Department of Mathematical Sciences

Recent Submissions

  • Modelling the potential role of media campaigns in ebola transmission dynamics 

    Njankou, Sylvie Diane Djiomba; Nyabadza, Farai (Hindawi Publishing Corporation, 2017)
    A six-compartment mathematical model is formulated to investigate the role of media campaigns in Ebola transmission dynamics. The model includes tweets or messages sent by individuals in different compartments. The media ...

  • Protection number in plane trees 

    Heuberger, Clemens; Prodinger, Helmut (University of Belgrade - School of Electrical Engineering, 2017-10)
    The protection number of a plane tree is the minimal distance of the root to a leaf; this definition carries over to an arbitrary node in a plane tree by considering the maximal subtree having this node as a root. We ...

  • Is invasion success of Australian trees mediated by their native biogeography, phylogenetic history, or both? 

    Miller, Joseph T.; Hui, Cang; Thornhil, Andrew H.; Gallien, Laure; Le Roux, Johannes J.; Richardson, David M. (Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company, 2017)
    For a plant species to become invasive it has to progress along the introduction-naturalization-invasion (INI) continuum which reflects the joint direction of niche breadth. Identification of traits that correlate with and ...

  • Investigating tumour micro environment dynamics based on cytokine-mediated innate-adaptive immunity 

    Amima, Innocenter Moraa (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, yet much is still unknown about its mechanism of establishment, recurrence cycle and destruction. It is known that the successive alterations that occur ...

  • Refinable vector splines and multi-wavelets with shortest matrix filters 

    Ranirina, Dinna (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : A widely used class of basis functions in signal analysis is obtained from the dilation and integer shifts of a given (compactly supported) wavelet ψ : R → R, by means of which a (scalar) signal can ...

  • Assessment of a measles outbreak response vaccination campaign, and two measles parameter estimation methods 

    Azam, James Mba (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Measles is highly transmissible, and is a leading cause of vaccine-preventable death among children. Consequently, it is regarded as a public health issue worldwide and has been targeted for elimination ...

  • Enumeration of tanglegrams 

    Ravelomanana, Jean Bernoulli (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Tanglegrams are graphs obtained by taking two binary rooted trees with the same number of leaves and a perfect matching between the leaves of the two trees. Tanglegrams appear in biology in the study ...

  • Modelling the effects of temperature change on the dynamics of tsetse flies and trypanosomiasis disease transmission 

    Mthombothi, Zinhle Emily (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Global temperatures have increased over recent decades. This is expected to have an impact on vector-borne diseases, raising questions such as: Will the increased temperature result in changing disease ...

  • Oriented 123-TQFTs via String-Nets and State-Sums 

    Goosen, Gerrit (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT :In a series of papers Bartlett, Douglas, Schommer-Pries, and Vicary discovered a finite generators-and-relations presentation of the oriented bordism bicategory. This simplifies the task of finding ...

  • A systems dynamic model for drug abuse and drug-related crime in the Western Cape Province of South Africa 

    Nyabadza, Farai; Coetzee, Lezanie (Hindawi Publishing Corporation, 2017)
    The complex problem of drug abuse and drug-related crimes in communities in the Western Cape province cannot be studied in isolation but through the system they are embedded in. In this paper, a theoretical model to evaluate ...

  • Modelling human immune response dynamics to Mycobacterium Tuberculosis infection. 

    Ramolotja, Kagiso Samuel (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12)
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) still poses a great challenge to the well-being of the population, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. The ability to trigger strong mounted ...

  • Contributions to projective group theory 

    Van Niekerk, Francois Koch (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Projective Group Theory (PGT for short) provides a self-dual axiomatic context that allows one to establish homomorphism theorems for (non-abelian) group-like structures. The present thesis has two ...

  • Towards projective set theory 

    van Zyl, Phillippus Johannes III (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : In this thesis an axiomatic framework is presented which extends the projective group theory introduced by Z Janelidze to also hold for sets. The isomorphism theorems are reformulated so that they hold ...

  • Contributions to the theory of near-vector spaces 

    Sanon, Sogo Pierre (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : The purpose of this thesis is to give an exposition and expand the theory of near-vector spaces. Near-vector space theory is a new and rich field of mathematics and has been used in several applications, ...

  • A meta-analysis of the association between intimate partner violence and age disparity in sub-Saharan Africa 

    Otieno, Fanuel Omondi (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most common form of violence against women and a worldwide human rights and public health problem. IPV against women can be emotional, physical, and sexual in ...

  • Analysis of partner turnover rate and the lifetime number of sexual partners in Cape Town using generalized linear models 

    Olojede, Christianah Oyindamola (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT :A large number of analyses have been carried out to investigate how sexually active people contracted human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by using common indicators like the number of new sexual partners ...

