ready for the day, I make a coffee and generally do some writing or analysis first thing in the morning. After lunch, my brain slows down, so this time is best for lab work. I enjoy reading in the evenings, so this is often a good time to read papers, proofread some writing, or review manuscripts. As you can see, my day doesn’t fit into standard working hours and is broken up into three segments where I can take breaks in the middle to exercise, cook meals, sit in the sun etc. This timeline won’t work for everyone, but my point is to figure out what works best for you and plan your work around that. This will hopefully prevent those hours sitting at your desk being unproductive and feeling guilty. 

3) Find what helps you relax

Everyone needs time in their day to switch off and relax without feeling guilty. Find something that helps you wind down and try to fit that into your daily schedule. This may be doing some cardio to burn off energy, spending time outdoors, watching a trashy TV show, reading a book, having a glass of wine, or mediating etc. This is important for giving yourself a chance to wind-down so you can return to work feeling refreshed. 

If you struggle to turn your brain off, try to make your space as relaxing as possible. I find using an oil burner/candle, dim lighting, and attempting to stay away from screens before bed is helpful (staying away from screens is easier said than done but using ‘bedtime’ mode is quite helpful).

These are some apps and youtube channels that you may find helpful: 
  • https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene
  • http://www.c25k.com/
  • https://zombiesrungame.com/
  • https://www.headspace.com/

4) Talk it out

Having a support network is really important for talking through problems and providing a respite from ruminating thoughts. It’s good to have a balance of friends within academia that understand what you are going through as well as friends and/or family outside of academia that can give you a different perspective. Try to make time for these relationships. 

If you feel like you want professional help or a completely objective ear, these are some options you could use: 
  • UNSW counselling service for students
  • Benestar UNSW counselling service for staff
  • Medicare covers up to 20 free sessions for a majority of psychological practitioners
  • PSS may also be an option if you meet the criteria

Just remember that stress is a normal part of life. Figuring out what tools work for you will hopefully make navigating a PhD (and life) a little bit less stressful.  

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3-MT Hacks for Zoomers

1/11/2020

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by Dony Indiarto

Research that you do interests a wider range of people than those who read research journals. - David Lindsay

In a world of short attention span, three-minute thesis (3-MT) is one way of communicating science. Scientists are expected to share their cutting-edge research into a three minutes long talk in plain language so that everyone can understand. This may seem trivial, yet preparing a 3-MT can be a journey to think and reflect on the essence of our work.

At our School (BEES), doing a 3-MT talk is compulsory for every third-year PhD student. I used to think this is as a joke. Most of us have come up with sophisticated analysis and exciting findings to share on the third year, and the School only gives us 3 minutes?!? But I was wrong! Spending a lot of time studying some niche-topics within our discipline could turn us into a 'caveman'. We may have no idea how some concepts that seem intuitive for us can make someone's forehead furrowed.

While some scientists are naturally good at sharing their research to their high-school mates at a local pub, most of us need some considerable preparation. Plus, in this unprecedented time, we have to deliver the talk virtually. Giving a 3-MT talk online may not be as exciting as standing in front of crowds, I believe there are several things we can do to spice up the talk. Here is the short-list I've gathered so far:
  1. Narration*
    1. Prepare a video-audio script (as many film students do!)
    2. Identify the highlight of your research.
    3. Tell the audience how you did it!
    4. Plan a storyline; identify the at the hook at the beginning, maybe a joke in the middle, and a punchline at the end.
    5. Identify uncommon words/jargons and replace them with layman's terms whenever possible.
  2. Voice
    1. Clear pronunciation has never been this important. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse!
    2. Adjust your microphone (adjust the freq/pitch), and do a test video call.
    3. Speak like you are in a real conversation. Humans can read better than SIRI!
  3. Slides
    1. Be comic sans' ish only when you do it by purpose, otherwise, your slides are ugly.
    2. Sync your slide with the spoken narration
    3. Cut down texts, images/animation should be self-explanatory.
  4. Presence**
    1. Maintain eye contact makes the conversation a bit more natural.
    2. Body language remains (e.g. posture and gestures)
    3. Position your camera accordingly, adjust the lighting and the background (again, a test call with friends/colleague can be helpful).

