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Stærðfræðilíkön í líffræði - fundur fyrir alla félagsmenn

Tími: 
Miðvikudaginn, 23. nóvember 2016 - 16:45
Staðsetning: 
stofa V-156 í VR-II við Hjarðarhaga

Fundur verður haldinn í félaginu miðvikudaginn 23. nóvember í stofu VR-156 í VR-II við Hjarðarhaga. Að venju hefst fundurinn með kaffidrykkju kl 16:45, en kl 17:00 heldur dr. Lauren Childs, lektor við Virginia Tech í Bandaríkjunum fyrirlestur sem hún gefur yfirskriftina: Two Cases Studies for Modeling Infectious Disease Dynamics: Ebola and Zika.

Efni fyrirlestrarins lýsir Lauren svo:
Mathematical models are essential tools for understanding the dynamics of ecology and epidemiology of biological systems. In particular, a natural way to understand the dynamics of infectious disease spread is to describe individuals in a population by their immunological status - susceptible, infectious, or recovered. Then one can model the spread of an infectious disease as a simple system of non-linear ordinary differential equations. Despite the apparent simplicity of the system, a closed form analytical solution is unattainable. However, these equations can be studied to understand fundamental dynamics of the system. The elegance of these models lies in the ability to add a variety of complexities to the system. Here we build upon the original simple system to examine two diseases of recent global importance: Ebola and Zika. We include additional compartments for each disease to account for various modes of transmission such as the transmission of Zika via mosquitoes. We analyze the potential for disease spread in the population through the basic reproductive number. As a result, we indicate factors that are important for control of these diseases.

Við eigum því að venju von á spennandi erindi og hvetjum félagsmenn til að mæta!

Nánari upplýsingar um fyrirlesarann:
Dr. Lauren Childs is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Virginia Tech. She previously served as a research scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the Department of Epidemiology and Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics and as a visiting Assistant Professor at Williams College’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics. She uses mathematical models with a focus on dynamical systems to examine biologically motivated questions. Her research includes mathematical and computational models with such applications as the immune system, infectious disease, bacteriophage-host interactions, fish schools, and coupled oscillators. Dr. Childs earned a bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Chemistry from Duke University in 2004, and master’s and doctoral degrees in Applied Mathematics from Cornell University.