LCA Training & Research Workshop

I was in Pattaya during the last 10 days to attend a 5-day training on Life Cycle Assessment and another 5 days before and after the training for a research workshop with the SEAT research project team.

LCA is one of the work packages in our interdisciplinary research project. The training was given by the LCA experts from CML, University of Leiden, who are one of our project partners. There were about 30 participants from project partner organisations, namely Bangladesh Agricultural University, University of Bergen-Belgium, Shanghai Ocean University-China, University of Copenhagen-Denmark, WorldFish Center-Malaysia, Wageningen University-Netherlands, Kasetsart University-Thailand, University of Stirling-Scotland UK, and Cantho University-Vietnam.

The research workshop before the training was more on the refining of our first paper as part of the requirements for the PhD programme at U of Stirling, and thinking of the second paper, as well as the framework of our research for the coming years. During the training period itself I was spending 4-5 hours/night to also work on this, especially on the comments of my supervisors for paper revision. And I am still working on it. I just got too tired and too sleepy at the end of the week that I had to really get some sleep or else I would have collapsed.  Thank God for His strength and provision of Bio C and Intra!

The other research workshop after the training was more on the baseline survey which the whole project would be conducting in each country (Bangladesh, China, Thailand, Vietnam) on October to November. There are still many issues related to the joint questionnaire, as all the work packages had to incorporate their questions, thus there is a need to go through the questions to make sure they are relevant, sensible, realistic, and of good quality. We had exercises on translating them into the local languages, then translating them back into English, to ensure understanding. We also practiced working on the Access database to familiarise ourselves with data handling once survey work has started.

All in all, it was a very interesting time for me, I hope for everyone as well, learning new things from both the training and the workshop. It was also a challenging time, trying to think of how the tools learned can be integrated with my background in aquaculture, at the same time how I can specifically incorporate the tools learned in my own research.

Some members of the SEAT Research Team (Photo: by Pich)

Paper deadline

Last post was in June...so obviously this means that I have been busy. Sort of. I just did not have time to post here ... what with my other blogs + FB + work ... and writing up. So now I have a deadline for my first paper. I was supposed to finish it earlier but since the deadline was moved to a later date, well I had more time to work on it - analysing, reading, writing, thinking. Also have other stuff to think about so that takes a lot of my time too. It's good to be communicating with others who are in the same boat as I am so we can share and encourage one another.

I have yet to decide which journal I should submit my paper to. So gotta start looking at them. One of the things to look at will be the impact factor of the journal. The higher the impact factor the more preferred. But maybe it is more difficult to get accepted there? Well, that depends on the quality of the paper submitted. So I hope and pray I can write a really good paper so it gets accepted easily by very good journals.

My wishlist:
1. To finish my paper and have it approved by supervisor
2. My paper to be accepted by a journal with high impact factor

Hands together in prayer ...

So wazzup?

Typical ... as a graduate research student there are times (oh just so many!) that I can say I am PHD (Piled Higher and Deeper). So this blog has not been updated for months! Lots have happened since the last post. I had done my initial field work...going to a number of provinces and meeting different stakeholders. It was a scoping exercise so there was no massive surveys. I just had a checklist of questions so the information I collected was not that massive. The detailed surveys will be done in the next phase, towards the end of the year. I am analysing the information I collected, and for the site visits I am also writing them up in report format. So far I had submitted 2 abstracts from these data, to be presented as posters in 2 conferences. I am also drafting my first paper to be submitted for publication by August. There are so many things to do, varied things, so life is never boring. And with the World Cup 2010 going on, there is a need to balance my time. I watch the matches as well especially if my favorite teams are playing. Even at 130 am here, finishing at 330 am. This also adds excitement to life here.

Blog back log

More than 3 months of back log to be blogged. But where is the time to do it? This is probably one of the things PhD students face. How to manage the time efficiently so that all things in the to do list could be ticked as done. So far in my list there are some items that have not been ticked yet, i.e. not yet done. One of them is to update my fishful existence blog. Since I came back from Stirling last mid- Dec I have been swamped with lots of work to be done. The major one in relation to my project was the preparation for the Inception Workshop in January. A 4 day workshop which entailed months of preparation ... finally it's over! But the work has just begun. Right after, trips to farms and the like. And the preparation sampling frame, timetable, contacting people, etc. Attending meetings as well where most of the stakeholders for my project were present. For the past weeks I've been listening about and looking at shrimps, tilapia, prawns, striped catfish, ponds, cages, exports, etc. Gathering information along the way. Trying to make sense of these information, in a way that they could be written later. Hmm not really later later, I know gotta write them soon. I promised my supervisors to send them regular reports of my field activities. I still have my research notebook to be filled in with my notes. I have a smaller notepad to bring to the field, and then the notes will be written on this huge research notebook. Getting into the habit of recording everything. Yes, that's right, writing by hand and not typing them into the computer.

