Dynamics of an Age Structured Heroin Transmission Model with Imperfect Vaccination

In this paper, we formulate a new-age structured heroin transmission model with respect to the age of vaccination which structures the vaccine wanes rate [Formula: see text] and infection ratio of vaccination individuals [Formula: see text]. The well-posedness and the basic reproduction number [Formula: see text] of our model are first presented. If [Formula: see text], the drug-free steady state [Formula: see text] is locally stable and there will be multiple positive steady states due to the imperfect vaccine. If [Formula: see text], there is a unique drug spread steady state, and our model is uniformly persistent. To reveal the dynamics of our model in detail, we carry out a further analysis in some special cases, including the backward and forward bifurcation results of our model when [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], and the unique drug-spread steady state’s stability when [Formula: see text]. Finally, a brief conclusion and discussion are presented.

A dynamical model of TGF-β activation in asthmatic airways

Excessive activation of the regulatory cytokine transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) via contraction of airway smooth muscle (ASM) is associated with the development of asthma. In this study, we develop an ordinary differential equation model that describes the change in density of the key airway wall constituents, ASM and extracellular matrix (ECM), and that accounts for subcellular signalling pathways that lead to the activation of TGF-β. We identify bi-stable parameter regimes where there are two positive steady states; one with a low concentration of active TGF-β and the other with an elevated concentration of active TGF-β (and as a result, increased ASM and ECM density). We associate the former with a healthy homeostatic state and the latter with a diseased (asthmatic) state. We demonstrate that external stimuli, that induce TGF-β activation via ASM contraction (mimicking an asthmatic exacerbation), perturb the system from the healthy state to the diseased one. We show that the properties of the stimuli, such as the frequency, strength and the clearance of surplus active TGF-β, are important in determining the long-term dynamics and the development of disease.

The influence of density in population dynamics with strong and weak Allee effect

In this paper, we consider a reaction–diffusion model in population dynamics and study the impact of different types of Allee effects with logistic growth in the heterogeneous closed region. For strong Allee effects, usually, species unconditionally die out and an extinction-survival situation occurs when the effect is weak according to the resource and sparse functions. In particular, we study the impact of the multiplicative Allee effect in classical diffusion when the sparsity is either positive or negative. Negative sparsity implies a weak Allee effect, and the population survives in some domain and diverges otherwise. Positive sparsity gives a strong Allee effect, and the population extinct without any condition. The influence of Allee effects on the existence and persistence of positive steady states as well as global bifurcation diagrams is presented. The method of sub-super solutions is used for analyzing equations. The stability conditions and the region of positive solutions (multiple solutions may exist) are presented. When the diffusion is absent, we consider the model with and without harvesting, which are initial value problems (IVPs) and study the local stability analysis and present bifurcation analysis. We present a number of numerical examples to verify analytical results.

Steady state for a predator–prey cross-diffusion system with the Beddington–DeAngelis and Tanner functional response

The main goal of this paper is investigating the existence of nonconstant positive steady states of a linear prey–predator cross-diffusion system with Beddington–DeAngelis and Tanner functional response. An analytical method and fixed point index theory plays a significant role in our main proofs.

Convective instability in a diffusive predator–prey system

It is well known that biological pattern formation is the Turing mechanism, in which a homogeneous steady state is destabilized by the addition of diffusion, though it is stable in the kinetic ODEs. However, steady states that are unstable in the kinetic ODEs are rarely mentioned. This paper concerns a reaction diffusion advection system under Neumann boundary conditions, where steady states that are unstable in the kinetic ODEs. Our results provide a stabilization strategy for the same steady state, the combination of large advection rate and small diffusion rate can stabilize the homogeneous equilibrium. Moreover, we investigate the existence and stability of nonconstant positive steady states to the system through rigorous bifurcation analysis.

Independent, Incidence Independent and Weakly Reversible Decompositions of Chemical Reaction Networks

Chemical reaction networks (CRNs) are directed graphs with reactant or product complexes as vertices, and reactions as arcs. A CRN is weakly reversible if each of its connected components is strongly connected. Weakly reversible networks can be considered as the most important class of reaction networks. Now, the stoichiometric subspace of a network is the linear span of the reaction vectors (i.e., difference between the product and the reactant complexes). A decomposition of a CRN is independent (incidence independent) if the direct sum of the stoichiometric subspaces (incidence maps) of the subnetworks equals the stoichiometric subspace (incidence map) of the whole network. Decompositions can be used to study relationships between positive steady states of the whole system (induced from partitioning the reaction set of the underlying network) and those of its subsystems. In this work, we revisit our novel method of finding independent decomposition, and use it to expand applicability on (vector) components of steady states. We also explore CRNs with embedded deficiency zero independent subnetworks. In addition, we establish a method for finding incidence independent decomposition of a CRN. We determine all the forms of independent and incidence independent decompositions of a network, and provide the number of such decompositions. Lastly, for weakly reversible networks, we determine that incidence independence is a sufficient condition for weak reversibility of a decomposition, and we identify subclasses of weakly reversible networks where any independent decomposition is weakly reversible.

Dynamics in a Delayed Competition System on a Weighted Network

In this paper, we study the stability of positive steady states in a delayed competition system on a weighted network, which does not satisfy the comparison principle appealing to classical competitive systems. By introducing some auxiliary equations and constructing proper contracting rectangles, we present some sufficient conditions on the stability of the unique positive steady state. Moreover, some numerical examples are given to explore the complex dynamics of this nonmonotone model, which implies the nontrivial roles of weights and time delays.