ORCID Profile
0000-0001-9891-895X
Current Organisation
Swansea University
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Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 17-03-2021
Abstract: Climate warming and biological invasions are key drivers of bio ersity change. Their combined effects on ecological communities remain largely unexplored. We investigated the direct and indirect influences of temperature on invasion success, and their synergistic effects on community structure and dynamics. Using size-structured food web models, we found that higher temperatures increased invasion success. The direct physiological effects of temperature on invasions were minimal in comparison with indirect effects mediated by changes on food web structure and stability. Warmer communities with less connectivity, shortened food chains and reduced temporal variability were more susceptible to invasions. The directionality and magnitude of invasions effects on food webs varied across temperature regimes. When invaded, warmer communities became smaller, more connected and with more predator species than their colder counterparts. They were also less stable and their species more abundant. Considering food web structure is crucial to predict invasion success and its impacts along temperature gradients.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 21-07-2020
DOI: 10.1101/2020.07.20.211516
Abstract: Climate warming and biological invasions are key drivers of bio ersity change. Their combined effects on ecological communities remain largely unexplored. We investigated the direct and indirect influences of warming on invasion success, and their synergistic effects on community structure and dynamics. Using size-structured food web models, we found that warming increased invasion success. The direct physiological effects of warming on invasions were minimal in comparison to indirect effects mediated by changes on food web structure and stability. Warmed communities with less connectivity, shortened food chains and reduced temporal variability were more susceptible to invasions. The directionality and magnitude of invasions effects on food webs varied across warming regimes. Warmer communities became smaller, more connected, and with more predator species when invaded than their colder counterparts. They were also less stable and their species more abundant. Considering food web structure is crucial to predict invasion success and its impacts under warming.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 14-07-2014
Publisher: ACM
Date: 26-10-2010
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 16-09-2020
DOI: 10.1002/ECY.3165
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 2011
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-019-08925-4
Abstract: Defining the organisation of species interaction networks and unveiling the processes behind their assembly is fundamental to understanding patterns of bio ersity, community stability and ecosystem functioning. Marine sponges host complex communities of microorganisms that contribute to their health and survival, yet the mechanisms behind microbiome assembly are largely unknown. We present the global marine sponge–microbiome network and reveal a modular organisation in both community structure and function. Modules are linked by a few sponge species that share microbes with other species around the world. Further, we provide evidence that abiotic factors influence the structuring of the sponge microbiome when considering all microbes present, but biotic interactions drive the assembly of more intimately associated ‘core’ microorganisms. These findings suggest that both ecological and evolutionary processes are at play in host-microbe network assembly. We expect mechanisms behind microbiome assembly to be consistent across multicellular hosts throughout the tree of life.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 04-10-2021
DOI: 10.1101/2021.10.04.463046
Abstract: Metapopulation structure (i.e. the spatial arrangement of local populations and corridors between them) plays a fundamental role in the persistence of wildlife populations, but can also drive the spread of infectious diseases. While the disruption of metapopulation connectivity can reduce disease spread, it can also impair host resilience by disrupting gene flow and colonisation dynamics. Thus, a pressing challenge for many wildlife populations is to elucidate whether the benefits of disease management methods that reduce metapopulation connectivity outweigh the associated risks. Directly transmissible cancers are clonal malignant cell lines capable to spread through host populations without immune recognition, when susceptible and infected hosts become in close contact. Using an in idual-based metapopulation model we investigate the effects of the interplay between host dispersal, disease transmission rate and inter-in idual contact distance for transmission (determining within-population mixing) on the spread and persistence of a transmissible cancer, Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease (DFTD), from local to regional scales. Further, we explore population isolation scenarios to devise management strategies to mitigate disease spread. Disease spread, and the ensuing population declines, are synergistically determined by in iduals’ dispersal, disease transmission rate and within-population mixing. Low to intermediate transmission rates can be magnified by high dispersal and inter-in idual transmission distance. Once disease transmission rate is high, dispersal and inter-in idual contact distance do not impact the outcome of the disease transmission dynamics. Isolation of local populations effectively reduced metapopulation-level disease prevalence but caused severe declines in metapopulation size and genetic ersity. The relative position of managed (i.e. isolated) populations within the metapopulation had a significant effect on disease prevalence, highlighting the importance of considering metapopulation structure when implementing metapopulation-scale disease control measures. Our findings suggests that population isolation is not an ideal management method for preventing disease spread in species inhabiting already fragmented landscapes, where genetic ersity and extinction risk are already a concern, such as the Tasmanian devil.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 09-09-2020
