Last week, CSDE Affiliate Ann Bostrom, Weyerhaeuser Endowed Professor in Environmental Policy at the Evans School, gave a Distinguished Lecture in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences at the National Science Foundation. Bostrom discussed how the effectiveness and costs of policies to slow or stop climate change should, for a rational actor, influence policy preferences, but that research on risk perceptions and decision making suggests that emotional responses to climate change may be as or more important.
In a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults we asked people for their own ideas about how to slow or stop climate change, then their judgments of possible policy strategies. A majority supported slowing or stopping climate change by reducing carbon emissions. Respondents differentiated systematically between the ease and effectiveness of actions and assessed government policies as more effective than personal actions. However, they differentiated little between the effectiveness of possible individual actions, or between the effectiveness of diverse government policies. Even after controlling for perceived costs, knowledge, and political ideology, perceived effectiveness of policies is positively associated with policy preferences, as are perceptions of climate change as a proximate risk. Emotions such as concern and fear—but not hope—mediate the influence of these two factors on policy preferences.
Closing the know-do gap – evidence-based policy capacity in South Africa.
Bin Yu, Chancellor’s Professor, Departments of Statistics and EECS, University of California, Berkeley, statistics.berkeley.edu/~binyu
Abstract
In this talk, I’d like to discuss the intertwining importance and connections of three principles of data science in the title and the PCS workflow that is built on the three principles for a data science life cycle including problem formulation, data cleaning, EDA, modeling, post-hoc analysis and data conclusions. The principles will be demonstrated in the context of two collaborative projects in neuroscience and genomics for interpretable data results and testable hypothesis generation. If time allows, I will present proposed PCS inference that includes perturbation intervals and PCS hypothesis testing. The PCS inference uses prediction screening and takes into account both data and model perturbations. Finally, a PCS documentation is proposed based on Rmarkdown, iPython, or Jupyter Notebook, with publicly available, reproducible codes and narratives to back up human choices made throughout a data science life cycle. The PCS workflow and documentation are demonstrated in a genomics case study available on Zenodo.
Links to papers: [1] Three principles of data science: predictability, computability and stability (PCS) (https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.08152). [2] Interpretable machine learning: definitions, methods and applications (https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.04592)
I’ve attached a flyer for BIOA 455, the lab methods course that I will teach in in the Biodemography Lab in Fall 2019. The course is titled ‘Laboratory Methods in Hormones and Behavior’, but is still listed in registrar under old name (Reproductive Ecology Lab Seminar, official name change did not go through yet). Please circulate among students/appropriate listservs for CSDE and the Biodemography lab.
Registration will be by add code only. There are no pre-reqs for the course, but first preference will be given to graduate students and senior undergraduate students with backgrounds and interests in lab and quantitative methods.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Deirdre Cooper Owens is an Associate Professor of History at Queens College, CUNY and an Organization of American Historians’ (OAH) Distinguished Lecturer. Cooper Owens has won a number of awards and honors that range from serving as an American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology Fellow in Washington, D.C. to being the inaugural recipient of the Zora Neale Hurston Award from the Black Feminist Project. Her first book, Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology (UGA Press, 2017) won the 2018 Darlene Clark Hine Book Award from the OAH. Cooper Owens is also the Director of the Program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia, the country’s oldest cultural institution. Currently, she is working on a second book project that examines mental illness during the era of United States slavery and is also writing a popular biography of Harriet Tubman that examines her through the lens of disability.
ABOUT THIS LECTURE SERIES
This lecture was established to honor the memory of our beloved colleague, Stephanie M.H. Camp, who was the Donald W. Logan Family Endowed Chair in American History, and the author of the award-winning book Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South (2004). Before her untimely death in 2014, Professor Camp was writing a book about race and beauty. Her work remains a powerful influence on the fields of race, gender, and slavery in and beyond American history. This lecture is made possible by the generous contributions to the Stephanie Camp Lecture Fund for the History of Race and Gender, www.giving.uw.edu/StephanieCamp.
