Discussion I

1. Discussion I

2. Discussion Answer the question posed in the introduction Explain how the results support the answer How the answers fit in with existing knowledge on the topic Defending the answer Establishing newness and importance Implication and speculation To convince others believing your answer

3. Answer ≠ Result Answer is a generalization based on the results. • Question: Could drug X treatment reduce protein A in neuron? • Result: We used Western blot to demonstrate that neuronal protein A level has 15% reduction after 1 hr drug X treatment. • Answer: Drug X treatment reduces protein A in neuron.

4. Discussion • Interpret your results and draw your conclusions. • Continually refer to your results, but do not repeat them. • Do not extend your conclusions beyond those which are directly supported by your results • Address the objectives of the study in the discussion and discuss the significance of the results. • Don't leave the reader thinking "So what?”

5. Discussion Common Mistakes Combined with Results New results discussed Broad statements Incorrectly discussing inconclusive results Ambiguous data sources Missing information

6. No overinterpretation Do not claim more than you did Do not generalize your result Ex: Drug A reduces blood pressure in 3-4 month FVB mice Do not claim that because it worked well on a few test cases that it will work well on all test cases, all platforms and for all inputs! (case study ≠ trial)

7. Transitions from the answer to the results • In our experiments • The evidence is that • Evidence that (answer) is that • We found that • (answer) has been demonstrated in two ways

8. Transitions from the answer to the results Indication to answers Indication to supporting evidence

9. Transitions from the answer to the results Indication to answers Indication to supporting evidence

10. Giving credit to yourself and others • If others’ results help support your answer, mention those results, and cite the appropriate references Supporting evidence novelty "I was able to see further because I was standing on the shoulder of giants“ ~ Isaac Newton

11. Failing to give credit to others can kill your paper • If you imply that an idea is yours, and the reviewer knows it is not…. • You don’t know that it’s an old idea (bad) • You do know, but are pretending it’s yours (very bad) • The paper you didn’t cite from reviewer’s lab (very very bad)

12. Giving credit to yourself and others Supporting evidence novelty

13. Explaining the answer • Why is answer reasonable? • How does it fit in with previously published ideas on the topics?

14. findings fit in with previously published ideas

15. Defending the answer and explaining conflicting result • Any other possible answer? • Why your answer is satisfactory and why others are not? • Possible reasons: limitation of the methods, weaknesses in the study design, different experiment condition, different genetic background.

16. Defending the answer

17. Conflicting results Never say never !!! Do not use offensive words!!

18. Establishing newness • The newness of your work should be established in the introduction • Avoid claiming priority (this is the first report of….) unless you 100% sure no similar study were mentioned before • Other than the priority, also mention the importance

19. Explanation of discrepancies

20. Explanation of unexpected findings Major findings - modify your hypothesis Minor findings – explain it as best you can

21. Limitation, weaknesses and validity • Be honest!! • State those problem and explain why they are acceptable. • If explanation is brief (1 or 2 sentences), it can be stated in the method section. • If the explanation is long, or it may affect your result seriously, use 1 or 2 paragraphs in discussion section to talk about it.

22. Organization Beginning: Answer the questions Explain your answers (model) State the importance of your finding Middle: Discuss data from the most to least important List others results that support your finding Defend your answer End: Restate the questions/answers, and indicate the importance of this work Application Recommendations Implications/Speculations

23. Story line Answer the question exactly as you asked it (hypothesis testing paper) Repeat the statement of the message and implication (descriptive paper) Restatement of the new method, its advantages and disadvantages (method paper).

24. Beginning: Answer the question exactly as you asked it same key terms, same point of view, same verb Limit the answer to the appropriate population or animal Question: Could drug X treatment reduce protein A in neuron? Answer: Drug X treatment reduces protein A in neuron. Explain your answers provide a model if necessary State the importance of your finding Set up for the rest of the discussion using a chain of topic sentences.