DOI: 10.1101/2020.09.07.20189597
Abstract: Controlling the regional re-emergence of SARS-CoV-2 after its initial spread in ever-changing personal contact networks and disease landscapes is a challenging task. In a landscape context, contact opportunities within and between populations are changing rapidly as lockdown measures are relaxed and a number of social activities re-activated. Using an in idual-based metapopulation model, we explored the efficacy of different control strategies across an urban-rural gradient in Wales, UK. Our model shows that isolation of symptomatic cases, or regional lockdowns in response to local outbreaks, have limited efficacy unless the overall transmission rate is kept persistently low. Additional isolation of non-symptomatic infected in iduals, who may be detected by effective test and trace strategies, is pivotal to reduce the overall epidemic size over a wider range of transmission scenarios. We define an ‘urban-rural gradient in epidemic size’ as a correlation between regional epidemic size and connectivity within the region, with more highly connected urban populations experiencing relatively larger outbreaks. For interventions focused on regional lockdowns, the strength of such gradients in epidemic size increased with higher travel frequencies, indicating a reduced efficacy of the control measure in the urban regions under these conditions. When both non-symptomatic and symptomatic in iduals are isolated or regional lockdown strategies are enforced, we further found the strongest urban-rural epidemic gradients at high transmission rates. This effect was reversed for strategies targeted at symptomatics only. Our results emphasise the importance of test-and-tracing strategies and maintaining low transmission rates for efficiently controlling COVID19 spread, both at landscape scale and in urban areas. The spread of infectious diseases is the outcome of contact patterns and involves source-sink dynamics of how infectious in iduals spread the disease through pools of susceptible in iduals. Control strategies that aim to reduce disease spread often need to accept ongoing transmission chains and therefore, may not work equally well in different scenarios of how in iduals and populations are connected to each other. To understand the efficacy of different control strategies to contain the spread of COVID19 across gradients of urban and rural populations, we simulated a large range of different control strategies in response to regional COVID19 outbreaks, involving regional lockdown and the isolation in iduals that express symptoms and those that developed not symptoms but may contribute to disease transmission. Our results suggest that isolation of asymptomatic in iduals through intensive test-and-tracing is important for efficiently reducing the epidemic size. Regional lockdowns and the isolation of symptomatic cases only are of limited efficacy for reducing the epidemic size, unless overall transmission rate is kept persistently low. Moreover, we found high overall transmission rates to result in relatively larger epidemics in urban than in rural communities for these control strategies, emphasising the importance of keeping transmission rates constantly low in addition to regional measures to avoid the disease spread at large scale.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-04-2023
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.13686
Abstract: Species geographical range sizes play a crucial role in determining species vulnerability to extinction. Although several mechanisms affect range sizes, the number of biotic interactions and species climatic tolerance are often thought to play discernible roles, defining two dimensions of the Hutchinsonian niche. Yet, the relative importance of the trophic and the climatic niche for determining species range sizes is largely unknown. Central and northern Europe. Present. Gall‐inducing sawflies and their parasitoids. We use data documenting the spatial distributions and biotic interactions of 96 herbivore species, and their 125 parasitoids, across Europe and analyse the relationship between species range size and the climatic and trophic dimensions of the niche. We then compare the observed relationships with null expectations based on species occupancy to understand whether the relationships observed are an inevitable consequence of species range size or if they contain information about the importance of each dimension of the niche on species range size. We find that both niche dimensions are positively correlated with species range size, with larger ranges being associated with wider climatic tolerances and larger numbers of interactions. However, diet breadth appears to more strongly limit species range size. Species with larger ranges have more interactions locally and they are also able to interact with a larger ersity of species across sites (i.e. higher β‐ ersity), resulting in a larger number of interactions at continental scales. We show for the first time how different aspects of species diet niches are related to their range size. Our study offers new insight into the importance of biotic interactions in determining species spatial distributions, which is critical for improving understanding and predictions of species vulnerability to extinction under the current rates of global environmental change.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 24-05-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-019-10370-2
