The development and interaction of terrorist and fanatic groups

Through the mathematical study of two models we quantify some of the theories of co-development and co-existence of focused groups in the social sciences. This work attempts to develop the mathematical framework behind the social sciences of community formation. By using well developed theories and concepts from ecology and epidemiology we hope to extend the theoretical framework of organizing and self-organizing social groups and communities, including terrorist groups. The main goal of our work is to gain insight into the role of recruitment and retention in the formation and survival of social organizations. Understanding the underlining mechanisms of the spread of ideologies under competition is a fundamental component of this work. Here contacts between core and non-core individuals extend beyond its physical meaning to include indirect interaction and spread of ideas through phone conversations, emails, media sources and other similar mean. This work focuses on the dynamics of formation of interest groups, either ideological, economical or ecological and thus we explore the questions such as, how do interest groups initiate and co-develop by interacting within a common environment and how do they sustain themselves? Our results show that building and maintaining the core group is essential for the existence and survival of an extreme ideology. Our research also indicates that in the absence of competitive ability (i.e., ability to take from the other core group or share prospective members) the social organization or group that is more committed to its group ideology and manages to strike the right balance between investment in recruitment and retention will prevail. Thus under no cross interaction between two social groups a single trade-off (of these efforts) can support only a single organization. The more efforts that an organization implements to recruit and retain its members the more effective it will be in transmitting the ideology to other vulnerable individuals and thus converting them to believers.     

Modelling the effect of tuberculosis on the spread of HIV infection in a population with density-dependent birth and death rate

A nonlinear mathematical model is proposed to study the effect of tuberculosis on the spread of HIV infection in a logistically growing human population. The host population is divided into four sub classes of susceptibles, TB infectives, HIV infectives (with or without TB) and that of AIDS patients. The model exhibits four equilibria namely, a disease free, HIV free, TB free and an endemic equilibrium. The model has been studied qualitatively using stability theory of nonlinear differential equations and computer simulation. We have found a threshold parameter R₀ which is if less than one, the disease free equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable otherwise for R₀>1, at least one of the infections will be present in the population. It is shown that the positive endemic equilibrium is always locally stable but it may become globally stable under certain conditions showing that the disease becomes endemic. It is found that as the number of TB infectives decreases due to recovery, the number of HIV infectives also decreases and endemic equilibrium tends to TB free equilibrium. It is also observed that number of AIDS individuals decreases if TB is not associated with HIV infection. A numerical study of the model is also performed to investigate the influence of certain key parameters on the spread of the disease.     

Why to consider environmental pollution in cholera modeling?

We propose a deterministic model to study the impact of environmental pollution on the dynamics of cholera. We consider both human to human and human‐environment‐human transmission modes in our model. We obtain the expression for the basic reproduction number of the proposed model. The study of our model reveals that environmental pollution plays a significant role in the spread of cholera and should not be ignored. Although various dimensions of cholera has been studied using mathematical models but scanty efforts have been made to understand impact of environmental pollution on this disease. Through this study, we try to bridge this gap.     

From Individuals to Populations: A Symbolic Process Algebra Approach to Epidemiology

Is it possible to symbolically express and analyse an individual-based model of disease spread, including realistic population dynamics? This problem is addressed through the use of process algebra and a novel method for transforming process algebra into Mean Field Equations. A number of stochastic models of population growth are presented, exploring different representations based on alternative views of individual behaviour. The overall population dynamics in terms of mean field equations are derived using a formal and rigorous rewriting based method. These equations are easily compared with the traditionally used deterministic Ordinary Differential Equation models and allow evaluation of those ODE models, challenging their assumptions about system dynamics. The utility of our approach for epidemiology is confirmed by constructing a model combining population growth with disease spread and fitting it to data on HIV in the UK population. This work was supported by EPSRC through a Doctoral Training Grant (CM, from 2004–2007), and through System Dynamics from Individual Interactions: A process algebra approach to epidemiology (EP/E006280/1, all authors, 2007–2010).     

