From EURIS to PREVIS: Web-based database infrastructure improvements.

EURIS (European Resistance Intervention Study) was launched as a multinational study to identify de multitude of complex risk factors that contribute to the high carriage rate of drug resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae strains in children attending Day Care Centers in several European countries.

Access to a large number of data collected in this project required the development of EURISWEB, a web-based information system that allows data reposition, and advanced querying capabilities, such as automatic statistics and report building.

PREVIS project (Pneumococcal Resistance Epidemicity and Virulence - An International Study), which goal is the study of the molecular mechanisms of resistance, virulence and epidemicity in Streptococcus pneumoniae, provided new challenges for EURISWEB. Although the data collection and microbiological testing were similar in many aspects, new questionnaires needed to be implemented, and data integration with the previously collected data in EURIS was considered fundamental for the study. EURISWEB had to evolve to a multi-project database while retaining all the data querying and facilities.

The objective of this seminar is therefore to present the new functionalities implemented in PREVIS Database, and are the first step for implementing data analysis algorithms that will allow automated data mining and reporting.

An individual-based, mean-field, multi-strain, stochastic model: Insights into influenza evolution.

The evolutionary pattern of the influenza A virus is still subject of ample debate. Despite having a high mutation rate, the virus exhibits limited diversity at any given time point. Some authors speculate that a heterosubtypic, totally protective immunity, lasting approximately 6 months is necessary to explain this limited diversity. But is this indeed the case? I'll be discussing the possible reasons for the characteristic evolutionary pattern of influenza A, based on my work with a multi-strain model with the different strains evolving on a 2D antigenic space.

Optimization of antibodies during an immune response: The germinal center reaction.

Not Supplied.