Emergence and transitions of dynamic patterns of thickness oscillation of the plasmodium of the true slime mold Physarum polycephalum

The emergence and transitions of various spatiotemporal patterns of thickness oscillation were studied in the freshly isolated protoplasm of the Physarum plasmodium. New patterns, such as standing waves, and chaotic and rotating spirals, developed successively before the well-documented synchronous pattern appeared. There was also a spontaneous opposite transition from synchrony to chaotic and rotating spirals. Rotating spiral waves were observed in the large migrating plasmodium, where the vein structures were being destroyed. Thus, the Physarum plasmodium exhibits versatile patterns, which are generally expected in coupled oscillator systems. This paper discusses the physiological roles of spatiotemporal patterns, comparing them with other biological systems.     

时空调制对可激发介质螺旋波波头动力学行为影响及控制研究

本文首先研究了时空调制对可激发介质中周期螺旋波波头动力学行为的影响. 随着时空调制的增大, 螺旋波经历了周期螺旋波、外滚螺旋波、旅行螺旋波和内滚螺旋波的显著变化. 通过定义序参量来定量的描述由时空调制引起的螺旋波在不同态之间非平衡跃迁的临界条件, 及漫游螺旋波波头圆滚圆半径随调制参数的变化情况. 当时空调制增大到某个临界值时, 螺旋波发生了破碎; 再增加时空调制, 螺旋波则发生了衰减, 系统最终演化为空间均匀静息态. 在文中给出了螺旋波发生破碎和衰减的机理和原因. 最后将时空调制方法运用于漫游螺旋波, 实现了将漫游螺旋波控制成周期螺旋波, 或将其控制为空间均匀静息态.     

Elimination of spiral waves and spatiotemporal chaos by the pulse with a specific spatiotemporal configuration

Spiral waves and spatiotemporal chaos are sometimes harmful and should be controlled. In this paper spiral waves and spatiotemporal chaos are successfully eliminated by the pulse with a very specific spatiotemporal configuration. The excited position D of spiral waves or spatiotemporal chaos is first recorded at an arbitrary time （to）. When the system at the domain D enters a recovering state, the external pulse is injected into the domain. If the intensity and the working time of the pulse are appropriate, spiral waves and spatiotemporal chaos can finally be eliminated because counter-directional waves can be generated by the pulse. There are two advantages in the method. One is that the tip can be quickly eliminated together with the body of spiral wave, and the other is that the injected pulse may be weak and the duration can be very short so that the original system is nearly not affected, which is important for practical applications.     

2D array design based on Fermat spiral for ultrasound imaging

The main challenge faced by 3D ultrasonic imaging with 2D array transducers is the large number of elements required to achieve an acceptable level of quality in the images. Therefore, the optimisation of the array layout, in order to reduce the number of active elements in the aperture, has been a research topic in the last years. Nowadays, array technology has made viable the production of 2D arrays with larger flexibility on elements size, shape and position, allowing to study other configurations different to the classical matrix organisation, such as circular, archimedes spiral or polygonal layout between others.In this work, the problem of designing an imaging system array with large apertures and a very limited number of active elements (N_e=128 and N_e=256) using the Fermat spiral layout has been studied. As summary, a general discussion about the most interesting cases is presented.     

心脏中的螺旋波和时空混沌的抑制研究

以Luo-Rudy相I心脏模型为基础,研究心脏中螺旋波和时空混沌的控制,提出了两种控制方法: (Ⅰ)通过交替改变细胞外钾离子浓度来产生平面波,再利用弱外电场辅助平面波抑制螺旋波和时空混沌; (Ⅱ)先提高细胞外钾离子浓度,然后利用外电场激发波的方式产生平面波,再用平面波去抑制螺旋波和时空混沌. 研究结果表明,只要适当选择控制参数,这两种方法都能够有效抑制螺旋波和时空混沌. 当心肌出现局部缺血时,在心肌缺血处就会出现高的细胞外钾离子浓度,在这种情况下, 可以采用电场发射波的方法来抑制心脏中的螺旋波和时空混沌.对这些控制方法的优点和控制机制做了解释.     

Lattice Boltzmann simulation for the energy and entropy of excitable systems

The internal energy and the spatiotemporal entropy of excitable systems are investigated with the lattice Boltzmann method.The numerical results show that the breakup of spiral wave is attributed to the inadequate supply of energy,i.e.,the internal energy of system is smaller than the energy of self-sustained spiral wave.It is observed that the average internal energy of a regular wave state reduces with its spatiotemporal entropy decreasing.Interestingly,although the energy difference between two regular wave states is very small,the different states can be distinguished obviously due to the large difference between their spatiotemporal entropies.In addition,when the unstable spiral wave converts into the spatiotemporal chaos,the internal energy of system decreases,while the spatiotemporal entropy increases,which behaves as the thermodynamic entropy in an isolated system.     

