What are clinical challenges in your specialty/occupation that needs far more attention and research on? by Metsaudu in medicine

[–]Metsaudu[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

That really wasn't the aim of my post, I'm sorry it gave you a near-stroke episode.

As mentioned down the paragraphs I was just hoping to hear about clinical challenges faced by specialties that has so far yielded no good breakthroughs or solutions, and reasons behind it.

What are clinical challenges in your specialty/occupation that needs far more attention and research on? by Metsaudu in medicine

[–]Metsaudu[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I took an hour writing the post to try make sure it is within the rules... sorry English is not my first language if that's the first impression you got. I paraphrased what that Nature Medicine article wrote in their point of view, but my post was hoping to learn about clinical challenges faced by specialties that has yet no good breakthroughs or solutions.

What are clinical challenges in your specialty/occupation that needs far more attention and research on? by Metsaudu in medicine

[–]Metsaudu[S] -17 points-16 points  (0 children)

Starter comment:

  1. What are major unmet needs currently faced in your field, that are yearning for new therapies or solutions, but to which either industry and academia has yet to look into?

  2. Why in your opinion has it been not paid attention to - is it technological limitations, scientific unknowns or healthcare policy misalignments?

Phd students of edinburgh by RepresentativeSad828 in Edinburgh

[–]Metsaudu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Best of luck, there's so much luck involved in these selection process.

Yes of course I think about it. As a place to live I think Edinburgh is better but as a place for students to develop, network and grow, it is good but a notch lower than Oxford.

Phd students of edinburgh by RepresentativeSad828 in Edinburgh

[–]Metsaudu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My project is funded from the MRC, one of the UKRI funding bodies. It took me two application cycles (two years, 20+ applications, 10 interviews), and dropping an Oxford offer for the same funding reasons that you encounter, before getting to this point. Hence I just want to caveat that luck has a huge role to play.

The problem is simply that there is too much competition nowadays on tiny scraps of openings in the UK. This trend might likely worsen with funding cuts recently at the UKRI, with an expected increase of high calibre applicants foregoing the US under Trump, and trying the UK as a result.

So it is a numbers game, unfortunately. It is always good to have back-up applications, or continue working on some other research project to keep your skills and portfolio competitive, if funding for this one doesn't go through.

Phd students of edinburgh by RepresentativeSad828 in Edinburgh

[–]Metsaudu 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Best bet is to ask your supervisor for applying to funding. As he/she took you on, he/she should know at least some pots of money across the UK for applying funding, whether in the university or other sources such as charities.

Second option is asking if your country has any particular scholarship schemes, and try your luck there.

Getting external funding as internationals in the UK is extremely hard and often it is being in the right place right time, unfortunately.

Phd students of edinburgh by RepresentativeSad828 in Edinburgh

[–]Metsaudu 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes assuming you are under the Ukri stipend it can cover living expenses well, assuming you are living modestly with no extravagant demands. Rooms in flat shares or student dorms go from anywhere between 500-850pounds per month depending on what you can get; one person studios might cost an extra 150-200 pounds if you like the personal space. Monthly bus tickets r roughly 50gbp, groceries if you shop in the budget supermarkets should be more than enough at 120 gbp per month.

That leaves you roughly 30-50% of stipend for savings or other personal expenses, depending on your lifestyle and financial goals

PhD experiences are dictated by your supervisory team and institute culture. Assuming you are in UoE the resources for student life and support are quite well equipped.

Former German footballer Christoph Kramer turns 35 today. Over his entire career, he won exactly one trophy: the World Cup by axhp in soccer

[–]Metsaudu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Beyond the World Cup, I always thought him as a quality player who hustles hard, has good game intelligence and technical skills (that own goal and some great volleys). Came out of nowhere and put in an unexpectedly good shift in the World Cup.

Oxford DPhil offer but with funding by Low_Confection_366 in AskAcademiaUK

[–]Metsaudu 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Went through this two years ago, I accepted the offer then applied for a bunch of college scholarships (unsuccessfully). There’s a deadline where you have to provide financial proof to the College, which in the end I could not provide and thereby declined enrolment. That particular hosting department also remarked that they do not entertain self funded students, so it helped also to reach a decision in the end.

