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Learning and physiological regulation
Book Reviews use the correct animal model otherwise aberrant results will be obtained. For example guinea pigs are very sensitive to penicillin and had penicillin been tested first of all on guinea pigs, it probably would not have come into clinical use! However guinea pigs can not synthesise vitamin C and so are a good test animal for scurvy; they are also a good test animals for tuberculosis. This book deals with the toxicology, pathology and metabolism in all the standard animals with a chapter on each of the following; rat, mouse, hamster, guinea pig, rabbit, ferret, dog, non human primates. There are also chapters on alternative species (earthworms, fish, minipigs); model selection and scaling; susceptibility factors; legal regulations; commercial sources of animals. All those who use laboratory animals will find this a useful book to read. Those carrying out drug tests will find it essential reading. Regulation and Control Mechanisms in Biological Systems V. S. VAIDHYANATHAN. 294 pp. 1993. Prentice Hall, NJ,
U.S.A. Biochemistry, biophysics and mathematics have all developed approaches to control theory. This book deals with the application of some of these to the study of living systems. The chapters deal with characteristics of living systems (systems theory, reduction of errors, feed back, step responses of lst, 2nd and 3rd order, stability); thermodynamics; homeostatic systems (membranes, cell cycle, acid-base regulation); system behavior in statationary state
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(stability, continuity, carrier-transport model, irreversible processes, network thermodynamics, catastrophy); biochemical control mechanisms (kinetics, open systems, enzymes, large substrate concentration, feedback, allosterism, free energy coupling); mathematical aspects (oscillations, harmonics, stability, phase plane, linear stability, natural, forced and van der Pol oscillations, fields of oscillators); control mechanisms (genetic control, insulin release, growth, conflict and pursuit, antibody-tumor interactions); nonlinear non equilibrium thermodynamics; rhythmic phenomena in biology. The book is aimed at the undergraduate/post-graduate level. Learning and Physiological RegulatiowB. R. DWORKIN. 215 pp. 1993. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. E19.25, $27.50. Homeostasis is often explained in terms of fixed negative feedback networks. Dworkin thinks that the systems are more dynamic and that the stability and regulation of heart rate, blood pressure, glucose, electrolytes and temperature are due not only to hard wired systems but that learning mechanisms in the nervous system are essential to regulation. He deals with the history of conditioning; the Russian homeostasis; classical school; conditioned drug responses; long term regulation of the physiological state; models of steady state regulation. The book provides a welcome review of the adaptability of living systems to adjust and change their set point.
U.S.A. Biochemistry, biophysics and mathematics have all developed approaches to control theory. This book deals with the application of some of these to the study of living systems. The chapters deal with characteristics of living systems (systems theory, reduction of errors, feed back, step responses of lst, 2nd and 3rd order, stability); thermodynamics; homeostatic systems (membranes, cell cycle, acid-base regulation); system behavior in statationary state
1345
(stability, continuity, carrier-transport model, irreversible processes, network thermodynamics, catastrophy); biochemical control mechanisms (kinetics, open systems, enzymes, large substrate concentration, feedback, allosterism, free energy coupling); mathematical aspects (oscillations, harmonics, stability, phase plane, linear stability, natural, forced and van der Pol oscillations, fields of oscillators); control mechanisms (genetic control, insulin release, growth, conflict and pursuit, antibody-tumor interactions); nonlinear non equilibrium thermodynamics; rhythmic phenomena in biology. The book is aimed at the undergraduate/post-graduate level. Learning and Physiological RegulatiowB. R. DWORKIN. 215 pp. 1993. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. E19.25, $27.50. Homeostasis is often explained in terms of fixed negative feedback networks. Dworkin thinks that the systems are more dynamic and that the stability and regulation of heart rate, blood pressure, glucose, electrolytes and temperature are due not only to hard wired systems but that learning mechanisms in the nervous system are essential to regulation. He deals with the history of conditioning; the Russian homeostasis; classical school; conditioned drug responses; long term regulation of the physiological state; models of steady state regulation. The book provides a welcome review of the adaptability of living systems to adjust and change their set point.