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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

Annotating Social Determinants of Health Using Active Learning, and Characterizing Determinants Using Neural Event Extraction

This week CSDE will be hosting Kevin Lybarger, Postdoctoral Fellow at UW Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education. Lybarger will present on using data-driven information extraction models to capture information about the social determinants of health, what is being uncovered with new modeling methods, and upcoming projects that will use these tools.

 

You can register for this seminar HERE,  and check out all the upcoming topics and register for future seminars on our website.

 

This event is co-sponsored by the Population Health Initiative.

CSDE Welcomes Four More Faculty Affiliates!

CSDE’s Executive Committee is pleased to introduce four of our new UW Faculty Affiliates:

  • Mia Bennett—Assistant Professor, Geography. Dr. Bennett is a political geographer skilled in geospatial methods. Through fieldwork and remote sensing, she researches the geopolitics of development in northern frontiers, namely the Arctic, Russian Far East, and along the more remote corridors of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. She is particularly interested in the role of Indigenous Peoples in leading infrastructure development in the North American Arctic.
  • Yuan Hsiao—Assistant Professor, Communication. Dr. Hsiao’s major research explores the intersection of political communication, social media, and social networks. He is particularly interested in bringing a social network perspective to understanding a variety of communication and social processes, such as how networks on social media contribute to protest mobilization, how social interactions shape the production of misinformation and public opinion, how spatial and social relationships affect the spread of religion, or how community networks affect health behavior.
  • Oliver Rollins—Assistant Professor, American Ethnic Studies. Dr. Rollins is a qualitative sociologist who works on issues of race/racism in and through science and technology. Specifically, his research explores how racial identity, racialized discourses, and systemic practices of social difference influence, engage with, and are affected by, the making and use of neuroscientific technologies and knowledges.
  • Emma Spiro—Associate Professor at the Information School; Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Sociology. Dr. Spiro studies online communication and information-related behaviors in the context of emergencies and disaster events. Recently, she has focused on investigating misinformation online. Her work also explores the structure and dynamics of interpersonal and organizational networks in both online and offline environments.

Morales and Center for Latinx Health Release New Report on COVID-19 Vaccination Rates

Leo Morales, co-Director of the Latinx Center for Health, has just led the authorship of a newly released, important report on rates of vaccination among Latinos in Washington State, available HERE. Their report finds that overall in Washington state, the rate of fully vaccinated individuals among Latinos twelve years of age and older was 54.6% as of September 29, 2021, up from 40.5% in July (2021), representing a 33.4% increase in the number of vaccinated Latinos. While overall rates have improved since July, the report observes that there is some heterogeneity in rates across the state; some urban and rural Latinx communities are lagging behind and remain at significant risk of COVID-19 infections. [NB: CSDE Research Scientist Phil Hurvitz provided consultative support for the visualizations in the report].

Russell Sage Foundation Accepting Inquiries and Grants

The Russel Sage Foundation has shared a number of new calls of interest to social scientists that are due either next week or the following.  These include a call for letters of inquiry (due November 10) for research in their three thematic areas: Behavioral Science and Decision Making in Context, Future of Work, & Social, Political and Economic Inequality.  There is also a special call for research around two other topics: one about Research on the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting recession in the U.S. and one about research focused on systemic racial inequality and/or the recent mass protests in the U.S. 
CSDE is always happy to help with these submissions (reviewing your narrative, providing methods support, or managing the grans submission), please contact Steve Goodreau (goodreau@uw.edu) or complete our proposal planning form to initiate that support. 
RSF Programs and Initiatives Currently Accepting Letters of Inquiry (Deadline: November 10, 2021 at 2 PM ET): Behavioral Science and Decision Making in Context, Future of Work, & Social, Political and Economic Inequality
 
The Russell Sage Foundation was established by Mrs. Margaret Olivia Sage in 1907 for “the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.” The foundation now focuses exclusively on supporting social science research in its core program areas as a means of examining social issues and improving policies. Grants are available for research assistance, data acquisition, data analysis, and investigator time for conducting research and writing up results. Budget requests are limited to a maximum of $175,000 (including overhead) per project (max. 2 years).
 
In addition, RSF will also accept LOIs relevant to any of its core programs that address at least one of the following issues:
 
1.       Research on the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting recession in the U.S. 
2.       Research focused on systemic racial inequality and/or the recent mass protests in the U.S.
 
