[This is the old program from WS 2008/09. The current program and contact information can be found here.]

17 October 2008, 16:00

Sergio Alonso (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Berlin)
Effective medium theory for heterogeneous reaction-diffusion systems [Abstract] 

31 October 2008, 16:00

Tetsuo Ueda (Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, Japan)
Nonlinear processes in Physarum: Towards an understanding of the cellular behavioral intelligence [Abstract] 

14 November 2008, 16:00

Alain Karma (Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston, USA)
Spatiotemporal patterns of voltage and calcium signaling in heart cells and tissue [Abstract] 

21 November 2008, 16:00

Alexander V. Panfilov (Department of Theoretical Biology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands)
Modeling mechano-electric feedback in the heart using reaction-diffusion mechanics systems  

Abstract:
Cardiac contraction is initiated by the propagation of electrical waves in the heart. Contraction of cardiac tissue also affects the process of wave propagation. This is called mechano-electrical feedback. In my talk I will briefly report on our approach and present results of our study on possible effects of mechanical activity. We use a combination of an electrophysiological model of cardiac tissue (either of FitzHugh Nagumo type, or using a detailed ionic model for human ventricular cells developed in our group) coupled with the nonlinear stress equilibrium equations that govern tissue mechanics. We show that for some parameter values, mechano-electric feedback can induce automaticity in an array of otherwise non-oscillatory cardiac cells, and illustrate the spatio-temporal dynamics of these pacemakers. We also demonstrate the significant effects of mechano-electric feedback on re-entrant wave dynamics. We show that contraction can induce drift of an otherwise stationary rotating spiral wave. In certain cases, mechano-electric feedback can induce breakup of a single re-entrant wave into complex fibrillatory patterns, and we discuss the mechanism of this process based on the accommodation phenomenon. We also show our computations of mechano-electric feedback in an anatomically realistic model of the left ventricle of the human heart.

28 November 2008, 16:00

Karsten Peters (Institut für Wirtschaft und Verkehr, Technische Universität Dresden)
Structural properties of functional networks in biological and technical systems [Abstract] 

05 December 2008, 16:00 Haber-Villa

Takao Ohta (Department of Physics, Kyoto University, Japan)
External forcing and feedback control of nonlinear dissipative waves [Abstract] 

13 February 2009, 16:00

Frank Spahn (LS Nichtlineare Dynamik, Institut für Physik und Astronomie, Universität Potsdam)
What tell "propellers" in Saturns rings about planet formation? [Abstract]