mathematical modelling of zombie infection

[herenorthere]

I got sidetracked while reading for a public health class and came across this:

http://www.mathstat.uottawa.ca/~rsmith/Zombies.pdf

That would have to be the highlight of a statistician's career, because how often do they get to conclude a publication like this:

In summary, a zombie outbreak is likely to lead to the collapse of civilisation, unless it
is dealt with quickly. While aggressive quarantine may contain the epidemic, or a cure may
lead to coexistence of humans and zombies, the most effective way to contain the rise of
the undead is to hit hard and hit often. As seen in the movies, it is imperative that zombies
are dealt with quickly, or else we are all in a great deal of trouble.​

 

[swords]

Did someone turn that in as a college paper?

I "just" finished (a month ago) reading bibliography entry #14: World War Z, An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. Pretty good since it's written up as first person interviews and not a generic linear story.

 

[seedjar]

This is a new one. I saw something a lot like this a few years back, but I think it was only one or two pages and definitely didn't go as far as to do differential equations. Nice find.
~Joe

 

[jimscott]

Doesn't neem oil kill zombies?

 

[swords]

Maybe if you fired mealies at the undead. Nothing seems to kill mealies permanently.

I suppose then we'd just have mealy covered zombies infecting people and plants, that probably wouldn't help at all...

 

[petmantis]

Looks like they finally ran out of useful ideas to use math for. Never thought I'd see that coming for a while!

 

[swords]

It's only "useless" until the dead begin to rise...

 

[EdaxFlamma]

The thing that bothers me is that the "dead" zombies go into the same group and dead humans. This means that the zombie can never effectively be killed off and assumes that it can come back to life. Although I agree the infected corpse could potentially transmit the infection I can't see it being as aggressive as a mobile/actively moving zombie.

haha

 

[herenorthere]

Unless I'm misunderstanding it, the model says defeated zombies cannot become zombies again. Since I must have missed the day that topic was covered in biology, I don't know if it's a valid assumption.

 

[swords]

Zombies can only be defeated by destroying the brain, according to popular myth.

 

[EdaxFlamma]

Susceptibles can become deceased through ‘natural’ causes, i.e., non-zombie-related
death (parameter ). The removed class consists of individuals who have died, either
through attack or natural causes. Humans in the removed class can resurrect and become
a zombie (parameter ). Susceptibles can become zombies through transmission via an
encounter with a zombie (transmission parameter ). Only humans can become infected
through contact with zombies, and zombies only have a craving for human flesh so we do
not consider any other life forms in the model. New zombies can only come from two
sources:

The resurrected from the newly deceased (removed group).
Susceptibles who have ‘lost’ an encounter with a zombie.

In addition, we assume the birth rate is a constant, . Zombies move to the removed class
upon being ‘defeated’. This can be done by removing the head or destroying the brain of
the zombie (parameter ). We also assume that zombies do not attack/defeat other zombies.

What this means to me is that once zombies die they go into the "removed group" which also treats them like a freshly dead human effectively making the zombie resurrect.

 

[joossa]

Very interesting find!

Did someone turn that in as a college paper?

I "just" finished (a month ago) reading bibliography entry #14: World War Z, An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. Pretty good since it's written up as first person interviews and not a generic linear story.

^His Zombie Survival Guide is just as good too! Check it out...

 

[raccoon city]

Holy crap! An 18 page mathematical paper all about zombies. I honestly didn't read the whole paper, but I think I've seen enough zombie movies and played enough zombie video games and listened to enough zombie comedy skits to know what really matters, mathematically speaking:

Rule Number 1: Do not get bit by any zombies. I cannot stress this enough.
Rule Number 2: If you do get bit, do not misplace any T-virus (or G-virus) vaccine.
Rule Number 3: Do not run out of ammo, unless you're really handy with your combat knife.
Final Rule: ...and for God's sake, aim for the zombies' heads.

I hope these tips with help you all live just a little bit longer in this brand new zombie apocalypse.
Happy belated Halloween.

 

[swords]

Hey Joossa, I had the Zombie Survival Guide before WWZ. I forgot it at the hospital when I was visiting my dad a couple years ago so someone else got to finish it for me. I wonder what they thought when they found it? Maybe the hospital implemented a strategy based on the book... lol

 

[jimscott]

How about a zombie-sized microwaver oven? It works on gremlins!

 

[raccoon city]

A microwave oven also worked splendidly well in 2009's remake of 1972's The Last House on the Left. Warning: do not watch The Last House on the Left if anything makes you squeamish.

 

[Est]

A fun application of the Lotka-Volterra model. Lotka-Volterra is used for (among other things) competition models, predator-prey relationships, and as here, disease models. A cute application of the same models used for projecting diseases in the real world. I'm not familiar with the matrices they used, but I'll have to taker a closer look some time.

It's always nice to see people use the power of science for fun.

 

[swords]

Here's a bit of (hopefully) infectious humor
Warning: some naughty language
<object width="560" height="340">


<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pytYua_t-Ww&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></object>

 

[Ant]

My brothers disagree with my idea of a zombie. I hate the unrealistic zombies. The only possible zombies in my mind are as follows.
1. Zombies are still alive.
2. Any thing that kills a human will kill a zombie. (dehydration, fire, drowning, hunger, desease, blood lose, ect.)
3. Zombies will eventually die.
4. The brain stem is the only part of the brain predominantly used by most zombies.
5. Once a human is showing signs of infection, it can not be saved.

 

[herenorthere]

Unrealistic zombies are bad, but unrealistic ghosts are the worst.