9 results
Search Results
2. Even a good influenza forecasting model can benefit from internet-based nowcasts, but those benefits are limited.
- Author
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Osthus, Dave, Daughton, Ashlynn R., and Priedhorsky, Reid
- Subjects
INFLUENZA ,RESPIRATORY infections ,PUBLIC health ,MATHEMATICAL models of forecasting - Abstract
The ability to produce timely and accurate flu forecasts in the United States can significantly impact public health. Augmenting forecasts with internet data has shown promise for improving forecast accuracy and timeliness in controlled settings, but results in practice are less convincing, as models augmented with internet data have not consistently outperformed models without internet data. In this paper, we perform a controlled experiment, taking into account data backfill, to improve clarity on the benefits and limitations of augmenting an already good flu forecasting model with internet-based nowcasts. Our results show that a good flu forecasting model can benefit from the augmentation of internet-based nowcasts in practice for all considered public health-relevant forecasting targets. The degree of forecast improvement due to nowcasting, however, is uneven across forecasting targets, with short-term forecasting targets seeing the largest improvements and seasonal targets such as the peak timing and intensity seeing relatively marginal improvements. The uneven forecasting improvements across targets hold even when “perfect” nowcasts are used. These findings suggest that further improvements to flu forecasting, particularly seasonal targets, will need to derive from other, non-nowcasting approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
3. Fast and near-optimal monitoring for healthcare acquired infection outbreaks.
- Author
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Adhikari, Bijaya, Lewis, Bryan, Vullikanti, Anil, Jiménez, José Mauricio, and Prakash, B. Aditya
- Subjects
MEDICAL personnel ,INFECTION ,PREVENTIVE medicine ,HOSPITAL patients - Abstract
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in twenty five hospital patients are infected with at least one healthcare acquired infection (HAI) on any given day. Early detection of possible HAI outbreaks help practitioners implement countermeasures before the infection spreads extensively. Here, we develop an efficient data and model driven method to detect outbreaks with high accuracy. We leverage mechanistic modeling of C. difficile infection, a major HAI disease, to simulate its spread in a hospital wing and design efficient near-optimal algorithms to select people and locations to monitor using an optimization formulation. Results show that our strategy detects up to 95% of “future” C. difficile outbreaks. We design our method by incorporating specific hospital practices (like swabbing for infections) as well. As a result, our method outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms for outbreak detection. Finally, a qualitative study of our result shows that the people and locations we select to monitor as sensors are intuitive and meaningful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
4. Think: Theory for Africa.
- Author
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Currin, Christopher B., Khoza, Phumlani N., Antrobus, Alexander D., Latham, Peter E., Vogels, Tim P., and Raimondo, Joseph V.
- Subjects
SCIENTIFIC knowledge ,SOCIAL sciences education ,TECHNOLOGY ,COMPUTATIONAL neuroscience ,SCIENCE & state - Abstract
The article offers information on the challenging scientific problems faced by humanity. Topics discussed include information on the efforts to empower Africans to join the global neuroscience community; discussions on the BRAIN initiative in the U.S. and the Human Brain Project in Europe; and the information on the limiting factor for computational neuroscience development in Africa.
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
5. Eleven quick tips for running an interdisciplinary short course for new graduate students.
- Author
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Saunders, Timothy E., He, Cynthia Y., Koehl, Patrice, Ong, L. L. Sharon, and So, Peter T. C.
- Subjects
INTERDISCIPLINARY education ,GRADUATE students ,REASONING ,LIFE science education - Abstract
Quantitative reasoning and techniques are increasingly ubiquitous across the life sciences. However, new graduate researchers with a biology background are often not equipped with the skills that are required to utilize such techniques correctly and efficiently. In parallel, there are increasing numbers of engineers, mathematicians, and physical scientists interested in studying problems in biology with only basic knowledge of this field. Students from such varied backgrounds can struggle to engage proactively together to tackle problems in biology. There is therefore a need to establish bridges between those disciplines. It is our proposal that the beginning of graduate school is the appropriate time to initiate those bridges through an interdisciplinary short course. We have instigated an intensive 10-day course that brought together new graduate students in the life sciences from across departments within the National University of Singapore. The course aimed at introducing biological problems as well as some of the quantitative approaches commonly used when tackling those problems. We have run the course for three years with over 100 students attending. Building on this experience, we share 11 quick tips on how to run such an effective, interdisciplinary short course for new graduate students in the biosciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
6. Ten simple rules for short and swift presentations.
- Author
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Lortie, Christopher J.
