University of New Brunswick

Term Assistant Professor

Teaching, Research, Statistics Consultancy

Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo

Visiting Assistant Professor

Muhammad worked at Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo as a Visiting Assistant Professor

Sigma Business Analytics and Technology Solutions (www.sigmabats.com)

Founder

Muhammad worked at Sigma Business Analytics and Technology Solutions (www.sigmabats.com) as a Founder

Lahore University of Management Sciences

Data Scientist, Acdemic Counselor

Responsibilities were:
• Research and develop statistical learning models for data analysis
• Selecting features, building and optimizing classifiers using machine learning techniques
• Extending data with third party sources of information when needed
• Enhancing data collection procedures to include information that is relevant for building analytic systems
• Processing, cleansing, and verifying the integrity of data used for analysis
• Doing ad-hoc analysis and presenting results in a clear manner
• Creating automated anomaly detection systems and constant tracking of its performance
• Keep up-to-date with latest technology trends
• Communicate results and ideas to key decision makers
Some of the projects carried out were:
• Potential Risk Factors of Congestion due to the Exposure of Mosquito Repellents during intensive outbreak of dengue fever.
• HIV/AIDS Data Analysis with The Global Fund HIV/AIDS Round-10.
• The effectiveness of selective nerve root injections in preventing the need for surgery in patients with lumbar spine pathology.
• Student trends and comparative analysis of testing tools

Prince Sultan University- Data Mining Center, Saudi Arabia

Sr. Data Scientist , Academic Advisor

Responsibilities are:
• To serve as an SME for predictive modeling with business users
• To direct and monitor all aspects of a modeling engagement, including design, development, validation, calibration, and documentation
• Establish and maintain strong relationships with key business stakeholders, consult with them, as appropriate on predictive modeling solutions
• Research complex business issues and recommend solutions, including model inputs through to end-product
• Validate the performance of existing quantitative risk models and recommend changes when necessary
• Identify product ideas, define hypotheses and validate them with data analysis
• Develop new algorithms and models to create new functionalities for products and services that meet business needs
• Code and test new algorithms for prototype and production applications

Network Bursting using Experimentally Constrained Single Compartment CA3 Hippocampal Neuron Models with Adaptation

J Computational Neuroscience

Abstract The hippocampus is a brain structure critical for memory functioning. Its network dynamics include several patterns such as sharp waves that are generated in the CA3 region. To understand how population outputs are generated, models need to consider aspects of network size, cellular and synaptic characteristics and context, which are necessarily ‘balanced’ in appropriate ways to produce particular outputs. Thick slice hippocampal preparations spontaneously produce sharp waves that are initiated in CA3 regions and depend on the right balance of glutamatergic activities. As a step toward developing network models that can explain important balances in the generation of hippocampal output, we develop models of CA3 pyramidal cells. Our models are single compartment in nature, use an Izhikevich-type structure and involve parameter values that are specifically designed to encompass CA3 intrinsic properties. Importantly, they incorporate spike frequency adaptation characteristics that are directly comparable to those measured experimentally. Excitatory networks using these model cells are able to produce bursting suggesting that the amount of spike frequency adaptation expressed in the biological cells is an essential contributor to network bursting, and as such, may be important for sharp wave generation. The network bursting mechanism is numerically dissected showing the critical balance between adaptation and excitatory drive. The compact nature of our models allows large network simulations to be efficiently computed. This, together with the linkage of our models to cellular characteristics, will allow us to develop an understanding of population output of CA3 hippocampus with direct biological comparisons.