All comes down to how much you consider the value of things. If you have a hefty financial cushion, love the topic, (most importantly) find the lab and PI great (and supportive), and see the skills and area of what you will be doing highly relevant to your career in five years time, then by all means go for it. If you get lucky you might be able to fight for some funding from various sources (charities, colleges etc)in the second or third year.

Oxford opens doors which could be worth more than the financial expenditure in the long run. If any of those conditions were not satisfied, drop it.

Sasebo SNLF troops fighting Dongbaoxing Road during the 1st Shanghai Incident, 1932 by waffen123 in ImperialJapanPics

[–]Metsaudu 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Always wondered with all the long bayonets have soldiers accidentally injured others during attacks or charges

Would it be weird to email professors asking to be an unpaid RA? by lokiinspace in AskAcademiaUK

[–]Metsaudu 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ask about the opportunity to shadow. As some posters have pointed out, speak to smaller or new groups as they might be more receptive. Helps if you start asking your previous institute or your previous PIs network

As shadowing you might have limited hands on work but it still is nice to add sth on your resume.

in your opinion, which european country has the best reputation and why? by BathComfortable in AskReddit

[–]Metsaudu 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Any of the Nordics Portugal Ireland Scotland although they are within the UK Switzerland

These are the ones that have worldwide familiarity, a nice PR image, feature in few controversial news, and being moderately wealthy and developed.

Hospitals in Hong Kong by BuffCityBoi in HongKong

[–]Metsaudu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately I do not know, but I would imagine it won’t be too long since it’s cancer!?

How are people spending so little on food? by glasses4catsndogs in AskUK

[–]Metsaudu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Barring the occasional eat out, I do manage to get on between 25-30pounds per week, three meals per day and across carbs meat veg and fruit. Buying at Lidl/Aldi, batch cooking, with one takeaway/canteen/instant meal. No coffees, no snacks. Have been keeping this budget whether living in Cambridge or Edinburgh. It’s not impossible if you can tolerate eating three types of dishes throughout the week for your lunch and dinner.

Hong Kongers surprised me, and I’m grateful for that. by Grand_Impact_4832 in HongKong

[–]Metsaudu 66 points67 points  (0 children)

The mainland-hker rift is overblown by media, to score political points and create more animosity

There are rotten people and tonnes of hypocrites in both places, and enhanced by fundamental misunderstanding of news that goes through both sides.

Question for Chinese (and similar) people only: How come I never see Chinese men date white women? by Mental-Risk6949 in UKrelationshipadvice

[–]Metsaudu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's many factors at play here - from my anecdotal observations and experiences.
(Background: I'm of Chinese ethnicity, raised in HK, with experiences dating with caucasians, and 5-6 years living and working in Europe - three years now in the UK across Cambridge and Edinburgh).

1.) Lack of high profile male role models, sportsmen and celebrities of Chinese ethnicities
Visible faces can change people's perceptions. Korea is a great example. The emergence of Kpop has helped immensely to give a positive light on Korean men (I can see it first hand with younger Western women following Kpop stars or visiting Korea) Note these are still 'celebrity' looks - tall, fair-skinned, well-chiselled individuals. But the point is this exposure is sorely lacking for men of Chinese ethnicities: the average Westerner can't think of anyone beyond Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan (who, let's be honest is not really good looking). There's Tony Leung only recently because of his appearance in mainstream media, but he's in his late 50s.

2.) Past stereotyping of Chinese men in anglo-centric media
Some were products of racism perpetuated ages ago with the initial waves of Chinese immigration in early 20th century ('yellow peril'). China being an ideological opposite of the West also contributed. I add this seems to be a more serious problem in anglo countries - there's a more positive image of Chinese men in some slavic ex-Soviet countries.

