Please join CSDE in welcoming Rebbeca Tesfai (Temple University) along with co-sponsors, the Population Health Initiative and the Horn of Africa Initiative. Dr. Tesfai’s seminar will take place from 12:30-1:30PM on Friday, Oct. 207th in 360 Parrington Hall and on Zoom.  Dr. Tesfai will also be available for 1-1 meetings throughout the day. Sign up here if you would like to meet!

The United States has always prided itself as providing safe haven to those who are persecuted. Yet, the United States did not develop policy for admitting and resettling refugees until 1980. Unlike Asians and Europeans, African refugees in the 1980s were chosen primarily based on skill, but no research thus far examines whether this strategy led to greater long-term economic success for African refugees. This paper examines racial differences in refugees’ likelihood of living in poverty, receiving welfare income, engaging in full-time employment and wages between 1990 and 2019. Dr. Tesfai finds that refugees show improvement in all four outcomes. African refugees, however, earn less than nearly all other groups in all time periods suggesting blocked mobility, particularly among men. Analyses focus on the 1982–1987 entry cohort of refugees who had access to more assistance than future cohorts. Consequently, these findings likely show the best-case scenario for refugees’ long-term economic outcomes.

After the seminar, CSDE Trainee Courtney Allen will facilitate a graduate student discussion with Dr. Tesfai from 1:30-2:15 in Raitt 221. Students will have the opportunity to discuss research collaborations, professional development, academic publishing, and interdisciplinary research, among other topics. Please email Courtney (ckallen@uw.edu) by 12pm Wednesday to meet.

CSDE Affiliate Dr. Anna Zamora-Kapoor (Sociology and Department of Medical Education and Clinical Sciences at Washington State) has received the AIM-AHEAD Fellowship Program in Leadership, to master new skills in artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve health equity. Dr. Zamora-Kapoor plans to use this opportunity to partner with Hispanic-serving clinics and understand their attitudes towards artificial intelligence and machine learning. This first step is critical to develop future studies that can leverage the strengths of artificial intelligence and machine learning in clinical settings and improve health outcomes among Hispanics in Washington state.

CSDE Affiliate Erin Blakeney (UW School of Nursing, UW Institute of Translational Health Sciences) led a study with co-authors, published in Frontiers in Medicine titled “How and why might interprofessional patient- and family-centered rounds improve outcomes among healthcare teams and hospitalized patients? A conceptual framework informed by scoping and narrative literature review methods“. Poor communication within healthcare contributes to inefficiencies, medical errors, conflict, and other adverse outcomes. A promising model to improve outcomes resulting from poor communication in the inpatient hospital setting is Interprofessional Patient- and Family-Centered rounds (IPFCR).

CSDE Affiliate Ruanne Barnabas (Epidemiology) and co-authors recently published their work in Personal Relationships, titled “Development and empirical test of the research-informed South African Relationship Functioning Assessment (SARFA)“. Intimate partners play an important role in chronic diseases. Despite the chronic disease burden in sub-Saharan Africa, very few culturally relevant quantitative measures of intimate relationship functioning are available. Authors conducted an empirical investigation evaluating the psychometric properties of the South African Relationship Functioning Assessment (SARFA) assessing healthy relationship functioning in N = 150 community members (50% women; M age = 27.2 years) living in the Vulindlela area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

CSDE Affiliate Thaïsa Way (Landscape Architecture) published a chapter, “Garden Design as Feminist Ground” in an edited collection, titled Women and the Collaborative Art of Gardens. Way’s chapter explores the garden as a place of creative and transformational practice for women in the early twentieth century in the United States. Focused on constellations of White women and Black women, the chapter discusses how the garden served women in both similar and distinct ways.

CSDE Affiliate, Joseph Delaney (Epidemiology) co-authored two studies this fall. The first study is published in Plos One, “Assessing the associations between known genetic variants and substance use in people with HIV in the United States“, where authors sought to assess if previously identified genetic associations that contribute to substance use are also observed in a population of people with HIV (PWH). The prevalence of substance use in PWH in the United States is higher than in the general population and is an important driver of HIV-related outcomes. Their analyses contribute to understanding the genetic bases of substance use in a population with relatively higher rates of use compared to the general population. The second article is published in Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, "Developing a prediction model of children asthma risk using population-based family history health records". Authors developed a prediction model of children's asthma risk using objectively collected population-based children and parental histories of comorbidities. Their analysis finds that including children and parental comorbidities to children's asthma prediction models improves their accuracy.

