Applied Math Colloquium
Mathematical Approaches to Three Problems in Vascular Biology Related to Intravascular Blood Clotting
Abstract:
Damage to the lining of a blood vessel triggers the intertwined processes of platelet aggregation and coagulation that result in the formation of a thrombus (clot) at the injury site. The thrombus itself is made up of platelets adherent to the vessel and to one another, and of a fibrin protein gel surrounding and between the platelets. An enzyme, thrombin, is critical to both platelet deposition and to fibrin gelation and is produced by a complex network of reactions on the vascular surface, in the blood plasma, and on the surfaces of platelets.
From Muscle Activation to Locomotion in Eel-like Swimming
Abstract:
Animal locomotion is generally a very complicated phenomenon involving an interaction between neural spike trains activating muscles, which causes motion, which in turn creates feedback from the environment that affects all elements in the process. In this talk I will describe a model for one of the simplest vertebrates, the lamprey. We connect a simple model for muscle forces stimulated by electrical activity to an elastic rod.
Adventures in Physics and Chemistry on Saturn's Moon Titan
Abstract:
Titan exhibits ample surface and crustal processes including lakes and seas, fluvial erosive features, possibly subsurface reservoirs of liquid, and rainfall. Together these constitute strong evidence for a multicomposition hydrological system, composed mostly of methane and ethane as well as trace amounts of other alkanes. Estimates of the volume of liquid methane required in streams and rainfall to produce erosional features suggest that these could be relatively recent phenomena, perhaps periodically renewed as the overall climate cycles between dry and wet periods.