On 5/1 from 12:00-1:00 pm, Dr. Nicolai Wohns will be presenting at the monthly CSDE Biomarker Working Group meeting. The Biomarker Working Group is a forum for discussing practical and theoretical issues related to collecting and using biomarker data in population research. This event takes a hybrid format, meeting in Raitt 223 and on
Zoom.
Nicolai Wohns is a physician and PhD candidate in philosophy at UW, studying the philosophy of aging, with particular interest in ethical and epistemic implications of geroscience. Dr. Wohns will present a talk entitled “The Ethics of Age Estimators.”
Age estimators have been shown to predict chronological age, onset of aging-related diseases, all-cause mortality, and disease-specific mortality, as well as other variables, such as income level, physical exercise, and vegetable intake. While their potential as diagnostic and prognostic instruments is considerable, these technologies also raise pressing ethical concerns—both within clinical settings and across society more broadly. In this work-in-progress talk, I examine the concept of biological age and explore a range of ethical challenges posed by the use of biological clocks.
The Democracy & Civic Health Initiative is pleased to offer a Catalyst Fund that awards small grants to encourage the development of new research innovations for activities and projects that seek to revitalize civic health and bolster democratic institutions across the country. The purpose of this grant is to support faculty members and PI-eligible research staff to develop preliminary data or proof-of-concept needed to pursue follow-on funding or additional concept development to scale one’s efforts. Research projects should seek to catalyze new lines of inquiry and may include, but not be limited to, qualitative or qualitative empirical work, data analysis, evidence synthesis, comparative study, and so forth. Awards of up to $25,000 per project will be available with a project period of up to 12 months. Learn more here.
Our own Matt Weatherford was recommended for membership to the University of Washington Computing Directors Group. The purpose of the Computing Directors Group is to facilitate communication and collaboration between central UW-IT teams and those at the college and unit level (distributed IT). The aim is to collaboratively specify, design, and develop central IT solutions and ensure that those solutions work not only for central campus IT teams, but also all represented entities. Matt’s teams at CSDE and the UW Data Collaborative have a focus on research and students, as well as including an IT compliance and security focus that enables his team to host regulated research data including Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).
CSDE Senior Research Scientist Deven Hamilton provides direct support for the development of survey modules to collect egocentric network data and sexual behaviour data that will be fielded as part of an upcoming RCT. These data, in conjunction with the RCT results, will serve as the empirical basis for an agent-based epidemic model to estimate the health and economic impact of scaling up WHO-recommended STI PPT and doxyPEP in Kenya. Hamilton is also responsible for building the agent-based network model and running the epidemic simulations in support of the overall project aims.
This work is part of a recently approved R01 grant (A187468) developed by CSDE Affiliate Susan M. Graham, Professor of Global Health and Medicine (PI), Hamilton, and colleagues. This study’s goal is to evaluate the effectiveness of two RCT interventions on Gonorrhea: WHO-recommended periodic presumptive treatment (PPT) and doxy-Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP), compared to standard syndromic treatment for reducing STI burden among Kenyan MSM. This project will also assess the acceptability, feasibility, and safety of implementing WHO-recommended PPT and doxy-PEP compared to standard care among providers and patients.
To arrange a consulting appointment with Deven Hamilton or any of CSDE’s scientific support staff, please use the CSDE Science Core Consultation Request form.
Refugee studies research has typically identified “hosts” as being distinct and opposite from refugees, but recent scholarship has brought this typology into question. In a recent study in the Journal of Humanitarian Affairs, CSDE Affiliate Rawan Arar (Law, Societies, and Justice) critically examines the ‘host’ label within refugee studies by considering multiple scales of analysis. The study shows how individuals confront the refugee/host binary in their daily lives, and introduces the concept of humanitarian fiction to explain the limits of previously used definitions. Read the study here.
In this Professional Development Workshop, CSDE will host a panel of individuals who have been on the job market recently, landing in both academic and non-academic positions, as well as those who have been a part of hiring committees. While we will have some planned topics of discussion, please come prepared with questions for our panel so that you can feel as prepared as possible as you enter the job market! We will announce our panel members closer to the event date. Learn more and register here!
This event will be hybrid, and the Zoom link will be provided upon registration.