Eleanor Brindle, CSDE Biodemography Lab Manager, co-authored a recent study that examines variability of measurements produced by tests for salivary cortisol among established international academic laboratories. There were nine laboratories included in the study, located in the US, Canada, UK, and Germany. The authors’ findings suggest that measurement error is minimal in established-qualified laboratories, and that lab to lab differences in testing outcomes are not likely to significantly impact the determined salivary cortisol values. The full study is available below.
Noah Snyder-Mackler Involved in Relief Efforts at Research Center Impacted by Hurricane Maria
Affiliate Noah Snyder-Mackler, Assistant Professor of Psychology, is helping with efforts to aid the surrounding community and restore a research station on Cayo Santiago, an island to the southeast of the main island of Puerto Rico that saw major destruction following Hurricane Maria. The research station houses over 1,000 monkeys that are studied by faculty in various disciplines from eight universities, – including UW—and is aptly called Monkey Island. Snyder-Mackler and other researchers are organizing efforts aimed at helping the staff and community on the island and ensuring that the monkeys have access to basic resources, and have created GoFundMe pages to this end. You can read more about Monkey Island and the relief efforts below.
Victoria Sass, Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz, and Affiliates Investigate the Relationship Between Air Pollution and Psychological Distress
CSDE trainee Victoria Sass, alumni fellow Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz, and colleagues (including CSDE affiliates Anjum Hajat and Kyle Crowder) recently authored a study that investigates the impacts of air pollution on psychological distress. The study, published in Health & Place, used nationally representative panel data to examine the connection between psychological stress and exposure to polluted air during the 1999-2011 period. The findings indicate that exposure to air pollution–specifically, PM 2.5 –is associated with an increased level of individual psychological distress, even when adjusted for demographic, health, and socioeconomic controls. The effects of air pollution on psychological outcomes do, however, vary by gender and race. The full study is available below.
CSDE Seed Grant Application Now Available
The CSDE Seed Grant page is now live. The main portal, including a link to the full set of guidelines and instructions, is https://csde.washington.edu/seedgrants
There are three award types. Applications for Tiers 1 and 2 are accepted on a rolling basis and applications for Tier 3 accepted quarterly. The first deadline for Tier 3 grants is November 15, 2017.
We encourage you to think very broadly about the uses that can help move your research forward overall, and especially towards extramural funding. Please don’t hesitate to Steve Goodreau (goodreau@uw.edu) with any questions.
CSDE Informal Training Opportunities for Autumn 2017
Training & research workshops for faculty, staff and students include CSDE’s methodology workshops, as well as the ongoing working groups developing research techniques and programs. The Computational Demography Working Group is an example of the latter. They have just announced their working group lineup. Finally, CSDE trainees have professional development opportunities through regular presentation of their research. Trainees should apply to present their research at the Lightning Talks and Poster Session.
1) CSDE’s Methodology Workshops
Designed to complement formal course instruction, CSDE Workshops are offered in a shorter, more accessible format responsive to the specific demographic research needs of CSDE’s Trainees and Faculty Affiliates. Most workshops meet for 1-3 sessions of a few hours each. To inquire about workshops or request a session on a topic, contact Cori Mar.
2) Computational Demography Lunches
These are informal meetings (i) to discuss topics related to demographic data, computational methods and statistical approaches; (ii) to workshop research in progress; and (iii) to share tools via demos or tutorials.
Here is the calendar for the Autumn quarter (with tentative titles):
–Tue, Oct 24th: Adrian Dobra – Measuring Human mobility and detecting population behavior using cellphone data (Format: Discussion of computational and statistical challenges)
–Tue, Nov 7th: Jessica Godwin – Using INLA for Fast Bayesian Fitting of Latent Gaussian Models: Applications to subnational estimation of under-five mortality (Format: Tutorial/Demo)
–Tue, Nov 14th: Lee Fiorio – Understanding Patterns of Human Mobility at Different Time Scales (Format: workshopping a paper before submission to a demographic journal)
–Tue, Nov. 21st: Ariel Rokem – Homelessness data: Approaches for dealing with sensitive information (Format: Discussion of data challenges and demo)
The meetings will be held in Raitt 114 from 12:00-1:20 PM. Pizza/light refreshments will be served.
Everyone is welcome. Emilio Zagheni will send out more details about the format of each meeting via the computational demography mailing list.
If you would like to receive regular announcements about these meetings you should sign up for this mailing list:
https://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/computational-demog
3) Lightning Talks and Poster Session
Would you like an opportunity to get feedback on your research from an interdisciplinary set of scholars? Would you like to practice your presentation skills, perhaps to help you prepare for PAA or another upcoming conference? Are you taking a class that requires a poster presentation at the end of the quarter? If any (or all) of these apply, we invite you to apply for CSDE’s Lightning Talks and Poster Session, set to take place December 1st!
Eight applicants will be chosen to present a poster of their research and give a short (~2 minute) presentation of their work to CSDE students and faculty. Students at any stage in the research process are welcome to apply.
The deadline to submit your projects is October 16th. You can submit your application through the following link: https://goo.gl/forms/zpY48pTjJM2SIqYo1
We look forward to seeing your submissions! Feel free to reach out to Christine Leibbrand (leibbrce@gmail.com) with any questions you might have.
