- Research
- Open access
- Published:
On a coupled system of fractional compartmental models for a biological system
Advances in Difference Equations volume 2017, Article number: 146 (2017)
Abstract
In this paper, we investigate the existence of solutions for a coupled system of fractional compartmental models as differential inclusions with coupled nonlocal and integral boundary conditions, whose multivalued terms depend on lower-order fractional derivatives. By means of nonlinear alternative of Leray-Schauder type, continuous and measurable selection theorems together with Leray-Schauder degree theory, some sufficient conditions for the existence of solutions are presented, which extend some known results. Several examples are given to demonstrate the application of our main results.
1 Introduction
Fractional calculus has emerged as an interesting field of investigation in the last few decades. Fractional differential equations and inclusions arise in the mathematical modeling of systems and processes occurring in many engineering and scientific disciplines such as physics, chemistry, viscoelasticity, electrochemistry, electromagnetism, aerodynamics, economics, polymer rheology, control theory, signal and image processing, biophysics, blood flow phenomena, etc. [1–4]. In consequence, the subject of fractional differential equations and inclusions is gaining much importance and attention. For details and examples, see [5–12] and the references therein.
On the other hand, coupled systems of fractional differential equations arise in various problems of applied nature, for example, HIV is a retrovirus that targets the CD4+ T lymphocytes, which are the most abundant white blood cells of the immune system. Perelson [13, 14] developed a simple model for the primary infection with HIV. In this model, four categories of cells were defined: uninfected CD4+ T cells, latently infected CD4+ T cells, productively infected CD4+ T cells and virus population. AAM Arafal et al. introduced fractional-order model of infection of CD4+ T-cells. The coupled system is described by the following set of fractional ordinary differential equations of order \(\alpha_{1},\alpha_{2},\alpha_{3}>0\):
where T, I and V denote the concentration of uninfected CD4+ T cells, infected CD4+ T cells, and free HIV virus particles in the blood, respectively. δ represents the death rate of infected T cells and includes the possibility of death by bursting of infected T cells, hence δd. The parameter b is the rate at which infected cells return to uninfected class, while c is the death rate of virus and N is the average number of viral particles produced by an infected cell. Besides, [15–19] have established the existence and uniqueness for solutions of some systems of nonlinear fractional differential equations.
Compartmental analysis initially developed from studies of the uptake and distribution of radioactive tracers, but today it plays a fundamental role in many parts of medicine, bioengineering and environmental science [20–22]. Compartmental models of pharmacokinetics were recently generalized using fractional calculus to extend the governing systems for the form of fractional-order differential equations with specified initial conditions [23, 24].
In 2011, Ivo Petráš and Richard L. Magin [25] considered the two-compartmental pharmacokinetic model for oral drug administration as follows:
with the initial condition
where \({}^{c}D^{\alpha_{i}}\) (\(i=1,2\)) denotes the Caputo fractional derivative, \(\alpha_{1},\alpha_{2}>0\), \(t\geq0\), \(q_{i}(t)\) (\(i=1,2\)) denotes the amount of drug in a specific compartment, \(k_{i}\) (\(i=1,2\)) is the fractional rate of transfer to compartment. In their results, they assumed \(q'_{1}(0)=q'_{2}(0)=0\) if \(\alpha_{1}, \alpha_{2}\in(0,2]\). They pointed out a very effective numerical method for the solution of system (1.1)-(1.2), and the numerical solution is also created as a Matlab function.
Let \(q_{1}(t)\in F(t,q_{1}(t),q_{2}(t),{}^{c}D^{\gamma}q_{2}(t))\) and \(q_{2}(t)\in G(t,q_{1}(t),{}^{c}D^{\delta}q_{1}(t),q_{2}(t))\). We get the converted coupled system of nonlinear fractional differential inclusions:
supplemented with coupled nonlocal and integral boundary conditions of the form
where \(t\in J:=[0,T]\), \({}^{c}D^{i}\) denotes the Caputo fractional derivatives of order i, \(i=\alpha, \beta, \gamma, \delta\) respectively, \(F,G:J\times\mathbb{R}^{3}\rightarrow\mathcal{P}( \mathbb{R})\), h, ϕ are given continuous functionals and \(\mu_{1}\), \(\mu_{2}\) are real constants.
To the best of our knowledge, there are few people to study the coupled system of fractional differential inclusions for compartmental models. For the part of theoretical results, our basic tools are the theory of fractional calculus, the methods and results for differential inclusions, and several fixed point theorems for multifunctions due to [26, 27].
Next, we compare our theoretical results with the other literature in details as follows:
-
(i)
Our approach is adapted to the case when the right-hand sides have convex values as well as nonconvex for system (1.3)-(1.4), which was not considered in [13, 14, 18, 19].
-
(ii)
The present work is an extension of a recent paper of the authors [19], which was considered for a single-valued case. This adds to the uncertainty about the unknown function.
-
(iii)
The fractional compartment form of (1.1)-(1.2) is a particular case of the coupled system (1.3)-(1.4) if we take \(F=\{-k_{1}x(t)\}\), \(G=\{k_{1}x(t)+k_{2}y(t)\}\), \(h(y)=\phi(x)=\mu _{1}=\mu_{2}=0\).
-
(iv)
Coupled system (1.3) is called a commensurate-order system if \(\alpha=\beta\), otherwise it is an incommensurate-order system [25].
-
(v)
The coupled system for a single-valued map [19] is a particular case of the corresponding multivalued map if we take \(F=\{f\}\), \(G=\{g\}\) and f, g are continuous functions.
-
(vi)
We adopt the ideas of selection theorems to reduce the condition that the right-hand side has convex values.
-
(vii)
The mentioned methods are also useful for further investigations concerning the existence of solutions of a coupled system of fractional differential inclusions and other types.
The structure of this paper is as follows. In Section 2, we introduce some notations, definitions of fractional calculus and multivalued maps, together with some basic lemmas to prove our main results. In Section 3, we will consider the sufficient conditions for the existence results. Finally, in Section 4, several examples are given to illustrate our main results.
