In-situ transfer path analysis is a diagnostic method used to analyse the propagation of noise and vibration through complex built-up structures. Its defining feature independent characterisation an assembly’s active components (i.e. sources) by their blocked forces. This enables downstream structural modification assembly without affecting sources’ operational characteristics. In practical eng...

BACKGROUND While prior studies have quantified the mortality burden of the 1957 H2N2 influenza pandemic at broad geographic regions in the United States, little is known about the pandemic impact at a local level. Here we focus on analyzing the transmissibility and mortality burden of this pandemic in Arizona, a setting where the dry climate was promoted as reducing respiratory illness transmis...

OBJECTIVES Surveillance drug resistance mutations (SDRMs) in drug-naive patients are typically used to survey HIV-1-transmitted drug resistance (TDR). We test here how SDRMs in patients failing treatment, the original source of TDR, contribute to assessing TDR, transmissibility and transmission source of SDRMs. DESIGN This is a retrospective observational study analyzing a Portuguese cohort o...

We present a method to measure the relative transmissibility ("transmission fitness") of one strain of a pathogen compared to another. The model is applied to data from "competitive mixtures" experiments in which animals are co-infected with a mixture of two strains. We observe the mixture in each animal over time and over multiple generations of transmission. We use data from influenza experim...

BACKGROUND A number of strategies exist to reduce Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) transmission. We conducted an economic evaluation of "bundling" these strategies together. METHODS We constructed an agent-based computer simulation of nosocomial C. difficile transmission and infection in a hospital setting. This model included the following components: interactions between patients and he...

Catastrophic declines in African great ape populations due to disease outbreaks have been reported in recent years, yet we rarely hear of similar disease impacts for the more solitary Asian great apes, or for smaller primates. We used an age-structured model of different primate social systems to illustrate that interactions between social structure and demography create 'dynamic constraints' o...

OBJECTIVES Observational studies have suggested that Escherichia coli sequence type (ST) 131 and Klebsiella pneumoniae ST258 have hyperendemic properties. This would be obvious from continuously high incidence and/or prevalence of carriage or infection with these bacteria in specific patient populations. Hyperendemicity could result from increased transmissibility, longer duration of infectious...

Running title: Evolution of spatial individual-based ecologies. Key terms: 1) evolution to criticality; 2) spatial dynamics; 3) individual-based ecologies; 4) critical transmissibility; 5) host-pathogen systems; 6) host-pathogen evolution. Abstract We consider an individual-based spatial model of a generic host-pathogen system and explore the diierences between such models and mean-eld systems....

BACKGROUND The overall impact of influenza virus infection in immunocompromised patients is largely unknown. Antigenic drift and genetic variations during prolonged influenza infection have been demonstrated. In this report we describe a multidrug-resistant H3N2 influenza virus isolated from an immunocompromised patient after 5 days of therapy. METHODS Multiple nasal wash samples were collect...