How do biological objects communicate, make structures, make measurements and decisions, search for food, i.e., do all the things necessary for survival? Designed for an advanced undergraduate audience, this book uses mathematics to begin to tell that story. It builds on a background in multivariable calculus, ordinary differential equations, and basic stochastic processes and uses partial differential equations as the framework within which to explore these questions.

This is the only book that teaches all aspects of modern mathematical modeling and that is specifically designed to introduce undergraduate students to problem solving in the context of biology. Included is an integrated package of theoretical modeling and analysis tools, computational modeling techniques, and parameter estimation and model validation methods, with a focus on integrating analytical and computational tools in the modeling of biological processes. Divided into three parts, it covers basic analytical modeling techniques; introduces computational tools used in the modeling of biological problems; and includes various problems from epidemiology, ecology, and physiology. All chapters include realistic biological examples, including many exercises related to biological questions. In addition, 25 open-ended research projects are provided, suitable for students. An accompanying Web site contains solutions and a tutorial for the implementation of the computational modeling techniques. Calculations can be done in modern computing languages such as Maple, Mathematica, and MATLAB?.

This monograph presents new tools for modeling multiscale biological processes. Natural processes are usually driven by mechanisms widely differing from each other in the time or space scale at which they operate and thus should be described by appropriate multiscale models. However, looking at all such scales simultaneously is often infeasible, costly, and provides information that is redundant for a particular application. Hence, there has been a growing interest in providing a more focused description of multiscale processes by aggregating variables in a way that is relevant to the purpose at hand and preserves the salient features of the dynamics. Many ad hoc methods have been devised, and the aim of this book is to present a systematic way of deriving the so-called limit equations for such aggregated variables and ensuring that the coefficients of these equations encapsulate the relevant information from the discarded levels of description. Since any approximation is only valid if an estimate of the incurred error is available, the tools the authors describe allow for proving that the solutions to the original multiscale family of equations converge to the solution of the limit equation if the relevant parameter converges to its critical value. The chapters are arranged according to the mathematical complexity of the analysis, from systems of ordinary linear differential equations, through nonlinear ordinary differential equations, to linear and nonlinear partial differential equations. Many chapters begin with a survey of mathematical techniques needed for the analysis. All problems discussed in this book belong to the class of singularly perturbed problems; that is, problems in which the structure of the limit equation is significantly different from that of the multiscale model. Such problems appear in all areas of science and can be attacked using many techniques. Methods of Small Parameter in Mathematical Biology will appeal to senior undergraduate and graduate students in applied and biomathematics, as well as researchers specializing in differential equations and asymptotic analysis.

Mathematical Models in Biology is an introductory book for readers interested in biological applications of mathematics and modeling in biology. A favorite in the mathematical biology community, it shows how relatively simple mathematics can be applied to a variety of models to draw interesting conclusions. Connections are made between diverse biological examples linked by common mathematical themes. A variety of discrete and continuous ordinary and partial differential equation models are explored. Although great advances have taken place in many of the topics covered, the simple lessons contained in this book are still important and informative. Audience: the book does not assume too much background knowledge--essentially some calculus and high-school algebra. It was originally written with third- and fourth-year undergraduate mathematical-biology majors in mind; however, it was picked up by beginning graduate students as well as researchers in math (and some in biology) who wanted to learn about this field.

The book is intended as an advanced undergraduate or first-year graduate course for students from various disciplines, including applied mathematics, physics and engineering. It has evolved from courses offered on partial differential equations (PDEs) over the last several years at the Politecnico di Milano. These courses had a twofold purpose: on the one hand, to teach students to appreciate the interplay between theory and modeling in problems arising in the applied sciences, and on the other to provide them with a solid theoretical background in numerical methods, such as finite elements. Accordingly, this textbook is divided into two parts. The first part, chapters 2 to 5, is more elementary in nature and focuses on developing and studying basic problems from the macro-areas of diffusion, propagation and transport, waves and vibrations. In turn the second part, chapters 6 to 11, concentrates on the development of Hilbert spaces methods for the variational formulation and the analysis of (mainly) linear boundary and initial-boundary value problems.

Exploring Modeling with Data and Differential Equations Using R provides a unique introduction to differential equations with applications to the biological and other natural sciences. Additionally, model parameterization and simulation of stochastic differential equations are explored, providing additional tools for model analysis and evaluation. This unified framework sits "at the intersection" of different mathematical subject areas, data science, statistics, and the natural sciences. The text throughout emphasizes data science workflows using the R statistical software program and the tidyverse constellation of packages. Only knowledge of calculus is needed; the text’s integrated framework is a stepping stone for further advanced study in mathematics or as a comprehensive introduction to modeling for quantitative natural scientists. The text will introduce you to: modeling with systems of differential equations and developing analytical, computational, and visual solution techniques. the R programming language, the tidyverse syntax, and developing data science workflows. qualitative techniques to analyze a system of differential equations. data assimilation techniques (simple linear regression, likelihood or cost functions, and Markov Chain, Monte Carlo Parameter Estimation) to parameterize models from data. simulating and evaluating outputs for stochastic differential equation models. An associated R package provides a framework for computation and visualization of results. It can be found here: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/demodelr/index.html.