2 Preliminaries
This section is devoted to presenting some notation and preliminary lemmas that will be used in the proofs of the main results [28, 29].
Let \((X,\Vert \cdot \Vert )\) be a normed space, and let Y be a subset of X. We denote
-
(i)
\(\mathcal{P}(X)=\{Y\subseteq X:Y\neq\emptyset\}\);
-
(ii)
\(\mathcal{P}_{cl}(X)=\{Y\in\mathcal{P}(X):Y \text{ closed}\}\);
-
(iii)
\(\mathcal{P}_{b}(X)=\{Y\in\mathcal{P}(X):Y \text{ bounded}\}\);
-
(iv)
\(\mathcal{P}_{cp}(X)=\{Y\in\mathcal{P}(X):Y \text{ compact}\}\);
-
(v)
\(\mathcal{P}_{cv}(X)=\{Y\in\mathcal{P}(X):Y \text{ convex}\}\);
-
(vi)
\(\mathcal{P}_{cp,cv}(X)=\{Y\in\mathcal{P}(X):Y\text{ compact, convex}\}\).
Consider the Pompeiu-Hausdorff metric \(H_{d}:\mathcal{P}(X)\times \mathcal{P}(X)\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\cup\{\infty\}\) given by
where \(d(A,b)=\inf_{a\in A}d(a;b)\), \(d(a,B)=\inf_{b\in B}d(a;b)\). Then \((\mathcal{P}_{b,cl}(X),H_{d})\) is a metric space and \((\mathcal{P} _{cl}(X),H_{d})\) is a generalized (complete) metric space (see [28, 30]).
A multivalued map \(F:X\rightarrow\mathcal{P}(X)\)
-
(i)
is convex (closed) valued if \(F(x)\) is convex (closed) for all \(x\in X\);
-
(ii)
is bounded on bounded sets if \(F(B)=\bigcup_{x\in B}F(x)\) is bounded in X for all \(B\in\mathcal{P}_{b}(X)\) (i.e., \(\sup_{x\in B}\{ \sup\{\vert y\vert :y\in F(x)\}\}<\infty\));
-
(iii)
is called upper semicontinuous (u.s.c) on X if, for each \(x_{0}\in X\), the set \(F(x_{0})\) is a nonempty closed subset of X and if, for each open set N of X containing \(F(x_{0})\), there exists an open neighborhood \(\mathcal{N}_{0}\) of \(x_{0}\) such that \(F( \mathcal{N}_{0})\subseteq N\);
-
(iv)
is called lower semicontinuous if the set \(\{x\in X:F(x)\cap O \neq\emptyset\}\) is open for each open set O in X;
-
(v)
is said to be completely continuous if \(F(B)\) is relatively compact for every \(B\in\mathcal{P}_{b}(X)\);
-
(vi)
is said to be measurable if, for every \(y\in\mathbb{R}\), the function
$$t\mapsto d\bigl(y,F(t)\bigr)=\inf\bigl\{ \vert y-z\vert :z\in G(t)\bigr\} $$is measurable;
-
(vii)
has a fixed point if there is \(x\in X\) such that \(x\in F(x)\). The fixed point set of the multivalued operator F will be denoted by Fix F.
Definition 2.1
[31]
The fractional integral of order \(q>0\) of a Lebesgue integrable function \(f(\cdot): (0,\infty)\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\) is defined by
provided that the right-hand side is pointwise defined on \((0,\infty )\) and \(\Gamma(\cdot)\) is the (Euler) gamma function defined by \(\Gamma(q)=\int_{0}^{\infty}t^{q-1}e^{-t}\,dt\).
Definition 2.2
[31]
The Caputo fractional derivative of order \(q>0\) of a function \(f(\cdot):[0,\infty)\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\) is defined by
where \(n=[q]+1\). It is assumed implicitly that \(f(\cdot)\) is n times differentiable whose nth derivative is absolutely continuous.
Lemma 2.1
[32]
Let \(\alpha>0\). If we assume \(h\in AC^{n}(0,1)\), then the differential equation
has a unique solution
where \(c_{i}\in\mathbb{R}\), \(i=0,1,2,\ldots,n-1\), n is the smallest integer greater than or equal to α.
In view of Lemma 2.1, it follows that
for some \(c_{i}\in\mathbb{R}, i=0,1,2,\ldots,n-1\), n is the smallest integer greater than or equal to α.
Lemma 2.2
[19]
Let \(\omega,z\in L[0,T]\) and \(x,y\in AC^{2}[0,T]\). Then the unique solution of the problem
is
and
where
Definition 2.3
A function \((x,y)\in AC^{2}(J,\mathbb{R})\times AC^{2}(J, \mathbb{R})\) is a solution of the coupled system (1.3) if it satisfies the coupled nonlocal and integral boundary conditions (1.4) and there exist functions \(f,g\in L^{1}(J,\mathbb{R})\) such that \(f(t)\in F(t,x(t),y(t),{}^{c}D^{\gamma}y(t))\), \(g(t)\in G(t,x(t),{}^{c}D ^{\delta}x(t),y(t))\) a.e. on \(t\in J\) and
and
where Δ and \(\sigma_{i}\) (\(i=1,2,3,4\)) are defined in Lemma 2.2.
Definition 2.4
A multivalued map \(F:X\rightarrow\mathcal{P}_{cl}(X)\) is called
-
(1)
γ-Lipschitz if there exists \(\gamma>0\) such that
$$H_{d}\bigl(F(x),F(y)\bigr)\leq\gamma d(x,y)\quad \text{for each } x,y \in X; $$ -
(2)
a contraction if it is γ-Lipschitz with \(\gamma<1\).
