CCPR News and Announcements

Tuesday, Dec 1, 3:30-5:00 PM, Bunche Hall 9383
Co-sponsored with Albert Family Fund Seminar in Applied Microeconomics

“The Institutional Causes of Famine in China, 1959-61″
Nancy Qian (Yale University)

Abstract:
We investigate the institutional theory of famine in the
context of the largest famine in history: China’s Great Famine
1959-61. First, we provide evidence inconsistent with the traditional
aggregate-food shortage theory of famine by showing that even though food production declined in 1959, national food production remained well above per-capita subsistence needs. Second, we use historic data to provide evidence that are difficult to reconcile with conventional market-failure theory of famine (Sen, 1981): regions that are were more productive in grain suffered famine more in 1959 even though in normal years, they were better off. Finally, we reconcile these two facts with a model of constrained optimal policy which explains a new institutional mechanism for the generation of famine. Our model implies that government policy, which is constrained by imperfect information and limited bureaucratic capacity, can amplify the rise in mortality resulting from a downturn in aggregate food production and can cause this rise in mortality to be increasing in local food production. A counterfactual exercise suggests that the presence of free markets for food would generate lower mortality relative to the constrained optimal policy because free markets incorporate the aggregate decline in food production into the price of food, resulting in a more equal cross-regional decline in food consumption.

If you’re interested in meeting with or joining the lunch/dinner group, please send email to Prof. Pascaline Dupas (PDupas@econ.ucla.edu) with cc to Kristina de Vera (Kdevera@ccpr.ucla.edu).

“Education, Knowledge and the Evolution of Disparities in Health”
Prof. Anna Aizer
Brown University

December 9, 2009, Wednesday
12:00-1:30 PM
4240 Public Affairs Bldg

If you are interested in meeting with or joining speaker for lunch/dinner, please send email to Prof. Meredith Phillips (phillips@spa.ucla.edu) with cc to Wendy Tieu (wendy@ccpr.ucla.edu).

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., today announced the launch of the Basic Behavioral and Social Science Opportunity Network (OppNet), a trans-NIH initiative to expand the agency’s funding of basic behavioral and social sciences research (b-BSSR).

Ten million dollars in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds will support the first year of OppNet activities, which will focus on short-term activities to develop existing programs’ capacity for conducting b-BSSR. OppNet expects to release these first funding opportunity announcements by December 2009. Starting in Fiscal Year 2011, OppNet will be supported through NIH’s pool of common funds shared among the ICs.

For more information, please visit: http://www.nih.gov/news/health/nov2009/od-18.htm

California Center for Population Research Newsletter: 17 November 2009

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17 Nov 2009 Submit material for inclusion: newsletter@ccpr.ucla.edu New Staff: CCPR Assistant Please join us to welcome Kristina De Vera, a new member of CCPR, supported by NICHD stimulus funding. Kristina has years of experience working in the UCLA system. She will help us to process purchase order, travel reimbursement and databases maintenances. Her hours are from 9 to 1 Monday to Friday. She is in the office 4284D. Spatial Demography Core Assistant Lauren Sullivan is our new GIS and Remote Sensing Analyst. She is available to any member of the CCPR for work on research or grant proposals involving GIS and remote sensing. She will be in the Spatial Demography Office(4284H) Mondays 1 to 3 and Wednesday 9 to 11. Please contact Michael Shin or Tom Gillespie if there are any questions. Pioneering sociologist, Valerie Oppenheimer passed: We are very sad to announce that our colleague Valerie Oppenheimer died on November 2. For more information, please see obituary at the UCLA newsroom. Plans for a memorial service will be announced later. Upcoming Events: Date Title Seminars 11/18/09 Samuel Clark Workshops 11/20/09 CCPR Ethics Forum 12/4/09 Data Security and YOU! Announcements UCLA OPRS has reviewed the nature of public (de-identified) data. More information… Funding: U of Michigan, NPC – Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) Call for Papers: CDS-III and TA New Results Workshop

California Center for Population Research – UCLA

California Center for Population Research Ethics Forum

“Collection and Analysis of Health and Biomarker Data”

Friday, 11/20/09
12:00-1:00 PM
4240 Public Affairs Bldg.