Abstract: Habitat loss (HL) affects species and their interactions, ultimately altering community dynamics. Yet, a challenge for community ecology is to understand how communities with multiple interaction types—hybrid communities—respond to HL prior to species extinctions. To this end, we develop a model to investigate the response of hybrid terrestrial communities to two types of HL: random and contiguous. Our model reveals changes in stability—temporal variability in population abundances—that are dependent on the spatial configuration of HL. Our findings highlight that habitat area determines the variability of populations via changes in the distribution of species interaction strengths. The ergent responses of communities to random and contiguous HL result from different constraints imposed on in iduals’ mobility, impacting ersity and network structure in the random case, and destabilising communities by increasing interaction strength in the contiguous case. Analysis of intermediate HL suggests a gradual transition between the two extreme cases.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 28-07-2011
DOI: 10.1017/S0269888911000142
Abstract: Currently, biological databases (DBs) are a common tool to complement the research of a wide range of biomedical disciplines, but there are only a few specialized medical DBs for human brain tumour magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) data they typically store a limited range of biological data (i.e. clinical information, magnetic resonance imaging and MRS data) and are not offered as open-source Structured Query Language relational DB schemas. We present a novel approach to biological DBs: a distributed Web-accessible DB for storing and managing clinical and biomedical data related to brain tumours from different clinical centres. This tool is designed for multi-platform systems with dissimilar DB management systems. Being the main data repository of the HealthAgents (HA) project, it uses multi-agent technology and allows the centres to share data and obtain diagnosis classifications from other centres distributed around the world in a reliable way. The HA project aims to create an agent-based distributed decision support system (DSS) to assist doctors to provide a brain tumour diagnosis and prognosis. The HA DB enables the DSS to totally integrate with its Graphical User Interface to perform classifications with the stored data and visualize the results using the HA distributed agents framework. This new feature converts the system presented in the first application in the world to combine a storage and management tool for brain tumour data and a complete Web-based DSS to obtain automatic diagnosis.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 29-04-2020
DOI: 10.1101/2020.04.22.20075093
Abstract: The rapid and pandemic spread of COVID-19 has led to unprecedented containment policies in response to overloaded health care systems. Disease mitigation strategies require informed decision-making to ensure a balance between the protection of the vulnerable from disease and the maintenance of global economies. We show that temporally restricted containment efforts, that have the potential to flatten epidemic curves, can result in wider disease spread and larger epidemic sizes in metapopulations. Longer-term rewiring of metapopulation networks or the enforcement of feasible long-term measures that decrease disease transmissions appear to be more efficient than temporarily restricted intensive mitigation strategies (e.g. short-term mass quarantine). Our results may inform balanced containment strategies for short-term disease spread mitigation in response to overloaded health care systems and longer-term epidemiological sizes.
Publisher: IEEE
Date: 04-2010
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-06-2016
DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS11870
Abstract: Sponges (phylum Porifera) are early- erging metazoa renowned for establishing complex microbial symbioses. Here we present a global Porifera microbiome survey, set out to establish the ecological and evolutionary drivers of these host–microbe interactions. We show that sponges are a reservoir of exceptional microbial ersity and major contributors to the total microbial ersity of the world’s oceans. Little commonality in species composition or structure is evident across the phylum, although symbiont communities are characterized by specialists and generalists rather than opportunists. Core sponge microbiomes are stable and characterized by generalist symbionts exhibiting amensal and/or commensal interactions. Symbionts that are phylogenetically unique to sponges do not disproportionally contribute to the core microbiome, and host phylogeny impacts complexity rather than composition of the symbiont community. Our findings support a model of independent assembly and evolution in symbiont communities across the entire host phylum, with convergent forces resulting in analogous community organization and interactions.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 15-03-2019
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-07-2018
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2019
DOI: 10.1111/CSP2.11
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 13-01-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41559-021-01644-4
Abstract: Larger geographical areas contain more species-an observation raised to a law in ecology. Less explored is whether bio ersity changes are accompanied by a modification of interaction networks. We use data from 32 spatial interaction networks from different ecosystems to analyse how network structure changes with area. We find that basic community structure descriptors (number of species, links and links per species) increase with area following a power law. Yet, the distribution of links per species varies little with area, indicating that the fundamental organization of interactions within networks is conserved. Our null model analyses suggest that the spatial scaling of network structure is determined by factors beyond species richness and the number of links. We demonstrate that bio ersity-area relationships can be extended from species counts to higher levels of network complexity. Therefore, the consequences of anthropogenic habitat destruction may extend from species loss to wider simplification of natural communities.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-05-2019
DOI: 10.1002/ECY.2750
