Vol. 2.

Biological processes are evolutionary in nature and often evolve in a noisy environment or in the presence of uncertainty. Such evolving phenomena are necessarily modeled mathematically by stochastic differential/difference equations (SDE), which have been recognized as essential for a true understanding of many biological phenomena. Yet, there is a dearth of teaching material in this area for interested students and researchers, notwithstanding the addition of some recent texts on stochastic modelling in the life sciences. The reason may well be the demanding mathematical pre-requisites needed to 'solve' SDE.A principal goal of this volume is to provide a working knowledge of SDE based on the premise that familiarity with the basic elements of a stochastic calculus for random processes is unavoidable. Through some SDE models of familiar biological phenomena, we show how stochastic methods developed for other areas of science and engineering are also useful in the life sciences. In the process, the volume introduces to biologists a collection of analytical and computational methods for research and applications in this emerging area of life science. The additions broaden the available tools for SDE models for biologists that have been limited by and large to stochastic simulations.

This volume contains a selection of papers on recent developments in fields such as stochastic processes, multivariate data analysis and stochastic models in operations research, earth and life sciences and information theory, from an applicative perspective. Some of them have been extracted from lectures given at the Department of Statistics and Operations Research at the University of Granada for the past two years (Kai Lai Chung and Marcel F Neuts, among others). All the papers have been carefully selected and revised.

An Introduction to Stochastic Modeling, Revised Edition provides information pertinent to the standard concepts and methods of stochastic modeling. This book presents the rich diversity of applications of stochastic processes in the sciences. Organized into nine chapters, this book begins with an overview of diverse types of stochastic models, which predicts a set of possible outcomes weighed by their likelihoods or probabilities. This text then provides exercises in the applications of simple stochastic analysis to appropriate problems. Other chapters consider the study of general functions of independent, identically distributed, nonnegative random variables representing the successive intervals between renewals. This book discusses as well the numerous examples of Markov branching processes that arise naturally in various scientific disciplines. The final chapter deals with queueing models, which aid the design process by predicting system performance. This book is a valuable resource for students of engineering and management science. Engineers will also find this book useful.

Stochastic Models in Biology describes the usefulness of the theory of stochastic process in studying biological phenomena. The book describes analysis of biological systems and experiments though probabilistic models rather than deterministic methods. The text reviews the mathematical analyses for modeling different biological systems such as the random processes continuous in time and discrete in state space. The book also discusses population growth and extinction through Malthus' law and the work of MacArthur and Wilson. The text then explains the dynamics of a population of interacting species. The book also addresses population genetics under systematic evolutionary pressures known as deterministic equations and genetic changes in a finite population known as stochastic equations. The text then turns to stochastic modeling of biological systems at the molecular level, particularly the kinetics of biochemical reactions. The book also presents various useful equations such as the differential equation for generating functions for birth and death processes. The text can prove valuable for biochemists, cellular biologists, and researchers in the medical and chemical field who are tasked to perform data analysis.

The Research Network on "Interacting stochastic systems of high complexity" set up by the German Research Foundation aimed at exploring and developing connections between research in infinite-dimensional stochastic analysis, statistical physics, spatial population models from mathematical biology, complex models of financial markets or of stochastic models interacting with other sciences. This book presents a structured collection of papers on the core topics, written at the close of the 6-year programme by the research groups who took part in it. The structure chosen highlights the interweaving of certain themes and certain interconnections discovered through the joint work. This yields a reference work on results and methods that will be useful to all who work between applied probability and the physical, economic, and life sciences.

Serving as the foundation for a one-semester course in stochastic processes for students familiar with elementary probability theory and calculus, Introduction to Stochastic Modeling, Fourth Edition, bridges the gap between basic probability and an intermediate level course in stochastic processes. The objectives of the text are to introduce students to the standard concepts and methods of stochastic modeling, to illustrate the rich diversity of applications of stochastic processes in the applied sciences, and to provide exercises in the application of simple stochastic analysis to realistic problems. New to this edition: Realistic applications from a variety of disciplines integrated throughout the text, including more biological applications Plentiful, completely updated problems Completely updated and reorganized end-of-chapter exercise sets, 250 exercises with answers New chapters of stochastic differential equations and Brownian motion and related processes Additional sections on Martingale and Poisson process Realistic applications from a variety of disciplines integrated throughout the text Extensive end of chapter exercises sets, 250 with answers Chapter 1-9 of the new edition are identical to the previous edition New! Chapter 10 - Random Evolutions New! Chapter 11- Characteristic functions and Their Applications