English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Physarum polycephalum is an acellular slime mould that grows as a highlyadaptive network of veins filled with protoplasm. As it forages, Physarumdynamically rearranges its network structure as a response to local stimuliinformation, optimising the connection between food sources. This high-levelbehaviour was already exploited to solve numerous optimisation problems. Wedevelop a flow-based model for the adaptive network formation of Physarum,which solves some inconsistencies of previous models. We first derive a generalclass of equations describing the adaptation and flow dynamics of a staticnetwork comprised of elastic channels filled with an incompressible fluidundergoing a Hagen-Poiseuille flow. An explicit form of the model is obtainedby minimising the total power dissipated by the network. Considering a moregeneral functional form of the adaptive equations, a phase transition in thesystem is also found. The model is used for maze-solving and to build efficientand resilient networks in an arena mimicking mainland Portugal. By comparingthe resulting networks with the real Portuguese railway system, we found thatthe model produced networks with a better overall performance when consideringfluctuations in the network flows. Finally, the adaption model is extended toincorporate the network growth in the presence of multiple food sources. Thecoupling of both processes produces networks with similar traits to severalnetwork systems found in nature. We found that when the food sources operatealternately, the model can replicate the direct connections between the foodsources observed in Physarum.

Formation and Optimisation of Vein Networks in Physarum