Mobility and its sensitivity to fitness differences determine consumer-resource distributions.

An animal's movement rate (mobility) and its ability to perceive fitness gradients (fitness sensitivity) determine how well it can exploit resources. Previous models have examined mobility and fitness sensitivity separately and found that mobility, modelled as random movement, prevents animals from staying in high-quality patches, leading to a departure from an ideal free distribution (IFD). However, empirical work shows that animals with higher mobility can more effectively collect environmental information and better sense patch quality, especially when the environment is frequently changed by human activities.

Habitat-dependent movement rate can determine the efficacy of marine protected areas.

Theoretical studies of marine protected areas (MPAs) suggest that more mobile species should exhibit reduced local effects (defined as the ratio of the density inside vs. outside of the MPA). However, empirical studies have not supported the expected negative relationship between the local effect and mobility.

The effectiveness of marine protected areas for predator and prey with varying mobility.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are regions in the ocean where fishing is restricted or prohibited. Although several measures for MPA performance exist, here we focus on a specific one, namely the ratio of the steady state fish densities inside and outside the MPA. Several 2 patch models are proposed and analyzed mathematically.

Trans-membrane area asymmetry controls the shape of cellular organelles.

Membrane organelles often have complicated shapes and differ in their volume, surface area and membrane curvature. The ratio between the surface area of the cytosolic and luminal leaflets (trans-membrane area asymmetry (TAA)) determines the membrane curvature within different sites of the organelle. Thus, the shape of the organelle could be critically dependent on TAA.

Analysis of a mathematical model for tumor therapy with a fusogenic oncolytic virus.

Oncolytic virotherapy is a tumor treatment which uses viruses to selectively target and destroy cancer cells. Fusogenic viruses, capable of causing cell-to-cell fusion upon infection of a tumor cell, have shown promise in experimental studies. Fusion causes the formation of large, multinucleated syncytia which eventually leads to cell death.