Mathematical Epidemiology and More: A Course on Compartmental Models

The goal for this chapter is to show yet more directions in which researchers have taken compartmental models. This chapter provides sample articles and brief summaries for a variety of compartmental modeling studies. Each article includes a note stating whether and how the article is freely available, or if the article is behind a paywall.

There are many ways to use this chapter. One is to skim to get a sense of what exists. Another is to use these articles for a deeper reading and discussion of the options available using compartmental models. A third is to assign these articles as class projects, for students to dig in, learn the details of what others have done, and present the main ideas to each other or write about these main ideas. As with so much of modeling: there are more possibilities beyond these.

This chapter works in concert with Chapter 19, providing opportunities to build skills in reading and understanding scientific articles. Worth noting is that mathematical biology articles do not necessarily have the same sections described in Chapter 19. They typically have an Abstract, and they may have an Introduction, as well as Discussion and/or Conclusion. They often do not label sections as Methods or Results, but as you read, you will find descriptions of how models were constructed and what researchers found in those models. All in all: there is a wide range of writing styles, yet the framing of Chapter 19 will help you characterize the information in each article.