*The utmost important aspect IMHO; **Turned out to be unimportant for the judges in the previous 3-MT Aug 12, 2020.
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PS: I don't claim any of the point listed above as mine. I've collected these wise suggestions from random chats with friends and colleagues, as well as tips from the judges. All of the suggestions, of course, are subject to criticism.
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Socially Distant Science: Virtual Conferences

16/8/2020

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by Sammy Burke
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Virtual group photo taken at vISEC of conference attendees [https://www.isec2020.org/]
In June 2020, the International Statistical Ecology Conference (ISEC) moved to a virtual setting (vISEC) as a creative solution to the current travel restrictions presented by the coronavirus. Despite the challenges of a new format, the conference was a resounding success and a wonderful experience. Conference attendance soared over past conferences with more than 850 participants – a statistic attributed to the accessibility of the conference to those with limited means to travel.

Participants and organizers were connected via a Slack workspace which acted as a program guide, Q&A forum, news bulletin, presentation and discussion rooms, and even social centers for chatting over a coffee. This streamlined the user experience, allowing for easy switching between mingling and learning. While this space was available at all hours, activities such as plenary talks and pre-organized social events (including a fun trivia night) were centered around two time slots which allowed for participants in any time zone to have at least one live session they could attend. This international accommodation made the conference incredibly accessible to all.

One of the great perks of conferences is the opportunity to network and meet other researchers in a similar field from other institutions. At in-person conferences, you can naturally introduce fellow lab-members to renowned colleagues during casual interactions. At virtual conferences, you must introduce yourself to someone in a direct message or join a random call with strangers who may have already been chatting for some time. You may find yourself overthinking when the right time is to join in a conversation, or how to smoothly contrive a new connection. These mildly awkward barriers seem to decrease the amount of mingling in “public” spaces.

Time also plays a role in mingling opportunities at virtual conferences. Because participants are spread out across multiple time zones, the people with whom you can chat in real time becomes skewed to those who share your time zone. For example, if you consistently attend the conference at 6pm AEST, you are unlikely to encounter many American researchers who are awake at 4am EST. However, with direct message chat features like those in Slack, you may still be able to reach out to someone with whom you’d like to speak. This feature nearly guarantees the opportunity to ask a question of almost any speaker during the conference, where you may not have gotten the chance to see them across a crowded room at an in-person conference.

I’ve always struggled with planning a schedule at conferences because there are often multiple talks I’d like to attend which occur at the same time or in opposite areas of the conference space. Virtual conferences are the best solution for this – allowing participants to switch easily between talks by simply clicking into a different video. At vISEC, participants were able to watch every talk as they were archived for viewing after the live session ended. This accommodated an international audience, allowing those who would normally be asleep during the live session to still hear it, or to just catch some extra information, at a more convenient time.

Many successes of this conference stemmed from an effective utilization of online services. This includes the “Slack Workspace” service - a website that allows teams to organize communication platforms into channels for different topics or groups. The video communication and streaming services Zoom and YouTube were also utilized for the presentation components. The vISEC organizers generated a virtual conference hub as well as a virtual stage that mirrored a near-normal conference experience for its participants around the globe.

While the virtual conference design format arose from the unprecedented circumstances of 2020’s global pandemic, many successful aspects of this virtual conference may – and probably should – be applied to future conferences. The connectivity, accessibility, and organization were of a high caliber, as were evidenced by the conference’s large attendance and positive reception. We can only guess where this will lead the future of international conferences, and how features of this conference will shape future experiences in science research networking and collaboration.
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Unlocking animal feelings is the key to better welfare and drug discoveries

2/8/2020

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by Losia Lagisz

Just as humans, individual animals differ in their propensity to see if the glass is “half-full”, or “half-empty”. Animals cannot talk, but they can react to ambiguous situations and cues in a way that suggests expectations of a positive outcome (optimism) or expectations of a negative outcome (pessimism).

