EVENTS
As in-person events are on hold, be sure to check out virtual talks and webinars.
Wednesday May 27, 12-1:15 PM. Demography Brown Bag. The session is titled “Covid-19 Mortality: Challenges to comparisons between and within countries” featuring
“The demography of COVID-19 deaths. A gateway to well-documented international data”. Arianna Caporali & Emmanuelle Cambois (National Institute for Demographic Studies, INED).Arianna Caporali, INED;
“NVSS Provisional COVID-19 Death Counts”. Farida B. Ahmad, CDC.
TBA, Vladmir Shkolnikov, Max Planck Institute;
Zoom channel: https://berkeley.zoom.us/j/
EVENTS
As in-person events are on hold, be sure to check out virtual talks and webinars.
Wednesday May 27, 12-1:15 PM. Demography Brown Bag. The session is titled “Covid-19 Mortality: Challenges to comparisons between and within countries” featuring
“The demography of COVID-19 deaths. A gateway to well-documented international data”. Arianna Caporali & Emmanuelle Cambois (National Institute for Demographic Studies, INED).Arianna Caporali, INED;
“NVSS Provisional COVID-19 Death Counts”. Farida B. Ahmad, CDC.
TBA, Vladmir Shkolnikov, Max Planck Institute;
Zoom channel: https://berkeley.zoom.us/j/
View past talks on our Population Sciences channel. The Brown Bag talks have been organized into playlists: http://bit.ly/2kZvaME.
May 27 | 8 a.m. Vulnerable Populations and COVID-19: Bangladesh During a Global Pandemic. Panel Discussion |Zoom Event. For complete information, visit HERE.
May 27 | 2-2:30 p.m. Covid 19: California Poll Findings and What They Mean for Our Future. Panel Discussion | Panelist/Discussants: G. Cristina Mora, Associate Professor of Sociology, Co-Director, Institute of Governmental Studies, UC Berkeley; Eric Schickler, Jeffrey & Ashley McDermott Professor of Political Science, Co-Director, Institute of Governmental Studies, UC Berkeley; Hector Rodriguez, Professor of Health Policy and Management, Director, California Initiative for Health Equity and Action, UC Berkeley. | Live Webcast. For registration and details, visit HERE. This event will be broadcast live on this page. You can also watch this event live on the UC Berkeley Facebook page
Friday, May29, 3-4 p.m. Migration, the U.S. – Mexico Border, and Covid-19: Panel Discussion. Panel Discussion. With Stefano Bertozzi, Beatriz Manz, Liz Oglesby, Adalberto Ramos and Katie Sharar. Learn more and register (required) here: https://berkeley.zoom.us/
OFF CAMPUS SPONSORS
Wednesday, May 27, 10-11:30 AM. “Demographic Insights into COVID-19: The Importance of Age, Sex, Family and … Denominators” This webinar registration is at capacity. Please join us via livestream on PAA’s YouTube channel. PAA President, Dr. Eileen Crimmins and Vice-President Sara Curran will host and moderate presentations from:
Dr. Jennifer Dowd (Oxford University): Overview of Traditional Demography and COVID So Far
Dr. Steven Goodreau (University of Washington): Demography, Social Networks and COVID-19
Marcia Castro (Harvard University): Challenges of COVID-19 in Latin America
Andrew Noymer (Univ. Calif. – Irvine): What Next for Population Science and COVID-19?
This is the first in a series of at least 3 Webinars on COVID-19. It is organized by Jenn Dowd. Next month we will have a webinar organized by Pam Herd; and in July one organized by Giovanna Merli.