Neither Here nor There: How the New Geography of Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship Disadvantages African Americans
Mahesh Somashekhar, Department of Sociology, UW
Recent research shows that the foreign born utilize both local and long-distance social relationships to become entrepreneurs, affecting immigrants’ chances at upward mobility and their contributions to economic development. Scholars have yet to assess how African-American entrepreneurs take part in similar types of geographically dispersed business communities. Using multi-level social network analyses and OLS regressions to compare the geography of buyer-supplier ties originating from one immigrant neighborhood and one African-American neighborhood in Chicago, this paper highlights a unique mechanism that places African Americans at a disadvantage compared to immigrants: a lack of geographic diversity in African-American social capital. Immigrant entrepreneurs’ social networks, unlike African Americans’ networks, connect the foreign born to more people in different places, enabling them to circumvent the limitations of their local communities and accrue more business assets. Contrary to existing research, many foreign-born business owners in this study relied on intra-national rather than local or transnational social ties. These findings challenge researchers to reevaluate the geographic foundations of immigrant and African-American entrepreneurship and reexamine how ethnic minority entrepreneurship affects patterns of social stratification and economic development.
Washington Institute for Study of Inequality & Race Student Research Grants
Call for Applications: WISIR (Washington Institute for Study of Inequality & Race) Undergraduate and Graduate Student Research Grants
WISIR is accepting proposals for innovative student projects that are focused on the study of race, ethnicity, immigration, or inequality and politics. WISIR will offer research grants ranging from $250 to $1,000 to help undergraduate and graduate students conduct research projects. Students can utilize the funds to subsidize research costs such as visiting historical archives, fielding surveys, or completing interviews etc.
Undergraduates are encouraged to present their findings at the Undergraduate Research Symposium. Graduate students should incorporate their funded work into conference papers, journal articles, and dissertations.
Eligibility: Currently enrolled UW graduate students or undergraduate students are eligible to apply.
To apply: Submit the following information to the online application:
1) Project description (maximum of 3 pages single spaced)
2) Budget and discussion of when the research will be conducted
2) Updated copy of Resume/CV
3) One letter of recommendation emailed directly to sophiajw@uw.edu.
Please fill out the application and upload information here:
https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/sophiajw/341578
Questions: Contact Prof. Sophia Jordán Wallace, Associate Professor of Political Science, at sophiajw@uw.edu
Deadline: November 15, 2017 by 5:00PM PDT
Notification of Decision: November 30, 2017
More information about WISIR: http://depts.washington.edu/wisir/
9th Demographic Conference of “Young Demographers”
On behalf of the Young Demographers, Department of Demography and Geodemography, and the Geographical Institute (Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Science) we would like to invite you to the 9th Demographic Conference of Young Demographers called traditionally “Actual Demographic Research of Young Demographers (not only) in Europe”.
The conference is planned for two days (February 15th and 16th, 2018) and will take place at the Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Albertov 6, Prague 2. All participants will have the possibility to present their actual research and discuss it with colleagues from other countries or fields of study. Although the conference is focused mostly on PhD students of Demography, all young (or a bit older) researches (not only demographers – a section for non-demographers is planned) will be welcomed. The working language will be English and except for a few online posters all presentations are expected to be in oral form. At least one section will be devoted to presentations of research based on usage of the SAS software. The SAS Institute of the Czech Republic and the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, partners of the conference, will award a prize of the best presentation using the SAS software or the best presentation with social context.
If you are interested in participating, please submit the title of your proposed presentation, a short abstract in English (maximum 250 words) and 3–5 keywords via registration form before November 15th, 2017. You will be informed about the acceptance before the December 15th, 2017.
To learn more and submit an abstract, please visit our website: http://www.demografove.estranky.cz/en/.
Aging Workforce: Older Workers and Immigrants as New Pillars of Western Economies?
Aging Workforce: Older Workers and Immigrants
as New Pillars of Western Economies?
Call for Papers
Prague, March 1 − 2, 2018
The (eng)aging! project reflects on the crucial importance of a society-wide debate regarding the topic of demographic change and population aging. The second instalment of the international conference entitled “Aging Workforce: Older Workers and Immigrants as New Pillars of Western Economies?” will focus on work ability and work possibility for older people and the impact of aging on the labor market. We are seeking papers that will contribute to a critical examination of this topic, mainly in four key areas. We invite abstracts on any of the following themes:
1) Aging Workforce
2) Healthy Aging
3) Migration and the Labour Market
4) Implementation of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Aging.
Please submit your 500-word abstracts and a short bio by October 15, 2017. The abstracts will be subjected to a peer review process and should be submitted to: spata@keynote.cz.
The organizers have also reserved a number of spaces for non-presenting conference attendees.
For more information, please contact Martin Špáta at: spata@keynote.cz
Spatial Epidemiologist
ICF has an opening for a Spatial Epidemiologist for its Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program. The DHS Program is a US Agency for International Development (USAID) funded project that supports the collection of demographic and health data through nationally representative population and facility-based surveys.
The Spatial Epidemiologist will primarily focus on using spatial analysis techniques to analyze demographic and health issues using the DHS survey data. Tasks will include: creating spatial analysis outputs for use in program decision making, developing and conducting research and analysis of DHS spatial and survey data, collaborating with other staff to integrate geographic data in their analyses, writing analytical reports for publication, management and oversight of spatial data coming in from the field, and providing guidance on appropriate data use. Creation and use of interpolated (gridded) surfaces is an expanding field within the DHS and will be one area of focus of the position. The Spatial Epidemiologist would also be involved in other cross-cutting projects at ICF with a need for geo-spatial analysis including biodiversity and health, nutrition and agriculture. Some travel internationally is possible but would likely be less than 15% of the time. The full-time position is based in Rockville, MD (in the Washington, DC metro area).
Visit the following link to learn more and apply: https://icfi.taleo.net/careersection/icf_prof_ext/jobdetail.ftl?job=1700003608.