| 1. |
- Bagheri, Zahra M, et al.
(författare)
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Properties of neuronal facilitation that improve target tracking in natural pursuit simulations.
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of the Royal Society Interface. - : The Royal Society. - 1742-5662 .- 1742-5689. ; 12:108
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although flying insects have limited visual acuity (approx. 1°) and relatively small brains, many species pursue tiny targets against cluttered backgrounds with high success. Our previous computational model, inspired by electrophysiological recordings from insect 'small target motion detector' (STMD) neurons, did not account for several key properties described from the biological system. These include the recent observations of response 'facilitation' (a slow build-up of response to targets that move on long, continuous trajectories) and 'selective attention', a competitive mechanism that selects one target from alternatives. Here, we present an elaborated STMD-inspired model, implemented in a closed loop target-tracking system that uses an active saccadic gaze fixation strategy inspired by insect pursuit. We test this system against heavily cluttered natural scenes. Inclusion of facilitation not only substantially improves success for even short-duration pursuits, but it also enhances the ability to 'attend' to one target in the presence of distracters. Our model predicts optimal facilitation parameters that are static in space and dynamic in time, changing with respect to the amount of background clutter and the intended purpose of the pursuit. Our results provide insights into insect neurophysiology and show the potential of this algorithm for implementation in artificial visual systems and robotic applications.
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| 2. |
- Bonsall, Michael B., et al.
(författare)
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Bipolar disorder dynamics : affective instabilities, relaxation oscillations and noise
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of the Royal Society Interface. - : ROYAL SOC. - 1742-5689 .- 1742-5662. ; 12:112
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Bipolar disorder is a chronic, recurrent mental illness characterized by extreme episodes of depressed and manic mood, interspersed with less severe but highly variable mood fluctuations. Here, we develop a novel mathematical approach for exploring the dynamics of bipolar disorder. We investigate how the dynamics of subjective experience of mood in bipolar disorder can be understood using a relaxation oscillator (RO) framework and test the model against mood time-series fluctuations from a set of individuals with bipolar disorder. We show that variable mood fluctuations in individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder can be driven by the coupled effects of deterministic dynamics (captured by ROs) and noise. Using a statistical likelihood-based approach, we show that, in general, mood dynamics are described by two independent ROs with differing levels of endogenous variability among individuals. We suggest that this sort of nonlinear approach to bipolar disorder has neurobiological, cognitive and clinical implications for understanding this mental illness through a mechacognitive framework.
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| 3. |
- Bosco, C, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring the high-resolution mapping of gender-disaggregated development indicators
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of the Royal Society, Interface. - : The Royal Society. - 1742-5662 .- 1742-5689. ; 14:129
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Improved understanding of geographical variation and inequity in health status, wealth and access to resources within countries is increasingly being recognized as central to meeting development goals. Development and health indicators assessed at national or subnational scale can often conceal important inequities, with the rural poor often least well represented. The ability to target limited resources is fundamental, especially in an international context where funding for health and development comes under pressure. This has recently prompted the exploration of the potential of spatial interpolation methods based on geolocated clusters from national household survey data for the high-resolution mapping of features such as population age structures, vaccination coverage and access to sanitation. It remains unclear, however, how predictable these different factors are across different settings, variables and between demographic groups. Here we test the accuracy of spatial interpolation methods in producing gender-disaggregated high-resolution maps of the rates of literacy, stunting and the use of modern contraceptive methods from a combination of geolocated demographic and health surveys cluster data and geospatial covariates. Bayesian geostatistical and machine learning modelling methods were tested across four low-income countries and varying gridded environmental and socio-economic covariate datasets to build 1×1 km spatial resolution maps with uncertainty estimates. Results show the potential of the approach in producing high-resolution maps of key gender-disaggregated socio-economic indicators, with explained variance through cross-validation being as high as 74–75% for female literacy in Nigeria and Kenya, and in the 50–70% range for many other variables. However, substantial variations by both country and variable were seen, with many variables showing poor mapping accuracies in the range of 2–30% explained variance using both geostatistical and machine learning approaches. The analyses offer a robust basis for the construction of timely maps with levels of detail that support geographically stratified decision-making and the monitoring of progress towards development goals. However, the great variability in results between countries and variables highlights the challenges in applying these interpolation methods universally across multiple countries, and the importance of validation and quantifying uncertainty if this is undertaken.
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| 4. |
- Bottinelli, Arianna, et al.
