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The paper uses methods of mathematical modeling to estimate a zooplankton influence on the dynamics of phytoplankton abundance. We propose a three-component model of the “phytoplankton–zooplankton” community with discrete time, considering a heterogeneity of zooplankton according to the developmental stage and type of feeding; the model takes into account cannibalism in zooplankton community, during which mature individuals of some of its species consume juvenile ones. Survival rates at the early stages of zooplankton life cycle depend explicitly on the interaction between zooplankton and phytoplankton. Loss of phytoplankton biomass because of zooplankton consumption is explicitly considered. We use the Holling functional response of type II to describe saturation during biomass consumption. The dynamics of the phytoplankton community is represented by the Ricker model, which allows to take into account the restriction of phytoplankton biomass growth by the availability of external resources (mineral nutrition, oxygen, light, etc.) implicitly.

The study analyzed scenarios of the transition from stationary dynamics to fluctuations in the size of phytoand zooplankton for various values of intrapopulation parameters determining the nature of the dynamics of the species constituting the community, and the parameters of their interaction. The focus is on exploring the complex modes of community dynamics. In the framework of the model used for describing dynamics of phytoplankton in the absence of interspecific interaction, phytoplankton dynamics undergoes a series of perioddoubling bifurcations. At the same time, with zooplankton appearance, the cascade of period-doubling bifurcations in phytoplankton and the community as a whole is realized earlier (at lower reproduction rates of phytoplankton cells) than in the case when phytoplankton develops in isolation. Furthermore, the variation in the cannibalism level in zooplankton can significantly change both the existing dynamics in the community and its bifurcation; e.g., with a certain structure of zooplankton food relationships the realization of Neimark–Sacker bifurcation scenario in the community is possible. Considering the cannibalism level in zooplankton can change due to the natural maturation processes and achievement of the carnivorous stage by some individuals, one can expect pronounced changes in the dynamic mode of the community, i.e. abrupt transitions from regular to quasiperiodic dynamics (according to Neimark–Sacker scenario) and further cycles with a short period (the implementation of period halving bifurcation).

The volume and structure of accumulated credit debt to the banking system depends on many factors, the most important of which is the level of interest rates. The correct assessment of borrowers’ reaction to the changes in the monetary policy allows to develop econometric models, representing the structure of the credit portfolio in the banking system by terms of lending. These models help to calculate indicators characterizing the level of interest rate risk in the whole system. In the study, we carried out the identification of four types of models: discrete linear model based on transfer functions; the state-space model; the classical econometric model ARMAX, and a nonlinear Hammerstein –Wiener model. To describe them, we employed the formal language of automatic control theory; to identify the model, we used the MATLAB software pack-age. The study revealed that the discrete linear state-space model is most suitable for short-term forecasting of both the volume and the structure of credit debt, which in turn allows to predict trends in the structure of accumulated credit debt on the forecasting horizon of 1 year. The model based on the real data has shown a high sensitivity of the structure of credit debt by pay back periods reaction to the changes in the Ñentral Bank monetary policy. Thus, a sharp increase in interest rates in response to external market shocks leads to shortening of credit terms by borrowers, at the same time the overall level of debt rises, primarily due to the increasing revaluation of nominal debt. During the stable falling trend of interest rates, the structure shifts toward long-term debts.

In the paper three characteristic scales of a biological system are proposed: microscopic (gene's size), mesoscopic (cell’s size) and macroscopic level (organism’s size). For each case the approach to modeling of circadian rhythms is discussed on the base of a time-delay model. At gene’s scale the stochastic description has been used. The robustness of rhythms mechanism to the fluctuations has been demonstrated. At the mesoscopic scale we propose the deterministic description within the spatially extended model. It was found the effect of collective synchronization of rhythms in cells. Macroscopic effects have been studied within the discrete model describing the collective behaviour of large amount of cells. The problem of cross-linking of results obtained at different scales is discussed. The comparison with experimental data is given.

The work is devoted to the construction and analysis of difference schemes for a system of hemodynamic equations obtained by averaging the hydrodynamic equations of a viscous incompressible fluid over the vessel cross-section. Models of blood as an ideal and as a viscous Newtonian fluid are considered. Difference schemes that approximate equations with second order on the spatial variable are proposed. The computational algorithms of the constructed schemes are based on the method of splitting on physical processes. According to this approach, at one time step, the model equations are considered separately and sequentially. The practical implementation of the proposed schemes at each time step leads to a sequential solution of two linear systems with tridiagonal matrices. It is demonstrated that the schemes are $\rho$-stable under minor restrictions on the time step in the case of sufficiently smooth solutions.

