Module 13 Internship

My name is Deislava Petkova. I am a last year student in Metropolitan University College in Copenhagen, Denmark. I am studying Global Nutrition and Health, specialising in Lifestyle and Health Education. This blog will follow up my 3 months experience...

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Video with internship host supervisor

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Reflecting on the learning objectives

1. Get to know and become a part of a research environment - I can deffinetely say that I have expanded my knowledge of how research is designed and conducted and furthermore I have gained practical research experience. Now I understand what does it mean to know something in theory and to actually see how it is done in practice.

I have had chance to engage in some team work with the research staff.

2. Participate in the ongoing project Satin

My first task was to familiriase myself with the clinical study protocol. I have acomplished it on mutiple ocasions. For instance, I had to read a huge stack of Standart operational procedures (SOPs) and sign each one that I have read and understoo them. I think they were about 65 procedures.

The seond taks was to have informative metings with the local project cordinator, which fortunately for me was and my supervisor Sanne. We will meet ususaly when I get new project, so ofcourse we discuss how to do the task. We also talk how the project is progressing, or often about the findings from this project and how many papers can be published in the future.

The third task was to coloborate with the project staff and project participants. I have worked closely with Sanne, the cordinator of the project, with the research assistant Karoline and other research staff, not so much with the participants though.

The fourth task was to assist with project procedure and intervention, which involved preparing forms for the visits or code data in the excel sheets. I had of cource opportunities to be present on some of the visits and to interact with the particiapnts, but not on daily basis. I was more behind the scene person:)

The final task was to develop an ability for data administration, which I believe I have acomplished.

3. Data management

My tasks involved getting insights to proper handling of research data; preparing variety of assesments tools to the project participants; collecting physical activity, dietary, sleep patterns and other quantitative data and performing data processing and statistical analysis. My main responsibility was to prepare the Actigraph accelerometers, to log the collected data in Actilife, data processing and questionnaires. Recalling step by step, I start with initialising the accelerometers, then on each device I put a label with the participant ID number and prepare log sheet. After that I go to Easy trial program and to each participant I activate the actigraph log sheet (ALS), 3 days weight dietary record (WDR) and the set of home questionnaires (HM). When the accelerometers are returned I download the physical activity data from them and then I enter the sleep periods in the software program Actilife.

4. Project managemnet

The goals for this objective were to expand theoretical knowledge about project management to practical one; to be a part of one or multiple areas of research project; to collaborate with students, dietitians, laboratory and scientific staff; to participate in the development and the maintanance of variety of project procedure and to aid with management of the project participants.

I could see now that perhaps the last 2 tasks were a bit ambisious for the period of three months, but most of the other tasks I have acomplished more or less.

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Working with Excel can be challenging

Working with Excel can be challenging. I thought I knew how to work with Excel, but in the last two months I have learned a lot of new functions and operations in Excel regarding Data proccessing. Functions, such as transposing, paste special cells, how to cut or separate text from a column or move it in another one, how to calculate days between 2 dates, using Countif function in order to summarise a status of the participants visit, such as completed, planed, etc. Currently working on large excel document, where I do coding. Entering additional columns, where I put code 1 if participants have complied with the Low calorie diet and code 0, if they have not. Then I enter all products consumed in separate columns. Aditionally I add collumns for concomitant medication, what is the main content of the medication and the dosage, I add any reported adverse events and so on. 

I am happy I have learned something new and quite practical, but it is hard work, and I am getting restless and unpatient to be done with it. :) 

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How I enter sleep data in Actilife software

Part of the Satin project procedures are for the participants to wear Actigraph accelerometers 3 times for 8 days during the Intervention period. Later when they return the accelerometers my responsibility is to download the data in a folder and afterwards to enter the sleep data from Actigraph log sheets that participants keep during the 8 days period.

 I already have almost completed that task for the Danish participants and now I am entering data for the Spanish ones. At times it may get really challenging, because it can take days in which I do the same activities. So fingers cross I don’t get crazy until I am done :) 

Stay tuned!

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I know it may not look like much, but it took me over 3 weeks to insert all this dietary data into a program called DanKost! I can not describe the my happiness when I finished the last food diary, what a relief!

After that, I took a 2 week holiday and went diving in Egypt, which I really needed. I have realised now that computer work and inserting data is something I don’t want to work with. I knew that already, but now I know it 100%. Inserting this data sucked all energy out of me literally. Now I am back to work after my summer holiday and I have changed departments. I used to work at the Human Nutrition Department at KU in Fredriksberg, but now I am working for the Sport, Individual and Society department at Nørrebro campus. There I have been inserting the Quality of life questionnaires and after that I will start doing a literature review and assisting with analysis of the questionnaires. 

Hope everyone are enjoying their internships!