Definition 2.5
A multivalued map \(F:J\times\mathbb{R}^{3}\rightarrow P( \mathbb{R})\) is said to be \(L^{1}\)-Carathéodory if
-
(1)
\(t\mapsto F(t,x,y,z)\) is measurable for each \(x,y,z\in\mathbb {R}\);
-
(2)
\((x,y,z)\mapsto F(t,x,y,z)\) is upper semicontinuous for almost \(t\in J\);
-
(3)
for each \(l>0\), there exists \(\varphi_{l}\in L^{1}(J,\mathbb{R} ^{+})\) such that
$$\bigl\Vert F(t,x,y,z) \bigr\Vert =\sup\bigl\{ \vert v\vert :v\in F(t,x,y,z) \bigr\} \leq\varphi_{l}(t) $$for all \(\Vert x\Vert \leq l\), \(\Vert y\Vert \leq l\), \(\Vert z\Vert \leq l\) and for a.e. \(t\in J\).
Lemma 2.3
[33]
Let X be a Banach space. Let \(F:J\times X^{3} \rightarrow\mathcal{P}_{cp,cv}(X)\) be an \(L^{1}\)-Carathéodory multivalued map and T be a linear continuous mapping from \(L^{1}(J,X)\) to \(C(J,X)\). Then the operator
is a closed graph operator in \(C(J,X)\times C(J,X)\).
To prove our main results, we will use the following fixed point theorems.
Lemma 2.4
Nonlinear alternative of Leray-Schauder type [26]
Let X be a Banach space, C be a closed convex subset of X, and \(\mathcal{U}\) be an open subset of C with \(0\in\mathcal{U}\). Suppose that \(F:\bar{\mathcal{U}}\rightarrow P_{cp,cv}(C)\) is an upper semicontinuous compact map. Then either (1) F has a fixed point in \(\bar{\mathcal{U}}\), or (2) there is \(x\in\partial\mathcal{U}\) and \(\lambda\in(0,1)\) such that \(x\in\lambda F(x)\).
Lemma 2.5
Covitz and Nadler [27]
Let \((X,d)\) be a complete metric space. If \(F:X\rightarrow P_{cl}(X)\) is a contraction, then F has a fixed point, i.e., a point \(z\in X\) such that \(z\in F(z)\).
3 Main results
In this section, we will give some existence results for the coupled system (1.3)-(1.4).
Let \(C(J,\mathbb{R})\) denote the space of all continuous functions defined on J. Let \(X=\{x:x\in C(J,\mathbb{R}) \text{ and } {}^{c}D ^{\delta}x\in C(J,\mathbb{R})\}\) be a Banach space endowed with the norm \(\Vert x\Vert _{X}=\Vert x\Vert +\Vert {}^{c}D^{\delta }x\Vert =\max_{t\in J}\vert x(t)\vert + \max_{t\in J}\vert {}^{c}D^{\delta}x(t)\vert \), where \(0<\delta<1\) [34], and let \(Y=\{y:y\in C(J,\mathbb{R}) \text{ and } {}^{c}D ^{\gamma}y\in C(J,\mathbb{R})\}\) be a Banach space equipped with the norm \(\Vert y\Vert _{Y}=\Vert y\Vert +\Vert {}^{c}D^{\gamma }y\Vert =\max_{t\in J}\vert y(t)\vert + \max_{t\in J}\vert {}^{c}D^{\gamma}y(t)\vert \), where \(0<\gamma<1\). Obviously the product space \((X\times Y,\Vert \cdot \Vert _{X\times Y})\) is a Banach space with the norm \(\Vert (x,y)\Vert _{X\times Y}=\Vert x\Vert _{X}+\Vert y\Vert _{Y}\) for \((x,y)\in X\times Y\).
For each \((x,y)\in X\times Y\), define the sets of selections of F, G by
and
In view of Lemma 2.2, we define operators \(N_{1}:X\times Y \rightarrow\mathcal{P}(X\times Y)\) and \(N_{2}:X\times Y\rightarrow \mathcal{P}(X\times Y)\) as
and
where
and
Then we define an operator \(N:X\times Y\rightarrow\mathcal{P}(X \times Y)\times\mathcal{P}(X\times Y)\) by
where \(N_{1}\), \(N_{2}\) are defined as (3.1) and (3.2).
It is clear that if \((x,y)\in X\times Y\) is a fixed point of the operator N, then \((x,y)\) is a solution of the coupled system (1.3)-(1.4).
For computational convenience, we introduce the notations:
3.1 The Carathéodory case
First we consider the case when F, G are convex valued.
We give the following conditions:
-
(H1)
\(F, G:J\times\mathbb{R}^{3}\rightarrow\mathcal{P}_{cp,cv}( \mathbb{R})\) are \(L^{1}\)-Carathéodory multivalued maps;
-
(H2)
There exist \(m_{1},m_{2}\in C(J,\mathbb{R}^{+})\) and \(\varphi _{1},\varphi_{2},\psi_{1},\psi_{2},\rho_{1},\rho_{2}:[0,\infty) \rightarrow(0,\infty)\) continuous, nondecreasing such that
$$\begin{aligned}& \bigl\Vert F(t,x,y,z)\bigr\Vert =\sup\bigl\{ \vert f\vert :f\in F(t,x,y,z) \bigr\} \\& \quad \leq m_{1}(t) \bigl(\varphi _{1}\bigl(\vert x \vert \bigr)+\psi_{1}\bigl(\vert y\vert \bigr)+\rho_{1} \bigl(\vert z\vert \bigr) \bigr) \end{aligned}$$and
$$\begin{aligned}& \bigl\Vert G(t,x,y,z)\bigr\Vert =\sup\bigl\{ \vert g\vert :g\in G(t,x,y,z) \bigr\} \\& \quad \leq m_{2}(t) \bigl(\varphi _{2}\bigl(\vert x \vert \bigr)+\psi_{2}\bigl(\vert y\vert \bigr)+\rho_{2} \bigl(\vert z\vert \bigr) \bigr) \end{aligned}$$for \(x,y,z\in\mathbb{R}\) and a.e. \(t\in J\);
-
(H3)
h, ϕ are continuous functionals with \(h(0)=\phi(0)=0\), and there exist constants \(L_{1}>0\), \(L_{2}>0\) such that
$$\begin{aligned}& \bigl\vert h(x_{1})-h(x_{2})\bigr\vert \leq L_{1}\Vert x_{1}-x_{2}\Vert , \\& \bigl\vert \phi(x_{1})-\phi(x_{2})\bigr\vert \leq L_{2} \Vert x_{1}-x_{2}\Vert ,\quad \forall x_{1},x_{2} \in C(J, \mathbb{R}). \end{aligned}$$
Theorem 3.1
Assume that (H1)-(H3) are satisfied and there exists \(K>0\) such that
If, in addition, \(\Lambda_{3}<1\), where
then the coupled system (1.3)-(1.4) has at least one solution on J.
