Research
The application of mathematical techniques to assist in answering vital questions in the field of epidemiology and ecology have continued to receive attention. Below are more detailed descriptions and questions I am interested in addressing using mathematical theories and techniques.
COVID-19
Human behavior, perception and disease transmission
My studies on COVID-19 revealed the many ways human behavior can affect disease spread. In one study, we found that multiple waves of the pandemic can develop due to the behavior of infected individuals. Therefore, to reduce the disease burden, it is necessary to incentivize the altruistic behavior of the infected individuals to voluntary self-isolation, see submitted works. In another project led by my graduate student, we found that Google Health Trend (GHT) based surveillance for an ongoing epidemic might be useful in some African countries. GHT is an unconventional data set based on COVID-19 related internet searches.
As a continuation of my NSF supported work on COVID-19, I hope to explore the impacts of control efforts that incorporate epidemiological risk and/or community-level perception of risk/fear of the disease.
See more on my human behavior work
Tick-borne diseases, transmission risks, and prescribed fire
Tick-borne illnesses are trending upward and represents a significant public health risk in the United States. In my lab, we are studying the complexity of tick-borne diseases in the Southern Great Plains, including the effect of prescribed fire. Our preliminary work show that fire intensity has a larger impact than the frequency of burns in reducing infectious nymphs’ populations. Whenever possible burning at high intensity is preferable to burning at low intensity. Extension of this work is to develop models that will investigate the best times to perform prescribed burns; is it during adult tick mating times, or should it be when nymphal ticks are most active?
Ticks and Fire
Malaria
As much as 40% of the world’s population is at risk for malaria. Five hundred million people fall sick from the disease each year, with the majority of people coming from 107 countries, most of which comprise some of the poorest parts of the world such as, Sub-Saharan Africa, parts of Latin America and Asia.
My recent works on malaria are as follows: 1. Transmission dynamics of insecticide resistance in endophilic and exophilic mosquitoes.
2. Optimal control of Malaria Transmission Dynamics with Temperature Variations.
Multiscale analysis of host-pathogen interactions
Recently, I have started studying host-pathogen evolution; in particular, a multi-host single pathogen system. Some of the systems I am interested in have multiple transmission pathways and are also impacted by environmental variations. Hence, I am interested in addressing the following questions using adaptive dynamics 1. What are the impact of the multiple transmission pathways on the multi-host single pathogen system?
2. What is the impact of environmental variations on host-pathogen evolution in a multiscale system?
3. What are the impacts of the feedback functions on these interactions?
Multi-scale malaria model
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
MRSA is an infection due to resistant to antibiotics used in the treatment of ordinary staph infections. I am interested in
1. The impact of injection drug users in the transmission of MRSA
2. What is the impact of regional movement on MRSA transmission?
RESEARCH WORKING GROUPS
SLMath Adjoint group: Ticks, fire and control June 2023 – To date
SAMSA Masamu: COVID-19 Modeling-: Impact of households’ transmission Nov 20, 2019 – To Date
IPAM WBIO: Infectious Diseases, Geospatial Modeling and Geostatistics June 17, 2019 – 2022
Impact of Climate Change on Vector Borne Diseases (NIMBioS) Dec 2013 – Dec 2015
Non-autonomous Systems and Terrestrial Carbon Cycle (NIMBioS) May 2013 – Jul 2015