Causes and Outcomes of Persistent Unethical Behavior

Why does unethical behavior persist over prolonged periods of time—often as an open secret—in many workplaces? What makes institutions of higher education especially prone to such systems? How can such behavior be stopped, disrupted, or countered? In this session, Professors Drumwright and Cunningham will share their research on networks of complicity and foster discussion about responding to the enablers of unethical behavior.

Presenters:

Minette Drumwright, PhD
Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations
University of Texas-Austin

Peggy Cunningham, PhD
Rowe School of Business
Dalhousie University

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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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This course will be offered over two mornings (10/26 and 10/28), 3.5 hours per morning, via Zoom. Attendance is required as the course will not be recorded.

Course Summary:
This course provides an introduction to using Python in a data analysis and research environment. No prior programming experience is required. Participants will learn the basics of the Python language and how to use Jupyter Notebooks. Through a series of hands-on exercises, participants will learn to load data using the pandas library, create plots and data visualizations using the matplotlib library, and perform numerical analysis using the NumPy and SciPy libraries. We will briefly discuss the statsmodels and scikit-learn packages for regression and machine learning.

Instructor: Matthew Wigginton Bhagat-Conway, PhD
Matthew Wigginton Bhagat-Conway, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning and a consultant in the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science. His research interests are in travel behavior, urban transportation, and statistical methods for transportation data analysis. He is available to assist researchers with statistics and data analysis.

Additional Course Registration
- Registration will close at 12:01am 10/23/2022. No late registrations will be accepted.
- Zoom link for this course will be sent prior to the course. Registration must be made at least 3 days prior to the course date to receive the Zoom link.

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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.

On the second day of the series, we will take a "deeper dive" into clinical study design, statistics, and their impact on clinicaltrials.gov reporting:
- Clinical Protocol Study Design - aims, objectives, endpoints, and outcomes
- Statistical analysis, sample size considerations, data management
- Clinicaltrials.gov - outcome measure reporting
- Protocol problem spots and ways to improve protocols

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 interactive online workshop will provide an introduction to focus groups, a data collection method used in qualitative research. Attendees will also observe or participate in a mini "mock" virtual focus group session.

Topics:

• Focus group methodology
• Considerations for planning a focus group
• Development of focus group discussion guides
• Focus group facilitation skills
• Tips for conducting virtual focus groups

Presenters:
MaryBeth Grewe, MPH
Engagement and Qualitative Research Specialist
NC TraCS Institute

Simone Frank, MPH
Community Engagement and Outreach Specialist
NC TraCS Institute

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The theme of the next Carolina Data Science Now seminar is Unearthing Environmental Impact.

The event will feature three lightning talks by professors and researchers in UNC-Chapel Hill’s academic community, centered around how data science is used to study, impact, and improve the environment. These talks will be followed by a guided panel, an opportunity for questions and answers with the speakers, and a discussion with the data science community at UNC-Chapel Hill.

For more information, please visit here.

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This course will be offered over two mornings (10/26 and 10/28), 3.5 hours per morning, via Zoom. Attendance is required as the course will not be recorded.

Course Summary:
This course provides an introduction to using Python in a data analysis and research environment. No prior programming experience is required. Participants will learn the basics of the Python language and how to use Jupyter Notebooks. Through a series of hands-on exercises, participants will learn to load data using the pandas library, create plots and data visualizations using the matplotlib library, and perform numerical analysis using the NumPy and SciPy libraries. We will briefly discuss the statsmodels and scikit-learn packages for regression and machine learning.

Instructor: Matthew Wigginton Bhagat-Conway, PhD
Matthew Wigginton Bhagat-Conway, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning and a consultant in the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science. His research interests are in travel behavior, urban transportation, and statistical methods for transportation data analysis. He is available to assist researchers with statistics and data analysis.

Additional Course Registration
- Registration will close at 12:01am 10/23/2022. No late registrations will be accepted.
- Zoom link for this course will be sent prior to the course. Registration must be made at least 3 days prior to the course date to receive the Zoom link.

Register

The NC TraCS Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC) will be conducting a 12 lead ECG training for research personnel.

This four-hour course will provide group instruction, practice sessions with a manikin and on a standardized patient, and a short test. Students who satisfactorily complete the course will receive a certificate of completion.

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Attendance for the full session is mandatory for satisfactory completion of the course. Please be aware students will be practicing electrode placement on a manikin and on a standardized patient (not on each other) during this course.

Participants taking the course must be UNC employees whose responsibilities include or will soon include performing ECGs for research studies. (UNC students wishing to enroll must also hold a paid research position as a UNC employee.)

Currently, we are not able to offer this course to clinical staff who may obtain training through the hospital, research staff who have not completed required ethics training, or those who are not UNC employees.

Completing this course does not qualify students as licensed personnel, nor does it qualify the student to take any certification exam. This course is not required by the University, rather it fulfills the 21CFR312 requirement that a PI be able to show that study staff are adequately trained to perform a study procedure delegated to them (12 lead ECG, in this case).

Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have questions regarding this training. If for any reason you cannot make a session, please notify Janette at least 48 hours in advance.

The HERO (Healthcare Worker Exposure Response & Outcomes) Program: An Online Community to Support Observational Studies, Randomized Trials, and Long-Term Safety Surveillance

This NIH Collaboratory Rethinking Clinical Trials Grand Rounds features:

Emily O’Brien, PhD, FAHA
Associate Professor
Duke Clinical Research Institute
Duke University School of Medicine
Department of Population Health Sciences

Russell Rothman, MD, MPP
Senior Vice President, Population and Public Health
Director, Vanderbilt Institute for Medicine and Public Health
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

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