Proof
Consider the operators \(N_{1}:X\times Y\rightarrow \mathcal{P}(X\times Y)\) and \(N_{2}:X\times Y\rightarrow\mathcal{P}(X \times Y)\) defined by (3.1) and (3.2). From (H1), we have that for each \((x,y)\in X\times Y\), the sets \(S_{F,(x,y)}\) and \(S_{G,(x,y)}\) are nonempty [33]. For \((x,y)\in X\times Y\), let \(f\in S_{F,(x,y)}\), \(g\in S_{G,(x,y)}\) and
and
that is, \(h_{1}\in N_{1}(x,y)\), \(h_{2}\in N_{2}(x,y)\), so \((h_{1},h _{2})\in N(x,y)\).
We will show that N satisfies the requirements of the nonlinear alternative of Leray-Schauder type. The proof will be given in five steps.
Step 1. \(N(x,y)\) is convex valued.
Suppose \((h_{i},\widetilde{h}_{i})\in(N_{1},N_{2})\) (\(i=1,2\)). Then there exist \(f_{i}\in S_{F,(x,y)}\), \(g_{i}\in S_{G,(x,y)}\) (\(i=1,2\)) such that for any \(t\in J\), \(i=1,2\), we have
and
Let \(0\leq\theta\leq1\). Then, for any \(t\in J\), we have
and
Since F and G are convex valued, we deduce that \(S_{F,(x,y)}\) and \(S_{G,(x,y)}\) are convex. Obviously, \(\theta h_{1}+(1-\theta)h_{2} \in N_{1}\), \(\theta\widetilde{h}_{1}+(1-\theta)\widetilde{h}_{2} \in N_{2}\). Therefore, \(\theta(h_{1},\widetilde{h}_{1})+(1-\theta)(h _{2},\widetilde{h}_{2})\in N\).
Step 2. N maps bounded sets into bounded sets in \(X\times Y\).
Let \(r>0\), \(B_{r}=\{(x,y)\in X\times Y:\Vert (x,y)\Vert _{X\times Y}\leq r\}\) be a bounded subset of \(X\times Y\), \((h_{1},h_{2})\in N(x,y)\) and \((x,y)\in B_{r}\). Then there exist \(f\in S_{F,(x,y)}\) and \(g\in S_{G,(x,y)}\) such that for any \(t\in J\),
and
Based on assumptions (H3), we find the following estimates:
Using these estimates, we get
and
which implies that
Thus
In a similar manner, for any \(t\in J\), we obtain
and
In consequence, we get
Hence, we obtain
Step 3. N maps bounded sets into equicontinuous sets in \(X\times Y\).
Let \(B_{r}\) be a bounded set of \(X\times Y\) as in Step 2. Let \(0\leq t_{1}< t_{2}\leq T\) and \((x,y)\in B_{r}\). For each \((h_{1},h _{2})\in N(x,y)\), then there exist \(f\in S_{F,(x,y)}\) and \(g\in S_{G,(x,y)}\) such that
and
Since
and
Hence \(\vert h_{1}(x,y)(t_{2})-h_{1}(x,y)(t_{1})\vert \rightarrow 0\) as \(t_{2}\rightarrow t_{1}\).
Analogously, one can obtain
and
Hence \(\vert h_{2}(x,y)(t_{2})-h_{2}(x,y)(t_{1})\vert \rightarrow 0\) as \(t_{2}\rightarrow t_{1}\). Therefore, the operator \(N(x,y)\) is equicontinuous.
From the foregoing arguments, we infer that the operator \(N(x,y)\) is completely continuous by the Arzelá-Ascoli theorem.
Step 4. N has a closed graph.
Letting \((x_{n},y_{n})\rightarrow(x_{\ast},y_{\ast})\), \((h_{n}, \overline{h}_{n})\in N(x_{n},y_{n})\) and \((h_{n},\overline{h}_{n}) \rightarrow(h_{\ast},\overline{h}_{\ast})\), we need to show \((h_{\ast},\overline{h}_{\ast})\in N(x_{\ast},y_{\ast})\). Now \((h_{n},\overline{h}_{n})\in N(x_{n},y_{n})\) implies that there exist \(f_{n}\in S_{F,(x_{n},y_{n})}\) and \(g_{n}\in S_{G,(x_{n},y_{n})}\) such that for all \(t\in J\),
and
Let us consider the continuous linear operators \(\Phi_{1},\Phi_{2}:L ^{1}(J,X\times Y)\rightarrow C(J,X\times Y)\) given by
and
From Lemma 2.3, we know that \((\Phi_{1},\Phi_{2})\circ(S_{F},S _{G})\) is a closed graph operator. Moreover, we get \((h_{n}, \overline{h}_{n})\in(\Phi_{1},\Phi_{2})\circ(S_{F,(x_{n},y_{n})},S _{G,(x_{n},y_{n})})\) for all n. Since \((x_{n},y_{n})\rightarrow(x _{\ast},y_{\ast})\), \((h_{n},\overline{h}_{n})\rightarrow(h_{\ast}, \overline{h}_{\ast})\) it follows the existence of \(f_{\ast}\in S _{F,(x_{\ast},y_{\ast})}\) and \(g_{\ast}\in S_{G,(x_{\ast},y_{ \ast})}\) such that
and
that is, \((h_{\ast},\overline{h}_{\ast})\in N(x_{\ast},y_{\ast})\).
