Cynthia Tochukwu Nnolum (Mathematical Sciences) published a research article titled "," in the Journal of Mathematical Biology.
The paper analyzed the behavior of disease dynamics across multiple interconnected patches (regions), incorporating a saturation incidence mechanism. They explored two key scenarios: when disease-induced fatalities occur in at least one patch and when there are no disease-induced deaths in any patch. Notably, their findings showed that the presence of the saturation incidence reduces transmission risk. However, the combination of saturation incidence, spatial heterogeneity among patches, and population movements can result in multiple endemic equilibria. Additionally, they investigated the asymptotic profiles of endemic equilibria as population dispersal rates tend to zero. These findings have important implications for disease control. Numerical simulations were also provided to support and illustrate their theoretical results.
This is a joint work with her Ph.D advisor Rachidi B. Salako (Mathematical Sciences) as well as Shuwen Xue from Northern Illinois University and Yawo Ezunkpe from San Jose State University.
