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Coconut plantation plays a vital role in the economy and source of living for millions of farmers around the world, especially in tropical regions. The rugose spiraling whitefly is a highly destructive pest causing severe damage to coconut trees and significantly reducing their productivity. The aim of this paper is to develop and analyze a mathematical model that captures the dynamics of whitefly and to highlight the benefits of using biological control to mitigate the impact of pest damaging coconut palms. To be more realistic, a stage-structured model with maturation delay and lag in the implementation of the control measures has been considered in the model. We identify the equilibrium points of the system and perform a stability analysis to assess the system behavior. The numerical simulation of the proposed system is also reported. The findings reveal that introducing the population of parasitoids can effectively reduce the rugose spiraling whitefly population presenting a promising strategy for mitigating the pest’s impact.

Muscle contraction is controlled by Ca2+ ions via regulatory proteins, troponin and tropomyosin, associated with thin actin filaments in sarcomeres. Depending on the Ca2+ concentration, the thin filament rearranges so that tropomyosin moves along its surface, opening or closing access to actin for the motor domains of myosin molecules, and causing contraction or relaxation, respectively. Numerous point amino acid substitutions in tropomyosin are known, leading to genetic pathologies — myo- and cardiomyopathies caused by changes in the structural and functional properties of the thin filament. The results of molecular dynamics modeling of a fragment of a thin filament of cardiac muscle sarcomeres formed by fibrillar actin and wildtype tropomyosin or with amino acid substitutions: the double stabilizing substitution D137L/G126R and the cardiomyopathic substitution S215L are presented. For numerical calculations, we used a new model of a thin filament fragment containing 26 actin monomers and 4 tropomyosin dimers, with a refined structure of the region of overlap of neighboring tropomyosin molecules in each of the two tropomyosin strands. The simulation results showed that tropomyosin significantly increases the bending stiffness of the thin filament, as previously found experimentally. The double stabilizing replacement D137L/G126R leads to a further increase in this rigidity, and the replacement S215L, on the contrary, leads to its decrease, which also corresponds to experimental data. At the same time, these substitutions have different effects on the angular mobility of the actin helix and only slightly modulate the angular mobility of tropomyosin cables relative to the actin helix and the population of hydrogen bonds between negatively charged tropomyosin residues and positively charged actin residues. The results of the verification of the new model demonstrate that its quality is sufficient for the numerical study of the effect of single amino acid substitutions on the structure and dynamics of thin filaments and study the effects leading to dysregulation of muscle contraction. This model can be used as a useful tool for elucidating the molecular mechanisms of some genetic diseases and assessing the pathogenicity of newly discovered genetic variants.

The data of episodic field measurements of carbon dioxide balance components (soil respiration — R_soil, ecosystem respiration — R_eco, net ecosystem exchange — NEE) of hayfields under use and abandoned one are interpreted by modelling. The field measurements were carried within five field campaigns in 2018 and 2019 on the drained part of the Dubna Peatland in Taldom District, Moscow Oblast, Russia. The territory is within humid continental climate zone. Peatland drainage was done out for milled peat extraction. After extraction was stopped, the residual peat deposit (1–1.5 m) was ploughed and grassed (Poa pratensis L.) for hay production. The current ground water level (GWL) varies from 0.3–0.5 m below the surface during wet and up to 1.0 m during dry periods. Daily dynamics of CO2 fluxes was measured using dynamic chamber method in 2018 (August) and 2019 (May, June, August) for abandoned ditch spacing only with sanitary mowing once in 5 years and the ditch spacing with annual mowing. NEE and Reco were measured on the sites with original vegetation, and Rsoil — after vegetation removal. To model a seasonal dynamics of NEE, the dependence of its components (Reco, Rsoil, and Gross ecosystematmosphere exchange of carbon dioxide — GEE) from soil and air temperature, GWL, photosynthetically active radiation, underground and aboveground plant biomass were used. The parametrization of the models has been carried out considering the stability of coefficients estimated by the bootstrap method. R2 (α = 0.05) between simulated and measured Reco was 0.44 (p < 0.0003) on abandoned and 0.59 (p < 0.04) on under use hayfield, and GEE was 0.57 (p < 0.0002) and 0.77 (p < 0.00001), respectively. Numerical experiments were carried out to assess the influence of different haymaking regime on NEE. It was found that NEE for the season (May 15 – September 30) did not differ much between the hayfield without mowing (4.5±1.0 tC·ha–1·season–1) and the abandoned one (6.2±1.4). Single mowing during the season leads to increase of NEE up to 6.5±0.9, and double mowing — up to 7.5±1.4 tC·ha–1·season–1. This means increase of carbon losses and CO2 emission into the atmosphere. Carbon loss on hayfield for both single and double mowing scenario was comparable with abandoned hayfield. The value of removed phytomass for single and double mowing was 0.8±0.1 tC·ha^–1·season^–1 and 1.4±0.1 (45% carbon content in dry phytomass) or 3.0 and 4.4 t·ha^–1·season^–1 of hay (17% moisture content). In comparison with the fallow, the removal of biomass of 0.8±0.1 at single and 1.4±0.1 tC·ha^–1·season^–1 double mowing is accompanied by an increase in carbon loss due to CO2 emissions, i.e., the growth of NEE by 0.3±0.1 and 1.3±0.6 tC·ha–1·season–1, respectively. This corresponds to the growth of NEE for each ton of withdrawn phytomass per hectare of 0.4±0.2 tС·ha–1·season–1 at single mowing, and 0.9±0.7 tС·ha^–1·season^–1 at double mowing. Therefore, single mowing is more justified in terms of carbon loss than double mowing. Extensive mowing does not increase CO2 emissions into the atmosphere and allows, in addition, to “replace” part of the carbon loss by agricultural production.

Dynamic scenarios leading to multistability in the form of continuous families of stable solutions are studied for a system of autonomous differential equations. The approach is based on determining the cosymmetries of the problem, calculating stationary solutions, and numerically-analytically studying their stability. The analysis is carried out for equations of the Lotka –Volterra type, describing the interaction of two predators feeding on two related prey species. For a system of ordinary differential equations of the 4th order with 11 real parameters, a numerical-analytical study of possible interaction scenarios was carried out. Relationships are found analytically between the control parameters under which the cosymmetry linear in the variables of the problem is realized and families of stationary solutions (equilibria) arise. The case of multicosymmetry is established and explicit formulas for a two-parameter family of equilibria are presented. The analysis of the stability of these solutions made it possible to reveal the division of the family into regions of stable and unstable equilibria. In a computational experiment, the limit cycles branching off from unstable stationary solutions are determined and their multipliers corresponding to multistability are calculated. Examples of the coexistence of families of stable stationary and non-stationary solutions are presented. The analysis is carried out for the growth functions of logistic and “hyperbolic” types. Depending on the parameters, scenarios can be obtained when only stationary solutions (coexistence of prey without predators and mixed combinations), as well as families of limit cycles, are realized in the phase space. The multistability scenarios considered in the work allow one to analyze the situations that arise in the presence of several related species in the range. These results are the basis for subsequent analysis when the parameters deviate from cosymmetric relationships.