Step 5. A priori bounds on solutions.
Let \((x,y)\in\lambda N(x,y)\) for some \(\lambda\in(0,1)\). Then there exist \(f\in S_{F,(x,y)}\) and \(g\in S_{G,(x,y)}\) such that for all \(t\in J\),
and
With the same arguments as in Step 2 of our proof, for each \((x,y)\in X\times Y\), we obtain
and
Thus
Now we set
Clearly, \(\mathcal{U}\) is an open subset of \(X\times Y\) and \((0,0)\in\mathcal{U}\). As a consequence of Steps 1-4, together with the Arzelá-Ascoli theorem, we can conclude that \(N:\overline{ \mathcal{U}}\rightarrow\mathcal{P}_{cp,cv}(X)\times\mathcal{P}_{cp,cv}(Y)\) is upper semicontinuous and completely continuous. From the choice of \(\mathcal{U}\), there is no \((x,y)\in\partial\mathcal{U}\) such that \((x,y)\in\lambda N(x,y)\) for some \(\lambda\in(0,1)\). Therefore, by Theorem 2.4, we deduce that N has a fixed point \((x,y) \in\overline{\mathcal{U}}\), which is a solution of the coupled system (1.3)-(1.4). This completes the proof. □
3.2 The lower semicontinuous case
Now we study the case when F, G are not necessarily convex valued.
In this result, we need to give the following conditions:
-
(H4)
\(F,G:J\times\mathbb{R}^{3}\rightarrow\mathcal{P}_{cp}( \mathbb{R})\) are multivalued maps such that
-
(1)
\((t,x,y,z)\rightarrow F(t,x,y,z)\) and \((t,x,y,z)\rightarrow G(t,x,y,z)\) are \(\Sigma\otimes\mathcal{B} \otimes\mathcal{B}\otimes\mathcal{B}\) measurable;
-
(2)
\((x,y,z)\rightarrow F(t,x,y,z)\) and \((x,y,z)\rightarrow G(t,x,y,z)\) are lower semicontinuous for a.e. \(t\in J\).
-
(1)
Theorem 3.2
Assume that (H2)-(H4) and relation (3.4) hold. Then the coupled system (1.3)-(1.4) has at least one solution on J.
Proof
From (H2), (H4) and [35], Lemma 4.1, maps
are lower semicontinuous and have nonempty closed and decomposable values. Then from the selection theorem due to Bressan and Colombo [36], there exist continuous functions \(f:X\rightarrow L^{1}(J, \mathbb{R})\) and \(g:Y\rightarrow L^{1}(J,\mathbb{R})\) such that \(f\in\mathcal{F}_{1}(x,y)\) and \(g\in\mathcal{F}_{2}(x,y)\) for all \(x\in X\), \(y\in Y\). That is to say, we have \(f(t,x(t),y(t),{}^{c}D^{ \gamma}y(t))\in F(t,x(t),y(t),{}^{c}D^{\gamma}y(t))\) and \(g(t,x(t),{}^{c}D ^{\delta}x(t),y(t))\in G(t,x(t),{}^{c}D^{\delta}x(t),y(t))\) for a.e. \(t\in J\). Now consider the problem
with the boundary conditions (1.4). Note that if \((x,y)\in X \times Y\) is a solution of the coupled system (3.5), then \((x,y)\) is a solution to the coupled system (1.3)-(1.4).
A solution of the boundary value problem (3.5), (1.4) is then reformulated as a fixed point problem for the operator \(\overline{N}:X\times Y\rightarrow X\times Y\) defined by
where
and
It can easily be shown that N̅ is continuous and completely continuous and satisfies all the conditions of the Leray-Schauder nonlinear alternative for single-valued maps [37]. The remaining part of the proof is similar to that of Theorem 3.1, so we omit it. This completes the proof. □
3.3 The Lipschitz case
In this section, we need to give the following conditions:
-
(H5)
\(F,G:J\times\mathbb{R}^{3}\rightarrow\mathcal{P}_{cp}( \mathbb{R})\) are multivalued maps such that
-
(1)
F and G are integrable bounded, and maps \(t\rightarrow F(t,x,y,z)\) and \(t\rightarrow G(t,x,y,z)\) are measurable for all \(x,y,z\in\mathbb{R}\);
-
(2)
There exist \(m_{3},m_{4}\in C(J,\mathbb{R}^{+})\) such that for a.e. \(t\in J\) and all \(x_{1},x_{2},y_{1},y_{2},z_{1},z_{2}\in\mathbb{R}\),
$$H_{d} \bigl(F(t,x_{1},y_{1},z_{1}),F(t,x_{2},y_{2},z_{2}) \bigr)\leq m _{3}(t) \bigl(\vert x_{1}-x_{2} \vert +\vert y_{1}-y_{2}\vert +\vert z_{1}-z_{2}\vert \bigr) $$and
$$H_{d} \bigl(G(t,x_{1},y_{1},z_{1}),G(t,x_{2},y_{2},z_{2}) \bigr)\leq m _{4}(t) \bigl(\vert x_{1}-x_{2} \vert +\vert y_{1}-y_{2}\vert +\vert z_{1}-z_{2}\vert \bigr). $$
-
(1)
Theorem 3.3
Assume that (H3) and (H5) hold. If, in addition,
where
then the coupled system (1.3)-(1.4) has at least one solution on J.
Proof
From (H5), we have that the multivalued maps \(t\rightarrow F(t,x(t),y(t),{}^{c}D^{\gamma}y(t))\) and \(t\rightarrow G(t,x(t),{}^{c}D ^{\delta}x(t),y(t))\) are measurable [29], Proposition 2.7.9, and closed valued for each \((x,y)\in X\times Y\). Hence they have measurable selection [29], Theorem 2.2.1, and the sets \(S_{F,(x,y)}\) and \(S_{G,(x,y)}\) are nonempty. Let N be defined in (3.3). We will show that, under this situation, N satisfies the requirements of Lemma 2.5.
