Nucleic acid sequencing methods, which determine the order of nucleotides in DNA fragments, are rapidly progressing. These processes yield large quantities of sequence data -- some of which is dynamic -- that helps researchers understand how and why organisms function like they do. Sequencing also benefits epidemiological studies, such as the identification, diagnosis, and treatment of genetic and/or contagious diseases. Advanced sequencing technologies reveal valuable information about the time evolution of pathogen sequences. Because researchers can estimate how a mutation behaves under the pressure of natural selection, they are thus able to predict the impact of each mutation -- in terms of survival and propagation -- on the fitness of the pathogen in question. These predictions lend insight to infectious disease epistemology, pathogen evolution, and population dynamics. In a paper published earlier this month in the SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics , Ryosuke Omori an...
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