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Explores the many aspects of circadian rhythms, from jet lag to biorhythms to "forbidden phases" of sleep when one cannot awaken spontaneously.
An introduction to the mathematical, computational, and analytical techniques used for modeling biological rhythms, presenting tools from many disciplines and example applications. All areas of biology and medicine contain rhythms, and these behaviors are best understood through mathematical tools and techniques. This book offers a survey of mathematical, computational, and analytical techniques used for modeling biological rhythms, gathering these methods for the first time in one volume. Drawing on material from such disciplines as mathematical biology, nonlinear dynamics, physics, statistics, and engineering, it presents practical advice and techniques for studying biological rhythms, with a common language. The chapters proceed with increasing mathematical abstraction. Part I, on models, highlights the implicit assumptions and common pitfalls of modeling, and is accessible to readers with basic knowledge of differential equations and linear algebra. Part II, on behaviors, focuses on simpler models, describing common properties of biological rhythms that range from the firing properties of squid giant axon to human circadian rhythms. Part III, on mathematical techniques, guides readers who have specific models or goals in mind. Sections on “frontiers” present the latest research; “theory” sections present interesting mathematical results using more accessible approaches than can be found elsewhere. Each chapter offers exercises. Commented MATLAB code is provided to help readers get practical experience. The book, by an expert in the field, can be used as a textbook for undergraduate courses in mathematical biology or graduate courses in modeling biological rhythms and as a reference for researchers.
With the invitation to edit this volume, I wanted to take the opportunity to assemble reviews on different aspects of circadian clocks and rhythms. Although most c- tributions in this volume focus on mammalian circadian clocks, the historical int- duction and comparative clocks section illustrate the importance of various other organisms in deciphering the mechanisms and principles of circadian biology. Circadian rhythms have been studied for centuries, but only recently, a mole- lar understanding of this process has emerged. This has taken research on circadian clocks from mystic phenomenology to a mechanistic level; chains of molecular events can describe phenomena with remarkable accuracy. Nevertheless, current models of the functioning of circadian clocks are still rudimentary. This is not due to the faultiness of discovered mechanisms, but due to the lack of undiscovered processes involved in contributing to circadian rhythmicity. We know for example, that the general circadian mechanism is not regulated equally in all tissues of m- mals. Hence, a lot still needs to be discovered to get a full understanding of cir- dian rhythms at the systems level. In this respect, technology has advanced at high speed in the last years and provided us with data illustrating the sheer complexity of regulation of physiological processes in organisms. To handle this information, computer aided integration of the results is of utmost importance in order to d- cover novel concepts that ultimately need to be tested experimentally.
Environmental conditions change considerably in the course of 24 h with respect to abiotic factors and intra- and interspecific interactions. These changes result in limited time windows of opportunity for animal activities and, hence, the question of when to do what is subject to fitness maximisation. This volume gives a current overview of theoretical considerations and empirical findings of activity patterns in small mammals, a group in which the energetic and ecological constraints are particularly severe and the diversity of activity patterns is particularly high. Following a comparative ecological approach, for the first time activity timing is consequently treated in terms of behavioural and evolutionary ecology, providing the conceptual framework for chronoecology as a new subdiscipline within behavioural ecology. An extensive Appendix gives an introduction to methods of activity modelling and to tools for statistical pattern analysis.
This book is a concise, comprehensive and up-to-date account of fundamental concepts and potential applications of biological timekeeping mechanisms in animals and humans. It also discusses significant aspects of the organization and importance of timekeeping mechanisms in both groups. Divided into seven sections, it addresses important aspects including fundamental concepts; animal and human clocks; clock interactions; clocks and metabolism and immune functions; pineal, melatonin and timekeeping; and clocks, photoperiodism and seasonal behaviours. The book also focuses on biological clock applications in a 24x7 human society, particularly in connection with life-style associated disorders like obesity and diabetes. It is a valuable resource for advanced undergraduates, researchers and professionals engaged in the study of the science of biological timekeeping.
Popular science at its most exciting: the breaking new world of chronobiology - understanding the rhythm of life in humans and all plants and animals. The entire natural world is full of rhythms. The early bird catches the worm -and migrates to an internal calendar. Dormice hibernate away the winter. Plants open and close their flowers at the same hour each day. Bees search out nectar-rich flowers day after day. There are cicadas that can breed for only two weeks every 17 years. And in humans: why are people who work anti-social shifts more illness prone and die younger? What is jet-lag and can anything help? Why do teenagers refuse to get up in the morning, and are the rest of us really 'larks' or 'owls'? Why are most people born (and die) between 3am-5am? And should patients be given medicines (and operations) at set times of day, because the body reacts so differently in the morning, evening and at night? The answers lie in our biological clocks the mechanisms which give order to all living things. They impose a structure that enables us to change our behaviour in relation to the time of day, month or year. They are reset at sunrise and sunset each day to link astronomical time with an organism's internal time.
We all know how tough it is for a night owl to get going at 7.00 A.M., and it's equally challenging for a morning person to stay awake late at night...Dr. Edlund's professional research has led him to identify body rhythms and how they affect our lives. Once we have determined our own body clock we can stop fighting our natural preferences and allow our lives to flow more productively, and with more positive results.
As 1 review these pages, the last of them written in Summer 1978, some retrospec tive thoughts come to mind which put the whole business into better perspective for me and might aid the prospective reader in choosing how to approach this volume. The most conspicuous thought in my mind at present is the diversity of wholly independent explorations that came upon phase singularities, in one guise or another, during the past decade. My efforts to gather the published literature during the last phases of actually writing a whole book about them were almost equally divided between libraries of Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, Mathematics, Medicine, and Physics. A lot of what 1 call "gathering " was done somewhat in anticipation in the form of cönjecture, query, and prediction based on analogy between developments in different fields. The consequence throughout 1979 was that our long-suffering publisher re peatedly had to replace such material by citation of unexpected flurries of papers giving substantive demonstration. 1 trust that the authors of these many excellent reports, and especially of those I only found too late, will forgive the brevity of allusion I feIt compelled to observe in these substitutions. A residue of loose ends is largely collected in the index under "QUERIES. " It is c1ear to me already that the materials I began to gather several years ago represented only the first flickering of what turns out to be a substantial conflagration.
This book sheds new light on the molecular mechanisms that generate circadian rhythms. It examines how biological rhythms influence physiological processes such as sleep, hormone synthesis and secretion, immunity, kidney function, the cardiovascular system, blood pressure, and the digestive system. Clinical implications are considered while exploring the impact of rhythms on neuropsychiatric disorders and chronotherapy’s potential for reducing cardiovascular risk. Offering a cross-section of expertise in both basic and translational (bench-to-bedside) research, this book serves as a guide for physicians and scientists who wish to learn more about the impact of circadian rhythms on physiological processes in health and disease.