For example, when black bowl is associated with sweet food, and white bowl with bitter food, grey bowl would be an ambiguous cue. How would animals react to grey? A spatial version of this test would be placing identical bowls either on the left or right sides of a test chamber, and then checking whether an animal would approach a bowl at intermediate locations.

A “judgement bias test”, based on this phenomenon, is not only a window into animals’ inner lives, but also a potential tool for improving animal welfare and developing new psychoactive medicines. To validate this test’s potential promises, we have recently conducted two meta-analyses (both accepted in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews), collecting results of tests on animals ranging from insects to primates.

The first meta-analysis summarises studies using judgement bias assays as a measure of animal welfare (comparing animals in relatively better and relatively worse conditions/treatments), whereas the second meta-analysis synthesises studies measuring effects of various psychoactive medicines (comparing animals given the drugs to animals given placebo/no drug).

In our meta-analyses, we have shown that “judgement bias test” is valid and widely applicable measure of animal affect in both cases. However, our work has also revealed that the test is not always showing clear or large effect and it needs to be customised for specific species tested.

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Spatial ambiguity test. [Free photo from Pixabay, modified]
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Riding along the waves

5/7/2020

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by Patrice Pottier

Have you ever wondered what physical activity would suit you best? I have, several times. I tried many different sports throughout my life, but I have never been consistent with any of them. 
It was a never-ending quest to find the golden sport, until now... I finally found it! Let's talk about surfing!
 
It might sound trivial from an Australian point-of-view, as most of the population lives not far from the coast, but it's not an activity I had the chance to practice back in France. I always lived far from the coast, and jumped on a surfboard for the first time in Sydney three months ago. It was a revelation.
 
I always wanted to be a surfer. I've been skateboarding for many years when I was a teenager, and always wondered how it would feel to ride waves instead of concrete (hint: it's very different, and a surfboarding background doesn't help as much as I thought).
I really enjoyed skateboarding, but after breaking my arm, twisting my wrist, and harming my hip - it was time to move on. 
 
Surfing now feels like getting back to skateboarding, with the bonus of spending time in the Ocean. I now surf at least 4 times a week, and I feel unimaginably good after each session. It also keeps me fit, which can be challenging with the amazing food scene of Sydney 😄 
 
Most importantly, surfing helps me find a good work-life balance. Without exercising, I tend to work too much and not give enough time for myself, which, in turn, decreases my productivity at work. 
No matter how much you love your work, it shouldn't come at the expense of your mental health. Give yourself time to shut off sometimes, and do something you love! Spending time with your family and friends and giving time for your hobbies will make you happier, and this could only boost your productivity! 
Personally, after one-hour surfing in the morning, I'm ready to kick in at work! 
 
If you're interested about knowing how it feels to ride along waves, I compiled 15 tips to begin your surfing journey:

1. Find the right surfboard

​Picking up the right surfboard for you is key. As a beginner, you want to choose a surfboard with a maximum of volume to help you to catch as many waves as possible. I recommend choosing a foam surfboard ("foamie") - they are very buoyant and that's what you want to begin with! 


Surfing is hard, starting with a performance shortboard will only slow down your progress! When you'll feel the foamie is slowing down your progress, upgrade to a more traditional surfboard. Mini mals, fish, or high-volume shortboards are good picks to transition to intermediate surfing. 
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The excitement of getting a new surfboard! Here's the one I'm riding at the moment, a high-volume shortboard (6'10" - 43 litres).

2. Find the right wetsuit

​The importance of having a good wetsuit is usually underestimated but it's crucial to get a good one. Feeling cold could ruin your whole surfing experience. 

