Dr. Tzai-Hung Wen (溫在弘)
Professor
Principal Investigator National Taiwan University |
Academic Biography
My recent academic research focuses on developing geospatial computational methods and analytic frameworks that integrate geospatial patterns and spatio-temporal relationships to understand the complex interplay between human spatial behavior, urban environment and diffusion of infectious diseases, shaping the knowledge of how the epidemic of dengue disease spreads. On the interaction of environment and epidemic prevalence, in Taiwan, the outbreak of dengue disease is often triggered by the importation case from Southeast Asia, differing from the scenarios in South America or Southeast Asia with widespread endemics. Therefore, firstly, clarifying spatio-temporal processes of the local outbreak of dengue disease may help understand how dengue fever breaks out and diffuses in Taiwan. In 2018, we considered the interaction effect of rainfall with the urban environment by extracting different rainfall patterns and building up a multilevel statistical model to understand how rainfall intensity, quantity and duration under various built environments (such as the downtown areas, old-housing areas) affect the spatio-temporal diffusion of epidemics. The result was published in Applied Geography (SSCI, Rank= 13.4% in Geography) in 2018. Additionally, my research also focuses on the spatio-temporal relationship of importation cases with native cases to understand the diffusion process initiated by the imported dengue case. We built up spatio-temporal transmission pair between the imported and native cases, and analyze the disease transmission rate and diffusion risk in the past years. The result clarified the relationship between the diffusion risk and geographical structure, and provided evidences for the correlation of urbanization levels with disease transmission rates. The result was published in Applied Geography (SSCI, Rank= 13.4% in Geography) in 2016. Also, to further clarify the spatio-temporal structure of disease diffusion, in 2017, we developed the TrAcking Progression in Time and Space (TaPiTaS) algorithm to detect critical spatial and spatio-temporal epidemic patterns, including the diffused sub-clusters, progression link and progression chain. The result was published in Scientific Reports (SCI, Rank= 15% in Multidisciplinary Sciences). Furthermore, on the clustering and diffusion of epidemics, we developed a machine-learning-based analytic framework of using a spatio-temporal algorithm to identify the dynamic progression and evolution types of epidemic clusters such as the growth, split, merge, emerge steady and split-merge of clusters. This framework not only identifies early signs of the outbreaks of infectious diseases, but also provide critical spatial information of the disease for epidemic control. The historical data of dengue case include the reported time, location and attributes, and were retrieved from the open data platform maintained by the government. This study was published in Annals of the American Association of Geographers (SCI, Rank= 8.5% in Geography) in 2018.
In recent years, my research accomplishments include the Wu Da-Yu Memorial Award from the MOST in 2015, which is the most prestigious recognition for young investigators in Taiwan. In 2014 and 2015, when the Southern Taiwan suffered from serious dengue outbreaks, we used the open data from the government to build up epidemic maps to help understand the state and diffusion of the disease. This result was covered in several mass communication mediums in Taiwan such as the Apple Daily, EBC News and SET News. In the meanwhile, Liberty Times Net also had a cover report on 3 September 2015 on the topic of “The open data of Tainan City – epidemic maps made from the non-governments and academic researchers”. During that time, I also submitted an article, “Using dengue open data to make epidemic maps for diseases control” to Apple Daily, putting an emphasis on the importance and benefits of open data for epidemic control. In October 2015, the production team of an in-depth TV report show, Our Island, from Public Television Service visited our lab and made an interview on the topic of “Dengue, what is our next step”. In the interview, we explained the public health impact that is caused by vector-borne infectious diseases especially under the impact of climate change and extreme weather, and encouraged the audiences to improve their living environment and the government to come up with sustainable urban planning strategies, to alleviate epidemic impacts. In 2016, the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Taiwan established a national research center for mosquito-borne infectious diseases. I was honored to be invited as the epidemic research expert of the center, and advised on the preparation and research for building up a GIS epidemic analytic platform. I was also honored to be invited to serve as a member of the academic editorial teams of several SCI-indexed international academic journals, such as the associate editor of BMC Public Health (JIF=2.42, 5-Yr IF=3.039, Rank = 43/172 (25%) in Public Health) and the academic editor of PLOS ONE (JIF=2.766, 5-Yr IF=3.352, Rank = 14/64 (21.8%) in Multidisciplinary Sciences). Research Focus
Spatial Epidemiology
Spatial Analysis Geospatial Computational Sciencebr> Cartography and Data Visualization Urban Environmental Sensing Research Project
Academic Award
2018 NTU Distinguished Teaching Award (Top 1%)
2017 NTU Outstanding Journal Publication Award 2017 MOST Future Tech Expo: Breakthrough Technology Award 2016 NTU Outstanding Journal Publication Award 2015 MOST Ta-You Wu Memorial Award |
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