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gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp
@gemmasharp.bsky.social
67 followers 84 following 24 posts

Women’s Health research 🚺| 4M consortium 🩸| Epidemiology 👩🏻‍💻| Cats 🐈 | Otters 🦦

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Biology 52%
Public Health 18%
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gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · 1d
Join our team! We’re looking for an experienced lab assistant to generate DNA methylation data from thousands of menstrual fluid samples collected in Children of the 90s and Born in Bradford.

£33,951, full time, in person in Exeter (EX2). Closes 18th January 2026.

lnkd.in/ebQFYxd5
LinkedIn
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gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · 7d
This is the best work I’ve seen all year. And I can confidently state that by the late 80s/early 90s in Somerset, Uncle Billy had been in a very unfortunate accident on the M5
corylus.bsky.social Hazel Phillips @corylus.bsky.social · 7d
Turns out I can’t quite remember what happened in Somerset in the late 70s/early 80s after Robin flew away
loreandordure.com Kate Watson @loreandordure.com · 7d
For your collective delectation this holiday season:
Quite possibly the silliest thing I've ever written (and definitely the most ridiculous graph I've ever made!)

loreandordure.com/2025/12/16/j...

Reposted by Gemma C. Sharp

corylus.bsky.social
Hazel Phillips @corylus.bsky.social · 7d
Turns out I can’t quite remember what happened in Somerset in the late 70s/early 80s after Robin flew away

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · 7d
Wait, what? And… why? If we’re just going to AI generate participants, we may as well give up now. What’s the point? Like… why are you even here?
sabrinanorwood.bsky.social Sabrina Norwood @sabrinanorwood.bsky.social · 7d
Did you know that from tomorrow, Qualtrics is offering synthetic panels (AI-generated participants)?

Follow me down a rabbit hole I'm calling "doing science is tough and I'm so busy, can't we just make up participants?"
Text reads: About synthetic panels Recruiting the right participants for a study can be difficult. You may not get the exact demographics you need, and the shorter the deadline, the less sure you can be that everyone will answer on time. One possible solution can be to use synthetic panels. Synthetic panels are powered by a first party proprietary AI model developed here at Qualtrics. Our synthetic panel is trained on thousands of responses from a variety of demographic backgrounds in order to more accurately predict how certain populations would respond to a survey. Our synthetic panel is based on the United States General Population, and is only available in English. This panel comes with ready-made quotas and target breakouts in order to represent your chosen population and make it easy to launch your survey right away. Text reads: Question-writing best practices To get the most reliable and actionable results from synthetic audiences, consider these question-writing best practices: Ask forward-looking and attitudinal questions. Synthetic panels perform best with perceptions, preferences, and intent-based questions. For example, “How likely are you to try…?” Synthetic panels are less applicable for studies on past behaviors, detailed recall, brand recall, or awareness questions. For example, “When did you last visit…?” Text reads: Discussion The current study aimed to conduct a meta-analysis of the TPB when applied to health behaviours which addressed the limitations of previous reviews by including only prospective tests of behaviour, applying RE meta-analytic procedures, correcting correlations for sampling and measurement error, and hierarchically analysing the effect of behaviour type and sample and methodological moderators. Some 237 tests were identified which examined relations amongst model components. Overall the analysis indicated that the TPB could explain 19.3% of the variance in behaviour and 44.3% of the variance in intention across studies. This level of prediction of behaviour is slightly lower than that of previous meta-analytic reviews which have found between 27% (Armitage & Conner, 2001; Hagger et al., 2002) and 36% (Trafimow et al., 2002) of the variance in behaviour to be explained by intention and PBC.

Reposted by Robert Böhm, Brady T. West, Brendan Nyhan , and 43 more

sabrinanorwood.bsky.social
Sabrina Norwood @sabrinanorwood.bsky.social · 7d
Did you know that from tomorrow, Qualtrics is offering synthetic panels (AI-generated participants)?

