In a planar smoothly bounded domain $\Omega$ , we consider the model for oncolytic virotherapy given by

$$\left\{ \begin{array}{l} u_t = \Delta u - \nabla \cdot (u\nabla v) - uz, \\[1mm] v_t = - (u+w)v, \\[1mm] w_t = d_w \Delta w - w + uz, \\[1mm] z_t = d_z \Delta z - z - uz + \beta w, \end{array} \right.$$

$ D_w $

$ D_z $

$\beta$

$\beta \lt 1$

$M \gt 0$

$\beta \gt 0$

$$u\ge M \qquad \mbox{in } \Omega\times (0,\infty).$$

$\beta \gt 1$

$$\liminf_{t\to\infty} \inf_{x\in\Omega} u(x,t)\le \frac{1}{\beta-1}.$$

$\beta$

$\beta = 1$

We consider the no-flux initial-boundary value problem for the cross-diffusive evolution system:

\begin{eqnarray*} \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} u_t = u_{xx} - \chi \big(\frac{u}{v} \partial_x v \big)_x - uv +B_1(x,t), \qquad & x\in \Omega, \ t>0, \\[1mm] v_t = v_{xx} +uv - v + B_2(x,t), \qquad & x\in \Omega, \ t>0, \end{array} \right. \end{eqnarray*}

$\chi=2$

In bounded intervals $\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}$ and with prescribed suitably regular non-negative functions $B_1$ and $B_2$ , we first prove the existence of global classical solutions for any choice of $\chi>0$ and all reasonably regular non-negative initial data.

We next address the issue of determining the qualitative behaviour of solutions under appropriate assumptions on the asymptotic properties of $B_1$ and $B_2$ . Indeed, for arbitrary $\chi>0$ , we obtain boundedness of the solutions given strict positivity of the average of $B_2$ over the domain; moreover, it is seen that imposing a mild decay assumption on $B_1$ implies that u must decay to zero in the long-term limit. Our final result, valid for all $\chi\in\left(0,\frac{\sqrt{6\sqrt{3}+9}}{2}\right),$ which contains the relevant value $\chi=2$ , states that under the above decay assumption on $B_1$ , if furthermore $B_2$ appropriately stabilises to a non-trivial function $B_{2,\infty}$ , then (u,v) approaches the limit $(0,v_\infty)$ , where $v_\infty$ denotes the solution of

\begin{eqnarray*} \left\{ \begin{array}{l} -\partial_{xx}v_\infty + v_\infty = B_{2,\infty}, \qquad x\in \Omega, \\[1mm] \partial_x v_{\infty}=0, \qquad x\in\partial\Omega. \end{array} \right. \end{eqnarray*}

$\chi$

$\chi$

In this paper, we use formal asymptotic arguments to understand the stability properties of equivariant solutions to the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert model for ferromagnets. We also analyse both the harmonic map heatflow and Schrödinger map flow limit cases. All asymptotic results are verified by detailed numerical experiments, as well as a robust topological argument. The key result of this paper is that blowup solutions to these problems are co-dimension one and hence both unstable and non-generic.

Our task is the identification of the reluctivity $\nu\,{=}\,\nu(B)$ in $\vec{H}\,{=}\,\nu(B) \vec{B}$, ($B\,{=}\,|\vec{B}|$) from measurements of the magnetic flux for different excitation currents in a driving coil, in the context of a nonuniform magnetic field distribution. This is a nonlinear inverse problem and ill-posed in the sense of unstable data dependence, whose solution is done numerically by a Newton type iterative scheme, regularized by an appropriate stopping criterion. The computational complexity of this method is determined by the number of necessary forward evaluations, i.e. the number of numerical solutions to the three-dimensional magnetic field problem. We keep the effort minimal by applying a special discretization strategy to the inverse problem, based on multigrid methods for ill-posed problems. Numerical results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method.

Analysis ℓ1-recovery refers to a technique of recovering a signal that is sparse in some transform domain from incomplete corrupted measurements. This includes total variation minimization as an important special case when the transform domain is generated by a difference operator. In the present paper, we provide a bound on the number of Gaussian measurements required for successful recovery for total variation and for the case that the analysis operator is a frame. The bounds are particularly suitable when the sparsity of the analysis representation of the signal is not very small.