For the problem with a known analytical solution, it is demonstrated that the numerical solution has a second order convergence in a wide range of spatial grid step. The proposed schemes are compared with well-known explicit schemes, such as the Lax – Wendroff, Lax – Friedrichs and McCormack schemes in computational experiments on modeling blood flow in model vascular systems. It is demonstrated that the results obtained using the proposed schemes are close to the results obtained using other computational schemes, including schemes constructed by other approaches to spatial discretization. It is demonstrated that in the case of different spatial grids, the time of computation for the proposed schemes is significantly less than in the case of explicit schemes, despite the need to solve systems of linear equations at each step. The disadvantages of the schemes are the limitation on the time step in the case of discontinuous or strongly changing solutions and the need to use extrapolation of values at the boundary points of the vessels. In this regard, problems on the adaptation of splitting schemes for problems with discontinuous solutions and in cases of special types of conditions at the vessels ends are perspective for further research.

In some cases, information warfare results in almost whole population accepting one of two contesting points of view and rejecting the other. In other cases, however, the “majority party” gets only a small advantage over the “minority party”. The relevant question is which network characteristics of a population contribute to the minority being able to maintain some significant numbers. Given that some societies are more connected than others, in the sense that they have a higher density of social ties, this question is specified as follows: how does the density of social ties affect the chances of a minority to maintain a significant number? Does a higher density contribute to a landslide victory of majority, or to resistance of minority? To address this issue, we consider information warfare between two parties, called the Left and the Right, in the population, which is represented as a network, the nodes of which are individuals, and the connections correspond to their acquaintance and describe mutual influence. At each of the discrete points in time, each individual decides which party to support based on their attitude, i. e. predisposition to the Left or Right party and taking into account the influence of his network ties. The influence means here that each tie sends a cue with a certain probability to the individual in question in favor of the party that themselves currently support. If the tie switches their party affiliation, they begin to agitate the individual in question for their “new” party. Such processes create dynamics, i. e. the process of changing the partisanship of individuals. The duration of the warfare is exogenously set, with the final time point roughly associated with the election day. The described model is numerically implemented on a scale-free network. Numerical experiments have been carried out for various values of network density. Because of the presence of stochastic elements in the model, 200 runs were conducted for each density value, for each of which the final number of supporters of each of the parties was calculated. It is found that with higher density, the chances increase that the winner will cover almost the entire population. Conversely, low network density contributes to the chances of a minority to maintain significant numbers.

In the presented work, a hybrid optimal simulation model of an assembly shop in the AnyLogic environment has been developed, which allows you to select the parameters of production systems. To build a hybrid model of the investigative approach, discrete-event modeling and aggressive modeling are combined into a single model with an integrating interaction. Within the framework of this work, a mechanism for the development of a production system consisting of several participants-agents is described. An obvious agent corresponds to a class in which a set of agent parameters is specified. In the simulation model, three main groups of operations performed sequentially were taken into account, and the logic for working with rejected sets was determined. The product assembly process is a process that occurs in a multi-phase open-loop system of redundant service with waiting. There are also signs of a closed system — scrap flows for reprocessing. When creating a distribution system in the segment, it is mandatory to use control over the execution of requests in a FIFO queue. For the functional assessment of the production system, the simulation model includes several functional functions that describe the number of finished products, the average time of preparation of products, the number and percentage of rejects, the simulation result for the study, as well as functional variables in which the calculated utilization factors will be used. A series of modeling experiments were carried out in order to study the behavior of the agents of the system in terms of the overall performance indicators of the production system. During the experiment, it was found that the indicator of the average preparation time of the product is greatly influenced by such parameters as: the average speed of the set of products, the average time to complete operations. At a given limitation interval, we managed to select a set of parameters that managed to achieve the largest possible operation of the assembly line. This experiment implements the basic principle of agent-based modeling — decentralized agents make a personal contribution and affect the operation of the entire simulated system as a whole. As a result of the experiments, thanks to the selection of a large set of parameters, it was possible to achieve high performance indicators of the assembly shop, namely: to increase the productivity indicator by 60%; reduce the average assembly time of products by 38%.

Data hiding in digital images is a promising direction of cybersecurity. Digital steganography methods provide imperceptible transmission of secret data over an open communication channel. The information embedding efficiency depends on the embedding imperceptibility, capacity, and robustness. These quality criteria are mutually inverse, and the improvement of one indicator usually leads to the deterioration of the others. A balance between them can be achieved using metaheuristic optimization. Metaheuristics are a class of optimization algorithms that find an optimal, or close to an optimal solution for a variety of problems, including those that are difficult to formalize, by simulating various natural processes, for example, the evolution of species or the behavior of animals. In this study, we propose an approach to data hiding in the hybrid spatial-frequency domain of digital images based on metaheuristic optimization. Changing a block of image pixels according to some change matrix is considered as an embedding operation. We select the change matrix adaptively for each block using metaheuristic optimization algorithms. In this study, we compare the performance of three metaheuristics such as genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization, and differential evolution to find the best change matrix. Experimental results showed that the proposed approach provides high imperceptibility of embedding, high capacity, and error-free extraction of embedded information. At the same time, storage of change matrices for each block is not required for further data extraction. This improves user experience and reduces the chance of an attacker discovering the steganographic attachment. Metaheuristics provided an increase in imperceptibility indicator, estimated by the PSNR metric, and the capacity of the previous algorithm for embedding information into the coefficients of the discrete cosine transform using the QIM method [Evsutin, Melman, Meshcheryakov, 2021] by 26.02% and 30.18%, respectively, for the genetic algorithm, 26.01% and 19.39% for particle swarm optimization, 27.30% and 28.73% for differential evolution.

