Towards a characterization of behavior-disease models

The last decade saw the advent of increasingly realistic epidemic models that leverage on the availability of highly detailed census and human mobility data. Data-driven models aim at a granularity down to the level of households or single individuals. However, relatively little systematic work has been done to provide coupled behavior-disease models able to close the feedback loop between behavioral changes triggered in the population by an individual's perception of the disease spread and the actual disease spread itself. While models lacking this coupling can be extremely successful in mild epidemics, they obviously will be of limited use in situations where social disruption or behavioral alterations are induced in the population by knowledge of the disease. Here we propose a characterization of a set of prototypical mechanisms for self-initiated social distancing induced by local and non-local prevalence-based information available to individuals in the population. We characterize the effects of these mechanisms in the framework of a compartmental scheme that enlarges the basic SIR model by considering separate behavioral classes within the population. The transition of individuals in/out of behavioral classes is coupled with the spreading of the disease and provides a rich phase space with multiple epidemic peaks and tipping points. The class of models presented here can be used in the case of data-driven computational approaches to analyze scenarios of social adaptation and behavioral change.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figure

Funerary practices or food delicatessen? Human remains with anthropic marks from the Western Mediterranean Mesolithic

The identification of unarticulated human remains with anthropic marks in archaeological contexts normally involves solving two issues: a general one associated with the analysis and description of the anthropic manipulation marks, and another with regard to the interpretation of their purpose. In this paper we present new evidence of anthropophagic behaviour amongst hunter-gatherer groups of the Mediterranean Mesolithic. A total of 30 human remains with anthropic manipulation marks have been found in the Mesolithic layers of Coves de Santa Maira (Castell de Castells, Alicante, Spain), dating from ca. 10.2-9 cal ky BP. We describe the different marks identified on both human and faunal remains at the site (lithic, tooth, percussion and fire marks on bone cortex). As well as describing these marks, and considering that both human and faunal remains at the site present similar depositional and taphonomic features, this paper also contextualizes them within the archaeological context and subsistence patterns described for Mesolithic groups in the region. We cannot entirely rule out the possibility that these practices may be the result of periodic food stress suffered by the human populations. These anthropophagic events at the site coincide with a cultural change at the regional Epipalaeolithic-Mesolithic transition

Activation of mouse peritoneal macrophages by 1.3 glucan and its sensitivity to antimacrophage serum

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Suppressor cell induction and reticuloendothelial cells activation produced in the mouse by beta 1-3 glucan.

We made a sequential study of the proliferative and functional changes occurring in RE cells after beta 1-3 glucan administration in BDF1, and C57BL mouse. beta 1-3 glucan was administered by single i.v. 50 mg/kg or i.p. 15 mg/kg injection. This successively induced changes in RE cells as follows: on day 3 a rise of acid phosphatase activity in peritoneal macrophages; on day 6 an increase of 3H-TdR incorporation in spleen and peritoneal lymphocytes together with an intense suppression of PHA and LPS responses by spleen cells; on day 10 a 5-fold increase of the percentage of peroxidase rich monocytes in the peritoneum. Thereafter all the values went back to or below control. Our results indicate that beta 1-3 glucan is an in vivo mitogen and a macrophage activator.Journal Articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Modeling Contact and Mobility Based Social Response to the Spreading of Infectious Diseases

We present here a set of prototypical mechanisms aimed at modeling the social adaptation and response triggered in the population by the knowledge of the spreading of an infectious disease. We define models that couples the spreading of information and behavioral changes with the spreading of the infectious disease by considering the local and non-local prevalence-based information available to individuals in the population. The behavioral changes are modeled both as the onset of effective social distancing and contact reduction as well as changes in the mobility patterns of individuals. The defined models exhibit a rich phase space with multiple epidemic peaks and threshold behavior. In addition, we show that in specific cases the change of mobility pattern may counterintuitively enhance the disease spreading. The class of models presented here can be used in the case of data-driven computational approaches to analyze scenarios of social adaptation and behavioral chang