Step 1. For each \((x,y)\in X\times Y\), \(N(x,y)\in\mathcal{P} _{cl}(X)\times\mathcal{P}_{cl}(Y)\). Let \((h_{n},\overline{h}_{n}) \in N(x_{n},y_{n})\) (\(n\geq1\)) such that \((h_{n},\overline{h}_{n}) \rightarrow(h,\overline{h})\) in \(X\times Y\). Then \((h,\overline{h}) \in X\times Y\) and there exist \(f_{n}\in S_{F,(x_{n},y_{n})}\) and \(g_{n}\in S_{G,(x_{n},y_{n})}\) (\(n\geq1\)) such that for all \(t\in J\),
and
By (H5), the sequences \(f_{n}\) and \(g_{n}\) are integrable bounded. Since F and G have compact values, we may pass to subsequences if necessary to get that \(f_{n}\) and \(g_{n}\) converge to f and g in \(L^{1}(J,\mathbb{R})\). Thus \(f\in S_{F,(x,y)}\), \(g\in S_{G,(x,y)}\) and for each \(t\in J\),
and
This means that \((h,\overline{h})\in N\) and N is closed.
Step 2. There exists \(\tau<1\) such that
Let \((x,y),(\overline{x},\overline{y})\in X\times Y\) and \((h_{1},h _{2})\in N(x,y)\). Then there exist \(f_{1}\in S_{F,(x,y)}\) and \(g_{1}\in S_{G,(x,y)}\) such that for all \(t\in J\),
and
From (H5)(2), we deduce
and
Hence, for a.e. \(t\in J\), there exist \(f\in F(t,\overline{x}(t), \overline{y}(t),{}^{c}D^{\gamma}\overline{y}(t))\) and \(g\in G(t, \overline{x}(t),{}^{c}D^{\delta}\overline{x}(t),\overline{y}(t))\) such that
and
Consider the multivalued maps \(V_{1},V_{2}:J\rightarrow\mathcal{P}( \mathbb{R})\) given by
and
Define
Since \(f_{1}(t)\), \(g_{1}(t)\), \(\kappa_{1}(t)\), \(\kappa_{2}(t)\) are measurable, [38], Theorem III.41, implies that \(V_{1}\) and \(V_{2}\) are measurable. It follows from (H5) that the maps \(t\rightarrow F(t,x(t),y(t),{}^{c}D^{\gamma}y(t))\) and \(t\rightarrow G(t,x(t),{}^{c}D ^{\delta}x(t),y(t))\) are measurable. Hence, by (3.7)-(3.8) and [29], Proposition 2.1.43, the multivalued maps \(t\rightarrow V_{1}(t)\cap F(t,\overline{x}(t),\overline{y}(t),{}^{c}D^{\gamma} \overline{y}(t))\) and \(t\rightarrow V_{2}(t)\cap G(t,\overline{x}(t), {}^{c}D ^{\delta}\overline{x}(t),\overline{y}(t))\) are measurable and nonempty closed valued. Therefore, we can find \(f_{2}(t)\in F(t,\overline{x}(t), \overline{y}(t),{}^{c}D^{\gamma}\overline{y}(t))\) and \(g_{2}(t)\in G(t, \overline{x}(t),{}^{c}D^{\delta}\overline{x}(t),\overline{y}(t))\) such that for a.e. \(t\in J\),
and
Let
and
that is, \((\overline{h}_{1},\overline{h}_{2})\in N(\overline{x}, \overline{y})\). Since
and
we obtain
In a similar manner, we can have
and
We deduce that
Thus,
Denote
By using an analogous relation obtained by interchanging the roles of \((x,y)\) and \((\overline{x},\overline{y})\), we get
Therefore, from (3.6), Lemma 2.5 implies that N has a fixed point, which is a solution of the coupled system (1.3)-(1.4). This completes the proof. □
Remark 3.1
If \(f(t,x(t),y(t),{}^{c}D^{\gamma}y(t))\) and \(g(t,x(t),{}^{c}D^{ \delta}x(t),y(t))\) are continuous functions, \(F(t,x(t),y(t),{}^{c}D ^{\gamma}y(t))\) only contains the function \(f(t,x(t),y(t),{}^{c}D^{ \gamma}y(t))\) and \(G(t,x(t), {}^{c}D^{\delta}x(t),y(t))\) only contains the function \(g(t,x(t),{}^{c}D^{\delta}x(t),y(t))\). Then the existence results Theorem 3.1 and Theorem 3.2 are just the ones, respectively, in paper [19].
Remark 3.2
The new existence results for a class of second-order coupled system differential inclusions with coupled nonlocal and integral boundary conditions follow as a special case by taking \(\alpha=\beta=2\) in the results of this paper.
4 Examples for fractional compartmental models
In this section, we will give some examples to illustrate our main results.
Example 4.1
Consider the following fractional differential inclusions:
with boundary conditions of the form
where \(\alpha=\frac{5}{4}\), \(\beta=\frac{3}{2}\), \(\gamma= \frac{1}{4}\), \(\delta=\frac{1}{2}\), \(T=1\), \(\mu_{1}=\mu_{2}= \frac{1}{2}\), \(\eta=\xi=\frac{1}{9}\), \(L_{1}=\frac{1}{180}\), \(L_{2}=\frac{1}{144}\), and \(F,G:[0,1]\times\mathbb{R}^{3}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) are multivalued maps given by
It is clear that F, G are \(L^{1}\)-Carathéodory and have convex values satisfying
with \(m_{1}(t)=m_{2}(t)=\varphi_{1}(\vert x\vert )=\varphi _{2}(\vert x\vert )=\rho_{1}(\vert z\vert ) \equiv1\), \(\psi_{1}(\vert y\vert )=\psi_{2}(\vert y\vert )=\rho _{2}(\vert z\vert )\equiv2\).
