Fluctuations and Scaling in Biology PDF Download

Author: Thomas Vicsek
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783540669883
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Author: James H. Brown
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195131428
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Scaling relationships have been a persistent theme in biology at least since the time of Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo. While there have been many excellent empirical and theoretical investigations, there has been little attempt to synthesize this diverse but interrelated area of biology. In an effort to fill this void, Scaling in Biology, the first general treatment of scaling in biology in over 15 years, covers a broad spectrum of the most relevant topics in a series of chapters written by experts in the field. Some of those topics discussed include allometry and fractal structure, branching of vascular systems of mammals and plants, biomechanical and life history of plants, invertebrates and vertebrates, and species-area patterns of biological diversity.

Author: Tamás Vicsek
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780198507895
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
During the last decade the well-established tools of statistical physics have been successfully applied to an increasing number of biological phenomena. It is a fruitful approach to systems characterised by fluctuations and/or a large number of very similar units, and such systems are commonin biology, whether it be the individuals in the codons of a genetic code or the behavioural responses of macromolecules to thermal fluctuations. This book is thus able to cover a wide range of phenomena, including fractal pattern formation, group motion in organisms from bacteria to humans, or themechanisms by which fluctuations are rectified in the cell's molecular machinery. This book provides a summary of the majority of recent approaches and concepts born in the study of biological phenomena involving collective behaviour and random perturbation, as well as presenting some of the mostimportant new results to specialist researchers. It is, particularly, a key text for all students of scaling and fluctuations in biology.

Author: Jaun-Manuel Garcia-Ruiz
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461528526
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
During the past decade interest in the formation of complex disorderly patterns far from equilibrium has grown rapidly. This interest has been stim ulated by the development of new approaches (based primarily on fractal geometry) to the quantitative description of complex structures, increased understanding of non-linear phenomena and the introduction of a variety of models (such as the diffusion-limited aggregation model) that provide paradigms for non-equilibrium growth phenomena. Advances in computer technology have played a crucial role in both the experimental and theoret ical aspects of this enterprise. Substantial progress has been made towards the development of comprehensive understanding of non-equilibrium growth phenomena but most of our current understanding is based on simple com puter models. Pattern formation processes are important in almost all areas of science and technology, and, clearly, pattern growth pervades biology. Very often remarkably similar patterns are found in quite diverse systems. In some case (dielectric breakdown, electrodeposition, fluid-fluid displacement in porous media, dissolution patterns and random dendritic growth for example) the underlying causes of this similarity is quite well understood. In other cases (vascular trees, nerve cells and river networks for example) we do not yet know if a fundamental relationship exists between the mechanisms leading the formation of these structures.

Author: Sergey M. Bezrukov
Publisher: SPIE-International Society for Optical Engineering
ISBN: 9780819449702
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Author: Annick LESNE
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 364215123X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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During a century, from the Van der Waals mean field description (1874) of gases to the introduction of renormalization group (RG techniques 1970), thermodynamics and statistical physics were just unable to account for the incredible universality which was observed in numerous critical phenomena. The great success of RG techniques is not only to solve perfectly this challenge of critical behaviour in thermal transitions but to introduce extremely useful tools in a wide field of daily situations where a system exhibits scale invariance. The introduction of scaling, scale invariance and universality concepts has been a significant turn in modern physics and more generally in natural sciences. Since then, a new "physics of scaling laws and critical exponents", rooted in scaling approaches, allows quantitative descriptions of numerous phenomena, ranging from phase transitions to earthquakes, polymer conformations, heartbeat rhythm, diffusion, interface growth and roughening, DNA sequence, dynamical systems, chaos and turbulence. The chapters are jointly written by an experimentalist and a theorist. This book aims at a pedagogical overview, offering to the students and researchers a thorough conceptual background and a simple account of a wide range of applications. It presents a complete tour of both the formal advances and experimental results associated with the notion of scaling, in physics, chemistry and biology.

Author: Ron Milo
Publisher: Garland Science
ISBN: 1317230698
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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A Top 25 CHOICE 2016 Title, and recipient of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title (OAT) Award. How much energy is released in ATP hydrolysis? How many mRNAs are in a cell? How genetically similar are two random people? What is faster, transcription or translation?Cell Biology by the Numbers explores these questions and dozens of others provid

Author: Gabriele A. Losa
Publisher: Birkhäuser
ISBN: 3034881193
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
In March 2000 leading scientists gathered at the Centro Seminariale Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland, for the Third International Symposium on "Fractals 2000 in Biology and Medicine". This interdisciplinary conference provided stimulating contributions from the very topical field Fractals in Biology and Medicine. This volume highlights the growing power and efficacy of the fractal geometry in understanding how to analyze living phenomena and complex shapes.

Author: Karl M. Wantzen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402091923
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
Most aquatic ecosystems have variable water levels. These water-level fluctuations (WLF) have multiple effects on the organisms above and below the waterline. Natural WLF patterns in lakes guarantee both productivity and biodiversity, while untimely floods and droughts may have negative effects. Human impacts on WLF have led to a stabilization of the water levels of many lakes by hydraulic regulation, untimely drawdown due to water use, or floods due to water release from hydropower plants in the catchments. This book provides a first review in this field. It presents selected papers on the ecological effects of WLF in lakes, resulting from a workshop at the University of Konstanz in winter 2005. Issues addressed here include the extent of WLF, and analyses of their effects on different groups of biota from microorganisms to vertebrates. Applied issues include recommendations for the hydrological management of regulated lakes to reduce negative impacts, and a conceptual framework is delivered by an extension of the floodpulse concept for lakes. Current impacts on water use, including increasing demands on drinking and irrigation water, hydropower etc., and climate change effects on WLF make this book an essential resource for aquatic ecologists, engineers, and decision-makers dealing with the management of lake ecosystems and their catchments.

Author: Sergey M. Bezrukov
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9780735401273
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 644

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Book Description
All papers in this proceedings volume were peer reviewed. The purview of this third conference was shifted toward biology and medicine. Among the topics covered were: the constructive role of noise in the central nervous system, neuronal networks, and sensory transduction (hearing in humans, photo- and electroreception in marine animals), encoding of information into nerve pulse trains, single molecules and noise (including single molecule detection and characterization by nanopores - molecular "Coulter counting"), concepts of noise in neurophysiology (randomness and order in brain and heart electrical activities under normal conditions and in pathology), the role of noise in genetic regulation and gene expression, biosensors, etc.