The postdoc scholar will work with Dr. Shannon Monnat and other Lerner Center faculty affiliates, staff, and graduate students on research related to social and spatial determinants of health, health disparities, and/or premature mortality. Desirable applicants will have research agendas that align with one or more of the Center’s key strategic priority areas of substance abuse, mental health, tobacco use, diet and nutrition, or physical activity. Candidates with interests in rural health and/or rural demography are especially encouraged to apply. The postdoc position will work closely with Dr. Monnat and other Center affiliates to design and conduct community-based research studies and/or conduct secondary analysis of health and other demographic data (particularly related to social and geographic disparities in health outcomes), co-author peer-reviewed publications, publish research briefs for the Lerner Center Population Health Research Brief Series, and present research at conferences. This position will offer exceptional opportunities for collaboration with Lerner Center graduate students, staff, and affiliated faculty as well as faculty and graduate students within the Center for Policy Research (https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/cpr.aspx), the Aging Studies Institute (https://asi.syr.edu/), and the Policy, Place and Population Health Lab (https://asi.syr.edu/policy-place-and-population-health-lab/). At least 25% of the Lerner Postdoctoral Scholar’s time will be reserved for the individual’s own research.
The initial term of appointment is one year, but reappointment for a second year is expected, subject to good performance. The Scholar will have access to university resources and office space in the Center for Policy Research at SU.
The Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky invites applications for a post-doctoral scholar in sociology of education for the 2019-2020 academic year. We seek candidates with a disciplinary base in the sociological study of education paired with strong training in quantitative, qualitative, and/or mixed methods. The candidate will join a department committed to interdisciplinary study of P-20 educational policy, its formation, implementation, and evaluation.
The EPE department offers an EdD in Educational Policy Studies, Evaluation & Measurement, a PhD in Studies in Higher Education, two interdisciplinary PhD tracks in Education Sciences, an MS in Educational Policy Studies, an MS in Higher Education, an MS in Research Methods, and graduate certificates in International Higher Education and Research Methods.
Responsibilities for this position include:
• Develop and teach graduate courses in sociology of education, social policy issues in education, policy analysis, and/or research and evaluation methods (teaching load of 3 courses during the academic year – 1 in fall and 2 in spring)
• Maintain an active line of research, publication, and other scholarly activities
• Provide service to the program and department
• Provide consultation to graduate students as needed in relevant areas of expertise
Interested candidates should submit:
• A letter of application (upload under Cover Letter)
• Curriculum Vitae
• One representative publication/working paper – e.g., dissertation chapter (upload under Special Request 1)
• Statement of teaching philosophy (upload under Special Request 2)
• Names and contact information for three references when prompted in the application. This information will be used to solicit reference letters from finalists only.
Review of applications will begin April 20, 2019 and continue until the position is filled. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.
We are delighted to announce that the Call for Abstracts is now Open!
Theme: ‘Public Data for Public Good’
Topic areas:
The conference programme will include a range of presentations across the following topic areas to share new knowledge, generate discussion and promote collaboration opportunities:
• Applied research: work that has contributed new knowledge, using data linkage or population data sciences approaches. Research that is either complete or will have significant findings by the conference date
• Case studies and concepts: research study protocols; local/case-specific technical developments; proof of concept studies; concept dictionaries; data resource descriptions; capacity building
• Ethical, Legal and Social Implications: regulatory and governance challenges and solutions; confidentiality; data security; public and other stakeholder engagement; ethical issues; social acceptability
• Evidence to support policy making: work generating evidence to inform policy making; engaging with policy makers; demonstrating and measuring impact
• Methodological and analytical advances: dealing with large scale, complex and messy data; data linkage and quality; emerging data types; data visualisation; data interoperability;
Please note: the deadline of Friday 12th July 2019 will not be extended so be sure to submit early.
Daniel Belsky, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University, will review data from analysis of US, UK, and New Zealand cohorts to test how proposed quantifications of biological aging are related to other indicators of healthy lifespan; if different approaches to quantification of biological aging measure the same underlying construct; and if measured biological aging is modified in a randomized trial of caloric restriction, an intervention known to extend healthy lifespan in animals. Results suggest new directions for population health science and offer evidence for an approach to accelerating development of interventions to extend healthy lifespan.