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I completely understand how Bryndis feels.  I am doing my internship in KU in the Department of Nutritotion, Exercise and Sport. I am in the Obesity Reseach Unit, working for a project, called Satin- satiety inovation.  Some of my tasks are to enter dietary data in the Dankost system, as well as sleep data in the Actilife software from the Actigraphs accelometers. I agree that it is a time consuming and mundane work at times, but I have come to like it. 

I don’t think that research is my passion and it is what I am going to do in the future, but I am grateful that I have the opportunity to learn how research is done in practice.

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PsychoPy software

During my internship in the Obesity research unit almost everyday I learn new things, sometimes I also research on my own procedures from the project Satin that may have grabed my attention. 

In today’s post I will present a software, called PsychoPy that I found interesting. 

Psychopy is a research and learning tool. It is an attempt to provide a usable psychological presentation suite for experiments developed by non-expert programmers.

PsychoPy is an open-source application to allow the presentation of stimuli and collection of data for a wide range of neuroscience, psychology and psychophysics experiments. It’s a free, powerful alternative to Presentation™ or e-Prime™, written in Python (a free alternative to Matlab™ ).  

It is used by many labs worldwide for psychophysics, cognitive neuroscience and experimental psychology, namely -  behavioural experiments,  experiments in developmental psychology, psychophysical experiments .

Sourse: http://psychopy.org/

Satin project uses it for the Consumer Benefit paradigm experiment. It is visual probe task experiment for marketing purposes.

The Visual Probe task takes 8-10 minutes to be completed by the participants. They start with welcome screen and instructions. This task is completed 3 times in visit 2, 7 and 14 during the intervention period. Participants are seated in front of a computer in a quiet space with minimal distractions. The experimenter set the task and talk the instructions trough to ensure the participants have understood.

In the first block images are shown on the screen - two at a time and ask the participants to press as fast as possible the keys T and V on the keyboard. T Key is if the participants see small arrow behind the image pointing up, and if points down then they press V Key. When they are done, they press space on the keyboard to continue.

Then they have the Stop Signal Task, where there images of food items shown. Participants use Y and N key from the keyboard. The participants use Y to say that the food image is above the central line and Y to say is below it. In some point the central line get thicker, Stop Signal appear and they have to stop their response to that trial. There is also distracting images, such as household objects, participants should not respond to these items.

Lastly, the target images are changed to the household items. The participants repeat the same procedure as mentioned above by pressing Y if the image appear above the central line and N if appears below. And the distracting images this time are food items. 

I hope that post have been interesting to the readers. Thank you for following.

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These photoes represents some of the procedures during visit14. This visit is one of the final ones for the participants from the Project Satin intervention. 

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What happens at visit 14

On 21st of September I was part of visit 14. That visit is usually the end of the 12 week intervention of project Satin.  The participants have to come at the project site in the morning after at least 10h fast. The following procedures and assessments are performed:

1. Full body DXA-scan - The examiner starts with filling in standardization form in order to make sure that the participant have not consumed too much alcohol or have excessively exercised. Women who are not in the Menopause are handed a pregnancy test . Then when the participant is cleared for scanning, they take off their shoes and clothes, if they have any jewellery, they take off them too, and lie down in the middle of the DXA-scan bed. The scan takes 5-10 minutes to finish the scanning and then prints out images of body fat percentage, bone mass density and muscle mass.  The examiner explains the results and make sure the participant have a copy of the scan. 

2. Measuring of body weight, hip and waist circumference - measurements are taken twice, then the average of both values is written down.

3. Measuring of sagital diameter - It measures abdominal fat. Participants lie down, the tool is positioned between the back and belly. The participant is asked to breath in and out and then the measurement is taken. That is repeated twice and average value noted down.

4. Measuring blood pressure -  The participant take 5 minutes to relax. Then with electronic blood pressure monitor is measured the blood pressure twice and noted the average value. 

5. Recording of adverse events or concomitant medication.

6. Hand in 3 day weight dietary record, performed before the visit

7. Hand in the Acti Graph and related diaries.

8. Hand in product consumption diary.

9. Consumer benefit - experimental paradigm. -  This is a test sequence performed on a computer/laptop (photo) It starts by showing 2 images of food items, immediately after that it shown black screen and tiny arrow pointing up or down. If the arrow points up, the participant press the key T from the keyboard, and if points down- V. The second test shows 2 images again, but this time only one of the image is food. The participant have to press Y if the image of food item is above a central line and N if is below. If the line becomes thicker, then the participant stops. The third test, on the screen are shown 2 images, one is food item and another one is not. The participant need to repeat the same actions as the second test, but this time the participants  pays attention to the the image that is not a food item.

10. Questionnaires.- The participant have to complete 3 questionnaires for sleep; stress and appetite and experience of the program.