Follow me down a rabbit hole I'm calling "doing science is tough and I'm so busy, can't we just make up participants?"
Text reads: About synthetic panels Recruiting the right participants for a study can be difficult. You may not get the exact demographics you need, and the shorter the deadline, the less sure you can be that everyone will answer on time. One possible solution can be to use synthetic panels. Synthetic panels are powered by a first party proprietary AI model developed here at Qualtrics. Our synthetic panel is trained on thousands of responses from a variety of demographic backgrounds in order to more accurately predict how certain populations would respond to a survey. Our synthetic panel is based on the United States General Population, and is only available in English. This panel comes with ready-made quotas and target breakouts in order to represent your chosen population and make it easy to launch your survey right away. Text reads: Question-writing best practices To get the most reliable and actionable results from synthetic audiences, consider these question-writing best practices: Ask forward-looking and attitudinal questions. Synthetic panels perform best with perceptions, preferences, and intent-based questions. For example, “How likely are you to try…?” Synthetic panels are less applicable for studies on past behaviors, detailed recall, brand recall, or awareness questions. For example, “When did you last visit…?” Text reads: Discussion The current study aimed to conduct a meta-analysis of the TPB when applied to health behaviours which addressed the limitations of previous reviews by including only prospective tests of behaviour, applying RE meta-analytic procedures, correcting correlations for sampling and measurement error, and hierarchically analysing the effect of behaviour type and sample and methodological moderators. Some 237 tests were identified which examined relations amongst model components. Overall the analysis indicated that the TPB could explain 19.3% of the variance in behaviour and 44.3% of the variance in intention across studies. This level of prediction of behaviour is slightly lower than that of previous meta-analytic reviews which have found between 27% (Armitage & Conner, 2001; Hagger et al., 2002) and 36% (Trafimow et al., 2002) of the variance in behaviour to be explained by intention and PBC.

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · 8d
(If you find that the link above doesn’t take you to the right place, please go to jobs.exeter.ac.uk and search for “epidemiology” - it’s the top one)

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · 8d
I’m recruiting a postdoctoral fellow in epidemiology to join the MenstruLife project - using longitudinal data from multiple cohort studies to understand the prevalence, risk factors, and mental health impacts of heavy menstrual bleeding and dysmenorrhea across the life course.

lnkd.in/ebQFYxd5
LinkedIn
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gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · 11d
To be fair, over on LinkedIn, they’re all loving AI. It may as well be a bunch of bots talking to each other. Weird place.

Meanwhile, Stan and I are getting rid of all our non-stick pans and wrapping our heads in foil.

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · 11d
I’m enjoying how much everyone in my feed hates AI. I speak to students and they hate it too (despite not being old women like me). Can we just agree to get rid of it now?

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · 13d
This is exactly what I’m looking for Lorenzo, thank you! Will have a good read…

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · 13d
@mendelrandom.bsky.social @ecehh.org #epibluesky

Reposted by George Davey Smith

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · 13d
I have become mightily interested in the causal effect of “forever chemicals” and plastics on gynecological health.

I want to make sure our new menstruation data in ALSPAC and Born in Bradford can be used to research this.

Anyone know who’s big in (causal) epidemiology of this sort of exposure?

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · Nov 15
Huge congratulations, George. So so well deserved. I’ve learnt an incredible amount from you and your work has inspired thousands. Very nice of the MRC to recognise your amazing contributions! 😊

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · Nov 8
@churnwell.bsky.social

Reposted by Mark Petticrew, Martin Paul Eve, Victoria Tischler , and 1 more

desfitzgerald.bsky.social
Des Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · Oct 29
Unpopular maybe, but we should firmly resist this kind of banal medicalization of cultural and aesthetic experience. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Picture of health: going to art galleries can improve wellbeing, study reveals
Viewing original works of art can relieve stress, cut heart disease risk and boost immune system, first study of its kind finds
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Gemma C. Sharp

archivetvmusings.bsky.social
archivetvmusings @archivetvmusings.bsky.social · Oct 28
Sooty & Co (28th October 1996). Sooty and the gang round off their Spanish holiday by going clubbing.