Network Bursting using Experimentally Constrained Single Compartment CA3 Hippocampal Neuron Models with Adaptation

J Computational Neuroscience

Abstract The hippocampus is a brain structure critical for memory functioning. Its network dynamics include several patterns such as sharp waves that are generated in the CA3 region. To understand how population outputs are generated, models need to consider aspects of network size, cellular and synaptic characteristics and context, which are necessarily ‘balanced’ in appropriate ways to produce particular outputs. Thick slice hippocampal preparations spontaneously produce sharp waves that are initiated in CA3 regions and depend on the right balance of glutamatergic activities. As a step toward developing network models that can explain important balances in the generation of hippocampal output, we develop models of CA3 pyramidal cells. Our models are single compartment in nature, use an Izhikevich-type structure and involve parameter values that are specifically designed to encompass CA3 intrinsic properties. Importantly, they incorporate spike frequency adaptation characteristics that are directly comparable to those measured experimentally. Excitatory networks using these model cells are able to produce bursting suggesting that the amount of spike frequency adaptation expressed in the biological cells is an essential contributor to network bursting, and as such, may be important for sharp wave generation. The network bursting mechanism is numerically dissected showing the critical balance between adaptation and excitatory drive. The compact nature of our models allows large network simulations to be efficiently computed. This, together with the linkage of our models to cellular characteristics, will allow us to develop an understanding of population output of CA3 hippocampus with direct biological comparisons.

A comparison of a deterministic and stochastic model for Hepatitis C with an isolation stage

Journal of Biological Dynamics

We formulate a deterministic epidemic model for the spread of Hepatitis C containing an acute, chronic and isolation class and analyse the effects of the isolation class on the transmission dynamics of the disease. We calculate the basic reproduction number R0 and show that for R0 ≤ 1, the disease-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable. In addition, it is shown that for a special case when R0 > 1, the endemic equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable. Furthermore, an analogous stochastic epidemic model for Hepatitis C is formulated using a continuous time Markov chain. Numerical simulations are used to estimate the mean, variance and probability distributions of the discrete random variables and these are compared to the steady-state solutions of the deterministic model. Finally, the expected time to disease extinction is estimated for the stochastic model and the impact of isolation on the time to extinction is explored.

Network Bursting using Experimentally Constrained Single Compartment CA3 Hippocampal Neuron Models with Adaptation

J Computational Neuroscience

Abstract The hippocampus is a brain structure critical for memory functioning. Its network dynamics include several patterns such as sharp waves that are generated in the CA3 region. To understand how population outputs are generated, models need to consider aspects of network size, cellular and synaptic characteristics and context, which are necessarily ‘balanced’ in appropriate ways to produce particular outputs. Thick slice hippocampal preparations spontaneously produce sharp waves that are initiated in CA3 regions and depend on the right balance of glutamatergic activities. As a step toward developing network models that can explain important balances in the generation of hippocampal output, we develop models of CA3 pyramidal cells. Our models are single compartment in nature, use an Izhikevich-type structure and involve parameter values that are specifically designed to encompass CA3 intrinsic properties. Importantly, they incorporate spike frequency adaptation characteristics that are directly comparable to those measured experimentally. Excitatory networks using these model cells are able to produce bursting suggesting that the amount of spike frequency adaptation expressed in the biological cells is an essential contributor to network bursting, and as such, may be important for sharp wave generation. The network bursting mechanism is numerically dissected showing the critical balance between adaptation and excitatory drive. The compact nature of our models allows large network simulations to be efficiently computed. This, together with the linkage of our models to cellular characteristics, will allow us to develop an understanding of population output of CA3 hippocampus with direct biological comparisons.

A comparison of a deterministic and stochastic model for Hepatitis C with an isolation stage

Journal of Biological Dynamics

We formulate a deterministic epidemic model for the spread of Hepatitis C containing an acute, chronic and isolation class and analyse the effects of the isolation class on the transmission dynamics of the disease. We calculate the basic reproduction number R0 and show that for R0 ≤ 1, the disease-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable. In addition, it is shown that for a special case when R0 > 1, the endemic equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable. Furthermore, an analogous stochastic epidemic model for Hepatitis C is formulated using a continuous time Markov chain. Numerical simulations are used to estimate the mean, variance and probability distributions of the discrete random variables and these are compared to the steady-state solutions of the deterministic model. Finally, the expected time to disease extinction is estimated for the stochastic model and the impact of isolation on the time to extinction is explored.

