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Dr. Francis Mensah
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Howard University
Wednesday February 27, 4 pm
Thirkield Hall (Physics), room 103
Application of Mathematical Models in Biophysics to the Polymerization of Deoxy-Hemoglobin S Molecules with consideration of Local Bifurcation and Reaction Diffusion that occurs in sickle cell disease
Sickle cell disease is a serious public health problem that affects many people worldwide. Since Nobel laureate Dr. Linus Pauling’s research on molecular disease, much research has been done on the sickle cells molecules. In the last 20 years, research has been done on the sickle cell anemia and we present here some of the important results obtained. Throughout this research, using previous works from J. L. Dejardin and L. Olatunji on the nonlinear dynamic of the polymerization of deoxy-Hemoglobin S molecules, we show that the use of a cumulative braking term homogeneous to a time dependent shear, transforms the evolution equation of the dynamical variable into an integro-differential equation of Volterra. However, it is well known that the solutions of the Volterra integro-differential equations can only be put into parametric forms. Nevertheless, using the original idea of Chasse J.L. et al. to obtain the solution on an explicit form by adequate approximations, we proved in this work that the mathematical model allows a correct description of the stationary and non-stationary rheological behaviors of the gel of Deoxy Hemoglobin S molecules. The mathematical model and its approximations reveal an excellent descriptive quality for the interpretation of numerical data. We’ve also explored the Local Bifurcation and Reaction Diffusion that both occur during the polymerization process.
As everyone knows, the laser is important not only in Biophysics, but also in atmospheric Physics. Throughout our talk, we will also show a summary of the last results of our ongoing research on laser / lidar in atmospheric Physics at Howard University Beltsville Campus.
Refreshments will be served at 3:40pm