05Oct 2015 by Niel Hens

Dr. Yannick Vandendijck

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Yannick Vandendijck has recently been awarded his PhD in Statistics degree from Hasselt University. We are very happy that Yannick will continue to be a member of the SIMID team. Yannick Vandendijck: ‘ Semi-Parametric Methods for Applications in Survey Data and Geostatistical Data’ – 25 September 2015.
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20Sep 2015 by Niel Hens

Dr. Steven Abrams

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Steven Abrams has recently been awarded his PhD in Statistics degree from Hasselt University. We are very happy that Steven will continue to be a member of the SIMID team. Steven Abrams: 'Statistical models for estimating individual heterogeneity in acquisition of infectious diseases and outbreak risk in highly vaccinated populations' - 18 September 2015.  
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25Jun 2015 by Niel Hens

New FWO postdoctoral fellow: Prof. Dr. Wim Delva

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Wim Delva has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship by the FWO and will join the SIMID group. His FWO research project is a collaborative project between Hasselt University (Niel Hens) and the KULeuven (Annemie Vandamme), entitled "Combining phylodynamics and agent-based HIV transmission modelling to advance epidemiological methodology and evidence- based public health policies for HIV prevention and treatment"
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25Jun 2015 by Niel Hens

Dr. Benson Ogunjimi and Dr. Lander Willem

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Benson Ogunjimi and Lander Willem have recently been awarded their PhD degree. Benson Ogunjimi: 'The quantitative analysis of varicella-zoster virus infection: from epidemiology to immunology' - 27 April 2015 Lander Willem: 'Agent-based models for infectious disease transmission: exploration, estimation & computational efficiency' - 18 June 2015  
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08Apr 2015 by admin

SIMID Workshop 2015

News
The Centre for Health Economic Research and Modelling Infectious Diseases (VAXINFECTIO), University of Antwerp and the Center for Statistics (I-BioStat), Hasselt University were pleased to organise the 6th SIMID Workshop in Antwerpen from 28 to 29 April 2015.  This two-day workshop covered the use of statistical methodology in infectious disease epidemiology and for the prioritisation of interventions.  We organised sessions with methodological as well as applied research, including serological data, vector borne diseases, ebola,  as well as dynamics influenced by heterogeneity in transmission, individual behaviour and policy topics such as estimating DALYs and the cost-effectiveness of adult pneumococcal conjugate vaccination. We also organised a poster session. Flyer  - Registration  
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08Apr 2015 by admin

SIMID Course 2015

News
Our sixth SIMID course will take place on 7-11 September 2015 in the historic city of Bruges (Belgium). Topics: - Day 1: General introduction to R - Day 2: Mathematical models for infectious diseases - Day 3: Estimating infectious disease parameters from serological and social contact data - Day 4: Health economic evaluations: general concepts & dealing with uncertainty - Day 5: Health economic evaluations: vaccination programs More info will be released soon!
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03Feb 2015 by admin

PGEE (with R code)

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We have proposed penalized generalized estimating equations with Elastic Net or L2-Smoothly Clipped Absolute Deviation penalization to simultaneously select the most important variables and estimate their effects for longitudinal Gaussian data when multicollinearity is present. The method is able to consistently select and estimate the main effects even when strong correlations are present. In addition, the potential pitfall of time-dependent covariates is clarified. More info...
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01Dec 2014 by admin

Ebola Round Table – How different disciplines are working together to contain Ebola

News
In March 2014, an outbreak of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) was detected in Guinea, with a second wave affecting Sierra Leone and Liberia in June. The outbreak has been unprecedented in magnitude and extent, and already exceeds the sum of all previous cases since the discovery of the disease in 1976. Hasselt University and the University of Antwerp host a round table which will bring together a range of experts – biologists, infectious disease modelers, vaccine experts… – on how the worst epidemic of EVD in human history is tackled. (more…)
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