Biomedical subjects

G M Viswanathan

Publications and source records attributed to G M Viswanathan.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Optimization of random searches on regular lattices.

We investigate random searches on isotropic and topologically regular square and triangular lattices with periodic boundary conditions and study the efficiency of search strategies based on a power-law distribution P() approximately (-mu) of step lengths . We consider both destructive searches, in which a target can be visited only once, and nondestructive searches, when a target site is always available for future visits. We discuss (i) the dependence of the search efficiency on the choice of the lattice topology, (ii) the relevance of the periodic boundary conditions, (iii) the behavior of the optimal power-law exponent mu(opt) as a function of target site density, (iv) the differences between destructive and nondestructive environments, and finally (v) how the results for the discrete searches differ from the continuous cases previously studied.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2005

Necessary criterion for distinguishing true superdiffusion from correlated random walk processes.

A difficulty in interpreting phenomena related to anomalous diffusion concerns how to identify scale invariant superdiffusive from Markovian correlated random walk processes. Here we propose a criterion that can distinguish between these two kinds of random walks and describe its usefulness in interpreting real data. To do so, we estimate the correlation time tau of the orientation persistence of a general correlated random walk. If the experimentally observed random walk appears diffusive on scales larger than tau, then the data cannot support the possibility of superdiffusion. We argue that the criterion is a necessary but not sufficient condition for establishing true superdiffusive behavior.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2003

Dynamical robustness of Lévy search strategies.

We study the role of dynamical constraints in the general problem of finding the best statistical strategy for random searching when the targets can be detected only in the limited vicinity of the searcher. We find that the optimal search strategy depends strongly on the delay time tau during which a previously visited site becomes unavailable. We also find that the optimal search strategy is always described for large step lengths l by a power-law distribution P(l) approximately l(-mu), with 1<mu(tau)</=2. Our findings appear to remain valid even if arbitrary energy costs of locomotion are considered.

Feeding Behavior↗

PubMed2002

Largest and second largest cluster statistics at the percolation threshold of hypercubic lattices.

We investigate the scale invariance of the average ratio between the masses of the largest and second largest clusters at percolation. We employ a finite size scaling method to estimate percolation thresholds based on the simulations of relatively small lattices, and report on estimates for p(c) in hypercubic lattices with d=2-7, in full agreement with the best literature estimates. Also, we find the critical mass ratio to be strongly dependent on the boundary conditions, decreasing with the lattice dimension. Further, we compute several relevant mass distribution functions associated with the two largest clusters, which approach to limiting distributions for d>6. Finally, we discuss the main relevant features of the mass distributions in light of the relative role played by the spanning and nonspanning clusters.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2002

Optimizing the encounter rate in biological interactions: Lévy versus Brownian strategies.

An important application involving two-species reaction-diffusion systems relates to the problem of finding the best statistical strategy for optimizing the encounter rate between organisms. We investigate the general problem of how the encounter rate depends on whether organisms move in Lévy or Brownian random walks. By simulating a limiting generalized searcher-target model (e.g., predator-prey, mating partner, pollinator-flower), we find that Lévy walks confer a significant advantage for increasing encounter rates when the searcher is larger or moves rapidly relative to the target, and when the target density is low.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2001

Average time spent by Lévy flights and walks on an interval with absorbing boundaries.

We consider a Lévy flyer of order alpha that starts from a point x(0) on an interval [O,L] with absorbing boundaries. We find a closed-form expression for the average number of flights the flyer takes and the total length of the flights it travels before it is absorbed. These two quantities are equivalent to the mean first passage times for Lévy flights and Lévy walks, respectively. Using fractional differential equations with a Riesz kernel, we find exact analytical expressions for both quantities in the continuous limit. We show that numerical solutions for the discrete Lévy processes converge to the continuous approximations in all cases except the case of alpha-->2, and the cases of x(0)-->0 and x(0)-->L. For alpha>2, when the second moment of the flight length distribution exists, our result is replaced by known results of classical diffusion. We show that if x(0) is placed in the vicinity of absorbing boundaries, the average total length has a minimum at alpha=1, corresponding to the Cauchy distribution. We discuss the relevance of this result to the problem of foraging, which has received recent attention in the statistical physics literature.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1999

Optimizing the success of random searches.

We address the general question of what is the best statistical strategy to adapt in order to search efficiently for randomly located objects ('target sites'). It is often assumed in foraging theory that the flight lengths of a forager have a characteristic scale: from this assumption gaussian, Rayleigh and other classical distributions with well-defined variances have arisen. However, such theories cannot explain the long-tailed power-law distributions of flight lengths or flight times that are observed experimentally. Here we study how the search efficiency depends on the probability distribution of flight lengths taken by a forager that can detect target sites only in its limited vicinity. We show that, when the target sites are sparse and can be visited any number of times, an inverse square power-law distribution of flight lengths, corresponding to Lévy flight motion, is an optimal strategy. We test the theory by analysing experimental foraging data on selected insect, mammal and bird species, and find that they are consistent with the predicted inverse square power-law distributions.

Animals↗

PubMed1997

Quantification of DNA patchiness using long-range correlation measures.

We introduce and develop new techniques to quantify DNA patchiness, and to quantify characteristics of its mosaic structure. These techniques, which involve calculating two functions, alpha(l) and beta(l), measure correlations at length scale l and detect distinct characteristic patch sizes embedded in scale-invariant patch size distributions. Using these new methods, we address a number of issues relating to the mosaic structure of genomic DNA. We find several distinct characteristic patch sizes in certain genomic sequences, and compare, contrast, and quantify the correlation properties of different sequences, including a number of yeast, human, and prokaryotic sequences. We exclude the possibility that the correlation properties and the known mosaic structure of DNA can be explained either by simple Markov processes or by tandem repeats of dinucleotides. We find that the distinct patch sizes in all 16 yeast chromosomes are similar. Furthermore, we test the hypothesis that, for yeast, patchiness is caused by the alternation of coding and noncoding regions, and the hypothesis that in human sequences patchiness is related to repetitive sequences. We find that, by themselves, neither the alternation of coding and noncoding regions, nor repetitive sequences, can fully explain the long-range correlation properties of DNA.

Chromosomes↗

PubMed1997

Deviations from uniform power law scaling in nonstationary time series.

A classic problem in physics is the analysis of highly nonstationary time series that typically exhibit long-range correlations. Here we test the hypothesis that the scaling properties of the dynamics of healthy physiological systems are more stable than those of pathological systems by studying beat-to-beat fluctuations in the human heart rate. We develop techniques based on the Fano factor and Allan factor functions, as well as on detrended fluctuation analysis, for quantifying deviations from uniform power-law scaling in nonstationary time series. By analyzing extremely long data sets of up to N = 10(5) beats for 11 healthy subjects, we find that the fluctuations in the heart rate scale approximately uniformly over several temporal orders of magnitude. By contrast, we find that in data sets of comparable length for 14 subjects with heart disease, the fluctuations grow erratically, indicating a loss of scaling stability.

Adult↗