CSDE Affiliate Jane Simoni (Pyschology) and co-authors published their research in JMIR Formative Research, “Enhancing Mental Health and Medication Adherence Among Men Who Have Sex With Men Recently Diagnosed With HIV With a Dialectical Behavior Therapy–Informed Intervention Incorporating mHealth, Online Skills Training, and Phone Coaching: Development Study Using Human-Centered Design Approach“. Mental health problems are common among men who have sex with men (MSM) living with HIV and may negatively affect medication adherence. Psychosocial interventions designed to address these urgent needs are scarce in China. Incorporating behavioral health theories into intervention development strengthens the effectiveness of these interventions. The absence of a robust theoretical basis for interventions may also present challenges to identify active intervention ingredients.

CSDE Affiliate Emily Williams (Health Systems and Population Health) and co-authors published their research in Annals of Internal Medicine, titled “Does Screening for Opioid Use Disorder in Primary Care Increase the Percentage of Patients With a New Diagnosis?“. Integrating care for common mental health disorders into primary care through screening and treatment has proved to be highly effective and is now a widespread practice. Primary care may also be an ideal setting to offer treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD), as primary care providers make up the bulk of buprenorphine prescribers. However, substance use disorders often go unrecognized in primary care. Screening may be an effective approach to increase identification of OUD, as it is for depression, anxiety, and alcohol use disorder. The authors' study aims to compare the percentage of primary care patients who are newly diagnosed with OUD before and after implementation of universal screening for OUD.

Each quarter, CSDE offers 3-5 workshops on data sources, statistical and biomarker methodology, introductions to analysis programs, and more, all given by CSDE staff and faculty affiliates. These workshops can include hands-on training in novel methods and programming, lectures on innovative data sources, and discussions of important issues in research and data collection. Over the coming academic year, CSDE will offer a diverse and exciting set of workshops, some of which will be offered in a hybrid format and others remotely via Zoom.

Autumn Workshops

• Intro to R I: Objects and Programming
  • Date & Time: Tuesday, Oct. 17 @ 11:30AM-1:00PM
  • Location: HRC 101 & Zoom (Link probided upon registration)
  • Instructor: Deven Hamilton
• Intro to R II: Working with Data
  • Date & Time: Wednesday, Oct. 25 @ 11:00AM-12:30PM
  • Location: HRC 101 & Zoom (Link provided upon registration)
  • Instructor: Jessica Godwin
• Intro to R III: Data Visualization
  • Date & Time: Thursday, Nov. 2 @ 12:30PM-2:00PM
  • Location: HRC 101 & Zoom (Link provided upon registration)
  • Instructor: Jessica Godwin
• Introduction to the Northwest Federal Statistical Research Data Center (NWFSRDC)
  • Date & Time: Tuesday, Oct. 31 @ 12:30PM-1:30PM
  • Location: Zoom (Link provided upon registration)
  • Instructors: Sofia Ayala & Carlos Becerra
• Biomarker Data Analysis
  • Data & Time: Thursday, Nov. 30 @ 11:00AM-12:00PM
  • Location: HRC 101 & Zoom (Link provided upon registration)
  • Instructor: Tiffany Pan

On October 25 from 3:30-4:30pm Berk Can Deniz, a Data Scientist with Figma, will join CDWG to discuss his transition to the tech industry and demonstrate a recent project using online experiments. Berk Can Deniz is currently employed as a monetization and growth data scientist at Figma, where he primarily focuses on experimentation and subscriber growth. Before joining Figma, he held a position at Duolingo, where he led several monetization projects for their language learning application.

CSDE is excited to welcome you back for the Autumn 2023 quarter! Elizabeth Nova, a CSDE Trainee and Sociology PhD student will be the organizer of CSDE’s Autumn 2023 Lightning Talks and Poster Session. Applications are currently open for graduate students to present their research and receive feedback at this event, and we would love to receive your submissions! This is an excellent, low-stakes opportunity to practice your presentation skills and grow your network.

The National Academies of Sciences recently released a report, “Assessing the 2020 Census“. Since 1790, the U.S. census has been a recurring, essential civic ceremony in which everyone counts; it reaffirms a commitment to equality among all, as political representation is explicitly tied to population counts. Assessing the 2020 Census looks at the quality of the 2020 Census and its constituent operations, drawing appropriate comparisons with prior censuses. The report acknowledges the extraordinary challenges the Census Bureau faced in conducting the census and provides guidance as it plans for the 2030 Census.