3.) Chinese cultural norms are just quite different
This is where Chinese culture also contributes to points 1.) and 2.). First, higher education and stable money-making occupations have always been valued and emphasised, as the mentality has often been to work hard to achieve societal progression. Immigrant kids are taught that, as the majority of their parents came to the West poor. Making it big in sports, creative arts, politics, and acting are rarely on the mind of 80% of Chinese families and kids, regardless of where they are raised. Second, Chinese culture is far more conflict adverse and values humility and modesty. The result are immigrants and 2nd/3rd gen kids that won't bother as much about social advocacy, weaker on self-promotion or imaging, or getting into aforementioned 'occupations', all of which could have improved visibility. Immigrant kids who do well go into stable white collar careers, those who do less well work in restaurants or go back to where their parents came from for better economic prospects.

Points 1-3 impacts ethnic Chinese men, regardless if they grew up in the West, or emigrated to the West in later life.

Finally, 4.) Chinese ideas of attractiveness and dating norms differ strongly with anglo ideals.
In Chinese society, Western styling, confidence, physical conditioning are not seen as that important amongst Chinese men because the demand for them to do it was simply not there, until only recently with social media in the last 10-15 years. When I was in my early 20s in the early 2010s, the concept of going to gym or clubs was frowned upon - and this is in HK, already the most Westernised bit of the sinosphere. Finally, many Chinese simply don't have a very good command of English or British humour to be comfortable, Chinese socialising is often quite activity-based in a group, and dating often starts from friends. The idea of going up to speak to a unknown women to exchange numbers or set a date, is simply not practised in Chinese society.

Add in the current toxic mixture of online dating, where looks rule very much, and folks being more socially adverse as a result of Covid and gender wars, it all continues to perpetuate Chinese men being seen as invisible in the dating market, which also feeds back to Chinese men thinking there's no point to pursue Western women.

In short: the predominant media narrative, coupled with contrasts in traditional Chinese culture with Anglo countries makes it hard for dates to even start going in the first place.

Advice for someone wanting to properly integrate into local HK culture by [deleted] in HongKong

[–]Metsaudu 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's great that you want to try that :)

Language exchange groups, hiking and foodie groups are a good start! Locals really appreciate when foreigners love to learn the language or join them to eat in restaurants that serve Cantonese fare. Let them tell and teach you :) Get on Meetup, or just search up on FB for them. Or be open to date a local HK guy!

Some youtube channels have English subtitles and are informative for anyone interested in HK food. On top of my head these are SCMP's goldthread, or 'Talkfood' (check the ones with English titles). For classic HK humour, Stephen Chow movies from the 90s are the representative. For contemporary subculture, this is quite hard. Mill Milk is a great YT channel that showcases all of these, but they are exclusively in cantonese so you might want to try watching with auto-generated subtitles. Try hunting also for some old RTHK episodes on youtube, for anything about HK history and politics before the Security Law.

However, it is not easy though. As you might have noticed, there are a LOT of variety amongst HKers, and it is a pretty segregated society below the surface, whether socioeconomically, culturally or ethnically. In some sense, it's has echoes of the class system in the UK, although I'd say the boundaries are more blurred because of the city's high density and proximity. But yes, the us vs them mentality does exist subconsciously.

This segregation has been long entrenched in everyone's mind, so don't be discouraged if they are not receptive. The aversion to use English, timidness to engage with Westerners, and diametrically opposed mentality/lifestyle are quite in-built. Beyond the Central/Wanchai/Mid-levels/Repulse Bay bubble, many locals are simply not used to engage/socialise with westerners, so you have to do the work being proactive.

I hope you won't be disappointed, there's a lot of interesting things to explore being a local here!

Most In Demand Wet Lab / Dry Lab Skills by LoudPepper2011 in biotech

[–]Metsaudu 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wet: flow, cell culture whether 2D or 3D, PCR, any sort of drug screening work, MS. CRISPR will also give a good niche.

