Models for biological rhythms (with Scilab/Xcos)

Abstract

The rapidly growing research field between the life sciences and mathematics/informatics is attracting professional researchers as well as students. Building models of nature and simulating them on more and more advanced data machines provides a rich area for multidisciplinary learning and research in many fields. When we use the concept of ’model’ we think of a mathematical - theoretical models, represented by equations, block schemes etc. Sometimes an alternative meaning can be used - in biology/physiology, where for instance Guinea pigs are used as animal models for studying human deseases or physiology. In the present book we focus on the field of rhythmic processes in life sciences and models for these processes. The rhythms will be of quite different character, but the general interest for so called biological clocks will be emphasised. The periods of these “clocks” can be about 24 h. However, another main topic in this book will be more rapid rhythms, e.g. the heart rhythm with its period in the second regime. Furthermore rhythms with longer periods (annual rhythms, predator-prey rhythms) will be discussed. We hope, that presenting models of these biological rhythms can lead to a greater understanding of the systems and that the reader can deduce useful new experimental approaches. An indispensable part of rhythm modelling is the simulation of the models (see Chap. 6) and the comparison with experimental results. We will work with the simulation tool Scilab, which is free of charge and simple to install and learn(see Chap. 5). This book is a general extension of the book by W. Engelmann and K.-H.Witte entitled "How to stop a biological clock: Point of singularity" which was published in 2016 in the publication system of the University of Tübingen (TOBIAS, URL: https://tobias-lib.uni-tuebingen.de/xmlui/handle/10900/67800) and in 2025 in the Repositions-Repositorium of the RheinMain University of Applied Sciences (PUR, URL https://hlbrm.pur.hebis.de/xmlui/handle/123456789/367) .