73 research outputs found
Live Social Semantics
Social interactions are one of the key factors to the success of conferences and similar community gatherings. This paper describes a novel application that integrates data from the semantic web, online social networks, and a real-world contact sensing platform. This application was successfully deployed at ESWC09, and actively used by 139 people. Personal profiles of the participants were automatically generated using several Web~2.0 systems and semantic academic data sources, and integrated in real-time with face-to-face contact networks derived from wearable sensors. Integration of all these heterogeneous data layers made it possible to offer various services to conference attendees to enhance their social experience such as visualisation of contact data, and a site to explore and connect with other participants. This paper describes the architecture of the application, the services we provided, and the results we achieved in this deployment
On the Dynamics of Human Proximity for Data Diffusion in Ad-Hoc Networks
We report on a data-driven investigation aimed at understanding the dynamics
of message spreading in a real-world dynamical network of human proximity. We
use data collected by means of a proximity-sensing network of wearable sensors
that we deployed at three different social gatherings, simultaneously involving
several hundred individuals. We simulate a message spreading process over the
recorded proximity network, focusing on both the topological and the temporal
properties. We show that by using an appropriate technique to deal with the
temporal heterogeneity of proximity events, a universal statistical pattern
emerges for the delivery times of messages, robust across all the data sets.
Our results are useful to set constraints for generic processes of data
dissemination, as well as to validate established models of human mobility and
proximity that are frequently used to simulate realistic behaviors.Comment: A. Panisson et al., On the dynamics of human proximity for data
diffusion in ad-hoc networks, Ad Hoc Netw. (2011
Providing enhanced social interaction services for industry exhibitors at large medical conferences
Large medical conferences offer opportunities for participants to find industry exhibitors that offer products and services relevant to their professional interests. Companies often invest significant effort in promotions that encourage participants to spend time at their stand (e.g. providing free gifts, leaflets, running competitions) and register some contact details. Attendees will use the conference to find others who also share similar professional interests, as well as keep up to date with developments on products such has pharmaceuticals and medical equipment. From both perspectives, a number of improvements can be made to enhance the overall experience by using existing active RFID technology: Vendors would be able to more closely monitor the success of their promotions with statistics on the stand's visitors, as well as find more potential customers by using real-time visualizations; Participants would be able to log their social interactions, keeping an electronic history of the people they have met. The SocioPatterns project and Live Social Semantics experiments have recently demonstrated a scalable and robust infrastructure that would support these kinds of improvements. In this paper, we propose an infrastructure that provides enhanced social interaction services for vendors and participants by using small active RFID badges worn by attendees and attached to fixed location
Modeling vaccination campaigns and the Fall/Winter 2009 activity of the new A(H1N1) influenza in the Northern Hemisphere
The unfolding of pandemic influenza A(H1N1) for Fall 2009 in the Northern
Hemisphere is still uncertain. Plans for vaccination campaigns and vaccine
trials are underway, with the first batches expected to be available early
October. Several studies point to the possibility of an anticipated pandemic
peak that could undermine the effectiveness of vaccination strategies. Here we
use a structured global epidemic and mobility metapopulation model to assess
the effectiveness of massive vaccination campaigns for the Fall/Winter 2009.
Mitigation effects are explored depending on the interplay between the
predicted pandemic evolution and the expected delivery of vaccines. The model
is calibrated using recent estimates on the transmissibility of the new A(H1N1)
influenza. Results show that if additional intervention strategies were not
used to delay the time of pandemic peak, vaccination may not be able to
considerably reduce the cumulative number of cases, even when the mass
vaccination campaign is started as early as mid-October. Prioritized
vaccination would be crucial in slowing down the pandemic evolution and
reducing its burden.Comment: Paper: 19 Pages, 3 Figures. Supplementary Information: 10 pages, 8
Table
Estimate of Novel Influenza A/H1N1 cases in Mexico at the early stage of the pandemic with a spatially structured epidemic model
Determining the number of cases in an epidemic is fundamental to properly evaluate several disease features of high relevance for public health policies such as mortality, morbidity or hospitalization rates. Surveillance efforts are however incomplete especially at the early stage of an outbreak due to the ongoing learning process about the disease characteristics. An example of this is represented by the number of H1N1 influenza cases in Mexico during the first months of the current pandemic. Several estimates using backtrack calculation based on imported cases from Mexico in other countries point out that the actual number of cases was likely orders of magnitude larger than the number of confirmed cases. Realistic computational models fed with the best available estimates of the basic disease parameters can provide an ab-initio calculation of the number of cases in Mexico as other countries. Here we use the Global Epidemic and Mobility (GLEaM) model to obtain estimates of the size of the epidemic in Mexico as well as of imported cases at the end of April and beginning of May. We find that the reference range for the number of cases in Mexico on April 30th is 121,000 to 1,394,000 in good agreement with the recent estimates by Lipsitch et al. [M. Lipsitch, PloS One 4:e6895 (2009)]. The number of imported cases from Mexico in several countries is found to be in good agreement with the surveillance data
