Samira Shirzaei Nichols Source Confirmed

Affiliation confirmed via AI analysis of OpenAlex, ORCID, and web sources.

Assistant professor

University of Central Arkansas

faculty

1 h-index 6 pubs 2 cited

Research Areas

HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes Health disparities and outcomes Advanced Neural Network Applications Sex work and related issues COVID-19 epidemiological studies Gender Diversity and Inequality Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics

Links

ORCID Research Group

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OverviewAI-generated summary

Samira Shirzaei Nichols' research investigates syndemic contexts, focusing on the intersection of substance use, HIV risk, and vulnerabilities among refugee populations, particularly male sex workers from Sub-Saharan Africa in Italy. Her work utilizes mixed-methods approaches and machine learning to enhance understanding of PrEP awareness and willingness, as well as to explore how economic precarity shapes engagement in sex work and related health behaviors.

Her publications also extend to public health forecasting, including a comparative analysis of ARIMA, SARIMA, and RNN models for enhancing COVID-19 case forecasting in the United States. Additionally, Nichols has examined issues of justice and fairness in academia, specifically the underrepresentation and underpayment of women in engineering and science fields.

Her scholarly contributions include work on adaptive staff scheduling systems designed for non-Poisson, time-varying demand, employing simulation-driven expert systems and reinforcement learning. Her collaborators include Samira Nichols, Brigid Appiah Otoo, and A. Adams, all affiliated with the University of Central Arkansas.

Metrics

h-index: 1
Publications: 6
Citations: 2

Selected Publications

Economic precarity shapes engagement in sex work and HIV-related behaviors among African refugee male sex workers in Italy: A mixed-methods study (2026) DOI
A simulation-driven expert system for adaptive staff scheduling under non-Poisson, time-varying demand (2026) DOI
Intersecting Structural Vulnerabilities and Health Risks: A Quantitative Epidemiological Study of HIV and STI Burden Among African Migrant Male Sex Workers in Italy. BSGH 027 (2025) DOI
Substance Use and HIV Risk in a Syndemic Context: Vulnerabilities Among African Refugee Sex Workers in Italy (2025) DOI
Bridging Gaps in HIV Prevention: A Machine Learning-Enhanced Mixed-Methods Study on PrEP Awareness and Willingness Among Refugee Male Sex Workers from Sub-Saharan Africa in Italy (2025) DOI
Flexible Staff Scheduling in Small Service Systems with Time-Varying Non-Poisson Demand to Achieve Time-Stable Performance Using Drl (2024) DOI
Enhancing COVID-19 Case Forecasting in the United States: A Comparative Analysis of ARIMA, SARIMA, and RNN Models with Grid Search Optimization (2024) DOI
Justice and Fairness in Academia: Are Women Underrepresented/Underpaid in Engineering and Science Fields? Comparing 2018 and 2021 Data (2023) DOI
Applying Deep Reinforcement Learning to Dynamic Staff Scheduling in a Service System with Nonstationary Arrival Process; a Case Study of Grocery Store (2022) DOI
Society 5.0: a simulation optimisation study of dynamic scheduling for a grocery store (2021) DOI
Society 5.0: a simulation optimisation study of dynamic scheduling for a grocery store (2021) DOI