A detailed letter of inquiry must precede a full proposal. About 15% of investigators who submit LOIs are invited based on external reviews to submit proposals. 
 
See http://www.russellsage.org/how-to-apply for more details. Questions should be sent to programs@rsage.org.
 
 
RSF Pipeline Grants Competition (Deadline: November 4th, 2022 at 2 PM EDT)
 
RSF has recently launched a new pipeline grants competition for early- and mid-career researchers in collaboration with the Economic Mobility and Opportunity program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
 
The competition seeks to promote diversity in the social sciences broadly, including racial, ethnic, gender, disciplinary, institutional, and geographic diversity. Early and mid-career faculty who have not previously received support from RSF in the form of a Trustee or Presidential research grant or a visiting fellowship from RSF are eligible to apply.
 
Tenure track assistant professors can apply for grants of up to $30,000, and associate professors who have been in the rank for less than seven years can apply for grants of up to $50,000. Full professors, associate professors in that rank for more than seven years, and those who have previously received RSF funding are eligible to be co-PI’s but cannot receive funding. Grants can be used for investigator salary, course buyouts, research assistance, data access, data collection, conference travel, and other research costs on a case by case basis.
 
 
 
2022 RSF Summer Institute on Integrating Biology into the Social Sciences
Evanston, IL | June 6 – 10, 2022
 
Application Deadline: January 15th, 2022 at 2 PM ET
 
Over the past decade, there has been an explosion of interest in biology among social scientists.  Despite the promise this new research holds, there are significant obstacles to its implementation. Among the most pressing is the shortage of scholars who are adequately trained to undertake it. To address this gap, The Russell Sage Foundation is sponsoring a summer workshop on Integrating Biology Into The Social Sciences.
 
It will consist of a week-long series of didactic lectures, small-group breakout sessions, and hands-on laboratory exercises. Attendees will (1) develop an understanding of the conceptual basis for integrating the social and biological sciences, (2) become acquainted with the basic units of biology – genes, cells, and organs – and how they function, (3) learn the basic physiology of key organ systems, (4) gain familiarity with methods used to measure human biological processes, and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, and (5) wrestle with the social, ethical, and political implications of conducting work in this area. The target audience is post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty members in the social sciences, although we are open to applications from advanced graduate students.
 
The workshop will be hosted by Northwestern University’s Cells to Society group and Institute for Policy Research (IPR). The co-directors are Greg Miller, Emma Adam and Thom McDade, and participating faculty include Edith Chen, Bridget Goosby, Claudia Haase, Michael Kobor, Chris Kuzawa, Robin Nusslock, and Michael Yudell. The workshop will be held in-person in Evanston, IL from June 6-10. Travel, housing, and workshop registration fees will be covered by a generous grant from the Russell Sage Foundation.
 
Admission is competitive and will be restricted to 30 trainees. To apply, visit https://www.russellsage.org/summer-institute-biological-approaches-social-sciences-sibass Any questions about the program or application process can be addressed to programs@rsage.org.

Attia and Co-Authors Evaluate Effects of Antiretroviral Therapy on Lung Function Among Children with Perinatally-Acquired HIV

CSDE Affiliate Engi Attia co-authored a recent article in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome that tested the effects of Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) on children in Kenya. Older children with PHIV commonly experience impaired lung function. The research suggests that for children with PHIV, those who received ART in their first twelve months of infancy had preserved lung function as they grew older.

Call for Applications: LUNA Health Research Training Program (due 11/30/2021)

The Lighting Up Native Aspirations (LUNA) program is built of a strong network of highly trained Indigenous scholars dedicated to culturally relevant research who are contributing to ameliorating health disparities among Indigenous populations. This program provides a unique interdisciplinary training opportunity in Indigenous health and health disparities research. Trainees will have access to scientific mentors across fields (e.g., life sciences, neuroscience, psychology, public health) as well as in-depth experiences with critical substantive training areas that they may not have exposure to in more traditional biomedical, clinical, or behavioral research programs.

Recent Article by Hill and Co-Author Describes Inequities in Childhood Wealth

Published in the Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, CSDE Affiliate Heather Hill and co-author Christina Gibson-Davis’ recent article serves as an introduction to the journal’s issue on wealth inequality and child development and provides detailed background and conceptual framework of the inequity of wealth in households with children. The authors present demographic breakdowns of the wealth and income of child households across household characteristics including race, child age, and parents’ marital status, discuss the contributions made in this issue, and discuss policy implications.