29 research outputs found
Dengue disease, basic reproduction number and control
Dengue is one of the major international public health concerns. Although
progress is underway, developing a vaccine against the disease is challenging.
Thus, the main approach to fight the disease is vector control. A model for the
transmission of Dengue disease is presented. It consists of eight mutually
exclusive compartments representing the human and vector dynamics. It also
includes a control parameter (insecticide) in order to fight the mosquito. The
model presents three possible equilibria: two disease-free equilibria (DFE) and
another endemic equilibrium. It has been proved that a DFE is locally
asymptotically stable, whenever a certain epidemiological threshold, known as
the basic reproduction number, is less than one. We show that if we apply a
minimum level of insecticide, it is possible to maintain the basic reproduction
number below unity. A case study, using data of the outbreak that occurred in
2009 in Cape Verde, is presented.Comment: This is a preprint of a paper whose final and definitive form has
appeared in International Journal of Computer Mathematics (2011), DOI:
10.1080/00207160.2011.55454
Variable Structure Systems and Systems Zeros
The analysis of variable structure systems in the sliding mode yields the concept of equivalent control which leads naturally to a new method for determining the zeros and zero directions of linear multivariable systems. The analysis presented is conceptually easy and computationally attractive