Complete synchronization of convective patterns between Gray–Scott systems

Two identical 1D autocatalytic systems with Gray–Scott kinetics—driven towards convectively unstable regimes and submitted to independent spatiotemporal Gaussian white noises—are coupled unidirectionally, but otherwise linearly. Numerical simulation then reveals that (even when perturbed by noise) the slave system replicates the convective patterns arising in the master one to a very high degree of precision, as indicated by several measures of synchronization.     

用同步复极化终止心脏中的螺旋波和时空混沌

为了模拟电击除颤导致动作电位持续时间缩短, 在Luo-Rudy相I心脏模型中引入了同步复极化. 研究了同步复极化对螺旋波和时空混沌动力学的影响. 数值结果表明: 在控制周期比较小的情况下, 同步复极化可以有效消除螺旋波和时空混沌, 在有一些控制参数下, 同步复极化只能消除螺旋波, 或者只能消除时空混沌. 当螺旋波不被控制时, 观察到螺旋波转变为长周期和长波长的螺旋波或破碎成时空混沌的现象. 并对控制机制进行了分析. 关键词： 螺旋波 时空混沌 同步复极化 控制     

New approach to the defibrillation problem: Suppression of the spiral wave activity of cardiac tissue

A model of an excitable medium is considered for describing the development of fibrillation (i.e., spatiotemporal chaos) in cardiac tissue through the generation of a set of coexisting spiral waves. It is shown that a weak external point action on such a medium leads to the suppression of all spiral waves and, correspondingly, to the stabilization of the system dynamics. After reaching the regular regime, only the external source exists in the medium. The frequencies and amplitudes at which such stabilization occurs are determined. The case of the action of several point sources is considered. Analysis is performed using the Bray method to identify the number of spiral waves.     

The influence of long-range links on spiral waves and its application for control

The influence of long-range links on spiral waves in excitable medium has been investigated. Spatiotemporal dynamics in excitable small-world network transforms remarkably when we increase the long-range connection probability P. Spiral waves with few perturbations, broken spiral waves, pseudo spiral turbulence, synchronous oscillations, and homogeneous rest state are discovered under different network structures. Tip number is selected to detect non-equilibrium phase transition between different spatiotemporal patterns. The Kuramoto order parameter is used to identify these patterns and explain the emergence of the rest state. Finally, we use long-range links to control spiral wave and spiral turbulence successfully.     

Spiral breakup in an array of coupled cells: the role of the intercellular conductance

We study numerically how the intercellular conductance affects the process of spiral breakup in an array of coupled excitable cells. The cell dynamics are described by the Aliev-Panfilov model, and the intercellular connection is made via Ohmic elements. We find that decreasing intercellular conductance can prevent the breaking up of a spiral wave into a complex spatiotemporal pattern. We study the mechanism of this effect and show that the breakup disappears because of increasing the diastolic interval of an initial spiral wave.     

Gradient induced spiral drift in heterogeneous excitable media

Nonlinear excitable systems far from equilibrium can exhibit pattern formation such as spirals, target patterns, etc. One such system is the heterogeneous catalytic reaction of CO with oxygen on platinum single crystals. It has been established that the resonant periodic forcing of spirals in such excitable systems can cause a spiral drift. Here, we investigate the effects of a linear thermal gradient on the spiral dynamics during CO oxidation on platinum (110) for the first time, both in simulations and with experiments. Our results suggest that a spatial thermal gradient established across the surface can act as an internal forcing drive and cause the spiral patterns to drift. This drift has components both parallel and perpendicular to the external gradient.     

局域反馈抑制心脏中的螺旋波和时空混沌

采用LuoRud91模型研究了螺旋波和时空混沌的抑制,提出用局域反馈控制方法抑制螺旋波和时空混沌,采用静止和运动控制器两种控制策略.结果表明:适当选择控制参数,静止控制器的局域反馈方法能很好抑制螺旋波,但不能有效抑制时空混沌;采用运动控制器的局域反馈方法能有效抑制螺旋波和时空混沌,抑制速度与控制器移动的速度有关,在选择适当的控制参数下,螺旋波和时空混沌能在很短的时间内被抑制.     

Specific external forcing of spatiotemporal dynamics in reaction-diffusion systems

Self-organization behavior and in particular pattern forming spatiotemporal dynamics play an important role in far from equilibrium chemical and biochemical systems. Specific external forcing and control of self-organizing processes might be of great benefit in various applications ranging from technical systems to modern biomedical research. We demonstrate that in a cellular chemotaxis system modeled by one-dimensional reaction-diffusion equations particular forms of spatiotemporal dynamics can be induced and stabilized by controlling spatially distributed influx patterns of a chemical species as a function of time. In our model study we show that a propagating wave with certain shape and velocity and static symmetrical and asymmetrical patterns can be forced and manipulated by numerically computing open-loop optimal influx controls.     