Wed, 5/27 | 12:00 PM–1:00 PM ET. RTI Talk: Vaccination. As the race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 continues around the world, view Americans’ perceptions on what a vaccine would mean and whether they would use it. PRESENTERS: Brian Southwell, PhD, Bridget Kelly, PhD, Molly Lynch, MPH, and the RTI COVID-19 Rapid Response Survey Research Team MODERATOR: Pia MacDonald, PhD. Register here: https://rtiorg.zoom.us/
FUNDING
NIH DP Awards: NIH has just reissued the funding announcements for the DP ‘NIH Directors’ awards. These awards are for unusually innovative independent research by early career investigators. A description of the DPs is here. Of these, the DP2 “To support highly innovative research projects by new investigators in all areas of biomedical and behavioral research” and the DP5 (to bypass the usual postdoc path) might be of most relevance to our readers.
NIH R01 for transformative research. The NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award Program supports collaborative investigative teams or individual scientists who propose unusually innovative research projects, which, if successful, would have a major impact in a broad area of relevance to the NIH. To be considered transformative, projects must have the potential to create or overturn fundamental scientific paradigms through novel concepts or perspectives, transform the way research is conducted through the development of novel tools or technologies, or lead to major improvements in health through the development of highly innovative diagnostic, therapeutic, or preventive strategies. Consistent with this focus, Transformative Research Award applications should propose research substantially different from current mainstream research. Those wishing to apply for the NIH Director’s Emergency Transformative Research Award for SARS-CoV-2-related research must apply in response to RFA-RM-20-020.
The NIEH/NIA Telomere Measurement Network is supporting up to 5 pilot projects of secondary analyses (a $4,000 honorarium), of telomere length to assess TL as a sentinel of environmental exposures, psychosocial stress and disease susceptibility. This is targeted for postdocs or Early Stage Investigators who will benefit from the network and mentoring. These pilot projects are expected to provide investigators with pilot data to support future K or R01 applications that include telomere length with a higher level of scientific rigor and address novel questions. See attached for more information.
CONFERENCES
Social Networks – Sunbelt Conference: INSNA invites new submissions for a satellite meeting on the topic of COVID-19, which focus on the network aspects of the pandemic. We are interested in representing the range of multidisciplinary approaches that makeup INSNA’s unique position within the academy. Thus, topics may include (but are not limited to):
*epidemiological aspects of transmission of SARS-COV-2,
*social or economic consequences in the wake of the pandemic & associated societal changes,
*mental health implications of social & behavioral interventions,
*network change in a time of social distancing,
*private/public partnerships in pandemic response,
*integrative system dynamics of healthcare delivery and modeling
We plan to make this track of presentations available to the public in some format, so we seek to highlight the best of what the social network community can bring to bear on COVID-19. Following this aim and what we anticipate will be a high volume of proposals, all submissions will be reviewed for inclusion by a yet-to-be-formed committee. The COVID-19 satellite will consist of a standalone complement to the Sunbelt XL conference, to be held during the week of July 13th. The timing will be concentrated to facilitate widest possible participation from INSNA’s geographically dispersed membership. Registration costs will be covered by Sunbelt registration, or have a separate option for the Satellite alone. Submissions should include a title, complete list of authors, and an abstract (limited to 500 words). Please indicate the degree to which you anticipate that the research will be reasonably complete by the conference. As with Sunbelt norms, each participant can only present once as an author. While you can be an author on multiple papers, you will not be accepted to present more than one. This limit is specific to the COVID track, and is independent of Sunbelt limits.
Timeline
Abstracts Due: June 5
Decision Date: June 19
Registration Deadline: July 3
Conference: week of July 20 (duration will depend on # of submissions)
Submissions will be submitted via EasyChair.
Please direct any questions to covid.insna@gmail.com. Submissions can be made here – https://easychair.org/my/
WORKSHOPS
Virtual workshop, on June 9-10, 2020, presented by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Integrating the Science of Aging and Environmental Health Research, (Register by clicking on the link) Scientists have long known that environment plays an important role in aging, but many questions remain about the mechanisms through which environmental stressors influence aging, longevity, and the etiology of age-related disease. How do environmental pollutants, such as airborne particulate matter and pesticides, alter the biological processes that underlie human aging and longevity? This free workshop, part of the Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions project, will explore emerging research at the intersection between aging, longevity, environmental exposures, and human health. Workshop speakers will detail emerging research findings through two lenses: (1) How environmental exposures influence or mediate aging; and (2) How aging influences environmentally-mediated health outcomes. Participants will also explore research opportunities and needs, enabling technologies and analytical tools, and ways to use new data to inform decisions about personal health choices, public health and medical practice, or environmental regulation.
