Avian influenza H5N1 is one kind of important bird flu. Unfortunately, this virus has swiftly evolved and become highly pathogenic to humans and poultry, resulting in 100% of death in infected poultry and over 60% of mortality among infected human population. Moreover, the virus tends to reassort with other influenza viruses, such as the current swine flu H1N1, to establish themselves in environments and further this epidemic all over the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) has in fact warned that highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 poses a graver risk of a global human pandemic than at any time since the Hong Kong outbreak (H3N2) in the 1960s. / Finally, avian influenza is an inter-disciplinary issue across virology, medical geography, and spatial epidemiology. How to quantify and integrate knowledge from different disciplines remains a challenge in fully understanding the disease. We propose a method to formally integrate genetic analysis that identifies the evolution of the H5N1 virus in space and time, epidemiological analysis that determines socio-environmental factors associated with H5N1 occurrence and statistical analysis that identifies outbreak dusters. Our integrated results show a significant advance in findings over reports in, for instance, Gilbert et al. (2008) and we believe our findings are more precise and informative in representing the occurrence and the space-time dynamics of H5N1 spread. Overall, unlike traditional influenza studies, our work sets up a solid foundation for the inter-disciplinary study of this and other spatial infectious diseases. / First, we apply multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis to determine the temporal scaling behavior of outbreaks in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the whole of the world between December 2003 to March 2009. Long-range correlation and multifractality, two important properties characterizing the scaling behavior of complex dynamics, are first detected in the outbreak time series. In addition, this study identifies different temporal scaling behaviors of outbreaks of these continents 8,nd specific seasonal patterns in Asia. These findings confirm our perspective that avian-influenza outbreak behaviors are self-similar over time and are spatially heterogeneous. / One key to preventing such a calamity is to obtain a thorough understanding of the mechanisms of avian influenza transmission and its spatio-temporal patterns of dispersal. The issues at stake are outbreaks' spatial and temporal patterns, the interrelationship of these with the evolution of influenza viruses in such a way that geography is understood as a dimension of the disease's virology, and the human and avian behaviors and socio-ecological environments associated with H5Nl spread. This thesis sets out to study these problems in detail and propose solutions. / Second, we conduct a spatial analysis for global trends and local clusters of H5N1 outbreaks at multiple geographical scales. Currently, the local K function used in a point pattern analysis searches outbreak clusters, assuming the disease is spatially homogeneous. The thesis proposes a much more efficient method to measure the degree of clusters accurately. The modified function works by weighting outbreaks through distances, counting the number of the weighted outbreaks for each lattice point no matter whether the disease emerges in a grid. This weighted local K function extends cluster analysis from a point pattern to lattice data. Spatial representation in these terms then seeks to explore local patterns of H5N1 over a continuous space. / Third, we study a set of socio-environmental factors, which are plausibly associated with the occurrence of H5N1. Spatial epidemiological models are built for predicting the disease at both continental and national levels, covering Indonesia, China, and the whole of East-Southeast Asia. We evaluate the statistical models using 1,000 bootstrap replicates, showing a consistently high rate of prediction, assessed by statistics: AUC, Kappa Index, and pseudo R square. / Ge, Erjia. / Advisers: Yee Leung; Tung Fung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-06, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 169-197). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Linköping : Linköpings universitet, 2006. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

I established the phage antibody library platform for the identification of specific antibodies. In the first part of my study, I tried to identify antibody against SARS-CoV. Two fragments on the spike protein, which is responsible for inducing viral entry, was chosen as target for the selection of antibody. An antibody was identified which can selectively recognize the SARS-CoV infected cells, but not non-infected cells. Although this antibody was found to retain no neutralizing ability, this specific antibody may have potential to develop for diagnostic purpose. / I utilized the phage system-based cloning method as an attractive approach to screen and identify virus-specific antibodies that can be encoded by the human genome. Once a useful phage clone is identified, unlimited amounts of human monoclonal virus-specific antibodies can be manufactured, and potentially applied clinically for prophylactic and therapeutic uses. The study focuses on two of these new infections, both of which cause severe respiratory disease: SARS and avian influenza. / Identification of specific antibodies, either for diagnostic or therapeutic use, was successfully demonstrated in the two infectious disease models. The phage antibody platform offers a fast and cost-effective method to identify phage antibodies, which can easily be converted to human viral specific monoclonal antibodies for clinical use. / In the 21st century, a number of novel infectious diseases emerged suddenly and spread rapidly, endangering the lives and well-being of people around the world. