School-aged children play an important role in influenza. In this thesis we presenta social network analysis of contacts among 746 students in 3 different schools and agenomic analysis of influenza viruses from 180 students in 9 schools. These schools arelocated in urban and suburban areas in and near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA andinclude elementary, middle, and high schools. We collected a proxy for social contactinformation using wireless sensor devices worn by the students, programmed so that theyregularly record other nearby devices if they are closer than 4 meters. We analyzed thesenetworks to identify the patterns of proximal interactions of children in different classesand grades, identify community structure within schools and examine the impact of thephysical environment on proximal contacts between students. We created undirectedweighted networks from the data recorded by these devices and conducted social networkanalyses of these networks. In elementary and middle schools we observe high numberof intra-grade and intra-classroom contacts, and relatively low number of inter-gradecontacts. However, in high schools, contact networks are well connected and mixed andare difficult to separate into specific grades or classrooms. The high modularity of lowergrades suggests that assumptions of homogeneous mixing within schools in epidemicmodels may be inappropriate whereas lower modularity in high schools suggest thathomogenous mixing assumptions may be more acceptable in these settings. Genomicdata of the influenza viruses was analyzed via phylogenetic trees. This thesis was advisedby Derek Cummings and read by Robert Scharpf.
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CHARACTERIZING RISK OF TRANSMISSION OF RESPIRATORY VIRUSES AMONG SCHOOL CHILDREN USING PROXIES OF INFECTIOUS CONTACT AND GENETIC DATA
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