Neural activity that persists long after stimulus presentation is a biological correlate of short-term memory. Variability in spiking activity causes persistent states to drift over time, ultimately degrading memory. Models of short-term memory often assume that the input fluctuations to neural populations are independent across cells, a feature that attenuates population-level variability and ...

The brain exhibits temporally complex patterns of activity with features similar to those of chaotic systems. Theoretical studies over the last twenty years have described various computational advantages for such regimes in neuronal systems. Nevertheless, it still remains unclear whether chaos requires specific cellular properties or network architectures, or whether it is a generic property o...

We consider the effects of large inflationary price fluctuations on the computed optimal harvest strategy for a randomized Schaefer model. Both prices and population sizes are assumed random with both background (Wiener) and jump (Poisson) components. Population fluctuations are assumed to be density independent, i.e., relative changes are independent of population size. Stochastic dynamic prog...

We study the spread of Hantavirus over a host population of deer mice using a population dynamics model. We show that taking into account the internal fluctuations in the mouse population due to its discrete character strongly alters the behavior of the system. In addition to the familiar transition present in the deterministic model, the inclusion of internal fluctuations leads to the emergenc...

We develop winding number correlation functions that allow us to assess the role of field fluctuations on vortex formation in an Abelian gauge theory. We compute the behavior of these correlation functions in simple circumstances and show how fluctuations are important in the vicinity of the phase transition. We further show that, in our approximation, the emerging population of long/infinite s...

An improved understanding of mosquito population dynamics under natural environmental forcing requires adequate field observations spanning the full range of temporal scales over which mosquito abundance fluctuates in natural conditions. Here we analyze a 9-year daily time series of uninterrupted observations of adult mosquito abundance for multiple mosquito species in North Carolina to identif...