scholarly journals Agent-based Modeling of Malaria Control Based on Aquatic Habitats Management in a Traditional Sub-sahara Grouping

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Layie ◽  
Vivient Corneille Kamla ◽  
Jean Claude Kamgang ◽  
Yves Sebastien Emvudu Wono

Abstract Background: In their behavior, Africans generally pour dirty water around their homes. This dirty water becomes stagnant at a given moment, which hence constitutes aquatic habitats (AH). These AH are sought after by mosquitoes for egg-laying and larval development. Recent studies have shown the effectiveness of destroying AH around host habitats (humans and animals) in reducing the incidence of malaria. In this paper, an agent-based model (ABM) is proposed for controlling the incidence of malaria through population sensitizing campaigns on the harmful effects of aquatic habitats around houses.Methods: The environment is constituted of houses, AH, mosquitoes, humans, and a hospital that will allow humans to heal themselves when they have malaria. The dynamics of malaria’s spread is linked to the dynamics of individuals (humans and mosquitoes) populations. The dynamic of the mosquito is represented by two phases: egg-laying and a phase of seeking blood. The dynamic of human is animated by the presence in the health center and houses. Their dynamic also results in hitting the mosquito when a human is bitten by it. Initially, the same number of houses and AH have been considered. Thereafter, houses are fixed and the AH are destroyed each time by 10% of the number of starting Aquatics habitats. The number of infected humans varied also from 0 to 90 which led to a total of 1001 simulations.Results: The results show that when the number of houses and AH is equal, we find approximately the same results as the field data. At each reduction of AH, the incidence and prevalence tend more and more towards 0. On the other hand, when there is no AH and infected humans in the environment, the prevalence and incidence are at 0.Conclusions: The study shows that every time we destroy the AH, it increasingly inhibits the growth of mosquitoes and malaria. But when there is no AH site, even if there are infected people in the environment, the disease disappears completely. Therefore the global destruction of the AH in an environment is to be recommended. Using many parameters in the same model is also recommended.

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Layie ◽  
Vivient Corneille Kamla ◽  
Jean Claude Kamgang ◽  
Yves Emvudu Wono

Abstract Background Africans pour dirty water around their houses which constitutes aquatic habitats (AH). These AH are sought by mosquitoes for larval development. Recent studies have shown the effectiveness of destroying AH around houses in reducing malaria incidence. An agent-based model is proposed for controlling malaria’s incidence through population sensitizing campaigns on the harmful effects of AH around houses. Methods The environment is constituted of houses, AH, mosquitoes, humans, and hospital. Malaria’s spread dynamic is linked to the dynamics of humans and mosquitoes. The mosquito’s dynamic is represented by egg-laying and seeking blood. The human’s dynamic is animated by hitting mosquitoes. AH are destroyed each time by 10% of their starting number. The number of infected humans varied from 0-90 which led to a total of 1001 simulations. Results When the number of houses and AH is equal, the results are approximate as the field data. At each reduction of AH, the incidence and prevalence tend more and more towards 0. When there is no AH and infected humans, the prevalence and incidence are at 0. Conclusions When there is no AH site, the disease disappears completely. Global destruction of AH in an environment and using many parameters in the same model are recommended.


Author(s):  
Douglas Clark ◽  
Pratim Sengupta

There is now growing consensus that K12 science education needs to focus on core epistemic and representational practices of scientific inquiry (Duschl, Schweingruber, & Shouse, 2007; Lehrer & Schauble, 2006). In this chapter, the authors focus on two such practices: argumentation and computational modeling. Novice science learners engaging in these activities often struggle without appropriate and extensive scaffolding (e.g., Klahr, Dunbar, & Fay, 1990; Schauble, Klopfer, & Raghavan, 1991; Sandoval & Millwood, 2005; Lizotte, Harris, McNeill, Marx, & Krajcik, 2003). This chapter proposes that (a) integrating argumentation and modeling can productively engage students in inquiry-based activities that support learning of complex scientific concepts as well as the core argumentation and modeling practices at the heart of scientific inquiry, and (b) each of these activities can productively scaffold the other. This in turn can lead to higher academic achievement in schools, increased self-efficacy in science, and an overall increased interest in science that is absent in most traditional classrooms. This chapter provides a theoretical framework for engaging students in argumentation and a particular genre of computer modeling (i.e., agent-based modeling), illustrates the framework with examples of the authors’ own research and development, and introduces readers to freely available technologies and resources to adopt in classrooms to engage students in the practices discussed in the chapter.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camelia Delcea ◽  
Liviu-Adrian Cotfas ◽  
Mostafa Salari ◽  
R. Milne

