All issues

A model of the phytoplankton abundance dynamics depending on changes in the content of chlorophyll in phytoplankton under the influence of changing environmental conditions is proposed. The model takes into account the dependence of biomass growth on environmental conditions, as well as on photosynthetic chlorophyll activity. The light and dark stages of photosynthesis have been identified. The processes of chlorophyll consumption during photosynthesis in the light and the growth of chlorophyll mass together with phytoplankton biomass are described. The model takes into account environmental conditions such as mineral nutrients, illumination and water temperature. The model is spatially distributed, the spatial variable corresponds to mass fraction of chlorophyll in phytoplankton. Thereby possible spreads of the chlorophyll contents in phytoplankton are taken into consideration. The model calculates the density distribution of phytoplankton by the proportion of chlorophyll in it. In addition, the rate of production of new phytoplankton biomass is calculated. In parallel, point analogs of the distributed model are considered. The diurnal and seasonal (during the year) dynamics of phytoplankton distribution by chlorophyll fraction are demonstrated. The characteristics of the rate of primary production in daily or seasonally changing environmental conditions are indicated. Model characteristics of the dynamics of phytoplankton biomass growth show that in the light this growth is about twice as large as in the dark. It shows, that illumination significantly affects the rate of production. Seasonal dynamics demonstrates an accelerated growth of biomass in spring and autumn. The spring maximum is associated with warming under the conditions of biogenic substances accumulated in winter, and the autumn, slightly smaller maximum, with the accumulation of nutrients during the summer decline in phytoplankton biomass. And the biomass in summer decreases, again due to a deficiency of nutrients. Thus, in the presence of light, mineral nutrition plays the main role in phytoplankton dynamics.

In general, the model demonstrates the dynamics of phytoplankton biomass, qualitatively similar to classical concepts, under daily and seasonal changes in the environment. The model seems to be suitable for assessing the bioproductivity of aquatic ecosystems. It can be supplemented with equations and terms of equations for a more detailed description of complex processes of photosynthesis. The introduction of variables in the physical habitat space and the conjunction of the model with satellite information on the surface of the reservoir leads to model estimates of the bioproductivity of vast marine areas. Introduction of physical space variables habitat and the interface of the model with satellite information about the surface of the basin leads to model estimates of the bioproductivity of vast marine areas.

The development of a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) constituting a part of nuclear power-and-process station and intended for large-scale hydrogen production is now in progress in the Russian Federation. One of the key objectives in development of the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor is the computational justification of the accepted design.

The article gives the procedure for the computational analysis of thermal and physical characteristics of the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. The procedure is based on the use of the state-of-the-art codes for personal computer (PC).

The objective of thermal and physical analysis of the reactor as a whole and of the core in particular was achieved in three stages. The idea of the first stage is to justify the neutron physical characteristics of the block-type core during burn-up with the use of the MCU-HTR code based on the Monte Carlo method. The second and the third stages are intended to study the coolant flow and the temperature condition of the reactor and the core in 3D with the required degree of detailing using the FlowVision and the ANSYS codes.

For the purpose of carrying out the analytical studies the computational models of the reactor flow path and the fuel assembly column were developed.

As per the results of the computational modeling the design of the support columns and the neutron physical characteristics of the fuel assembly were optimized. This results in the reduction of the total hydraulic resistance of the reactor and decrease of the maximum temperature of the fuel elements.

The dependency of the maximum fuel temperature on the value of the power peaking factors determined by the arrangement of the absorber rods and of the compacts of burnable absorber in the fuel assembly is demonstrated.

