The occurrence of hysteresis phenomena has been traditionally associated with mechanical and magnetic properties of materials. However, recent studies on the dynamics of biological processes suggest switch-like behavior that could be described by mathematical models of hysteresis. This book presents the milestones and perspectives of biological hysteresis and provides a comprehensive and application-oriented introduction to this subject. The target audience primarily comprises researchers but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.

Noise-Driven Phenomena in Hysteretic Systems provides a general approach to nonlinear systems with hysteresis driven by noisy inputs, which leads to a unitary framework for the analysis of various stochastic aspects of hysteresis. This book includes integral, differential and algebraic models that are used to describe scalar and vector hysteretic nonlinearities originating from various areas of science and engineering. The universality of the authors approach is also reflected by the diversity of the models used to portray the input noise, from the classical Gaussian white noise to its impulsive forms, often encountered in economics and biological systems, and pink noise, ubiquitous in multi-stable electronic systems. The book is accompanied by HysterSoft© - a robust simulation environment designed to perform complex hysteresis modeling – that can be used by the reader to reproduce many of the results presented in the book as well as to research both disruptive and constructive effects of noise in hysteretic systems.

Hysteresis phenomena are common in numerous physical, mechanical, ecological and biological systems. They reflect memory effects and process irreversibility. The use of hysteresis operators (hysterons) offers an approach to macroscopic modelling of the dynamics of phase transitions and rheological systems. The applications cover processes in electromagnetism, elastoplasticity and population dynamics in particular. Hysterons are also typical elements of control systems where they represent thermostats and other discontinuous controllers with memory. The book offers the first systematic mathematical treatment of hysteresis nonlinearities. Construction procedures are set up for hysterons in various function spaces, in continuous and discontinuous cases. A general theory of variable hysterons is developed, including identification and stability questions. Both deterministic and non-deterministic hysterons are considered, with applications to the study of feedback systems. Many of the results presented - mostly obtained by the authors and their scientific group - have not been published before. The book is essentially self contained and is addressed both to researchers and advanced students.

The Advanced Study Institute (ASI) on Nonlinear Phenomena-in Physics and Biology was held at the Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta, Canada, from 17 - 29 August, 1980. The Institute was made possible through funding by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (who sup plied the major portion of the financial aid), the National Research and Engineering Council of Canada, and Simon Fraser University. The availability of the Banff Centre was made possible through the co sponsorship (with NATO) of the ASI by the Canadian Association of Physicists. 12 invited lecturers and 82 other participants attended the Institute. Except for two lectures on nonlinear waves by Norman Zabusky, which were omitted because it was felt that they already had been exhaustively treated in the available literature, this volume contains the entire text of the invited lectures. In addition, short reports on some of the contributed talks have also been included. The rationale for the ASI and this resulting volume was that many of the hardest problems and most interesting phenomena being studied by scientists today ar.e nonlinear in nature. The nonlinear models involved often span several different disciplines, °a simple example being the Volterra-type model in population dynamics which has its analogue in nonlinear optics and plasma physics (the 3-wave problem), in the discussion of the social behavior of animals, and in biological competition and selection at the molecular level.

The study of complex hysteresis problems has become increasingly important in recent years, since the hysteresis phenomenon affects significantly the decisions that have to be rendered in a wide range of real-world practical applications. For example, the so-called hysteresis effects may influence substantially some fields not directly related to the natural sciences such as finance, economy, or fiscal policy. In addition, such phenomenon is also typically present in many engineering and physics applications of interest such as in magnetism, spin-valve technology, semiconductors, surface physics, aeronautical and civil engineering aerodynamics, complex battery systems, biology, etc. This book focuses on the most recent attempts for modeling a diverse variety of complex hysteresis problems faced in economics, engineering, and physics. The chapters of this book provide a self-contained, rigorous, and clear treatment of the different types and sources of hysteresis under a large spectrum of applications. The book also highlights how stochastic control and other mathematical tools as well as econometric techniques can be applied for analyzing the complex properties of hysteresis problems. This authoritative book is a definitive guide on how to understand the newest designs for modeling hysteresis in highly complex systems and thus it will be an essential reading for graduate students and researchers in economics, engineering, and physics.

This book, a selection of the papers presented at the 2nd World Congress for Electricity and Magnetism, provides state-of-the-art information on applications of electricity and electromagnetic fields on living organisms, especially man.

The 1st International Workshop on Acinetobacter was held on 6th September, 1986, in Manchester, England, in association with the 14th International Congress of Microbiology. That occasion was so well attended and productive that there were soon discussions about how, when and where the next meeting should be held. This time, however, there was sufficient confidence to think of a more substantial meeting and to plan for the proceedings to be published. It emerged that there was wide agreement that the time was ripe to take stock of the entire biology of Acinetobacter: its occurrence and taxonomy; its molecular biology, biochemistry and physiology; its clinical importance and its industrial and commercial applications. The 2nd International Workshop on Acinetobacter took place from 6th to 7th September, 1990, at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, and was sponsored by the Federation of European Microbiological Societies. There were about 100 participants from 19 countries. The backbone of the meeting consisted of 23 plenary lectures. There were 28 posters and the meeting closed with a general discussion which went on long after the official finishing time despite all the counter-attractions of a sunny Parisian Friday afternoon. Indeed discussions continued while cruising along the Seine and while dining at the top of the Tour Montparnasse. However, the vitality and usefulness of even the most successful meeting is difficult to transmit by the printed word.