Mathematical Biology and Physiology Seminar (MaBPs)

This is a seminar to encourage mathematical research that helps us understand biology.

When: Spring Semester, 2013, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm, Thursdays

Where: 114 McAllister Hall

Organizing Contact: Minxin Chen

Participating Faculty: Andrew Belmonte, John Fricks, Chun Liu, Tim Reluga.

Mailing List: L-PSU-MABPS@lists.psu.edu

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Next Talk

Date: Thursday, October 13th, 2013

Speaker: Ephraim M. Hanks Ephraim Hanks, Penn State University

Title: Random Walks, Circuits, and Spatial Statistical Models for Gene Flow in Heterogeneous Landscapes

Abstract: Genetic data collected over space are commonly used to study how landscape features such as mountains, rivers, and roads affect connectivity in animal species. One approach correlates observed genetic distance with the circuit-theoretic resistance distance of a graph representation of the landscape. We examine links between this circuit modeling approach and random walk models for gene flow in heterogeneous environments. We show that a Gaussian Markov random field model can be constructed which matches the spatial structure implied by circuits and by the equilibrium state of a random walk model. This provides a spatial statistical model with links to a spatio-temporal data generating process.

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