Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to U L Fulco.
The stationary critical properties of the isotropic majority vote model on random lattices with quenched connectivity disorder are calculated by using Monte Carlo simulations and finite size analysis. The critical exponents gamma and beta are found to be different from those of the Ising and majority vote on the square lattice model and the critical noise parameter is found to be q(c) =0.117+/-0.005 .
An important application involving two-species reaction-diffusion systems relates to the problem of finding the best statistical strategy for optimizing the encounter rate between organisms. We investigate the general problem of how the encounter rate depends on whether organisms move in Lévy or Brownian random walks. By simulating a limiting generalized searcher-target model (e.g., predator-prey, mating partner, pollinator-flower), we find that Lévy walks confer a significant advantage for increasing encounter rates when the searcher is larger or moves rapidly relative to the target, and when the target density is low.
We investigate the critical behavior of a one-dimensional diffusive epidemic propagation process by means of a Monte Carlo procedure. In the model, healthy (A) and sick (B) individuals diffuse on a lattice with diffusion constants D(A) and D(B), respectively. According to a Wilson renormalization calculation, the system presents a second-order phase transition between a steady reactive state and a vacuum state, with distinct universality classes for the cases D(A)=D(B) and D(A) D(B). In this work we perform a finite size scaling analysis of order parameter data at the vicinity of the critical point in dimension d=1. Our results show no signature of a first-order transition in the case of D(A)>D(B). A finite size scaling typical of second-order phase transitions fits well the data from all three regimes. We found that the correlation exponent nu=2 as predicted by field-theoretical arguments. Estimates for beta/nu are given for all relevant regimes.