12 research outputs found
A new pretopological way of identifying spreaders in propagation diffusion phenomena
In a world that's increasingly connected, many crises are related to propagation phenomena where we need to either repress the spreading (e.g. epidemics, computer viruses, fake news...) or try to accelerate it (e.g. the diffusion of a new anti-virus patch). A good understanding of such phenomena involves a knowledge of both the structure of the whole system and the specifics of the transmission process. The standard way to deal with the former has been through a characterization of the structure by the use of networks, where nodes are the components of the system where the propagation occurs, and links exist between them if there's a possibility of transmission from one component to the other. This allows to identify the super-spreaders (i.e. components that diffuse in a disproportionally large amount) as nodes with certain particular network properties. Here we propose the use of pretopology as a framework to characterize the structure of a system, as well as a new pretopological metric for the identification of super-spreaders. Since the metric can easily be transformed into an equivalent network metric, it is easy to compare its performance with some of the classical network indices of node importance. The relevance of the metric is tested by the use of some standard agent-based models of epidemics and opinion dynamics. Finally, a pretopological model of opinion diffusion is also proposed and studied
Correlation of influenza infection with glycan array
Poster Presentation: SPB1 / SPB2 - Virus Host Interaction/Pathogensis/Transmission: abstract no. B109PINTRODUCTION: The past 6 years has seen the introduction of glycan arrays containing large numbers of sialic acid (Sia) containing compounds and these arrays have been used to demonstrate the relative binding affinity of influenza viruses to different glycans. Though infor...postprin
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Breaking the grant cycle: on the rational allocation of public resources to scientific research projects
The thesis presents a reformative criticism of science funding by peer review. The criticism is
based on epistemological scepticism, regarding the ability of scientific peers, or any other agent, to have access to sufficient information regarding the potential of proposed projects at the time of funding. The scepticism is based on the complexity of factors contributing to the merit of scientific projects, and the rate at which the parameters of this complex system change their values. By constructing models of different science funding mechanisms, a construction supported by historical evidence, computational simulations show that in a significant subset of cases it would be better to select research projects by a lottery mechanism than by selection based on peer review. This last result is used to create a template for an alternative funding mechanism that combines the merits of peer review with the benefits of random allocation, while noting that this alternative is not so far removed from current practice as may first appear
An analysis of target recipient groups for monovalent 2009 pandemic influenza vaccine and trivalent seasonal influenza vaccines in 2009-10 and 2010-11
Poster Presentation: SPA5 - How to Evaluate Vaccine Effectiveness and Efficacy?: abstract no. A513PINTRODUCTION: Vaccination is generally considered to be the best primary prevention measure against influenza virus infection. Many countries encourage specific target groups of people to undertake vaccination, often with financial subsidies or a list of priority. To understand differential patterns of national target groups for influenza vaccination before, during and after the 2009 influenza pandemic, we reviewed and identified changes in national target groups for trivalent seasonal influenza and the monovalent 2009 pandemic influenza vaccines dur...postprin
Efficacy of live attenuated seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccine in school-age children: a randomized controlled trial
Poster Presentation: SPA5 - How to Evaluate Vaccine Effectiveness and Efficacy?: abstract no. A508PBACKGROUND: A novel pandemic influenza A(H1N1) virus emerged in North America in early 2009 and rapidly spread worldwide. Monovalent pH1N1 vaccines were licensed later in 2009 based on preliminary studies demonstrating their immunogenicity and safety. In this study we report the efficacy of live attenuated monovalent pH1N1 vacc...postprin