Exposure To Mosquito Repellents And The Potential Risk Factors of Congestion: A Cross-Sectional Study

Applied Science Journal

Abstract: Intense outbreaks of dengue fever have been a major health issue in the province of Punjab during every post-monsoon season of the past few years. Several precautionary measures which include coils, sprays, etc. are employed in each household to minimize possible contact with Aedes mosquitoes (the dengue carriers). Although there is a general perception that the use of mosquito repellents plays a significant role in the development of congestion, especially in closed territories, however the empirical evidence to support this hypothesis is limited and inconclusive. In this paper, we mainly aim to study whether the use of these repellents tend to impart any adverse effects on human health, with a specific inclination towards determining the association between congestion and usage of these repellents. To suffice our purpose, a cross-sectional data of 252 individuals was collected from various areas of Lahore, during the post-monsoon season of the year 2012. Our results demonstrate that there exists a statistically significant association between the use of these repellents (during sleep or otherwise) and chest congestion. Furthermore age of individuals, number of people sleeping in a room; number of congestion patients in a house, gender and family size are also associated with it.

Network Bursting using Experimentally Constrained Single Compartment CA3 Hippocampal Neuron Models with Adaptation

J Computational Neuroscience

Abstract The hippocampus is a brain structure critical for memory functioning. Its network dynamics include several patterns such as sharp waves that are generated in the CA3 region. To understand how population outputs are generated, models need to consider aspects of network size, cellular and synaptic characteristics and context, which are necessarily ‘balanced’ in appropriate ways to produce particular outputs. Thick slice hippocampal preparations spontaneously produce sharp waves that are initiated in CA3 regions and depend on the right balance of glutamatergic activities. As a step toward developing network models that can explain important balances in the generation of hippocampal output, we develop models of CA3 pyramidal cells. Our models are single compartment in nature, use an Izhikevich-type structure and involve parameter values that are specifically designed to encompass CA3 intrinsic properties. Importantly, they incorporate spike frequency adaptation characteristics that are directly comparable to those measured experimentally. Excitatory networks using these model cells are able to produce bursting suggesting that the amount of spike frequency adaptation expressed in the biological cells is an essential contributor to network bursting, and as such, may be important for sharp wave generation. The network bursting mechanism is numerically dissected showing the critical balance between adaptation and excitatory drive. The compact nature of our models allows large network simulations to be efficiently computed. This, together with the linkage of our models to cellular characteristics, will allow us to develop an understanding of population output of CA3 hippocampus with direct biological comparisons.

A comparison of a deterministic and stochastic model for Hepatitis C with an isolation stage

Journal of Biological Dynamics

We formulate a deterministic epidemic model for the spread of Hepatitis C containing an acute, chronic and isolation class and analyse the effects of the isolation class on the transmission dynamics of the disease. We calculate the basic reproduction number R0 and show that for R0 ≤ 1, the disease-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable. In addition, it is shown that for a special case when R0 > 1, the endemic equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable. Furthermore, an analogous stochastic epidemic model for Hepatitis C is formulated using a continuous time Markov chain. Numerical simulations are used to estimate the mean, variance and probability distributions of the discrete random variables and these are compared to the steady-state solutions of the deterministic model. Finally, the expected time to disease extinction is estimated for the stochastic model and the impact of isolation on the time to extinction is explored.

Exposure To Mosquito Repellents And The Potential Risk Factors of Congestion: A Cross-Sectional Study

Applied Science Journal

Abstract: Intense outbreaks of dengue fever have been a major health issue in the province of Punjab during every post-monsoon season of the past few years. Several precautionary measures which include coils, sprays, etc. are employed in each household to minimize possible contact with Aedes mosquitoes (the dengue carriers). Although there is a general perception that the use of mosquito repellents plays a significant role in the development of congestion, especially in closed territories, however the empirical evidence to support this hypothesis is limited and inconclusive. In this paper, we mainly aim to study whether the use of these repellents tend to impart any adverse effects on human health, with a specific inclination towards determining the association between congestion and usage of these repellents. To suffice our purpose, a cross-sectional data of 252 individuals was collected from various areas of Lahore, during the post-monsoon season of the year 2012. Our results demonstrate that there exists a statistically significant association between the use of these repellents (during sleep or otherwise) and chest congestion. Furthermore age of individuals, number of people sleeping in a room; number of congestion patients in a house, gender and family size are also associated with it.

