SelectedWorks - Lora Billings

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Selected Works of Lora Billings

Professor of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, and Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics

My research program focuses on applied deterministic and stochastic dynamical systems. By studying the models arising in applications from epidemiology, physics, and ecology, I work towards making significant advances in mathematics as well as impacting the applications. I incorporate students in my research at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

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About Lora Billings

My research program focuses on applied deterministic and stochastic dynamical systems. By studying the models arising in applications from epidemiology, physics, and ecology, I work towards making significant advances in mathematics as well as impacting the applications. I incorporate students in my research at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Present	Dean, Montclair State University ‐ College of Science and Mathematics
Institution Organization Position Type Position Title Time Period to Options Current Position Affiliate my profile with this Institution

Applied Mathematics and Dynamical Systems

epidemiology, population dynamics, and stochastic analysis

Articles (3)

Intervention-Based Stochastic Disease Eradication

PLOS ONE (2013)

Lora Billings, Luis Mier-y-Teran-Romero, Brandon Lindley and Ira Schwartz

Disease control is of paramount importance in public health, with infectious disease extinction as the ultimate goal. Although diseases may ...

Noise-induced unstable dimension variability and transition to chaos in random ...

Department of Mathematics Facuty Scholarship and Creative Works (2003)

Ying-Cheng Lai, Zonghua Liu, Lora Billings and Ira B. Schwartz

Results are reported concerning the transition to chaos in random dynamical systems. In particular, situations are considered where a periodic ...

Transition to Chaos in Continuous-Time Random Dynamical Systems

Department of Mathematics Facuty Scholarship and Creative Works (2002)

Zonghua Liu, Ying-Cheng Lai, Lora Billings and Ira B. Schwartz

We consider situations where, in a continuous-time dynamical system, a nonchaotic attractor coexists with a nonattracting chaotic saddle, as in ...

Journal Articles (28)

Seasonal forcing in stochastic epidemiology models

Ricerche di Matematica (2017)

Lora Billings and Eric Forgoston

The goal of this paper is to motivate the need and lay the foundation for the analysis of stochastic epidemiological ...

Adoption of switchgrass cultivation for biofuel under uncertainty: A discrete-time ...

Biomass and Bioenergy (2017)

Pralhad Burli, Eric Forgoston, Pankaj Lal, Lora Billings, et al.

Production of biofuels from cellulosic sources, such as switchgrass, is being encouraged through mandates, incentives, and subsidies. However, uncertainty in future prices coupled ...

Extinction pathways and outbreak vulnerability in a stochastic Ebola model

Journal Of The Royal Society Interface (2017)

Garrett T. Nieddu, Lora Billings, James H. Kaufman, Eric Forgoston, et al.

A zoonotic disease is a disease that can be passed from animals to humans. Zoonotic viruses may adapt to a ...

Computing the optimal path in stochastic dynamical systems

Martha Bauver, Eric Forgoston and Lora Billings

In stochastic systems, one is often interested in finding the optimal path that maximizes the probability of escape from a ...

Herbivory and Stoichiometric Feedbacks to Primary Production

PLOS ONE (2015)

Jennifer Adams Krumins, Valdis Krumins, Eric Forgoston, Lora Billings, et al.

Established theory addresses the idea that herbivory can have positive feedbacks on nutrient flow to plants. Positive feedbacks likely emerge ...

Noise-induced switching and extinction in systems with delay

Physical Review E (2015)

Ira B. Schwartz, Lora Billings, Thomas W Carr and M. I. Dykman

We consider the rates of noise-induced switching between the stable states of dissipative dynamical systems with delay and also the ...

Analysis and Control of Pre-extinction Dynamics in Stochastic Populations

Bulletin of Math Biology (2014)

Garrett T Nieddu, Lora Billings and Eric Forgoston

We consider a stochastic population model, where the intrinsic or demographic noise causes cycling between states before the population eventually ...

Intervention-Based Stochastic Disease Eradication

PLOS ONE (2013)

Lora Billings, Luis Mier-y-Teran-Romero, Brandon Lindley and Ira B. Schwartz

Disease control is of paramount importance in public health, with infectious disease extinction as the ultimate goal. Although diseases may ...