Comparison of functional outcome after extended versus super-extended pelvic lymph node dissection during radical prostatectomy in high-risk localized prostate cancer
Background: Urinary continence and erectile function (EF) are best preserved whenmeticulous dissection of prostate and nerve sparing technique are used during radicalprostatectomy (RP). However, extent of lymph node dissection (LND) may also adverselyaffect functional results.Objective: To determine whether performing a super-extended LND (seLND) has asignificant effect on recovery of urinary continence and EF after RP.Design, setting, and participants: All patients who underwent RP from January 2007until December 2013 were handed questionnaires assessing continence and EF. Allpatients in whom at least an extended LND (eLND) was performed were selected. Thissearch yielded 526 patients. 172 of these patients had filed out 2 or more questionnairesand were included in our analysis.Outcome measurements and statistical analysis: All questionnaires were reviewed.We used Kaplan–Meier analyses and multivariate Cox analysis to assess the differencein recovery of continence and EF over time for eLND/seLND. Primary endpoints were fullrecovery of continence (no loss of urine) and full recovery of EF (successful intercoursepossible). Patients who did not reach the endpoint when the last questionnaire was filledout were censored at that time. Median follow-up was 12.43 months for continence, and18.97 months for EF.results and limitations: Patients undergoing seLND have a lower chance of regainingboth urinary continence [hazard ratio (HR) 0.59, 95% CI 0.39–0.90, p = 0.026] and EF(HR 0.28, 95% CI 0.13–0.57, p = 0.009). Age at surgery had a significant influence onboth continence and EF in multivariate analysis. Major limitation of the study was that noformal preoperative assessment of continence and potency was done.conclusion: Extending the LND template beyond the eLND template may cause atleast a significant delay in recovery of urinary continence and leads to less recovery of EF.</p
What's in a crowd? Analysis of face-to-face behavioral networks
The availability of new data sources on human mobility is opening new avenues
for investigating the interplay of social networks, human mobility and
dynamical processes such as epidemic spreading. Here we analyze data on the
time-resolved face-to-face proximity of individuals in large-scale real-world
scenarios. We compare two settings with very different properties, a scientific
conference and a long-running museum exhibition. We track the behavioral
networks of face-to-face proximity, and characterize them from both a static
and a dynamic point of view, exposing important differences as well as striking
similarities. We use our data to investigate the dynamics of a
susceptible-infected model for epidemic spreading that unfolds on the dynamical
networks of human proximity. The spreading patterns are markedly different for
the conference and the museum case, and they are strongly impacted by the
causal structure of the network data. A deeper study of the spreading paths
shows that the mere knowledge of static aggregated networks would lead to
erroneous conclusions about the transmission paths on the dynamical networks
A Universal Approach to Eliminate Antigenic Properties of Alpha-Gliadin Peptides in Celiac Disease
Celiac disease is caused by an uncontrolled immune response to gluten, a heterogeneous mixture of wheat storage proteins, including the α-gliadins. It has been shown that α-gliadins harbor several major epitopes involved in the disease pathogenesis. A major step towards elimination of gluten toxicity for celiac disease patients would thus be the elimination of such epitopes from α-gliadins. We have analyzed over 3,000 expressed α-gliadin sequences from 11 bread wheat cultivars to determine whether they encode for peptides potentially involved in celiac disease. All identified epitope variants were synthesized as peptides and tested for binding to the disease-associated HLA-DQ2 and HLA-DQ8 molecules and for recognition by patient-derived α-gliadin specific T cell clones. Several specific naturally occurring amino acid substitutions were identified for each of the α-gliadin derived peptides involved in celiac disease that eliminate the antigenic properties of the epitope variants. Finally, we provide proof of principle at the peptide level that through the systematic introduction of such naturally occurring variations α-gliadins genes can be generated that no longer encode antigenic peptides. This forms a crucial step in the development of strategies to modify gluten genes in wheat so that it becomes safe for celiac disease patients. It also provides the information to design and introduce safe gluten genes in other cereals, which would exhibit improved quality while remaining safe for consumption by celiac disease patients
High resolution dynamical mapping of social interactions with active RFID
In this paper we present an experimental framework to gather data on
face-to-face social interactions between individuals, with a high spatial and
temporal resolution. We use active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
devices that assess contacts with one another by exchanging low-power radio
packets. When individuals wear the beacons as a badge, a persistent radio
contact between the RFID devices can be used as a proxy for a social
interaction between individuals. We present the results of a pilot study
recently performed during a conference, and a subsequent preliminary data
analysis, that provides an assessment of our method and highlights its
versatility and applicability in many areas concerned with human dynamics
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