In 2007, Modolo and colleagues derived a population density equation for a population of Izhekevich neurons. This population density equation can describe oscillations in the brain that occur in Parkinson’s disease. Numerical simulations of the population density equation showed bursting behaviour even though the individual neurons had parameters that put them in the tonic firing regime. The bursting comes from neuron interactions but the mechanism producing this behaviour was not clear. In this thesis we study numerical behaviour of the population density equation and then use a combination of analysis and numerical simulation to analyze the basic qualitative behaviour of the population model by means of a simplifying assumption: that the initial density is a Dirac function and all neurons are identical, including the number of inputs they receive, so they remain as a point mass over time. This leads to a new ODE model for the population. For the new ODE system, we define a Poincaré map and then to describe and analyze it under conditions on model parameters that are met by the typical values adopted by Modolo and colleagues. We show that there is a unique fixed point for this map and that under changes in a bifurcation parameter, the system transitions from fast tonic firing, through an interval where bursting occurs, the number of spikes decreasing as the bifurcation parameter increases, and finally to slow tonic firing. / Graduate

Magister Scientiae (Biodiversity and Conservation Biology) - MSc (Biodiv and Cons Biol) / Areas of high biodiversity and complex species assemblages are often difficult to manage and to set up meaningful monitoring and evaluations programmes. Mountain Fynbos is such an ecosystem and in the Cape of Good Hope (part of the Table Mountain National Park) plant biodiversity over the last five decades has been in decline. The reasons are difficult to speculate since large herbivores, altered fire regimes and even climate change could be contributors to this decline which has been quantified using fixed quadrats and standard cover-abundance estimates based on a Braun-Blanquet methodology. To provide more detailed data that has more resolution in terms of identifying ecological processes, Fixed-Point Repeat Photography has been presented as a management “solution”. However, photography remains a difficult method to standardize subjects and has certain operational limitations.

This thesis is devoted to show various applications of fixed point theorems on dif- ferential equations. In the beginning we use a notion of topological degree to derive several fixed points theorems, primarily Brouwer, Schauder and Kakutani-Ky Fan the- orem. Then we apply them on a wide range of relatively simple problems from ordinary and partial differential equations (ode and pde). Finally, we take a look on a few more complex problems. First is an existence of a solution to the model of mechanical os- cillator with non-monotone dependence of both displacement and velocity. Second is a solution to so called Gause predator-prey model with a refuge. The last one is cer- tain partial differential equation with a constraint which determines maximal monotone graph. 1

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・論文博士 / 博士(理学) / 乙第13201号 / 論理博第1560号 / 新制||理||1635(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科数学・数理解析専攻 / (主査)教授 宍倉 光広, 教授 泉 正己, 教授 國府 寛司 / 学位規則第4条第2項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

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This thesis deals with non-linear non-quadratic optimal control problems in an autonomous system and a related iterative numerical method, the Kleinman-Newton method, for solving the problem. The thesis proves the local convergence of Kleinman-Newton method using the contraction mapping theorem and then describes how this Kleinman-Newton method may be used to numerically solve for the optimal control and the corresponding solution. In order to show the proof and the related numerical work, it is necessary to review some of earlier work in the beginning of Chapter 1 [Zhang], and to introduce the Kleinman-Newton method at the end of the chapter. In Chapter 2 we will demonstrate the proof. In Chapter 3 we will show the related numerical work and results. / Ph. D.

Thesis advisor: John A. Baldwin / We classify genus-two L-space knots in S3 and the Poincare homology sphere.This leads to the first and to-date only detection results in knot Floer homology for knots of genus greater than one. Our proofs interweave Floer-homological properties of L-space knots, the geometry of pseudo-Anosov maps, and the theory of train tracks and folding automata for braids. The crux of our argument is a complete classification of fixed-point-free pseudo-Anosov maps in all but one stratum on the genus-two surface with one boundary component. To facilitate our classification, we exhibit a small family of train tracks carrying all pseudo-Anosov maps in most strata on the marked disk. As a consequence of our proof technique, we almost completely classify genus-two, hyperbolic, fibered knots with knot Floer homology of rank 1 in their next-to-top grading in any 3-manifold. Several corollaries follow, regarding the Floer homology of cyclic branched covers, SU(2)-abelian Dehn surgeries, Khovanov and annular Khovanov homology, and instanton Floer homology. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Mathematics.