Title: Determining Optimal Vaccination Strategies in Dynamic Social Networks
Speaker: Nina Fefferman, DIMACS and Tufts University and Kah Loon
Date: October 9, 2006 12:00 - 1:30 pm
Location: DIMACS Center, CoRE Bldg, Room 433, Rutgers University, Busch Campus, Piscataway, NJ
Abstract:
Epidemiological models have begun examining social contact networks to create more realistic transmission scenarios. However, very few have examined the effect of constantly changing social dynamics on those networks and on the resulting disease spread. We'll examine the dynamics of a population of individuals who shift their social affiliations based on the social status of others. We will explore how different mechanisms of evaulating status can lead to different network structures and, therefore, different patterns of disease spread. Further, we will examine whether vaccinating those individuals with the highest network centrality (the evaluative mechanism employed by the members of the population) is actually most effective at combatting disease.
see: DIMACS Computational and Mathematical Epidemiology Seminar Series 2006 - 2007