Content area

Abstract

Feedback loops and other types of information processing structures play a pivotal role in maintaining the internal milieu of living organisms. Although methods of biomedical cybernetics and systems biology help to translate between the structure and function of processing structures, computer simulations are necessary for studying nonlinear systems and the full range of dynamic responses of feedback control systems. Currently, available approaches for modelling and simulation comprise basically domain-specific environments, toolkits for computer algebra systems and custom software written in universal programming languages for a specific purpose, respectively. All of these approaches are faced with certain weaknesses. We therefore developed a cross-platform class library that provides versatile building bricks for writing computer simulations in a universal programming language (CyberUnits Bricks). It supports the definition of models, the simulative analysis of linear and nonlinear systems in the time and frequency domain and the plotting of block diagrams. We compared several programming languages that are commonly used in biomedical research (S in the R implementation and Python) or that are optimized for speed (Swift, C++ and Object Pascal). In benchmarking experiments with two prototypical feedback loops, we found the implementations in Object Pascal to deliver the fastest results. CyberUnits Bricks is available as open-source software that has been optimised for Embarcadero Delphi and the Lazarus IDE for Free Pascal.

Details

1009240
Title
CyberUnits Bricks: An Implementation Study of a Class Library for Simulating Nonlinear Biological Feedback Loops
Volume
13
First page
e31762
Publication year
2024
Publication date
2024
Section
Articles
Publisher
Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca
Place of publication
Salamanca
Country of publication
Spain
e-ISSN
22552863
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
Document type
Journal Article
Publication history
 
 
Online publication date
2024-08-27
Milestone dates
2024-08-27 (Created); 2023-11-06 (Submitted); 2024-06-05 (Issued); 2024-08-27 (Modified); 2024-01-14 (Accepted)
Publication history
 
 
   First posting date
27 Aug 2024
ProQuest document ID
3172266403
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/cyberunits-bricks-implementation-study-class/docview/3172266403/se-2?accountid=208611
Copyright
© 2024. This work is licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.
Last updated
2025-02-28
Database
2 databases
  • Coronavirus Research Database
  • ProQuest One Academic