  • Centrality in random trees 

    Durant, Kevin (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : We consider two notions of centrality—namely, the betweenness centrality of a node and whether or not it is a centroid—in families of simply generated and increasing trees. Both of these concepts are ...

  • Properties of graph polynomials and related parameters 

    Misanantenaina, Valisoa Razanajatovo (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : In this thesis, we investigate various problems related to graph polynomials. We first define two-variable polynomials for rooted trees and specific posets, which are motivated by the Tutte polynomial. ...

  • Random walk hitting times in random trees 

    Oosthuizen, Joubert (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : The hitting time Hxy, between two vertices x and y of a graph, is the average time that the standard simple random walk takes to get from x to y. We start by giving a recursive formula for higher moments ...

  • A simulation age-specific tuberculosis model for the Cape Town metropole 

    Nyabadza, Farai; Winkler, Dieter (Academy of Science of South Africa, 2013-09-18)
    Tuberculosis (TB) continues to present an insurmountable health burden in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. TB dynamics in adults is different from that in children, with the former determining the latter. Because ...

  • Generalised sequences and compactness notions in point-free topology 

    Masuret, Jacques (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : While sequences and naturally associated notions like convergence and clustering have received extensive attention in classical topology, the same cannot be said for the point-free setting. The aim of ...

  • Invading a mutualistic network : to be or not to be similar 

    Minoarivelo, Henintsoa Onivola; Hui, Cang (Wiley Open Access, 2016)
    Biological invasion remains a major threat to biodiversity in general and a disruptor to mutualistic interactions in particular. While a number of empirical studies have directly explored the role of invasion in mutualistic ...

  • A geometrical model for testing bilateral symmetry of bamboo leaf with a simplified Gielis equation 

    Lin, Shuyan; Zhang, Li; Reddy, Gadi V. P.; Hui, Cang; Gielis, Johan; Ding, Yulong; Shi, Peijian (Wiley Open Access, 2016)
    The size and shape of plant leaves change with growth, and an accurate description of leaf shape is crucial for describing plant morphogenesis and development. Bilateral symmetry, which has been widely observed but poorly ...

  • The seesaw effect of winter temperature change on the recruitment of cotton bollworms Helicoverpa armigera through mismatched phenology 

    Reddy, Gadi V. P.; Shi, Peijian; Hui, Cang; Cheng, Xiaofei; Ouyang, Fang; Ge, Feng (John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2015)
    Knowing how climate change affects the population dynamics of insect pests is critical for the future of integrated pest management. Rising winter temperatures from global warming can drive increases in outbreaks of some ...

  • An optimal proportion of mixing broad-leaved forest for enhancing the effective productivity of moso bamboo 

    Cheng, Xiao-Fei; Shi, Pei-Jian; Hui, Cang; Wang, Fu-Sheng; Liu, Guo-Hua; Li, Bai-Lian (John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2015-03-17)
    Moso bamboos (Phyllostachys edulis) are important forestry plants in southern China, with substantial roles to play in regional economic and ecological systems. Mixing broad-leaved forests and moso bamboos is a common ...

  • Ultraproducts and Los’s Theorem: A Category-Theoretic Analysis 

    Chimes, Mark Jonathan (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Ultraproducts are an important construction in model theory, especially as applied to algebra. Given some family of structures of a certain type, an ultraproduct of this family is a single structure ...

  • Imaginaries in dense pairs of real-closed fields 

    Rakotonarivo, Tsinjo Odilon (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Imaginaries are definable equivalence classes, which play an important role in model theory. In this thesis, we are interested in imaginaries of dense pairs of real-closed fields. More precisely, we ...

  • Immune biomarker reference range estimation for healthy paediatric patients in South Africa 

    Bicko, Steve Cygu (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Understanding and quantifying human peripheral blood T-lymphocyte immunophenotypes is necessary for the diagnosis and treatment of immune and haematological disorders. This is only possible if comparison ...

  • An age structured model for substance abuse dynamics in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. 

    Chinake, Filister (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03)
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: The substance abuse problem has escalated in the Western Cape province of South Africa. This has resulted in high rates of gangsterism and other prob- lems associated with substance abuse. The problem ...

  • Modeling the economics of insecticide and trypanocide-treated cattle interventions against trypanosomiasis disease within a multi-host situation 

    Jamah, Tokpa Darwolo (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03)
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: Trypanosomiasis, sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in animals, is vectored by tsetse flies (Glossina genus), which have acquired their infection from feeding on an infectious host. Its control or ...

View more