These are tilapia swim-up fry ready to be transferred from trays (in the hatchery) to hapas in pond for the sex-reversal process. They are nursed in the hapas for 21 days, after which they reach 2-3 cm and ready to be sold to grow-out farmers.

Red tilapia grown in hapas in pond. They will be ready to be processed into fillets in a few weeks' time. Tilapia fillets are mainly exported, although some are also sold locally. I like red tilapia (pla taptim) deep fried!

Pacific white shrimp grown extensively in ponds where the cages containing tilapia are set-up. White shrimp can be grown in polyculture with river prawns in this kind of system. Feed is given to the tilapia in hapas while the shrimps and prawns in the pond survive on natural food.

Induction Day

The day after I arrived, I went to the University to attend the Induction Day, on 8 Oct. This was the reason why I really aimed to leave Bangkok not later than 6 Oct. Thank God that my visa was released on 2 Oct after submitting it on 28 Sept.

The Induction Day was for new PhD students, or postgraduate researchers in this university. It is similar to an orientation session, organized by the Stirling Graduate Research School (SGRS). There were several speakers during the whole day event, each with a different topic related to being at the university as doctoral/postgrad researchers.

I took some notes but we were also given lots of handouts such as the Postgraduate Research Student Handbook and some useful materials from vitae. Most of the talks were summaries of the topics in the handbook. So our first assignment was to read this HB. Even though we finished reading this now I know that as time goes by we will be consulting this HB once in a while whenever we need some guidelines on doing some things. The HB contains information to guide and assist us during our time as a research student at the University of Stirling, thereby enabling us to experience a smooth process of completing our degrees (hope and pray!).

During the ID coffee/tea and lunch were provided. It gave us the opportunity to talk with others. But at the start when I first arrived, nobody really talked to me. But that did not bother me much. I just told myself that I had as much right as they have to be there. Most of the back seats were taken so I had to go choose the seat on the second row from the front. Fine with me coz I prefer sitting in front anyway. I put my bags down and then went to the back to get my hot drink. I had to walk from my building to get to this venue and I was feeling a bit cold. And that time I was just recovering from my colds. So I really needed a hot drink. There were some cookies too, which was nice; some with chocolate coating and that was even nicer!

During the first coffee break the ice had somehow been broken and we started talking with each other. Eventually most of us would meet again several times in other seminar sessions we would be attending as part of our skills training as post-grad researchers. What we talked about was mostly on where we come from, what department we belong to, and what would we research on. Actually during one of the sessions, we had a brief practice of talking with our seatmate re: our research topic in a couple of sentences only.

The programme for that day was like this:

Registration; tea & coffee
Welcome to the University
Introduction to the SGRS
What is a Research Degree?
Break
Library Advice Session
Research Ethics
Lunch
Student Development & Support Services
Introduction to the generic skills development programme
Planning your Research
Break
Stirling U Student Association
Postgraduate Society
Sports Facilities

There were no questions asked of the speakers at the start. Probably we were all still tongue-tied or in awe with the information given, or things were clear enough there was no need to ask. Anyway during the Research Ethics session, I asked a question regarding conducting research abroad, in my case in Thailand. And it was because of this that during the break one student came to talk to me and introduced herself, because she would also be conducting research on the same project with me.

Later in the afternoon, during the remaining sessions, only a few of us were there. After this there was still some time before the close of office hours so I went to the Students Matriculation and Records Office to submit my photo for my ID card. There were lots of info during this day and it would take some time to digest them. But I think that I benefited from this session and I was sure glad that I was able to make it for the Induction Day! It was also one of the first opportunities here for me to really stop and think and tell myself of my new status: as a research student. This is quite a change from being employed, with different targets, time frame, pressure, challenges, and the like. So it was good to immerse myself right from day one with the knowledge that this is what I have to be and do for the next four years.

What, another blog again?

Yes, I just can't help myself! It took me quite sometime to launch this. Finally today I made up my mind to start a new one. This is due to the fact of my new status as a PhD student. So you have an idea already what types of stuff will be posted here. It will all be about what I am doing in relation to my research. Other life issues and all that will still be in my sweetcarnation blog.

During our induction day last 8 October the main thing most of the speakers emphasized was to WRITE. Start writing about anything day by day. To get into the habit of writing thoughts and insights as well as activities and what happened during the day and night. Of course the 'writing' they have in mind is the actual writing, using a pen and a notepad. So all of us have these notebooks and university diary to record things.

But for me since I am used to typing my thoughts and it is faster to 'write' my thoughts through typing, I think I will opt for an electronic diary instead. But I just have to make sure to back them all up just in case something happens. But of course my notepad remains as my able companion and I will continue to note things down there.

So I think this is enough for a first post. By this time you might be wondering about the title of my blog. Well I hope to write about it in the next post. In the meantime, gotta park now as I have a meeting with my supervisor/advisor tomorrow so I think I need to do some readings and organizing my thoughts.