[FRIAM] looking for a word

[uǝlƃ ☣]

"Peneplain" is a very cool word that you just taught me.  But I think that's too well-mixed.  In terms of the liver, the (3D) peneplain might be simply the central vein that flows out after all the filtering is done.  I want to indicate the region "just prior" to the peneplain ... or just after the the portal vein, where blood flows in.

The reason for avoiding concepts of growth/evolution is because we (*I*, my colleagues might not approve of my asking a mailing list of random nerds) need to contrast one "fluvial network" with another.  And, especially in the case of disease, we'll need to indicate a "healthy state", which I suspect involves a nice space-filling structure, versus an unhealthy state, which shows too much flow, not enough filtering.

The idea is that the different morphology between a healthy and unhealthy state can hint at various treatments.  Growth, repair, etc. will be part and parcel of any such treatment.  But first, it would be nice to be able to refer to the different "homology" exhibited by the 2 different states.  And "yes", the reason "persistent homology" is attractive is because the same property should apply when considering an acinus, as well as a lobule, as well as a whole liver.  To boot, it would be nice if such a property would be applicable to structures like the pancreas as well as the liver.


On 08/17/2018 03:48 PM, Steven A Smith wrote:
> Your description makes me think of (as you may intend) of the braiding
> of rivulets within a delta (or any flat section of river, alluvial fan,
> or pleneplain).... if I understand the dynamics at all, sedimentation is
> deposited relatively uniformly, causing a "flat" region and the most
> minor of differences define where water will canalize... and variations
> over time of those differences (wind, rates of evaporation, etc) lead to
> *multiple* channels which appear to be independent of one another, even
> crossing.   When they "cross" I am left to wonder if they are formed or
> flow concurrently or represent an evolution over time where many may
> carry water at one time, but as flow increases, one (or another) is
> preferred for a time, reinforcing an old or cutting a new channel.  
> Braided rivers are considered distinct from Meandering rivers, but I
> wonder if that isn't just a (time)scale difference?  I have been
> casually studying the Platte ("flat") River for unrelated reasons...
> 
> This is part of the reason for asking about the function(s) of the
> system(s) you are studying.
> 
> You seem to want to avoid any implications of growth...  does that mean
> you don't expect the structure to reflect a response to some dynamic
> element or to not have "evolved" from something more simple (like from a
> very sparse or fully connected graph to the one in question)?
> 
> I am also curious (in a hair splitting way) about your (Marcus' ?) use
> of homology in this context.   Would you be referring to the patterns of
> similarity across subgraphs of the whole graph?  When you invoked
> fractal, I heard an implication of patterns of similarity at different
> scales.

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