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Fractal and Multifractal Approaches in Physiology

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The Science of Disasters

Abstract

We explore the degree to which concepts developed in statistical physics can be usefully applied to physiological signals. We first review recent progress using two analysis methods: (i) detrended fluctuation analysis to quantify homogeneous structures, termed monofractals, which are characterized with the same scaling properties throughout the entire signal, and (ii) wavelet-based multifractal analysis to quantify signals of higher complexity, termed multi-fractals, which require many exponents to characterize their scaling properties. We next illustrate the problems related to physiological signal analysis with representative examples of heartbeat dynamics under healthy and pathological conditions. We discuss the findings of fractal and multifractal properties in the human heartbeat and how they change with disease.

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Authors
  1. Plamen Ch. Ivanov
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  2. Ary L. Goldberger
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  3. H. Eugene Stanley
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Ivanov, P.C., Goldberger, A.L., Stanley, H.E. (2002). Fractal and Multifractal Approaches in Physiology. In: The Science of Disasters. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-56257-0_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-56257-0_7

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-62531-2

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