Active beating modes of two clamped filaments driven by molecular motors

Biological cilia pump the surrounding fluid by asymmetric beating that is driven by dynein motors between sliding microtubule doublets. The complexity of biological cilia raises the question about minimal systems that can re-create similar patterns of motion. One such system consists of a pair of microtubules that are clamped at the proximal end. They interact through dynein motors that cover one of the filaments and pull against the other one. Here, we study theoretically the static shapes and the active dynamics of such a system. Using the theory of elastica, we analyse the shapes of two filaments of different lengths with clamped ends. Starting from equal lengths, we observe a transition similar to Euler buckling leading to a planar shape. When further increasing the length ratio, the system assumes a non-planar shape with spontaneously broken chiral symmetry after a secondary bifurcation and then transitions to planar again. The predicted curves agree with experimentally observed shapes of microtubule pairs. The dynamical system can have a stable fixed point, with either bent or straight filaments, or limit cycle oscillations. The latter match many properties of ciliary motility, demonstrating that a two-filament system can serve as a minimal actively beating model.

Analysis of A Coendemic Model of COVID-19 and Dengue Disease

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to spread aggressively worldwide, infecting more than 170 million people with confirmed cases, including more than 3 million deaths. This pandemic is increasingly exacerbating the burden on tropical and subtropical regions of the world due to the pre-existing dengue fever, which has become endemic for a longer period in the same region. Co-circulation dengue and COVID-19 cases have been found and confirmed in several countries. In this paper, a deterministic model for the coendemic of COVID-19 and dengue is proposed. The basic reproduction ratio is obtained, which is related to the four equilibria, disease-free, endemic-COVID-19, endemic-dengue, and coendemic equilibria. Stability analysis is done for the first three equilibria. Furthermore, a condition for coexistence equilibrium is obtained, which gives a condition for bifurcation analysis. Numerical simulations were carried out to obtain a stable limit-cycle resulting from two Hopf bifurcation points with dengue transmission rate and COVID-19 transmission rate as the bifurcation parameter, representing a stable periodic coexistence of dengue and COVID-19 transmission. We identify the period of limit cycle decreases after reaching the maximum value.

Dynamics in a Predator–Prey Model with Cooperative Hunting and Allee Effect

This paper deals with a diffusive predator–prey model with two delays. First, we consider the local bifurcation and global dynamical behavior of the kinetic system, which is a predator–prey model with cooperative hunting and Allee effect. For the model with weak cooperation, we prove the existence of limit cycle, and a loop of heteroclinic orbits connecting two equilibria at a threshold of conversion rate p=p#, by investigating stable and unstable manifolds of saddles. When p>p#, both species go extinct, and when p<p#, there is a separatrix. The species with initial population above the separatrix finally become extinct, and the species with initial population below it can be coexisting, oscillating sustainably, or surviving of the prey only. In the case with strong cooperation, we exhibit the complex dynamics of system, including limit cycle, loop of heteroclinic orbits among three equilibria, and homoclinic cycle with the aid of theoretical analysis or numerical simulation. There may be three stable states coexisting: extinction state, coexistence or sustained oscillation, and the survival of the prey only, and the attraction basin of each state is obtained in the phase plane. Moreover, we find diffusion may induce Turing instability and Turing–Hopf bifurcation, leaving the system with spatially inhomogeneous distribution of the species, coexistence of two different spatial-temporal oscillations. Finally, we consider Hopf and double Hopf bifurcations of the diffusive system induced by two delays: mature delay of the prey and gestation delay of the predator. Normal form analysis indicates that two spatially homogeneous periodic oscillations may coexist by increasing both delays.