This is an annual special issue. The current issue is the 2013 issue which includes eleven interesting papers. Acupuncture has been used for medical treatment for thousands of years. A large number of empirical data is available, but the technical quantification of effects was not possible up to now. Using electroacupuncture, needle, or laser stimulation and modern biomedical techniques, it was...

We present a theory for experimentally observed phenomenon of one dimensional asynchronous waves. The general principle of coexistence of linear and nonlinear solutions of a dynamical system is underlying the present theoretical work. The result has been proposed analytically and numerical simulations are produced in support of the analytical results. One dimensional asynchronous chemical waves...

We consider a swarm of n autonomous mobile robots, distributed on a 2-dimensional grid. A basic task for such a swarm is the gathering process: All robots have to gather at one (not predefined) place. A common local model for extremely simple robots is the following: The robots do not have a common compass, only have a constant viewing radius, are autonomous and indistinguishable, can move at m...

Based on analytic calculations we identify the local structures which changes the parity of the global traveling wave states on its either sides. We establish the fact that competition of Turing and Hopf modes and multi-stability is not an essential ingredient for the generation of asynchronous one dimensional wave rather, close to a purely Hopf instability boundary and well in the region where...