BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk// X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Who’s Afraid of Fractional Order Laplace? - Clara Ionescu\, Ghen t University DTSTART:20150408T130000Z DTEND:20150408T140000Z UID:TALK57914@talks.cam.ac.uk CONTACT:Tim Hughes DESCRIPTION:We are now in the pioneering position where clinicians with th eir stethoscopes poised over the healthy heart\, radiologists tracking the blood flow\, and physiologists probing the nervous system\, are all explo ring the frontiers of chaos and fractals. Two concepts are necessary to be introduced: a) chaos theory says that a very minor disturbance in initial conditions leads to an entirely different outcome\; and b) fractals are s elf-similar structures on many or all scales (i.e. the principle of regula rity and order) [1\,2\,3]. These topics are central concepts in the new di scipline of nonlinear dynamics developed in physics and mathematics – se e Figure 1.\n\nHowever\, the most compelling applications of these abstrac t concepts are not in the physical sciences [4]\, but in medicine\, where fractals and chaos may change radically long-held views about order and va riability in health and disease [5]. A transition to a more ordered or les s complicated state may be an indicative of disease (or equivalent a chang e in the nominal activity). Investigators have\, only in the past 5 years or so\, discovered that the heart and other physiological systems may beha ve most erratically when they are young and healthy (i.e. random fractal p roperties\, power law dynamics\, can be well characterized by cascaded imp edance models). Counter-intuitively\, increasingly regular dynamic pattern s accompany aging and disease (i.e by using Fourier analysis tools one can detect these locked dynamics) [6\,7\,8].\n\nThe last decades have shown a n increased interest in the research community to employ parametric model structures of fractional-order for analyzing nonlinear biological systems [8]. The concept of fractional-order (FO) -- or non-integer order -- syste ms refers to those dynamical systems whose model structure contains arbitr ary order derivatives and/or integrals [9\,10\,11]. The dynamical systems whose model can be approximated in a natural way using FO terms\, exhibit specific features: viscoelasticity\, diffusion and fractal structure [12\, 13\,14].\n \nHowever\, the theoretical concepts of fractals\, chaos and mu ltiscale analysis have not yet been enabled breakthrough mainly due to a l ack of awareness within the research community.\n\nFor further details of the speaker and details of referenced work\, see http://www-control.eng.ca m.ac.uk/Main/ControlSeminarSlides or contact Tim Hughes. LOCATION:Cambridge University Engineering Department\, LR3B END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR