Science Core Abstract -- The Science Core (SC) is designed to provide scholars affiliated with the Duke Population Research Center (DPRC) with high quality, flexible computing and technical services in a cost- effective manner; including both data access and analytic tools. Over the past five years DPRC has (1) invested in SC services that leverage the rich IT infrastructure at Duke to ensure provision and seamless access to computational resources, new analysis tools, support for high-intensity network sampling and simulation tools, (2) helped to identify appropriate technical support for complex population analysis, and (3) provided training in new techniques, including those to analyze ?big? data sources such as web-based data. In the next five years, the SC will: (1) build on and maintain excellent computational resource provision for DPRC scholars, and (2) develop accessible and reproducible tools, methods, and expertise for compiling, curating, linking, and analyzing an ever growing volume of ?big? administrative and healthcare data for population research, an area in which DPRC scholars are already involved but still face significant challenges to use them. To accomplish the latter goal, DPRC will bring together scholars at Duke in partnerships with local government agencies and regional institutions to build the Durham Population Lab (DPL), an initiative that will permit the examination of social and environmental features that contribute to divergent health trajectories in a racially and ethnically diverse population. The DPL will function as a test ?kitchen,? incorporating new data and approaches, leveraging large population size for non-random sampling inference, and provide opportunities for rapid assessment for evidence-based policy making, while advancing the NICDH Population Dynamics Branch?s general interests in developing new tools and techniques for ?big? population and health science.
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