Abstract
An increasing number of recent studies involve the fitting of mechanistic models to ecological time-series. In some cases, it is necessary for these models to be discrete-time approximations of continuous-time processes. We test the validity of discretization in the case of measles, where time-series models have recently been developed to estimate ecological parameters directly from data. We find that a non-homogeneous contact function is necessary to capture the host-parasite interaction in a discrete-time model, even in the absence of heterogeneities due to spatial or age structure. We derive a mathematical relationship describing the expected departure from mass-action transmission in terms of the epidemiological parameters in the model, and identify conditions under which the discretization process may fail.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 19-25 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of Theoretical Biology |
Volume | 223 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 7 2003 |
Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Statistics and Probability
- Modeling and Simulation
- General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
- General Immunology and Microbiology
- General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
- Applied Mathematics
Keywords
- Epidemiological models
- Measles
- Population dynamics
- Time-series analysis