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Epidemics severely destabilize economies by reducing productivity, weakening consumer spending, and overwhelming public infrastructure, often culminating in economic recessions. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the critical role of nonpharmaceutical interventions, such as lockdowns, in containing infectious disease transmission. This study investigates how the progression of epidemics and the implementation of lockdown policies shape the economic well-being of populations. By integrating compartmental ordinary differential equation (ODE) models, the research analyzes the interplay between epidemic dynamics and economic outcomes, particularly focusing on how varying lockdown intensities influence both disease spread and population wealth. Findings reveal that epidemics inflict significant economic damage, but timely and stringent lockdowns can mitigate healthcare system overload by sharply reducing infection peaks and delaying the epidemic’s trajectory. However, carefully timed lockdown relaxation is equally vital to prevent resurgent outbreaks. The study identifies key epidemiological thresholds—such as transmission rates, recovery rates, and the basic reproduction number $(\mathfrak{R}0)$ — that determine the effectiveness of lockdowns. Analytically, it pinpoints the optimal proportion of isolated individuals required to minimize total infections in scenarios where permanent immunity is assumed. Economically, the analysis quantifies lockdown impacts by tracking population wealth, demonstrating that economic outcomes depend heavily on the fraction of isolated individuals who remain economically productive. Higher proportions of productive individuals during lockdowns correlate with better wealth retention, even under fixed epidemic conditions. These insights equip policymakers with actionable frameworks to design balanced lockdown strategies that curb disease spread while safeguarding economic stability during future health crises.

Optimization of antitumor radiotherapy represents an urgent issue, as approximately half of the patients diagnosed with cancer undergo radiotherapy during their treatment. Proton therapy is potentially more efficient than traditional X-ray radiotherapy due to fundamental differences in physics of dose deposition, leading to better targeting of tumors and less collateral damage to healthy tissue. There is increasing interest in the use of non-radioactive radiosensitizing tumor-specific nanoparticles the use of which can boost the performance of proton therapy. Such nanoparticles are small volumes of a sensitizer, such as boron-10 or various metal oxides, enclosed in a polymer layer containing tumor-specific antibodies, which allows for their targeted delivery to malignant cells. Furthermore, a combination of proton therapy with antiangiogenic therapy that normalizes tumor-associated microvasculature may yield further synergistic increase in overall treatment efficacy.

We have developed a spatially distributed mathematical model simulating the growth of a non-invasive tumor undergoing treatment by fractionated proton therapy with nanosensitizers and antiangiogenic therapy. The modeling results suggest that the most effective way to combine these treatment modalities should strongly depend on the tumor cells’ proliferation rate and their intrinsic radiosensitivity. Namely, a combination of antiangiogenic therapy with proton therapy, regardless of whether radiosensitizing nanoparticles are used, benefits treatment efficacy of rapidly growing tumors as well as radioresistant tumors with moderate growth rate. In these cases, administration of proton therapy simultaneously with antiangiogenic drugs after the initial single injection of nanosensitizers is the most effective option among those analyzed. Conversely, for slowly growing tumors, maximization of the number of nanosensitizer injections without antiangiogenic therapy proves to be a more efficient option, with enhancement in treatment efficacy growing with the increase of tumor radiosensitivity. However, the results also show that the overall efficacy of proton therapy is likely to increase only modestly with the addition of nanosensitizers and antiangiogenic drugs.

This study proposes and analyzes a discrete-time mathematical model of population dynamics with seasonal reproduction, taking into account the density-dependent regulation and sex structure. In the model, population birth rate depends on the number of females, while density is regulated through juvenile survival, which decreases exponentially with increasing total population size. Analytical and numerical investigations of the model demonstrate that when more than half of both females and males survive, the population exhibits stable dynamics even at relatively high birth rates. Oscillations arise when the limitation of female survival exceeds that of male survival. Increasing the intensity of male survival limitation can stabilize population dynamics, an effect particularly evident when the proportion of female offspring is low. Depending on parameter values, the model exhibits stable, periodic, or irregular dynamics, including multistability, where changes in current population size driven by external factors can shift the system between coexisting dynamic modes. To apply the model to real populations, we propose an approach for estimating demographic parameters based on total abundance data. The key idea is to reduce the two-component discrete model with sex structure to a delay equation dependent only on total population size. In this formulation, the initial sex structure is expressed through total abundance and depends on demographic parameters. The resulting one-dimensional equation was applied to describe and estimate demographic characteristics of ungulate populations in the Jewish Autonomous Region. The delay equation provides a good fit to the observed dynamics of ungulate populations, capturing long-term trends in abundance. Point estimates of parameters fall within biologically meaningful ranges and produce population dynamics consistent with field observations. For moose, roe deer, and musk deer, the model suggests predominantly stable dynamics, while annual fluctuations are primarily driven by external factors and represent deviations from equilibrium. Overall, these estimates enable the analysis of structured population dynamics alongside short-term forecasting based on total abundance data.

