New FTT assistant professor Matthew Payne brings humanistic focus to study of video games.

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Psychology graduate student Andrea Kalchik is focusing her research on brain processes.

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Data, data everywhere. In genomics research, there is a data deluge, so innovative ways to analyze all that information will play a critical role in future breakthroughs.

, associate professor of at the University of Notre Dame, is at the forefront of developing new statistical methods to help find DNA markers that are related to psychiatric disorders — and spur further research regarding individual patients’ conditions.

“Understanding the biological causes of psychiatric disorders and their interplay with environmental risk factors is a prerequisite of a successful, personalized approach to treatment,” Lubke says.

The DNA data that Lubke and her colleagues use consist of very large numbers of genetic markers — the spots in DNA where base pairs can differ between people.

“The idea is to check whether more people with a disorder have, for example, ‘A’ rather than ‘T’ in a given spot than people without that disorder,” Lubke says. “If so, you can look at whether that spot in the genome corresponds to a gene and then look at the protein that is coded and what it does.”

The current approach is to test all genetic markers separately, requiring millions of tests, and to use a case/control variable for the disorder. “But that variable often doesn’t do justice to something as complex as borderline personality disorder, for instance,” Lubke explains. “Testing each genetic marker separately is not necessarily optimal.”

Thus, she and her students are investigating alternative methods and comparing them to the standard approach. To support a project called “MRI: Acquisition of a Data Analytics Cluster for Computational Social Science,” Lubke and several colleagues were also recently awarded a $452,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.

Lubke’s other main project right now is a borderline personality study in collaboration with in The Netherlands, where she received her Ph.D.

This collaboration gives her access to a very large data collection — the , which has been collecting data since the 1980s and recently added a biobank with genetic data and other biomarkers.

The borderline project includes a study on how best to model questionnaire data, a genome-wide search for relevant genetic markers using standard methods, and the application of alternative methods.

Lubke’s other projects with VU range from studies on internalizing and externalizing problems and well-being to a pilot program for graduate-student exchanges that allows a Notre Dame quantitative psychology student to study and research at VU while Notre Dame hosts two of VU’s biological psychology students. Moving forward, Lubke hopes to secure additional funding to expand the program and to enhance the student experience by making housing and courses available to visiting students.

“International experience not only looks good on a CV,” she says, “but also opens new horizons and offers ample opportunity to collaborate and network.”

At Notre Dame, Lubke’s research includes projects looking at resilience in later-life, with psychology professor , and the validity and utility of a two-part system for personality disorder diagnosis, with principal investigator , the William J. and Dorothy K. O’Neill Professor of Psychology.

“All of these projects are interesting and fun — my only problem is that I need to come up with a method to somehow stretch the 24 hours a day has,” Lubke says.

“I really enjoy the process of discovering bits and pieces of answers, and putting them together. I guess I’d be pretty bored if answers had already been found to all questions. Of course, there’s a good bit of frustration at times, but that’s part of it.”

Lubke takes great pride in being part of Notre Dame’s impressive quantitative psychology program, from the far-ranging expertise of faculty to its collaborations with other colleagues inside and outside the department.

“Our faculty represents such a wide scope of different topics within quantitative methodology that you can always find an expert when faced with a specific question. This is a great advantage for students and faculty alike.”

In the classroom, Lubke’s teaching is directly related to her research. She is currently updating her Mixture Modeling course, for example, to include new approaches to modeling complex human behavior.

“That way students can get new ideas how best to analyze their data, and it benefits my own research.”

Lubke says she is inspired by her experience as a student-teacher when she attended the University of Amsterdam. To address low scores on stats exams, the institution assigned all undergraduates to small work-groups that met several times each week.

“The groups were led by seniors like myself, and our task was to design small, practical and fun exercises that helped students understand stats and actually like it,” she recalls. “Figuring out a didactic way of explaining concepts in small steps was the dominant theme, and it’s still central in my teaching.”

Originally published by Aaron Smith at on Dec. 3, 2012.

Even the most carefully planned humanitarian and development efforts are often stymied by the chaotic realities on the ground in war-torn zones such as Sudan and Northern Kenya.

University of Notre Dame economic anthropologist aims to improve the success rate of these critical relief missions by studying how local trade networks are able to operate in the same areas with remarkable resilience and efficiency.

“How do traders manage to get their items across different militia and warlord territories when non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can’t—or can only do it expensively and inefficiently through armed trucking convoys or by air-dropping food and other relief supplies?” asks Oka, an assistant professor in Notre Dame’s . “Donated relief food becomes very expensive by the time it reaches the refugees.”

“When you speak to the people on the ground, even those working in the NGOs, they know that the traders are far more efficient than the NGOs,” Oka says. “The food is brought in from the E.U. or the U.S., but the local traders distribute it. And even though the longevity of each trader or agent within a network might not be very long, the network itself is stable and resilient. One trader leaves, another comes in his or her place. They know each other through the network. It enables trade to continue in these war zones where they can’t depend upon institutions and contracts.”

Supported by the , the , and the Oka is a fellow—the research project is in its initial stage.

“The project involves long hours documenting commodity flows, understanding the trade networks, as well as riding in the traders’ trucks across conflict areas, interacting with various militia groups and military personnel, and drinking endless cups of tea with NGO workers, smugglers, warlords, and refugees,” Oka says.

He will return to Africa this summer to conduct extensive interviews and observations in 12 Turkana pastoral communities in Northern Kenya and near the Kenya–Sudan border to examine the long-term feasibility and effectiveness of relief intervention projects. Specifically, he will be looking at how changes in the sizes of the Turkana herds and their lack of access to markets affects conflicts and raids between communities.

“There is very little on-the-spot analysis of what could go wrong,” he says. “How do we know if conflict is caused by low herd size or lack of access to markets? What happens if we start bringing in food without this information? What happens to market prices if a lot of relief food suddenly enters the market? How do we make sure that people are not selling the food but actually eating it and building up the livestock?”

Oka also raises concerns about the people who suffer if such relief efforts fail to reduce conflict or make a positive impact on their lives.

“There are always unintended consequences to any intervention,” he says. “My goal is make sure that any development project in which I am involved is informed by on-the-ground analysis and is based on observed reality of local events and behaviors.”

Long-term studies of how all this unfolds are rare. “Ideas that seem rational and very plausible sitting in my office here in Notre Dame or at an NGO meeting in D.C.,” Oka says, “can and do start unraveling at the local level, sometimes for the good but usually for the worse. And it is always those we want to help, who will bear the burden of our failure.”

Originally published by Aaron Smith at on April 04, 2011.