This paper aims at indicating research perspectives on the mathematical modeling of crowd dynamics, pointing on the one hand to insights into the complexity features of pedestrian flows and on the other hand to a critical overview of the most popular modeling approaches currently adopted in the specialized literature. Particularly, the focus is on scaling problems, namely representation and modeling at microscopic, macroscopic, and mesoscopic scales, which, entangled with the complexity issues of living systems, generate multiscale dynamical effects, such as e.g. self-organization. Mathematical structures suitable to approach such multiscale aspects are proposed, along with a forward look at research developments. © 2012 World Scientific Publishing Company.

In this paper we propose a new modeling tech- nique for vehicular traffic flow, designed for capturing at a macroscopic level some effects, due to the microscopic granularity of the flow of cars, which would be lost with a purely continuous approach. The starting point is a multiscale method for pedestrian modeling, recently introduced in [1], in which measure-theoretic tools are used to manage the microscopic and the macroscopic scales under a unique framework. In the resulting coupled model the two scales coexist and share information, in the sense that the same system is simultaneously described from both a discrete (microscopic) and a continuous (macroscopic) perspective. This way it is possible to perform numerical simulations in which the single trajectories and the average density of the moving agents affect each other. Such a method is here revisited in order to deal with multi-population traffic flow on networks. For illustrative purposes, we focus on the simple case of the intersection of two roads. By exploiting one of the main features of the multiscale method, namely its dimension-independence, we treat one-dimensional roads and two-dimensional junctions in a natural way, without referring to classical network theory. Furthermore, thanks to the coupling between the microscopic and the macroscopic scales, we model the continuous flow of cars without losing the right amount of granularity, which characterizes the real physical system and triggers self-organization effects, such as, for example, the oscillatory patterns visible at jammed uncontrolled crossroads.

In this paper a new multiscale modeling technique is proposed. It relies on a recently introduced measure-theoretic approach, which allows one to manage the microscopic and the macroscopic scale under a unique framework. In the resulting coupled model the two scales coexist and share information. This way it is possible to perform numerical simulations in which the trajectories and the density of the particles affect each other. Crowd dynamics is the motivating application throughout the paper. © 2011 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

In this work a physical modelling framework is presented, describing the intelligent, non-local, and anisotropic behaviour of pedestrians. Its phenomenological basics and constitutive elements are detailed, and a qualitative analysis is provided. Within this common framework, two first-order mathematical models, along with related numerical solution techniques, are derived. The models are oriented to specific real world applications: a one-dimensional model of crowd-structure interaction in footbridges and a two-dimensional model of pedestrian flow in an underground station with several obstacles and exits. The noticeable heterogeneity of the applications demonstrates the significance of the physical framework and its versatility in addressing different engineering problems. The results of the simulations point out the key role played by the physiological and psychological features of human perception on the overall crowd dynamics. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.

This paper introduces a new model of pedestrian flow, formulated within a measure-theoretic framework. It consists of a macroscopic representation of the system via a family of measures which, pushed forward by some flow maps, provide an estimate of the space occupancy by pedestrians at successive times. From the modeling point of view, this setting is particularly suitable for treating nonlocal interactions among pedestrians, obstacles, and wall boundary conditions. In addition, the analysis and numerical approximation of the resulting mathematical structures, which are the principal objectives of this work, follow more easily than for models based on standard hyperbolic conservation laws. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.

In this paper we consider first order differential models of collective behaviors of groups of agents, based on the mass conservation equation. Models are formulated taking the spatial distribution of the agents as the main unknown, expressed in terms of a probability measure evolving in time. We develop an existence and approximation theory of the solutions to such models and we show that some recently proposed models of crowd and swarm dynamics fit our theoretic paradigm.

We present a multiphase mathematical model for tumor growth which incorporates the remodeling of the extracellular matrix and describes the formation of fibrotic tissue by tumor cells. We also detail a full qualitative analysis of the spatially homogeneous problem, and study the equilibria of the system in order to characterize the conditions under which fibrosis may occur. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

This work reports on vehicular traffic modeling by methods of the discrete kinetic theory. The purpose is to detail a reference mathematical framework for some discrete velocity kinetic models recently introduced in the literature, which proved capable of reproducing interesting traffic phenomena without using experimental information as modeling assumptions. To this end, we firstly derive a general discrete velocity kinetic framework with binary nonlocal interactions. Then, resorting to some ideas of stochastic game theory, we outline specific modeling guidelines for vehicular traffic, and finally we discuss the derivation of the above-mentioned vehicular traffic models from these mathematical structures. © 2009.