Modeling the spread of an infectious disease with bacteria and carriers in the environment

An SIS model with immigration for the spread of an infectious disease with bacteria and carriers in the environment is proposed and analyzed. It is assumed that susceptibles get infected directly by infectives as well as by their contacts with bacteria discharged by infectives in the environment. The growth rate of density of bacteria is assumed to be proportional to the density of infectives and decreases naturally as well as by bacterial interactions with susceptibles and carriers. The carrier population density is considered to follow the logistic model and grows due to conducive human population density related factors. It is assumed further that the number of bacteria transported by carriers to susceptibles is proportional to densities of both bacteria and carriers. The model study shows that the spread of the infectious disease increases due to growth of bacteria and carriers in the environment and disease becomes more endemic due to immigration.     

On the classical Maki–Thompson rumour model in continuous time

In this paper, the Maki–Thompson model is slightly refined in continuous time, and a new general solution is obtained for each dynamics of spreading of a rumour. It is derived an equation for the size of a stochastic rumour process in terms of transitions. We give new lower and upper bounds for the proportion of total ignorants who never learned a rumour and the proportion of total stiflers who either forget the rumour or cease to spread the rumour when the rumour process stops, under general initial conditions. Simulation results are presented for the analytical solutions. The model and these numerical results are capable to explain the behaviour of the dynamics of any other dynamical system having interactions similar to the ones in the stochastic rumour process and requiring numerical interpretations to understand the real phenomena better. The numerical process in the differential equations of the model is investigated by using error-estimates. The estimated error is calculated by the Runge–Kutta method and found either negligible or zero for a relatively small size of the population. This pioneering paper introduces a new mathematical method into Operations research, motivated by various areas of scientific, social and daily life, it presents numerical computations, discusses structural frontiers and invites the interested readers to future research.     

基于不同政府补贴策略的供应链绿色努力决策比较研究

研究由单一制造商与单一零售商组成的二级绿色供应链,探讨在同时考虑制造商与零售商绿色努力情况下政府补贴策略对供应链绿色努力与定价决策的影响,比较分析无补贴策略、制造商补贴策略与消费者补贴策略对决策影响的差异性,并进一步考虑零售商的风险规避特征对最优决策的影响。结果表明,政府补贴能够激励制造商与零售商的绿色努力行为,对供应链的绿色发展总是有利的;且制造商补贴策略下的绿色质量水平高于消费者补贴策略,但对供应链利润而言并不是最优的;而在消费者补贴策略下,尽管产品的绿色质量水平不是最优的,但供应链可以获得最高的利润。研究还发现,风险规避特征不会改变参数对最优决策与最优利润的影响趋势,但会降低零售商的绿色努力积极性,导致其利润的下降。     

A Stochastic Model for Population and Well-Being Dynamics

This article presents a stochastic dynamic model to study the demographic evolution per sexes and the corresponding well-being of a general human population. The main model variables are population per sexes and well-being. The considered well-being variable is the Gender-Related Development Index (GDI), a United Nations index. The model's objectives are to improve future well-being and to reach a stable population in a country. The application case consists of adapting, validating, and using the model for Spain in the 2000–2006 period. Some instance strategies have been tested in different scenarios for the 2006–2015 period to meet these objectives by calculating the reliability of the results. The optimal strategy is “government invests more in education and maintains the present health investment tendency.”     

Budgeting with bounded multiple-choice constraints

We consider a budgeting problem where a specified number of projects from some disjoint classes has to be selected such that the overall gain is largest possible, and such that the costs of the chosen projects do not exceed a fixed upper limit. The problem has several application in government budgeting, planning, and as relaxation from other combinatorial problems. It is demonstrated that the problem can be transformed to an equivalent multiple-choice knapsack problem through dynamic programming. A naive transformation however leads to a drastic increase in the number of variables, thus we propose an algorithm for the continuous problem based on Dantzig–Wolfe decomposition. A master problem solves a continuous multiple-choice knapsack problem knowing only some extreme points in each of the transformed classes. The individual subproblems find extreme points for each given direction, using a median search algorithm. An integer optimal solution is then derived by using the dynamic programming transformation to a multiple-choice knapsack problem for an expanding core. The individual classes are considered in an order given by their gradients, and the transformation to a multiple-choice knapsack problem is performed when needed. In this way, only a dozen of classes need to be transformed for standard instances from the literature. Computational experiments are presented, showing that the developed algorithm is orders of magnitude faster than a general LP/MIP algorithm.     

