On Wednesday, Nov. 15th, CSSS will host Dr. Navideh Noori (Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM), at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). The seminar will take place in 409 Savery Hall and on Zoom (register here). The bidirectional interaction between undernutrition and infection can be devastating to child health. Nutritional deficiencies impair immunity and increase susceptibility to infection. Simultaneously, infections compound undernutrition by increasing metabolic demand, and impairing nutrient absorption. Treatment of acute malnutrition (wasting) can reverse some of its deleterious effects and reduce susceptibility to infectious diseases. Nutrition-specific approaches may be packaged with other interventions, including immunization, to support overall child health. To understand how mass nutritional supplementation, treatment of wasting, and vaccination affect the dynamics of a vaccine-preventable infection, authors developed a population-level, compartmental model of measles transmission stratified by age and nutrition status. Authors simulate a range of scenarios to assess the potential reductions in measles infection and mortality associated with targeted therapeutic feeding for children who are wasted and with a mass supplementation intervention.
Dr. Noori is a senior research scientist at the Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM), at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Noori uses diverse computational and statistical techniques to understand and to realize the full potential/impact of Nutrition, and MNCH interventions by generating strong evidence base. Dr. Noori holds a PhD in Forest Hydrology from Auburn University, Auburn, AL, and a MSc in Civil Engineering-Water Resource Engineering from University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
The Environmental Politics and Governance network has launched a new initiative, Deep Climate Conversations. This will be an online structured roundtable (i.e., questions circulated in advance to speakers) on a specific issue. The objective is to explore climate issues at a deeper, theoretical level. The event focused on climate migration will take place on Thursday, Nov. 16th from 9:00-10:15 PST. It will be held online (register in advance here).
This will be a 75-minute event: 60 minutes for discussion of planned questions, leaving about 15 minutes for comments from the audience. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Moderators
Jennifer Hadden, University of Maryland, College Park
Aseem Prakash, University of Washington Seattle
Panelists
Roman Hoffmann, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
Vally Koubi, ETH Zurich
Valerie Mueller, Arizona State University
Alex de Sherbinin, Columbia University
The roundtable will focus on the following questions:
- From your perspective, what are the key debates in the area of climate migration? Is the climate migration issue suffering from over-attribution given that wars, conflicts, and economic factors have historically been big drivers of cross-national migration? How do scholars isolate the effect of climate change on migration outcomes?
- How central is the migration issue to the politics of climate change? Are COPs neglecting this subject? Should climate migration be subsumed under adaptation, or do we need a new conceptual category to understand it and address it?
- In what ways could climate migration reshape international relations and domestic politics? From a cross-national perspective, are there differences in how both home and host countries are addressing the issue of climate migration?
NPR quoted CSDE Affiliate Scott Allard (Evans School of Public Policy & Governance) on a study he authored, which found that that Washington ballots by Asian and Hispanic voters had were rejected at higher rates, compared to White Voters. Allard discussed how ballots are often rejected based on signatures – “We know that people with complex surnames, multiple middle or multiple last names may often shorten those names in everyday signatures … And if they do that, it may be that the signature that they put on their ballot is what they use every day, but it may not be what’s on their driver’s license.” This detail about signatures is not well-known amongst voters. Allard commented “I had no idea that’s what was being matched,” Allard said. “Most voters we spoke to didn’t realize that as well. And we even – we’ve talked to state legislators and other elected officials, and many of them weren’t actually aware that this was how it was matched either.” Read the full story here.
CSDE Affiliate Dr. Grace John-Stewart (Global Health, Epidemiology, Medicine, and Pediatrics) and co-authors published their research in the Journal of the International AIDS Society, titled “Neurodevelopment of children who are HIV-exposed and uninfected in Kenya“. Dr. Michelle Bulterys was the lead author on the study and conducted this research during her PhD in epidemiology at UW. Dr. Irene Njuguna was the project director and is an assistant professor in the Department of Global Health. Predictors of neurodevelopment among children who are HIV-exposed uninfected (CHEU) are poorly understood. Mothers with and without HIV and their children were enrolled during 6-week postnatal care visits across seven sites in Kenya between March 2021 and June 2022. Infant neurodevelopment was assessed using the Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool, including social, language, fine motor and gross motor domains. Authors used multivariate linear mixed effects models to identify associations between 1-year neurodevelopment scores, HIV and antiretroviral therapy (ART) exposures, and household factors, adjusted for potential confounders and clustered by the site.
