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Re: Delay Differential Equations

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg105232] Re: [mg105198] Delay Differential Equations
  • From: Daniel Lichtblau <danl at wolfram.com>
  • Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:31:53 -0500 (EST)
  • References: <200911241048.FAA00661@smc.vnet.net> <4B0C33E2.5070102@wolfram.com> <5bb7300a0911241148o69013c9br1871eb1cb1a73c73@mail.gmail.com>

Yun Zhao wrote:
> Hi Daniel,
>  
>   Thanks for your reply.  But my question is I was trying to solve an 
> equation, and the solution just doesnt make much sense, and I looked in 
> the help files, but they didn't really help me much.  The problem is this:
>  
> I have some cells of type A, and at some point in time, cells of type A 
> are going to slowly change into cells of type B.  So, population size of 
> cell type A will decrease over time due to two factors: (1) becoming 
> cells of type B and (2) dying over time.  So for a differential 
> equation, i have two rates, one is the transformation rate (0.0367), one 
> is the death rate (0.0123).  But I want to delay the transformation by 
> 37 hours.  So from time = 0 to time = 37, all that is changing in cells 
> of type A is that they are dying at the death rate, then after 37 hours, 
> they are also disappearing at the transformation rate.
>  
> So my differential equation is like this:
> 
> *solrandom1=NDSolve[{p'[t]*
> 
> *==0.0367*p[t-37]-0.0123*p[t],p[t/;t<0]=30000},p,{t,0,120}]*
> 
> What I expect when I plot p(t) over t is a gradual decrease from t=0 to 
> t=37.  Then more decrease from t=37 to t=120.  p(t) should never be less 
> than zero.  But when I ran that code in Mathematica, and plotted it 
> using this command
> 
> *Plot[Evaluate[p[t]/.solrandom1],{t,0,120},PlotRange**ï?®Automatic]*
> 
> p(t) was actually less than zero.  I am not able to figure out why this 
> is. 
> 
> Please tell me what I did wrong.  Thanks.


First is that the delay term you have is not negative. So I'd expect an 
increase. When I do the following I indeed see a rising population.

solrandom1 =
  NDSolve[{p'[t] == 0.0367*p[t - 37] - 0.0123*p[t],
    p[t /; t <= 0] == 30000}, p, {t, 0, 120}]

Plot[Evaluate[p[t] /. solrandom1], {t, 0, 120},
  PlotRange -> Automatic]

Second is that your claim of no transformations for 37 hours is wrong. 
You are modeling that by 0.0367*p[t - 37], and p[t] is 30000 for t<=0. 
So this contribution is not going to be zero (whether you use a positive 
or negative thereof). You can repair this by using the system below.

solrandom1 =
  NDSolve[{p'[t] == -0.0367*p[t - 37]*UnitStep[t - 37] - 0.0123*p[t],
    p[t /; t <= 0] == 30000}, p, {t, 0, 120}]

Next is that there is nothing to stop this solution from going negative. 
For that you'd need an EventHandler. Could do as below.

solrandom1 =
  NDSolve[{p'[t] == -0.0367*p[t - 37]*UnitStep[t - 37] - 0.0123*p[t],
    p[t /; t <= 0] == 30000}, p, {t, 0, 120},
   Method -> {"EventLocator", "Event" -> p[t]}]

Last is that these methods are things in the documentation I had noted 
in my last reply.

Daniel Lichtblau
Wolfram Research

> On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 1:28 PM, Daniel Lichtblau <danl at wolfram.com 
> <mailto:danl at wolfram.com>> wrote:
> 
>     Yun Zhao wrote:
> 
>         Hi,
> 
>         Does anyone have experience working with delay differential
>         equations in
>         Mathematica 7? I found some help files on wolfram and
>         Mathematica help, but
>         the information available there were very limited. If anyone can
>         refer me to
>         other online or textual sources, I would really appreciate it.
>         Thank you
>         very much.
> 
>         Mike
> 
> 
>     Not sure what you saw in the Documentation Center. These are perhaps
>     the most useful, worth checking if you have not encountered them
>     already.
> 
>     howto/SolveDelayDifferentialEquations
>     tutorial/NDSolveDelayDifferentialEquations
> 
>     Daniel Lichtblau
>     Wolfram Research
> 
> 



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