11. Hair samples. - if the participant is a part of a sub group -B, then examiner takes hair samples to measures stress by measuring cortizol levels.

Next post with photoes from visit 14. Stay tuned! :)

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This is my previous office where I spent 1 month working.

And this is my new one, where I will work until the end of my internship.

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One of my weekly tasks in the Obesity research unit is to colect all Case report forms from the dietitians and to put them in the physical folders of the participants. Each participant in the Satin project has a physical folder, with their number and all collected data is stored there for future reference.

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ActiGraph accelerometers

One of my main responsibilities here in the Research unit is to manage the ActiGraph accelerometers. That may include charging them, initialising, downloading data, entering sleep data from the log sheets in the software program, etc.

ActiGraph accelerometers are among the most widely used and extensively validated devices in the academic and governmental research and clinical trials. it measures daytime physical activity and sleep/awake behaviour.(source: http://actigraphcorp.com/)

The accelerometers are handed out to the participants of the project Satin three times during the study - visit 2, visit 7 and visit 14. The participant have to wear the device on their right hip, all day and all night for 7 days, without removing it, except when they are engaged in activities in water, i.e. shower/bath or swimming or full contact sport, i.e. rugby. They have to report in Actigraph log sheets when the device is taken off and put back on, and the time when they go to bed and wake up in the morning .

Before the participants come for their regular visits, I am responsible to initialise the device, which means I enter the specific date and time when the ActiGraph accelerometer will start measuring activities and the sleep behaviour. I make sure to put the correct ID number given to each participant in the subject info window and to put label on the top of the device. Afterwards when the devices are returned I download the data from them and save it in a folder. The program used for these actions is called ActiLife, see photo bellow:

I will write seperate post about entering sleep behaviour data in the program, keep tuned :)

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First day at the Obesity research unit

During my first day at KU I was overloaded with information about the project, the research facilities and the people working here.

In the morning I met with my supervisor Sanne Kellebjerg Poulsen, who is also the operational lead of the project SATIN. I was introduced to some of the project staff, including the project cordinator. I had the grand tour of the Unit, seeing where is the laboratory, offices, kitchen facilities,etc. 

Later on me and Sanne sat and discussed my responsibilities and we agreeed that I have a weekly plan.

I had brief introduction to the EasyTrial, where I created an account and then Sanne gave me access to the project data. 

So what is EasyTrial?  - It is an online Clinical Trial Management System for administration of all clinical trial tasks (operational and logistical), so healthcare professionals can use their time efficiently. The system has been developed by Danish physicians experienced in conducting clinical trials. EasyTrial is compliant with good clinical practice (GCP) and database security legislation and provides maximum security, study overviews and resource management. All trial data is easily accessible and presented in a simple and comprehensive way from the database. For more information visit: http://www.easytrial.net

I had to sign a delegation and a training logs. I got access card to the research unit and key to all doors. 

If I have to sumurise,  it was interesting, but in the same time taxing day. I went home completely exausted, hope the next day will be easier. :)

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Where I am interning

My internship place is the Obesity Research Unit in the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at the University of Copenhagen.

The University of Copenhagen is one of the largest institutions of research and education in the Nordic countries.

The diversity of academic environments and scientific approaches is the University of Copenhagen's distinguishing feature and strength. Within the shared framework, the University is divided into six academic fields referred to as faculties. The faculties are further divided into departments and institutes acting as the primary workplace for the University's researchers. The University is also home to a number of centres, interdisciplinary projects and other units typically focusing their work on research in more specific academic areas.

The University of Copenhagen is a member of IARU (International Alliance of Research Universities). The alliance consists of ten universities worldwide: Australian National University, ETH Zürich, National University of Singapore, Peking University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Cambridge, University of Copenhagen, University of Oxford, The University of Tokyo, and Yale University. (source: http://introduction.ku.dk/)

The Section for Obesity Research undertakes basic and clinical research to investigate how appetite and energy metabolism is regulated, with the ultimate goal to improve our ability to prevent and treat obesity and related diseases, such as type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The research group investigates the effects of diets including selected foods and nutrients, physical activity pattern, sleep, stress, gastric bypass, gut microbiota, genetics and medicines on energy balance in individuals who are normal-weight, overweight or obese with/without metabolic complications both in short-term and long-term intervention studies as well as observational studies.

(source: http://nexs.ku.dk/english/research/units/obesity/)

I will be involved in a project, called SATIN – SATiety INnovation. It is a five year, €6 mill. EU funded project, which aims to develop satiety-enhancing products that will lower energy intake and control weight. The main project objective is prevention of weight regain together with reduction in obesity related risk factors. For more information about the project visit the webpage: http://www.satin-satiety.eu/