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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

Martin and Keith participate in NICHD’s Decoding Maternal Morbidity Data Challenge

In July, CSDE sent out a call to affiliates encouraging submissions to the NICHD Decoding Maternal Morbidity Data Challenge.  CSDE offered to all teams scientific and technical support, as well as the chance to earn $5,000 in research support from CSDE. On October 15, 2021, CSDE Affiliate and Assistant Professor of Anthropology Melanie Martin and postdoctoral scholar Monica Keith submitted their entry to NICHD. Working from the concept of social determinants of health and embodied stress, they developed a series of structural equation models to identify novel causal pathways linking sociostructural factors and physiological measures of accumulated stress to risks of multiple hypertensive disorders with large burdens among pregnant women. Some pathways identified were consistent across all racial and ethnic groups considered, but some showed considerable variation, reflecting opportunities to address the particularly high burden of maternal morbidity among Black and Hispanic/Latinx mothers.

CSDE Affiliates Steven Goodreau, Jerry Herting, and Tyler McCormick provided feedback to Melanie and Monica and we are happy to announce that Melanie and Monica will receive the $5,000 CSDE award! Congratulations to the team and we wish them the best as their entry goes in for review for one of NICHD’s seven $50,000 prizes!

Farquhar and Co-Authors Highlight Association Between Obesity and Hypertension in Kenya

In early October, CSDE Affiliate Carey Farquhar and colleagues published a study Medicine on the relationship between obesity and the risk of chronic disease using a population-based, national survey conducted in Kenya. The paper, available in full HERE, finds high levels of obesity prevalence, which is associated with hypertension and dyslipidemia, but not associated with diabetes.  Consequently, they argue for urgent public health measures to address obesity and its co-morbidities.

Ellis and Co-authors in 2 Publications Investigate the Stability of Diverse Neighborhoods in the US and UK

Two companion articles by CSDE Affiliate Mark Ellis and colleagues have recently become publicly available. The first, published in Sociology of Race and Ethnicity (available in full HERE), explores the stability of neighborhood composition in highly diverse US census tracks from 1990 to 2010. In this context, tracts transitioning to higher diversity had previously been predominantly white, while tracts transitioning from high to low diversity were most commonly majority Latino. The second article, published in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (available in full HERE) finds that multi-ethnic UK neighbhorhoods show evolving stability. These findings stand in stark contrast with the US companion study. In the English context, using Census data from 1991 to 2011, the authors find that 88% of neighborhoods which were highly diverse in 1991 remained highly diverse in 2001, and 95% of diverse neighborhoods in 2001 remained so in 2011.

e-Science Institute Call for Proposals to Access Azure Cloud Computing (due November 8th)

The University of Washington eScience Institute and UW Research Computing are partnering with Microsoft Azure to offer cloud computing credits to UW researchers (faculty, postdocs, research staff) for both research and teaching projects. (Graduate and undergraduate students are also encouraged to reach out to the UW Research Computing Club for access to cloud computing resources for their own work.)

Research Proposals: Proposals for research projects in any discipline should fit one of the following categories:

  • The research project is new and can take advantage of the Azure cloud computing resource. The project needs to have other necessary resources in place so that it can start as soon as the computing credits are awarded.

< OR >

  • The project is ongoing and the research team may or may not already be using Azure or other computing resources.

The award decisions (see more details below) will be based on both the scientific merit and suitability for cloud computing. The eScience Institute may be able to accept HIPAA-compliant projects so please indicate this requirement on the application.

Teaching Proposals: This solicitation includes proposals for teaching projects in any discipline that can take advantage of Azure. These can be computing resources for undergraduate and graduate level for-credit courses, other short courses, and extracurricular research projects carried out by student clubs/teams with faculty mentoring. The lead teaching faculty or faculty mentors of student teams will need to be the Principal Investigators on the application and provide oversight for awarded projects.

Award information: Awarded credits must be used by June 30, 2022. Each research project can request up to $20,000 in credits. Each teaching project can request up to $10,000 in credits. The credits can be used for any Azure service. The eScience Institute will award up to $200,000 in credits in total. Selected projects will also have access to technical support from Microsoft and the eScience Institute for getting started in the cloud.

Who may apply: Principal Investigators (PIs) and co-PIs should be faculty, postdocs, or research staff members at the University of Washington (including the Seattle, Bothell and Tacoma campuses). An individual may participate as PI/co-PI on only one proposal. Co-investigators, consultants and other personnel are not limited by this restriction. PIs/co-PIs on previously awarded projects through last year’s solicitation are eligible to apply again.

Information sessions: The eScience Institute will be hosting two online information sessions on:

  • Friday October 22nd, 9:00-10:00 a.m. PT, RSVP here.
  • Tuesday October 26th, 3:00-4:00 p.m. PT, RSVP here.

How to Apply:

  • Applications should be submitted online via this form.
  • Preference will be given to applications received by EOD Monday November 8th
  • Proposal content:
    • Project description, up to 2 pages, with minimum font size 10.
      • Research proposals should include specific aims, background, significance and innovation, and methods.
      • Teaching proposals should include the description of the class, the curriculum outline, and the computing projects.
      • Both research and teaching proposals should include a description of how the computing credits will be used, and documentation that any other resources needed for this project are in place (for example, grant award notification, personnel who would undertake the work, or course approval documentation).
    • A development timeline should be included in each proposal that shows the milestones for the project including the expected usage of the Azure resources as a function of time (1 page limit). Please use the Azure pricing calculator in this process.
    • References (no page limit).

Review criteria:

  • Suitability for cloud computing resources.
  • For research projects:
    • The significance and innovation of the proposed research
    • Likelihood of success
    • Impact to the research field
    • Potential for continuation, external funding and/or commercialization
  • For teaching projects:
    • The need for this resource
    • The relevance and significance of the projects to the class and the learning outcome
    • The number of students this will benefit

Post-award expectations:

  • All teams will be expected to submit a brief progress report at the midpoint, and a brief closeout report at the end of the award duration. Unused credits will be reassigned to other projects.

 

Questions? Email Belinda Sachs, CSDE’s Grants Manager (belindab@uw.edu). To submit a proposal through CSDE, please complete a Planning Proposal Submission Form.