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Now showing 1 - 10 of 20
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    Prony’s method: an old trick for new problems
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2018) Sauer, Tomas
    In 1795, French mathematician Gaspard de Prony invented an ingenious trick to solve a recovery problem, aiming at reconstructing functions from their values at given points, which arose from a specific application in physical chemistry. His technique became later useful in many different areas, such as signal processing, and it relates to the concept of sparsity that gained a lot of well-deserved attention recently. Prony’s contribution, therefore, has developed into a very modern mathematical concept.
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    Mathematische Modellierung von Krebswachstum
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2017) Engwer, Christian; Knappitsch, Markus
    Krebs ist eine der größten Herausforderungen der modernen Medizin. Der WHO zufolge starben 2012 weltweit 8,2 Millionen Menschen an Krebs. Bis heute sind dessen molekulare Mechanismen nur in Teilen verstanden, was eine erfolgreiche Behandlung erschwert. Mathematische Modellierung und Computersimulationen können helfen, die Mechanismen des Tumorwachstums besser zu verstehen. Sie eröffnen somit neue Chancen für zukünftige Behandlungsmethoden. In diesem Schnappschuss steht die mathematische Modellierung von Glioblastomen im Fokus, einer Klasse sehr agressiver Tumore im menschlichen Gehirn.
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    A short story on optimal transport and its many applications
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2018) Santambrogio, Filippo
    We present some examples of optimal transport problems and of applications to different sciences (logistics, economics, image processing, and a little bit of evolution equations) through the crazy story of an industrial dynasty regularly asking advice from an exotic mathematician.
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    Modelling the spread of brain tumours
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2015) Swan, Amanda; Murtha, Albert
    The study of mathematical biology attempts to use mathematical models to draw useful conclusions about biological systems. Here, we consider the modelling of brain tumour spread with the ultimate goal of improving treatment outcomes.
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    The adaptive finite element method
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2016) Gallistl, Dietmar
    Computer simulations of many physical phenomena rely on approximations by models with a finite number of unknowns. The number of these parameters determines the computational effort needed for the simulation. On the other hand, a larger number of unknowns can improve the precision of the simulation. The adaptive finite element method (AFEM) is an algorithm for optimizing the choice of parameters so accurate simulation results can be obtained with as little computational effort as possible.
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    Drugs, herbicides, and numerical simulation
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2014) Benner, Peter; Mena, Hermann; Schneider, René
    The Colombian government sprays coca fields with herbicides in an effort to reduce drug production. Spray drifts at the Ecuador-Colombia border became an international issue. We developed a mathematical model for the herbicide aerial spray drift, enabling simulations of the phenomenon.
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    The mystery of sleeping sickness – why does it keep waking up?
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2015) Funk, Sebastian
    Sleeping sickness is a neglected tropical disease that affects rural populations in Africa. Deadly when untreated, it is being targeted for elimination through case finding and treatment. Yet, fundamental questions about its transmission cycle remain unanswered. One of them is whether transmission is limited to humans, or whether other species play a role in maintaining circulation of the disease. In this snapshot, we introduce a mathematical model for the spread of Trypanosoma brucei, the parasite responsible for causing sleeping sickness, and present some results based on data collected in Cameroon. Understanding how important animals are in harbouring Trypanosoma brucei that can infect humans is important for assessing whether the disease could be reintroduced in human populations even after all infected people have been successfully treated.
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    Chaos and chaotic fluid mixing
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2015) Solomon, Tom
    Very simple mathematical equations can give rise to surprisingly complicated, chaotic dynamics, with behavior that is sensitive to small deviations in the initial conditions. We illustrate this with a single recurrence equation that can be easily simulated, and with mixing in simple fluid flows.
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    High performance computing on smartphones
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2016) Patera, Anthony T.; Urban, Karsten
    Nowadays there is a strong demand to simulate even real-world engineering problems on small computing devices with very limited capacity, such as a smartphone. We explain, using a concrete example, how we can obtain a reduction in complexity – to enable such computations – using mathematical methods.
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    Mathematics plays a key role in scientific computing
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2017) Shu, Chi-Wang
    I attended a very interesting workshop at the research center MFO in Oberwolfach on “Recent Developments in the Numerics of Nonlinear Hyperbolic Conservation Laws”. The title sounds a bit technical, but in plain language we could say: The theme is to survey recent research concerning how mathematics is used to study numerical algorithms involving a special class of equations. These equations arise from computer simulations to solve application problems including those in aerospace engineering, automobile design, and electromagnetic waves in communications as examples. This topic belongs to the general research area called “scientific computing”.