We review some recent results on the mean curvature flows of Lagrangian submanifolds from the perspective of geometric partial differential equations. These include global existence and convergence results, characterizations of first-time singularities, and constructions of self-similar solutions.

Mean curvature ows of hypersurfaces have been extensively studied and there are various dierent approaches and many beautiful results. However, relatively little is known about mean curvature ows of submanifolds of higher codimensions. This notes starts with some basic materials on submanifold geometry, and then introduces mean curvature ows in general dimensions and co-dimensions. The related techniques in the so called \blow-up" analysis are also discussed. At the end, we present some global existence and convergence results for mean curvature ows of two-dimensional surfaces in four-dimensional ambient spaces.

In this expository note we discuss some arithmetic aspects of the mirror symmetry for plane cubic curves. We also explain how the Picard-Fuchs equation can be used to reveal part of these arithmetic properties. The application of Picard-Fuchs equations in studying the genus zero Gromov-Witten invariants of more general Calabi-Yau varieties and the Weil-Petersson geometry on their moduli spaces will also be discussed.

The GKZ system for the Hesse pencil of elliptic curves has more solutions than the period integrals. In this work we give different realizations and interpretations of the extra solution, in terms of oscillating integral, Eichler integral, chain integral on the elliptic curve, limit of a period of a certain compact Calabi-Yau threefold geometry, etc. We also highlight the role played by the orbifold singularity on the moduli space and its relation to the GKZ system.

In this note, we show that the solution to the Dirichlet problem for the minimal surface system in any codimension is unique in the space of distance-decreasing maps. This follows as a corollary of the following stability theorem: if a minimal submanifold $\sum$  is the graph of a (strictly) distance-decreasing map, then  $\sum$ is (strictly) stable. It is known that a minimal graph of codimension one is stable without assuming the distance-decreasing condition. We give another criterion for the stability in terms of the two-Jacobians of the map which in particular covers the codimension one case. All theorems are proved in the more general setting for minimal maps between Riemannian manifolds. The complete statements of the results appear in Theorem 3.1, Theorem 3.2, and Theorem 4.1.