1,721,045 research outputs found
Selected Problems in Biological Control Strategies for Cellular Proteostasis
No full textDepartment of Biomedical Engineeringclos
Emergence of Cooperation on Complex Networks
Get PDFDepartment of PhysicsWe studied the structural determinants of evolutionary dynamics on complex networks in the paradigm of
social dilemma games and mathematical graph theory. Motivated by the renewed interest in the evolution
of altruistic behavior in the population of rational individuals, who strive to maximize their own benefit,
we qunatitatively explored the impact of the various structural characteristics on the fixation of a single
cooperator in the sea of defectors. In non-complete graphs, where an individual???s fitness is determined
not only by the individual???s strategy but also by its local neighbors??? strategies, the fixation of the mutant
species significantly deviates from the prediction of the traditional Moran process occurring in a wellmixed
population. From the numerical experiments and analytical approximations on the ensembles of
populations prescribed by a suite of structural characteristics, we map the region of facilitated altruism in
the space of degree heterogeneity, clustering properties, and degree-degree correlations. Of particular
interest are the attributes of the seed cooperator that leads to the fixation of cooperators with higher
chance. We show that, though the degree of the seed cooperator can either positively or negatively impact
the cooperation depending on the numeric details of the payoff matrix, the low average degree, degree
homogeneity, and the negative degree-degree correlation is always favoured for the evolution of the social
behavior. To explain these findings in a more intuitive manner, we introduced the concept of the structural
reciprocity in the framework of evolutionary game theory and propose possible structural intervention
strategies to promote the altruism with no centralized control. To avoid hasty generalization at all costs,
however, it should be noted that the underlying population topology is not the only determinant of the
fixation of cooperators. Yet another determinants are the details of the update rules and fitness-payoff
relations. The interplay between these dynamical rules and the structural characteristics should be a
fruitful avenue for future research.clos
A Gene-Centric Perspective of Scientific and Technological Innovations
No full textDepartment of Biomedical EngineeringResearch on genes and gene products is a foundation of modern biotechnology, and recognized for its applicability in medicine, agriculture, food industry, energy supply, environmental remediation, and many others. To investigate a macroscopic and gene-centric perspective of scientific discoveries and technological innovations, we employed a large-scale curation of research papers and patents. As a raw data to represent the scientific impact of each gene, we collected the entire set of research articles available on PubMed, that have the names of genes or gene products in their title or abstract. The more dedicated literature source, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) patent publication, was retrieved as a source data to represent the counterpart in technological innovations. In parallel with this literature curation, the gene symbols were collected from curated subset of UniProt consortium database maintained by European Bioinformatics Institute, and then clustered into the non-overlapping standardized sets to eliminate the overwhelming duplicates and possible contamination by common acronyms. Based on the annual counts of papers or patents whose titles/abstracts include a given gene, we show the overall trends of genetic research since the launch of the Human Genome Project. The gene citation fluctuated more in inventive activity compared to those in the research, while both sides were largely contributed by medicinal discipline. The volume of publications mentioning genes has been increased while the debut of new genes on titles and abstracts has been deflated. In contrast, new combinations of previously-studied genes kept actively explored, and their frequently adopted genes informed biotechnology innovations rather than sheerly top-studied genes.clos
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