Showing papers by "Ron J. Patton published in 1978"

Phenomenological investigation of a distributed parameter model for coordinating the mechanical activity of the mammalian gut

Abstract: Spontaneous electrical rhythms recorded from the gastro-intestinal tract of humans and animals have been modelled using arrays of coupled relaxation oscillators. For the small intestine a one-dimensional chain of coupled van der Pol oscillators has successfully reproduced known physiological data. Recently, the oscillator dynamics have been modelled using modified Hodgkin-Huxley type equations which more closely relate to the ionic activity of smooth muscle. In this paper a distributed formulation of these auto rhythmic equations is solved using a differential quadrature method and results for the case equivalent to 30 coupled oscillators are presented.