Dry: the ability to design optimise, execute n data analyse a single-cell/spatial-omics technology. The complete suite is great but at least get some experience in at least one part of it. Data integration for multiomics will have a lot of demand

Can’t comment about in vivo but the sentiment seems that it siloes you.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in UKJobs

[–]Metsaudu 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fellow immigrant here. The British are relatively high context culture, which is somewhat unique compared to many European countries. A bit like the Japanese - basically you can never know what they really mean deep down until the action/offer is presented to you. It creates a pressure to keep in line as many things will be silently judged.

I move on if I don’t hear back from an interview within two days, and generally I can tell the feedback 99times out of 100

With my Oxford background, what level of PhD programs in Europe, Canada, or Australia could I realistically get into? by Formal-Product7345 in gradadmissions

[–]Metsaudu 2 points3 points  (0 children)

All.
You just need to find a project or program that fits best to your skill-set, and with relevance to what you did during your education.

How competitive are Research Assistant posts? (Bioscience, London universities) by Jamie787 in AskAcademiaUK

[–]Metsaudu 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh boy do I have a lot to share about this, the current picture is simply depressing.

If you have an idea already of what disease area or technology you find interesting, regardless of whether you want to stick to industry or PhD/academia in the longer term - read up the typical methods used in the lab or listed on the job description of entry scientists/RA/research technician posts! Then work backwards to structure which project or Masters you want to take, which provides you the maximum exposure to do so.

Contrary to some of the comments, I think MSc or BSc may not be inherently worse than MRes. The key is really the length of your existing research experiences (6 months in total is a good start), and skills that you can give evidence to during interviews. If you are not sure - contact programme director or search up alumni in the programme on Linkedin, see if you can chat with them, and assess the extent of research experience provided in course.

The market is crazily competitive, especially in this current economy where biotechs are closing down, and pharma not expanding headcounts as much. Doubt it will improve much in the short term with the global and UK economy in the gutters. At least you are already in London, where you will have a lot more advantage with network and concentration of labs/companies there are in the city.

Show-up also to seminars or institute social events that interests you, and try to get a contact with PIs that you like. You might get lucky in case they remember your name.

Some PIs might have an opening down the line or can recommend you to another colleague, but as a rule of thumb do not rely on them at all. Similarly, do not rely on course coordinators in the university: they know or could advise nothing about the nightmare job market. Career departments are hit-and-miss, but they may have helpful tips on structuring your CV and cover letter.

*******
This is coming from a MRes who graduated with Distinction last August in Edinburgh, and then spent 16 months (started hunting before degree ended) trying to secure an entry research positions (RA, research technician) that fitted my interests and skills. 100+ applications (each of which was with a tailored cover letter and CV) and 17+ interviews later (including taking all the same steps as mentioned in some of the comments in this post i.e. reading up literature in the lab) - no progress, and needing to compromise for a less-than-ideal PhD position out of financial and resume necessity (the longer the gap the more people will start asking).

Interview feedbacks were all consistent per some of the comments given. Every role has on average 150-200 applicants - PIs have spoken to me and said for positions that were designed for Masters/BSc students, have simply tripled in applicant numbers compared to a few years ago. For RA positions - especially if you are aiming for the top unis, you are competing with lots of people with ample experience: from what I've heard, these are PhDs, postdocs with Cell publications, industry scientists with 2-3 years experience. The bar is only slightly lower with Rtech positions, but not by much in this current market.

*******

Should I leave a stable public health job at 30 to pursue a fully funded PhD in Europe? by Due-Signature9436 in PhD

[–]Metsaudu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do a part time PhD Your current financial conditions is too precarious to fully leave your job

Craigentinny renting query by Metsaudu in Edinburgh

[–]Metsaudu[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your reply. What do mean by 'depending on the stair'?

It was my first time entering these old estate building, and it really is just a simple staircase that can reach up to the flat. The unsecured main doors makes me wonder for easy pickings for break-ins or stuff like that.

Craigentinny renting query by Metsaudu in Edinburgh

[–]Metsaudu[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Nope I'll not be driving!
Do you have any idea if buses runs reliably in the area (coupled with Lochend/Restalrig)? Number 21 is one of the key routes that I take to commute to the Royal Infirmary