The Essex Summer School is running two (interactive) online SNA courses in July. Both courses will be interactive and make use of exercises in smaller (breakout groups), as well as offer “homework” exercises between sessions. Application information and fees can be found here: https://essexsummerschool.com/
– Introduction to Social Network Analysis (from 13 till 24 July 2020; weekdays 14.15-17.45 UK time; 35 hours). For more information: https://essexsummerschool.com/
– Advanced Social Network Analysis, focusing on cross-sectional ERGM and longitudinal RSiena models (from 27 till 31 July 2020; 14.15-17.45 UK time; 17.5 hours). For more information: https://essexsummerschool.com/
WEBINAR
Address-Based Sampling, by MSG. Wed, May 27th, 2020, Time: 1:30pm – 2:30pm EDT. As a result of the COVID-19 crisis, it is crucial that government and health officials obtain reliable estimates of infection rates in the country. A pragmatic and effective option for this goal is to conduct surveys that rely on probability-based sampling techniques that can provide full coverage of the entire US population. Whether the needed data are to be collected through mailing out test kits or requiring individuals to come in for testing, many researchers are relying on Address Based Sampling (ABS) methods for selection of representative samples of households. While a basic ABS frame is constructed from the Delivery Sequence File (DSF) of the USPS, several key refinements are needed before that resulting database can serve as an effective tool for survey sampling. By relying on various government and commercial data sources, Marketing Systems Group has developed the most nuanced sampling frame for ABS applications. Mansour Fahimi and Ashley Hyon will outline how our ABS frame is constructed and cover a set of best practices for effective design and administration of mail-based surveys. Through this webinar you will learn about: Data Sources and Frame Compilation; Frame Enhancements & Ancillary Variables; Address Classifications; Sampling Options; and Weighting Considerations
Note: A recording of the webinar will be sent to all registrants, so if you can’t make it, still sign up! https://register.gotowebinar.
DATA
The Census Bureau has released the first data from its new COVID-19 Household Pulse Survey, which asks over 50,000 Americans about their employment status, spending patterns, food security, housing, physical and mental health, access to health care, and educational disruption during the coronavirus pandemic (see previous coverage). The data, which covers April 23-May 5, was released as tables and through an interactive dashboard. More information about the survey is available on the Census Bureau website. Data will continue to be released on a weekly basis throughout the survey’s 90-day duration. In addition, the Census Bureau has released data on the pandemic’s impact on small businesses collected by its Small Business Pulse Survey.
D-LAB
All D-Lab workshop instruction, events, and consultation are moving to online delivery for the rest of the semester. The D-Lab Collaboratory and Convening Room will be closed to the public during this time. We will assess and share decisions at a later date about how and when we will return to in-person delivery. Be sure to check the D-lab calendar at the website, dlab.berkeley.edu. D-Lab offers training, individual consulting and data services for the UC Berkeley community – faculty to undergrads.
RELATED LISTS
JOBS
All jobs and postdoctoral fellowships are posted as we receive them on the Demography Department Jobs Listserv, http://lists.demog.berkeley.
MIGRATION MAILING LIST
Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative (BIMI.berkeley.edu) is a research center for the study of immigrants and immigration. BIMI has a mailing list which is where a good deal of immigration and migration announcements are posted, and only some of that material is posted on the PopSciences Weekly News. Sign up for it with this link
SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH MAILING LIST
Tue$day Top Tip$ for SPH Research is a listserv with research funding opportunities and other information pertinent to public health researchers who are not necessarily population researchers. To subscribe, write to Dr. Lauren Goldstein, lhg@berkeley.edu.
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