Gradual changes in the age distribution of excess deaths in the years following the 1918 influenza pandemic in Copenhagen: using epidemiological evidence to detect antigenic drift.

Background: The 1918 influenza pandemic was associated with an unusual age pattern of mortality, with most deaths occurring among young adults. Few studies have addressed changes in the age distribution for influenza-related mortality in the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic period, which has implications for pandemic preparedness. In the present paper, we analyse the age patterns of influenza-related excess mortality in the decades before and after the 1918 pandemic, using detailed historic surveillance data from Copenhagen.

An electrical circuit model of the alpha-beta merging seen in dielectric relaxation of ultraviscous liquids.

We present a new model for dielectric data in the alpha-beta merging region. The model is constructed using electrical circuit analogies. It leads to an interpretation of the merging region as one where the total relaxation upon cooling separates in two relaxation processes, consistent with a view where the relaxing entities involved are the same for the two processes.