Fourier Analysis of the microvascular function of women with and without migraine

Erasmus MC is conducting a study on the increased risk of cardiovascular disease in women who have migraine. For this purpose, 50 healthy women and 50 women with migraine in age category of 40-60 years were compared using measurements of their dermal blood flow.<br/>These measurements are done using two different imaging devices: Laser Speckle...

A graph theoretical approach to modelling growing cellular tissue

All organisms are built out of cellular tissue. Being able to recognise abnormalities in these tissues could be useful in recognizing cancerous cells. In this thesis we construct a mathematical model for cellular tissue based on its spatial structure. We consider cells as elements of the network. Touching cells are considered connected. Cells...

Optimising OR planning: Sequencing surgery groups while levelling bed occupancy

This research is conducted in collaboration with the Sophia Children's Hospital (SCH). The hospital wants to provide their patients with more detailed information about when a patient is approximately scheduled to have a surgery. The first step is to create a model which optimises the operation room (OR) schedule and indicates when different...

Box set optimization for e-commerce warehouses: Applied to bol.com

The problem considered in this thesis is the box set optimization problem. In<br/>this problem the goal is to find the optimal dimensions of a number of shipping<br/>boxes which have to provide an optimal fit on a set of items. The application<br/>considered is e-commerce, and hence the number of items is relatively large<br/>compared to other...

Individual based models for the spread of MRSA clonal complexes in a population

A big proportion of hospital-associated infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus can be attributed to Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). Many countries take interventions to try and minimise the spread of MRSA. Interventions, such as a search-and-destroy policy and restrictive antibiotics use, have proven to be effective. Different...

Endocrine systems modeling: Towards personalized treatment of thyroid diseases

Thyroid hormones are fundamental in the development and function of the human body. They are produced by the thyroid and their concentration is regulated by a negative feedback loop involving also the hypothalamus and the pituitary. Many studies have shown that each individual has a unique HPT axis set-point, which means that everyone has his or...

Simulating COVID-19 contact tracing queue using compartment models

This research is mainly about optimising compartment models for COVID-19 and then using them for different applications that can be used to consult authorities. A compartment model describes the dynamics of a disease by implementing differential equations for the different states that belong to that disease. This is done using parameters which...

Option Pricing on Backward-Looking Rates

This thesis is devoted to option pricing on backward-looking rates. For the last decades, interest rate products were often linked to IBOR rates. IBORs are short-term borrowing rates charged between global banks in the unsecured interbank market. The purpose of this thesis is to compare the Hull-White model to the Black-Karasinski model for the...

Quantifying the required resources for a central sterile supply department using a decomposition method

Optimizing supply chain management in hospitals can lead to a significant reduction in costs. One of the supply chain processes that can be optimized is the sterilization of reusable instruments used during surgical procedures. This process takes place at the Central Sterile Supply Department (CSSD) and consists of two main steps, `washing and...

Mathematical spatial compartmental epidemic models for the infectious disease cholera

Cholera is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Infections can occur directly via contact with infected people, but also indirectly via infected water. Because of these direct, but especially indirect infections, it is useful to investigate the spread of the disease using mathematical epidemic models. In this report a...

De invloed van medicijngebruik en infectiehistorie op het gedrag van een malaria infectie in een persoon

In dit verslag beschrijven we met behulp van een wiskundig model hoe een malaria infectie zich ontwikkelt in een persoon. We gebruiken hiervoor een stelsel van gewone differentiaalvergelijkingen, wat beschreven wordt in een artikel van Mary Bushman. Hierbij volgen we veranderingen in verschillende aantallen die een rol spelen bij een infectie,...

Orienting phylogenetic networks

This thesis provides you with basic information on graph theory as well as phylogenetic networks, it studies the relationship between undirected (unrooted) and directed (rooted) phylogenetic networks, based on the manuscript 'Rooting for phylogenetic networks' . Undirected phylogenetic networks can be oriented to become a directed network. In...