Panelists:

Ted Robles, Psychology
Dawn Upchurch, Community Health Sciences
Pascaline Dupas, Economics
Tara McKay, Sociology

We are pleased to announce the first CCPR ethics forum of the year has been scheduled for November 20, noon to 1pm, in the CCPR Seminar Room. The topic is the collection and analysis of health and biomarker data. We have assembled a panel of faculty and graduate students who collect and analyze health and biomarker data in a variety of settings, using a variety of methods. Collectively, our panelists represent experience with laboratory, community and population-based studies, observational and experimental designs, high-risk and vulnerable populations, and developed and developing country settings. The forum will begin with brief introductory remarks from the panelists, who will identify their specific areas of specialization in the collection and analysis of health and biomarker data, and present as topics for questions and discussion examples of situations that arise in the course of their research. Once the panelists have completed their remarks, the floor will be open to discussion. Faculty and graduate students with relevant experience are strongly encouraged to come and share it, while others who are considering or actively planning relevant research are welcome to come with questions. Among the many topics that are fair game for questions and discussion are negotiating IRB review for studies that include collection or analysis of health and biomarker data, communicating results to subjects, working with vulnerable, high-risk, or other populations, and so forth. Given the range of expertise and interests of the panelists, this should prove to be a stimulating and rewarding discussion.

Drinks and light refreshments will be provided.

We plan to hold lunchtime forums on ethical, professional, and practical issues in population and demographic research several times a quarter on Fridays. We welcome suggestions for topics, especially from graduate students. In past years we have held well-received forums on such topics as collaboration, the review process, applications for extramural funding, and so forth. If you would like to suggest a topic, please write to Cameron Campbell (camcam@ucla.edu).

“Investigating Population and Health Issues in Africa Using Techniques from Demography: Microsimulation and Model Life Tables”
Prof. Samuel Clark
University of Washington

November 18, 2009, Wednesday
12:00-1:30 PM
4240 Public Affairs Bldg.

ABSTRACT:
This talk will describe two pieces of work, the first concerned with investigating the potential effects of male circumcision interventions to prevent transmission of HIV, and the second identifying empirical regularities in the age pattern of mortality in Africa and Asia.

Part 1: Three randomized controlled trials in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda have demonstrated that male circumcision reduces female‐to‐male HIV transmission, estimating an incidence rate ratio of roughly 0.55 comparing circumcised to uncircumcised men. Using a microsimulation model this work investigates the demographic consequences of an HIV epidemic and the population‐level effects of different male circumcision intervention designs. Sixteen different male circumcision interventions are applied to virtual populations to (1) understand the relationship between demographic and disease processes in HIV epidemics, (2) characterize the relationship between coverage and effectiveness of male circumcision interventions, (3) compare interventions targeted at different age groups, and (4) demonstrate approximate equity in intervention outcomes for both sexes resulting from male circumcisions that directly affect only males. The results broadly confirm that male circumcision can reduce the incidence and prevalence of HIV, but that eradication of an HIV epidemic through male circumcision alone is unlikely. Alternative intervention designs produce very different effects. The best equilibrium results are obtained when the majority of men become circumcised at ages before sexual debut, but initially targeting sexually active males yields a more immediate impact of the intervention. Finally, age rather than sex appears to be the dimension along which there is potential for inequities in intervention effect.

Part 2: This work utilizes prospectively collected, individual-level data gathered by Demographic Surveillance System sites that are members of the INDEPTH Network to identify commonly observed age patterns of mortality in Africa and Asia and use them to build a set of model life tables that are more appropriate for use in Africa. A component model of mortality is proposed that facilitates identification of empirical regularities in the age pattern of mortality via a Bayesian model-based clustering method and also provides a framework for generated model age patterns based on the characteristics of the empirical age patterns assigned to each cluster. This is the first major update of the original INDEPTH mortality patterns published in 2002, hence the designation “2.0” in the title.

Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) Analytic Research Small Grants Competition
University of Michigan, National Poverty Center
(Posted: 11/17/09, Due: 12/4/09)

Application Deadline: December 4, 2009

The National Poverty Center (NPC) at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan seeks proposals for innovative research projects that use data from the 2004 and/or 2008 SIPP Panels. The NPC anticipates funding up to 8 proposals. Awards will range from a maximum of $20,000 for research using SIPP public-use data and/or SIPP Synthetic Beta (SSB) data, to a maximum of $40,000 for research using SIPP Gold Standard restricted-use data and/or comparative analyses using SIPP Synthetic Beta (SSB) and SIPP Gold Standard restricted-use data. Grants will begin February 1, 2010 and end January 31, 2011. Funds for this competition are provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, Housing and Household Economics Statistics Division.

For details, please visit: http://www.npc.umich.edu/opportunities/research_grants/sipp/index.php

Proposals will be considered that use earlier waves of SIPP data, but the project must use data from the 2004 and/or 2008 SIPP Panels, or from the SIPP Synthetic Beta (SSB) or SIPP Gold Standard restricted-use data. Comparisons of estimates from various data sources and studies on the effects of program participation on low-income populations are also encouraged. Possible research topics include, but are not limited to:

• Investigating spell length and transitions to and from use of government programs, such as TANF, Food Stamps, WIC, SSI, unemployment insurance, etc.;

• Analyzing the interaction of employment and unemployment with participation in government programs;

• Elucidating the various mechanisms accounting for relationships between family structure/changes and indicators of well-being broadly defined to include income, material hardships, health or mental health;

• Focusing on the well-being of both adults and children in analyses of the impact of family structure and change; disentangling the effects of income on family structure/transitions;

• Focusing on men’s or women’s work lives, family transitions, and well-being;

• Examining the transitions and/or spells in health insurance coverage and their relationship to other transitions.