IPUMS PMA recently released Phase 3 data from Performance Monitoring for Action’s longitudinal panel of childbearing women, which are primarily designed for analyzing contraceptive and fertility dynamics over time. Join us on October 24th to learn how to download a dataset with panel data and how to analyze these new data.

Urban@UW is hosting a seminar by Jaipreet Virdi (University of Delaware), who will speak on technology use by disabled people. How do disabled people use their technologies to draw attention to, rather than hide, their disability? The disabled gaze is an autonomous claiming of identity that rejects typical perceptions of disability as objectifying or exploitative. It offers a way to examines how disabled people, past and present, asserted themselves—through art, for instance—or challenged medical assumptions about their bodies.  

On October 25 @11am, NICHD Director Dr. Diana Bianchi will be hosting a webinar in collaboration with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to explore what is working well and what challenges remain within the research ecosystem in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Panelists from both countries will discuss research on social determinants of health and the pandemic’s impact on children and adolescents in underserved communities, among other topics.

UW’s College of the Environment invites you to join them for an evening with Dr. Heather Tallis to explore how weaving nature more deliberately into the fabric of our urban communities can improve our quality of life. From urban parks to sustainable infrastructure, integrating nature into our cities makes us healthier, happier, smarter and safer.

The National Science Foundation’s newest environmental synthesis center, the Environmental Data Innovation and Inclusion Lab at UC Boulder, seeks proposals for interdisciplinary working groups blending diverse forms of environmental and social data to advance basic scientific understanding and enable informed environmental decision and policy making. A description of the ESIIL working group program can be found here, and the request for proposals can be found here.

The Office of Research Central has opened up their submission portal for The Bridge Funding Program, which provides funding to support faculty to span a temporary funding gap in critical research programs. A maximum of $50,000 may be applied for through the Provost. All funding requests must be matched 1:1 by the applicant’s college/school.

CSSS is delighted to offer a limited number of grants for graduate and undergraduate students and postdoctoral researchers working with CSSS faculty affiliates to cover expenses associated with presenting research at conferences and attending workshops or courses. Travel must occur between January 1, 2024 and June 30, 2024 to be eligible for support. Travel outside this time period will be considered with justification. See flyer here.

The NSF and the NIH have partnered on a call for proposals to advance research in the area of smart health and biomedical research deploying data science and AI tools. The purpose of this interagency program solicitation is to support the development of transformative high-risk, high-reward advances in computer and information science, engineering, mathematics, statistics, behavioral and/or cognitive research to address pressing questions in the biomedical and public health communities.

The University of Washington Behavioral Research Center for HIV (UW BIRCH) invites pilot study applications for the Methodology Pilot AIDS Research Center (M-PARC) Award. It’s a one-year pilot award for methods research related to mental health and HIV. The maximum amount is $25K. Proposals are relatively short (2 pages of science) and due Nov. 19. Please reference the announcement on the BIRCH website. The purpose of the UW BIRCH M-PARC awards is to advance new methods in research related to mental health and HIV. 

The Dissertation Research Grants program supports innovative and high-quality dissertation research that addresses questions relevant to any of RSF’s priority areas: Behavioral Science and Decision Making in Context; Future of Work; Race, Ethnicity and Immigration; Immigration and Immigrant Integration; and Social, Political, and Economic Inequality. 

The NIH is encouraging grant applications to support the evaluation of the utility and validity of digital health and artificial intelligence (AI) tools and technologies in epidemiological, clinical, and intervention research. The intent is to support the addition of new measurement modalities to evaluate existing and recently developed but not yet validated digital health and AI tools such as sensor technologies, smartphone applications, software as a medical device (SaMD), and AI algorithms.

The Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences (CSSS) will be recognizing its 25th anniversary this academic year. In addition to highlighting special themes during the seminar series, CSSS will hold a celebratory event on campus on May 16th & 17th, 2024 that will bring alums, friends, and campus partners together with workshops, poster sessions, scientific sessions, and ample opportunities for socializing. Please note these dates in your calendar and keep your eyes posted for more details. 

This funding opportunity announcement invites research projects that seek to explain the underlying mechanisms, processes, and trajectories of social relationships and how these factors affect outcomes in human health, illness, recovery, and overall wellbeing. Types of projects submitted under this FOA include studies that prospectively assign human participants to conditions (i.e., experimentally manipulate independent variables) and that assess biomedical and/or behavioral outcomes in humans to understand fundamental aspects of phenomena related to social connectedness and isolation.