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I know that most men, including those at ease with the problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives. Joseph Ford quoting Tolstoy (Gleick, 1987) We are used to thinking that natural objects have a certain form and that this form is determined by a characteristic scale. If we magnify the object beyond this scale, no new features are revealed. To correctly measure the properties of the object, such as len...
This exceptional book is concerned with the application of fractals and chaos, as well as other concepts from nonlinear dynamics to biomedical phenomena. Herein we seek to communicate the excitement being experienced by scientists upon making application of these concepts within the life sciences. Mathematical concepts are introduced using biomedical data sets and the phenomena being explained take precedence over the mathematics. In this new edition what has withstood the test of time has been updated and modernized; speculations that were not borne out have been expunged and the breakthroughs that have occurred in the intervening years are emphasized. The book provides a comprehensive overview of a nascent theory of medicine, including a new chapter on the theory of complex networks as they pertain to medicine.
The field of solid state ionics deals with ionically conducting materials in the solid state and numerous devices based on such materials. Solid state ionic materials cover a wide spectrum, ranging from inorganic crystalline and polycrystalline solids, ceramics, glasses, polymers, composites and nano-scale materials. A large number of Scientists in Asia are engaged in research in solid state ionic materials and devices and since 1988. The Asian Society for solid state ionics has played a key role in organizing a series of bi-ennial conferences on solid state ionics in different Asian countries. The contributions in this volume were presented at the 10th conference in the series organized by ...
This text describes the statistcal behavior of complex systems and shows how the fractional calculus can be used to model the behavior. The discussion emphasizes physical phenomena whose evolution is best described using the fractional calculus, such as systems with long-range spatial interactions or long-time memory. The book gives general strategies for understanding wave propagation through random media, the nonlinear response of complex materials, and the fluctuations of heat transport in heterogeneous materials.
This book is not a text devoted to a pedagogical presentation of a specialized topic nor is it a monograph focused on the author's area of research. It accomplishes both these things while providing a rationale for why the reader ought to be interested in learning about fractional calculus. This book is for researchers who has heard about many
One of my favorite quotes is from a letter of Charles Darwin (1887): "I have long discovered that geologists never read each other's works, and that the only object in writing a book is proof of earnestness, and that you do not form your opinions without undergoing labour of some kind. " It is not clear if this private opinion of Darwin was one that he held to be absolutely true, or was one of those opinions that, as with most of us, coincides with our "bad days," but is replaced with a more optimistic view on our "good days. " I hold the sense of the statement to be true in general, but not with regard to scientists never reading each other's work. Even if that were true however, the presen...
In life, we often face unavoidable complexities in terms of our ability to understand or influence outcomes. Some questions which arise due to these complexities are: Why can’t the future be made certain? Why do the some people or events always end up at the center of controversy? Why do only a select few get ahead of their peers? Each question pertains to three central elements of complexities and these elements are: uncertainty, inequality and unfairness. Simplifying Complexity explains the scientific study of complex cognitive networks, as well as the methods scientists use to parse difficult problems into manageable pieces. Readers are introduced to scientific methodology and thought p...
Where Medicine Went Wrong explores how the idea of an average value has been misapplied to medical phenomena, distorted understanding and lead to flawed medical decisions. Through new insights into the science of complexity, traditional physiology is replaced with fractal physiology, in which variability is more indicative of health than is an average. The capricious nature of physiological systems is made conceptually manageable by smoothing over fluctuations and thinking in terms of averages. But these variations in such aspects as heart rate, breathing and walking are much more susceptible to the early influence of disease than are averages.It may be useful to quote from the late Stephen Jay Gould's book Full House on the errant nature of averages: ?? our culture encodes a strong bias either to neglect or ignore variation. We tend to focus instead on measures of central tendency, and as a result we make some terrible mistakes, often with considerable practical import.? Dr West has quantified this observation and make it useful for the diagnosis of disease.
By the end of 1849, an estimated thirty-nine thousand gold-seekers had arrived in San Francisco by sea, and some thirty thousand others had crossed the continent on land. Another eighty-six thousand would arrive in 1850. According to the census for that year. there were twelve men for every woman in California. But who would want them? The words "gold rush" generate at best an image of raucous, all-male camaraderie, at worst a storm of lawless and irredeemable violence. Eliza Wood Burhans Farnham, a young widow who had already generated considerable attention for herself as the matron of Sing Sing prison, had a vision for California. "Woman, with all her kindly cares and powers, so peculiarl...
Rev. ed. of: Full leadership development. 1999.