Coarsening of solutions of the integro-differential equation

formula here

where Ω ⊂ ℝn, J(·) [ges ] 0, ε > 0 and f(u) = u3 − u (or similar bistable nonlinear term), is examined, and compared with results for the Allen–Cahn partial differential equation. Both equations are used as models of solid phase transitions. In particular, it is shown that when ε is small enough, solutions of this integro-differential equation do not coarsen, in contrast to those of the Allen–Cahn equation. The special case J(·) ≡ 1 is explored in detail, giving insight into the behaviour in the more general case J(·) [ges ] 0. Also, a numerical approximation method is outlined and used on tests in both one- and two-space dimensions to verify and illustrate the main result.

This paper is concerned with the spatial dynamics of a monostable delayed age-structured population model in a 2D lattice strip. When there exists no positive equilibrium, we prove the global attractivity of the zero equilibrium. Otherwise, we give some sufficient conditions to guarantee the global attractivity of the unique positive equilibrium by establishing a series of comparison arguments. Furthermore, when those conditions do not hold, we show that the system is uniformly persistent. Finally, the spreading speed, including the upward convergence, is established for the model without the monotonicity of the growth function. The linear determinacy of the spreading speed and its coincidence with the minimal wave speed are also proved.

Thin-film models for the flow of a low reduced-Reynolds-number poroviscous droplet over a planar substrate are developed. One of the formulations is used to develop a minimal model for active animal cell motion in which the microscopic mechanisms of polymerisation and depolymerisation near the outer cell periphery are modelled by specifying the rate of mass transfer between the phases at the contact-line in terms of the velocity of the latter. An asymptotic analysis in the limit corresponding to strong cell-substrate adhesion is shown to lead to a novel class of multi-valued contact-line laws, a qualitative analysis of which leads in two dimensions to some intriguing behaviour, including (i) periodic contraction and expansion (pulsation), (ii) steady propagation at a contant speed, (iii) an unsteady combination of pulsation and propagation, and (iv) a bistable regime in which both non-motile and motile solutions are admissible, each of them being stable to sufficiently small perturbations, but with sufficiently large perturbations being able to ‘prod’ a stationary cell into motion or halt a moving one; these qualitative predictions are where possible compared with experiment. The contact-line behaviour is likely to be highly sensitive to environmental signals; the formulation may, therefore, provide a useful ‘minimal’ modelling framework for investigation of chemotactic effects at the cell scale. The corresponding extensional flow formulations are also noted.

Of concern is the stability and bifurcation analysis of a free boundary problem modelling the growth of multi-layer tumours. A remarkable feature of this problem lies in that the free boundary is imposed with nonlinear boundary conditions, where a Gibbs–Thomson relation is taken into account. By employing a functional approach, analytic semigroup theory and bifurcation theory, we prove that there exists a positive threshold value γ* of surface tension coefficient γ such that if γ > γ* then the unique flat stationary solution is asymptotically stable under non-flat perturbations, while for γ < γ* this unique flat stationary solution is unstable and there exists a series of non-flat stationary solutions bifurcating from it. The result indicates a significant phenomenon that a smaller value of surface tension coefficient γ may make tumours more aggressive.

Nonlinear evolution equations including hysteresis functionals are studied. It is the purpose of this paper to investigate the asymptotic stability of the solution as time t → + ∞. In the case when the forcing term of the equation tends to a time-independent function as t → + ∞, we shall show that the solution stabilizes at + ∞ and the system is asymptotically stable (equilibrium stability). In the case when the forcing term is periodic in time, we shall show that there is at least one periodic solution and that in some restricted cases the periodic solution is unique.

We consider the propagation of an exothermic reaction wave which converts liquid reactants into a solid product. Such reaction waves are observed, for example in addition polymerization, where there is a propagating localized polymerization zone, in which monomer is converted to polymer. We study uniformly propagating travelling waves and their linear stability. We show that, though this problem is similar to the problem of gaseous combustion, which exhibits a hydrodynamic instability, here there is no such hydrodynamic instability. This theoretical result is consistent with experimental observations in the case when the polymerization process occurs under high external pressure conditions.

The paper presents a conceptual mathematical model for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). According to the so-called amyloid cascade hypothesis, we assume that the progression of AD is associated with the presence of soluble toxic oligomers of beta-amyloid. Monomers of this protein are produced normally throughout life, but a change in the metabolism may increase their total production and, through aggregation, ultimately results in a large quantity of highly toxic polymers. The evolution from monomeric amyloid produced by the neurons to senile plaques (long and insoluble polymeric amyloid chains) is modelled by a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs), in the spirit of the Smoluchowski equation. The basic assumptions of the model are that, at the scale of suitably small representative elementary volumes (REVs) of the brain, the production of monomers depends on the average degradation of the neurons and in turn, at a much slower timescale, the degradation is caused by the number of toxic oligomers. To mimic prion-like diffusion of the disease in the brain, we introduce an interaction among adjacent REVs that can be assumed to be isotropic or to follow given preferential patterns. We display the results of numerical simulations which are obtained under some simplifying assumptions. For instance, the amyloid cascade is modelled by just three ordinary differential equations (ODEs), and the simulations refer to abstract 2D domains, simplifications which can be easily avoided at the price of some additional computational costs. Since the model is suitably flexible to incorporate other mechanisms and geometries, we believe that it can be generalised to describe more realistic situations.

