The Critical Point of a Sigmoidal Curve: the Generalized Logistic Equation Example

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Abstract: Let y(t) be a smooth sigmoidal curve, y(n)(t) be its nth derivative, tm,i and ta,i, i=1,2,dots be the set of points where respectively the derivatives of odd and even order reach their extreme values. The "critical point of the sigmoidal curve" is defined to be the common limit of the sequences tm,i and ta,i, provided that the limit exists. We prove that if f(t)=fracdydt is an even function such that the magnitude of the analytic representation |fA(t)|=|f(t)+ifh(t)|, where fh(t) is the Hilbert transform of f(t), is monotone on (0,infty), then the point t=0 is the critical point in the sense above. For the general case, where f(t)=fracdydx is not even, we prove that if |fA(t)| monotone on (0,infty) and if the phase of its Fourier transform F(omega) has a limit as omegaopminfty, then t=0 is still the critical point but as opposed to the previous case, the maximum of f(t) is located away from t=0. We compute the Fourier transform of the generalized logistic growth functions and illustrate the notions above on these examples.












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