Feedback modules, which appear ubiquitously in biological regulations, are often subject to disturbances from the input, leading to fluctuations in the output. Thus, the question becomes how a feedback system can produce a faithful response with a noisy input. We employed multiple time scale analysis, Fluctuation Dissipation Theorem, linear stability, and numerical simulations to investigate a module with one positive feedback loop driven by an external stimulus, and we obtained a critical quantity in noise attenuation, termed as signed activation time. We then studied the signed activation time for a system of two positive feedback loops, a system of one positive feedback loop and one negative feedback loop, and six other existing biological models consisting of multiple components along with positive and negative feedback loops. An inverse relationship is found between the noise amplification rate and the signed activation time, defined as the difference between the deactivation and activation time scales of the noise-free system, normalized by the frequency of noises presented in the input. Thus, the combination of fast activation and slow deactivation provides the best noise attenuation, and it can be attained in a single positive feedback loop system. An additional positive feedback loop often leads to a marked decrease in activation time, decrease or slight increase of deactivation time and allows larger kinetic rate variations for slow deactivation and fast activation. On the other hand, a negative feedback loop may increase the activation and deactivation times. The negative relationship between the noise amplification rate and the signed

We study the wellposedness theory for the MHD boundary layer. The boundary layer equations are governed by the Prandtltype equations that are derived from the incompressible MHD system with nonslip boundary condition on the velocity and perfectly conducting condition on the magnetic field. Under the assumption that the initial tangential magnetic field is not zero, we establish the localitime existence, uniqueness of solutions for the nonlinear MHD boundary layer equations. Compared with the wellposedness theory of the classical Prandtl equations for which the monotonicity condition of the tangential velocity plays a crucial role, this monotonicity condition is not needed for the MHD boundary layer. This justifies the physical understanding that the magnetic field has a stabilizing effect on MHD boundary layer in rigorous mathematics. 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

We study the local curvature estimates of long-time solutions to the normalized Kähler-Ricci flow on compact Kähler manifolds with semi-ample canonical line bundle. Using these estimates, we prove that on such a manifold, the set of singular fibers of the semi-ample fibration on which the Riemann curvature blows up at time-infinity is independent of the choice of the initial Kähler metric. Moreover, when a regular fiber of the semi-ample fibration is not a finite quotient of a torus, we determine the exact curvature blow-up rate of the Kähler-Ricci flow near the regular fiber.

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