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a life threatening form of atypical pneumonia that ravaged Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Canada and many cities in 2003. In the same year, novel avian influenza viruses infected human beings on two continents. Both of these diseases originated in animals and crossed over into the human population. These emerging diseases pose significant public health threats while providing a chilling reminder that another influenza pandemic could occur at any time. Thus, the development of effective therapeutics to control the disease is of paramount importance. Although several vaccines against SARS and avian influenza are available nowadays, the poor clinical performance and frequent mutation of viral strains may limit the practical use and value of the vaccines. Moreover, there are no promising antiviral drugs available for the treatment. Therefore, I aimed to develop an immunotherapy as an alternative treatment option against these diseases. / In the second part of my study, the extracellular domain of matrix protein of avian influenza virus was chosen as target for the selection of antibody. I successfully identified an antibody which can neutralize the avian influenza virus infection. This promising result indicated this antibody has potential to develop for therapeutic use and these antibodies can be easily manufactured in unlimited amounts for clinical application. / Leung, Ka Man. / Adviser: Kwok Pui Fung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 71-01, Section: B, page: 0212. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-123). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-04T12:36:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010 / A gripe aviária é considerada uma zoonose emergente e refere-se às condições causadas por um grupo de vírus influenza que afeta principalmente as aves. A gripe aviária foi considerada a principal candidata a se tornar a primeira pandemia de gripe do século. E essa ameaça invadiu o cotidiano de forma avassaladora. Ela não passou ilesa pelos meios de comunicação. O objetivo principal desse estudo foi investigar os processos de significação da gripe aviária, através de narrativas construídas pelos meios de comunicação. Diante do frenético espetáculo global de sentidos, procurou-se nas páginas noticiosas e na narrativa cinematográfica desvelar os processos de significação envolvendo a gripe aviária, valendo-se do método indiciário, da semiótica e da leitura isotópica. A leitura isotópica permitiu isolar as redes temáticas Ameaça , Ciência e Guerra . Em cada uma delas, discute-se como a ficção e a notícia atuam como vertente da realidade, compondo narrativas que formam um tecido no meio do qual nos situamos. A partir dos elementos figurativos que compõem a rede temática ameaça, foi observado como a gripe aviária se tornou tão visível nas páginas noticiosas e na narrativa cinematográfica que não houve questionamentos se ela realmente existia ou não. Na rede temática ciência , discute-se as respostas da ciência e da tecnologia diante dos riscos e incertezas da gripe aviária e como elas repercutiram nos meios de comunicação. Foi abordada ainda a multiplicidade de respostas diante da ameaça da gripe aviária e como a temática da guerra se revelou em direção às políticas de emergência. A gripe aviária invadiu o sistema imune de nossa cultura tecnológica. O fazer sentido da gripe aviária é um assunto cultural, mesmo se desempenhando nos domínios da tecnociência. Ela se espalhou pela governância, pelo âmbito midiático, pelo comércio e afetou nossas vidas. Como risco, ela se tornou real o suficiente para difundir um senso de urgência e justificar ações preventivas. / Bird flu is considered an emerging zoonosis and refers to conditions caused by a group of influenza viruses that primarily affects birds. Avian influenza was considered the leading candidate to become the century first pandemic of influenza. And that threat has invaded daily life in an overwhelming way. It did not get unharmed by the media. The main objective of this study was to investigate the processes of signification of avian influenza through narratives constructed by the media. Given the frenetic global spectacle of the senses, we tried in the newspapers and in the film narrative to reveal the processes of meaning involving avian flu, drawing on sing-based method, semiotics and isotopic analysis. Isotopic analysis allowed to isolate thematic frameworks, such as: Threat, Science and War. In each, we discuss how the news and fiction work as part of reality, composing narratives that form a fabric in the middle of which we stand. From the figurative elements that make up the thematic framework. Threat, it was observed how avian flu has become so visible in the newspapers and in the film narrative that there were questions if the epidemic really existed or not. The thematic framework Science discusses the responses of science and technology, facing the risks and uncertainties of avian influenza and how they reverberated in the media. It has also been addressed the multiplicity of responses to the threat of avian influenza and how the theme of War was revealed toward the politics of emergency. Bird flu has invaded the immune system of our technological culture. The making sense of avian influenza is a cultural matter, even if playing in the fields of science and technology. It spread to government, the scope of media, commerce and affected our lives. As risk, it has become real enough to spread a sense of urgency and justify preventive action.