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · Oct 23
I’m off sick. In related news, I’ve made a Shiny app that displays random pictures of my cat. I’ve also styled it (accidentally) on how the internet looked in 2001. Thanks for your time. gcsharp.shinyapps.io/is-it-beans/
gcsharp.shinyapps.io

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · Oct 23
This is going to be SO useful… I love this sort of academic work. Repositories that make data accessible all in one place are 👌 And there’s even a bloody R package too! 🙏
bsiepe.bsky.social Björn Siepe @bsiepe.bsky.social · Oct 22
We built the openESM database:
▶️60 openly available experience sampling datasets (16K+ participants, 740K+ obs.) in one place
▶️Harmonized (meta-)data, fully open-source software
▶️Filter & search all data, simply download via R/Python

Find out more:
🌐 openesmdata.org
📝 doi.org/10.31234/osf...

Reposted by David Chester, Andrew K Przybylski, Patrick S. Forscher , and 5 more

bsiepe.bsky.social
Björn Siepe @bsiepe.bsky.social · Oct 22
We built the openESM database:
▶️60 openly available experience sampling datasets (16K+ participants, 740K+ obs.) in one place
▶️Harmonized (meta-)data, fully open-source software
▶️Filter & search all data, simply download via R/Python

Find out more:
🌐 openesmdata.org
📝 doi.org/10.31234/osf...

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · Oct 11
We are currently particularly low on responses from:
- Male healthcare professionals
- People in Ireland
- People under 16
- People from minoritised ethnic groups
 
We would love to ensure these people’s voices are represented

Thanks for your help!

exe.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management
The most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account today.
exe.qualtrics.com

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · Oct 11
In our first survey, we received over 1500 questions, which we've grouped into 42. We’re now running a second survey (open to people in the UK or Ireland) where we’re asking people to choose their top 10 most important questions.

Please share/fill in yourself: exe.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
LinkedIn
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gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · Oct 11
Are your periods too heavy, long, unpredictable, frequent/infrequent, or involve bleeding in between? Or do you care for someone with this issue?

Please consider filling out our survey: exe.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... to find the most important research questions on Problematic Menstrual Bleeding
Poster explaining what the researchers are trying to do

Reposted by George Davey Smith

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · Sep 26
Do you have heavy or painful menstrual periods? If so, please consider filling in our short survey so that we can better understand how these symptoms interact with mental health and wellbeing. exe.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
Is There a Link Between Heavy Menstrual Bleeding, Menstrual Pain, and Mental Health?
We are exploring how people experience heavy menstrual bleeding and menstrual pain, and how these experiences interact with their mental health. We want to better understand how these issues affect ea...
exe.qualtrics.com

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · Aug 21
The article, in case you’d like to engage with it (in surprise and sadness) on any deeper level: theconversation.com/period-pain-...
Period pain and heavy bleeding linked with lower school attendance and GCSE results – new study
Many people, including teenagers, struggle with menstrual symptoms that affect their health and wellbeing.
theconversation.com

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · Aug 21
Quite proud of this actually. Since I deleted my Twitter account, I haven’t had a place where I can be told off for colluding with other academics to erase women. It looks like this article in the Conversation about periods and GCSEs has now filled that gap. 👏

Reposted by Gemma C. Sharp

epijobs.bsky.social
Epidemiology Job Openings (EpiJobs) @epijobs.bsky.social · Aug 19
Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Molecular Epidemiology
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Hybrid/On-site
Exeter, United Kingdom #Epijobs
jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...

Reposted by Gemma C. Sharp

gw4alliance.bsky.social
GW4 Alliance @gw4alliance.bsky.social · Aug 19
Researchers from the #GW4Alliance unis of @exeter.ac.uk and @bristoluni.bsky.social have been awarded $4.5million to drive new research into heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) and its causes:

Read the latest: gw4.ac.uk/news/groundb...

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · Jun 1
Participants will be paid up to £100: £25 per workshop, and a further £25 on completion of all three.

If you’re interested and able to attend, please get in touch: [email protected]

Thanks so much 🙏

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · Jun 1
We’ll be running three one hour online workshops over three weeks (Friday 6th, 13th, and 20th June at 10:30am BST) where we’ll be discussing what questions to ask and how.

gemmasharp.bsky.social
Gemma Sharp @gemmasharp.bsky.social · Jun 1
We’re looking for people aged 30-55 who experience heavy menstrual bleeding or dysmenorrhea (menstrual pain) to help us design a new research study around menstrual health