Population Biology and Criticality

Population Biology and Criticality PDF Author: Nico Stollenwerk
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 1848164017
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
The present book describes novel theories of mutation pathogen systems showing critical fluctuations, as a paradigmatic example of an application of the mathematics of critical phenomena to the life sciences. It will enable the reader to understand the implications and future impact of these findings, yet at same time allow him to actively follow the mathematical tools and scientific origins of critical phenomena. This book also seeks to pave the way to further fruitful applications of the mathematics of critical phenomena in other fields of the life sciences.

Predicting Pandemics in a Globally Connected World, Volume 1

Predicting Pandemics in a Globally Connected World, Volume 1 PDF Author: Nicola Bellomo
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030965627
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
This contributed volume investigates several mathematical techniques for the modeling and simulation of viral pandemics, with a special focus on COVID-19. Modeling a pandemic requires an interdisciplinary approach with other fields such as epidemiology, virology, immunology, and biology in general. Spatial dynamics and interactions are also important features to be considered, and a multiscale framework is needed at the level of individuals and the level of virus particles and the immune system. Chapters in this volume address these items, as well as offer perspectives for the future.

Complex Population Dynamics

Complex Population Dynamics PDF Author: Bernd Blasius
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9812771581
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
This collection of review articles is devoted to the modeling of ecological, epidemiological and evolutionary systems. Theoretical mathematical models are perhaps one of the most powerful approaches available for increasing our understanding of the complex population dynamics in these natural systems. Exciting new techniques are currently being developed to meet this challenge, such as generalized or structural modeling, adaptive dynamics or multiplicative processes. Many of these new techniques stem from the field of nonlinear dynamics and chaos theory, where even the simplest mathematical rule can generate a rich variety of dynamical behaviors that bear a strong analogy to biological populations.

River Networks as Ecological Corridors

River Networks as Ecological Corridors PDF Author: Andrea Rinaldo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108477828
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 457

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Book Description
A summary of state-of-the-art research on how the river environment impacts biodiversity, species invasions, population dynamics, and the spread of waterborne disease. Blending laboratory, field and theoretical studies, it is the go-to reference for graduate students and researchers in river ecology, hydrology, and epidemiology.

Stochastic Population Dynamics in Ecology and Conservation

Stochastic Population Dynamics in Ecology and Conservation PDF Author: Russell Lande
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 9780198525257
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 698

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Book Description
1. Demographic and environmental stochasticity -- 2. Extinction dynamics -- 3. Age structure -- 4. Spatial structure -- 5. Population viability analysis -- 6. Sustainable harvesting -- 7. Species diversity -- 8. Community dynamics.

Ecosystems and Human Well-being

Ecosystems and Human Well-being PDF Author: Joseph Alcamo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biodiversity
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Ecosystems and Human Well-Being is the first product of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a four-year international work program designed to meet the needs of decisionmakers for scientific information on the links between ecosystem change and human well-being. The book offers an overview of the project, describing the conceptual framework that is being used, defining its scope, and providing a baseline of understanding that all participants need to move forward. The Millennium Assessment focuses on how humans have altered ecosystems, and how changes in ecosystem services have affected human well-being, how ecosystem changes may affect people in future decades, and what types of responses can be adopted at local, national, or global scales to improve ecosystem management and thereby contribute to human well-being and poverty alleviation. The program was launched by United National Secretary-General Kofi Annan in June 2001, and the primary assessment reports will be released by Island Press in 2005. Leading scientists from more than 100 nations are conducting the assessment, which can aid countries, regions, or companies by: providing a clear, scientific picture of the current sta

Modeling the Interplay Between Human Behavior and the Spread of Infectious Diseases

