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This volume consists of a selection of papers presented at a 'Symposium on Mathematical Modelling in Biology and Ecology', held at the Conference Centre of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Pretoria, South Africa on July 5 and 6, 1979. The Symposium was organized by the National Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences of the CSIR, the National Institute of Virology, the University of the Witwaters= rand and the South African Journal of Science. The primary reason for the symposium was to provide a forum for South African researchers in the fields of Mathematical Biology and Ecology, at which to present or review their most recent work. It was also hoped that such a symposium would stimulate further research in this field in South Africa and elsewhere. Accordingly a number of South African Scien= tists working on a wide range of problems in Mathematical Biology and Ecology and three Scientists from North America, were invited to present papers. Although a somewhat wide spectrum of problems was covered by the Symposium, a balance was maintained by ensuring that the papers were evenly distributed in the three categories: Models of Physiological Pro= cesses; Morphological Models; and Ecological and Population Models.
List of contents
I: Models of Physiological Processes.- Linear and non-linear analysis of mammalian motor control.- Optimal processes of neuro-musculoskeletal control systems.- A model cylinder of excitable cells simulates fibrillation on the basis of inhomogeneous refractory periods.- An enzyme theory of nervous conduction.- Mathematics and cancer.- A dynamic stochastic model for animal growth.- II: Morphological Models.- A two-morphogen diffusion model for gastrulation.- Modelling the human red blood cell shape.- Model biological tubules: the geometry and contraction of tubular arrays of spheres.- Microfibrillar structure of growing plant cell walls.- Modelling the growth of simple biological organisms using formal language theory.- III: Ecological and Population Models.- Evaluation of ecological simulation models.- Mathematical models for the rotating biological disc reactor.- Harvesting models and stock recruitment curves in fisheries management.- The application of modelling to Southern African fisheries management.- An exploratory model of Impala population dynamics.