An isolated system, which possesses a discrete set of microscopic states, is considered. The system performs spontaneous random transitions between the microstates. Kinetic equations for the probabilities of the system staying in various microstates are formulated. A general dimensionless expression for entropy of such a system, which depends on the probability distribution, is considered. Two problems are stated: 1) to study the effect of possible unequal probabilities of different microstates, in particular, when the system is in its internal equilibrium, on the system entropy value, and 2) to study the kinetics of microstate probability distribution and entropy evolution of the system in nonequilibrium states. The kinetics for the rates of transitions between the microstates is assumed to be first-order. Two variants of the effects of possible nonequiprobability of the microstates are considered: i) the microstates form two subgroups the probabilities of which are similar within each subgroup but differ between the subgroups, and ii) the microstate probabilities vary arbitrarily around the point at which they are all equal. It is found that, under a fixed total number of microstates, the deviations of entropy from the value corresponding to the equiprobable microstate distribution are extremely small. The latter is a rigorous substantiation of the known hypothesis about the equiprobability of microstates under the thermodynamic equilibrium. On the other hand, based on several characteristic examples, it is shown that the structure of random transitions between the microstates exerts a considerable effect on the rate and mode of the establishment of the system internal equilibrium, on entropy time dependence and expression of the entropy production rate. Under definite schemes of these transitions, there are possibilities of fast and slow components in the transients and of the existence of transients in the form of damped oscillations. The condition of universality and stability of equilibrium microstate distribution is that for any pair of microstates, a sequence of transitions should exist, which provides the passage from one microstate to next, and, consequently, any microstate traps should be absent.

We derive a new model of circadian oscillations in Neurospora crassa, which is suitable to analyze both temporal and spatial dynamics of proteins responsible for mechanism of rythms. The model is based on the non-linear interplay between proteins FRQ and WCC which are products of transcription of frequency and white collar genes forming a feedback loop comprised both positive and negative elements. The main component of oscillations mechanism is supposed to be time-delay in biochemical reactions of transcription. We show that the model accounts for various features observed in Neurospora’s experiments such as entrainment by light cycles, phase shift under light pulse, robustness to action of fluctuations and so on. Wave patterns excited during spatial development of the system are studied. It is shown that the wave of synchronization of biorythms arises under basal transcription factors.

The paper presents a mathematical model that describes the process of obtaining biogas from livestock waste. This model describes the processes occurring in a biogas plant for mesophilic and thermophilic media, as well as for continuous and periodic modes of substrate inflow. The values of the coefficients of this model found earlier for the periodic mode, obtained by solving the problem of model identification from experimental data using a genetic algorithm, are given.

For the model of methanogenesis, an optimal control problem is formulated in the form of a Lagrange problem, whose criterial functionality is the output of biogas over a certain period of time. The controlling parameter of the task is the rate of substrate entry into the biogas plant. An algorithm for solving this problem is proposed, based on the numerical implementation of the Pontryagin maximum principle. In this case, a hybrid genetic algorithm with an additional search in the vicinity of the best solution using the method of conjugate gradients was used as an optimization method. This numerical method for solving an optimal control problem is universal and applicable to a wide class of mathematical models.

In the course of the study, various modes of submission of the substrate to the digesters, temperature environments and types of raw materials were analyzed. It is shown that the rate of biogas production in the continuous feed mode is 1.4–1.9 times higher in the mesophilic medium (1.9–3.2 in the thermophilic medium) than in the periodic mode over the period of complete fermentation, which is associated with a higher feed rate of the substrate and a greater concentration of nutrients in the substrate. However, the yield of biogas during the period of complete fermentation with a periodic mode is twice as high as the output over the period of a complete change of the substrate in the methane tank at a continuous mode, which means incomplete processing of the substrate in the second case. The rate of biogas formation for a thermophilic medium in continuous mode and the optimal rate of supply of raw materials is three times higher than for a mesophilic medium. Comparison of biogas output for various types of raw materials shows that the highest biogas output is observed for waste poultry farms, the least — for cattle farms waste, which is associated with the nutrient content in a unit of substrate of each type.

