School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-18-2020
Abstract
In this paper, we compare the performance between systems of ordinary and (Caputo) fractional differential equations depicting the susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (SEIR) models of diseases. In order to understand the origins of both approaches as mean-field approximations of integer and fractional stochastic processes, we introduce the fractional differential equations (FDEs) as approximations of some type of fractional nonlinear birth and death processes. Then, we examine validity of the two approaches against empirical courses of epidemics; we fit both of them to case counts of three measles epidemics that occurred during the pre-vaccination era in three different locations. While ordinary differential equations (ODEs) are commonly used to model epidemics, FDEs are more flexible in fitting empirical data and theoretically offer improved model predictions. The question arises whether, in practice, the benefits of using FDEs over ODEs outweigh the added computational complexities. While important differences in transient dynamics were observed, the FDE only outperformed the ODE in one of out three data sets. In general, FDE modeling approaches may be worth it in situations with large refined data sets and good numerical algorithms.
Recommended Citation
Islam, Md Rafiul, Angela Peace, Daniel Medina, and Tamer Oraby. 2020. “Integer Versus Fractional Order SEIR Deterministic and Stochastic Models of Measles.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17 (6): 2014. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17062014.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
DOI
10.3390/ijerph17062014
Comments
Original published version available at http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17062014