I have long had an interest in the life sciences, but have had few opportunities to indulge that interest in my professional activities. It has only been through simulation that those opportunities have arisen. Some of my most enjoyable classes were those I taught to students in the life sciences, where I attempted to show them the value of simulation to their discipline. That there is such a value cannot be questioned. Whether you are interested in population ecology, phar macokinetics, the cardiovascular system, or cell interaction, simulation can play a vital role in explaining the underlying processes and in enhancing our understanding of these processes. This book comprises an excellent collection of contributions, and clearly demonstrates the value of simulation in the particular areas of physiology and bioengineering. My main frustration when teaching these classes to people with little or no computer background was the lack of suitable simulation software. This di rectly inspired my own attempts at producing software usable by the computer novice. It is especially nice that software is available that enables readers to experience the examples in this book for themselves. I would like to congratulate and thank the editors, Rogier P. van Wijk van Brievingh and Dietmar P. P. Moller, for all of their excellent efforts. They should be proud of their achievement. This is the sixth volume in the Advances in Simulation series, and other volumes are in preparation.

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF MODELING AND SIMULATING HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY Written by a coinventor of the Human Patient Simulator (HPS) and past president of the Society in Europe for Simulation Applied to Medicine (SESAM), Modeling and Simulation in Biomedical Engineering: Applications in Cardiorespiratory Physiology is a compact and consistent introduction to this expanding field. The book divides the modeling and simulation process into five manageable steps--requirements, conceptual models, mathematical models, software implementation, and simulation results and validation. A framework and a basic set of deterministic, continuous-time models for the cardiorespiratory system are provided. This timely resource also addresses advanced topics, including sensitivity analysis and setting model requirements as part of an encompassing simulation and simulator design. Practical examples provide you with the skills to evaluate and adapt existing physiologic models or create new ones for specific applications. Coverage includes: Signals and systems Model requirements Conceptual models Mathematical models Software implementation Simulation results and model validation Cardiorespiratory system model Circulation Respiration Physiologic control Sensitivity analysis of a cardiovascular model Design of model-driven acute care training simulators “Uniquely qualified to author such a text, van Meurs is one of the original developers of CAE Healthcare’s Human Patient Simulator (HPS). ...His understanding of mathematics, human physiology, pharmacology, control systems, and systems engineering, combined with a conversational writing style, results in a readable text. ...The ample illustrations and tables also break up the text and make reading the book easier on the eyes. ...concise yet in conversational style, with real-life examples. This book is highly recommended for coursework in physiologic modeling and for all who are interested in simulator design and development. The book pulls all these topics together under one cover and is an important contribution to biomedical literature.” --IEEE Pulse, January 2014 “This book is written by a professional engineer who is unique in that he seems to have a natural understanding of 3 key areas as follows: the hardware involved with simulators, human physiology, and mathematical modeling. Willem van Meurs is one of the inventors of the model-driven human patient simulator (HPS), and so, he is very qualified to write this book. The book is written in a clear way, using the first person throughout, in a conversational manner, with a style that involves posing questions and answering them in subsequent text. ...The book starts with a very useful introduction and background chapter, setting out the scene for the rest of the book. ...I have used his book in enhancing my own talks and understanding human patient simulation and can strongly recommend it.” --Simulation in Healthcare December, 2012 Reviewed by Mark A. Tooley, Ph.D., Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering, Royal United Hospital, Combe Park, Bath, UK.

A practice-oriented survey of techniques for computational modeling and simulation suitable for a broad range of biological problems. There are many excellent computational biology resources now available for learning about methods that have been developed to address specific biological systems, but comparatively little attention has been paid to training aspiring computational biologists to handle new and unanticipated problems. This text is intended to fill that gap by teaching students how to reason about developing formal mathematical models of biological systems that are amenable to computational analysis. It collects in one place a selection of broadly useful models, algorithms, and theoretical analysis tools normally found scattered among many other disciplines. It thereby gives the aspiring student a bag of tricks that will serve him or her well in modeling problems drawn from numerous subfields of biology. These techniques are taught from the perspective of what the practitioner needs to know to use them effectively, supplemented with references for further reading on more advanced use of each method covered. The text, which grew out of a class taught at Carnegie Mellon University, covers models for optimization, simulation and sampling, and parameter tuning. These topics provide a general framework for learning how to formulate mathematical models of biological systems, what techniques are available to work with these models, and how to fit the models to particular systems. Their application is illustrated by many examples drawn from a variety of biological disciplines and several extended case studies that show how the methods described have been applied to real problems in biology.

This introduction and textbook familiarizes engineers with the use of mathematical and computational modeling and simulation in a way that develops their understanding of the solution characteristics of a broad class of real-world problems. The relevant basic and advanced methodologies are explained in detail, with special emphasis on ill-defined problems. Some fifteen simulation systems are presented on the language and the logical level. Moreover, the reader also can accumulate an experiential overview by studying the wide variety of case studies spanning much of science and engineering. The latter are briefly described within the book but their full versions as well as some simulation software demos are available on the Web. The book can be used for courses on various levels as well as for self-study. Advanced sections are identified and can be skipped in a first reading or in undergraduate courses.

The study of natural phenomena using computer simulation is a major new research tool in the physical, chemical, biological and social sciences. It is useful for studying simple systems, and it is essential for the study of complex systems. Using Mathematica, an integrated software environment for scientific programming, numerical analysis and visualization, this book describes computer simulations applicable to a wide range of phenomena.