30 research outputs found
Vesicle computers: Approximating Voronoi diagram on Voronoi automata
Irregular arrangements of vesicles filled with excitable and precipitating
chemical systems are imitated by Voronoi automata --- finite-state machines
defined on a planar Voronoi diagram. Every Voronoi cell takes four states:
resting, excited, refractory and precipitate. A resting cell excites if it has
at least one excited neighbour; the cell precipitates if a ratio of excited
cells in its neighbourhood to its number of neighbours exceed certain
threshold. To approximate a Voronoi diagram on Voronoi automata we project a
planar set onto automaton lattice, thus cells corresponding to data-points are
excited. Excitation waves propagate across the Voronoi automaton, interact with
each other and form precipitate in result of the interaction. Configuration of
precipitate represents edges of approximated Voronoi diagram. We discover
relation between quality of Voronoi diagram approximation and precipitation
threshold, and demonstrate feasibility of our model in approximation Voronoi
diagram of arbitrary-shaped objects and a skeleton of a planar shape.Comment: Chaos, Solitons & Fractals (2011), in pres
The Concilium of Information Processing Networks of Chemical Oscillators for Determining Drug Response in Patients With Multiple Myeloma
It can be expected that medical treatments in the future will be individually tailored for each patient. Here we present a step towards personally addressed drug therapy. We consider multiple myeloma treatment with drugs: bortezomib and dexamethasone. It has been observed that these drugs are effective for some patients and do not help others. We describe a network of chemical oscillators that can help to differentiate between non-responsive and responsive patients. In our numerical simulations, we consider a network of 3 interacting oscillators described with the Oregonator model. The input information is the gene expression value for one of 15 genes measured for patients with multiple myeloma. The single-gene networks optimized on a training set containing outcomes of 239 therapies, 169 using bortezomib and 70 using dexamethasone, show up to 71% accuracy in differentiating between non-responsive and responsive patients. If the results of single-gene networks are combined into the concilium with the majority voting strategy, then the accuracy of predicting the patient’s response to the therapy increases to ∼ 85%
A hybrid camphor-camphene wax material for studies on self-propelled motion.
A new material that combines self-propelled motion with wax-like mechanical properties and can be formed into non-trivial shapes is presented
Heterotic Computing Examples with Optics, Bacteria, and Chemicals
Unconventional computers can perform embodied computation
that can directly exploit the natural dynamics of the substrate. But
such in materio devices are often limited, special purpose machines. To
be practically useful, unconventional devices are usually be combined
with classical computers or control systems. However, there is currently
no established way to do this, or to combine different unconventional
devices.
In this position paper we describe heterotic unconventional computation,
an approach that focusses on combinations of unconventional
devices. This will need a sound semantic framework defining how diverse
unconventional computational devices can be combined in a way
that respects the intrinsic computational power of each, whilst yielding
a hybrid device that is capable of more than the sum of its parts. We
also describe a suite of diverse physical implementations of heterotic unconventional
computers, comprising computation performed by bacteria
hosted in chemically built material, sensed and controlled optically and
chemically.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2009–13192Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación JCI-2010-0653
Applications of Information Theory Methods for Evolutionary Optimization of Chemical Computers
It is commonly believed that information processing in living organisms is based on chemical reactions. However, the human achievements in constructing chemical information processing devices demonstrate that it is difficult to design such devices using the bottom-up strategy. Here I discuss the alternative top-down design of a network of chemical oscillators that performs a selected computing task. As an example, I consider a simple network of interacting chemical oscillators that operates as a comparator of two real numbers. The information on which of the two numbers is larger is coded in the number of excitations observed on oscillators forming the network. The parameters of the network are optimized to perform this function with the maximum accuracy. I discuss how information theory methods can be applied to obtain the optimum computing structure
Information Processing Using Networks of Chemical Oscillators
I believe the computing potential of systems with chemical reactions has not yet been fully explored. The most common approach to chemical computing is based on implementation of logic gates. However, it does not seem practical because the lifetime of such gates is short, and communication between gates requires precise adjustment. The maximum computational efficiency of a chemical medium is achieved if the information is processed in parallel by different parts of it. In this paper, I review the idea of computing with coupled chemical oscillators and give arguments for the efficiency of such an approach. I discuss how to input information and how to read out the result of network computation. I describe the idea of top-down optimization of computing networks. As an example, I consider a small network of three coupled chemical oscillators designed to differentiate the white from the red points of the Japanese flag. My results are based on computer simulations with the standard two-variable Oregonator model of the oscillatory Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction. An optimized network of three interacting oscillators can recognize the color of a randomly selected point with >98% accuracy. The presented ideas can be helpful for the experimental realization of fully functional chemical computing networks