Mathematics

The model parameters are estimated via Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. Mykhaylo M. Malakhov, Andrews University; Junyan Duan, Bryn Mawr College; Jordan Pellett, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse; Ishan Phadke, The Pennsylvania State University; Julie C. Blackwood, Williams College White-nose syndrome (WNS), caused by the invasive fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans, is a virulent disease that has plagued North American bat populations since 2006. Over the past decade WNS rapidly spread throughout much of the eastern and midwestern United States, leading to mass mortality and threatening regional extinction in a number of bat species. [...]the need for development and implementation of effective control strategies has become increasingly exigent. When this occurs, female gulls in dense areas of the colony adopt a tactic called egg-laying synchrony, in which they lay eggs synchronously on an every-other-day schedule.