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When choosing your wetsuit, make sure it's very tight - if you sweat to get in, you're on the right track!

​I personally got a 3/2mm ultra-premium from NeedEssentials - they are great for the water temperature of Sydney in winter (but you might want to get a different one if you're in colder/warmer waters). ​

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​3. Be ready to wake up early
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Technically, you don't have to wake up early. However, surfing conditions are usually better in the morning because the wind doesn't blow much, and beaches are often less crowded. I personally enjoy going early in the morning to enjoy a prime view on Sydney's sunrises, they are invaluable! 
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Waking up early can be rewarding! Sydney has great sun rises to offer.
​​4. Don't learn all by yourself 

Aside from fun, surfing is all about technique. Without proper advice, you might end up with inappropriate habits that will be hard to get rid of. 

Surf classes are offered on most surf beaches, usually for an affordable price. If you don't want to spend money, you could also ask advice from more experienced surfers. Most will be happy to give you advice and could even become your surf buddies - don't be afraid to ask! 

​YouTube is also full of informative videos, so learning from the comfort of your couch is an option. 
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5. Learn the surfer's code

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Surfers have rules, and you must follow them to be safe, and keep others safe. 
They are pretty simple, but you might do mistakes at the beginning. Don't worry, everybody does, and you will naturally embrace the code with time.
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You will find a panel like this one on almost every surf beach.
6. Take your time and don't get tangled with the big dogs 

It is usually a good option to start your surfing experience on the white water. You can learn how to pop up and you will have a ton of fun!

When you feel bored with the white water, transition to small waves - but do not go on the peak with 4+ feet waves! 

​It could be dangerous because you will be surrounded by more experience surfers. You will make a lot of mistakes and you want to avoid being hurt, and hurt someone else. Stay on small waves as long as needed. 
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7. Get out of the crowds

 
If you can, get away from the crowded beaches of the Eastern suburbs. Catching waves will be more challenging and you have a higher chance of getting injured (especially if others don't follow the code). Therefore, less crowded beaches will allow you to progress faster in a safe environment. 
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If you can't get out of the city (e.g. in the morning before work), try not to go where everybody already is – you can find good spots few meters away.
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8. Find buddies

I've been lucky, my roommate is a good surfer. He gave me many tips, and we're now surfing buddies. To be honest, without him, I probably wouldn't find the motivation to wake up early in the morning. Both our partners also joined us in this surfing journey and we're having so much fun! 

If you have friends to go surfing with, do it - it's always funnier than on your own.
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I you don't, chat with people in the water, many would love to find buddies as well! 
​

9. Paddle, paddle, and paddle again

When you think you paddled enough, take 2 more strokes. People (including myself) usually don't paddle enough, and 2 strokes can make a real difference on your position on the wave. 

Paddling technique is also important, arch your back onto a "banana-shape", watch others, and get advice - this could drastically improve your paddling! 
​
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Here are my buddies. You can guess our excitement by the smile on our face!
10. Learn how to wipeout (and enjoy it!) 

Surfing is not all about riding waves, but also getting ridden by waves - the Ocean loves to remind us that! 
It's really important to know how to fall and keep calm under the water. Don't panic, the small waves won't hurt you if you keep calm.
​
That may sound slightly weird but, eventually, you will learn to have fun of your wipeouts. It's part of the process!
When you can, fall flat as a crêpe, as far from your surfboard as possible, and you won't get injured 😉 
​
11. Don't be afraid

Surfing comes with its dangers and you have to be mindful of the risks. However, if you play it safe (e.g. know how to fall, follow the rules), you will unlikely be injured. 
​
Don't be intimidated by the waves, they are mostly friendly, especially when you begin with small waves.
 
