The Gompertz model revisited and modified using reaction networks: Mathematical analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11145/j.biomath.2021.10.023Abstract
In the present work we discuss the usage of the framework of chemical reaction networks for the construction of dynamical models and their mathematical analysis. To this end, the process of construction of reaction-network-based models via mass action kinetics is introduced and illustrated on several familiar examples, such as the exponential (radioactive) decay, the logistic and the Gompertz models. Our final goal is to modify the reaction network of the classic Gompertz model in a natural way using certain features of the exponential decay and the logistic models. The growth function of the obtained new Gompertz-type hybrid model possesses an additional degree of freedom (one more rate parameter) and is thus more flexible when applied to numerical simulation of measurement and experimental data sets. More specifically, the ordinate (height) of the inflection point of the new generalized Gompertz model can vary in the interval (0, 1/e], whereas the respective height of the classic Gompertz model is fixed at 1/e (assuming the height of the upper asymptote is one). It is shown that the new model is a generalization of both the classic Gompertz model and the one-step exponential decay model. Historically the Gompertz function has been first used for statistical/insurance purposes, much later this function has been applied to simulate biological growth data sets coming from various fields of science, the reaction network approach explains and unifies the two approaches.
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