Past exam of the mathematics and the environment and mathematical physiology course of the University of Oxford / 2009 / B / 6 / a

In delayed carbon-dioxide ventilation feedback, $P$ is the effective carbon-dioxide partial pressure of the lumped body compartment. Its stored carbon-dioxide amount is proportional to $P$, with effective capacitance $K$, so $KdP/dT$ is its accumulation rate. Metabolism produces carbon dioxide at rate $M$. Ventilation removes it at a rate proportional to partial pressure times ventilation, $P\dot{V}$, with gas-conversion constants absorbed into the model coefficients. The equation is therefore a one-compartment carbon-dioxide balance: production minus respiratory removal equals accumulation. It idealizes mixing and treats metabolic production as constant over the time scale of interest.