3) Models of Influenza Transmission: The major focus of the MIDAS research partnership has been pandemic influenza. In response to the MIDAS mission (see http://grants.nih.gov/ grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-GM-06-106.html), a number of large ABMs describing influenza transmission were developed. The main purpose of the models was to examine possible intervention strategies that would protect the general public from morbidity and mortality should an influenza pandemic strike. One of the initial objectives in all disease transmission studies is to determine the basic R0 value. The goal of intervention is to reduce R0 below the self-sustaining threshold of R0 = 1. The R0 of a future newly emergent influenza strain is unknown, but estimates for previous pandemics are available. For example, an estimate of 1.89 was obtained for the pandemic of 1968 in Hong Kong [3] , and the pandemic of 1957 in Great Britain (GB) was estimated to be between 1.5-1.7 [4] . Also, the reproductive number of the first wave of the 1918 pandemic in the United States was estimated as 2-3 [5] . There is historical evidence that these three influenza pandemics were explosive. The results reported by the MIDAS also suggest that the pandemics can be controlled to some degree. By comparison, childhood diseases such as rubella, pertussis, and measles have R0 values in most populations in the range 7-15 [6] , and consequently, are much less controllable.