The paper presents a computational model of the thermal state of the breast with an interstitial tumor. The model is based on the modified Pennes biothermal equation and describes a five-layered biological area including skin, subcutaneous fat, glandular and muscular tissues, as well as a neoplasm zone. Convective heat exchange with the environment is taken into account at the outer boundary, and body temperature is maintained at the internal boundary. In addition, the fabric surface is exposed to exponentially attenuating effects of spatial heating, such a heating scheme is actually based on the Bouguer – Lambert – Baer law. Tissue thermal conductivity and blood perfusion are modeled by linear functions of temperature, reflecting physiological thermoregulation. The boundary-value problem for the partial differential equation has been solved numerically using an explicit-implicit finite difference scheme; the system of algebraic equations getting after an approximation of the mentioned boundary-value problem is solved by the Thomas procedure. Numerical experiments have shown that even a small tumor increases the local temperature of tissues by half a degree due to increased metabolism and delayed blood perfusion. This anomaly is clearly manifested in tumors larger than ten millimeters. It was found that the depth of occurrence critically affects the thermal response: when the tumor is located closer to the surface, the maximum temperature shifts to the skin, whereas at a deeper position, a thermal peak forms inside the glandular tissue. The effectiveness of hyperthermic exposure was assessed by the integral criterion of thermal necrosis based on the Arrhenius law. At a radiation intensity that creates a surface thermal load of about five kilowatts per square meter and an attenuation factor of one hundred, tumor destruction begins after two to three minutes of exposure, while the surrounding healthy tissues remain within safe temperatures. Reducing the attenuation coefficient leads to the opposite effect: heat spreads deeper, and the glandular tissue is damaged first, which limits the therapeutic window. Additionally, maps of the distribution of temperature, time to necrosis, and the depth of thermal damage were constructed depending on the irradiation power, diameter, and position of the tumor.

Laser polishing is a promising technology for the finishing of fused quartz (fused silica or quartz glass) products, enabling the removal of subsurface defects induced by mechanical processing. However, the complexity and nonlinearity of the physical processes occurring during laser irradiation complicate the selection of optimal technological parameters. The present paper aims to develop, comparatively analyze, and apply high-precision predictive models for forecasting and optimizing the key performance indicators of the laser polishing process for quartz glass. A verified finite element model implemented in the ANSYS software environment produced a dataset of temperature and stress fields for various combinations of process parameters. This dataset was used to develop and validate four types of predictive models: Polynomial Regression, a Fuzzy Logic System, an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), and a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) neural network. The models’ quality was evaluated on a test set using the statistical metrics MAE, RMSE, MAPE, $R^2$, and  $R^2_{Adj}$. A comparative analysis of the models revealed the significant superiority of the MLP neural network, which demonstrated the highest prediction accuracy for all output parameters, achieving Adjusted $R^2$ ($R^2_{Adj}$.) values above 0.97 and a Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) in the range of 0.7–2.8%. This model was effectively utilized as a surrogate function in combination with a genetic algorithm to successfully identify the optimal process parameters. The constructed MLP neural network model functions as a reliable and high-precision tool, facilitating both prediction and the optimization of fused quartz polishing outcomes using a CO₂ laser. This approach effectively approximates the complex nonlinear dependencies inherent in the process and can serve as a foundation for developing intelligent control and optimization systems for this technology.

