I have developed "tennis elbow" from lugging this book around the past four weeks, but it is worth the pain, the effort, and the aspirin. It is also worth the (relatively speaking) bargain price. Including appendixes, this book contains 894 pages of text. The entire panorama of the neural sciences is surveyed and examined, and it is comprehensive in its scope, from genomes to social behaviors. The editors explicitly state that the book is designed as "an introductory text for students of biology, behavior, and medicine," but it is hard to imagine any audience, interested in any fragment of neuroscience at any level of sophistication, that would not enjoy this book. The editors have done a masterful job of weaving together the biologic, the behavioral, and the clinical sciences into a single tapestry in which everyone from the molecular biologist to the practicing psychiatrist can find and appreciate his or

Principles of Neural Science

1980 Preface * 1999 Preface * 1999 Acknowledgements * Introduction * 1 Circular Logic * 2 Phase Singularities (Screwy Results of Circular Logic) * 3 The Rules of the Ring * 4 Ring Populations * 5 Getting Off the Ring * 6 Attracting Cycles and Isochrons * 7 Measuring the Trajectories of a Circadian Clock * 8 Populations of Attractor Cycle Oscillators * 9 Excitable Kinetics and Excitable Media * 10 The Varieties of Phaseless Experience: In Which the Geometrical Orderliness of Rhythmic Organization Breaks Down in Diverse Ways * 11 The Firefly Machine 12 Energy Metabolism in Cells * 13 The Malonic Acid Reagent ('Sodium Geometrate') * 14 Electrical Rhythmicity and Excitability in Cell Membranes * 15 The Aggregation of Slime Mold Amoebae * 16 Numerical Organizing Centers * 17 Electrical Singular Filaments in the Heart Wall * 18 Pattern Formation in the Fungi * 19 Circadian Rhythms in General * 20 The Circadian Clocks of Insect Eclosion * 21 The Flower of Kalanchoe * 22 The Cell Mitotic Cycle * 23 The Female Cycle * References * Index of Names * Index of Subjects

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/596B270197FE27DE5FABB598B6210622/S0025557200150892a.pdf/div-class-title-span-class-italic-the-geometry-of-biological-time-span-by-a-t-winfree-pp-544-dm68-corrected-second-printing-1990-isbn-3-540-52528-9-springer-div.pdf

The geometry of biological time , by A. T. Winfree. Pp 544. DM68. Corrected Second Printing 1990. ISBN 3-540-52528-9 (Springer)

With much advancement in the field of nanotechnology, bioengineering, and synthetic biology over the past decade, microscales and nanoscales devices are becoming a reality. Yet the problem of engineering a reliable communication system between tiny devices is still an open problem. At the same time, despite the prevalence of radio communication, there are still areas where traditional electromagnetic waves find it difficult or expensive to reach. Points of interest in industry, cities, and medical applications often lie in embedded and entrenched areas, accessible only by ventricles at scales too small for conventional radio waves and microwaves, or they are located in such a way that directional high frequency systems are ineffective. Inspired by nature, one solution to these problems is molecular communication (MC), where chemical signals are used to transfer information. Although biologists have studied MC for decades, it has only been researched for roughly 10 year from a communication engineering lens. Significant number of papers have been published to date, but owing to the need for interdisciplinary work, much of the results are preliminary. In this survey, the recent advancements in the field of MC engineering are highlighted. First, the biological, chemical, and physical processes used by an MC system are discussed. This includes different components of the MC transmitter and receiver, as well as the propagation and transport mechanisms. Then, a comprehensive survey of some of the recent works on MC through a communication engineering lens is provided. The survey ends with a technology readiness analysis of MC and future research directions.

/pdf/a-comprehensive-survey-of-recent-advancements-in-molecular-2pjzig1xwb.pdf

A Comprehensive Survey of Recent Advancements in Molecular Communication

L E Reichl 1980 Austin: University of Texas Press xii + 709 pp price $29.95 I can thoroughly recommend this book and congratulate the author for having brought together so many aspects of statistical physics in a comprehensible manner. The subject matter is modern; all the recent developments such as stochastic theory, theories of quantum fluids and critical phenomena, nonlinear chemical physics and hydrodynamics are included and yet each topic is built up from its foundations.

A Modern Course in Statistical Physics

In the Molecular Communication (MC), molecules are utilized to encode, transmit, and receive information. Transmission of the information is achieved by means of diffusion of molecules and the information is recovered based on the molecule concentration variations at the receiver location. The MC is very prone to intersymbol interference (ISI) due to residual molecules emitted previously. Furthermore, the stochastic nature of the molecule movements adds noise to the MC. For the first time, we propose four methods for a receiver in the MC to recover the transmitted information distorted by both ISI and noise. We introduce sequence detection methods based on maximum a posteriori (MAP) and maximum likelihood (ML) criterions, a linear equalizer based on minimum mean-square error (MMSE) criterion, and a decision-feedback equalizer (DFE) which is a nonlinear equalizer. We present a channel estimator to estimate time varying MC channel at the receiver. The performances of the proposed methods based on bit error rates are evaluated. The sequence detection methods reveal the best performance at the expense of computational complexity. However, the MMSE equalizer has the lowest performance with the lowest computational complexity. The results show that using these methods significantly increases the information transmission rate in the MC.

