Mathematical modeling of genetic and cultural traits
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Understanding the history of populations of organisms is one of the core purposes of biological research. This research is undertaken through two interacting methods: the collection and analysis of large amounts of data and the development and analysis of mathematical theory. In this dissertation I explore several different avenues in the intersection between biological systems and mathematics. Chapters 1 and 2 study the mathematical models underlying the shapes of genealogies of genes, with the intent of determining the probabilities of a particular type of feature---a monophyletic group---occurring in these gene genealogies. This work can help us better understand the histories of populations from existing genetic data. Chapters 3 and 4 shift from a temporal to a spatial perspective, studying the mathematical properties of FST, a statistic that is used frequently to describe population differentiation. In these chapters I find upper and lower bounds on FST given population homozygosities, and I study how the value of FST changes as the length of the haplotypes upon which it is computed increase. This work can help us use and interpret FST more rigorously, with a careful consideration of the mathematical context of such measurements. Finally, Chapter 5 moves from genetics to epidemiology with an investigation of the interaction between a transmissible anti-vaccine sentiment and the dynamics of a vaccine-preventable disease. This work reveals that the presence of anti-vaccine sentiment as a "cultural pathogen" can effectively determine the outlook of the disease, as well as cause the disease frequencies to fluctuate in ways that cannot be observed when sentiment is ignored.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2018; ©2018 |
| Publication date | 2018; 2018 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Mehta, Rohan Sushrut |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Rosenberg, Noah |
| Thesis advisor | Rosenberg, Noah |
| Thesis advisor | Feldman, Marcus W |
| Thesis advisor | Pritchard, Jonathan D |
| Degree committee member | Feldman, Marcus W |
| Degree committee member | Pritchard, Jonathan D |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Biology. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Rohan Sushrut Mehta. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Biology. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2018. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2018 by Rohan Sushrut Mehta
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...