In this paper, we investigate from a theoretical point of view the 2D reaction-diffusion system for electrodeposition coupling morphology and surface chemistry, presented and experimentally validated in Bozziniet al.(2013J. Solid State Electr.17, 467–479). We analyse the mechanisms responsible for spatio-temporal organization. As a first step, spatially uniform dynamics is discussed and the occurrence of a supercritical Hopf bifurcation for the local kinetics is proved. In the spatial case, initiation of morphological patterns induced by diffusion is shown to occur in a suitable region of the parameter space. The intriguing interplay between Hopf and Turing instability is also considered, by investigating the spatio-temporal behaviour of the system in the neighbourhood of the codimension-two Turing--Hopf bifurcation point. An ADI (Alternating Direction Implicit) scheme based on high-order finite differences in space is applied to obtain numerical approximations of Turing patterns at the steady state and for the simulation of the oscillating Turing–Hopf dynamics.

We consider the case of measles in South Africa to show that an high vaccination coverage may be not enough - alone - to ensure measles eradication. The occurrence of certain epidemic episodes may in fact be encouraged by delays in the treatments or by not adequately fast clinical case management, which may be related to the backward bifurcation phenomenon as well as to an intriguing spiking dynamics which appears in the system for specific ranges of parameter values.