Modeling the Interplay Between Human Behavior and the Spread of Infectious Diseases PDF Author: Piero Manfredi
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461454743
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
This volume summarizes the state-of-the-art in the fast growing research area of modeling the influence of information-driven human behavior on the spread and control of infectious diseases. In particular, it features the two main and inter-related “core” topics: behavioral changes in response to global threats, for example, pandemic influenza, and the pseudo-rational opposition to vaccines. In order to make realistic predictions, modelers need to go beyond classical mathematical epidemiology to take these dynamic effects into account. With contributions from experts in this field, the book fills a void in the literature. It goes beyond classical texts, yet preserves the rationale of many of them by sticking to the underlying biology without compromising on scientific rigor. Epidemiologists, theoretical biologists, biophysicists, applied mathematicians, and PhD students will benefit from this book. However, it is also written for Public Health professionals interested in understanding models, and to advanced undergraduate students, since it only requires a working knowledge of mathematical epidemiology.

Consilience

Consilience PDF Author: E. O. Wilson
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0804154066
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 485

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "A dazzling journey across the sciences and humanities in search of deep laws to unite them." —The Wall Street Journal One of our greatest scientists—and the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for On Human Nature and The Ants—gives us a work of visionary importance that may be the crowning achievement of his career. In Consilience (a word that originally meant "jumping together"), Edward O. Wilson renews the Enlightenment's search for a unified theory of knowledge in disciplines that range from physics to biology, the social sciences and the humanities. Using the natural sciences as his model, Wilson forges dramatic links between fields. He explores the chemistry of the mind and the genetic bases of culture. He postulates the biological principles underlying works of art from cave-drawings to Lolita. Presenting the latest findings in prose of wonderful clarity and oratorical eloquence, and synthesizing it into a dazzling whole, Consilience is science in the path-clearing traditions of Newton, Einstein, and Richard Feynman.

The Origins of Order

The Origins of Order PDF Author: Stuart A. Kauffman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199826676
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 958

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Book Description
Stuart Kauffman here presents a brilliant new paradigm for evolutionary biology, one that extends the basic concepts of Darwinian evolution to accommodate recent findings and perspectives from the fields of biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics. The book drives to the heart of the exciting debate on the origins of life and maintenance of order in complex biological systems. It focuses on the concept of self-organization: the spontaneous emergence of order that is widely observed throughout nature Kauffman argues that self-organization plays an important role in the Darwinian process of natural selection. Yet until now no systematic effort has been made to incorporate the concept of self-organization into evolutionary theory. The construction requirements which permit complex systems to adapt are poorly understood, as is the extent to which selection itself can yield systems able to adapt more successfully. This book explores these themes. It shows how complex systems, contrary to expectations, can spontaneously exhibit stunning degrees of order, and how this order, in turn, is essential for understanding the emergence and development of life on Earth. Topics include the new biotechnology of applied molecular evolution, with its important implications for developing new drugs and vaccines; the balance between order and chaos observed in many naturally occurring systems; new insights concerning the predictive power of statistical mechanics in biology; and other major issues. Indeed, the approaches investigated here may prove to be the new center around which biological science itself will evolve. The work is written for all those interested in the cutting edge of research in the life sciences.

Holistic Darwinism

Holistic Darwinism PDF Author: Peter Corning
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226116336
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 555

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Book Description
In recent years, evolutionary theorists have come to recognize that the reductionist, individualist, gene-centered approach to evolution cannot sufficiently account for the emergence of complex biological systems over time. Peter A. Corning has been at the forefront of a new generation of complexity theorists who have been working to reshape the foundations of evolutionary theory. Well known for his Synergism Hypothesis—a theory of complexity in evolution that assigns a key causal role to various forms of functional synergy—Corning puts this theory into a much broader framework in Holistic Darwinism, addressing many of the issues and concepts associated with the evolution of complex systems. Corning's paradigm embraces and integrates many related theoretical developments of recent years, from multilevel selection theory to niche construction theory, gene-culture coevolution theory, and theories of self-organization. Offering new approaches to thermodynamics, information theory, and economic analysis, Corning suggests how all of these domains can be brought firmly within what he characterizes as a post–neo-Darwinian evolutionary synthesis.