Related papers: Protention and retention in biological systems
We present a derivation of the structure and dynamics of a ticking clock by showing that for finite systems a single natural principle serves to distinguish what we understand as ticking clocks from time-keeping systems in general. As a…
Biological systems perform an astonishing array of dynamical processes -- including development and repair, regulation, behavior and motor control, sensing and signaling, and adaptation, among others. Powered by the transduction of stored…
An abstract 2nd-order evolution equation or inclusion is discretised in time in such a way that the energy is conserved at least in qualified cases, typically in the cases when the governing energy is component-wise quadratic or…
The concept of cross diffusion is applied to some biological systems. The conditions for persistence and Turing instability in the presence of cross diffusion are derived. Many examples including: predator-prey, epidemics (with and without…
It is generally recognized that a distinguishing feature of life is its peculiar capability to avoid equilibration. The origin of this capability and its evolution along the timeline of abiogenesis is not yet understood. We propose to study…
Many regenerative arguments in stochastic processes use random times which are akin to stopping times, but which are determined by the future as well as the past behaviour of the process of interest. Such arguments based on "conditioning on…
We consider a continuous-space and continuous-time diffusion process under resetting with memory. A particle resets to a position chosen from its trajectory in the past according to a memory kernel. Depending on the form of the memory…
We discuss the work-kinetic energy theorem and the mechanical energy conservation theorem in the context of general physics courses. The motivation is the fact that all modern texts on introductory mechanics show the same conceptually…
Humans and animals have the ability to reason and make predictions about different courses of action at many time scales. In reinforcement learning, option models (Sutton, Precup \& Singh, 1999; Precup, 2000) provide the framework for this…
Temporal abstraction refers to the ability of an agent to use behaviours of controllers which act for a limited, variable amount of time. The options framework describes such behaviours as consisting of a subset of states in which they can…
The concept of time mostly plays a subordinate role in finance and economics. The assumption is that time flows continuously and that time series data should be analyzed at regular, equidistant intervals. Nonetheless, already nearly 60…
Sleep is commonly studied through neurochemical, evolutionary, and behavioral frameworks, typically emphasizing circadian rhythms and energy conservation. However, these approaches do not fully explain a deeper biophysical question: why…
Recurrent neural networks are frequently studied in terms of their information-processing capabilities. The structural properties of these networks are seldom considered, beyond those emerging from the connectivity tuning necessary for…
Heat fluctuations are studied in a dissipative system with both mechanical and stochastic components for a simple model: a Brownian particle dragged through water by a moving potential. An extended stationary state fluctuation theorem is…
Contraction theory is a mathematical framework for studying the convergence, robustness, and modularity properties of dynamical systems and algorithms. In this opinion paper, we provide five main opinions on the virtues of contraction…
The Conservation of Energy plays a pivotal part in the development of the physical sciences. With the growth of computation and the study of other discrete token based systems such as the genome, it is useful to ask if there are…
Short-term memory in the brain cannot in general be explained the way long-term memory can -- as a gradual modification of synaptic weights -- since it takes place too quickly. Theories based on some form of cellular bistability, however,…
The aim of our paper is to formulate and solve problems concerning multitime multiple recurrence equations. We discuss in detail the generic properties and the existence and uniqueness of solutions. Among the general things, we discuss in…
Social evolutionary theory seeks to explain increases in the scale and complexity of human societies, from origins to present. Over the course of the twentieth century, social evolutionary theory largely fell out of favor as a way of…
Cell biomechanics involve a great number of complex phenomena that are fundamental to the evolution of life itself and other associated processes, ranging from the very early stages of embryo-genesis to the maintenance of damaged structures…