The article deals with the problem of a distributed system operation reliability. The system core is an open integration platform that provides interaction of varied software for modeling gas transportation. Some of them provide an access through thin clients on the cloud technology “software as a service”. Mathematical models of operation, transmission and computing are to ensure the operation of an automated dispatching system for oil and gas transportation. The paper presents a system solution based on the theory of Markov random processes and considers the stable operation stage. The stationary operation mode of the Markov chain with continuous time and discrete states is described by a system of Chapman–Kolmogorov equations with respect to the average numbers (mathematical expectations) of the objects in certain states. The objects of research are both system elements that are present in a large number – thin clients and computing modules, and individual ones – a server, a network manager (message broker). Together, they are interacting Markov random processes. The interaction is determined by the fact that the transition probabilities in one group of elements depend on the average numbers of other elements groups.

The authors propose a multi-criteria dispersion model of risk assessment for such systems (both in the broad and narrow sense, in accordance with the IEC standard). The risk is the standard deviation of estimated object parameter from its average value. The dispersion risk model makes possible to define optimality criteria and whole system functioning risks. In particular, for a thin client, the following is calculated: the loss profit risk, the total risk of losses due to non-productive element states, and the total risk of all system states losses.

Finally the paper proposes compromise schemes for solving the multi-criteria problem of choosing the optimal operation strategy based on the selected set of compromise criteria.

In this work, we develop a model of the immune response to respiratory viral infections taking into account some particular properties of the SARS-CoV-2 infection. The model represents a system of ordinary differential equations for the concentrations of epithelial cells, immune cells, virus and inflammatory cytokines. Conventional analysis of the existence and stability of stationary points is completed by numerical simulations in order to study dynamics of solutions. Behavior of solutions is characterized by large peaks of virus concentration specific for acute respiratory viral infections.

At the first stage, we study the innate immune response based on the protective properties of interferon secreted by virus-infected cells. On the other hand, viral infection down-regulates interferon production. Their competition can lead to the bistability of the system with different regimes of infection progression with high or low intensity. In the case of infection outbreak, the incubation period and the maximal viral load depend on the initial viral load and the parameters of the immune response. In particular, increase of the initial viral load leads to shorter incubation period and higher maximal viral load.

In order to study the emergence and dynamics of cytokine storm, we consider proinflammatory cytokines produced by cells of the innate immune response. Depending on parameters of the model, the system can remain in the normal inflammatory state specific for viral infections or, due to positive feedback between inflammation and immune cells, pass to cytokine storm characterized by excessive production of proinflammatory cytokines. Furthermore, inflammatory cell death can stimulate transition to cytokine storm. However, it cannot sustain it by itself without the innate immune response. Assumptions of the model and obtained results are in qualitative agreement with the experimental and clinical data.

Methods for establishing standards of environmental quality by data of ecological monitoring are proposed. These are: methods of bioindication by indices of species diversity and size structure of communities, by indices of fish productivity; method for searching for reasons of environmental trouble and ranking them by their contribution into the trouble; methods for standardization of factors which are important as causes of environmental trouble.

We have investigated dynamics of synthetic genetic oscillators — repressilators — coupled through autoinducer diffusion. The model of the system with phase-repulsive coupling structure is under consideration. We have examined emergence of periodic regimes, stable inhomogeneous steady states depending on the main systems’ parameters: coupling strength and maximal transcription rate. It has been shown that autoinducer production module added to the isolated repressilator cause the limit cycle to disappear through infinite period bifurcation for sufficiently large transcription rate. We have found hysteresis of limit cycle and stable steady state the size of which is determined by ratio between mRNA and protein lifetimes. Two coupled oscillators system demonstrates stable anti-phase oscillations which can become a chaotic regime through invariant torus emergence or via Feigenbaum scenario.

Using modern object-oriented programming language C# a program for simulation of operation of the conveyor for flexible automated assembly of PC was developed. Class diagram of the simulation model of a flexible automated assembly line for PC assembly in mass production mode is presented. Simulation results analysis is presented.