PROF, ASOC - Majid Bani Yaghoub
Dr. Majid Bani-Yaghoubbaniyaghoubm@umkc.edu
The Problem: Despite smoking rates declining from 41.9 % to 19.3 % in the past 50 years, tobacco use remains as the leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality in the United States [1]. A concerning finding is that the rate of smoking decrease has dramatically slowed in the most recent decade [2]. In fact, in 2010 more than 47% of smoker did not attempt to quit and only 6.2% of those who did so were successful within the past year [3]. In this regard, clinical and public health efforts appear to be having no effect on almost half of current smokers [4]. A better understanding of factors that contribute to smoking with no motivation to quit [5] is needed or society will continue to bear the high costs of tobacco-caused disease and disability.
A Proposed Solution to the Problem: Several studies have successfully transformed the concepts of mathematical epidemiology to investigate the dynamics of tobacco use, recovery and relapse [6-10]. A promising method to determine how unmotivated smokers are influencing the slow rate of decline in smoking prevalence is through the principles of infectious disease modeling. The proposed approach highlights the importance of including local network structures to disease models [11,12] and can allow for building a more sophisticated predictive tool that will quantify the relative effectiveness of both clinical (e.g., counseling, pharmacotherapy, health education) and population-based interventions (e.g., smoke-free workplace policies, price increases on tobacco products) aimed at reducing smoking. This approach has the potential to identify and de-tangle unique individual-environmental factors that are contributing to almost half of current smokers being unable or unwilling to quit.
UMKC Department of Mathematics and Statistics
(1) strong knowledge of calculus, ordinary differential equation, matrix theory and linear algebra
(2) quantitative, analytical and programming skills (preferably MATLAB, R, or Python)
(3) background and/or interest in applied mathematics
(4) ability to communicate effectively in spoken and written English.
For more information visit: http://cas.umkc.edu/mathematics/amg/
Jul 29, 2015
I'm interested in this project. What should I do next?
Now that UR-Linked has helped you to identify a faculty project that interests you and for which you might be
qualified, be sure to review
the essential steps in contacting a potential faculty mentor .
The Director of Undergraduate Research,
Dr. Jane Greer. , can provide you with further guidance about finding
and connecting with faculty mentors at UMKC.
Once you have reviewed the essential steps to prepare for connecting
with a potential faculty mentor, you can use the "Contact Details" for this project to connect with the faculty
member and to begin a conversation about how you might get involved.