Suppression of Spiral Waves and Spatiotemporal Chaos Under Local Self-adaptive Coupling Interactions

In this paper, a close-loop feedback control is imposed locally on the Fitzhugh-Nagumo (FHN) system to suppress the stable spirals and spatiotemporal chaos according to the principle of self-adaptive coupling interaction. The simulation results show that an expanding target wave is stimulated by the spiral waves under dynamic control period when a local area of 5×5 grids is controlled, or the spiral tip is driven to the board of the system. It is also found that the spatiotemporal chaos can be suppressed to get a stable homogeneous state within 50 time units as two local grids are controlled mutually. The mechanism of the scheme is briefly discussed.     

Spiral wave chimeras in populations of oscillators coupled to a slowly varying diffusive environment

Chimera states are firstly discovered in nonlocally coupled oscillator systems. Such a nonlocal coupling arises typically as oscillators are coupled via an external environment whose characteristic time scale τ is so small (i.e., τ → 0) that it could be eliminated adiabatically. Nevertheless, whether the chimera states still exist in the opposite situation (i.e., τ ≫ 1) is unknown. Here, by coupling large populations of Stuart−Landau oscillators to a diffusive environment, we demonstrate that spiral wave chimeras do exist in this oscillator-environment coupling system even when τ is very large. Various transitions such as from spiral wave chimeras to spiral waves or unstable spiral wave chimeras as functions of the system parameters are explored. A physical picture for explaining the formation of spiral wave chimeras is also provided. The existence of spiral wave chimeras is further confirmed in ensembles of FitzHugh−Nagumo oscillators with the similar oscillator-environment coupling mechanism. Our results provide an affirmative answer to the observation of spiral wave chimeras in populations of oscillators mediated via a slowly changing environment and give important hints to generate chimera patterns in both laboratory and realistic chemical or biological systems.     

局部相空间压缩实现对时空混沌和螺旋波的控制

采用相空间压缩方法研究时空混沌和螺旋波系统的抑制问题.以局部控制方式将系统变量的幅值限制在一定范围内,对CO在Pt(110)表面氧化模型(Fitzhugh-Nagumo方程)与心肌组织模型(Panfilov方程)的数值研究表明:无论是否存在外界噪声,该方案都可以消除螺旋波和时空混沌;尤其是存在噪声时,相空间压缩控制暂态过程会更短,系统很快达到稳定均匀态(从几个到几十个时间单位).     

Patterns of spiral tip motion in cardiac tissues

In support of the spiral wave theory of reentry, simulation studies and animal models have been utilized to show various patterns of spiral wave tip motion such as meandering and drifting. However, the demonstration of these or any other patterns in cardiac tissues have been limited. Whether such patterns of spiral tip motion are commonly observed in fibrillating cardiac tissues is unknown, and whether such patterns form the basis of ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation remain debatable. Using a computerized dynamic activation display, 108 episodes of atrial and ventricular tachycardia and fibrillation in isolated and intact canine cardiac tissues, as well as in vitro swine and myopathic human cardiac tissues, were analyzed for patterns of nonstationary, spiral wave tip motion. Among them, 46 episodes were from normal animal myocardium without pharmacological perturbations, 50 samples were from normal animal myocardium, either treated with drugs or had chemical ablation of the subendocardium, and 12 samples were from diseased human hearts. Among the total episodes, 11 of them had obvious nonstationary spiral tip motion with a life span of >2 cycles and with consecutive reentrant paths distinct from each other. Four patterns were observed: (1) meandering with an inward petal flower in 2; (2) meandering with outward petals in 5; (3) irregularly concentric in 3 (core moving about a common center); and (4) drift in 1 (linear core movement). The life span of a single nonstationary spiral wave lasted no more than 7 complete cycles with a mean of 4.6+/-4.3, and a median of 4.5 cycles in our samples. Conclusion: (1) Patently evident nonstationary spiral waves with long life spans were uncommon in our sample of mostly normal cardiac tissues, thus making a single meandering spiral wave an unlikely major mechanism of fibrillation in normal ventricular myocardium. (2) A tendency toward four patterns of nonstationary spiral tip motion was observed. (c) 1998 American Institute of Physics.     

External forcing of spiral waves

The effect of an external rhythm on rotating spiral waves in excitable media is investigated. Parameters of the unperturbed medium were chosen, such that the organizing spiral tip describes meandering (hypocyclic) trajectories, which are the most general shape for the experimentally observed systems. Periodical modulation of excitability in a model of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction forces meandering spiral tips to describe trajectories that are not found at corresponding stationary conditions. For different modulation periods, two types of resonance drift, phase-locked tip motion, a spectrum of hypocyclic trajectories, and complex multifrequency patterns were computed. The computational results are complemented by experimental data obtained for periodically changing illumination of the photosensitive BZ reaction. The observed drastic deformation of the tip trajectory is considered as an efficient means to study and to control wave processes in excitable media.