(författare)
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Efficiency and shrinking in evolving networks
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of the Royal Society Interface. - : The Royal Society. - 1742-5689 .- 1742-5662. ; 16:154
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Characterizing the spatio-temporal evolution of networks is a central topic in many disciplines. While network expansion has been studied thoroughly, less is known about how empirical networks behave when shrinking. For transportation networks, this is especially relevant on account of their connection with the socio-economical substrate, and we focus here on the evolution of the French railway network from its birth in 1840 to 2000, in relation to the country's demographic dynamics. The network evolved in parallel with technology (e.g. faster trains) and under strong constraints, such as preserving a good population coverage and balancing cost and efficiency. We show that the shrinking phase that started in 1930 decreased the total length of the network while preserving efficiency and population coverage: efficiency and robustness remained remarkably constant while the total length of the network shrank by 50% between 1930 and 2000, and the total travel time and time-diameter decreased by more than 75% during the same period. Moreover, shrinking the network did not affect the overall accessibility with an average travel time that decreases steadily since its formation. This evolution leads naturally to an increase in transportation multimodality (such as a massive use of cars) and shows the importance of considering together transportation modes acting at different spatial scales. More generally, our results suggest that shrinking is not necessarily associated with a decay in performance and functions but can be beneficial in terms of design goals and can be part of the natural evolution of an adaptive network.
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| 5. |
- Bottinelli, Arianna, et al.
(författare)
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Local cost minimization in ant transport networks : from small-scale data to large-scale trade-offs
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of the Royal Society Interface. - : The Royal Society. - 1742-5689 .- 1742-5662. ; 12:112
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Transport networks distribute resources and information in many human and biological systems. Their construction requires optimization and balance of conflicting criteria such as robustness against disruptions, transport efficiency and building cost. The colonies of the polydomous Australian meat ant Iridomyrmex purpureus are a striking example of such a decentralized network, consisting of trails that connect spatially separated nests. Here we study the rules that underlie network construction in these ants. We find that a simple model of network growth, which we call the minimum linking model (MLM), is sufficient to explain the growth of real ant colonies. For larger networks, the MLM shows a qualitative similarity with a Euclidean minimum spanning tree, prioritizing cost and efficiency over robustness. We introduce a variant of our model to show that a balance between cost, efficiency and robustness can be also reproduced at larger scales than ant colonies. Remarkably, such a balance is influenced by a parameter reflecting the specific features of the modelled transport system. The extended MLM could thus be a suitable source of inspiration for the construction of cheap and efficient transport networks with non-zero robustness, suggesting possible applications in the design of human-made networks.
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| 6. |
- Briant, L. J. B., et al.
(författare)
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Functional identification of islet cell types by electrophysiological fingerprinting
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of the Royal Society Interface. - : The Royal Society. - 1742-5689 .- 1742-5662. ; 14:128
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The alpha-, beta- and delta-cells of the pancreatic islet exhibit different electrophysiological features. We used a large dataset of whole- cell patch- clamp recordings from cells in intactmouse islets (N = 288 recordings) to investigatewhether it is possible to reliably identify cell type (alpha,beta or gamma) based on their electrophysiological characteristics. We quantified 15 electrophysiological variables in each recorded cell. Individually, none of the variables could reliably distinguish the cell types. We therefore constructed a logistic regressionmodel that included all quantified variables, to determine whether they could together identify cell type. The model identified cell typewith 94% accuracy. Thismodelwas applied to a dataset of cells recorded from hyperglycaemic bV59M mice; it correctly identified cell type in all cells and was able to distinguish cells that co-expressed insulin and glucagon. Based on this revised functional identification, we were able to improve conductance-based models of the electrical activity in alpha-cells and generate a model of gamma-cell electrical activity. These new models could faithfully emulate alpha- and gamma-cell electrical activity recorded experimentally.
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| 7. |
- Britton, Tom, et al.
(författare)
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Estimation in emerging epidemics : biases and remedies
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of the Royal Society Interface. - : The Royal Society. - 1742-5689 .- 1742-5662. ; 16:150
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- When analysing new emerging infectious disease outbreaks, one typically has observational data over a limited period of time and several parameters to estimate, such as growth rate, the basic reproduction number R-0, the case fatality rate and distributions of serial intervals, generation times, latency and incubation times and times between onset of symptoms, notification, death and recovery/discharge. These parameters form the basis for predicting a future outbreak, planning preventive measures and monitoring the progress of the disease outbreak. We study inference problems during the emerging phase of an outbreak, and point out potential sources of bias, with emphasis on: contact tracing backwards in time, replacing generation times by serial intervals, multiple potential infectors and censoring effects amplified by exponential growth. These biases directly affect the estimation of, for example, the generation time distribution and the case fatality rate, but can then propagate to other estimates such as R-0 and growth rate. We propose methods to remove or at least reduce bias using statistical modelling. We illustrate the theory by numerical examples and simulations.
