BACKGROUND The Sahel is subject to seasonal hungry periods with increasing rates of malnutrition. In Northern Nigeria, there is no surveillance system and surveys are rare. The objectives were to analyse possible observational bias in a sentinel surveillance system using repeated mixed longitudinal/cross-sectional data and estimate the extent of seasonal variation. METHODS Thirty clusters wer...

Introduction: Emerging data suggest that receipt of the seasonal influenza vaccine may be associated with an enhanced risk of infection with pandemic (H1N1) 2009 (pH1N1). We sought to evaluate different seasonal vaccination strategies during a pandemic in the presence of varying levels of pH1N1 infection risk following seasonal influenza vaccine receipt. Methods: We developed a deterministic, a...

In order to investigate the effects of global warming, we attempted to establish seasonal models to predict fluctuations in rates of herpangina (HA) and hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) associated with weather conditions and calendar months in Tokyo, Japan. Surveillance data tracking HA/HFMD incidences in Tokyo was retrieved from the Infectious Agents Surveillance Report, published by the Nationa...

The population demography of the northern short-tailed shrew, Blarina brevicauda (Say, 1823), was studied for 25 years in bluegrass, alfalfa, and tallgrass habitats in east-central Illinois. The population in bluegrass had higher over-winter population density, began increasing earlier in the year, peaked earlier in the year, had higher mean monthly densities and amplitudes of fluctuation, and ...

INTRODUCTION Emerging data suggest that receipt of the seasonal influenza vaccine may be associated with an enhanced risk of infection with pandemic (H1N1) 2009 (pH1N1). We sought to evaluate different seasonal vaccination strategies during a pandemic in the presence of varying levels of pH1N1 infection risk following seasonal influenza vaccine receipt. METHODS We developed a deterministic, a...

For symmetrically dividing cells, large variations in the cell cycle time are typical, even among clonal cells. The consequence of this variation is important in stem cell differentiation, tissue and organ size control, and cancer development, where cell division rates ultimately determine the cell population. We explore the connection between cell cycle time variation and population-level fluc...