Polymer And Cell Dynamics

Polymer and cell dynamics play an important role in processes like tumor growth, metastasis, embryogenesis, immune reactions and regeneration. Based on an international workshop on numerical simulations of polymer and cell dynamics in Bad Honnef (Germany) in 2000, this volume provides an overview of the relevant mathematical and numerical methods, their applications and limits. Polymer and Cell Dynamics will be of interest to scientists and advanced undergraduates.

This book, based on lectures given at the Polytechnic of Milan, gives a broad overview of the field of polymer dynamics. In these lectures the aim is to stress the fundamental concepts of the behaviour of polymers without drawing on the more advanced mathematical formalism which often obscures the natural elegance of the subject matter. Professor De Gennes is one of the most distinguished workers in the field of material science. Therefore this book will be welcomed by both the experienced researcher in the area and the interested layman. It will be of particular value to graduate students.

This title includes a number of Open Access chapters. This book covers a wide scope of biological approaches to such biological phenomena as cell division, motility, collective cell behavior, multicellular structures, morphogenesis, and tumor development. Over the past two decades, biologists have generated large sets of experimental data and discovered a lot of facts that need explanation. This biological boom attracts physicists who believe they can help to develop a theoretical framework in biology and explain complete biological phenomena using basic principles. This is the first book to present recent advances in biophysical studies of the different aspects of cell life. This book presents recent advances in biophysical studies of living cells and gives the impression that a combination of quantitative live cell observations, detailed biochemical and biophysical data, and mathematical modeling are capable to answer many important biological questions and to achieve a more complete understanding of such complex phenomena.

This volume focuses on the dynamical behaviour of low-molecular additives in solid polymer matrixes. It covers: types and models of molecular motion in condensed media; dependence of motional frequency on particle structure and size, temperature, volume and stress; and polymer properties and polymeric structures. Extensive analysis of common regularities of rotational and translational dynamics of molecules introduced into polymers are given. The book also includes experimental techniques for molecular mobility evaluation, and features detailed data on rotational dynamics of additives. It should be of interest to specialists in various fields of polymer physical chemistry and materials science.

Presenting a completely new approach to examining how polymers move in non-dilute solution, this book focuses on experimental facts, not theoretical speculations, and concentrates on polymer solutions, not dilute solutions or polymer melts. From centrifugation and solvent dynamics to viscosity and diffusion, experimental measurements and their quantitative representations are the core of the discussion. The book reveals several experiments never before recognized as revealing polymer solution properties. A novel approach to relaxation phenomena accurately describes viscoelasticity and dielectric relaxation and how they depend on polymer size and concentration. Ideal for graduate students and researchers interested in the properties of polymer solutions, the book covers real measurements on practical systems, including the very latest results. Every significant experimental method is presented in considerable detail, giving unprecedented coverage of polymers in solution.