Tech Reports Archive

Sahara Mustard (Brassica tournefortii) is an invasive weed that has become widespread throughout the southwestern United States. Its early germination, high fecundity, and dispersal effectiveness augment its ability to outcompete and possibly displace local flora. In this work, we model the dynamics of Sahara Mustard as it competes with winter annuals native to the Sonoran Desert, such as the widespread forb Lepidium lasiocarpum.

Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA) is a genetic disease that leads to deficiency in the
mitochondrial protein, Frataxin. In turn an accumulation of iron begins to propagate
within the mitochondria resulting in cell death by oxidative stress. In this work we
present a mechanistic mathematical model that incorporates both cytoplasm and
mitochondria key processes responsible for bring iron balance to a healthy cell and

Trypanosoma cruzi is the causal agent and parasite of Chagas disease, a neglected tropical disease transmitted mainly by blood-sucking triatomine insects in Latin America. Because of the unavailability of a cure for Chagas disease, disease control relies on the control of the vector population. In this work, we developed deterministic and stochastic mathematical models for the dynamics of bug infestation in a community of houses. We used a Levins metapopulation approach in which houses are considered to be patches that can be in one of three states: empty, infested, or treated.

Intracranial aneurysms are localized dilations of arterial vessels located around the Circle of Willis, an important network of arteries at the base of the brain. Aneurysms are at constant risk of hemorrhage; however, the number of benign cases carried by the v populace, the dangers of treatment, and the risk of recurrence often null the efficacy of preventative surgery. Although the mechanisms behind the formation of individual intracranial aneurysms have been thoroughly modeled as the consequence of local hemodynamic conditions, previous simulations have concentrated on single aneurysms.

Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted bacterial infection caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae that has become resistant to a wider range of antibiotics in recent decades. We study the competition dynamics of multiple N. gonorrhoeae bacterial strains within a host in an effort to better understand the development of antibiotic resistance and examine individual-patient treatment regimes to determine conditions for within-host antibioticresistance emergence.

The California prison system has a high percentage of people who return to prison within a three year period after release. A mathematical model is formulated to study the effectiveness of Reentry Court programs for first time offending parolees designed to vi reduce the prison return rates when implemented alone or in conjugation with an in prison educational program. Parolees who participated in both in/out of prison programs are referred to as an ideal class in the model. Stability analysis and numerical simulations were carried out to study the impact of the programs.

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is a cluster of genes found in most vertebrate genomes which includes several gene families whose proteins play an important role in the recognition of foreign antigens. Pathogen-mediated selection (PMS) is believed to be responsible for the extraordinary levels of MHC diversity observed in humans and many other vertebrate species. Although there have been many theoretical studies of the relationship between PMS and MHC diversity, most have not incorporated the selective impact of epidemiological dynamics.

The social dynamics of residential solar panel use within a theoretical population are studied using a compartmental model. In this study we consider three solar power options commonly available to consumers: the community block, leasing, and buying. In particular we are interested in studying how social influence affects the dynamics within these compartments. As a result of this research a threshold value is determined, beyond vii which solar panels persist in the population.

We propose a discrete model to investigate the role of contact tracing program reducingthe new cases and prevalence of tuberculosis. We observe that the tuberculosis contact tracing program has no effect on the basic reproduction number R0 but the size of social cluster has. On the other hand a contact tracing program can speed up the process of TB elimination. We compute the partial rank correlation coefficient (PRCC), based on Latin hypercube sampling (LHS), to evaluate the effect of input parameters on the magnitude of the new cases and prevalence.

We formulate a discrete time model to identify and evaluate the role of optimal control strategies on influenza transmission. We divide the population in two subgroups defined according to the contact activity or susceptibility levels. The individuals are identified as susceptible, infectious, treated, and recovered. The potential effect of antiviral treatment considering unlimited and limited resources is evaluated, where an isoperimetric constraint is incorporated in the presence of limited resources.