- Subjects
SCIENTIFIC communication ,SLIDES (Photography) ,GRAPHIC design ,SCIENCE ,COMMUNICATION - Abstract
The article offers tips on preparing short and swift scientific presentations. Since immediacy is important, preparing one primary message for the audience is suggested. Slides can be used to present a clear story by discussing one major point per slide. Using simple visuals is recommended. The style, graphical design, language and imagery of the presentation should be consistent.
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
7. The Virtuous Cycle of a Data Ecosystem.
- Author
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Voytek, Bradley
- Subjects
INFORMATION sharing ,BIG data ,DATA mining ,AGGREGATION (Statistics) ,META-analysis - Abstract
The article discusses the virtuous cycle of a data ecosystem. Topics include the increasing creation of digital data of all types, the benefits of data sharing which include data remixing and combining, bias minimization and meta-analysis, and the growth of data collection techniques along with data aggregation and mining algorithms.
- Published
- 2016
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
8. The Development of Audio-Visual Integration for Temporal Judgements.
- Author
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Adams, Wendy J.
- Subjects
SENSORIMOTOR integration ,PERCEPTUAL-motor processes ,SENSORY processing disorder ,SENSES - Abstract
Adults combine information from different sensory modalities to estimate object properties such as size or location. This process is optimal in that (i) sensory information is weighted according to relative reliability: more reliable estimates have more influence on the combined estimate and (ii) the combined estimate is more reliable than the component uni-modal estimates. Previous studies suggest that optimal sensory integration does not emerge until around 10 years of age. Younger children rely on a single modality or combine information using inappropriate sensory weights. Children aged 4–11 and adults completed a simple audio-visual task in which they reported either the number of beeps or the number of flashes in uni-modal and bi-modal conditions. In bi-modal trials, beeps and flashes differed in number by 0, 1 or 2. Mutual interactions between the sensory signals were evident at all ages: the reported number of flashes was influenced by the number of simultaneously presented beeps and vice versa. Furthermore, for all ages, the relative strength of these interactions was predicted by the relative reliabilities of the two modalities, in other words, all observers weighted the signals appropriately. The degree of cross-modal interaction decreased with age: the youngest observers could not ignore the task-irrelevant modality—they fully combined vision and audition such that they perceived equal numbers of flashes and beeps for bi-modal stimuli. Older observers showed much smaller effects of the task-irrelevant modality. Do these interactions reflect optimal integration? Full or partial cross-modal integration predicts improved reliability in bi-modal conditions. In contrast, switching between modalities reduces reliability. Model comparison suggests that older observers employed partial integration, whereas younger observers (up to around 8 years) did not integrate, but followed a sub-optimal switching strategy, responding according to either visual or auditory information on each trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
9. Ten simple rules for partnering with K-12 teachers to support broader impact goals
- Author
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Louise S. Mead, Kristin M. Bass, Alexa Warwick, Frieda Reichsman, and Angela Kolonich
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Evolutionary Genetics ,Science and Technology Workforce ,Biomedical Research ,Social Sciences ,Careers in Research ,Science education ,0302 clinical medicine ,Learning and Memory ,Sociology ,ComputingMilieux_COMPUTERSANDEDUCATION ,Psychology ,Cooperative Behavior ,Biology (General) ,Grade level ,Simple (philosophy) ,Schools ,Ecology ,Professional development ,Research Personnel ,Professions ,Science research ,Editorial ,Computational Theory and Mathematics ,Modeling and Simulation ,Physical Sciences ,Educational Status ,Engineering ethics ,Human learning ,Science Policy ,QH301-705.5 ,Science ,Materials Science ,Schoolchildren ,Biology ,Education ,03 medical and health sciences ,Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience ,Human Learning ,Genetics ,Humans ,Learning ,Molecular Biology ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,Evolutionary Biology ,Cognitive Psychology ,Biology and Life Sciences ,Teachers ,030104 developmental biology ,Science Education ,People and Places ,Cognitive Science ,Scientists ,Population Groupings ,School Teachers ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Professional expertise ,Neuroscience - Abstract
Contributing to broader impacts is an important aspect of scientific research. Engaging practicing K-12 teachers as part of a research project can be an effective approach for addressing broader impacts requirements of grants, while also advancing researcher and teacher professional growth. Our focus is on leveraging teachers' professional expertise to develop science education materials grounded in emerging scientific research. In this paper, we describe ten simple rules for planning, implementing, and evaluating teacher engagement to support the broader impact goals of your research project. These collaborations can lead to the development of instructional materials or activities for students in the classroom or provide science research opportunities for teachers. We share our successes and lessons learned while collaborating with high school biology teachers to create technology-based, instructional materials developed from basic biological research. The rules we describe are applicable across teacher partnerships at any grade level in that they emphasize eliciting and respecting teachers' professionalism and expertise.
- Published
- 2020
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