Peddie EXP Summer 2018

I haven't been blogging lately because I really haven't been doing anything new. For my 5-7th weeks, I was sorting through files (both virtual and not) finding missing data for my MASSIVE excel sheet (I'm talking 1030 participants). For the manual data, I had to go into the file rooms downstairs. Problem is, my badge doesn't have access to the area, so I have to call and get let in and out every time I go down, which is wildly inefficient. Once inside, I have the code to the lockbox where the keys to the rooms and files are. Being a smart, independent woman, I checked how the locks work. When the door is unlocked, it stays unlocked... or so I thought. Sure enough my first few days I tote my key around to and fro the bathroom (the only place I'd even go downstairs), but the one day I decide to stop, the door locks. Now I am standing here in a tizzy and have to go ask the guy I was introduced to exactly one time how to get back into this room where the key is locked i...

This past week I began my data exporting from the NIDA database CDW (which I frankly have no definition of) which is a compilation of clinical subjects that have been a part of past protocols. While many of the interns I'm working with are dealing with one or two protocol groups at a time, I'm dealing with all of the neuroimaging branch data. To compile this data, I learned VLOOKUP, an excel function, which isn't a huge feat but sometimes I think a computer is broken when really the monitor is just off. I would also like to thank Dr. Cags for boosting my excel confidence during all of calculus this year. So I get excited, VLOOKUP all my data points, delete the missing data/persons for which they belong, and feel like an absolute #boss. I was mildly concerned by the fact that I had pared 1,000+ persons to a concise 64, but generally overlooked it and straight away emailed my PI ready to export some more. Well, needless to say, 64 was not the right number. Parsing through s...

This last week, I spent a majority of my time reading literature, which was kind of hard considering it was about 85 degrees and I was getting antsy about getting outside and into the pool. However, on the nicest day this week (Tuesday), there was an accident in the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, which I use to get to work, and the whole thing was closed. Keep in mind that I was on my way to work at this point, and got hit with an hour and a half long turnaround. I ended up working poolside from home, which was a nice little surprise. This same week, my family's old neighbor came to visit from North Carolina, so he's been hanging out with us. Wednesday, I decided to head out with my cousin to downtown Annapolis, which is about 20 minutes south of where I'm living. It was a beautiful day and my cousin recently got a volkswagen bug convertible, so we were cruising around with the top down. We went to a "small plates" restaurant (like tapas) called Levels. There, we got ...

Today is my 5th day at NIDA, but basically my third day in the lab. Because NIDA is a government institution, we go through a substantial amount of training just to get basic clearance (our NIH badges). Prior to arriving, I was required to complete a few privacy and security and lab safety modules. Getting here, I reported directly to orientation with the other summer interns. There are two waves of NIDA summer interns coming in this summer, and I’m in the first one. The second wave will come in about a week (considering I’m already done 1 of my weeks). Collectively, there are going to be about 55 interns, and I think 13 of them are in my research branch. Specifically, I’m in the Neuroimaging Research Branch, under Dr. Betty Jo Salmeron. From this first wave of interns, there are three of us under her, the other two interns being college students. We were all assigned different projects Wednesday morning. My project is assessing data in the confirmation of a common bifactor to measur...