Human Evolutionary Ecology and Health James Holland Jones

Behavior, Social Structure, and Infectious Disease Transmission

Active vertex

The key theme that links projects in this area is taking very seriously individual behavior – and its inherent variability – to understand how social structure affects diffusion processes like the transmission of infections. I employ a mix of mathematical and computational modeling, advanced statistical tools, and technologically enhanced, naturalistic observation to push the boundaries of our understanding of complex social processes. This work has clear applications to more general questions in Anthropology about the transmission of culture and the maintenance of diversity.

The focus of this work has largely been in the domain of infectious disease. However, the insights apply just as well to the diffusion of innovations in a social network or a broader population.

Representative Papers

Richardson, E.T., M.M. Malik, W.A. Darity, A.K. Mullen, M. Malik, A. Benton, M.T. Bassett, P.E. Farmer, L. Worden, and J.H. Jones. (2021) Reparations for Black American Descendants of Persons Enslaved in the U.S. and Their Estimated Impact on SARS-CoV-2 Transmission. Social Science and Medicine. 276:113741. (doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113741)

Jones, J.H., A. Hazel, and Z. Almquist. (2020) Transmission‐dynamics models for the SARS Coronavirus‐2. American Journal of Human Biology. 32: e23512. (doi:10.1002/ajhb.23512)

Wannier, R., L. Worden, N.A. Hoff, E. Amezcua, B. Selo, C. Sinai, M. Mossoko, B. Njoloko, E. Okitolonda-Wemakoy, P. Mbala-Kingebeni, S. Ahuka-Mundeke, J.J. Muyembe-Tamfum, E.T. Richardson, G.W. Rutherford, J.H. Jones, T.M. Lietman, A. Rimoin, T.C. Porco, J.D. Kelly. (2019) Estimating the impact of violence on transmission in Ebola Virus Disease outbreak, Democratic Republic of Congo, 2018–2019. Epidemics. 2019: 100353. (doi:10.1016/j.epidem.2019.100353)

Kelly, J.D., M.B. Barrie, A.W. Mesman, S. Karku, K. Quiwa, M. Drasher, G.W. Slough, K. Dierberg, S. Koedoyoma, C.P. Lindan, J.H. Jones, G. Chamie, L. Worden, B. Greenhouse, S.D. Weiser, T.C. Porco, G.W. Rutherford, and E.T. Richardson. (2018) Anatomy of a Hotspot: Chain and Seroepidemiology of Ebola Virus Transmission, Sukudu, Sierra Leone, 2015-16. The Journal of Infectious Disease. 217(8): 1214–1221. (doi:10.1093/infdis/jiy004)

Arthur, R.F., E.S. Gurley, H. Salje, L.S.P. Bloomfield, J.H. Jones. (2017) Contact Structure, Mobility, Environmental Impact and Behavior: The Importance of Social Factors to Infectious Disease Dynamics and Disease Ecology. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B. 372: 20160454. (doi:10.1098/rstb.2016.0454)

Garchitorena, A, S.H. Sokolow, B. Roche, C.N. Ngonghala, M. Jocque, A. Lund, M. Barry, E. Mordecai, J.H. Jones, J.F. Guégan, M.H. Bonds. G. A. De Leo. (2017) Disease Ecology, Health and the Environment: Accounting for Ecological and Socio-Economic Drivers in the Control of Tropical Diseases of Poverty. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B. 372: 20160128. (doi:10.1098/rstb.2016.0128)

Richardson, E.T., J.D. Kelly, M.B. Barrie, A.W. Mesman, S. Karku, K. Quiwa, R.H. Marsh, S. Koedoyoma, F. Daboh, K.P. Barron, M. Grady, E. Tucker, K.L. Dierberg, G.W. Rutherford, M. Barry, J.H. Jones, M.B. Murray, and P.E. Farmer. (2016) Minimally Symptomatic Infection in an Ebola 'Hotspot': A Cross-Sectional Serosurvey. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. 10 (11):e0005087. (doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0005087)

Janes, C., K. Corbett, J.H. Jones, J. Trostle. (2012) The role of social sciences in predicting and responding to emerging zoonotic diseases. The Lancet. 380(9857): 1884-1886. (doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61725-5)

Carcamo, C. P., P. E. Campos, P. J. García, J. P. Hughes, G. P. Garnett, and K. K. Holmes, A.Bernabe-Ortiz, C. Buendia, F. Canchihuaman, M. Chiappe, A. Cotrina, J. Gomez, S. La Rosa, P. Segura, M. Valderrama, A. L. Buffardi, J. H. Jones, P. Kohler, C. Mejia, M. Morris, K. K. Thomas, W. L. H. Whittington, A. M. Xet-Mull, E. Hall, F. Jones, P. White, G. Quinte, J. Evangelista, J. Carlos Lara, J. Tataje, L. Lopez-Torres, K. Vidarte. (2012). Prevalences of sexually transmitted infections in young adults and female sex workers in Peru: A national population-based survey. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 12 (10):765-773. (doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(12)70144-5)

Salathé, M., M. Kazandjieva, J. W. Lee, M.P. Levis, W. Feldman, and J. H. Jones (2010) A High-Resolution Human Contact Network for Infectious Disease Transmission. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 107 (51):22020-22025. (doi:10.1073/pnas.1009094108)

Kazandjieva, M.A., J. W. Lee, M. Salathé, M. W. Feldman, J. H. Jones, and P. Levis. (2010) Measuring a Human Contact Network for Epidemiology Research. Proceedings of the 6th Workshop on Hot Topics in Embedded Networked Sensors.

Salkeld, D.J. M. Salathé, P. Stapp, J.H. Jones. (2010) Plague outbreaks in prairie dog populations explained by percolation thresholds of alternate host abundance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 107(32): 14247-14250. (doi:10.1073/pnas.1002826107).

Salathé, M. and J.H. Jones. (2010) Dynamics and Control of Diseases in Networks with Community Structure, PLoS Computational Biology. 6(4): e1000736. (doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000736). 

Jones, J.H. and Salathé. (2009) Early Assessment of Anxiety and Behavioral Response to Influenza A(H1N1), PLoS ONE, 4(12): e8032. (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008032). 

Handcock, M.S. and J.H. Jones (2006) Interval estimates for epidemic thresholds in two-sex network models.Theoretical Population Biology. 70: 125-134. (doi:10.1016/j.tpb.2006.02.004)

Handcock, M.S. and Jones, J.H. (2004) Likelihood-based inference for stochastic models of sexual network evolution.Theoretical Population Biology. 65: 413-422. (doi:10.1016/j.tpb.2003.09.006)

Jones, J.H. and M.S. Handcock. (2003) Sexual contacts and epidemic thresholds. Nature. 423: 605-606. (doi:10.1038/423605a)

Jones, J.H. and M.S. Handcock. (2003) An assessment of preferential attachment as a mechanism for the growth of human sexual networks. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B. 270: 1123-1128.  (doi:10.1098/rspb.2003.2369)

Handcock, M.S., J.H. Jones, M. Morris (2003) On 'Sexual contacts and epidemic thresholds,' models and inference for Sexual partnership distributions. University of Washington, Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences, Working Paper 31. [PDF]