Conference Review: Third Meeting of Polish R Users, The Influenza Challenge

The ‘Conference Review: Third Meeting of Polish R Users, The Influenza Challenge’ article from the 2011-1 issue.

The third Polish R Users’ Conference took place at the Mathematical Institute of Polish Academy of Sciences in Wrocław on 24-25 of September 2010. The meeting was traditionally named WZUR, an abbreviation which has the same meaning as “equation” in spoken Polish. This year the conference adopted a fresh format. I wish to share with you both the reasons behind changing the format and the afterthoughts of the conference participants.

This time the leading subject for the conference was the epidemiology of influenza. Almost 50 people from various parts of Poland and representing numerous professions (statisticians, mathematicians, medical doctors, students) gathered to find out more about influenza and methods for analyzing data related to this disease. A few months in advance of the conference, we had gathered weekly reports covering the last 11 years of influenza occurrences in Poland. Both the absolute numbers and the rates per 100,000 individuals of infections and mortalities were available for four age groups and for 16 different regions. All participants had access to the same data set and all of them had time to experiment on the dataset using an assortment of statistical methods. During the two-day conference various applications were presented of existing statistical procedures available in R as well as newly developed methods.

The dataset was a common basis for all talks. We requested all presenters to prepare talks composed of three parts. In the first part the statistical methods, the mathematical theory behind them along with some insights were presented. In the second part a set of R functions covering these methods was introduced. And finally in the third part a sample application of presented methods to the dataset described above was demonstrated. All participants were familiarized with the dataset, and this created a common platform which facilitated better communication among statisticians and physicians. The epidemiology of influenza was tackled from different angles. Results from variety of statistical procedures created a framework for discussion between people who are developing new statistical methods and for people who are applying them.

The conference was conducted in Polish, and most of the conference materials are in Polish but the equations and figures are international, and presentations are available on the web site http://www.biecek.pl/WZUR. Almost all talks were recorded and the video files are freely available from the above address.

List of presented talks:

1. Short-term changes in mortality during influenza epidemics, Daniel Rabczenko (PZH) ,

2. Calibration estimators in the study of influenza, Tomek Józefowski, Marcin Szymkowiak (UE Poznań),

3. Time series comparison using Dynamic Time Warping, Pawel Teisseyre (IPI PAN),

4. Selected generalized linear models. Alicja Szabelska (UE Poznań),

5. CUMSUM method in prediction of influenza epidemics. Konrad Furmańczyk, Marta Zalewska, Przemysław Biecek, Stanisław Jaworski (WUM+UW),

6. The ECAP study, the correspondence analysis in the asthma study. Konrad Furmańczyk, Stanisław Jaworski, Bolesław Samoliński, Marta Zalewska (WUM),

7. Sesonality of influenza. Marta Musiał, Łukasz Wawrowski, Maciej Beręsewicz, Anita Mackowiak (UE Poznań),

8. Logistic regression in the study of influenza. Piotr Ṡliwka (UKW).

9. The simecol package in Influenza study. Marta Markiewicz, Anna Sikora, Katarzyna Zajączkowska, Michał Balcerek, Piotr Kupczyk (PWr),

10. The artificial neural networks in forecasting the influenza epidemics. Anna Noga, Roksana Kowalska, Maciej Kawecki, Paweł Szczypior (PWr),

11. Intensity estimation with multiplicative intensity models. Anna Dudek Piotr Majerski (AGH),

12. Influenza epidemiology, Grażyna Dulny (WUM).

Additionally, during the second day of the conference the survey “Epidemiology of Allergic Disease in Poland” was presented (http://ecap.pl/eng_www/material.html). The project was conducted with the Department of Prevention of Environmental Hazards and Allergology at the Medical University of Warsaw by the initiative of the Minister of Health.

The organizing committee: Przemysław Biecek, Marta Zalewska, Konrad Furmańczyk , Stanisław Jaworski would like to thank:

The Scientific Committee

Prof. Leon Bobrowski, Prof Antoni Dawidowicz, Prof. Jacek Koronacki, Dr Witold Kupść, Prof. Wojciech Niemiro, Dr Daniel Rabczenko, Prof. Bolesław Samoliński, Prof. Łukasz Stettner, and Prof. Wojciech Zieliński.

Our host

The Polish Mathematical Society in Wrocław,

Our generous sponsors and supporters

Netezza, Warsaw University, The Medical University of Warsaw, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi Pasteur, and The Independent Public Central Clinical Hospital.

We are looking forward to the next WZUR. This time we will focus on the data set “Social Diagnosis 2000-2011” (see: http://diagnoza.com/index-en.html). The challenge is to understand changes in objective and subjective quality of life in Poland in last 11 years.

As always we warmly welcome new participants and sponsors!

On behalf of The Organizing Committee,

Note

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