scholarly journals Modelling the spread of American foulbrood in honeybees

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (88) ◽  
pp. 20130650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samik Datta ◽  
James C. Bull ◽  
Giles E. Budge ◽  
Matt J. Keeling

We investigate the spread of American foulbrood (AFB), a disease caused by the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae , that affects bees and can be extremely damaging to beehives. Our dataset comes from an inspection period carried out during an AFB epidemic of honeybee colonies on the island of Jersey during the summer of 2010. The data include the number of hives of honeybees, location and owner of honeybee apiaries across the island. We use a spatial SIR model with an underlying owner network to simulate the epidemic and characterize the epidemic using a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) scheme to determine model parameters and infection times (including undetected ‘occult’ infections). Likely methods of infection spread can be inferred from the analysis, with both distance- and owner-based transmissions being found to contribute to the spread of AFB. The results of the MCMC are corroborated by simulating the epidemic using a stochastic SIR model, resulting in aggregate levels of infection that are comparable to the data. We use this stochastic SIR model to simulate the impact of different control strategies on controlling the epidemic. It is found that earlier inspections result in smaller epidemics and a higher likelihood of AFB extinction.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baptiste Elie ◽  
Christian Selinger ◽  
Samuel Alizon

AbstractIt is now common-place that pathogen transmission during an outbreak can be more heterogeneous than what is commonly assumed, and that it can have major consequences on their dynamics. However, previous studies did not explore the impact of the different biological sources of heterogeneity while controlling for the resulting heterogeneity in the number of secondary cases. In this study, we explore the role of individual variation in infection duration and transmission rate on parasite emergence and spread in a population. We simulate outbreaks using a custom stochastic SIR model, with and without evolution of the parasite. We show that for a given mean, the variance in the number of secondary cases is the main driver of the outbreak probability, with or without evolution, while it does not play a role on the outbreak dynamic once it emerged. On the opposite, a smaller and more realistic variance in the infection duration causes a faster outbreak. It is therefore useful to take into consideration more realistic distributions when modelling infectious diseases outbreaks.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanishque Propkar Malik

Mathematical modelling of any epidemic plays a crucial role in quantifying the impact of such pathogens. This paper focuses on building a Stochastic SIR Model with non-linear parameters (to account for the effect of lockdowns) to gain a broader cognition of the 2019 novel Coronavirus pathogen (2019-nCov), widely known as Covid-19, in India. Such models help in gauging the virulence and fecundity of pathogens. Based on early transmission dynamics the basic reproductive number (R0) is computed to be 1.605. Whereas, effective reproductive number (Rt) is computed to be 4.880 as on 19 March, 2.756 as on 19 April, and 1.995 as on 19 May. Furthermore, the proportion of population that needs to be immunized (through inoculation, recovery, or death) to halt the infection spread is estimated to be 37.69%, ergo, the Herd Immunity Threshold is estimated to be 51.36 crores recoveries, if the Rt remains below 2. Rt is expected to fall below 2, and the Case Fatality Ratio (CFR) to fall to 2.14%, circa early-September (assuming minimal or no medical breakthroughs). The formulated model also provides inferential evidence manifesting the extent to which lockdowns contained the spread of the virus.


2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. G. Ruessink

When a numerical model is to be used as a practical tool, its parameters should preferably be stable and consistent, that is, possess a small uncertainty and be time-invariant. Using data and predictions of alongshore mean currents flowing on a beach as a case study, this paper illustrates how parameter stability and consistency can be assessed using Markov chain Monte Carlo. Within a single calibration run, Markov chain Monte Carlo estimates the parameter posterior probability density function, its mode being the best-fit parameter set. Parameter stability is investigated by stepwise adding new data to a calibration run, while consistency is examined by calibrating the model on different datasets of equal length. The results for the present case study indicate that various tidal cycles with strong (say, >0.5 m/s) currents are required to obtain stable parameter estimates, and that the best-fit model parameters and the underlying posterior distribution are strongly time-varying. This inconsistent parameter behavior may reflect unresolved variability of the processes represented by the parameters, or may represent compensational behavior for temporal violations in specific model assumptions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 2029-2042
Author(s):  
Tony E. Wong ◽  
William Kleiber ◽  
David C. Noone

