Analysis Of Physiological Systems

In studying physiological systems bioscientists are continually faced with the problem of providing descriptions of cause-effect relationships. This task is usually carried out through the performance of stimulus-response experiments. In the past, the design of such experiments has been ad hoc, incomplete, and certainly inefficient. Worse yet, bioscientists have failed to take advantage of advances in fields directly related to their problems (specifically, advances in the area of systems analysis). The raison d'etre of this book is to rectify this deficiency by providing the physiologist with methodological tools that will be useful to him or her in everyday labora tory encounters with physiological systems. The book was written so that it would be practical, useful, and up-to date. With this in mind, parts of it give step-by-step descriptions of in the laboratory. It is hoped that this systematic procedures to be followed will increase the usefulness of the book to the average research physiologist and, perhaps, reduce the need for in-depth knowledge of some of the associated mathematics. Even though the material deals with state-of-the art techniques in systems and signal analysis, the mathematical level has been kept low so as to be comprehensible to the average physiologist with no extensive training in mathematics. To this end, mathematical rigor is often sacrificed readily to intuitive simple arguments.

A guide to common control principles and how they are used to characterize a variety of physiological mechanisms The second edition of Physiological Control Systems offers an updated and comprehensive resource that reviews the fundamental concepts of classical control theory and how engineering methodology can be applied to obtain a quantitative understanding of physiological systems. The revised text also contains more advanced topics that feature applications to physiology of nonlinear dynamics, parameter estimation methods, and adaptive estimation and control. The author—a noted expert in the field—includes a wealth of worked examples that illustrate key concepts and methodology and offers in-depth analyses of selected physiological control models that highlight the topics presented. The author discusses the most noteworthy developments in system identification, optimal control, and nonlinear dynamical analysis and targets recent bioengineering advances. Designed to be a practical resource, the text includes guided experiments with simulation models (using Simulink/Matlab). Physiological Control Systems focuses on common control principles that can be used to characterize a broad variety of physiological mechanisms. This revised resource: Offers new sections that explore identification of nonlinear and time-varying systems, and provide the background for understanding the link between continuous-time and discrete-time dynamic models Presents helpful, hands-on experimentation with computer simulation models Contains fully updated problems and exercises at the end of each chapter Written for biomedical engineering students and biomedical scientists, Physiological Control Systems, offers an updated edition of this key resource for understanding classical control theory and its application to physiological systems. It also contains contemporary topics and methodologies that shape bioengineering research today.

In the past few years Biomedical Engineering has received a great deal of attention as one of the emerging technologies in the last decade and for years to come, as witnessed by the many books, conferences, and their proceedings. Media attention, due to the applications-oriented advances in Biomedical Engineering, has also increased. Much of the excitement comes from the fact that technology is rapidly changing and new technological adventures become available and feasible every day. For many years the physical sciences contributed to medicine in the form of expertise in radiology and slow but steady contributions to other more diverse fields, such as computers in surgery and diagnosis, neurology, cardiology, vision and visual prosthesis, audition and hearing aids, artificial limbs, biomechanics, and biomaterials. The list goes on. It is therefore hard for a person unfamiliar with a subject to separate the substance from the hype. Many of the applications of Biomedical Engineering are rather complex and difficult to understand even by the not so novice in the field. Much of the hardware and software tools available are either too simplistic to be useful or too complicated to be understood and applied. In addition, the lack of a common language between engineers and computer scientists and their counterparts in the medical profession, sometimes becomes a barrier to progress.

This book provides an introduction to qualitative and quantitative aspects of human physiology. It examines biological and physiological processes and phenomena, including a selection of mathematical models, showing how physiological problems can be mathematically formulated and studied. It also illustrates how a wide range of engineering and physics topics, such as electronics, fluid dynamics, solid mechanics and control theory can be used to describe and understand physiological processes and systems. Throughout the text, there are introductions to measuring and quantifying physiological processes using both signaling and imaging technologies. This new edition includes updated material on pathophysiology, metabolism and the TCA cycle, as well as more advanced worked examples. This book describes the basic structure and models of cellular systems, the structure and function of the cardiovascular system, and the electrical and mechanical activity of the heart, and provides an overview of the structure and function of the respiratory and nervous systems. It also includes an introduction to the basic concepts and applications of reaction kinetics, pharmacokinetic modelling and tracer kinetics. It appeals to final year biomedical engineering undergraduates and graduates alike, as well as to practising engineers new to the fields of bioengineering or medical physics.

Significant advances have been made in the field since the previous classic texts were written. This text brings the available knowledge up to date. * Enables the reader to use a wide variety of nonlinear system identification techniques. * Offers a thorough treatment of the underlying theory. * Provides a MATLAB toolbox containing implementation of the latest identification methods together with an extensive set of problems using realistic data sets.

Despite the widespread use of psychophysiological concepts and meth ods in behavior therapy, there is no text devoted specifically to the subject. The publication of this book is necessary and timely, and should promote a better appreciation of the physiological roots of behavior therapy. The important connections between physiology and behavior thera py receive insufficient recognition nowadays, despite the fact that his torically one of the two main streams of behavior therapy grew out of a physiological basis. Wolpe's early work was closely connected to phys iology, and in contemporary behavior therapy, Lang's critical contribu tion is firmly based in psychophysiology. The physiological component is prominent in Lang's highly productive three-systems analysis of emo tion and in its application to psychological disorders. In addition, there are philosophical reasons for maintaining the close connection between behavior therapy and physiology. The existence of these connections, and their justification, can raise few objections, and it is therefore curious that a book on this significant subject has not appeared earlier. The importance of physiology for behavior therapy can be illus trated by considering the nature of a behavior therapy deprived of its physiological connections. It would survive, certainly, but as a rather scrawny, uninteresting orphan among many clamorous competitors.