The OSUCCC – James Shang Lab is dedicated to promoting healthy behaviors and discouraging health-compromising behaviors. The multidisciplinary team of experts uses state-of-the-art methods to understand how policies impact behaviors and population health.
Ce Shang, PhD, currently serves as a principal investigator or co-investigator on a number of NIH-funded research projects, including a pair of studies funded by the National Cancer Institute that examine smokers’ decision-making about tobacco use and the impact of tobacco control policies in the nicotine delivery market.
Other current studies include:
- A comprehensive examination of excise tax structures for retail marijuana and their impact on downstream outcomes.
- Examining the impacts of ENDS tax structures on tobacco use and tax revenues.
- Collecting information to understand cancer survivors’ preference for alternative nicotine-tobacco products.
- Synthesizing Evidence on Tobacco Control Using Deep Learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP) Methods.
- Collecting vape shop price and price promotion data.
- Substance use among LGBTQ and policy indication.
- Assessing Tai Chi’s efficacy in promoting smoking cessation among cancer survivors – a mind.body exercise intervention.
- Cancer Survivors’ Preference for Alternative Nicotine-Tobacco Products: This study aims to improve the understanding of how cancer survivors view the risks and benefits of nicotine products.
- Collecting Vape Shop Price and Price-Promotion Data: Funded by the Center for Tobacco Research at the OSUCCC – James, this study collects information on the characteristics of vaping products sold in vape shops and online stores. Researchers presented preliminary results of this project at the 2021 International Health Economics Association conference.
- Synthesizing Evidence on Tobacco Control Using Deep Learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP) Methods: This study explores tools and algorithms in deep learning and natural language processing methods to automatically identify, extract and summarize textual and non-textual data from tobacco research journals with regard to diverse study populations, harm-reduction perspectives and policy recommendations. The results will be broadly reusable and highly scalable for public health research, thereby supporting future development of tools and algorithms with the potential to shift the paradigm of evidence synthesis in public health.
- U.S. and International Evidence on Factors Leading to Tax Avoidance and Evasion and Their Impact on Drinking Behaviors and Consequences: Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, this study aims to provide evidence on the alcohol affordability at both local and individual levels, which will shed light on how taxation and other related policies may affect disparities in drinking behaviors and consequences. Findings from this study hold the potential to inform policy makers on how to improve the effectiveness of taxation policies, particularly among vulnerable populations.