At 1-year evaluation, CHEU (n = 709) and children who are HIV-unexposed uninfected (CHUU) (n = 715) had comparable median age (52 weeks) and sex distribution (49% vs. 52% female). Mothers living with HIV were older (31 vs. 27 years), had lower education (50% vs. 26% primary) and were more likely to be report moderate-to-severe food insecurity (26% vs. 9%) (p < 0.01 for all). Compared to CHUU, CHEU had higher language scores (adjusted coeff: 0.23, 95% CI: 0.06, 0.39) and comparable social, fine and gross motor scores. Among all children, preterm birth was associated with lower gross motor scores (adjusted coeff: −1.38, 95% CI: −2.05, −0.71), food insecurity was associated with lower social scores (adjusted coeff: −0.37, 95% CI: −0.73, −0.01) and maternal report of intimate partner violence (IPV) was associated with lower fine motor (adjusted coeff: −0.76, 95% CI: −1.40, −0.13) and gross motor scores (adjusted coeff: −1.07, 95% CI: −1.81, −0.33). Among CHEU, in utero efavirenz (EFV) exposure during pregnancy was associated with lower gross motor scores compared to dolutegravir (DTG) exposure (adjusted coeff: −0.51, 95% CI: −1.01, −0.03). Lower fine and gross motor scores were also associated with having a single or widowed mother (adjusted coeff: −0.45, 95% CI: −0.87, −0.03) or a deceased or absent father (adjusted coeff: −0.81, 95% CI: −1.58, −0.05), respectively. Biologic and social factors were associated with child neurodevelopment. Despite socio-demographic differences between CHEU and CHUU, 1-year neurodevelopment was similar. Addressing IPV and food insecurity may provide benefits regardless of maternal HIV status. DTG use was associated with higher neurodevelopmental scores in CHEU, compared to EFV regimens, potentially contributing to a lack of neurodevelopmental difference between CHEU and CHUU.
The Washington State Standard quoted CSDE Affiliate Steven Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research on findings from their recent report that Washington’s rent prices are stabilizing. Bourassa said that while it is tough to identify the exact cause, growth may be slowing due to new apartments that were built in the last three to four years. At the same time, demand for rental housing is not necessarily growing. Bourassa discussed how this combination of rising vacancies and low demand means that “The market is saturated at the moment”. Read the full story here.
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. Responsive applications will propose either a new methodological approach, or a novel application of existing methods. Proposed methods may be qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods. We expect that this pilot work will lead to a larger extramural grant application. For more information about eligibility and guidelines, please download the full RFA .
Wednesday, November 8th, from 12:30PM-1:30PM Dr. Barbara Entwisle (Kenan Distinguished Professor of Sociology & Fellow of Carolina Pop Center, UNC) will be giving the CSSS Seminar with a talk titled “Numerators and Denominators in Health Disparities Research: What linked Electronic Health Record and American Community Survey Data Reveal.” Barbara Entwisle’s current research examines migration processes in relation to the life course, household dynamics, and community contexts in a variety of contexts. She is also leveraging linkages between electronic health records and data from the Census Bureau to study population health. The seminar will take place in 409 Savery Hall and on Zoom (register here).
We are excited to invite CSDE Trainees & Fellows to meet with Dr. Entwisle in a group from 11:00AM-12:00PM prior to the talk. This is a great opportunity to meet a senior researcher in demography and hear more about her research and career trajectory. The meeting will take place in Miller Hall Room 423A. Please email Jill Fulmore (fulmore@uw.edu) and Jessica Godwin (jlg0003@uw.edu) if you plan to attend!