Take the Next Four Weeks to Prepare Your Submission for the WSDS 2019 Program
Wherever you are in your career, participating in WSDS is a valuable opportunity to present your work or research or to share your perspective on the role of women in today’s statistics and data science fields. Take some time to think about what you might contribute, then prepare a concurrent, panel, or speed session abstract to submit for the WSDS 2019 program!
Text as Data – eScience Special Interest Group
Summary
Text is a ubiquitous and valued data source in the computer and information sciences, many areas of the natural and social sciences, engineering, business and more. This eScience Special Interest Group is for students, faculty and researchers interested in sharing and learning about UW research and teaching that uses text as data. The group’s objectives include:
Activities
Spring Seminar and Discussion Group
The text-as-data discussion group is a forum for learning and and sharing information. The bi-weekly session is for discussing research and receiving feedback on text methods, data, discoveries, and tools.
Time: TBD, Spring Quarter 2019
Location: WRF Data Science Studio, Physics/Astronomy Tower, 6th Floor
Please contact Spencer Wood (spwood@uw.edu) if you are interested in presenting on research or teaching during the discussion-group this Spring. The date and time will be determined based on
availability of interested participants.
Moderated list serve
Anyone interested in text-as-data at UW can sign-up to receive and share information about research and activities on campus from textasdata@u.washington.edu.
Contacts
Spencer Wood (eScience Institute) spwood@uw.edu
John Wilkerson (Department of Political Science) jwilker@uw.edu
UW Text-as-data Listserve textasdata@u.washington.edu
Last Friday the CSDE community gathered to celebrate our graduate students, their insightful research, and the end of the Winter quarter. Five CSDE trainees from Sociology, Geography, Anthropology, and Public Policy presented research on topics ranging from tenant eligibility discourse to relationship duration. Lee Fiorio, Geography doctoral student and former CSDE Fellow, won the best poster award for his poster titled “Measuring U.S. Interstate Mobility Using State of Birth Stocks: 1850 to 2010.”
CSDE thanks all those who presented, attended, and contributed to the event. In particular, panelists Rachel Berney, Clara Berridge, KC Gary Chan, Karin Frey, William Lavely, Adrian Raftery and Jon Wakefield, the Center for Social Science Computation and Research, and Madeline Mundt’s team. A special thanks to our student organizer Yuan Hsiao, CSDE Training Director Jon Wakefield, Training Coordinator Aimée Dechter, Administrator Scott Kelly, and Information Specialist Luiza Barbato Montesanti.
Migration is an important social determinant of health for immigrants in the United States. In an article published in the March 2019 issue of Journal of Social Policy, CSDE Affiliate Jane Lee, Assistant Professor of Social Work, investigates potential mechanisms that link the sociopolitical context and health among Latino immigrants. Specifically, she explores how perceptions of the sociopolitical context are implicated in this relationship. While prior research has assessed the potential health impact of specific immigration policies, there is limited understanding of how the overall sociopolitical context shapes the health of Latino immigrants.
Qualitative interviews with community gatekeepers (n=13) and Latino immigrants (n=34) in New York City revealed general perceptions about the overall sociopolitical context, which were characterized by discrimination towards immigrants, unpredictable and mercurial circumstances, and confusion and lack of information. These perceptions influenced participants’ psycho-emotional health and health-related behaviors. Findings suggest the importance of integrating immigrants’ perceptions of the sociopolitical context into health promotion efforts. Furthermore, findings demonstrate the need for paradigm shifts in developing policy-related actions to integrate immigrants’ perspectives.
In two recent articles, CSDE Affiliate Clara Berridge, Assistant Professor of Social Work, examines the implications of web-enabled video cameras adopted by families to protect elders in residential care from the possibility of harm, often with insufficient attention to ethical implications and privacy vulnerabilities for residents, care workers, and roommates. Considering the ethical implications of how we use technology to keep older adults safe has become urgent, with seven state laws now regulating camera monitoring and more on the way.
The first article, published in the Elder Law Journal, presents a comparative analysis of seven state regimes that regulate the use of monitoring systems in nursing home resident rooms. Authors find that states attempt to protect privacy through a variety of interlocking privacy constraints: social, technical, and institutional safeguards that restrict how monitoring devices can be introduced and operated.
