UNIFORM PERSISTENCE IN FUNCTIONAL-DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS

In this paper, we investigate the question of uniform persistence for retarded functional differential equations. By utilizing Liapunov-like functions, Razumikhin techniques, and differential inequalities, we are able to establish criteria for uniform persistence analogous to those obtained by others for ordinary differential equations, difference equations, and reaction-diffusion equations. We apply these criteria to some well known biological models with delay. Our results indicate that the conditions which guarantee the existence of an interior equilibrium are enough to ensure uniform persistence. Moreover, these conditions are equivalent to uniform persistence for the cases without delay as well. (C) 1995 academic Press, Inc.