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| 8. |
- Chen, Xiaojie, et al.
(författare)
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First carrot, then stick : how the adaptive hybridization of incentives promotes cooperation
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of the Royal Society Interface. - : ROYAL SOC. - 1742-5689 .- 1742-5662. ; 12:102
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Social institutions often use rewards and penalties to promote cooperation. Providing incentives tends to be costly, so it is important to find effective and efficient policies for the combined use of rewards and penalties. Most studies of cooperation, however, have addressed rewarding and punishing in isolation and have focused on peer-to-peer sanctioning as opposed to institutional sanctioning. Here, we demonstrate that an institutional sanctioning policy we call 'first carrot, then stick' is unexpectedly successful in promoting cooperation. The policy switches the incentive from rewarding to punishing when the frequency of cooperators exceeds a threshold. We find that this policy establishes and recovers full cooperation at lower cost and under a wider range of conditions than either rewards or penalties alone, in both well-mixed and spatial populations. In particular, the spatial dynamics of cooperation make it evident how punishment acts as a 'booster stage' that capitalizes on and amplifies the pro-social effects of rewarding. Together, our results show that the adaptive hybridization of incentives offers the 'best of both worlds' by combining the effectiveness of rewarding in establishing cooperation with the effectiveness of punishing in recovering it, thereby providing a surprisingly inexpensive and widely applicable method of promoting cooperation.
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| 9. |
- Christoffer Johansson, L., et al.
(författare)
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Mechanical power curve measured in the wake of pied flycatchers indicates modulation of parasite power across flight speeds
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of the Royal Society Interface. - : The Royal Society. - 1742-5689 .- 1742-5662. ; 15:138
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- How aerodynamic power required for animal flight varies with flight speed determines optimal speeds during foraging and migratory flight. Despite its relevance, aerodynamic power provides an elusive quantity to measure directly in animal flight. Here, we determine the aerodynamic power from wake velocity fields, measured using tomographical particle image velocimetry, of pied flycatchers flying freely in a wind tunnel. We find a shallow U-shaped power curve, which is flatter than expected by theory. Based on how the birds vary body angle with speed, we speculate that the shallow curve results from increased body drag coefficient and body frontal area at lower flight speeds. Including modulation of body drag in the model results in a more reasonable fit with data than the traditional model. From the wake structure, we also find a single starting vortex generated from the two wings during the downstroke across flight speeds (1–9 m s21). This is accomplished by the arm wings interacting at the beginning of the downstroke, generating a unified starting vortex above the body of the bird. We interpret this as a mechanism resulting in a rather uniform downwash and low induced power, which can help explain the higher aerodynamic performance in birds compared with bats.
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| 10. |
- Comellas, E., et al.
(författare)
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A homeostatic-driven turnover remodelling constitutive model for healing in soft tissues
- 2016
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Ingår i: Journal of the Royal Society Interface. - : Royal Society of London. - 1742-5689 .- 1742-5662. ; 13:116
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Remodelling of soft biological tissue is characterized by interacting biochemical and biomechanical events, which change the tissue's microstructure, and, consequently, its macroscopic mechanical properties. Remodelling is a well-defined stage of the healing process, and aims at recovering or repairing the injured extracellular matrix. Like other physiological processes, remodelling is thought to be driven by homeostasis, i.e. it tends to re-establish the properties of the uninjured tissue. However, homeostasis may never be reached, such that remodelling may also appear as a continuous pathological transformation of diseased tissues during aneurysm expansion, for example. A simple constitutive model for soft biological tissues that regards remodelling as homeostatic-driven turnover is developed. Specifically, the recoverable effective tissue damage, whose rate is the sum of a mechanical damage rate and a healing rate, serves as a scalar internal thermodynamic variable. In order to integrate the biochemical and biomechanical aspects of remodelling, the healing rate is, on the one hand, driven by mechanical stimuli, but, on the other hand, subjected to simple metabolic constraints. The proposed model is formulated in accordance with continuum damage mechanics within an open-system thermodynamics framework. The numerical implementation in an in-house finite-element code is described, particularized for Ogden hyperelasticity. Numerical examples illustrate the basic constitutive characteristics of the model and demonstrate its potential in representing aspects of remodelling of soft tissues. Simulation results are verified for their plausibility, but also validated against reported experimental data.
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