Period: January/February,
2016 - June, 2016
Supervisors: Dr. Cédric Sueur1,3,
Dr. Jérôme Pansanel2,3, Msc. Valéria
Romano1,3
Department:
1- CNRS, Département
Ecologie, Physiologie et Ethologie, Strasbourg, France.
2- CNRS,
Département de Recherches Subatomiques, Strasbourg,
France.
3- Université
de Strasbourg, IPHC, Strasbourg, France.
___________________________________________________________________________
Summary of Project:
Social
transmission of behavior and disease can take many forms and may deeply affect
an individual’s fitness. In this project, we are interested to investigate the
dynamic of infectious agent transmission in animal networks in order to
determine what conditions and network properties are infectious organisms expected
to spread freely or be tightly constrained. Theoretical social network will be
created in order to have a set of efficiency values going from 0 (inefficient
network) to 1 (most efficient network). Then, we are going to test the different networks by changing either the number of group
members or their properties (such as modularity and density) to understand how
disease is transmitted between individuals. Our
findings will not only provide information concerning the mechanisms of social
transmission within a group, but will also show how social network structures
and dynamic vary depending on different factors such as group composition and
size, providing further information of how animals, including humans, lead with
the benefits and costs of group-living.
Keywords: social relationship, social network analysis, network efficiency, modelling
Keywords: social relationship, social network analysis, network efficiency, modelling
Desired qualifications:
·
Proficiency in English communication
·
Programming experience in R or NetLogo
·
Good interpersonal skills
Application materials include: (1) letter of application, (2)
CV.
Interested
candidates should contact Valéria Romano (valeria.romano@iphc.cnrs.fr).