-------------------------------------------------------------------- I-AIM Interdisciplinary Seminar 3:10 PM Friday November 5 in SS 5017A (100 St. George Street) Katrin Rohlf (Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto) "FROM BLOOD FLOW TO STOCHASTIC DESCRIPTIONS FOR CHEMICAL REACTIONS" With recent developments in trying to make a clinical connection between blood rheological parameters and disease, it is crucial that one formulates a mathematical description with physiologically meaningful parameters. Ideally, the constitutive theory --- or rather, the mathematical description --- does not change in form with disease, but only the values of the parameters are affected. As such, there should be a direct tie between changes in the cellular constituents of blood and changes in the values of the parameters of the model. Any experimentally obtained velocity profiles for blood could then be used to discuss changes in values of the model parameters, which in turn could potentially lead to diagnosis, and monitoring of disease. Keeping this in mind, the talk will begin with an overview of blood physiology and the general distinction between blood flow in vessels of various size. Focusing on the most popular model for blood flow in small vessels, the Casson constitutive theory will be discussed and some results will be presented. We will continue with a discussion of a fundamental issue concerning the yield stress parameter for the Casson model. Due to the close analogy of red blood cell interaction (the reason blood is believed to have a yield stress) to chemical kinetics equations, the talk will proceed with the derivation of a stochastic description for chemical reactions. The talk will conclude with the current status of the stochastic description, an overview of the work being done in the field, and a way of using the model to ultimately alleviate the yield stress issue for blood. Refreshments to follow in the adjacent Math Lounge. ---------------------------------------------------------------------