The second, published in AJOB Empirical Bioethics, draws on findings from the first facility survey on this topic to address three ethical issues: the risk that in-room cameras pose to residents’ privacy and dignity, the risk of undermining care workers’ sense of being fiduciaries for residents, and the probable extension of camera use by facilities to monitor staff and residents. Authors argue that with an aging population, intensifying strain on the care workforce, and ease of access to Web-connected cameras, this is a critical moment to address these ethical challenges
Last week, NPR featured a Proceedings of the National Academy of Science study revealing that air pollution is disproportionately caused by white Americans’ consumption of goods and services, but disproportionately inhaled by black and Hispanic Americans. The study first authored by Christopher Tessum, a UW postdoctoral researcher. NPR quoted CSDE Affiliate Anjum Hajat, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, who says “This paper is exciting and really quite novel…Inequity in exposure to air pollution is well documented, but this study brings in the consumption angle.” According to Hajat, the study reveals an inherent unfairness: “If you’re contributing less to the problem, why do you have to suffer more from it?”
Authors found that black and Hispanic Americans bear a “pollution burden”, with populations on average exposed to 56 and 63% respectively more PM2.5 than they produce. Non-Hispanic white people, on the other hand, experience around 17% less air pollution exposure than results from their resource consumption. These disparities appear to be driven by societal trends ranging from income inequality to the division of neighborhoods that house different ethnic groups in US cities. While similar studies in the UK and the US have revealed the unequal burden of pollution on minority groups, this is the first to contrast that against the volume of pollutants emitted by those groups.
This research was also featured in The Independent, Health Day, Reuters, The Washington Post, VOA News,
CSDE and the UW Population Health Initiative are seeking applications from advanced UW graduate and undergraduate students for a funded Summer Population Health Applied Research Fellowship, a collaboration between CSDE and the UW Population Health Initiative. Over the course of 10-weeks (6/24-8/30/2019), Fellows will receive training in applied research and deliver a product to the Community Health Services Division of Public Health – Seattle & King County, which will inform plans for redesigning delivery of prevention-based services for pregnant and parenting families. Applications are due April 3, 2019.
Each team of Fellows will consist of one undergraduate and three graduate students, under the guidance of a faculty expert. The team will study how participation in a Washington State maternal and infant support program (First Steps) might further impact disparities in birth outcomes between racial groups in King County, accounting for socioeconomic and population trends. Fellows will also undertake a cost-benefit analysis of the impact of improving birth outcomes and reducing disparities.
Graduate students at the master’s and doctoral levels and professional students from all UW schools and colleges, and juniors and seniors are eligible. Graduate students will be paid an hourly Graduate Research Student Assistant summer rate for 20 hours/week over a period of 10 weeks. Read more about the fellowship and application below and contact pophlth@uw.edu with any questions.
Hello Canadian demographers and friends,
We are excited to continue the tradition of the Canadian Happy Hour Mixer at PAA 2019 in Austin, thanks to the generous support of the Canadian Population Society.
When: Friday, April 12, 6-8 pm (immediately following the Presidential Address)
Where: Icenhauer’s, 83 Rainey St. Austin, TX 78701 (just a 12 minute walk from the JW Marriott)
Registered guests receive a complimentary drink. Please RSVP using this link if you plan to attend.
Feel free to forward this invitation to other Canadian (or Canadian-at-heart) colleagues, collaborators, and students who are attending PAA.
Looking forward to seeing you in Austin. Don’t hesitate to contact us for further information.
PS: if you aren’t already a member of CPS, you can join here.
Sincerely,
Nicole Denier & Laura Wright
The Center for Health Innovation & Policy Science invites you to our inaugural Health Policy Symposium, “The Future of the VA: Privatization or the Model for a US Single Payer System?”, on March 21st, 2019 from 6:00-8:00pm in Kane Hall 210. Please join us for a timely and thought-provoking discussion followed by a period for audience questions, moderated by UW heath policy expert, Aaron Katz.
Our panelists include:
If you’d like to attend, please visit our Eventbrite webpage to reserve your spot as we have limited seating: https://2019-chips-symposium.eventbrite.com
Attached is the event flyer that we encourage y’all to send to your networks.
Any questions can be directed to uwchips@uw.edu. Thanks and see you all March 21st!
Statistical Demography (CSSS/STAT/SOC 563) will be offered by again this spring 2019. The course, taught by Adrian Raftery, covers statistical methods and models for estimating and forecasting population quantities and covers a variety of innovative topics, including probabilistic population projections and Bayesian hierarchical models. The material covered in this course is not taught at most universities, even those with top demography programs.
Please note that you must first complete the prerequisites or receive permission from the instructor. The perquisites are STAT 509/CS&SS 509/ECON 509, or STAT 513. The prerequisites can also be satisfied by the Sociology first-year statistics sequence (SOC 505-6-7), PLUS (a) basic mathematics for social statistics (e.g. CSSS Math Camp or CSSS 505), AND at least one of the more mathematical CSSS classes (e.g. CS&SS 560 or 564).
A&S and Evans School students have priority in Period I of registration. Other students may register afterward.