Author : Eben Francois Du Toit
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (15 download)
Book Synopsis Pinning Control of Disease Networks by : Eben Francois Du Toit
Download or read book Pinning Control of Disease Networks written by Eben Francois Du Toit and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The modelling of contagion spread on contact networks provide valuable insights to epidemiologists and policymakers trying to control and eradicate diseases. This thesis proposes, implements and analyses a methodology for inserting disease contact networks of HIV into feedback control loops and applying open-loop pinning control to their nodes. Pinning control aims to medicate only a portion of an entire network in order to achieve the same outcomes that would be seen when all nodes are controlled. The control loops are simulated using networks ranging from size N = 100 nodes to N = 10000 nodes. Simulations aim to control the average maximum incidence in the networks by first estimating the reference average transmissibility from the statistical physics technique known as bond percolation. Once the average transmissibility is known, node-, network- and population mass-action models can be measured for incidence. Two selective pinning control strategies, namely proportional feedback and nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC), are compared with one another and also with a random pinning strategy. The budget, measured in quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), is added to the cost-function for NMPC control. It is shown that budget can indeed be controlled while incidence varies, while incidence may be controlled as budget varies. Pinning control of disease networks is a feasible methodology to analyse the future and steady-state outcomes of interventions in fast-spreading (high-risk) disease contact networks.