Social Network Analysis: Description and Inference

This one-day course will be offered via Zoom. Attendance is required as the course will not be recorded.

Course Summary:

This course will provide an introduction to descriptive and inferential network analysis. In the morning we will cover descriptive network analysis, including: terminology, data collection/management, position (e.g., centrality) analysis, visualization, and community detection. In the afternoon we will cover statistical network analysis. Do actor attributes such as gender, race, or political preferences salary predict tie formation in a network? Does the network exhibit a tendency towards reciprocal tie formation? Statistical network models can be used to empirically study network structure and answer questions such as these. We will cover both empirical analysis and network simulation using statistical network models. Real-world network data and R code will be presented through interactive workshop sessions in both the morning and afternoon. There are no formal prerequisites for the course, but a background in basic statistical analysis (e.g., regression) will be useful.

Instructor: Bruce Desmarais, PhD

Bruce Desmarais, PhD, is the DeGrandis-McCourtney Early Career Professor in Political Science, Associate Director of the Center for Social Data Analytics, and an Affiliate of the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences at Penn State University. His research is focused on methodological development and applications that further our understanding of the complex interdependence that underlies politics and public policy. Methodologically, he focuses on methods for modeling networks, analyzing text, and running experiments on social systems. Primary application areas of interest to Bruce include public policy diffusion and digital communications involving political elites.

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Clinical Protocol Development Series

The goal of this two-day series is to provide researchers with the knowledge, tools, and resources to aid in the development of a scientific protocol for a clinical research study. Both sessions will begin at 9:00 AM and a question-and-answer session will follow each presentation.

The first day of the series will provide an introduction and focus on the following key points:
- Who needs a clinical protocol and why it is important
- Types of clinical protocols, and content expectations for sections of the protocol
- UNC Scientific Review processes
- Resources and tools available at UNC to support clinical protocol development

Audience: academic researchers, scientists, study coordinators, and students engaged in clinical research and/or clinical trials.

ACRP Contact Hours: 2.0 Contact Hours of clinical research education on the application for maintenance of ACRP's ccrc®, ccra® or cpi®, certification designations will be available for attendees

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This session will cover the scope and requirements of NIH's new Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Policy that goes into effect January 25, 2023. Supplementary NIH guidance on the DMS plans required in proposals, data repository selection, and allowable costs in proposal budgets will also be reviewed. Selected resources and tools to help researchers navigate the new requirements will be covered, including hands-on tour of selected UNC resources as time allows.

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