Special issue on Erice 'MathCompEpi 2015' Proceedings.

The mathematical and computational modelling of the spread of infectious diseases is a research field in applied mathematics that in the same time was both able to give an impetum to various areas of the dynamical systems theory and mathematical analysis, and to give an important contribution to the biological and epidemiological understanding of the spread of these diseases. National as well as Inter-National health authorities adopt routinely in the practice methodologies and concept that were born in the field of Mathematical and Computational Epidemiology (MCE) for assisting public Health decisions and policies. A major example is provided by the huge advancement in modelling and prediction on pandemic threats, and related preparedness plans for disease containment/mitigation.

Artificial life and speciation, a case study: heterochromatin and speciation in the Microtus savii Group (Rodentia-Arvicolinae).

Artificial life is a tool which is used for simulation of peculiar cases of evolutionary events. The main characteristic of artificial life is that with this technique it is possible to simulate for a high number of generations the evolution of a population of individuals. Each individual is characterised by a small number of parameters, but each individual has its own evolutive story.

Geophysiological modeling: new ideas on modeling the evolution of ecosystems.

Living organisms evolve within ecological associations (from ecosystems to the biosphere) that are constituted by a biological component and a physico-chemical component. It is generally supposed that interactions such as competition and predation between the biological components of ecosystems are the main cause for the observed organization of ecosystems. We believe that in the search for a more comprehensive theory of evolution a much greater attention should be paid to the ways in which living organisms interact with the physico-chemical environment.