Stability, Bifurcation, and a Pair of Conserved Quantities in a Simple Epidemic System with Reinfection for the Spread of Diseases Caused by Coronaviruses

In this paper, we study a modified SIRI model without vital dynamics, based on a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations, for epidemics that exhibit partial immunity after infection, reinfection, and disease-induced death. This model can be applied to study epidemics caused by SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2 coronaviruses, since there is the possibility that, in diseases caused by these pathogens, individuals recovered from the infection have a decrease in their immunity and can be reinfected. On the other hand, it is known that, in populations infected by these coronaviruses, individuals with comorbidities or older people have significant mortality rates or deaths induced by the disease. By means of qualitative methods, we prove that such system has an endemic equilibrium and an infinite line of nonhyperbolic disease-free equilibria, we determine the local and global stability of these equilibria, and we also show that it has no periodic orbits. Furthermore, we calculate the basic reproductive number R 0 and find that the system exhibits a forward bifurcation: disease-free equilibria are stable when R 0 < 1 / σ and unstable when R 0 > 1 / σ , while the endemic equilibrium consist of an asymptotically stable upper branch that appears from R 0 > 1 / σ , σ being the rate that quantifies reinfection. We also show that this system has two conserved quantities. Additionally, we show some of the most representative numerical solutions of this system.

Optimal rendezvous on a line by location-aware robots in the presence of spies

A set of mobile robots is placed at arbitrary points of an infinite line. The robots are equipped with GPS devices and they may communicate their positions on the line to a central authority. The collection contains an unknown subset of “spies”, i.e., byzantine robots, which are indistinguishable from the non-faulty ones. The set of the non-faulty robots needs to rendezvous in the shortest possible time in order to perform some task, while the byzantine robots may try to delay their rendezvous for as long as possible. The problem facing a central authority is to determine trajectories for all robots so as to minimize the time until all the non-faulty robots have met. The trajectories must be determined without knowledge of which robots are faulty. Our goal is to minimize the competitive ratio between the time required to achieve the first rendezvous of the non-faulty robots and the time required for such a rendezvous to occur under the assumption that the faulty robots are known at the start. In this paper, we give rendezvous algorithms with bounded competitive ratio, where the central authority is informed only of the set of initial robot positions, without knowing which ones or how many of them are faulty. In general, regardless of the number of faults [Formula: see text] it can be shown that there is an algorithm with bounded competitive ratio. Further, we are able to give a rendezvous algorithm with optimal competitive ratio provided that the number [Formula: see text] of faults is strictly less than [Formula: see text]. Note, however, that in general this algorithm does not give an estimate on the actual value of the competitive ratio. However, when an upper bound on the number of byzantine robots is known to the central authority, we can provide algorithms with constant competitive ratios and in some instances we are able to show that these algorithms are optimal. Moreover, in the cases where the number of faults is either [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text] we are able to compute the competitive ratio of an optimal rendezvous algorithm, for a small number of robots.

Unified framework for localized patterns in reaction–diffusion systems; the Gray–Scott and Gierer–Meinhardt cases

A recent study of canonical activator-inhibitor Schnakenberg-like models posed on an infinite line is extended to include models, such as Gray–Scott, with bistability of homogeneous equilibria. A homotopy is studied that takes a Schnakenberg-like glycolysis model to the Gray–Scott model. Numerical continuation is used to understand the complete sequence of transitions to two-parameter bifurcation diagrams within the localized pattern parameter regime as the homotopy parameter varies. Several distinct codimension-two bifurcations are discovered including cusp and quadruple zero points for homogeneous steady states, a degenerate heteroclinic connection and a change in connectedness of the homoclinic snaking structure. The analysis is repeated for the Gierer–Meinhardt system, which lies outside the canonical framework. Similar transitions are found under homotopy between bifurcation diagrams for the case where there is a constant feed in the active field, to it being in the inactive field. Wider implications of the results are discussed for other pattern-formation systems arising as models of natural phenomena. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Recent progress and open frontiers in Turing’s theory of morphogenesis’.

On the Stefan Problem With Nonlinear Thermal Conductivity

The solution is obtained and validated by an existence and uniqueness theorem for the following nonlinear boundary value problem \[ \frac{d}{dx}(1+\delta y+\gamma y^{2})^{n}\frac{dy}{dx}]+2x\frac{dy}{dx}=0,\,\,\,x>0,\,\,y(0)=0,\,\,\,y(\infty)=1, \] which was proposed in 1974 by [1] to represent a Stefan problem with a nonlinear temperature-dependent thermal conductivity on the semi-infinite line (0;1). The modified error function of two parameters $\varphi_{\delta,\gamma}$ is introduced to represent the solution of the problem above, and some properties of the function are established. This generalizes the results obtained in [3, 4].

