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Re: Do loops

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg3991] Re: Do loops
• From: gaylord at ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (richard j. gaylord)
• Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 02:12:59 -0400
• Organization: university of illinois
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

In article <4ms4ok$58v at dragonfly.wolfram.com>, g.kokkoris at ic.ac.uk
(Giorgos Kokkoris) wrote:

> Dear fellows,
> I am having a problem in trying to simulate biological invasions using
> Lotka-Volterra dynamics.

you might be interested in looking at the most recent issue of Mathematica
in Education and Research [issue # 5.1] which is due out any day now. 

it contains a cellular automaton simulation of predator-prey ecosystems.

the advantage of performing a discrete computer simulation rather than
using the lotka-volterra coupled differential equations is, according to
dewdney 

these equations "assume ... a continuous predator continuously in search
of a continuous prey".

[this quote is from "Sharks and fish wage an ecological war on the
toroidal planet Wa-Tor". Scientific American, 251(12), 1984. pp.14 - 22].

note: - a number of biological phenomena [predator-prey, prisoner's
dilemma, contagion, chemotaxis, ant colony activity] are modeled with
cellular automata simulations in the soon-to-be-published book:

"Modeling Nature: Cellular Automata Simulations with Mathematica" by
Richard J. Gaylord and Kazume Nishidate. TELOS/Springer-Verlag. July 1996.

-richard-

btw - as my signature below indicates, there is not a single Do loop in
this book. that would be just too ugly [not to mention slow].

-- 
"if you're not programming functionally, then you're programming dysfunctionally"

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