A mathematician who has taken the romantic decision to devote himself to biology will doubtlessly look upon cell kinetics as the most simple and natural field of application for his knowledge and skills. Indeed, the thesaurus he is to master is not so complicated as, say, in molecular biology, the structural elements of the system, i. e. ceils, have been segregated by Nature itself, simple considerations of balance may be used for deducing basic equations, and numerous analogies in other areas of science also superficial add to one"s confidence. Generally speaking, this number of impression is correct, as evidenced by the very great theoretical studies on population kinetics, unmatched in other branches of mathematical biology. This, however, does not mean that mathematical theory of cell systems has traversed in its development a pathway free of difficulties or errors. The seeming ease of formalizing the phenomena of cell kinetics not infrequently led to the appearance of mathematical models lacking in adequacy or effectiveness from the viewpoint of applications. As in any other domain of science, mathematical theory of cell systems has its own intrinsic logic of development which, however, depends in large measure on the progress in experimental biology. Thus, during a fairly long period running into decades activities in that sphere were centered on devising its own specific approaches necessitated by new objectives in the experimental in vivo and in vitro investigation of cell population kinetics in different tissues.

One of the charms of mathematics is the contrast between its generality and its applicability to concrete, even everyday, problems. Branching processes are typical in this. Their niche of mathematics is the abstract pattern of reproduction, sets of individuals changing size and composition through their members reproducing; in other words, what Plato might have called the pure idea behind demography, population biology, cell kinetics, molecular replication, or nuclear ?ssion, had he known these scienti?c ?elds. Even in the performance of algorithms for sorting and classi?cation there is an inkling of the same pattern. In special cases, general properties of the abstract ideal then interact with the physical or biological or whatever properties at hand. But the population, or bran- ing, pattern is strong; it tends to dominate, and here lies the reason for the extreme usefulness of branching processes in diverse applications. Branching is a clean and beautiful mathematical pattern, with an intellectually challenging intrinsic structure, and it pervades the phenomena it underlies.

This book commemorates the scientific contributions of distinguished statistician, Andrei Yakovlev. It reflects upon Dr. Yakovlev’s many research interests including stochastic modeling and the analysis of micro-array data, and throughout the book it emphasizes applications of the theory in biology, medicine and public health. The contributions to this volume are divided into two parts. Part A consists of original research articles, which can be roughly grouped into four thematic areas: (i) branching processes, especially as models for cell kinetics, (ii) multiple testing issues as they arise in the analysis of biologic data, (iii) applications of mathematical models and of new inferential techniques in epidemiology, and (iv) contributions to statistical methodology, with an emphasis on the modeling and analysis of survival time data. Part B consists of methodological research reported as a short communication, ending with some personal reflections on research fields associated with Andrei and on his approach to science. The Appendix contains an abbreviated vitae and a list of Andrei’s publications, complete as far as we know. The contributions in this book are written by Dr. Yakovlev’s collaborators and notable statisticians including former presidents of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and of the Statistics Section of the AAAS. Dr. Yakovlev’s research appeared in four books and almost 200 scientific papers, in mathematics, statistics, biomathematics and biology journals. Ultimately this book offers a tribute to Dr. Yakovlev’s work and recognizes the legacy of his contributions in the biostatistics community.

In recent years, the role of cilia in the study of health, development and disease has been increasingly clear, and new discoveries have made this an exciting and important field of research. This comprehensive volume, a complement to the new three-volume treatment of cilia and flagella by King and Pazour, presents easy-to-follow protocols and detailed background information for researchers working with cilia and flagella. - Covers protocols for primary cilia across several systems and species - Both classic and state-of-the-art methods readily adaptable across model systems, and designed to last the test of time - Relevant to clinicians and scientists working in a wide range of fields

This is a collection of refereed papers presented at the 4th International Conference on Mathematical Population Dynamics. The selection of papers and their organization were made by the following persons: O Arino, D Axelrod, V Capasso, W Fitzgibbon, P Jagers, M Kimmel, D Kirschner, C Mode, B Novak, R Sachs, W Stephan, A Swierniak and H Thieme.It features some of the new trends in cell and human population dynamics. The main link between the two traits is that human populations of concern here are essentially those subject to cell diseases, either the processes of anarchic proliferation or those by which some cell lines are killed by an infectious agent.The volume is divided into 3 main parts. Each part is subdivided into chapters, each chapter concentrating on a specific aspect. Each aspect is illustrated by one or several examples, developed in sections contributed by several authors. A detailed introduction for each part will enable the reader to refer to chapters of interest. An index and a bibliography for each part is also included for easy reference.This book will be useful for those interested in the subject matter.

Biomathematical Problems in Optimization of Cancer Radiotherapy provides insight into the role of cell population heterogeneity in the optimal control of fractionated irradiation of tumors. The book emphasizes the mathematical modeling aspect of the problem and presents the state of the art in the stochastic description of irradiated cell survival. Some of the results are of general theoretical interest and can be applied to other areas of optimal control methodology. Detailed explanations of all mathematical statements are provided throughout the text. The book is excellent for biomathematicians, radiotherapists, oncologists, health physicists, and other researchers and students interested in the topic.

This volume gathers papers originally presented at the 3rd Workshop on Branching Processes and their Applications (WBPA15), which was held from 7 to 10 April 2015 in Badajoz, Spain (http://branching.unex.es/wbpa15/index.htm). The papers address a broad range of theoretical and practical aspects of branching process theory. Further, they amply demonstrate that the theoretical research in this area remains vital and topical, as well as the relevance of branching concepts in the development of theoretical approaches to solving new problems in applied fields such as Epidemiology, Biology, Genetics, and, of course, Population Dynamics. The topics covered can broadly be classified into the following areas: 1. Coalescent Branching Processes 2. Branching Random Walks 3. Population Growth Models in Varying and Random Environments 4. Size/Density/Resource-Dependent Branching Models 5. Age-Dependent Branching Models 6. Special Branching Models 7. Applications in Epidemiology 8. Applications in Biology and Genetics Offering a valuable reference guide to contemporary branching process theory, the book also explores many open problems, paving the way for future research.

First multi-year cumulation covers six years: 1965-70.