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A Fast and Effective Method to Identify Relevant Sets of Variables in Complex Systems

Authors :
Gianluca D’Addese
Martina Casari
Roberto Serra
Marco Villani
Source :
Mathematics, Vol 9, Iss 9, p 1022 (2021)
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2021.

Abstract

In many complex systems one observes the formation of medium-level structures, whose detection could allow a high-level description of the dynamical organization of the system itself, and thus to its better understanding. We have developed in the past a powerful method to achieve this goal, which however requires a heavy computational cost in several real-world cases. In this work we introduce a modified version of our approach, which reduces the computational burden. The design of the new algorithm allowed the realization of an original suite of methods able to work simultaneously at the micro level (that of the binary relationships of the single variables) and at meso level (the identification of dynamically relevant groups). We apply this suite to a particularly relevant case, in which we look for the dynamic organization of a gene regulatory network when it is subject to knock-outs. The approach combines information theory, graph analysis, and an iterated sieving algorithm in order to describe rather complex situations. Its application allowed to derive some general observations on the dynamical organization of gene regulatory networks, and to observe interesting characteristics in an experimental case.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
22277390
Volume :
9
Issue :
9
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Mathematics
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.092a8445a07449a4bfbad880b5fc72d7
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/math9091022