Abstract: With ongoing introductions into Australia since the 1700s, the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) has become one of the most widely distributed and abundant vertebrate pests, adversely impacting Australia's bio ersity and agroeconomy. To understand the population and range dynamics of the species and its impacts better, occurrence and abundance data have been collected by researchers and citizens from sites covering a broad spectrum of climatic and environmental conditions in Australia. The lack of a common and accessible repository for these data has, however, limited their use in determining important spatiotemporal drivers of the structure and dynamics of the geographical range of rabbits in Australia. To meet this need, we created the Australian National Rabbit Database, which combines more than 50 yr of historical and contemporary survey data collected from throughout the range of the species in Australia. The survey data, obtained from a suite of complementary monitoring methods, were combined with high-resolution weather, climate, and environmental information, and an assessment of data quality. The database provides records of rabbit occurrence (689,265 records) and abundance (51,241 records, >120 distinct sites) suitable for identifying the spatiotemporal drivers of the rabbit's distribution and for determining spatial patterns of variation in its key life-history traits, including maximum rates of population growth. Because all data are georeferenced and date st ed, they can be coupled with information from other databases and spatial layers to explore the potential effects of rabbit occurrence and abundance on Australia's native wildlife and agricultural production. The Australian National Rabbit Database is an important tool for understanding and managing the European rabbit in its invasive range and its effects on native bio ersity and agricultural production. It also provides a valuable resource for addressing questions related to the biology, success, and impacts of invasive species more generally. No copyright or proprietary restrictions are associated with the use of this data set other than citation of this Data Paper.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 21-10-2023
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 05-11-2012
Abstract: The current distribution of climatic conditions will be rearranged on the globe. To survive, species will have to keep pace with climates as they move. Mountains are among the most affected regions owing to both climate and land-use change. Here, we explore the effects of climate change in the vertebrate food web of the Pyrenees. We investigate elevation range expansions between two time-periods illustrative of warming conditions, to assess: (i) the taxonomic composition of range expanders (ii) changes in food web properties such as the distribution of links per species and community size-structure and (iii) what are the specific traits of range expanders that set them apart from the other species in the community—in particular, body mass, diet generalism, vulnerability and trophic position within the food web. We found an upward expansion of species at all elevations, which was not even for all taxonomic groups and trophic positions. At low and intermediate elevations, predator : prey mass ratios were significantly reduced. Expanders were larger, had fewer predators and were, in general, more specialists. Our study shows that elevation range expansions as climate warms have important and predictable impacts on the structure and size distribution of food webs across space.
Publisher: Inderscience Publishers
Date: 2011
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-07-2016
DOI: 10.1111/ELE.12648
Abstract: Human actions challenge nature in many ways. Ecological responses are ineluctably complex, demanding measures that describe them succinctly. Collectively, these measures encapsulate the overall 'stability' of the system. Many international bodies, including the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Bio ersity and Ecosystem Services, broadly aspire to maintain or enhance ecological stability. Such bodies frequently use terms pertaining to stability that lack clear definition. Consequently, we cannot measure them and so they disconnect from a large body of theoretical and empirical understanding. We assess the scientific and policy literature and show that this disconnect is one consequence of an inconsistent and one-dimensional approach that ecologists have taken to both disturbances and stability. This has led to confused communication of the nature of stability and the level of our insight into it. Disturbances and stability are multidimensional. Our understanding of them is not. We have a remarkably poor understanding of the impacts on stability of the characteristics that define many, perhaps all, of the most important elements of global change. We provide recommendations for theoreticians, empiricists and policymakers on how to better integrate the multidimensional nature of ecological stability into their research, policies and actions.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 05-11-2012
Abstract: Climate change is generating novel communities composed of new combinations of species. These result from different degrees of species adaptations to changing biotic and abiotic conditions, and from differential range shifts of species. To determine whether the responses of organisms are determined by particular species traits and how species interactions and community dynamics are likely to be disrupted is a challenge. Here, we focus on two key traits: body size and ecological specialization. We present theoretical expectations and empirical evidence on how climate change affects these traits within communities. We then explore how these traits predispose species to shift or expand their distribution ranges, and associated changes on community size structure, food web organization and dynamics. We identify three major broad changes: (i) Shift in the distribution of body sizes towards smaller sizes, (ii) dominance of generalized interactions and the loss of specialized interactions, and (iii) changes in the balance of strong and weak interaction strengths in the short term. We finally identify two major uncertainties: (i) whether large-bodied species tend to preferentially shift their ranges more than small-bodied ones, and (ii) how interaction strengths will change in the long term and in the case of newly interacting species.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2019
