Game-environment feedback dynamics in growing population: Effect of finite carrying capacity

Evolutionary Game Dynamics with Environmental Feedback in a Network with Two Communities

Recent developments of eco-evolutionary models have shown that evolving feedbacks between behavioral strategies and the environment of game interactions, leading to changes in the underlying payoff matrix, can impact the underlying population dynamics in various manners. We propose and analyze an eco-evolutionary game dynamics model on a network with two communities such that players interact with other players in the same community and those in the opposite community at different rates. In our model, we consider two-person matrix games with pairwise interactions occurring on individual edges and assume that the environmental state depends on edges rather than on nodes or being globally shared in the population. We analytically determine the equilibria and their stability under a symmetric population structure assumption, and we also numerically study the replicator dynamics of the general model. The model shows rich dynamical behavior, such as multiple transcritical bifurcations, multistability, and anti-synchronous oscillations. Our work offers insights into understanding how the presence of community structure impacts the eco-evolutionary dynamics within and between niches.

Modelling the dynamic vaccination game with evolutionary feedback: exploring pairwise interactions and vaccine strategies

A novel approach rooted in co-evolutionary game theory has been introduced to investigate how the interaction between human decision-making and the dynamics of the epidemic environment can shape vaccine acceptance during disease outbreaks. This innovative framework combines two key game concepts: the cooperation-defection game and the cost-benefit vaccination game. By doing so, it enables us to delve into the various factors that influence the success of a vaccination campaign amid an outbreak. Within this framework, individuals engage in a thorough evaluation of the risks, benefits and incentives associated with either cooperating by getting vaccinated or defecting by refusing the vaccine. Additionally, it involves a careful analysis of the costs and benefits linked to vaccine acceptance. The outcomes of this study stress the importance of two main factors: the effectiveness of the vaccine and the prevalence of a cooperative culture within society. This insight into the strategic interactions between individuals and their decisions about vaccination holds significant implications for public health policymakers. It equips to boost vaccination coverage and address vaccine hesitancy within society ultimately contributing to better public health outcomes during epidemic outbreaks.

Hypochaos prevents tragedy of the commons in discrete-time eco-evolutionary game dynamics

While quite a few recent papers have explored game-resource feedback using the framework of evolutionary game theory, almost all the studies are confined to using time-continuous dynamical equations. Moreover, in such literature, the effect of ubiquitous chaos in the resulting eco-evolutionary dynamics is rather missing. Here, we present a deterministic eco-evolutionary discrete-time dynamics in generation-wise non-overlapping population of two types of harvesters-one harvesting at a faster rate than the other-consuming a self-renewing resource capable of showing chaotic dynamics. In the light of our finding that sometimes chaos is confined exclusively to either the dynamics of the resource or that of the consumer fractions, an interesting scenario is realized: The resource state can keep oscillating chaotically, and hence, it does not vanish to result in the tragedy of the commons-extinction of the resource due to selfish indiscriminate exploitation-and yet the consumer population, whose dynamics depends directly on the state of the resource, may end up being composed exclusively of defectors, i.e., high harvesters. This appears non-intuitive because it is well known that prevention of tragedy of the commons usually requires substantial cooperation to be present.

Dynamics of a Quantum Common-Pool Resource Game with Homogeneous Players' Expectations

In this work, we analyse a common-pool resource game with homogeneous players (both have boundedly rational expectations) and entanglement between players' strategies. The quantum model with homogeneous expectations is a differential approach to the game since, to the best of our knowledge, it has hardly been considered in previous works. The game is represented using a Cournot type payoff functions, limited to the maximum capacity of the resource. The behaviour of the dynamics is studied considering how the fixed points (particularly the Nash equilibrium) and the stability of the system vary depending on the different values of the parameters involved in the model. In the analysis of this game, it is especially relevant to consider the extent to which the resource is exploited, since the output of the players is highly affected by this issue. It is studied in which cases the resource can be overexploited, adjusting the parameters of the model to avoid this scenario when it is possible. The results are obtained from an analytical point of view and also graphically using bifurcation diagrams to show the behaviour of the dynamics.

Intercellular competitive growth dynamics with microenvironmental feedback

Normal life activities between cells rely crucially on the homeostasis of the cellular microenvironment, but aging and cancer will upset this balance. In this paper we introduce the microenvironmental feedback mechanism to the growth dynamics of multicellular organisms, which changes the cellular competitive ability and thereby regulates the growth of multicellular organisms. We show that the presence of microenvironmental feedback can effectively delay aging, but cancer cells may grow uncontrollably due to the emergence of the tumor microenvironment (TME). We study the effect of the fraction of cancer cells relative to that of senescent cells on the feedback rate of the microenvironment on the lifespan of multicellular organisms and find that the average lifespan shortened is close to the data for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in Canada from 1980 to 2015. We also investigate how the competitive ability of cancer cells affects the lifespan of multicellular organisms and reveal that there is an optimal value of the competitive ability of cancer cells allowing the organism to survive longest. Interestingly, the proposed microenvironmental feedback mechanism can give rise to the phenomenon of Parrondo's paradox: When the competitive ability of cancer cells switches between a too-high and a too-low value, multicellular organisms are able to live longer than in each case individually. Our results may provide helpful clues for targeted therapies aimed at the TME.

Behavioral vaccination policies and game-environment feedback in epidemic dynamics

Many policymakers have adopted voluntary vaccination policies to alleviate the consequences of contagious diseases. Such policies have several well-established feathers, i.e. they are seasonal, depending on an individual's decision, adaptive, and control epidemic activity. Here, we study ideas from behavioral epidemiology embedded with a vaccination game and pairwise two-player two-strategy game to represent the environmental feedback in an SVIR model by using a composite information index including disease incidence, vaccine factors and cooperative behavior on a global time scale (repeated season). In its turn, the information index's game dynamics to participate in the vaccine program (cooperation) is supposed to reflect the feedback-evolving dynamics of competitive cognitions and the environment. The assuming model is described by two different evolutionary game systems connected by an unknown external public opinion environment feedback. The embedded model is described by an inherited system showing a behavioral aspect, i.e. pairwise game indicates an individual's cooperative behavior, and a vaccine game refers to vaccine-cost influence. This is a novel attempt to stabilize the two different decision processes to pool them into a single index. Extensive simulations suggest a rich spectrum of achievable results, including epidemic control, human behavior, social dilemma, and policy suggestions.