James D. Murray – författare

Divorce rates are at an all-time high. But without a theoretical understanding of the processes related to marital stability and dissolution, it is difficult to design and evaluate new marriage interventions. The Mathematics of Marriage provides the foundation for a scientific theory of marital relations. The book does not rely on metaphors, but develops and applies a mathematical model using difference equations. The work is the fulfillment of the goal to build a mathematical framework for the general system theory of families first suggested by Ludwig Von Bertalanffy in the 1960s.The book also presents a complete introduction to the mathematics involved in theory building and testing, and details the development of experiments and models. In one "marriage experiment," for example, the authors explored the effects of lowering or raising a couple''s heart rates. Armed with their mathematical model, they were able to do real experiments to determine which processes were affected by their interventions.

Applying ideas such as phase space, null clines, influence functions, inertia, and uninfluenced and influenced stable steady states (attractors), the authors show how other researchers can use the methods to weigh their own data with positive and negative weights. While the focus is on modeling marriage, the techniques can be applied to other types of psychological phenomena as well.

It has been over a decade since the release of the now classic original edition of Murray''s Mathematical Biology. Since then mathematical biology has grown at an astonishing rate and is well established as a distinct discipline. Mathematical modeling is now being applied in every major discipline in the biomedical sciences. Though the field has become increasingly large and specialized, this book remains important as a text that introduces some of the exciting problems that arise in biology and gives some indication of the wide spectrum of questions that modeling can address. Due to the tremendous development in the field this book is being published in two volumes. This first volume is an introduction to the field, the mathematics mainly involves ordinary differential equations that are suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses at different levels. For this new edition Murray is covering certain items in depth, giving new applications such as modeling marital interactions andtemperature dependence sex determination.

SIAM, 2004: "Murray''s Mathematical Biology is a classic that belongs on the shelf of any serious student or researcher in the field. Together the two volumes contain well over 1000 references, a rich source of material, together with an excellent index to help readers quickly find key words. ... I recommend the new and expanded third edition to any serious young student interested in mathematical biology who already has a solid basis in applied mathematics."

It has been over a decade since the release first edition of the now classic original edition of Murray''s Mathematical Biology. Since then mathematical biology and medicine has grown at an astonishing rate and has established itself as a distinct discipline. Mathematical modelling is now being applied in every major discipline in the biomedical sciences. Though the field has become increasingly large and specialized, this book remains important as a text that introduces some of the exciting problems which arise in the biomedical sciences and gives some indication of the wide spectrum of questions that modelling can address.

Due to the tremendous development in recent years, this new edition is being published in two volumes. This second volume covers spatial models and biomedical applications. For this new edition, Murray covers certain items in depth, introducing new applications such as modelling growth and control of brain tumours, bacterial patterns, wound healing and wolf territoriality. In other areas, he discusses basic modelling concepts and provides further references as needed. He also provides even closer links between models and experimental data throughout the text.

Graduate students and researchers will find this book invaluable as it gives an excellent background from which to begin genuinely practical interdisciplinary research in the biomedical sciences.