• HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Saturday, April 17, 2021
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

Researchers model efforts to control coronavirus pandemic with new NSF RAPID award

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
May 4, 2020
in Health
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

IMAGE

Credit: KU News Service

LAWRENCE — A team of investigators at the University of Kansas and KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum is developing mathematical models to project how an array of interventions to stem the spread of COVID-19 might succeed or fall short in “flattening the curve.” Their work is unique because it accounts for human behavior — like public fear, perception of risk, and adherence or defiance of disease-control measures like quarantines or travel bans.

They’ve just earned a one-year, $199,999 Rapid Response Research (RAPID) award from the National Science Foundation, designed to address “severe urgency … including quick-response research on natural or anthropogenic disasters and similar unanticipated events.”

The KU researchers’ work could inform policymakers and disease-control agencies around the world as they assess the value of containment measures such as stay-at-home orders, quarantines, self-quarantines and social-distancing guidelines.

The team is led by Folashade Agusto, assistant professor of ecology & evolutionary biology, who specializes in formulating mathematical models of transmission of human and animal diseases.

“This project will give insights into how things could go with COVID-19 depending on people’s behavior and their perception of risk, which is something that most models do not account for,” Agusto said. “For instance, most models don’t incorporate what we’re seeing right now — people gathering to protest the lockdowns. Once we factor human behavior like that into a model, we’ll definitely see something different. If people don’t stick to quarantine, how much longer will that keep us at home? The infection isn’t going to die down when we expect it to die down if you still have people not social distancing. Incorporating that human behavior into models is vital.”

Agusto’s colleagues are disease ecologist A. Townsend Peterson, University Distinguished Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and curator with the KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum, and Jarron Saint Onge, associate professor of sociology.

The team will produce three COVID-19 models that build on top of each other, each adding another layer of detail and complexity to simulation of the disease’s spread. The first will incorporate public behavior and perceptions of risk and fear.

“The first model is our baseline model to incorporate human behavior,” Agusto said. “You can see it as the foundation that we’re building up on top of. On the second model, we incorporate demographics — the number of seniors we have, the number of adults we have, the number of young adults we have, the number of kids we have– and throw that into the model.”

The third model will use the preceding behavior and demographic models to analyze regional-control efforts, focusing on states and then to national-level control efforts.

Because different nations have implemented different methods to contain COVID-19, Agusto said the research team would apply these models to three divergent countries — China, the United States and a hypothetical developing nation with a less robust public-health infrastructure — to see how each fare in stemming the spread of coronavirus.

“Once we have a full model, we can then bring in the different composition of what each country represents,” Agusto said.

She cautioned the models can only be as accurate as the data allows.

Uncertainties about the data — such as the numbers of COVID-19 infections and deaths, and reliability of statistics from various governments — will have an influence on the modeling outcomes.

“We are building a model based on the biology of infection,” Agusto said. “We have to now parameterize our model using the data. Even if we don’t have the full picture, whatever information we can glean from the data that we have is what we’re going to use followed by sensitivity and uncertainty analysis.”

The team will share its results with disease-control agencies and policymakers to inform decision-making as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to threaten populations around the world.

“The idea is to help figure out what best practices there are from a policy standpoint, based on all these parameters represented — and each country will differ when we’re looking at the models,” Agusto said. “My collaborators have connections with many policymakers, so our goal is to communicate these findings to them.”

Because the team’s efforts will break new ground in applying mathematical models to create abstractions of sometimes-erratic human behavior, the work performed under the new grant also will have relevance to outbreaks in the future.

“I mean, that’s the cool thing about math, right?” Agusto said. “We can look at human behavior and human response to the disease in a new way that isn’t incorporated into what other people are currently doing.”

###

Media Contact
Brendan M. Lynch
[email protected]

Original Source

https://news.ku.edu/2020/04/29/researchers-model-efforts-control-coronavirus-pandemic-new-nsf-rapid-award

Tags: Disease in the Developing WorldEpidemiologyMedicine/HealthPolicy/EthicsPublic HealthScience/Health and the LawSocial/Behavioral Science
Share12Tweet7Share2ShareShareShare1

Related Posts

IMAGE

Neural plasticity depends on this long noncoding RNA’s journey from nucleus to synapse

April 16, 2021
IMAGE

Study identifies new targets in the angiogenesis process

April 16, 2021

Autism develops differently in girls than boys, new research suggests

April 16, 2021

Inspired by data warehousing: A new platform integrates disparate information systems

April 16, 2021

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

POPULAR NEWS

  • IMAGE

    Jonathan Wall receives $1.79 million to develop new amyloidosis treatment

    60 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • Terahertz accelerates beyond 5G towards 6G

    852 shares
    Share 341 Tweet 213
  • A sturdier spike protein explains the faster spread of coronavirus variants

    44 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 11
  • UofL, Medtronic to develop epidural stimulation algorithms for spinal cord injury

    56 shares
    Share 22 Tweet 14

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Tags

University of WashingtonVaccineWeather/StormsVirusVirologyWeaponryVaccinesUrbanizationVehiclesUrogenital SystemZoology/Veterinary ScienceViolence/Criminals

Recent Posts

  • New amphibious centipede species discovered in Okinawa and Taiwan
  • USU researchers develop power converter for long-distance, underwater electric grids
  • The fate of the planet
  • The future of particle accelerators is here
  • Contact Us

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In