Effect of Groundwater Flow and Thermal Conductivity on the Ground Source Heat Pump Performance at Bangkok and Hanoi: A Numerical Study

In recent decades, the fast-growing economies of Southeast Asian countries have increased the regional energy demand per capita. The statistic indicates Southeast Asian electricity consumption grows for almost 6% annually, with space cooling becoming the fastest-growing share of electricity use. The ground source heat pump technology could be one of the solutions to improve energy efficiency. However, currently, there are limited data on how a ground source heat pump could perform in such a climate. The thermal response test is widely used to evaluate the apparent thermal conductivity of the soil surrounding the ground heat exchanger. In common practice, the apparent thermal conductivity can be calculated from the test result using an analytical solution of the infinite line source method. The main limitation of this method is the negligence of the physical effect of convective heat transfer due to groundwater flow. While convection and dispersion of heat are two distinctive phenomena, failure to account for both effects separately could lead to an error, especially in high groundwater flow. This chapter discusses the numerical evaluation of thermal response test results in Bangkok, Thailand, and Hanoi, Vietnam. We applied a moving infinite line source analytical model to evaluate the value of thermal conductivity and groundwater flow velocity. While determining the ground thermal properties in a high accuracy is difficult, the moving infinite line source method fulfills the limitation of the infinite line source method. Further, we evaluated the five-year performance of the ground source heat pump system coupled with two vertical ground heat exchangers in Bangkok and Hanoi. The results suggest the importance of groundwater flow to enhance the thermal performance of the system.

Infinite line of equilibriums in a novel fractional map with coexisting infinitely many attractors and initial offset boosting

The study of the chaotic dynamics in fractional-order discrete-time systems has received great attention in the past years. In this paper, we propose a new 2D fractional map with the simplest algebraic structure reported to date and with an infinite line of equilibrium. The conceived map possesses an interesting property not explored in literature so far, i.e., it is characterized, for various fractional-order values, by the coexistence of various kinds of periodic, chaotic and hyper-chaotic attractors. Bifurcation diagrams, computation of the maximum Lyapunov exponents, phase plots and 0–1 test are reported, with the aim to analyse the dynamics of the 2D fractional map as well as to highlight the coexistence of initial-boosting chaotic and hyperchaotic attractors in commensurate and incommensurate order. Results show that the 2D fractional map has an infinite number of coexistence symmetrical chaotic and hyper-chaotic attractors. Finally, the complexity of the fractional-order map is investigated in detail via approximate entropy.

A Novel Memristor Chaotic System with a Hidden Attractor and Multistability and Its Implementation in a Circuit

By introducing an ideal and active flux-controlled memristor and tangent function into an existing chaotic system, an interesting memristor-based self-replication chaotic system is proposed. The most striking feature is that this system has infinite line equilibria and exhibits the extreme multistability phenomenon of coexisting infinitely many attractors. In this paper, bifurcation diagrams and Lyapunov exponential spectrum are used to analyze in detail the influence of various parameter changes on the dynamic behavior of the system; it shows that the newly proposed chaotic system has the phenomenon of alternating chaos and limit cycle. Especially, transition behavior of the transient period with steady chaos can be also found for some initial conditions. Moreover, a hardware circuit is designed by PSpice and fabricated, and its experimental results effectively verify the truth of extreme multistability.

Consider the nonuniformity of the electromagnetic field when calibrating thin dipole and loop antennas in electromagnetic field source based on a four-wire transmission line

The influence of nonuniformity of electric and magnetic fields on the calibration accuracy of dipole and loop antennas in field sources based on four-wire transmission lines is theoretically investigated. The paper proposes to take into account the influence of the nonuniformity of the electromagnetic field of a four-wire source when calibrating thin dipole and loop antennas using the equivalence coefficients. The use of these coefficients, taking into account the distributions of the field in the source and the current on the antenna conductors, can significantly weaken the requirement for field uniformity when calibrating antennas. For some common types of antennas, formulas are derived for the equivalence coefficients in the approximation of a four-wire source by an infinite line. Approximation formulas, simplified for engineering calculations, are obtained.