{Re-advertisement, following withdrawal of candidate}
The Community Health Sciences Division of the University of Edinburgh is
pleased to be able to offer a +3 ESRC Quota Awards Studentship for 2008.
Our output category is "Statistics, Methods and Computing". Three
proposed projects are currently being advertised under this scheme and
are listed below. However, other projects that fall within this area of
research may also be possible. Please forward to any potential
candidates. The application deadline is the 23rd April 2008.
*Application Guidelines*:
One full time (+3) ESRC PhD Studentship is available in Community Health
Sciences in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. The
successful applicant will join a thriving postgraduate research
environment with expertise in public health and related fields. A
choice of three projects are on offer. Applicants must be UK/EU
nationals and should have a good honours degree and postgraduate
qualification in a relevant subject. The studentship covers tuition
fees and, for UK nationals only, provides a stipend of £12,600 per annum
(3 year maximum). Further guidelines on eligibility can be found at:
http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/opportunities/postgraduate/
*Deadline*: Wednesday, 23rd April
*Interviews:* Week beginning 28th April, by telephone where necessary
*To apply:*
Please submit the following:
* A completed Application Form
* Two Academic References
* A recent CV
* Degree/Transcript copies
* An indication of the project (or projects) for which application
is being made, and /for each/ a statement of your interest in that
project & the reason you have selected it. (If you are selecting
more than one project please state your preference.)
(Forms available from
http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/applications/)
Applications should be sent to:
Sarah McAllister
Postgraduate Administrator
Public Health Sciences
University of Edinburgh
Teviot Place
Edinburgh EH8 9AG
*Please note that late or incomplete applications will /not/ be considered.*
*All inquiries should be sent to:* [log in to unmask]
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*Project 1*
Supervisor: Dr Jackie Price
(http://www.chs.med.ed.ac.uk/people/staffProfile.php?profile=jprice)
Despite considerable efforts to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular
disease in people with type 2 diabetes by addressing known risk factors
such as smoking, hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia, vascular
disease remains the major cause of morbidity and mortality in this
population. Information is therefore required on additional underlying
risk factors which could be targeted in preventive medicine. The aim of
the proposed three-year research project is to determine the importance
of, and inter-relationship between, a wide range of different risk
factors (including psychosocial factors, biomarkers and environmental
risk factors) and both prevalent and incident cardiovascular disease in
elderly people with type 2 diabetes. The project will analyse an
extensive dataset from 1065 participants in the Edinburgh Type 2
Diabetes study (a major new study finded by the Medical Research
Council) with data on over 50 different potential risk factors (many of
which are novel to this type of analysis) and detailed cardiovascular
phenotyping (including both symptomatic and asymptomatic disease and
markers of both macrovascular and microvascular disease). There will
also be the opportunity to design and perform de novo data collection,
resulting in the collection of information on additional risk factors
and change in risk factors and disease status over time.
A particularly novel aspect of this PhD will be the ability to analyse a
wide range of psychosocial risk factors (including marital status,
education, ethnicity, employment status, occupation, social class,
deprivation, lifestyle factors such as alcohol and smoking, stress,
satisfaction with life, subjective social status, and personality) in
combination with conventional cardiovascular risk factors and novel
disease biomarkers. The PhD will compare and develop suitable
statistical model-building and testing strategies for multivariate
modelling of variation in development of mico- and macro- vascular
complications. Multiple models will be required to be developed, taking
into account the psychosocial factors listed above, both alone and in
combination with conventional cardiovascular risk factors, biomarkers
and environmental risk factors. It will also be possible for the
student to consider the impact of cognitive ability on vascular status
and to include this in their models. The PhD will involve manipulation
of different data streams, development of the relevant statistical
methods to deal with missing data, methods of data reduction and methods
for analysis of change in risk factors/ outcomes over time.
*Project 2*
Supervisor: Dr Jim Wilson
(http://www.chs.med.ed.ac.uk/people/staffProfile.php?profile=jwilson)
Genetic analysis of cardiovascular disease-related traits and
quantitative measures of physical activity in a Scottish population isolate.
The elucidation of disease mechanisms is a major goal in medicine today,
often approached through identification of the genetic factors
influencing disease risk. A better quantification of the environmental
component to risk will add significantly to our understanding, and will
drive exploration of gene by environment interactions. ORCADES is a
large (n=2000) study of the genetic and environmental risk factors for
cardiovascular and other common diseases with information on over 100
quantitatively-varying physiological, anatomical and behavioural traits
in the genetically isolated population of the Orkney Islands. This
project will focus on developing novel methods for derivation and
analysis of quantitative measures of phenotype and environment, and to
identify the genetic factors influencing phenotype and their interaction
with the environment. Specifically, image analysis techniques will be
elaborated to analyse both ultrasound images of vessels and photographs
of the retinal microvasculature. A number of quantitative measures of
physical activity, daily sleep and other behaviours will be derived from
accelerometry measurements and compared to the existing
questionnaire-derived data on socio-economic status, health behaviours
such as smoking, exercise and dietary habits, as well as medical
history, family history and chronotype. The interactions between genetic
variants, physical activity and vessel and other traits will be explored
by a variety of analyses, including estimation of heritabilities;
linkage and association analyses, and Bayesian approaches to Mendelian
randomisation. We have strong collaborations with another isolated
population in Croatia in which replication of significant findings will
be sought.
*Project 3*
Supervisor: Dr John Forbes
(http://www.chs.med.ed.ac.uk/people/staffProfile.php?profile=jfforbes)
Polarization and Health Inequalities
Health inequalities have been analysed using methods developed in
studies of the distribution of income and other socio-economic
variables. Conventional mean-based inequality indices (eg Gini
coefficient) are often employed but these may not fully capture some of
the important features and differences in the distribution of health
outcomes. This project provides an excellent opportunity to examine
the conceptual foundations and econometric applications of a new
approach to measuring differences in self assessed health and other
health outcomes using median-based polarization measures. The empirical
analysis will be based on observational and experimental data drawn from
cross-sectional and longitudinal designs.
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The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
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