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Background and Objective: The paper focuses on the numerical strategies to optimize a plasmid DNA delivery protocol, which combines hyaluronidase and electroporation. Methods: A well-defined continuum mechanics model of muscle porosity and advanced numerical optimization strategies have been used, to propose a substantial improvement of a pre-existing experimental protocol of DNA transfer in mice. Our work suggests that a computational model might help in the definition of innovative therapeutic procedures, thanks to the fine tuning of all the involved experimental steps.

A full ODE model for the transmission of cholera is investigated, includ- ing both direct and indirect transmission and a nonlinear growth for pathogens. The direct problem is preliminarily studied and characterized in terms of reproduction number, endemic and disease free equilibria. The inverse problem is then discussed in view of parameter estimation and model identification via a Least Squares Approximation approach. The procedure is applied to real data coming from the recent Yemen cholera outbreak of 2017-2018.

Competition between biological species in marine environments is affected by the motion of the surrounding fluid. An effective 2D compressibility can arise, for example, from the convergence and divergence of water masses at the depth at which passively traveling photosynthetic organisms are restricted to live. In this report, we seek to quantitatively study genetics under flow. To this end, we couple an off-lattice agent-based simulation of two populations in 1D to a weakly compressible velocity field--first a sine wave and then a shell model of turbulence.

The evolution of a geothermal system is studied. A mathematical model is proposed and the corresponding free boundary problem is formulated in a one-dimensional geometry. A situation corresponding to the geothermal field in Larderello, Tuscany (Italy) is considered, showing that the problem has two characteristic time scales, related to the motion of interface and diffusion of vapor.

The paper concerns the weighted uniform approximation of a real function on the d-cube [-1, 1]^d, with d > 1, by means of some multivariate filtered polynomials. These polynomials have been deduced, via tensor product, from certain de la Vallée Poussin type means on [-1, 1], which generalize classical delayed arithmetic means of Fourier partial sums. They are based on arbitrary sequences of filter coefficients, not necessarily connected with a smooth filter function.