12. Practice, practice, practice

Surfing is hard, progress is slow, and it can be very frustrated. Even though you might spend hours not catching a single wave, do not give up! With time, you will learn how to read the waves, and your technique will improve - you will get more and more waves. The key is to spend as much time in the water as possible.
​
Sooner than you think, you'll be at the peak, and you'll realize how much you've progressed (and it feels good!)
​
13. Give time for recovery

It's a very demanding sport, and your muscles will let you know that. You will feel as sore as after a huge workout! Although you might be excited to get back in the water, it's also important to give time for your body to recover. 

​It is also a good reason to turn your early alarm off, and sleep in 😉
​
14. Be ready to change your mindset

After few weeks, you will realize your mindset changed. 

​You will never see the water in the same way. While looking at a landscape, your attention may be driven by the waves, you may imagine yourself on them. You may think about your next session at inappropriate moments or dream about surfing - it may become an addiction. However, that's an healthy one so you shouldn't worry too much.
​
15. Have fun! 

​Last but not least, have fun! That's the most important part. 

​It might not be the golden sport for you and if you're not having fun, it's not worth it. 

I love this quote by Phil Edwards: "The best surfer out there is the one having the most fun!"
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Are you ready to conquer waves? I was!
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Around meta-analysis (12): decision trees

13/6/2020

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​by Losia Lagisz
 
Get right tools for the right jobs. Surprisingly, decision trees are seldom mentioned in the context of systematic reviews / meta-analyses (I will use the latter term thereafter). An obvious application is to use decision trees to streamline screening of hundreds and thousands of publications found in online databases of academic literature.

 What are the decision trees?

​It is easiest to imagine them as a list of interlinked questions, where each answers leads you to the next appropriate questions. More formally, they are a structural representation (usually visual) of a series of decisions that have to be made. When screening literature, we need to assess each paper against all our pre-defined inclusion criteria. These criteria, expressed as a series of questions, naturally form a backbone of a linear decision tree. It is easy to build a decision tree if we break our inclusion criteria according to PICO (or similar) components of our research question. Thus, a generic decision tree for screening literature would look like this:
Picture

How to make a screening decision tree

  1. Frame your meta-analytic question in a PICO framework (or other, as relevant), then express each PICO component as a question with a negative answer leading to exclusion (e.g. “is it a study on Drosophila flies?” If answer is “yes” (or “probably”, se below) – continue to next question, if “no” – exclude and move on to a next study)
  2. You can add more general questions before the PICO-related questions. These should be questions you can usually answered very quickly, e.g. just by looking at the study title or first sentence of the abstract (e.g., “Is it an empirical study?” or “Is it a study in English?”)
  3. You can add more specific questions after the PICO-related questions. These should be questions you can usually answer after reading abstract / full text (e.g., “Is the study performed in a lab?”
  4. You will actually need two decision trees – first for screening bibliometric records (titles + abstracts + keywords), and second for screening full texts of publications (with SI, data etc., if relevant). In the first tree the positive answers do not need to be definitive (so “probably” or “maybe” is as good as “yes” – this is because there is often not sufficient information in the abstract to be sure, but if you feel that the study might be relevant, then you should be inclusive until you can be sure that the study does not meet given criterion, so just keep it until full text screening).
  5. Customise, add or remove tree elements, to make it relevant to your specific meta-analytic question and stage of screening.
  6. Even at full text screening stage, if data or details are missing, you can try to contact the study authors asking for these, before making final inclusion/exclusion decision.

​Template decision trees for two stages of screening:

Picture

Other practical tips for creating decision trees

  1. Pilot your decision trees on a sub-sample of bibliometric records AND full texts.
  2. If you screen in parallel with another person, do the piloting independently, compare the results and discuss any difficulties that arose when making decisions.
  3. You can add explanatory notes to the nodes of the decision trees, as needed, especially for tricky questions.
  4. Present your final decision trees in Supplementary Materials / Appendices of your resulting publication.

Advantages of using decision trees for screening

  1. Faster screening
  2. Less mistakes
  3. Fewer decision conflicts (if more than one person screening)
  4. Better transparency
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Created by Losia Lagisz, last modified on June 24, 2015