Luis Almeida

This work focuses on feedback control strategies for applying the sterile insect technique (SIT) to eliminate pest populations. The presentation is centered on the case of mosquito populations, but most of the results can be extended to other species by adapting the model and selecting appropriate parameter values to describe the reproduction and movement dynamics of the species under consideration. In our study, we address the spatial distribution of the population in a two dimensional bounded domain by extending the temporal SIT model analyzed in [Agbo bidi Math. Biosci. Eng . 21 (2024) 6263–6288], thereby obtaining a reaction-diffusion SIT model. After the analysis of the existence and the uniqueness of the solution of this problem, we construct a feedback law that globally asymptotically stabilizes the extinction equilibrium thus yielding a robust strategy to keep the pest population at very low levels in the long term.

Senescent cells have been recognized to play major roles in tumor progression and are nowadays included in the hallmarks of cancer [Hanahan, Cancer Discov . 12 (2022) 31–46]. Our work aims to develop a mathematical model capable of capturing a pro-invasion effect of senescent fibroblasts located in the conjunctive tissue. We focus in the present article on the first moments of the invasion cascade. Considering a localized epithelial tumor, we model the digestion of the collagen fibers of the basement membrane by the proteolytic enzyme MMP-2. The activation of MMP-2 is modelled in detail, as MT1-MMPs bound to the surface of tumor cells interact with proMMPs and TIMPs, proteins enriched in the secretome of senescent Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts, along with its inhibition by TIMPs. Using numerical simulations of the model, calibrated via an extensive literature search, reproducing biologically relevant scenarios, we test the model's suitability to investigate the effect on basement membrane digestion of fibroblasts presenting a senescence-associated secretory phenotype. Via model reduction, steady state and global sensitivity analyses, we identify the most influential parameters in view of their calibration with empirical data. We conclude the paper discussing mathematical and interdisciplinary perspectives.

Mosquitoes are vectors of numerous diseases; a strategy to fight the spread of these diseases is to control the vector population. In this article, we focus on the use of the sterile insect technique. Starting from a reaction-diffusion system, we show the existence of 'forced' traveling waves obtained by translating the intervention zone at constant speed. This result is proved in a two-dimensional space by using the radial symmetry.

Mosquitoes are vectors of numerous diseases; a strategy to fight the spread of these diseases is to control the vector population. In this article, we focus on the use of the sterile insect technique. Starting from a reaction-diffusion system, we show the existence of 'forced' traveling waves obtained by translating the intervention zone at constant speed. This result is proved in a two-dimensional space by using the radial symmetry.

This work is devoted to the mathematical study of an optimization problem regarding control strategies of mosquito population in a heterogeneous environment. Mosquitoes are well-known vectors of diseases. For some diseases, such as dengue, it has been found that mosquitoes have a reduced vector capacity when carrying the endosymbiotic bacterium Wolbachia. We consider a mathematical model of a replacement technique consisting in rearing and releasing Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes to replace the wild population. Our goal is to optimize the release protocol to maximize replacement effectiveness in a spatially inhomogeneous environment. Using a scalar model with space-dependent carrying capacity, we explore the existence and properties of an optimal single-release profile at initial time maximizing the replacement across the domain. In particular, neglecting mosquito mobility and under some assumptions on the biological parameters, we characterize the optimal releasing strategy for a short time horizon, and we reduce the case of a long time horizon to a one-dimensional optimization problem. Our theoretical results are illustrated with several numerical simulations.

In this paper we investigate an optimal control problem involving a toy model for the protection on a crop eld. Precisely, we consider a protection on a crop eld and we want to place intervention zones represented by a control, in order to maximise the protection on the eld during a given period. Using a relaxation method, we prove that there exists a control which maximises the protection and, moreover, it must be a bang-bang control. Furthermore, with additional assumptions on the crop eld geometry, some results on the shape of the optimal intervention are proved using comparison results for elliptic equations via Schwarz and Steiner symmetrizations. Finally, some numerical simulations are performed in order to illustrate those results.

This work focuses on feedback control strategies for applying the sterile insect technique (SIT) to eliminate pest populations. The presentation is centered on the case of mosquito populations, but most of the results can be extended to other species by adapting the model and selecting appropriate parameter values to describe the reproduction and movement dynamics of the species under consideration. In our study, we address the spatial distribution of the population in a two dimensional bounded domain by extending the temporal SIT model analyzed in [2], thereby obtaining a reaction-diffusion SIT model. After the analysis of the existence and the uniqueness of the solution of this problem, we construct a feedback law that globally asymptotically stabilizes the extinction equilibrium thus yielding a robust strategy to keep the pest population at very low levels in the long term.

This work concerns feedback global stabilization of the sterile insect technique dynamics. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is presently one of the most ecological methods for controlling insect pests responsible for crop destruction and disease transmission worldwide. This technique consists in releasing sterile males among the insect pest population, the aim being to reduce fertility and, consequently, reduce significantly the wild insect population after a few generations. In this work, we study the global stabilization of a pest population at extinction equilibrium by the SIT method and construct explicit feedback laws that stabilize the model. Numerical simulations show the efficiency of our feedback laws.

This paper is devoted to the study of optimal release strategies to control vector-borne diseases, such as dengue, Zika, chikungunya and malaria. Two techniques are considered: the sterile insect one (SIT), which consists in releasing sterilized males among wild vectors in order to perturb their reproduction, and the Wolbachia one (presently used mainly for mosquitoes), which consists in releasing vectors, that are infected with a bacterium limiting their vectorial capacity, in order to replace the wild population by one with reduced vectorial capacity. In each case, the time dynamics of the vector population is modeled by a system of ordinary differential equations in which the releases are represented by linear combinations of Dirac measures with positive coefficients determining their intensity. We introduce optimal control problems that we solve numerically using ad-hoc algorithms, based on writing first-order optimality conditions characterizing the best combination of Dirac measures. We then discuss the results obtained, focusing in particular on the complexity and efficiency of optimal controls and comparing the strategies obtained. Mathematical modeling can help testing a great number of scenarios that are potentially interesting in future interventions (even those that are orthogonal to the present strategies) but that would be hard, costly or even impossible to test in the field in present conditions.