Distribution efficiency and structure of complex networks

A central debate in biology has been the allometric scaling of metabolic rate. Kleiber's observation that animals' basal metabolic rate scales to the 3/4-power of body mass (Kleiber's rule) has been the prevailing hypothesis in the last eight decades. Increasingly, more evidences are supporting the alternative 2/3-power scaling rule, especially for smaller animals. The 2/3-rule dates back to before Kleiber's time and was thought to originate from the surface to volume relatio...

For the problem of efficiently supplying material to a spatial region from a single source, we present a simple scaling argument based on branching network volume minimization that identifies limits to the scaling of sink density. We discuss implications for two fundamental and unresolved problems in organismal biology and geomorphology: how basal metabolism scales with body size for homeotherms and the scaling of drainage basin shape on eroding landscapes.

Does the complex processes of angiogenesis during organism development ultimately lead to a near optimal coronary vasculature in the organs of adult mammals? We examine this hypothesis using a powerful and universal method, built on physical and physiological principles, for the determination of globally energetically optimal arterial trees. The method is based on simulated annealing, and can be used to examine arteries in hollow organs with arbitrary tissue geometries. We de...

The model by Hu and Cai [Phys. Rev. Lett., Vol. 111(13) (2013)1 ] describes the self-organization of vascular networks for transport of fluids from source to sinks. Diameters, and thereby conductances, of vessel segments evolve so as to minimize a cost functional E. The cost is the trade-off between the power required for pumping the fluid and the energy consumption for vessel maintenance. The model has been used to show emergence of cyclic structures in the presence of local...

The structure of networks that provide optimal transport properties has been investigated in a variety of contexts. While many different formulations of this problem have been considered, it is recurrently found that optimal networks are trees. It is shown here that this result is contingent on the assumption of a stationary flow through the network. When time variations or fluctuations are allowed for, a different class of optimal structures is found, which share the hierarc...

We propose a hemodynamic reduced-order model bridging macroscopic and meso-scopic blood flow circulation scales from arteries to capillaries. In silico tree like vascular geometries, mathematically described by graphs, are synthetically generated by means of stochastic growth algorithms constrained by statistical morphological and topological principles. Scale-specific pruning gradation of the tree is then proposed in order to fit computational budget requirement. Different c...

In the realm of biological flow networks, the ability to dynamically adjust to varying demands is paramount. Drawing inspiration from the remarkable adaptability of Physarum polycephalum, we present a novel physical mechanism tailored to optimize flow networks. Central to our approach is the principle that each network component -- specifically, the tubes -- harnesses locally available information to collectively minimize a global cost function. Our findings underscore the sc...

The equivalence of two optimality principles leading to Murray's law has been discussed. The first approach is based on minimization of biological work needed for maintaining the blood flow through the vessels at required level. The second one is the principle of minimal drag and lumen volume. Characteristic features of these principles are considered. An alternative approach leading to Murray's law has been proposed. For that we model the microcirculatory bed in terms of del...

The analysis of biological networks encompasses a wide variety of fields from genomic research of protein-protein interaction networks, to the physiological study of biologically optimized tree-like vascular networks. It is certain that different biological networks have different optimization criteria and we are interested in those networks optimized for fluid transport within the circulatory system. Many theories currently exist. For instance, distributive vascular geometry...

Leaf vein network is a hierarchical vascular system that transports water and nutrients to the leaf cells. The thick primary veins form a branched network, while the secondary veins develop closed circuits forming a well-defined cellular structure. Through extensive analysis of a variety of distinct leaf species, we discover that the apparently disordered cellular structures of the secondary vein networks exhibit a universal hyperuniform organization and possess a hidden orde...