DOI: 10.1002/CSP2.11
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Date: 2012
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2021
DOI: 10.1002/BES2.1789
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-04-2018
DOI: 10.1038/S41559-018-0517-3
Abstract: Species-area relationships (SARs) are pivotal to understand the distribution of bio ersity across spatial scales. We know little, however, about how the network of biotic interactions in which bio ersity is embedded changes with spatial extent. Here we develop a new theoretical framework that enables us to explore how different assembly mechanisms and theoretical models affect multiple properties of ecological networks across space. We present a number of testable predictions on network-area relationships (NARs) for multi-trophic communities. Network structure changes as area increases because of the existence of different SARs across trophic levels, the preferential selection of generalist species at small spatial extents and the effect of dispersal limitation promoting beta- ersity. Developing an understanding of NARs will complement the growing body of knowledge on SARs with potential applications in conservation ecology. Specifically, combined with further empirical evidence, NARs can generate predictions of potential effects on ecological communities of habitat loss and fragmentation in a changing world.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-10-2017
Publisher: IEEE
Date: 05-2011
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-02-2019
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.14587
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-04-2016
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-03-2014
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-02-2013
DOI: 10.1111/ELE.12086
Abstract: Ecological stability is touted as a complex and multifaceted concept, including components such as variability, resistance, resilience, persistence and robustness. Even though a complete appreciation of the effects of perturbations on ecosystems requires the simultaneous measurement of these multiple components of stability, most ecological research has focused on one or a few of those components analysed in isolation. Here, we present a new view of ecological stability that recognises explicitly the non-independence of components of stability. This provides an approach for simplifying the concept of stability. We illustrate the concept and approach using results from a field experiment, and show that the effective dimensionality of ecological stability is considerably lower than if the various components of stability were unrelated. However, strong perturbations can modify, and even decouple, relationships among in idual components of stability. Thus, perturbations not only increase the dimensionality of stability but they can also alter the relationships among components of stability in different ways. Studies that focus on single forms of stability in isolation therefore risk underestimating significantly the potential of perturbations to destabilise ecosystems. In contrast, application of the multidimensional stability framework that we propose gives a far richer understanding of how communities respond to perturbations.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2016
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-09-2023
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.13752
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 28-07-2011
DOI: 10.1017/S0269888911000130
Abstract: In this paper we present our experience of representing the knowledge behind HealthAgents (HA), a distributed decision support system for brain tumour diagnosis. Our initial motivation came from the distributed nature of the information involved in the system and has been enriched by clinicians’ requirements and data access restrictions. We present in detail the steps we have taken towards building our ontology starting from knowledge acquisition to data access and reasoning. We motivate our representational choices and show our results using domain ex les used by clinical partners in HA.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 08-12-2021
DOI: 10.3390/PATHOGENS10121592
Abstract: Metapopulation structure plays a fundamental role in the persistence of wildlife populations. It can also drive the spread of infectious diseases and transmissible cancers such as the Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease (DFTD). While disrupting this structure can reduce disease spread, it can also impair host resilience by disrupting gene flow and colonisation dynamics. Using an in idual-based metapopulation model we investigated the synergistic effects of host dispersal, disease transmission rate and inter-in idual contact distance for transmission, on the spread and persistence of DFTD from local to regional scales. Disease spread, and the ensuing population declines, are synergistically determined by in iduals’ dispersal, disease transmission rate and within-population mixing. Transmission rates can be magnified by high dispersal and inter-in idual transmission distance. The isolation of local populations effectively reduced metapopulation-level disease prevalence but caused severe declines in metapopulation size and genetic ersity. The relative position of managed (i.e., isolated) local populations had a significant effect on disease prevalence, highlighting the importance of considering metapopulation structure when implementing metapopulation-scale disease control measures. Our findings suggest that population isolation is not an ideal management method for preventing disease spread in species inhabiting already fragmented landscapes, where genetic ersity and extinction risk are already a concern.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-12-2015
