Download or read book Viruses as Complex Adaptive Systems written by Ricard Solé and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-12-11 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How complex systems theory sheds new light on the adaptive dynamics of viral populations Viruses are everywhere, infecting all sorts of living organisms, from the tiniest bacteria to the largest mammals. Many are harmful parasites, but viruses also play a major role as drivers of our evolution as a species and are essential regulators of the composition and complexity of ecosystems on a global scale. This concise book draws on complex systems theory to provide a fresh look at viral origins, populations, and evolution, and the coevolutionary dynamics of viruses and their hosts. New viruses continue to emerge that threaten people, crops, and farm animals. Viruses constantly evade our immune systems, and antiviral therapies and vaccination campaigns can be powerless against them. These unique characteristics of virus biology are a consequence of their tremendous evolutionary potential, which enables viruses to quickly adapt to any environmental challenge. Ricard Solé and Santiago Elena present a unified framework for understanding viruses as complex adaptive systems. They show how the application of complex systems theory to viral dynamics has provided new insights into the development of AIDS in patients infected with HIV-1, the emergence of new antigenic variants of the influenza A virus, and other cutting-edge advances. Essential reading for biologists, physicists, and mathematicians interested in complexity, Viruses as Complex Adaptive Systems also extends the analogy of viruses to the evolution of other replicators such as computer viruses, cancer, and languages.
Download or read book Viruses As Complex Adaptive Systems Ricard Sol Santiago F Elena written by Ricard Solé and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Emerging Diseases as Complex Adaptive Systems Pilot written by John Grefenstette and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 53 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We designed and tested a computational model of emerging viruses that simulates the evolution of real biological viruses. Knowledge of viral molecular replication mechanisms was used to instruct the development of this genetic algorithm-based C language 'Virtual Virus' (vW). The model consists of populations of hundreds to thousands of variable length virtual virus genomes that replicate, mutate, recombine, and evolve. Each virus genome is composed of an artificial polynucleotide string in which arbitrary 'nucleotide' triplets encode English letters rather than amino acids, and in which sequences are translated into words or phrases, rather than into polypeptides or proteins. The three word/phrases 'COREPROThIN, ' 'POLY- MERASE, ' and 'ENVELOPE, ' which can be present in any order on the string, together comprise the selected phenotype. Run-on and overlapping reading frames are permitted. Fitness is assigned to each string according to the encoded spelling score. Probability of replication at each generation is directly related to string fitness. VIV populations seeded with random strings regularly evolve terse, high spelling score genomes within a few hundred to a thousand generations. By systematically varying evolutionary operators in the VIV model we observed several reproducible features relevant to the evolution and emergence of biological viruses: (1) adaptation (fitness slope) proceeds most rapidly at mutation rates close to one per genome, and falls off rapidly at rates either higher or lower than unity (2) when added to mutation, recombination in any form speeds adaptation, and (3) homologous recombination is superior to random cross-over recombination.
Download or read book Molecular Biology of Plant Viruses written by Chuni L. Mandahar and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two decades ago, recombinant DNA technology or genetic engineering ushered in a new era in the study of plant viruses. The major breakthrough came in the eighties, primarily due to the development of new methods for RNA reverse transcription and cDNA cloning, along with restriction enzyme mapping and rapid nucleotide sequencing. An information explosion in various molecular aspects of plant viruses was caused by these studies. Current research efforts investigate the study of viral genomes, genetic maps, genes and gene expression, gene products, and genetic basis of virus functions and biological properties. Molecular Biology of Plant Viruses analyzes, collates and reviews such published information. Additionally, it demonstrates the mechanisms of genetic variability; brings out the molecular basis of virus transport in plants and of virus transmission by vectors and of disease symptomatology; and discusses molecular biology of viroids and transgenic plants. It also treats the recently discovered genetic phenomenon of gene silencing and the gene-for-gene interactions between the hosts and plant viruses. Molecular Biology of Plant Viruses is an excellent reference, providing insight into the exciting research developments made in the field.
Download or read book Viral Fitness and Evolution written by Esteban Domingo and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-01-02 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book unifies general concepts of plant and animal virus evolution and covers a broad range of topics related to theoretical and experimental aspects of virus population dynamics and viral fitness. Timely topics such as viral mechanisms to cope with antiviral agents, the adaptability of the virus to new hosts, emergence of new viral phenotypes, and the connections between short- and long-term virus evolution are included. By comparing plant and animal viruses, universal mechanisms responsible for fitness variations, viral emergence and disease mechanisms are explored. Although emphasis is put on specific plant and human viral pathogens, relevant similarities and differences to other viruses are highlighted. Additionally, readers will learn more about the adaptability of coronaviruses, including the recently emerged SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of the COVID-19 pandemic. The book is aimed at students and scientists interested in basic and applied aspects of plant and animal virus population dynamics and evolution.
