Suzanne Lenhart - Böcker

The life sciences deal with a vast array of problems at different spatial, temporal, and organizational scales. The mathematics necessary to describe, model, and analyze these problems is similarly diverse, incorporating quantitative techniques that are rarely taught in standard undergraduate courses. This textbook provides an accessible introduction to these critical mathematical concepts, linking them to biological observation and theory while also presenting the computational tools needed to address problems not readily investigated using mathematics alone. Proven in the classroom and requiring only a background in high school math, Mathematics for the Life Sciences doesn't just focus on calculus as do most other textbooks on the subject. It covers deterministic methods and those that incorporate uncertainty, problems in discrete and continuous time, probability, graphing and data analysis, matrix modeling, difference equations, differential equations, and much more. The book uses MATLAB throughout, explaining how to use it, write code, and connect models to data in examples chosen from across the life sciences.* Provides undergraduate life science students with a succinct overview of major mathematical concepts that are essential for modern biology* Covers all the major quantitative concepts that national reports have identified as the ideal components of an entry-level course for life science students* Provides good background for the MCAT, which now includes data-based and statistical reasoning* Explicitly links data and math modeling* Includes end-of-chapter homework problems, end-of-unit student projects, and select answers to homework problems* Uses MATLAB throughout, and MATLAB m-files with an R supplement are available online* Prepares students to read with comprehension the growing quantitative literature across the life sciences* A solutions manual for professors and an illustration package is available

This volume stems from two DIMACS activities, the U.S.-Africa Advanced Study Institute and the DIMACS Workshop, both on Mathematical Modeling of Infectious Diseases in Africa, held in South Africa in the summer of 2007. It contains both tutorial papers and research papers. Students and researchers should find the papers on modeling and analyzing certain diseases currently affecting Africa very informative. In particular, they can learn basic principles of disease modeling and stability from the tutorial papers where continuous and discrete time models, optimal control, and stochastic features are introduced.

From economics and business to the biological sciences to physics and engineering, professionals successfully use the powerful mathematical tool of optimal control to make management and strategy decisions. Optimal Control Applied to Biological Models thoroughly develops the mathematical aspects of optimal control theory and provides insight into the application of this theory to biological models.Focusing on mathematical concepts, the book first examines the most basic problem for continuous time ordinary differential equations (ODEs) before discussing more complicated problems, such as variations of the initial conditions, imposed bounds on the control, multiple states and controls, linear dependence on the control, and free terminal time. In addition, the authors introduce the optimal control of discrete systems and of partial differential equations (PDEs).Featuring a user-friendly interface, the book contains fourteen interactive sections of various applications, including immunology and epidemic disease models, management decisions in harvesting, and resource allocation models. It also develops the underlying numerical methods of the applications and includes the MATLAB® codes on which the applications are based.Requiring only basic knowledge of multivariable calculus, simple ODEs, and mathematical models, this text shows how to adjust controls in biological systems in order to achieve proper outcomes.