In this paper we consider the problem of hedging options in the presence of cost in trading the underlying asset. This work is an asymptotic analysis of a stochastic control problem, as in Hodges & Neuberger and Davis, Panas & Zariphopoulou;. We derive a simple expression for the ‘hedging bandwidth’ around the Black–Scholes delta; this is the region in which it is optimal not to rehedge. The effect of the costs on the value of the option, and on the width of this hedging band is of a significantly greater order of magnitude than the costs themselves. When costs are proportional to volume traded, rehedging should be done to the edge of this band; when there are fixed costs present, trading should be done to an optimal point in the interior of the no-transaction region.

Motivated by the aim of modelling the mechanical behaviour of biological gels (such as collagen gels) which have a fibrous microstructure, we consider the extensional flow of a thin two-dimensional film of incompressible, transversely isotropic viscous fluid. Neglecting inertia, and the effects of gravity and surface tension, leading-order equations are derived from a perturbation expansion of the full flow problem in powers of the (small) inverse aspect ratio. The existence and uniqueness of the solution of the reduced system of equations for small times is then proven. Special cases, in which the solution may be determined explicitly, are considered and we discuss the physical interpretation of the results.

This paper proves the existence and uniqueness of a monotone increasing solution of the Painlevé 1 equation y″ = y2+x. The monotonicity of solution is then exploited to show stability of the plasma-sheath transition in a weakly ionizing plasma.

A mushy region is assumed to consist of a fine mixture of two distinct phases separated by free boundaries. For simplicity, the fine structure is here taken to be periodic, first in one dimension, and then a lattice of squares in two dimensions. A method of multiple scales is employed, with a classical free-boundary problem being used to model the evolution of the two-phase microstructure. Then a macroscopic model for the mush is obtained by an averaging procedure. The free-boundary temperature is taken to vary according to Gibbs–Thomson and/or kinetic-undercooling effects.

The stationary flow of a jet of a Newtonian fluid that is drawn by gravity onto a moving surface is analyzed. It is assumed that the jet has a convex shape and hits the moving surface tangentially. The flow is modelled by a third-order ODE on a domain of unknown length and with an additional integral condition. By solving part of the equation explicitly, the problem is reformulated as a first-order ODE with an integral constraint. The corresponding existence region in the three-dimensional parameter space is characterized in terms of an easily calculable quantity. In a qualitative sense, the results from the model are found to correspond with experimental observations.

We study the hole-filling problem for the porous medium equation $u_t= \frac{1}{m} \UDelta u^m$ with $m>1$ in two space dimensions. It is well known that it admits a radially symmetric self-similar focusing solution $u=t^{2\beta-1}F(|x|t^{-\beta})$, and we establish that the self-similarity exponent $\beta$ is a monotone function of the parameter $m$. We subsequently use this information to examine in detail the stability of the radial self-similar solution. We show that it is unstable for any $m>1$ against perturbations with 2-fold symmetry. In addition, we prove that as $m$ is varied there are bifurcations from the radial solution to self-similar solutions with $k$-fold symmetry for each $k=3,4,5,\dots.$ These bifurcations are simple and occur at values $m_3>m_4>m_5> \cdots\to1$.

Motivated by the study of fibre dynamics in the carding machine, a continuum model for the motion of a medium composed of fibres is derived under the assumption that the dominant forces are due to fibre-fibre interactions and that the material is in tension. To characterise the material we include the averaged values of density and velocity and introduce variables to describe the mean direction, alignment and entanglement. We assume that the bulk stress of the material depends on the density, entanglement, degree of alignment, average direction and shear-rates. A kinematic equation for average direction and two proposed heuristic laws for the evolution of entanglement and degree of alignment are given to close the system. Extensional and shearing simulations are in good qualitative agreement with experimental results.

The bifurcation from a normally conducting to a superconducting state as an external magnetic field is lowered is examined using the Ginzburg–Landau theory. Linear and weakly nonlinear stability analyses are performed near the bifurcation point, and the implications of the results for each of three examples is considered.