Download or read book Fields Virology written by David Mahan Knipe and published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. This book was released on 2007 with total page 3116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Accompanying CD-ROM has same title as book.
Download or read book Learning Systems Thinking written by Diana Montalion and published by "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". This book was released on 2024-07-11 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Welcome to the systems age, where software professionals are no longer building software—we're building systems of software. Change is continuously deployed across software ecosystems coordinated by responsive infrastructure. In this world of increasing relational complexity, we need to think differently. Many of our challenges are systemic. This book shows you how systems thinking can guide you through the complexity of modern systems. Rather than relying on traditional reductionistic approaches, author Diana Montalion shows you how to expand your skill set so we can think, communicate, and act as healthy systems. Systems thinking is a practice that improves your effectiveness and enables you to lead impactful change. Through a series of practices and real-world scenarios, you'll learn to shift your perspective in order to design, develop, and deliver better outcomes. You'll learn: How linear thinking limits your ability to solve system challenges Common obstacles to systems thinking and how to move past them New skills and practices that will transform how you think, learn, and lead Methods for thinking well with others and creating sound recommendations How to measure success in the midst of complexity and uncertainty
Download or read book Introduction to Complexity and Complex Systems written by Robert B. Northrop and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 542 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The boundaries between simple and complicated, and complicated and complex system designations are fuzzy and debatable, even using quantitative measures of complexity. However, if you are a biomedical engineer, a biologist, physiologist, economist, politician, stock market speculator, or politician, you have encountered complex systems. Furthermore, your success depends on your ability to successfully interact with and manage a variety of complex systems. In order not to be blindsided by unexpected results, we need a systematic, comprehensive way of analyzing, modeling, and simulating complex systems to predict non-anticipated outcomes. In its engaging first chapters, the book introduces complex systems, Campbell's Law, and the Law of Unintended Consequences, and mathematics necessary for conversations in complex systems. Subsequent chapters illustrate concepts via commonly studied biological mechanisms. The final chapters focus on higher-level complexity problems, and introduce complexity in economic systems. Designed as a reference for biologists and biological engineers, Introduction to Complexity and Complex Systems lends itself to use in a classroom course to introduce advanced students studying biomedical engineering, biophysics, or physiology to complex systems. Engaging and illustrative, this book aids scientists and decision makers in managing biological complexity and complex systems.
Download or read book Posthuman International Relations written by Doctor Erika Cudworth and published by Zed Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-04-04 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this bold intervention, Cudworth and Hobden draw on recent advances in thinking about complexity theory to call for a profound re-envisioning of the study of international relations. As a discipline, IR is wedded to the enlightenment project of overcoming the 'hazards' of nature, and thus remains constrained by its blinkered 'human-centred' approach. Furthermore, as a means of predicting major global-political events and trends, it has failed consistently. Instead, the authors argue, it is essential we develop a much more nuanced and sophisticated analysis of global political systems, taking into account broader environmental circumstances, as well as social relations, economic practices and formations of political power. Essentially, the book reveals how the study of international politics is transformed by the understanding that we have never been exclusively human. An original work that is sure to provoke heated debate within the discipline, Posthuman International Relations combines insights from complexity theory and ecological thinking to provide a radical new agenda for a progressive, twenty-first century, International Relations.
Download or read book Quasispecies Concept and Implications for Virology written by Esteban Domingo and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-02-19 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Continuous genetic variation and selection of virus subpopulations in the course of RNA virus replications are intimately related to viral disease mechanisms. The central topics of this volume are the origins of the quasispecies concept, and the implications of quasispecies dynamics for viral populations.
Download or read book Unifying Themes in Complex Systems X written by Dan Braha and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-06-14 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS) offers a unique interdisciplinary venue for researchers from the physical and biological sciences, social sciences, psychology and cognitive science, engineering, medicine, human systems, and global systems. This proceedings volume gathers selected papers from the conference. The New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI) has been instrumental in the development of complex systems science and its applications. NECSI pursues research, education, knowledge dissemination, and community development efforts around the world to promote the study of complex systems and its application for the benefit of society. NECSI hosts the International Conference on Complex Systems and publishes the NECSI Book.
