Reviews the quantitative tools used in the study of subjects such as biodiversity, resource management and endangered species preservation. Topics covered include population viability analysis, population dynamics, metapopulation models, estimating timing of extinctions, quasi-extinction and more.

Quantitative Research in Human Biology and Medicine reflects the author's past activities and experiences in the field of medical statistics. The book presents statistical material from a variety of medical fields. The text contains chapters that deal with different aspects of vital statistics. It provides statistical surveys of perinatal mortality rate; epidemiology of various diseases, like cancer, tuberculosis, malaria, diphtheria, and scarlatina; and discussions of various aspects of human biology such as growth and development, genetics, and nutrition. The inheritance of mental qualities; the law governing multiple births; and historical demography are covered as well. Medical statisticians and physicians will find the book interesting.

Quantitative methods are revolutionizing modern molecular and cellular biology. Groundbreaking technical advances are fueling the rapid expansion in our ability to observe, as seen in multidisciplinary studies that integrate theory, computation, experimental assays, and the control of microenvironments. Integrating new experimental and theoretical methods, Quantitative Biology: From Molecular to Cellular Systems gives both new and established researchers a solid foundation for starting work in this field. The book is organized into three sections: Fundamental Concepts covers bold ideas that inspire novel approaches in modern quantitative biology. It offers perspectives on evolutionary dynamics, system design principles, chance and memory, and information processing in biology. Methods describes recently developed or improved techniques that are transforming biological research. It covers experimental methods for studying single-molecule biochemistry, small-angle scattering from biomolecules, subcellular localization of proteins, and single-cell behavior. It also describes theoretical methods for synthetic biology and modeling random variations among cells. Molecular and Cellular Systems focuses on specific biological systems where modern quantitative biology methods are making an impact. It incorporates case studies of biological systems for which new concepts or methods are increasing our understanding. Examples include protein kinase at the molecular level, the genetic switch of phage lambda at the regulatory system level, and Escherichia coli chemotaxis at the cellular level. In short, Quantitative Biology presents practical tools for the observation, modeling, design, and manipulation of biological systems from the molecular to the cellular levels.

Quantitative methods are needed in conservation biology more than ever as an increasing number of threatened species find their way onto international and national “red lists. ” Objective evaluation of population decline and extinction probability are required for sound decision making. Yet, as our colleague Selina Heppell points out, population viability analysis and other forms of formal risk assessment are underused in policy formation because of data uncertainty and a lack of standardized methodologies and unambiguous criteria (i. e. , “rules of thumb”). Models used in conservation biology range from those that are purely heuristic to some that are highly predictive. Model selection should be dependent on the questions being asked and the data that are available. We need to develop a toolbox of quantitative methods that can help scientists and managers with a wide range of systems and that are subject to varying levels of data uncertainty and environmental variability. The methods outlined in the following chapters represent many of the tools needed to fill that toolbox. When used in conjunction with adaptive management, they should provide information for improved monitoring, risk assessment, and evaluation of management alternatives. The first two chapters describe the application of methods for detecting trends and extinctions from sighting data. Presence/absence data are used in general linear and additive models in Chapters 3 and 4 to predict the extinction proneness of birds and to build habitat models for plants.

My original intention was to write a history of medical statistics, used in its prewar sense, expanding the writings on the subject by Major Greenwood, from which I formed many of my ideas in the early days immediately after the Second World War. In later years, I decided that the scope of his works was narrower than what I think is appropriate now, for he was writing in an era before the acceptance and use of the Fisherian methods and he was probably not aware of the mathematization of many parts of biological theory. Further, the boundary between the medical and biological sciences has largely disappeared. Many texts have now been written on branches of the theory and practice inspired by R. A. Fisher (see §4. 13). I discuss the history of the use of quantitative methods in the biological sciences, defined after the style of Peller (1967) as that branch of science that uses a quantitative approach to, or quantitative logical reasoning on, or biology. The mathematical tech any issue having to do with medicine niques are various and not classified here. Within the book I use "biological sciences" to include medicine but use the longer phrase in its title to avoid misunderstandings as to content. Moreover, most of the experimental work carried out in medical research laboratories is performed on animals other than man.