Research related to creating new and improved airplane boarding methods has seen continuous advancement, in recent years, while most of the airline companies have remained committed to the traditional boarding methods. Among the most-used boarding methods, around the world, are back-to-front and random boarding with and without assigned seats. While the other boarding methods used in practice possess strict rules for passengers’ behavior, random without assigned seats is dependent on the passengers own way of choosing the “best” seats. The aim of this paper is to meticulously model the passengers’ behavior, especially, in random boarding without assigned seats and to test its efficiency in terms of boarding time and interferences, in comparison with the other commonly-adopted methods (random boarding with assigned seats, window-middle-aisle (WilMA), back-to-front, reverse pyramid, etc.). One of the main challenges in our endeavor was the identification of the real human passengers’ way of reasoning, when selecting their seats, and creating a model in which the agents possess preferences and make decisions, as close to those decisions made by the human passengers, as possible. We model their choices based on completed questionnaires from three hundred and eighty-seven human subjects. This paper describes the resulting agent-based model and results from the simulations.


Complexity ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksejus Kononovicius

We analyze a parties’ vote share distribution across the polling stations during the Lithuanian parliamentary elections of 1992, 2008, and 2012. We find that the distribution is rather well fitted by the Beta distribution. To reproduce this empirical observation, we propose a simple multistate agent-based model of the voting behavior. In the proposed model, agents change the party they vote for either idiosyncratically or due to a linear recruitment mechanism. We use the model to reproduce the vote share distribution observed during the election of 1992. We discuss model extensions needed to reproduce the vote share distribution observed during the other elections.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 399-413
Author(s):  
Jeremiah A. Lasquety-Reyes

AbstractThis article presents two approaches for computer simulations of virtue ethics in the context of agent-based modeling, a simple way and a complex way. The simple way represents virtues as numeric variables that are invoked in specific events or situations. This way can easily be implemented and included in social simulations. On the other hand, the complex way requires a PECS framework: physical, cognitive, emotional, and social components need to be implemented in agents. Virtue is the result of the interaction of these internal components rather than a single variable. I argue that the complex way using the PECS framework is more suitable for simulating virtue ethics theory because it can capture the internal struggle and conflict sometimes involved in the practice of virtue. To show how the complex way could function, I present a sample computer simulation for the cardinal virtue of temperance, the virtue that moderates physical desires such as food, drink, and sex. This computer simulation is programmed in Python and builds upon the well-known Sugarscape simulation.1


2015 ◽  
pp. 47-67
Author(s):  
Douglas B. Clark ◽  
Pratim Sengupta

There is now growing consensus that K12 science education needs to focus on core epistemic and representational practices of scientific inquiry (Duschl, Schweingruber, & Shouse, 2007; Lehrer & Schauble, 2006). In this chapter, the authors focus on two such practices: argumentation and computational modeling. Novice science learners engaging in these activities often struggle without appropriate and extensive scaffolding (e.g., Klahr, Dunbar, & Fay, 1990; Schauble, Klopfer, & Raghavan, 1991; Sandoval & Millwood, 2005; Lizotte, Harris, McNeill, Marx, & Krajcik, 2003). This chapter proposes that (a) integrating argumentation and modeling can productively engage students in inquiry-based activities that support learning of complex scientific concepts as well as the core argumentation and modeling practices at the heart of scientific inquiry, and (b) each of these activities can productively scaffold the other. This in turn can lead to higher academic achievement in schools, increased self-efficacy in science, and an overall increased interest in science that is absent in most traditional classrooms. This chapter provides a theoretical framework for engaging students in argumentation and a particular genre of computer modeling (i.e., agent-based modeling), illustrates the framework with examples of the authors' own research and development, and introduces readers to freely available technologies and resources to adopt in classrooms to engage students in the practices discussed in the chapter.


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