Calcium dynamics in Dendritic spines: A link to Structural Plasticity:

Journal of Mathematical Biosciences

Network Bursting using Experimentally Constrained Single Compartment CA3 Hippocampal Neuron Models with Adaptation

J Computational Neuroscience

Abstract The hippocampus is a brain structure critical for memory functioning. Its network dynamics include several patterns such as sharp waves that are generated in the CA3 region. To understand how population outputs are generated, models need to consider aspects of network size, cellular and synaptic characteristics and context, which are necessarily ‘balanced’ in appropriate ways to produce particular outputs. Thick slice hippocampal preparations spontaneously produce sharp waves that are initiated in CA3 regions and depend on the right balance of glutamatergic activities. As a step toward developing network models that can explain important balances in the generation of hippocampal output, we develop models of CA3 pyramidal cells. Our models are single compartment in nature, use an Izhikevich-type structure and involve parameter values that are specifically designed to encompass CA3 intrinsic properties. Importantly, they incorporate spike frequency adaptation characteristics that are directly comparable to those measured experimentally. Excitatory networks using these model cells are able to produce bursting suggesting that the amount of spike frequency adaptation expressed in the biological cells is an essential contributor to network bursting, and as such, may be important for sharp wave generation. The network bursting mechanism is numerically dissected showing the critical balance between adaptation and excitatory drive. The compact nature of our models allows large network simulations to be efficiently computed. This, together with the linkage of our models to cellular characteristics, will allow us to develop an understanding of population output of CA3 hippocampus with direct biological comparisons.

A comparison of a deterministic and stochastic model for Hepatitis C with an isolation stage

Journal of Biological Dynamics

We formulate a deterministic epidemic model for the spread of Hepatitis C containing an acute, chronic and isolation class and analyse the effects of the isolation class on the transmission dynamics of the disease. We calculate the basic reproduction number R0 and show that for R0 ≤ 1, the disease-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable. In addition, it is shown that for a special case when R0 > 1, the endemic equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable. Furthermore, an analogous stochastic epidemic model for Hepatitis C is formulated using a continuous time Markov chain. Numerical simulations are used to estimate the mean, variance and probability distributions of the discrete random variables and these are compared to the steady-state solutions of the deterministic model. Finally, the expected time to disease extinction is estimated for the stochastic model and the impact of isolation on the time to extinction is explored.

Exposure To Mosquito Repellents And The Potential Risk Factors of Congestion: A Cross-Sectional Study

Applied Science Journal

Abstract: Intense outbreaks of dengue fever have been a major health issue in the province of Punjab during every post-monsoon season of the past few years. Several precautionary measures which include coils, sprays, etc. are employed in each household to minimize possible contact with Aedes mosquitoes (the dengue carriers). Although there is a general perception that the use of mosquito repellents plays a significant role in the development of congestion, especially in closed territories, however the empirical evidence to support this hypothesis is limited and inconclusive. In this paper, we mainly aim to study whether the use of these repellents tend to impart any adverse effects on human health, with a specific inclination towards determining the association between congestion and usage of these repellents. To suffice our purpose, a cross-sectional data of 252 individuals was collected from various areas of Lahore, during the post-monsoon season of the year 2012. Our results demonstrate that there exists a statistically significant association between the use of these repellents (during sleep or otherwise) and chest congestion. Furthermore age of individuals, number of people sleeping in a room; number of congestion patients in a house, gender and family size are also associated with it.