The nonlinear restrictive (with restrictions of the inequalities type) dynamic mathematical model of the committed competition vacant market of many goods in conditions of the goods deliveries time-lag and of the linear dependency of the demand vector from the prices vector is offered. The problem of finding of prices and deliveries of goods into the market which are optimal (from seller’s profit standpoint) is formulated. It is shown the seller’s total profit maximum is expressing by the continuous piecewise smooth function of vector of volumes of deliveries with breakup of the derivative on borders of zones of the goods deficit, of the overstocking and of the dynamic balance of demand and offer of each of goods. With use of the predicate functions technique the computing algorithm of optimization of the goods deliveries into the market is built.

We propose a four-component model of a plankton community with discrete time. The model considers the competitive relationships of phytoplankton groups exhibited between each other and the trophic characteristics zooplankton displays: it considers the division of zooplankton into predatory and non-predatory components. The model explicitly represents the consumption of non-predatory zooplankton by predatory. Non-predatory zooplankton feeds on phytoplankton, which includes two competing components: toxic and non-toxic types, with the latter being suitable for zooplankton food. A model of two coupled Ricker equations, focused on describing the dynamics of a competitive community, describes the interaction of two phytoplanktons and allows implicitly taking into account the limitation of each of the competing components of biomass growth by the availability of external resources. The model describes the prey consumption by their predators using a Holling type II trophic function, considering predator saturation.

The analysis of scenarios for the transition from stationary dynamics to fluctuations in the population size of community members showed that the community loses the stability of the non-trivial equilibrium corresponding to the coexistence of the complete community both through a cascade of period-doubling bifurcations and through a Neimark – Sacker bifurcation leading to the emergence of quasi-periodic oscillations. Although quite simple, the model proposed in this work demonstrates dynamics of comunity similar to that natural systems and experiments observe: with a lag of predator oscillations relative to the prey by about a quarter of the period, long-period antiphase cycles of predator and prey, as well as hidden cycles in which the prey density remains almost constant, and the predator density fluctuates, demonstrating the influence fast evolution exhibits that masks the trophic interaction. At the same time, the variation of intra-population parameters of phytoplankton or zooplankton can lead to pronounced changes the community experiences in the dynamic mode: sharp transitions from regular to quasi-periodic dynamics and further to exact cycles with a small period or even stationary dynamics. Quasi-periodic dynamics can arise at sufficiently small phytoplankton growth rates corresponding to stable or regular community dynamics. The change of the dynamic mode in this area (the transition from stable dynamics to quasi-periodic and vice versa) can occur due to the variation of initial conditions or external influence that changes the current abundances of components and shifts the system to the basin of attraction of another dynamic mode.

The paper is devoted to the study of relationships between discrete and continuous models financial processes and their probabilistic characteristics. First, a connection is established between the price processes of stocks, hedging portfolio and options in the models conditioned by binomial perturbations and their limit perturbations of the Brownian motion type. Secondly, analogues in the coefficients of stochastic equations with various random processes, continuous and jumpwise, and in the coefficients corresponding deterministic equations for their probabilistic characteristics. Statement of the results on the connections and finding analogies, obtained in this paper, led to the need for an adequate presentation of preliminary information and results from financial mathematics, as well as descriptions of related objects of stochastic analysis. In this paper, partially new and known results are presented in an accessible form for those who are not specialists in financial mathematics and stochastic analysis, and for whom these results are important from the point of view of applications. Specifically, the following sections are presented.

• In one- and n-period binomial models, it is proposed a unified approach to determining on the probability space a risk-neutral measure with which the discounted option price becomes a martingale. The resulting martingale formula for the option price is suitable for numerical simulation. In the following sections, the risk-neutral measures approach is applied to study financial processes in continuous-time models.

• In continuous time, models of the price of shares, hedging portfolios and options are considered in the form of stochastic equations with the Ito integral over Brownian motion and over a compensated Poisson process. The study of the properties of these processes in this section is based on one of the central objects of stochastic analysis — the Ito formula. Special attention is given to the methods of its application.

• The famous Black – Scholes formula is presented, which gives a solution to the partial differential equation for the function $v(t, x)$, which, when $x = S (t)$ is substituted, where $S(t)$ is the stock price at the moment time $t$, gives the price of the option in the model with continuous perturbation by Brownian motion.

• The analogue of the Black – Scholes formula for the case of the model with a jump-like perturbation by the Poisson process is suggested. The derivation of this formula is based on the technique of risk-neutral measures and the independence lemma.