Optima for Animals (eBook)

Revised Edition

R. McNeill Alexander (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2020
176 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-22160-1 (ISBN)

Infos

Optimization theory is designed to find the best ways of doing things. The structures of animals, their movements, their behavior, and their life histories have all been shaped by the optimizing processes of evolution or of learning by trial and error. In this revised edition of R. McNeill Alexander's widely acclaimed Optima for Animals, we see how extraordinarily diverse branches of biology are illuminated by the powerful methods of optimization theory. What is the best strength for a bone? Too weak a bone will probably break but an excessively stout one will be cumbersome. At what speed should humans change from walking to running? Should a bird take only big juicy worms or should it eat every worm it finds, and do birds make the best choices? Why do the males of some species of fishes and the females of others look after the young, while the young of others are looked after by both parents or neither? Is it possible that all these policies can be optimal, in different circumstances? This book shows how these and many other questions can be answered. The mathematics involved is explained very simply, with biology students in mind, but the book is not just for them. It is also for professionals, ranging from teachers to researchers.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 10.11.2020
• Zusatzinfo: 38 line illus. 7 tables
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Angewandte Mathematik
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Evolution
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Zoologie
• Schlagworte: Accuracy and precision • Action potential • Aircraft • albatrosses • Analogy • Angelfish • ant colony • aphid • Assessor strategy • Available energy (particle collision) • bang-bang control • Barbary dove • Barbary doves • Bayesian • Bayesian Statistics • Bourgeois strategy • buckling • Budgerigar • Butterflies • Calculation • Catastrophe Theory • Chalcid wasp • clutch size • Complication (horology) • compressive stress • computer simulation • Control variable • copulation • Counting • Cuckolder strategy • Deciduous • DIAMETER • Digestion • Dove strategy • Drinking • Dynamic Programming • eating • Ecology • Efficiency • eggshell • Energy Intake • estimation • Ethology • Evolution • exponential growth • Factor of safety • Fecundity • Feeding Strategies • female • fitness component • Flesh fly • food energy • Foregut fermentation • fourier analysis • Freshwater fish • Gait (human) • Games Theory • Gradient • grandparent • great tit • Grebe • growth and reproduction • Guppy • Haplochromis • Hawk strategy • Herbivore • histogram • Hymenoptera • hyperplane • Hypothetical species • Ideal free distribution • Indication (medicine) • insect • integrals • intercept • Junco • larva • Linear Programming • local optimum • Mammal • marginal value theorem • Mass ratio • Mathematical Optimization • Maxima and minima • Maxwell convention • Mealworm • Microorganism • Ommatidium • Onchorhynchus • optimal control • optimal design • optimization problem • Pararge aegeria • pitcher plant • Polistes • Pontryagin's Maximum Principle • Population • Porosity • Prediction • Probability • Probability Distribution • Pterophylium • Quantity • Queens • red deer • Reproduction • Requirement • result • risk of starvation • rotifer • Running • Sarcophaga • section modulus • semicircular canals • Sex Ratio • sexual reproduction • Shape factor (image analysis and microscopy) • Shrub • Simplex Algorithm • Skewness • Slow flight • sodium • standard deviation • standard error • state variable • Territories • Territory (animal) • Tit (bird) • Tortoises • Trial and Error • Urine • Vespinae • Viverridae • Walking • western honey bee • Zyxomma
• ISBN-10: 0-691-22160-X / 069122160X
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-22160-1 / 9780691221601