/pdf/receiver-design-for-molecular-communication-46l276ro4j.pdf

Receiver Design for Molecular Communication

Molecular communication (MC) is a promising paradigm to communicate at nanoscale and it is inspired by nature. One of the MC methods in nature is the gap junction (GJ) communication between cardiomyocytes. The GJ communication is achieved by diffusion of ions through GJ channels between the cells. The transmission of the information is realized by means of the propagation of the action potential (AP) signal. The probabilities of both the AP propagation failure and the spontaneous AP initiation are obtained. For the first time in the literature, the GJ communication channel is modeled and analyzed from the information theoretical perspective to find the communication channel capacity. A closed-form expression is derived for the capacity of the GJ communication channel. The channel capacity, propagation delay, and information transmission rate are analyzed numerically for a three-cell network. The results of the numerical analyses point out a correlation between an increase in the incidence of several cardiac diseases and a decrease in the channel capacity, an increase in the propagation delay, and either an increase or a decrease in the transmission rate. The method that we use and results that are presented may help in the investigation, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiac diseases as well as help in the design of nanodevices communicating via GJ channels.

/pdf/an-information-theoretical-analysis-of-nanoscale-molecular-12ckifjquv.pdf

An Information Theoretical Analysis of Nanoscale Molecular Gap Junction Communication Channel Between Cardiomyocytes

The traffic congestion problem is a common issue for the residents of metropolises. Although expanding the capacity of transportation systems and stimulating the public transportation may decrease the traffic congestion, they cannot completely solve the traffic congestion problem. As a solution for the worsening traffic congestion problem in urban areas, road pricing systems have been employed. In this paper, we propose a radically different road pricing scheme to prevent and decrease the traffic congestion in metropolises. Unlike designating a small congestion charge zone in a city, we propose to employ a road pricing system over the entire city. Thus, our road pricing system can control the traffic flow in the entire traffic network of the city. Furthermore, the road prices are adjusted dynamically based on the instantaneous traffic densities of each road in the city in order to rapidly and efficiently control the traffic flow and to prevent the traffic congestion. Moreover, we propose to change the road prices according to the past usage statistics of the road by predicting a possible congestion. The simulation results of our road pricing algorithm show that traffic congestion is prevented over the entire traffic network and the traffic densities of the roads are homogenized.

A traffic congestion avoidance algorithm with dynamic road pricing for smart cities

The integration of wireless communication and control systems revealed wireless networked control systems (WNCSs). One fundamental problem in WNCSs is to have a wide coverage area. For the first time in the literature, we address this problem and we obtain the maximum coverage area by solving an optimization problem. In this technical note, we consider a WNCS where the output sensor measurements are transmitted over separate heterogeneous multi-hop wireless ad-hoc subnetworks. The observation process is divided into $N$ parts and the system state is estimated using the Kalman filter. We present the critical arrival probability for a sensor measurement packet such that if the packet arrival probability is larger than the critical value, it is guaranteed that the estimator of the WNCS converges. We derive the maximum total coverage area of the heterogeneous wireless subnetworks having maximum cost-efficiency under the constraint of the convergence of the WNCS estimator.

/pdf/on-the-maximum-coverage-area-of-wireless-networked-control-4dasq1dv02.pdf

On the Maximum Coverage Area of Wireless Networked Control Systems With Maximum Cost-Efficiency Under Convergence Constraint

Spike timing is believed to be a key factor in sensory information encoding and computations performed by the neurons and neuronal circuits. However, the considerable noise and variability, arising from the inherently stochastic mechanisms that exist in the neurons and the synapses, degrade spike timing precision. Computational modeling can help decipher the mechanisms utilized by the neuronal circuits in order to regulate timing precision. In this paper, we utilize semi-analytical techniques, which were adapted from previously developed methods for electronic circuits, for the stochastic characterization of neuronal circuits. These techniques, which are orders of magnitude faster than traditional Monte Carlo type simulations, can be used to directly compute the spike timing jitter variance, power spectral densities, correlation functions, and other stochastic characterizations of neuronal circuit operation. We consider three distinct neuronal circuit motifs: Feedback inhibition, synaptic integration, and synaptic coupling. First, we show that both the spike timing precision and the energy efficiency of a spiking neuron are improved with feedback inhibition. We unveil the underlying mechanism through which this is achieved. Then, we demonstrate that a neuron can improve on the timing precision of its synaptic inputs, coming from multiple sources, via synaptic integration: The phase of the output spikes of the integrator neuron has the same variance as that of the sample average of the phases of its inputs. Finally, we reveal that weak synaptic coupling among neurons, in a fully connected network, enables them to behave like a single neuron with a larger membrane area, resulting in an improvement in the timing precision through cooperation.

Deniz Kilinc

Papers

Receiver Design for Molecular Communication

An Information Theoretical Analysis of Nanoscale Molecular Gap Junction Communication Channel Between Cardiomyocytes

A traffic congestion avoidance algorithm with dynamic road pricing for smart cities

On the Maximum Coverage Area of Wireless Networked Control Systems With Maximum Cost-Efficiency Under Convergence Constraint

Spike timing precision of neuronal circuits.