About the NPC

The National Poverty Center (NPC) is a university-based, nonpartisan research center. The NPC conducts and promotes multidisciplinary, policy-relevant research on the causes and consequences of poverty; provides mentoring and training to young scholars; and disseminates findings to the broad policy community. Major funding for the NPC is provided by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

To subscribe to periodic announcements from the National Poverty Center, please contact npcinfo@umich.edu

National Poverty Center
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
University of Michigan
Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, Suite 5100
735 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-3091
(734) 615-5312
(734) 615-8047 fax
www.npc.umich.edu http://grants.nih.gov/recovery/ic_supp.html.

Friday, December 4th from noon to 1:30pm. LUNCH WILL BE SERVED.
This technology workshop will address the risks that are ever present to your data from hardware failure, deliberate theft, inadvertent release, and complex network based attacks. We will outline some emerging threats to data security, present some ways to minimize the risks that your data will be lost or accessed inappropriately,and suggest preventative measures/best practices that should closely adhered to on a daily basis. Some basic tools for securing data when it is stored or transmitted will be introduced, including software tools for encryption, secure erasure, creation of personal VPN, collaboration and file sharing. Backup methods and types will be discussed. From the ever popular localized mirror solution to the many “cloud” based backup solutions we will address the good, the bad and the ugly of each technology. Feel free to suggest further topics of discussion as we hope to make this a very interactive session.

Since this is the first workshop, we need an idea of how many people will attend (so we can order enough food). If you plan to attend, please send a brief email to: helpdesk@ccpr.ucla.edu.

Thanks.

Anne

Call for Papers:

Human Migration and the Environment

Special Issue of /Population and Environment

Deadline: December 11, 2009

Guest Editors:
Susana Adamo, CIESIN, Columbia University, USA
Haydea Izazola, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana–Xochimilco, Mexico

For this special issue, we seek a range of papers that examine human migration as related to environmental context. We do so with the aim of enhancing contemporary dialogue regarding the potential migratory impacts of environmental change.

We aim for a collection of research representing both the “push” and the “pull” of environmental factors, as well as other complex dimensions of this association such as related to gender, social inequalities, environmental security, and food security.

More generally, the research should improve broader understanding and theory regarding the association between population and environment. We encourage contributions based on quantitative as well as qualitative data, as well as those that focus on policy dimensions.

/Population and Environment/ publishes research articles (both full-length and research briefs), commentary and reviews/ /related to the reciprocal links between population, natural resources, and the natural environment, with the purpose of deepening scientific and policy dialogue in this often complex area. The coverage is multidisciplinary, spanning a range of social, policy, life, and natural sciences. Work at all scales, local to global, is presented as are both theoretical and empirical contributions.

Submission Deadline: December 11th , 2009. Please submit questions prior to this deadline to Susana Adamo sadamo@ciesin.columbia.edu ) and Haydea Izazola (haydeaizazola@gmail.com ). Submitted manuscripts should be formatted in accordance with /Population and Environment/ guidelines available in the journal or at www.springer.com.

The UCLA OPRS reviewed the nature of public (de-identified) data as to whether or not the use of this kind of data constitutes human subjects research.  They have concluded:

” UCLA investigators’ access to specified “public use” data sets does not constitute research with human subjects (as it does not involve access to identifiable private information about the persons from/about whom the data were collected) and therefore is not subject to UCLA IRB review and approval or Certification of Exemption from UCLA IRB review.”

Until recently investigators still had to file with OPRS to recieve a certification of exemption.  Or, we could register the data as pre-exempt using IRB Policy 42.  Now this step is no longer necessary.  Investigators can self-certify their use of public data and keep a form for this with their research documents.  It does not need to be submitted to OPRS.

The form and decision tree for deciding whether or not use of public data falls into this category can be found at: http://www.oprs.ucla.edu/human/documents/pdf/HSDecisTree-March-2009.pdf

The decision tree asks if “Data and/or specimens are coded and identifiers* are kept separately.”  It then asks if the user of the data can access these records.  If the answer is no it is not human subjects research.

So even if an investigator or a survey group maintains records about respondents, if the records are kept separate from the public data set, and the user of the data cannot get access to those records, the use of the data is not considered human subjects research.

The UCLA Data Archive will be happy to answer any questions.  (1120-H Rolfe Hall; 310-825-0716; libbie@ucla.edu)