A nonlinear HIV/AIDS model with contact tracing

A nonlinear mathematical model is proposed and analyzed to study the effect of contact tracing on reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS in a homogeneous population with constant immigration of susceptibles. In modeling the dynamics, the population is divided into four subclasses of HIV negatives but susceptibles, HIV positives or infectives that do not know they are infected, HIV positives that know they are infected and that of AIDS patients. Susceptibles are assumed to become infected via sexual contacts with (both types of) infectives and all infectives move with constant rates to develop AIDS. The model is analyzed using the stability theory of differential equations and numerical simulation. The model analysis shows that contact tracing may be of immense help in reducing the spread of AIDS epidemic in a population. It is also found that the endemicity of infection is reduced when infectives after becoming aware of their infection do not take part in sexual interaction.     

Analysis of various optimal contracts in the problem of stimulation of agents by a principal in a model with two agents

This work is devoted to one section of a game theory popular in recent years, the theory of contracts and the problem of an agent and a principal. A principal tries to stimulate agents into making a number of contracts with clients using his resources in order to maximize his profits as a result. At the same time, the principal has limited information about the agents. He knows only the results he has obtained; he does not know their type or the efforts made. The strategy of the principal is an incentive scheme that shows the agent’s reward depending on his results. In turn, the agents try to maximize their benefits while having the right to turn down a contract. We do not consider models with random events, and we restrict ourselves to the deterministic case. The model thus does not fall under the heading of a moral hazard but is related to a situation of unfavorable selection.     

Age‐dependent single‐species population dynamics with delayed argument

The model of age‐dependent population dynamics was for the first time described by McKendrick (1926). This model was based on the first‐order partial differential equation with the standard initial condition and the non‐local boundary condition in integral form. Gurtin and MacCamy in their paper (1974) analyzed a more general model, where the progress of the population depends on its number. They proved the existence of the unique solution to their model for all time. In our paper the results of Gurtin and MacCamy will be generalized on the case, when the dependence on a number of a population is delayed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Complicated endemics of an SIRS model with a generalized incidence under preventive vaccination and treatment controls

In this paper, we propose and study an SIRS epidemic model that incorporates: a generalized incidence rate function describing mechanisms of the disease transmission; a preventive vaccination in the susceptible individuals; and different treatment control strategies depending on the infective population. We provide rigorous mathematical results combined with numerical simulations of the proposed model including: treatment control strategies can determine whether there is an endemic outbreak or not and the number of endemic equilibrium during endemic outbreaks, in addition to the effects of the basic reproduction number; the large value of the preventive vaccination rate can reduce or control the spread of disease; and the large value of the psychological or inhibitory effects in the incidence rate function can decrease the infective population. Some of our interesting findings are that the treatment strategies incorporated in our SIRS model are responsible for backward or forward bifurcations and multiple endemic equilibria; and the infective population decreases with respect to the maximal capacity of treatment. Our results may provide us useful biological insights on population managements for disease that can be modeled through SIRS compartments.     

基于预测模型的我国人口结构问题研究

针对我国人口结构问题,在对相关人口数据进行收集、计算、整理并分析的基础上,通过建立总人口预测模型对2010-2014年人口数量预测,与原始人口数据对比进行模型验证和改进,运用此模型对之后6年人口数量预测,应用队列要素预测法找出相应政策对人口结构变化的影响,通过建立适婚群体预测模型对中国适婚入口中的男女数量定量分析,进而对我国人口结构问题进行整体概括总结.     

Numerical solution of a problem in the theory of epidemics

We propose a numerical algorithm for a model of the spread of infection in the theory of epidemics. This model involves a threshold for becoming infective and leads to a system of delay-differential equations with the delay function which depends on the values of the unknowns over an interval. The numerical algorithm is based on diagonally implicit multistage integration formulas with stage order equal to the order of the method. This makes possible the efficient evaluation of past values to the accuracy compatible with the requested error tolerance. This algorithm is appicable to the general model without any simplifying assumptions on the parameters of the delay-differential system. Numerical results illustrate the effect of varying various parameters of the model on the spread of infection in a constant population.     

