Course Overview: The course will deal with different aspects related to the use of remote sensing and GIS in spatial ecology by using the Free and Open Source Software GRASS GIS coupled with R. By the end of this 5-day practical course, attendees will have the capacity to deal with ecological patterns and processes by using GIS and remote sensing algorithms. The increasing availability of open ecological and geographical data through networks such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF,…

Course Overview: Python is a dynamic, readable language that is a popular platform for all types of bioinformatics work, from simple one-off scripts to large, complex software projects. It gives an overview of the language with an emphasis on practical problem-solving, using examples and exercises drawn from various aspects of bioinformatics work. After completing the workshop, students should be in a position to (1) apply the skills they have learned to tackle problems in their own research and (2) continue…

Course overview: Python is a dynamic, readable language that is a popular platform for all types of bioinformatics work, from simple one-off scripts to large, complex software projects. This workshop is aimed at people who already have a basic knowledge of Python and are interested in using the language to tackle larger problems. In it, we will look in detail at the parts of the language which are particularly useful in scientific programming, and at the tools Python offers for…

This course is being provided through a collaboration of PR statistics and Proteus and will be delivered by Dr. Darryl MacKenzie Course Overview: The presence or absence of a species across a set of landscape units is a fundamental concept widely used in ecology (e.g., species range or distribution, epidemiology, habitat modeling, resource selection probability functions, as a monitoring metric, metapopulation studies, biodiversity and species co-occurrence). An important sampling issue, however, is that a species may not always be detected…

Course Overview: This workshop will provide students with the opportunity to learn how to use social network analysis to analyze social relational datasets such as human friendship networks or animal social networks. Attendees will learn how to use R and several R packages including igraph, sna, network, asnipe, timeordered, tsna to create network graphs, calculate descriptive network metrics, use randomization and random models to evaluate the significance of these metrics, determine graph structural properties including community structures, use QAP and…

Course Overview: This course will provide an introduction to modern multivariate techniques, with a special focus on the analysis of abundance or presence/absence data. Multivariate analysis in ecology has been changing rapidly in recent years, with a focus now on formulating a statistical model to capture key properties of the observed data, rather than transformation of data using a dissimilarity-based framework. In recent years, model-based techniques have been developed for hypothesis testing, identifying indicator species, ordination, clustering, predictive modelling, and…

Course Overview: Metabarcoding techniques are a set of novel genetic tools for assessing biodiversity of natural communities. Their potential applications include (but are not limited to) accurate water quality, soil diversity assessment, trophic analyses of digestive contents, early detection of non-indigenous species, studies of global ecological patterns and biomonitoring of anthropogenic impacts. This course will give an overview of metabarcoding procedures with an emphasis on practical problem-solving and hands-on work using analysis pipelines on real datasets. After completing the course,…

About The next International Seabird Group Conference is being organised by Jon Green and Samantha Patrick and colleagues from the University of Liverpool. The conference promises to provide an exciting showcase of the latest seabird research, located within the heart of the city of Liverpool, famous for its maritime history and cultural diversity. Keynote speakers and early career events will compliment two and a half days of talks and posters, covering all aspects of seabird research. The Seabird Group registered…

Course Overview: Most high-throughput bioinformatics work these days takes place on the Linux command line. The programs which do the majority of the computational heavy lifting — genome assemblers, read mappers, and annotation tools — are designed to work best when used with a command-line interface. Because the command line can be an intimidating environment, many biologists learn the bare minimum needed to get their analysis tools working. This means that they miss out on the power of Linux to…

Course Overview: This course will cover time series analysis with a particular focus on applications in ecology. All methods will be illustrated using the free, open-source software package R. The course is designed for attendees that have a basic knowledge of R and elementary statistics but not necessarily time series. Time Series data are ubiquitous in the physical sciences, and models for their behaviour enable scientists to understand temporal dynamics and predict future values. The course will cover a range…

Course Overview: This course will cover introductory mixed or hierarchical modelling (fixed and random effects models) for real-world data sets from both a Frequentist and Bayesian perspective. These methods lie at the forefront of statistics research and are a vital tool in the scientist’s toolbox. The course focuses on introducing concepts and demonstrating good practice in mixed modelling. All methods are demonstrated with data sets which participants can run themselves. Participants will be taught how to fit hierarchical models using both the standard lme4…

Course Overview: This application-driven course will provide a founding in the basic theory & practice of Bayesian statistics, with a focus on MCMC modeling for ecological & epidemiological problems. Starting from a refresher on probability & likelihood, the course will take students all the way to cutting-edge applications such as state-space population modelling & spatial point-process modelling. By the end of the week, you should have a basic understanding of how common MCMC samplers work and how to program them,…

Course Overview: Analysis of high throughput genome and transcriptome data is major component of many research projects ranging from large-scale precision medicine efforts to focused investigations in model systems. This analysis involves the identification of specific genome or transcriptome features that predispose individuals to disease, predict response to therapies, influence diagnosis/prognosis, or provide mechanistic insights into disease models. During this course (PMBI01), students will perform an example end-to-end bioinformatics analysis of genome (WGS and Exome) and transcriptome (RNA-seq) data. Students…

Course overview:  The course will consist of a series of 8 modules each lasting roughly half a day, and designed to build required skills for subsequent modules and more advanced courses. At its conclusion, participants will have acquired basic skills in coding with R, and will be able to perform and interpret simple analyses, and critically evaluate similar analyses from the scientific literature and technical reports. Intended Audience The course is aimed at biologists with no experience using the software…

Course Overview: Phylogenetic comparative methods are commonly used nowadays to investigate how species diversification occurs and to test hypotheses about the mechanisms that drive phenotypic evolution, e.g. to model speciation and extinction, to understand why some groups are more diverse than others, to test whether phenotypic traits have evolved under neutral, directional or diversifying selection, to investigate how evolutionary rates are modified across the evolutionary history of a group etc. In all these cases, a phylogenetic hypothesis for the group…

This theoretical course on stable isotope geochemistry in earth and life sciences will take place from the 6th -7th  November 2018 at the SUERC facility (https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/suerc/), Rankine Avenue, Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, East Kilbride, UK. Further information can be found at https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/suerc/contactus/ Or email Rona McGill (rona.mcgill@glasgow.ac.uk) or Jason Newton (jason.newton@glasgow.ac.uk). Please do not direct questions to PR statistics   “This was by far the most useful statistic-related course I’ve done to date and I enjoyed all aspects of the course.…

Course Overview: The course will describe different aspects and methods in the field of functional ecology, combining theoretical lessons with hands-on real data. Lectures will provide the theoretical and mathematical basis for different applications of functional traits at organismal, community and ecosystem levels, with examples across different trophic levels. This will serve as a basis for exploring the practical tools to connect the effect of land-use and climate change on biodiversity to the effect of biodiversity on to multiple ecosystem…