Disease persistence in epidemiological models: The interplay between vaccination and ...

Mathematical Biosciences (2012)

Jackson Burton, Lora Billings, Derek A.T. Cummings and Ira B. Schwartz

We consider the interplay of vaccination and migration rates on disease persistence in epidemiological systems. We show that short-term and ...

Set-based corral control in stochastic dynamical systems: Making almost invariant ...

Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal Of Nonlinear Science (2011)

Eric Forgoston, Lora Billings, Philip Yecko and Ira B. Schwartz

We consider the problem of stochastic prediction and control in a time-dependent stochastic environment, such as the ocean, where escape ...

Effective vaccination policies

Information Sciences (2010)

L. Shaw, W. Spears, Lora Billings and P. Maxim

We present a framework for modeling the spread of pathogens throughout a population and generating policies that minimize the impact ...

Early die out events in SIR epidemic models

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal (2010)

Jonathan Ballone

We are interested in the behavior of an SIR epidemic model with respect to low-probability events. Specifically, we want to ...

Switching Exponent Scaling near Bifurcation Points for Non-Gaussian Noise

Physical Review Letters (2010)

Lora Billings, Ira B. Schwartz, Mary McCrary, A. N. Korotkrov, et al.

We study noise-induced switching of a system close to bifurcation parameter values where the number of stable states changes. For ...

Accurate noise projection for reduced stochastic epidemic models

Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science (2009)

Eric Forgoston, Lora Billings and Ira B. Schwartz

We consider a stochastic susceptible-exposed-infected-recovered SEIR epidemiological model. Through the use of a normal form coordinate transform, we are able ...

Predicting extinction rates in stochastic epidemic models

Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment (2009)

Ira B. Schwartz, Lora Billings, Mark Dykman and Alexandra Landsman

We investigate the stochastic extinction processes in a class of epidemic models. Motivated by the process of natural disease extinction ...

When to Spray: a Time-Scale Calculus Approach to Controlling the ...

Ecology and Society (2009)

Diana Thomas, Marion Weedermann, Lora Billings, Joan Hoffacker, et al.

West Nile Virus (WNV) made its initial appearance in the New York City (NYC) metropolitan area in 1999 and was ...

Thermally activated switching in the presence of non-Gaussian noise

Physical Review E (2008)

Lora Billings, Mark I. Dykman and Ira B. Schwartz

We study the effect of a non-Gaussian noise on interstate switching activated primarily by Gaussian noise. Even weak non-Gaussian noise ...

Identifying almost invariant sets in stochastic dynamical systems

Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science (2008)

Lora Billings and Ira B. Schwartz

We consider the approximation of fluctuation induced almost invariant sets arising from stochastic dynamical systems. The dynamical evolution of densities ...

Vaccinations in disease models with antibody-dependent enhancement

Mathematical Biosciences (2007)

Lora Billings, Amy Fiorillo and Ira B. Schwartz

This paper examines the effects of single-strain vaccine campaigns on the dynamics of an epidemic multistrain model with antibody-dependent enhancement ...

Using dimension reduction to improve outbreak predictability of multistrain diseases

Mathematical Biology (2007)

Leah Shaw, Lora Billings and Ira Schwartz

Multistrain diseases have multiple distinct coexisting serotypes (strains). For some diseases, such as dengue fever, the serotypes interact by antibody-dependent ...

Instabilities in multiserotype disease models with antibody-dependent enhancement

Journal of Theoretical Biology (2006)

Lora Billings, Ira Schwartz, Leah B Shaw, Marie McCrary, et al.

This paper investigates the complex dynamics induced by antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) in multiserotype disease models. ADE is the increase in ...

Chaotic desynchronization of multistrain diseases

Physical Review E (2005)

Ira B. Schwartz, Leah B Shaw, Derek A.T. Cummings, Lora Billings, et al.

Multistrain diseases are diseases that consist of several strains, or serotypes. The serotypes may interact by antibody-dependent enhancement ADE, in ...