Catherine Best 's Avatar

Catherine Best

@cathbest.bsky.social

Quantitative data analysis and statistics #StatsSky . Public health. Commercial determinants of health. Maternal mental health. Associate Professor at University of Stirling Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport.

1,799 Followers  |  896 Following  |  95 Posts  |  Joined: 22.12.2023  |  2.0094

Latest posts by cathbest.bsky.social on Bluesky

Formulae for 'to the power of 1\4' incorrectly stated to simplify to the square root by Google AI overview

Formulae for 'to the power of 1\4' incorrectly stated to simplify to the square root by Google AI overview

Your daily reminder that basic AI can't reliably copy maths formulae from the Internet

29.08.2025 07:08 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Age verification- does their personal email have a pre 1900s number in it?

26.07.2025 07:41 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

This excerpt from 'Island' by Aldous Huxley is without question something worth saving to your phone, writing down in your secret notebook, committing firmly to your memory, so that when you find yourself in a dire moment, you can call upon it to aid you. ❀️

13.07.2025 21:05 β€” πŸ‘ 126    πŸ” 28    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 1

Look, I've got an AI-powered multi-omics program to sell to the worried well here, so less about the social determinants of health please.

10.07.2025 12:51 β€” πŸ‘ 13    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
https://xkcd.com/1179/

https://xkcd.com/1179/

@xkcd.com

24.06.2025 12:26 β€” πŸ‘ 38    πŸ” 10    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 4

Pay universities to do this work. We have more expertise, can do it independently, and for less money.

03.06.2025 06:56 β€” πŸ‘ 21    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

Amen - coefficients from different (often non-linear) models don't mean the same thing, but they get compared all the time. The "effect" of interest is a marginal effect for an explicit target population, not a parameter.

Software guided workflow could help, plug into tools like marginaleffects.com

30.05.2025 07:10 β€” πŸ‘ 91    πŸ” 19    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1

UK Prevention Research conference next March registrations.hg3conferences.co.uk/hg3/frontend...

29.05.2025 11:54 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

When the authors are 'grateful for such a careful and conscientious reading' in my 2nd round of reviewer comments. I can imagine how this is phrased in private πŸ‘ΉπŸ‘Ή πŸ™‰ πŸ™‰

29.05.2025 07:54 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

re-upping this because I just overheard a fellow statistician say: "Multicollinearity is not really the problem that people make it out to be. I have a really nice paper on this I can send you which a colleague showed me a while ago."

(who was the colleague? pretty sure it was me.)

16.05.2025 05:17 β€” πŸ‘ 23    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image 16.05.2025 12:01 β€” πŸ‘ 35    πŸ” 13    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

The Institute for Social Marketing and Health quarterly meeting in sunny Stirling. 🌞

13.05.2025 07:55 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

New report on vape displays. Young people more likely than adults to notice vapes in a shop window and were more likely to take positive messaging from such window displays. www.cancerresearchuk.org/sites/defaul...

12.05.2025 19:49 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

New report on vape displays. Young people more likely than adults to notice vapes in a shop window and were more likely to take positive messaging from such window displays. www.cancerresearchuk.org/sites/defaul...

12.05.2025 19:49 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

If you know anyone looking for a week long hybrid course on social statistics this summer- have a look at this one my husband is running πŸ‘‡ essexsummerschool.com/summer-schoo...

04.05.2025 17:49 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Yes 'hereness'

14.04.2025 14:07 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
The rise of end times fascism The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them

THE RISE OF END TIMES FASCISM

My first major piece of the new Trump era, co-written with @astra.bsky.social.

The governing ideology of the far right has become a
monstrous, supremacist survivalism.

Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

13.04.2025 13:32 β€” πŸ‘ 6155    πŸ” 2631    πŸ’¬ 217    πŸ“Œ 622

BLUE is the warmest colour

11.04.2025 14:57 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Strong work here from Altmetric πŸ˜πŸ˜‚. The real twist, is that a huge number of citations by-pass thought

01.04.2025 06:17 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Google

During the pandemic, restrictions about partners being present during birth was one of the biggest sources of anxiety for UK expectant mothers in the UK. New paper bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

27.03.2025 20:05 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Happy Large Enough N day for those who observe

24.03.2025 07:15 β€” πŸ‘ 276    πŸ” 57    πŸ’¬ 17    πŸ“Œ 13
Preview
Apply Now for PhD Studentships 2025 We are recruiting 6 PhD studentships, fully funded by the University of Stirling, which will aim to advance knowledge of the dynamic relations between place and memory at multipleΒ timescales a…

Funded PhD studentships available at University of Stirling’s Centre for Place and Memory placememory.net/apply-now-fo...

07.03.2025 17:09 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Right. It's Friday Home Time.

Tune Trump out (if you can).

And listen to this (or whatever music works for you).

Doof doof doof.

07.03.2025 15:55 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Video thumbnail

UK PM Starmer to Zelensky:

"You are very, very welcome here in Downing Street. As you heard from the cheers on the street outside, you have full backing across the United Kingdom. We will stand with you and Ukraine for as long as it may take."

01.03.2025 17:46 β€” πŸ‘ 4300    πŸ” 982    πŸ’¬ 107    πŸ“Œ 161

Your dignity honors the bravery of the Ukrainian people.

Be strong, be brave, be fearless.
You are never alone, dear President Zelenskyy.

We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace.

28.02.2025 21:06 β€” πŸ‘ 74246    πŸ” 14857    πŸ’¬ 1641    πŸ“Œ 709
Preview
Six in 10 universities β€˜consider dropping big publishing deals’ - Research Professional News Survey finds three-quarters of libraries are making budget cuts this academic year

In Jan, three unis dropped their 'big deal' with Elsevier

Now, a survey of 100+ unis found 60% might drop their big deals with the five big publishers: Elsevier, Sage, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis and Wiley

All these are being renegotiated this year...

@sophieatrpn.bsky.social reports

25.02.2025 07:55 β€” πŸ‘ 18    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 2

Getting paid ten of thousands of pounds to put pdfs online incredibly profitable shock.

25.02.2025 07:59 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Sexy murder poet in the introduction, basically pleasant bureaucrat in the conclusion

19.02.2025 19:39 β€” πŸ‘ 35    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Reported it

19.02.2025 08:49 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Is the Labour Research Department survey on behalf of UCU genuine or is this part of a Cybersecurity education intervention by my employer or actual phishing? Decisions decisions...

19.02.2025 08:46 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

@cathbest is following 20 prominent accounts