Download or read book Dialectics in World Politics written by Shannon Brincat and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-02 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the conceptual, methodological and praxeological aspects of dialectical analysis in world politics. As dialectics has remained an under-theorised analytical tool in international relations, this volume provides a critical resource for those seeking to deploy dialectics in their own research by showcasing its effectiveness for understanding and transforming world politics. Contributions demonstrate a number of innovative ways in which dialectical thinking can be of benefit to the study of world politics by covering three thematic concerns: (i) conceptual or meta-theoretical dimensions of dialectics; (ii) methodological features and general principles of dialectical approaches; and (iii) applications and/or case studies that deploy a dialectical approach to world politics. Canvassing a diverse range of dialectical approaches on key issues in world politics – from global security to postcolonial resistances, from the theoretical problems of reification and complexity, to the study of the global futures and the intercultural historical expressions of dialectics – Dialectics and World Politics offers key insights into the social forces and contradictions that are generative of transformation in world politics and yet routinely downplayed in orthodox approaches to international relations. Each chapter demonstrates how dialectics can be utilized more broadly in the discipline and deployed in a critical fashion as part of an emancipatory project. This book was originally published as a special issue of Globalizations.
Download or read book Virus as Populations written by Esteban Domingo and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2015-09-25 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Virus as Populations: Composition, Complexity, Dynamics, and Biological Implications explains fundamental concepts that arise from regarding viruses as complex populations when replicating in infected hosts. Fundamental phenomena in virus behavior, such as adaptation to changing environments, capacity to produce disease, probability to be transmitted or response to treatment, depend on virus population numbers and in the variations of such population numbers. Concepts such as quasispecies dynamics, mutations rates, viral fitness, the effect of bottleneck events, population numbers in virus transmission and disease emergence, new antiviral strategies such as lethal mutagenesis, and extensions of population heterogeneity to nonviral systems are included. These main concepts of the book are framed in recent observations on general virus diversity derived from metagenomic studies, and current views on the origin of viruses and the role of viruses in the evolution of the biosphere. Features current views on the key steps in the origin of life and origins of viruses Includes examples relating ancestral features of viruses with their current adaptive capacity Explains complex phenomena in an organized and coherent fashion that is easy to comprehend and enjoyable to read Considers quasispecies as a framework to understand virus adaptability and disease processes
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Virology written by and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2021-02-24 with total page 4109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Encyclopedia of Virology, Fourth Edition, Five Volume Set builds on the solid foundation laid by the previous editions, expanding its reach with new and timely topics. In five volumes, the work provides comprehensive coverage of the whole virosphere, making this a unique resource. Content explores viruses present in the environment and the pathogenic viruses of humans, animals, plants and microorganisms. Key areas and concepts concerning virus classification, structure, epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment and prevention are discussed, guiding the reader through chapters that are presented at an accessible level, and include further readings for those needing more specific information. More than ever now, with the Covid19 pandemic, we are seeing the huge impact viruses have on our life and society. This encyclopedia is a must-have resource for scientists and practitioners, and a great source of information for the wider public. Offers students and researchers a one-stop shop for information on virology not easily available elsewhere Fills a critical gap of information in a field that has seen significant progress in recent years Authored and edited by recognized experts in the field, with a range of different expertise, thus ensuring a high-quality standard
Download or read book Foot and Mouth Disease written by Francisco Sobrino and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2019-04-30 with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The shock following the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in the UK dispelled the notion that this disease was permanently under control and could be forgotten. FMD proved to be an endemic disease in many countries and continues to pose a major threat to animal health worldwide. The development of more effective and socially acceptabl
Download or read book Decision Theory and Choices a Complexity Approach written by Marisa Faggini and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-12-28 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In economics agents are assumed to choose on the basis of rational calculations aimed at the maximization of their pleasure or profit. Formally, agents are said to manifest transitive and consistent preferences in attempting to maximize their utility in the presence of several constraints. They operate according to the choice imperative: given a set of alternatives, choose the best. This imperative works well in a static and simplistic framework, but it may fail or vary when 'the best' is changing continuously. This approach has been questioned by a descriptive approach that springing from the complexity theory tries to give a scientific basis to the way in which individuals really choose, showing that those models of human nature is routinely falsified by experiments since people are neither selfish nor rational. Thus inductive rules of thumb are usually implemented in order to make decisions in the presence of incomplete and heterogeneous information sets.
Download or read book Foot and Mouth Disease written by D.J. Rowlands and published by Gulf Professional Publishing. This book was released on 2003-01-24 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV), the cause of these dramatic consequences, is one of the smallest animal viruses, yet is often quoted as being the most infectious agent known. This book, for the first time, presents the story of FMDV as written by world experts on the virus. Initial chapters describe the structure of the virus and what is known of the molecular mechanisms that enable it to replicate faster than any other known animal virus. Anti-FMD vaccines are made in vast quantities and can be extremely effective for disease control. However, the ability of the virus to change rapidly is a constant headache for vaccine manufacturers. Both vaccine production and virus evolution are reviewed comprehensively. In addition to vaccination, disease control requires accurate and sensitive diagnostic procedures and effective hygiene measures. Modern molecular epidemiology and the measures available for infection control are described in further chapters." "Finally, the role of wildlife in the spread and maintenance of FMD is discussed."--BOOK JACKET.