Birth-pulse models of Wolbachia-induced cytoplasmic incompatibility in mosquitoes for dengue virus control

Dengue fever, which affects more than 50 million people a year, is the most important arboviral disease in tropical countries. Mosquitoes are the principal vectors of the dengue virus but some endosymbiotic Wolbachia bacteria can stop the mosquitoes from reproducing and so interrupt virus transmission. A birth-pulse model of the spread of Wolbachia through a population of mosquitoes, incorporating the effects of cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) and different density dependent death rate functions, is proposed. Strategies for either eradicating mosquitoes or using population replacement by substituting uninfected mosquitoes with infected ones for dengue virus prevention were modeled. A model with a strong density dependent death function shows that population replacement can be realized if the initial ratio of number of infected to the total number of mosquitoes exceeds a critical value, especially when transmission from mother to offspring is perfect. However, with a weak density dependent death function, population eradication becomes difficult as the system’s solutions are sensitive to initial values. Using numerical methods, it was shown that population eradication may be achieved regardless of the infection ratio only when parameters lie in particular regions and the initial density of uninfected is low enough.     

Optimal control and basic reproduction numbers for a compartmental spatial multipatch dengue model

Dengue is a vector‐borne viral disease increasing dramatically over the past years due to improvement in human mobility. In this work, a multipatch model for dengue transmission dynamics is studied, and by that, the control efforts to minimize the disease spread by host and vector control are investigated. For this model, the basic reproduction number is derived, giving a choice for parameters in the endemic case. The multipatch system models the host movement within the patches, which coupled via a residence‐time budgeting matrix P. Numerical results confirm that the control mechanism embedded in incidence rates of the disease transmission effectively reduces the spread of the disease.     

Optimal immunization rules for an epidemic with recovery

The classical Kermack-McKendrick model for the spread of an epidemic through a closed population has recently been extended by Billard to allow for the recovery and possible reinfection of infective cases. In this paper, we study the optimal control of such an epidemic through immunization of susceptibles when costs are proportional to the area under the infectives trajectory plus the total number of immunizations. When the immunization rate is bounded, optimal controls are of bang-bang type and are characterized by switching curves in the epidemic state space. Explicit expressions for these curves are obtained in the case of deterministic dynamics. When the epidemic is described by a Markov chain, numerical solutions for the switching curve are easy to obtain by dynamic programming, and useful analytic approximations to them are described. The results include those for the so-called general epidemic in which no recovery is allowed.The author is grateful to the referees for their detailed and constructive criticism of an earlier version of this paper.     

The impact of disaster on the strategic interaction between company and government

A company allocates a resource between safety effort and production. The government earns taxes on production. The disaster probability is modeled as a contest between the disaster magnitude and the two players’ safety efforts. The model illustrates that safety efforts are strategic substitutes and inverse U shaped in the disaster magnitude. The company’s safety effort increases, and the government’s safety effort decreases, in taxation. Taxation can ameliorate companies’ free riding on governments’ safety efforts. With sufficiently large production, the government prefers, and the company does not prefer, raising taxation above 0%. For the government, an upper limit usually exists above which taxation cannot be profitably increased. The model shows how both or no players exert safety efforts when the disaster magnitude is small and large respectively, and how they free ride on each other’s safety efforts when the disaster magnitude is intermediate. The company free rides when the unit production cost is low so that the large profits outweigh the negative impact of the disaster. With endogenized taxation determined by the government, the tax rate decreases in the disaster magnitude, the unit production cost, the government’s unit cost of safety effort, and how the company is negatively affected by the disaster. The tax rate increases in the company’s resource and how the government is negatively affected by the disaster. The tax rate is weakly U shaped in the company’s unit safety effort. The model is illustrated with numerical examples and with the oil spill disasters by BP in 2010 and by Exxon Valdez in 1989.     

Modeling and analysis of effects of awareness programs by media on the spread of infectious diseases

In this paper, a non-linear mathematical model for the effects of awareness programs on the spread of infectious diseases such as flu has been proposed and analyzed. In the modeling process it is assumed that disease spreads due to the contact between susceptibles and infectives only. The growth rate of awareness programs impacting the population is assumed to be proportional to the number of infective individuals. It is further assumed that due to the effect of media, susceptible individuals form a separate class and avoid contact with the infectives. The model is analyzed by using stability theory of differential equations. The model analysis shows that the spread of an infectious disease can be controlled by using awareness programs but the disease remains endemic due to immigration. The simulation analysis of the model confirms the analytical results.