Optimality Principles In Biology

Foundations of Mathematical Biology, Volume III, is devoted to the treatment of behavior of whole organisms and groups of organisms. The viewpoint taken throughout the book is a holistic, phenomenological one. That is, the integrated behavior of these organisms and groups of organisms is not, in general, referred back to specific structural properties of interacting subunits (as in a reductionist scheme), but is rather treated on its own terms without invoking the properties of lower levels of organization. The book begins with an overview of organization and control in physiological systems, with emphasis on the mathematical techniques involved in more detailed investigations of specific physiological mechanisms. Separate chapters cover the cardiovascular system, with particular reference to blood flow; gross problems of organic form; a relational overview of physics, biology, and sociology; the automata theory in the context of the central nervous system; and populations of interacting organisms. The final chapter discusses the material presented in the entire work, some of its philosophical presuppositions and implications, and the possibility of constructing a unified theory of mathematical biology.

Philosophy in Reality offers a new vision of the relation between science and philosophy in the framework of a non-propositional logic of real processes, grounded in the physics of the real world. This logical system is based on the work of the Franco-Romanian thinker Stéphane Lupasco (1900-1988), previously presented by Joseph Brenner in the book Logic in Reality (Springer, 2008). The present book was inspired in part by the ancient Chinese Book of Changes (I Ching) and its scientific-philosophical discussion of change. The emphasis in Philosophy in Reality is on the recovery of dialectics and semantics from reductionist applications and their incorporation into a new synthetic paradigm for knowledge. Through an original re-interpretation of both classical and modern Western thought, this book addresses philosophical issues in scientific fields as well as long-standing conceptual problems such as the origin, nature and role of meaning, the unity of knowledge and the origin of morality. In a rigorous transdisciplinary manner, it discusses foundational and current issues in the physical sciences - mathematics, information, communication and systems theory and their implications for philosophy. The same framework is applied to problems of the origins of society, the transformation of reality by human subjects, and the emergence of a global, sustainable information society. In summary, Philosophy in Reality provides a wealth of new perspectives and references, supporting research by both philosophers and physical and social scientists concerned with the many facets of reality.

Praise for the first edition: ... superb, beautifully written and organized work that takes an engineering approach to systems biology. Alon provides nicely written appendices to explain the basic mathematical and biological concepts clearly and succinctly without interfering with the main text. He starts with a mathematical description of transcriptional activation and then describes some basic transcription-network motifs (patterns) that can be combined to form larger networks. – Nature [This text deserves] serious attention from any quantitative scientist who hopes to learn about modern biology ... It assumes no prior knowledge of or even interest in biology ... One final aspect that must be mentioned is the wonderful set of exercises that accompany each chapter. ... Alon’s book should become a standard part of the training of graduate students. – Physics Today Written for students and researchers, the second edition of this best-selling textbook continues to offer a clear presentation of design principles that govern the structure and behavior of biological systems. It highlights simple, recurring circuit elements that make up the regulation of cells and tissues. Rigorously classroom-tested, this edition includes new chapters on exciting advances made in the last decade. Features: Includes seven new chapters The new edition has 189 exercises, the previous edition had 66 Offers new examples relevant to human physiology and disease

This book presents a novel unified treatment of inverse problems in optimal control and noncooperative dynamic game theory. It provides readers with fundamental tools for the development of practical algorithms to solve inverse problems in control, robotics, biology, and economics. The treatment involves the application of Pontryagin's minimum principle to a variety of inverse problems and proposes algorithms founded on the elegance of dynamic optimization theory. There is a balanced emphasis between fundamental theoretical questions and practical matters. The text begins by providing an introduction and background to its topics. It then discusses discrete-time and continuous-time inverse optimal control. The focus moves on to differential and dynamic games and the book is completed by consideration of relevant applications. The algorithms and theoretical results developed in Inverse Optimal Control and Inverse Noncooperative Dynamic Game Theory provide new insights into information requirements for solving inverse problems, including the structure, quantity, and types of state and control data. These insights have significant practical consequences in the design of technologies seeking to exploit inverse techniques such as collaborative robots, driver-assistance technologies, and autonomous systems. The book will therefore be of interest to researchers, engineers, and postgraduate students in several disciplines within the area of control and robotics.

Presents an animal-based, largely non-symbolic approach to understanding the basic mechanisms involved in adaptive intelligence. Contributions discuss and explain concepts and techniques, providing a balance of both theoretical and empirical approaches.

Many life scientists implicitly assume a materialistic metaphysics that is based on the worldview of the 19th century. This sort of reductionistic metaphysics does not do justice to the complexity of biological phenomena, leaving many features of living processes unexplained. The authors of this book explore the viability of process metaphysics to advance our understanding of fundamental biological concepts such as organism, ontogeny, agency, teleology, environment, and normativity. Based on the metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead and other process thinkers, the authors ascribe subjective interiority to all living beings, from unicellular organisms to the most complex animals. This book highlights the uniqueness and intrinsic value of living beings. It presents a new approach to essential dimensions of the phenomenon of life with the aim of opening up new horizons in the thinking of philosophers, philosophers of biology, life scientists, and environmentalists.