Kauffman networks with threshold functions

For years, we have been building models of gene regulatory networks, where recent advances in molecular biology shed some light on new structural and dynamical properties of such highly complex systems. In this work, we propose a novel timing of updates in Random and Scale-Free Boolean Networks, inspired by recent findings in molecular biology. This update sequence is neither fully synchronous nor asynchronous, but rather takes into account the sequence in which genes affect ...

NK-Kauffman networks {\cal L}^N_K are a subset of the Boolean functions on N Boolean variables to themselves, \Lambda_N = {\xi: \IZ_2^N \to \IZ_2^N}. To each NK-Kauffman network it is possible to assign a unique Boolean function on N variables through the function \Psi: {\cal L}^N_K \to \Lambda_N. The probability {\cal P}_K that \Psi (f) = \Psi (f'), when f' is obtained through f by a change of one of its K-Boolean functions (b_K: \IZ_2^K \to \IZ_2), and/or connections; is ca...

The growth in number and nature of dynamical attractors in Kauffman NK network models are still not well understood properties of these important random boolean networks. Structural circuits in the underpinning graph give insights into the number and length distribution of attractors in the NK model. We use a fast direct circuit enumeration algorithm to study the NK model and determine the growth behaviour of structural circuits. This leads to an explanation and lower bound o...

In this paper we study the phase transitions of different types of Random Boolean networks. These differ in their updating scheme: synchronous, semi-synchronous, or asynchronous, and deterministic or non-deterministic. It has been shown that the statistical properties of Random Boolean networks change considerable according to the updating scheme. We study with computer simulations sensitivity to initial conditions as a measure of order/chaos. We find that independently of th...

We investigate the dynamics of network minority games on Kauffman's NK networks (Kauffman nets), growing directed networks (GDNets), as well as growing directed networks with a small fraction of link reversals (GDRNets). We show that the dynamics and the associated phase structure of the game depend crucially on the structure of the underlying network. The dynamics on GDNets is very stable for all values of the connection number $K$, in contrast to the dynamics on Kauffman's ...

Boolean networks have been the object of much attention, especially since S. Kauffman proposed them in the 1960's as models for gene regulatory networks. These systems are characterized by being defined on a Boolean state space and by simultaneous updating at discrete time steps. Of particular importance for biological applications are networks in which the indegree for each variable is bounded by a fixed constant, as was stressed by Kauffman in his original papers. An impo...

We study the stability of orbits in large Boolean networks with given complex topology. We impose no restrictions on the form of the update rules, which may be correlated with local topological properties of the network. While recent past work has addressed the separate effects of nontrivial network topology and certain special classes of update rules on stability, only crude results exist about how these effects interact. We present a widely applicable solution to this probl...

In this work we consider random Boolean networks that provide a general model for genetic regulatory networks. We extend the analysis of James Lynch who was able to proof Kauffman's conjecture that in the ordered phase of random networks, the number of ineffective and freezing gates is large, where as in the disordered phase their number is small. Lynch proved the conjecture only for networks with connectivity two and non-uniform probabilities for the Boolean functions. We sh...

We consider a model for heterogeneous 'gene regulatory networks' that is a generalization of the model proposed by Chatterjee and Durrett (2011) as an "annealed approximation" of Kauffmann's (1969) random Boolean networks. In this model, genes are represented by the nodes of a random directed graph on n vertices with specified in-degree distribution (resp. out-degree distribution or joint distribution of in-degree and out-degree), and the expression bias (the expected fractio...

We determine the average number $ \vartheta (N, K) $, of \textit{NK}-Kauffman networks that give rise to the same binary function. We show that, for $ N \gg 1 $, there exists a connectivity critical value $ K_c $ such that $ \vartheta(N,K) \approx e^{\phi N} $ ($ \phi > 0 $) for $ K < K_c $ and $\vartheta(N,K) \approx 1 $ for $ K > K_c $. We find that $ K_c $ is not a constant, but scales very slowly with $ N $, as $ K_c \approx \log_2 \log_2 (2N / \ln 2) $. The problem of ge...