Biomedical subjects

Kevin S Brown

Publications and source records attributed to Kevin S Brown.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Sloppy-model universality class and the Vandermonde matrix.

In a variety of contexts, physicists study complex, nonlinear models with many unknown or tunable parameters to explain experimental data. We explain why such systems so often are sloppy: the system behavior depends only on a few "stiff" combinations of the parameters and is unchanged as other "sloppy" parameter combinations vary by orders of magnitude. We observe that the eigenvalue spectra for the sensitivity of sloppy models have a striking, characteristic form with a density of logarithms of eigenvalues which is roughly constant over a large range. We suggest that the common features of sloppy models indicate that they may belong to a common universality class. In particular, we motivate focusing on a Vandermonde ensemble of multiparameter nonlinear models and show in one limit that they exhibit the universal features of sloppy models.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2006

Chemoprevention of squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity.

Squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity has long been seen as an attractive candidate for chemoprevention strategies. Because of the poor out-comes associated with the disease, the presence of identifiable premalignant lesions, and the failure of local preventive therapies, such as surgery, many investigators have hoped to find an effective chemopreventive compound. Initial enthusiasm surrounding high-dose retinoids gave way to concerns regarding toxicity and short duration of response. Although many of the other agents discussed above have shown promise, as yet none have been proven safe and effective in large-scale randomized trials. Much has been learned,however, about the molecular process of oral carcinogenesis from studies of these agents. Ongoing and future studies of chemopreventive agents in oral cancer hopefully will be able to exploit our expanding knowledge of these molecular pathways.

Antineoplastic Agents↗

PubMed2004

Bayesian ensemble approach to error estimation of interatomic potentials.

Using a Bayesian approach a general method is developed to assess error bars on predictions made by models fitted to data. The error bars are estimated from fluctuations in ensembles of models sampling the model-parameter space with a probability density set by the minimum cost. The method is applied to the development of interatomic potentials for molybdenum using various potential forms and databases based on atomic forces. The calculated error bars on elastic constants, gamma-surface energies, structural energies, and dislocation properties are shown to provide realistic estimates of the actual errors for the potentials.

Bayes Theorem↗

PubMed2003

Statistical mechanical approaches to models with many poorly known parameters.

Models of biochemical regulation in prokaryotes and eukaryotes, typically consisting of a set of first-order nonlinear ordinary differential equations, have become increasingly popular of late. These systems have large numbers of poorly known parameters, simplified dynamics, and uncertain connectivity: three key features of a class of problems we call sloppy models, which are shared by many other high-dimensional multiparameter nonlinear models. We use a statistical ensemble method to study the behavior of these models, in order to extract as much useful predictive information as possible from a sloppy model, given the available data used to constrain it. We discuss numerical challenges that emerge in using the ensemble method for a large system. We characterize features of sloppy model parameter fluctuations by various spectral decompositions and find indeed that five parameters can be used to fit an elephant. We also find that model entropy is as important to the problem of model choice as model energy is to parameter choice.

Algorithms↗