Calcium is a major nutrient regulating metabolism in a plant. Deficiency of calcium results in a growth decline of plant tissues. Ca may be lost from forest soils due to acidic atmospheric deposition and tree harvesting. Plant-available calcium compounds are in the soil cation exchange complex and soil waters. Model of soil calcium dynamics linking it with the model of soil organic matter dynamics ROMUL in forest ecosystems is developed. ROMUL describes the mineralization and humification of the fraction of fresh litter which is further transformed into complex of partially humified substance (CHS) and then to stable humus (H) in dependence on temperature, soil moisture and chemical composition of the fraction (nitrogen, lignin and ash contents, pH). Rates of decomposition and humification being coefficients in the system of ordinary differential equations are evaluated using laboratory experiments and verified on a set of field experiments. Model of soil calcium dynamics describes calcium flows between pools of soil organic matter. Outputs are plant nutrition, leaching, synthesis of secondary minerals. The model describes transformation and mineralization of forest floor in detail. Experimental data for calibration model was used from spruсe forest of Bulgaria.

This paper is devoted to investigation of the swirl flows. Such flows are widely used in various industrial processes. Swirl flows can be accompanied by time-dependent effects, for example, precession of the vortex core. In turn, the large-scale fluctuations due to the precession of the vortex can cause damage of structures and reduce of equipment reliability. Thus, for engineering calculations approaches that sufficiently well described such flows are required. This paper presents the technique of swirl flows calculation, tested for CFD packages Fluent and SigmaFlow. A numerical simulation of several swirl flow test problems was carried out. Obtained results are compared with each other and with the experimental data.

Simulation model of corruption in hierarchical systems which takes into account individual strategies of elements and collective behavior of large groups is proposed. Evolution of various characteristics like level of corruption or ratio of corrupted elements and their dependence on external parameters are discussed. The effectiveness of various anticorruptional strategies is examined by means of numeric analysis.

The principle of minimal differentiation, based on the Hotelling model, is well known in the economy. It is applicable to horizontal differentiated goods of almost any nature. The Hotelling approach to modeling competition of oligopolies corresponds to a modern description of monopolistic competition with increasing returns to scale and imperfect competition. We develop a modification of the Hotelling model that endows a firm with a non-market advantage, which is introduced alike the valence advantage known in problems of political economy. The nonmarket (valence) advantage can be interpreted as advertisement (brand awareness of firms). Problem statement. Consider two firms competing with prices and location. Homogeneous consumers vary with its location on a segment. They minimize their costs, which additively includes the price of the product and the distance from them to the product. The utility function is linear with respect to the price and quadratic with respect to the distance. It is also expected that one of the firms (for certainty, firm № 1) has a market advantage d. The consumers are assumed to take into account the sum of the distance to the product and the market advantage of firm 1. Thus, the strategy of the firms and the consumers depend on two parameters: the unit t of the transport costs and the non-market advantage d. I explore characteristics of the equilibrium in the model as a function of the non-market advantage for different fixed t. The aim of the research is to assess the impact of the non-market advantage on the equlibrium. We prove that the Nash equilibrium exists and it is unique under additive consumers' preferences de-pending on the square of the distance between consumers and firms. This equilibrium is ‘richer’ than that in the original Hotelling model. In particular, non-market advantage can be excessive and inefficient to use.

Execution or violation of the principle of competitive exclusion in communities is the subject of many studies. The principle of competitive exclusion means that coexistence of species in community is impossible if the number of species exceeds the number of controlling mutually independent factors. At that time there are many examples displaying the violations of this principle in the natural systems. The explanations for this paradox vary from inexact identification of the set of factors to various types of spatial and temporal heterogeneities. One of the factors breaking the principle of competitive exclusion is intraspecific competition. This study holds the model of community with two species and one influencing factor with density-dependent mortality and spatial heterogeneity. For such models possibility of the existence of stable equilibrium is proved in case of spatial homogeneity and negative effect of the species on the factor. Our purpose is analysis of possible variants of dynamics of the system with spatial heterogeneity under the various directions of the species effect on the influencing factor. Numerical analysis showed that there is stable coexistence of the species agreed with homogenous spatial distributions of the species if the species effects on the influencing factor are negative. Density-dependent mortality and spatial heterogeneity lead to violation of the principle of competitive exclusion when equilibriums are Turing unstable. In this case stable spatial heterogeneous patterns can arise. It is shown that Turing instability is possible if at least one of the species effects is positive. Model nonlinearity and spatial heterogeneity cause violation of the principle of competitive exclusion in terms of both stable spatial homogenous states and quasistable spatial heterogeneous patterns.