Resorting to a multiphase modelling framework, tumours are described here as a mixture of tumour and host cells within a porous structure constituted by a remodelling extracellular matrix (ECM), which is wet by a physiological extracellular fluid. The model presented in this article focuses mainly on the description of mechanical interactions of the growing tumour with the host tissue, their influence on tumour growth, and the attachment/detachment mechanisms between cells and ECM. Starting from some recent experimental evidences, we propose to describe the interaction forces involving the extracellular matrix via some concepts coming from viscoplasticity. We then apply the model to the description of the growth of tumour cords and the formation of fibrosis. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.

While drawing a link between the papers contained in this issue and those present in a previous one (Vol. 2, Issue 3), this introductory article aims at putting in evidence some trends and challenges on cancer modelling, especially related to the development of multiphase and multiscale models. © EDP Sciences, 2009.

In this paper, we systematically apply the mathematical structures by time-evolving measures developed in a previous work to the macroscopic modeling of pedestrian flows. We propose a discrete-time Eulerian model, in which the space occupancy by pedestrians is described via a sequence of Radon-positive measures generated by a push-forward recursive relation. We assume that two fundamental aspects of pedestrian behavior rule the dynamics of the system: on the one hand, the will to reach specific targets, which determines the main direction of motion of the walkers; on the other hand, the tendency to avoid crowding, which introduces interactions among the individuals. The resulting model is able to reproduce several experimental evidences of pedestrian flows pointed out in the specialized literature, being at the same time much easier to handle, from both the analytical and the numerical point of view, than other models relying on nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws. This makes it suitable to address two-dimensional applications of practical interest, chiefly the motion of pedestrians in complex domains scattered with obstacles. © 2009 Springer-Verlag.

In this work the phenomenon of contact inhibition of growth is studied by applying an individual based model and a continuum multiphase model to describe cell colony growth in vitro. The impact of different cell behavior in response to mechanical cues is investigated. The work aims at comparing the results from both models from the qualitative and, whenever possible, also the quantitative point of view. Crown Copyright © 2009.

In this paper a macroscopic model of tumor cord growth is developed, relying on the mathematical theory of deformable porous media. Tumor is modeled as a saturated mixture of proliferating cells, extracellular fluid and extracellular matrix, that occupies a spatial region close to a blood vessel whence cells get the nutrient needed for their vital functions. Growth of tumor cells takes place within a healthy host tissue, which is in turn modeled as a saturated mixture of non-proliferating cells. Interactions between these two regions are accounted for as an essential mechanism for the growth of the tumor mass. By weakening the role of the extracellular matrix, which is regarded as a rigid non-remodeling scaffold, a system of two partial differential equations is derived, describing the evolution of the cell volume ratio coupled to the dynamics of the nutrient, whose higher and lower concentration levels determine proliferation or death of tumor cells, respectively. Numerical simulations of a reference two-dimensional problem are shown and commented, and a qualitative mathematical analysis of some of its key issues is proposed. © American Institute of Mathematical Sciences.

Following some general ideas on the discrete kinetic and stochastic game theory proposed by one of the authors in a previous work, this paper develops a discrete velocity mathematical model for vehicular traffic along a one-way road. The kinetic scale is chosen because, unlike the macroscopic one, it allows to capture the probabilistic essence of the interactions among the vehicles, and offers at the same time, unlike the microscopic one, the opportunity of a pro. table analytical investigation of the relevant global features of the system. The discretization of the velocity variable, rather than being a pure mathematical technicality, plays a role in including the intrinsic granular nature of the flow of vehicles in the mathematical theory of traffic. Other important characteristics of the model concern the gain and loss terms of the kinetic equations, namely the construction of a density-dependent table of games to model velocity transitions and the introduction of a visibility length to account for nonlocal interactions among the vehicles.

A mathematical model of the tumour growth along a blood vessel is proposed. The model employs the mixture theory approach to describe a tissue which consists of cells, extracellular matrix and liquid. The growing tumour tissue is supposed to be surrounded by the host tissue. Tumours where complete oxydation of glucose prevails are considered. Special attention is paid to consistent description of oxygen consumption and growth processes based on the energy balance. A finite difference numerical method is proposed. The level set method is used to track an interface between the tissues. The simulations show localization of the tumour within a limited distance from the vessels and constant expansion velocity along the vessels.

The formation of vascular networks in vitro develops along two rather distinct stages: during the early migration-dominated stage the main features of the pattern emerge, later the mechanical interaction of the cells with the substratum stretches the network. Mathematical models in the relevant literature have been focusing just on either of the aspects of this complex system. In this paper, a unified view of the morphogenetic process is provided in terms of physical mechanisms and mathematical modeling.