It is now widely acknowledged that spatial structure and hence the spatial position of host populations plays a vital role in the spread of infection. In this work I investigate an ensemble of techniques for understanding the stochastic dynamics of spatial and discrete epidemic processes, with especial consideration given to SIR disease dynamics for the Levins-type metapopulation. I present a toolbox of techniques for the modeller of spatial epidemics. The highlight results are a novel form of moment closure derived directly from a stochastic differential representation of the epidemic, a stochastic simulation algorithm that asymptotically in system size greatly out-performs existing simulation methods for the spatial epidemic and finally a method for tackling optimal vaccination scheduling problems for controlling the spread of an invasive pathogen.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:582276 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Brand, Samuel P. C. |
| Publisher | University of Warwick |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/56738/ |
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