Abstract Land surface models are notorious for containing many parameters that control the exchange of heat and moisture between land and atmosphere. Properly modeling the partitioning of total evapotranspiration (ET) between transpiration and evaporation is critical for accurate hydrological modeling, but depends heavily on the treatment of turbulence within and above canopies. Previous work has constrained estimates of evapotranspiration and its partitioning using statistical approaches that calibrate land surface model parameters by assimilating in situ measurements. These studies, however, are silent on the impacts of the accounting of uncertainty within the statistical calibration framework. The present study calibrates the aerodynamic, leaf boundary layer, and stomatal resistance parameters, which partially control canopy turbulent exchange and thus the evapotranspiration flux partitioning. Using an adaptive Metropolis–Hastings algorithm to construct a Markov chain of draws from the joint posterior distribution of these resistance parameters, an ensemble of model realizations is generated, in which latent and sensible heat fluxes and top soil layer temperature are optimized. A set of five calibration experiments demonstrate that model performance is sensitive to the accounting of various sources of uncertainty in the field observations and model output and that it is critical to account for model structural uncertainty. After calibration, the modeled fluxes and top soil layer temperature are largely free from bias, and this calibration approach successfully informs and characterizes uncertainty in these parameters, which is essential for model improvement and development. The key points of this paper are 1) a Markov chain Monte Carlo calibration approach successfully improves modeled turbulent fluxes; 2) ET partitioning estimates hinge on the representation of uncertainties in the model and data; and 3) despite these inherent uncertainties, constrained posterior estimates of ET partitioning emerge.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (18) ◽  
pp. 4295-4314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Lu ◽  
Daniel Ricciuto ◽  
Anthony Walker ◽  
Cosmin Safta ◽  
William Munger

Abstract. Calibration of terrestrial ecosystem models is important but challenging. Bayesian inference implemented by Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling provides a comprehensive framework to estimate model parameters and associated uncertainties using their posterior distributions. The effectiveness and efficiency of the method strongly depend on the MCMC algorithm used. In this work, a differential evolution adaptive Metropolis (DREAM) algorithm is used to estimate posterior distributions of 21 parameters for the data assimilation linked ecosystem carbon (DALEC) model using 14 years of daily net ecosystem exchange data collected at the Harvard Forest Environmental Measurement Site eddy-flux tower. The calibration of DREAM results in a better model fit and predictive performance compared to the popular adaptive Metropolis (AM) scheme. Moreover, DREAM indicates that two parameters controlling autumn phenology have multiple modes in their posterior distributions while AM only identifies one mode. The application suggests that DREAM is very suitable to calibrate complex terrestrial ecosystem models, where the uncertain parameter size is usually large and existence of local optima is always a concern. In addition, this effort justifies the assumptions of the error model used in Bayesian calibration according to the residual analysis. The result indicates that a heteroscedastic, correlated, Gaussian error model is appropriate for the problem, and the consequent constructed likelihood function can alleviate the underestimation of parameter uncertainty that is usually caused by using uncorrelated error models.


2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 883-898 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Engeland ◽  
L. Gottschalk

Abstract. This study evaluates the applicability of the distributed, process-oriented Ecomag model for prediction of daily streamflow in ungauged basins. The Ecomag model is applied as a regional model to nine catchments in the NOPEX area, using Bayesian statistics to estimate the posterior distribution of the model parameters conditioned on the observed streamflow. The distribution is calculated by Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis. The Bayesian method requires formulation of a likelihood function for the parameters and three alternative formulations are used. The first is a subjectively chosen objective function that describes the goodness of fit between the simulated and observed streamflow, as defined in the GLUE framework. The second and third formulations are more statistically correct likelihood models that describe the simulation errors. The full statistical likelihood model describes the simulation errors as an AR(1) process, whereas the simple model excludes the auto-regressive part. The statistical parameters depend on the catchments and the hydrological processes and the statistical and the hydrological parameters are estimated simultaneously. The results show that the simple likelihood model gives the most robust parameter estimates. The simulation error may be explained to a large extent by the catchment characteristics and climatic conditions, so it is possible to transfer knowledge about them to ungauged catchments. The statistical models for the simulation errors indicate that structural errors in the model are more important than parameter uncertainties. Keywords: regional hydrological model, model uncertainty, Bayesian analysis, Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis


2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 867-874 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianghua Zhang ◽  
Ke Wang

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