Dynamics Days US 2020 Recap

Joseph D. Johnson, PhD Candidate, Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, Northwestern University, reports on Dynamics Days 2020, Hartford, CT, Jan. 3-5, 2020.

Short Amphiphilic Molecules: Curve Lengthening, Defects, and the Role of Cholesterol

Yuan Chen, Andrew Christlieb, Keith Promislow, Frits Veerman, and Sulin Wang report on their research project where they derived a singularly perturbed problem for the cholesterol-loaded structure embedded within the singular scaling of the phospholipid bilayer and showed that the cholesterol sublayer robustly stabilizes the membrane to defect-generating pearling perturbations.

Student Feature - Priya Subramanian

Priya Subramanian is a Hooke fellow at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford where her research focuses on the intersection of pattern formation and soft matter.

Student Feature - Andrus Giraldo Munoz

Andrus Giraldo Munoz is a Research Fellow at the University of Auckland working alongside professors Bernd Krauskopf and Neil Broderick on the dynamics of two coupled photonic crystal nanocavities.

Recently Published Books in Dynamical Systems

Here is a list of some of the recently published books in dynamical systems. Should you be interested in reviewing one of these, or any other book that you think would be useful, please contact the book reviews editor (James Meiss; jdm (at) colorado.edu).

Winners of the DSWeb 2019 Contest Tutorials on Dynamical Systems Software

The winners of the DSWeb 2019 Software Tutorial Contest are revealed!

Mathematical Modeling Gains Days for Brain Cancer Patients

For brain tumors such as glioblastoma it is difficult for physicians to access the outcome of a particular course of therapy. Matthew R. Francis reports on a proliferation-invasion model that was constructed by Kristin Rae Swanson and her colleagues at the Mayo Clinic. The model consists of a reaction-diffusion equation to estimate how cancer cells spread throughout the brain and uses magnetic resonance imaging data for calibration. Swanson hopes that use of this model might help to predict patient response to a given regimen and therefore lead to an individualized treatment.

Engineered for Function: The Power of Biologically-Constrained Neural Networks for Neurosensory Integration

Charles B. Delahunt, Charles Fieseler, and J. Nathan Kutz report on two bio-inspired models for neurosensory integration that are constructed using data-driven modeling methods. One model is for olfactory processing of the Manduca sexta moth. The other model captures functioning of Caenorhabditis elegans. These organisms use different network architectures for functionality: Manduca sexta moth uses a large, randomly-connected network for sensory information  processing and learning; Caenorhabditis elegans, on the other hand, functions on a small, stereotyped connectivity graph.  

Edinburgh Slow-Fast-Ival

Nikola Popovic is reporting on the Edinburgh Slow-Fast-Ival, held on July 4 and 5, 2019 at the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS).

A Fast-Slow Dynamical System Model to Study Drug Addiction

Dynamical systems play an important role in modeling of a variety of cyclical processes in natural and manmade systems. In particular, they can be used to help to understand the mechanisms of drug addiction. Karthika Swamy Cohen tells about a recent  paper published in SIAM Journal on Applied Dynamical Systems, where the authors Jacob Duncan, Teresa Aubele-Futch, and Monica McGrath use a fast-slow dynamical system model to analyze the interplay between levels of mood and craving in a patient with an addictive disorder.