Abstract: To conserve future bio ersity, a better understanding of the likely effects of climate and land‐use change on the geographical distributions of species and the persistence of ecological communities is needed. Recent advances have integrated population dynamic processes into species distribution models ( SDM s), to reduce potential biases in predictions and to better reflect the demographic nuances of incremental range shifts. However, there is no clear framework for selecting the most appropriate demographic‐based model for a given data set or scientific question. We review the computer‐based modelling platforms currently used for the development of either population‐ or in idual‐based species range dynamics models. We describe the features and requirements of 20 software platforms commonly used to generate simulations of species ranges and abundances. We classify the platforms according to particular capabilities or features that account for user requirements and constraints, such as (i) ability to simulate simple to complex population dynamics, (ii) organism specificity or (iii) their computational capacities. Using this classification, we develop a protocol for choosing the most appropriate framework for modelling species range dynamics based in data availability and research requirements. We find that the main differences between modelling platforms are related to the way in which they simulate population dynamics, the type of organisms they are able to model and the ecological processes they incorporate. We show that some platforms can be used as generic modelling software to investigate a broad range of ecological questions related to the range dynamics of most species, and how these are likely to change in the future in response to forecast climate and land‐use change. We argue that model predictions will be improved by reducing usage to a smaller number of highly flexible freeware platforms. Our approach provides ecologists and conservation biologists with a clear method for selecting the most appropriate software platform that meets their needs when developing SDM s coupled with population‐dynamic processes. We argue that informed tool choice will translate to better predictions of species responses to climate and land‐use change and improved conservation management.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 28-07-2011
DOI: 10.1017/S0269888911000105
Abstract: The HealthAgents project aims to provide a decision support system for brain tumour diagnosis using a collaborative network of distributed agents. The goal is that through the aggregation of the small data sets available at in idual hospitals, much better decision support classifiers can be created and made available to the hospitals taking part. In this paper, we describe the technicalities of the HealthAgents framework, in particular how the interoperability of the various agents is managed using semantic web technologies. On the broad scale the architecture is based around distributed data-mart agents that provide ontological access to hospitals’ underlying data that has been anonymized and processed from proprietary formats into a canonical format. Classifier producers have agents that gather the global data from participating hospitals such that classifiers can be created and deployed as agents. The design on a microscale has each agent built upon a generic-layered framework that provides the common agent program code, allowing rapid development of agents for the system. We believe that our framework provides a well-engineered, agent-based approach to data sharing in a medical context. It can provide a better basis on which to investigate the effectiveness of new classification techniques for brain tumour diagnosis.
Publisher: ACM
Date: 26-10-2010
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 12-2020
Abstract: Controlling the regional re-emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) after its initial spread in ever-changing personal contact networks and disease landscapes is a challenging task. In a landscape context, contact opportunities within and between populations are changing rapidly as lockdown measures are relaxed and a number of social activities re-activated. Using an in idual-based metapopulation model, we explored the efficacy of different control strategies across an urban–rural gradient in Wales, UK. Our model shows that isolation of symptomatic cases or regional lockdowns in response to local outbreaks have limited efficacy unless the overall transmission rate is kept persistently low. Additional isolation of non-symptomatic infected in iduals, who may be detected by effective test-and-trace strategies, is pivotal to reducing the overall epidemic size over a wider range of transmission scenarios. We define an ‘urban–rural gradient in epidemic size' as a correlation between regional epidemic size and connectivity within the region, with more highly connected urban populations experiencing relatively larger outbreaks. For interventions focused on regional lockdowns, the strength of such gradients in epidemic size increased with higher travel frequencies, indicating a reduced efficacy of the control measure in the urban regions under these conditions. When both non-symptomatic and symptomatic in iduals are isolated or regional lockdown strategies are enforced, we further found the strongest urban–rural epidemic gradients at high transmission rates. This effect was reversed for strategies targeted at symptomatic in iduals only. Our results emphasize the importance of test-and-trace strategies and maintaining low transmission rates for efficiently controlling SARS-CoV-2 spread, both at landscape scale and in urban areas.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date: 2017
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 29-07-2016
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)
Location: Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)
Location: Spain
No related grants have been discovered for Miguel Lurgi.