Using the given data, we find that \(P_{1}\approx1.7762\), \(P_{2} \approx1.8657\), \(P_{3}\approx1.4459\), \(P_{4}\approx0.9819\), \(\overline{P}_{1}\approx1.9968\), \(\overline{P}_{2}\approx1.8657\), \(\overline{P}_{3}\approx1.8220\), \(\overline{P}_{4}\approx0.9819\), \(Q_{1}\approx0.0216\), \(Q_{2}\approx0.0246\), \(\overline{Q}_{1}\approx 0.0161\), \(\overline{Q}_{2}\approx0.0177\), \(\Lambda_{1}\approx6.0862\), \(\Lambda_{2}\approx7.3976\), \(\Lambda_{3}\approx0.0836<1\).
Furthermore, let K be any number satisfying
Clearly, all the conditions of Theorem 3.1 are satisfied. So there exists at least one solution of problem (4.1)-(4.2) on \([0,1]\).
Example 4.2
Consider the following coupled system of fractional compartmental models:
with boundary conditions of the form
where \(\alpha=\beta=\frac{3}{2}\), \(\gamma=\delta=\frac{1}{2}\), \(T=1\), \(\mu_{1}=\mu_{2}=0\), \(\eta=\xi=\frac{1}{9}\), \(L_{1}= \frac{1}{180}\), \(L_{2}=\frac{1}{144}\) and \(F,G:[0,1]\times\mathbb{R} ^{3}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\) are multivalued maps given by
It is clear that F, G satisfy (H4) and
with \(m_{1}(t)\equiv k_{1}\), \(m_{2}(t)\equiv\max\{k_{2},k_{3}\}\), \(\varphi_{1}(\vert x\vert )=\varphi_{2}(\vert x\vert )\equiv \Vert x\Vert \), \(\psi_{2}(\vert y\vert )\equiv \Vert y\Vert \), \(\psi_{1}(\vert y\vert )=\rho_{1}(\vert z\vert )=\rho_{2}(\vert z\vert )\equiv0\). Because \(x(t)\), \(y(t)\) denote the amount of a drug in a specific compartment in [25], \(\Vert x\Vert \) and \(\Vert y\Vert \) are constants. Letting \(\varphi_{1}(\vert x\vert )= \varphi_{2}(\vert x\vert )\equiv c_{1}\), \(\psi_{2}(\vert y\vert )\equiv c_{2}\) (\(c_{1}\), \(c _{2}\) are constants). Using the given data, we find that \(P_{1}\approx 1.3544\), \(P_{2}\approx0\), \(P_{3}\approx1.3544\), \(P_{4}\approx0\), \(\overline{P}_{1}\approx1.7306\), \(\overline{P}_{2}\approx0\), \(\overline{P}_{3}\approx1.7306\), \(\overline{P}_{4}\approx0\), \(Q_{1}\approx0.0167\), \(Q_{2}\approx0.0208\), \(\overline{Q}_{1}\approx 0.0111\), \(\overline{Q}_{2}\approx0.0139\), \(\Lambda_{1}\approx3.3077\), \(\Lambda_{2}\approx3.3077\), \(\Lambda_{3}\approx0.0657\).
Furthermore, let K be any number satisfying
Clearly, all the conditions of Theorem 3.2 are satisfied. So there exists at least one solution of problem (4.3)-(4.4) on \([0,1]\).
At the same time, we can see that the numerical solutions and simulations for problem (4.3)-(4.4) (single-valued) are obtained in [25]. That is, the conclusions we have gained are correct.
Example 4.3
Consider problem (4.1)-(4.2), where \(F,G:[0,1]\times\mathbb{R}^{3}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}^{+}\) are multivalued maps given by
Now
and
Here \(m_{3}(t)=\frac{1}{(2+t)^{4}}\), \(m_{4}(t)=\frac{1}{(2+t)^{6}}\) with \(\Vert m_{3}\Vert =\frac{1}{16}\) and \(\Vert m_{4}\Vert =\frac{1}{64}\).
Using the given data, we find that \(\Lambda_{4}\approx0.0853\), \(\Lambda_{5}\approx0.1403\), \(\Lambda_{6}\approx0.1190\), \(\Lambda _{7}\approx0.1390\) and
The compactness of F, G together with the above calculations leads to the existence of solution of problem (4.1)-(4.2) by Theorem 3.3.
5 Conclusion
In this article, we present existence conditions of solutions, which are the prerequisites for solving the numerical solutions. Before solving the numerical solution, we can know whether there is a solution. This reduces a lot of unnecessary calculations to a certain extent. It is very significant for fractional compartmental model for a biological system.