25. Middle Discuss data from the most to least important Use the topic sentences at the beginning of the discussion Group paragraph in a scientifically logical order Explaining the answer why it is reasonable or how does it fit in with published ideas Defending your answers/Explaining conflicting results limitation of the methods, weaknesses in the study design, different experiment condition/model/cohort

26. End Restate the questions/answers Indicate the importance/newness of this work Application Recommendations Implications/Speculations

27. Beginning: Answer the question exactly as you asked it Emphasis your findings

28. Restate the question and then state the answer • Be sure use the same key term between introduction and discussion, and between the question and answer.

29. Keep question and answer close

30. Provide a brief context and then state the answer One way to avoid an abrupt beginning of the discussion Be short! Provide a signal when you start talking about the answer

31. Do NOT begin the discussion with… • With a second introduction • Do not repeat original introduction or provide new background information at the beginning of the discussion • With a summary of the result • The place for a summary of the result is the result section. • With secondary information • This belong to later part of discussion section.

33. Grading for this class Students from IBS → modify your proposal according to the suggestions Other students → modify the original article you wrote at the beginning of the class Email to me no later than 6/20

34. Proposal writing Part II

35. 2. Writing the First Draft 1. Getting in the Mood 4. Finishing 3. Revising, Revising, Revising Writing Stages

36. Missing information run-on sentence and paragraph unclear “it, this one…” typo multiple verbs in a sentence Errors that disturb Punctuation error faulty parallelism unclear subject missing space citation error Errors that distract Not all mechanical errors bother readers in the same way Errors that few even notice

37. Verb tense

38. To decide upon the verb tense in a document, you first set for t=0 Past Tense: Events that have already occurred Present Tense: Timeless details or details at time of reading Future Tense: Events that will occur later t = 0 The time you write t The pressure was... We measured … Air is 79 percent nitrogen. Future work will focus on

39. Verb tense in proposal proposal Introduction Hypothesis Specific aim Method Preliminary data future tense present tense past tense

40. Correct verb tense in paper In general, these are the verb tenses typically used in the following sections of a research paper: • Introduction: present tense • Methods and Results: past tense • Discussion: often alternates between past tense (we found) and present tense (the theory of natural selection predicts that).

41. No missing information

42. If you mention a topic in the title or specific aim, you HAVE to describe it in the introduction • Make sure you cover all the required information in the introduction. Background and Significance Chronic pain as a multidimensional experience Cerebral representation of chronic pain Default-mode network Default-mode network in chronic pain

43. If you mention an experiment in the specific aim, you HAVE to describe it in the method

44. No clear information for routine tests

45. Method Every experiment you propose, you must think through and search for reference already

46. What is a sentence? Sentence: A sentence is group of words with one subject and one verb that expresses a complete thought. Fragment: A fragment being a group of words that either is missing a subject or a verb or does not express a complete thought. Run-on: A run-on is two or more independent clauses that are not joined properly.

47. Which are sentences (S), fragments (F), or run-ons (RO)? Rubidium has no majoruses, however,earth has more of it than zinc, copper, or nickel. Although carbon dioxide occurs naturally, man has dramatically increased its concentration this past century. Several systems can detect plastic explosives. For example, thermal neutron activation systems, nitrogen sniffer systems, and enhanced x-ray systems. RO S S / F

48. Missing subject What’s the subject here?

49. Avoiding Common Errors of Punctuation , STOP Period: signal the end of a sentence. Comma: a comma separates details in a sentence. Punctuation marks are the traffic signs and signals placed along the reader’s road. They tell him when to slow down and when to stop, and sometimes they warn him of the nature of the road ahead. ~Theodore M. Bernstein

50. Run one sentence • Everything before period is a sentence. • Your have to know what’s the subject main verb in your sentence (even in Chinese!!!) subject 當人在遭受急性危難且威脅到生存時，正腎上腺素會被大量的釋放出來，使得感官功能變得敏銳及注意力變得集中以獲取更多的資訊而能更快速的發現威脅。為使人準備好可以迅速移動及抵抗威脅，正腎上腺素會使血壓及心跳上昇，導致能量及氧氣的轉移至肌肉，而犧牲掉大腦某些思考的功能而獲取處理的速度的提升 。