Basic statistics and variational concepts behind the reverse Monte Carlo technique

We revise the statistical foundations of the reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) technique by constructing the associated functional of a variational principle which incorporates, without any ad hoc assumptions, the inherent errors accompanying the simulation and the experimental data. We propose a Bayesian criteria for acceptance/rejection of configurations, in terms of the variations of the functional. The loss function and variational functional minimization approaches are compared.     

Comparative analysis of male androgen responsiveness to social environment in birds: the effects of mating system and paternal incubation

Male androgen responses to social challenges have been predicted to vary with mating system, male-male aggressiveness, and the degree of paternal investment in birds ("challenge hypothesis," Am. Nat. 136 (1990), 829). This study focused on the interspecific predictions of the challenge hypothesis. Comparative methods were used to control for effects of the phylogenetic relatedness among the sampled species. Male androgen data of 84 bird species were collected from literature records on seasonal androgen patterns. From these, the androgen responsiveness (AR) was calculated as described in the original challenge hypothesis (i.e., maximum physiological level/breeding baseline). Scatterplots of AR versus mating strategy, male-male aggressiveness, and the degree of paternal care confirmed the expected interspecific patterns. When phylogenetic analyses were performed among all of the sampled species, the effects of paternal investment disappeared while the AR remained covarying to a high degree with mating system and male-male aggressiveness. Although these mechanisms may be different at the intraspecific level, this suggests that interspecific differences of AR in male birds may have evolved in response to changes of mating strategies, rather than in response to altered paternal duties. However, control for phylogeny among the subsample of 32 passerine species revealed that if any paternal investment contributed to the observed variance in AR, then the change from "no male incubation" to "male shares incubation duties" represented the most effective, whereas the male's contribution to feeding offspring did not explain the observed variation of AR.     

Integration of detailed modules in a core model of body fluid homeostasis and blood pressure regulation

This paper presents a contribution to the definition of the interfaces required to perform heterogeneous model integration in the context of integrative physiology. A formalization of the model integration problem is proposed and a coupling method is presented. The extension of the classic Guyton model, a multi-organ, integrated systems model of blood pressure regulation, is used as an example of the application of the proposed method. To this end, the Guyton model has been restructured, extensive sensitivity analyses have been performed, and appropriate transformations have been applied to replace a subset of its constituting modules by integrating a pulsatile heart and an updated representation of the renin-angiotensin system. Simulation results of the extended integrated model are presented and the impacts of their integration within the original model are evaluated.