A time-dependent model of energy flow in post-settlement oyster populations is used to examine the factors that influence adult size and reproductive effort in a particular habitat, Galveston Bay, Texas, and in habitats that extend from Laguna Madre,. Texas to Chesapeake Bay. The simulated populations show that adult size and reproductive effort are detennined by the allocation of net productio...

The basic reproductive ratio, R0, is defined as the expected number of secondary infections arising from a single individual during his or her entire infectious period, in a population of susceptibles. This concept is fundamental to the study of epidemiology and within-host pathogen dynamics. Most importantly, R0 often serves as a threshold parameter that predicts whether an infection will spre...

In 1996 Nowak and his colleagues proposed a differential equation virus infection model, which has been widely applied in the study for the dynamics of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Biological dynamics may be described more practically by discrete events rather than continuous ones. Using discrete systems to describe biological dynamics should be reasonable. Based on one revised Nowak et a...

Bulinus truncatus snail is the intermediate host of Schistosoma haematobium, which causes serious damage to urinary system infected patients. To control it in its rapid interruption and/or elimination disease transmission would be efficient. Copper chlorophyllin (Cu-chl) and magnesium (Mg-chl); two photosensitizers used several biological applications, were bio-assayed against B. snails.  Mg-ch...

In this study, the effect of 20 barley cultivars were evaluated on the life table parameters and digestive enzymatic activity of the lesser grain borer, Rhyzopertha dominica (F.) (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) under laboratory conditions (28 ± 1°C, 60 ± 5% RH, and a photoperiod of 16:8 (L:D) h). Among barley cultivars tested developmental time of R. dominica immature stages was longest on cultivar ...

Demographic toxicology is recommended for toxicity determination of the long term effects of a pesticide since it gives a more accurate and efficient measure of the effect of a pesticide. Thus, in the current study the sublethal effects of pirimicarb (carbamate insecticide) two concentrations of LC30 and LC10 were used against third instar larvae of Hippodamia variegata (Goeze) in order to dete...

In this paper, a partial differential equation (PDE) model is proposed to explore the transmission dynamics of vector-borne diseases. The model includes both incubation age of the exposed hosts and infection age of the infectious hosts which describe incubation-age dependent removal rates in the latent period and the variable infectiousness in the infectious period, respectively. The reproducti...

BACKGROUND Despite a safe and effective vaccine, rubella vaccination programs with inadequate coverage can raise the average age of rubella infection; thereby increasing rubella cases among pregnant women and the resulting congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) in their newborns. The vaccination coverage necessary to reduce CRS depends on the birthrate in a country and the reproductive number, R0, a...

In infectious disease epidemiology the basic reproductive ratio, R0, is defined as the average number of new infections caused by a single infected individual in a fully susceptible population. Many models describing competition for hosts between non-interacting pathogen strains in an infinite population lead to the conclusion that selection favors invasion of new strains if and only if they ha...