References
Podlubny, I: Fractional Differential Equations. Academic Press, San Diego (1999)
Kilbas, AA, Srivastava, HM, Trujillo, JJ: Theory and Applications of Fractional Differential Equations. North-Holland Mathematics Studies, vol. 204. Elsevier, Amsterdam (2006)
Miller, KS, Ross, B: An Introduction to the Fractional Calculus and Fractional Differential Equations. Wiley, New York (1993)
Sabatier, J, Agrawal, O, Machado, J: Advances in Fractional Calculus: Theoretical Developments and Applications in Physics and Engineering. Springer, Dordrecht (2007)
Jin, N, Sun, S, Zhang, C, Han, Z: The existence of solutions for boundary value problems of fractional differential inclusion with a parameter. J. Appl. Math. Comput., 1-16 (2015)
Wang, J, Ibrahim, AG, Fečkan, M: Nonlocal Cauchy problems for semilinear differential inclusions with fractional order in Banach spaces. Commun. Nonlinear Sci. Numer. Simul. 27, 281-293 (2015)
Ahmad, B, Ntouyas, SK, Tariboon, J: A study of mixed Hadamard and Riemann-Liouville fractional integro-differential inclusions via endpoint theory. Appl. Math. Lett. 52, 9-14 (2016)
Bayour, B, Torres, DFM: Existence of solution to a local fractional nonlinear differential equation. J. Comput. Appl. Math. 312, 127-133 (2016)
Benchaabane, A, Sakthivel, R: Sobolev-type fractional stochastic differential equations with non-Lipschitz coefficients. J. Comput. Appl. Math. 312, 65-73 (2016)
Balasubramaniam, P, Tamilalagan, P: Approximate controllability of a class of fractional neutral stochastic integro-differential inclusions with infinite delay by using Mainardi’s function. Appl. Math. Comput. 256, 232-246 (2015)
Liu, X, Liu, X, Liu, Y: Solvability for fractional differential inclusions with fractional nonseparated boundary conditions. J. Comput. Anal. Appl. 20(4), 734-749 (2016)
Liu, X, Liu, Z: Existence Results for Fractional Differential Inclusions with Multivalued Term Depending on Lower-Order Derivative. Abstract and Applied Analysis 2012, Article ID 423796 (2012)
Perelson, A: Modeling the interaction of the immune system with HIV. In: Castillo-Chavez, C (ed.) Mathematical and Statistical Approaches to AIDS Epidemiology. Lecture Notes in Biomathematics, vol. 83, p. 350. Springer, Berlin (1989)
Perelson, A, Kirschner, D, Boer, R: Dynamics of HIV infection of CD4+ T cells. Math. Biosci. 114, 81-125 (1993)
Liu, S, Wang, G, Zhang, L: Existence results for a coupled system of nonlinear neutral fractional differential equations. Appl. Math. Lett. 26, 1120-1124 (2013)
Jiang, J, Liu, L, Wu, Y: Positive solutions to singular fractional differential system with coupled boundary conditions. Commun. Nonlinear Sci. Numer. Simul. 18, 3061-3074 (2013)
Zhao, Y, Chen, H, Qin, B: Multiple solutions for a coupled system of nonlinear fractional differential equations via variational methods. Appl. Math. Comput. 257, 417-427 (2015)
Henderson, J, Luca, R: Positive solutions for a system of fractional differential equations with coupled integral boundary conditions. Appl. Math. Comput. 249, 182-197 (2014)
Ahmad, B, Ntouyas, SK, Alsaedi, A: On a coupled system of fractional differential equations with coupled nonlocal and integral boundary conditions. Chaos Solitons Fractals 83, 234-241 (2016)
Gunn, RN, Gunn, SR, Cunningham, VJ: Positron emission tomography compartmental models. J. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab. 21(6), 635-652 (2001)
Brauer, F: Compartmental models in epidemiology. In: Mathematical Epidemiology, pp. 19-79 (2008)
Graham, BP, Ooyen, AV: Compartmental models of growing neurites. Neurocomputing 38-40(6), 31-36 (2011)
Dokoumetzidis, A, Macheras, P: Fractional kinetics in drug absorption and disposition processes. J. Pharmacokinet. Pharmacodyn. 36, 165-178 (2009)
Popović, JK, Atanacković, MT, Pilipović, AS, Rapaić, MR, Pilipović, S, Atanacković, TM: A new approach to the compartmental analysis in pharmacokinetics: fractional time evolution of diclofenac. J. Pharmacokinet. Pharmacodyn. 37, 119-134 (2010)
Petráš, I, Magin, RL: Simulation of drug uptake in a two compartmental fractional model for a biological system. Commun. Nonlinear Sci. Numer. Simul. 16(12), 4588-4595 (2011)
Granas, A, Dugundji, J: Fixed Point Theory. Springer Monographs in Mathematics. Springer, New York (2003)
Covitz, H, Nadler, SB Jr.: Multi-valued contraction mappings in generalized metric spaces. Isr. J. Math. 8, 5-11 (1970)
Deimling, K: Multivalued Differential Equations. de Gruyter, Berlin (1992)
Hu, S, Papageorgiou, NS: Handbook of Multivalued Analysis, Theory I. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht (1997)
Kisielewicz, M: Differential Inclusions and Optimal Control. Mathematics and Its Applications (East European Series), vol. 44. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht (1991)
Samko, SG, Kilbas, AA, Marichev, OI: Fractional Integrals and Derivatives Theory and Applications. Gordon and Breach, Yverdon (1993)
Kilbas, AA, Srivastava, HM, Trujillo, JJ: Theory and Applications of Fractional Differential. Equation North-Holland Mathematics Studies. Elsevier, Amsterdam (2006)
Lasota, A, Opial, Z: An application of the Kakutani-Ky Fan theorem in the theory of ordinary differential equations. Bull. Acad. Pol. Sci., Sér. Sci. Math. Astron. Phys. 13, 781-786 (1965)
Su, X: Boundary value problem for a coupled system of nonlinear fractional differential equations. Appl. Math. Lett. 22(1), 64-69 (2009)
Tolstonogov, AA: A theorem of Bogolyubov with constraints generated by a second-order evolutionary control system. Izv. Math. 67(5), 177-206 (2003)
Bressan, A, Colombo, G: Extensions and selections of maps with decomposable values. Stud. Math. 90(1), 69-86 (1988)
Granas, A, Dugundji, J: Fixed Point Theory. Springer Monographs in Mathematics. Springer, New York (2003)
Castaing, C, Valadier, M: Convex Analysis and Measurable Multifunctions. Lecture Notes in Mathematics, vol. 580. Springer, Berlin (1977)
Acknowledgements
The authors sincerely thank the reviewers for their valuable suggestions and useful comments that have led to the present improved version of the original manuscript.
This research is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (11571202), by Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (ZR2016AM17), and by Graduate Innovation Foundation of University of Jinan (YCXS15005).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors’ contributions
The authors declare that the study was realized in collaboration with the same responsibility. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
About this article
Cite this article
Jin, N., Sun, S. On a coupled system of fractional compartmental models for a biological system. Adv Differ Equ 2017, 146 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13662-017-1170-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13662-017-1170-x