Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30305644›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2018

First passage events in biological systems with non-exponential inter-event times.

Mario Castro, Martín López-García, Grant Lythe, Carmen Molina-París

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
10citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

10 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Modeling the Waves of Covid-19.Acta biotheoretica · 2021
    Article
  8. Article
  9. Momentum managing epidemic spread and Bessel functions.Chaos, solitons, and fractals · 2020
    Article
  10. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Mario CastroGrupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos (GISC) and DNL, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid, E-28015, Spain. marioc@comillas.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3288-6144
Martín López-GarcíaDepartment of Applied Mathematics, School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3833-8595
Grant LytheDepartment of Applied Mathematics, School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7966-5571
Carmen Molina-ParísDepartment of Applied Mathematics, School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.

Funding

Medical Research Council MR/N014855/1
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

It is often possible to model the dynamics of biological systems as a series of discrete transitions between a finite set of observable states (or compartments). When the residence times in each state, or inter-event times more generally, are exponentially distributed, then one can write a set of ordinary differential equations, which accurately describe the evolution of mean quantities. Non-exponential inter-event times can also be experimentally observed, but are more difficult to analyse mathematically. In this paper, we focus on the computation of first passage events and their probabilities in biological systems with non-exponential inter-event times. We show, with three case studies from Molecular Immunology, Virology and Epidemiology, that significant errors are introduced when drawing conclusions based on the assumption that inter-event times are exponentially distributed. Our approach allows these errors to be avoided with the use of phase-type distributions that approximate arbitrarily distributed inter-event times.

Identifiers

PMID30305644
PMCPMC6180141

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.