scholarly journals Homeostasis and systematic ageing as non-equilibrium phase transitions in computational multicellular organizations

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 190012
Author(s):  
Yuting Lou ◽  
Ao Chen ◽  
Erika Yoshida ◽  
Yu Chen

Being a fatal threat to life, the breakdown of homeostasis in tissues is believed to involve multiscale factors ranging from the accumulation of genetic damages to the deregulation of metabolic processes. Here, we present a prototypical multicellular homeostasis model in the form of a two-dimensional stochastic cellular automaton with three cellular states, cell division, cell death and cell cycle arrest, of which the state-updating rules are based on fundamental cell biology. Despite the simplicity, this model illustrates how multicellular organizations can develop into diverse homeostatic patterns with distinct morphologies, turnover rates and lifespans without considering genetic, metabolic or other exogenous variations. Through mean-field analysis and Monte–Carlo simulations, those homeostatic states are found to be classified into extinctive, proliferative and degenerative phases, whereas healthy multicellular organizations evolve from proliferative to degenerative phases over a long time, undergoing a systematic ageing akin to a transition into an absorbing state in non-equilibrium physical systems. It is suggested that the collapse of homeostasis at the multicellular level may originate from the fundamental nature of cell biology regarding the physics of some non-equilibrium processes instead of subcellular details.

Author(s):  
Valerio Lucarini ◽  
Grigorios A. Pavliotis ◽  
Niccolò Zagli

We study the response to perturbations in the thermodynamic limit of a network of coupled identical agents undergoing a stochastic evolution which, in general, describes non-equilibrium conditions. All systems are nudged towards the common centre of mass. We derive Kramers–Kronig relations and sum rules for the linear susceptibilities obtained through mean field Fokker–Planck equations and then propose corrections relevant for the macroscopic case, which incorporates in a self-consistent way the effect of the mutual interaction between the systems. Such an interaction creates a memory effect. We are able to derive conditions determining the occurrence of phase transitions specifically due to system-to-system interactions. Such phase transitions exist in the thermodynamic limit and are associated with the divergence of the linear response but are not accompanied by the divergence in the integrated autocorrelation time for a suitably defined observable. We clarify that such endogenous phase transitions are fundamentally different from other pathologies in the linear response that can be framed in the context of critical transitions. Finally, we show how our results can elucidate the properties of the Desai–Zwanzig model and of the Bonilla–Casado–Morillo model, which feature paradigmatic equilibrium and non-equilibrium phase transitions, respectively.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Milan Radonjic ◽  
Axel Pelster

We consider a time-dependent extension of a perturbative mean-field approach to the homogeneous dirty boson problem by considering how switching on and off a weak disorder potential affects the stationary state of an initially {equilibrated} Bose-Einstein condensate by the emergence of a disorder-induced condensate deformation. We find that in the switch on scenario the stationary condensate deformation turns out to be a sum of an equilibrium part{, that actually corresponds to adiabatic switching on the disorder,} and a dynamically-induced part, where the latter depends on the particular driving protocol. If the disorder is switched off afterwards, the resulting condensate deformation acquires an additional dynamically-induced part in the long-time limit, while the equilibrium part vanishes. {We also present an appropriate generalization to inhomogeneous trapped condensates.} Our results demonstrate that the condensate deformation represents an indicator of the generically non-equilibrium nature of steady states of a Bose gas in a temporally controlled weak disorder.


2022 ◽  
Vol 2022 (1) ◽  
pp. 013402
Author(s):  
Xiang Li ◽  
Mauro Mobilia ◽  
Alastair M Rucklidge ◽  
R K P Zia

Abstract We investigate the long-time properties of a dynamic, out-of-equilibrium network of individuals holding one of two opinions in a population consisting of two communities of different sizes. Here, while the agents’ opinions are fixed, they have a preferred degree which leads them to endlessly create and delete links. Our evolving network is shaped by homophily/heterophily, a form of social interaction by which individuals tend to establish links with others having similar/dissimilar opinions. Using Monte Carlo simulations and a detailed mean-field analysis, we investigate how the sizes of the communities and the degree of homophily/heterophily affect the network structure. In particular, we show that when the network is subject to enough heterophily, an ‘overwhelming transition’ occurs: individuals of the smaller community are overwhelmed by links from the larger group, and their mean degree greatly exceeds the preferred degree. This and related phenomena are characterized by the network’s total and joint degree distributions, as well as the fraction of links across both communities and that of agents having fewer edges than the preferred degree. We use our mean-field theory to discuss the network’s polarization when the group sizes and level of homophily vary.


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