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- Bengtsson, Linus, et al.
(författare)
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Commentary: containing the Ebola outbreak-the potential and challenge of mobile network data
- 2014
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Ingår i: Plos Currents. - : Public Library of Science. - 2157-3999. ; 6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The ongoing Ebola outbreak is taking place in one of the most highly connected and densely populated regions of Africa (Figure 1A). Accurate information on population movements is valuable for monitoring the progression of the outbreak and predicting its future spread, facilitating the prioritization of interventions and designing surveillance and containment strategies. Vital questions include how the affected regions are connected by population flows, which areas are major mobility hubs, what types of movement typologies exist in the region, and how all of these factors are changing as people react to the outbreak and movement restrictions are put in place. Just a decade ago, obtaining detailed and comprehensive data to answer such questions over this huge region would have been impossible. Today, such valuable data exist and are collected in real-time, but largely remain unused for public health purposes - stored on the servers of mobile phone operators. In this commentary, we outline the utility of CDRs for understanding human mobility in the context of the Ebola, and highlight the need to develop protocols for rapid sharing of operator data in response to public health emergencies.
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| 2. |
- Brooks, Christopher, et al.
(författare)
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Rapid and near real-time assessments of population displacement using mobile phone data following disasters: the 2015 Nepal Earthquake
- 2016
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Ingår i: Plos Currents. - : Public Library of Science. - 2157-3999. ; 8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sudden impact disasters often result in the displacement of large numbers of people. These movements can occur prior to events, due to early warning messages, or take place post-event due to damages to shelters and livelihoods as well as a result of long-term reconstruction efforts. Displaced populations are especially vulnerable and often in need of support. However, timely and accurate data on the numbers and destinations of displaced populations are extremely challenging to collect across temporal and spatial scales, especially in the aftermath of disasters. Mobile phone call detail records were shown to be a valid data source for estimates of population movements after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, but their potential to provide near real-time ongoing measurements of population displacements immediately after a natural disaster has not been demonstrated.Methods: A computational architecture and analytical capacity were rapidly deployed within nine days of the Nepal earthquake of 25th April 2015, to provide spatiotemporally detailed estimates of population displacements from call detail records based on movements of 12 million de-identified mobile phones users.Results: Analysis shows the evolution of population mobility patterns after the earthquake and the patterns of return to affected areas, at a high level of detail. Particularly notable is the movement of an estimated 390,000 people above normal from the Kathmandu valley after the earthquake, with most people moving to surrounding areas and the highly-populated areas in the central southern area of Nepal.Discussion: This analysis provides an unprecedented level of information about human movement after a natural disaster, provided within a very short timeframe after the earthquake occurred. The patterns revealed using this method are almost impossible to find through other methods, and are of great interest to humanitarian agencies.
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| 3. |
- Power, Daniel, et al.
(författare)
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Population mobility reductions associated with travel restrictions during the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone : Use of mobile phone data
- 2018
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Ingår i: International Journal of Epidemiology. - : Oxford University Press (OUP): Policy B - Oxford Open Option D. - 1464-3685 .- 0300-5771. ; 47:5, s. 1562-1570
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Travel restrictions were implementeded on an unprecedented scale in 2015 in Sierra Leone to contain and eliminate Ebola virus disease. However, the impact of epidemic travel restrictions on mobility itself remains difficult to measure with traditional methods. New ‘big data’ approaches using mobile phone data can provide, in near real-time, the type of information needed to guide and evaluate control measures.We analysed anonymous mobile phone call detail records (CDRs) from a leading operator in Sierra Leone between 20 March and 1 July in 2015. We used an anomaly detection algorithm to assess changes in travel during a national ‘stay at home’ lockdown from 27 to 29 March. To measure the magnitude of these changes and to assess effect modification by region and historical Ebola burden, we performed a time series analysis and a crossover analysis.Routinely collected mobile phone data revealed a dramatic reduction in human mobility during a 3-day lockdown in Sierra Leone. The number of individuals relocating between chiefdoms decreased by 31% within 15 km, by 46% for 15–30 km and by 76% for distances greater than 30 km. This effect was highly heterogeneous in space, with higher impact in regions with higher Ebola incidence. Travel quickly returned to normal patterns after the restrictions were lifted.The effects of travel restrictions on mobility can be large, targeted and measurable in near real-time. With appropriate anonymization protocols, mobile phone data should play a central role in guiding and monitoring interventions for epidemic containment.
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| 4. |
- Stone, Graham N., et al.
(författare)
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Evidence for widespread cryptic sexual generations in apparently purely asexual Andricus gallwasps
- 2008
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 17:2, s. 652-665
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Oak gallwasps (Hymenoptera, Cynipidae, Cynipini) are one of seven major animal taxa that commonly reproduce by cyclical parthenogenesis (CP). A major question in research on CP taxa is the frequency with which lineages lose their sexual generations, and diversify as purely asexual radiations. Most oak gallwasp species are only known from an asexual generation, and secondary loss of sex has been conclusively demonstrated in several species, particularly members of the holarctic genus Andricus. This raises the possibility of widespread secondary loss of sex in the Cynipini, and of diversification within purely parthenogenetic lineages. We use two approaches based on analyses of allele frequency data to test for cryptic sexual generations in eight apparently asexual European species distributed through a major western palaearctic lineage of the gallwasp genus Andricus. All species showing adequate levels of polymorphism (7/8) showed signatures of sex compatible with cyclical parthenogenesis. We also use DNA sequence data to test the hypothesis that ignorance of these sexual generations (despite extensive study on this group) results from failure to discriminate among known but morphologically indistinguishable sexual generations. This hypothesis is supported: 35 sequences attributed by leading cynipid taxonomists to a single sexual adult morphospecies, Andricus burgundus, were found to represent the sexual generations of at least six Andricus species. We confirm cryptic sexual generations in a total of 11 Andricus species, suggesting that secondary loss of sex is rare in Andricus.
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