Calcium dynamics in Dendritic spines: A link to Structural Plasticity:

Journal of Mathematical Biosciences

Structural Plasticity of Dendritic Spines: A Computational Study

VDM-Verlog, Germany

Network Bursting using Experimentally Constrained Single Compartment CA3 Hippocampal Neuron Models with Adaptation

J Computational Neuroscience

Abstract The hippocampus is a brain structure critical for memory functioning. Its network dynamics include several patterns such as sharp waves that are generated in the CA3 region. To understand how population outputs are generated, models need to consider aspects of network size, cellular and synaptic characteristics and context, which are necessarily ‘balanced’ in appropriate ways to produce particular outputs. Thick slice hippocampal preparations spontaneously produce sharp waves that are initiated in CA3 regions and depend on the right balance of glutamatergic activities. As a step toward developing network models that can explain important balances in the generation of hippocampal output, we develop models of CA3 pyramidal cells. Our models are single compartment in nature, use an Izhikevich-type structure and involve parameter values that are specifically designed to encompass CA3 intrinsic properties. Importantly, they incorporate spike frequency adaptation characteristics that are directly comparable to those measured experimentally. Excitatory networks using these model cells are able to produce bursting suggesting that the amount of spike frequency adaptation expressed in the biological cells is an essential contributor to network bursting, and as such, may be important for sharp wave generation. The network bursting mechanism is numerically dissected showing the critical balance between adaptation and excitatory drive. The compact nature of our models allows large network simulations to be efficiently computed. This, together with the linkage of our models to cellular characteristics, will allow us to develop an understanding of population output of CA3 hippocampus with direct biological comparisons.

A comparison of a deterministic and stochastic model for Hepatitis C with an isolation stage

Journal of Biological Dynamics

We formulate a deterministic epidemic model for the spread of Hepatitis C containing an acute, chronic and isolation class and analyse the effects of the isolation class on the transmission dynamics of the disease. We calculate the basic reproduction number R0 and show that for R0 ≤ 1, the disease-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable. In addition, it is shown that for a special case when R0 > 1, the endemic equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable. Furthermore, an analogous stochastic epidemic model for Hepatitis C is formulated using a continuous time Markov chain. Numerical simulations are used to estimate the mean, variance and probability distributions of the discrete random variables and these are compared to the steady-state solutions of the deterministic model. Finally, the expected time to disease extinction is estimated for the stochastic model and the impact of isolation on the time to extinction is explored.

Exposure To Mosquito Repellents And The Potential Risk Factors of Congestion: A Cross-Sectional Study

Applied Science Journal

Abstract: Intense outbreaks of dengue fever have been a major health issue in the province of Punjab during every post-monsoon season of the past few years. Several precautionary measures which include coils, sprays, etc. are employed in each household to minimize possible contact with Aedes mosquitoes (the dengue carriers). Although there is a general perception that the use of mosquito repellents plays a significant role in the development of congestion, especially in closed territories, however the empirical evidence to support this hypothesis is limited and inconclusive. In this paper, we mainly aim to study whether the use of these repellents tend to impart any adverse effects on human health, with a specific inclination towards determining the association between congestion and usage of these repellents. To suffice our purpose, a cross-sectional data of 252 individuals was collected from various areas of Lahore, during the post-monsoon season of the year 2012. Our results demonstrate that there exists a statistically significant association between the use of these repellents (during sleep or otherwise) and chest congestion. Furthermore age of individuals, number of people sleeping in a room; number of congestion patients in a house, gender and family size are also associated with it.

Calcium dynamics in Dendritic spines: A link to Structural Plasticity:

Journal of Mathematical Biosciences

Structural Plasticity of Dendritic Spines: A Computational Study

VDM-Verlog, Germany

Analysis of a mathematical model of emerging Infectious disease leading to amphibian decline

Journal of Abstract and Applied Analysis.

In this paper, we formulate a three dimensional deterministic model of amphibian larvae population to investigate the cause of extinction due to the infectious disease. The larvae population of the model is subdivided into two classes, exposed and unexposed, depending on their vulnerability to disease. Reproduction ratio R0, has been calculated and we have shown that if R0 < 1, the whole population will extinct. For the case of R0 > 1, we discussed different scenarios under which an infected population can survive or eliminate using stability and persistence analysis. Finally, we also used hopf-bifurcation analysis to study the stability of periodic solutions.