The lecture notes contained in this volume were presented at the AMS Short Course on Population Biology, held August 6–7, 1983, in Albany, New York in conjunction with the summer meeting of the American Mathematical ...
ISBN:
(纸本)9780821800836
The lecture notes contained in this volume were presented at the AMS Short Course on Population Biology, held August 6–7, 1983, in Albany, New York in conjunction with the summer meeting of the American Mathematical Society. These notes will acquaint the reader with the mathematical ideas that pervade almost every level of thinking in population biology and provide an introduction to the many applications of mathematics in the field. Research mathematicians, college teachers of mathematics, and graduate students all should find this book of interest. Population biology is probably the oldest area in mathematical biology, but remains a constant source of new mathematical problems and the area of biology best integrated with mathematical theory. The need for mathematical approaches has never been greater, as evolutionary theory is challenged by new interpretations of the paleontological record and new discoveries at the molecular level, as world resources for feeding populations become limiting, as the problems of pollution increase, and as both animal and plant epidemiological problems receive closer scrutiny. A background of advanced calculus, introduction to ordinary and partial differential equations, and linear algebra will make the book accessible. All of the papers included have high research value. A list of the contents follows.
This collection of six papers provides a valuable source of material on the real-world problem of allocating objects among competing claimants. The examples given show how mathematics, particularly the axiomatic metho...
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ISBN:
(纸本)0821800949;9780821800942;1519741952
This collection of six papers provides a valuable source of material on the real-world problem of allocating objects among competing claimants. The examples given show how mathematics, particularly the axiomatic method, can be applied to give insight into complex social problems. Originally presented as an AMS Short Course, these papers could serve as a suitable text for courses touching on game theory, decision sciences, economics, or quantitative political science. Most of the material is accessible to the mathematically mature undergraduate with a background in advanced calculus and algebra. Each article surveys the recent literature and includes statements and sketches of proofs, as well as unsolved problems which should excite student curiosity. The articles analyze the question of fair allocation via six examples: the apportionment of political representation, the measurement of income inequality, the allocation of joint costs, the levying of taxes, the design of voting laws, and the framing of auction procedures. In each of these examples fairness has a somewhat different significance, but common axiomatic threads reveal broad underlying principles. Each of the topics is concerned with norms of comparative equity for evaluating allocations or with standards of procedures for effecting them; it is this focus on normative properties which suggests that a mathematical analysis is appropriate. Though game theory provides a useful tool in many of these allocation problems, the emphasis here is on standards rather than strategy and equity rather than rationality, an approach which more accurately mirrors real-world social problems.
The theory of networks is a very lively one, both in terms of developments in the theory itself and of the variety of its applications. This book, based on the 1981 AMS Short Course on the mathematics of Networks, int...
ISBN:
(纸本)9780821800317
The theory of networks is a very lively one, both in terms of developments in the theory itself and of the variety of its applications. This book, based on the 1981 AMS Short Course on the mathematics of Networks, introduces most of the basic ideas of network theory and develops some of these ideas considerably. A number of more specialized topics are introduced, including areas of active research and a wide variety of applications. Frank Boesch gives the basic definitions in the mathematics of networks and in the closely-related topic of graph theory. He discusses two of the most fundamental network problems — the shortest path problem and the minimum spanning tree problem as well as some of their variants. Boesch also gives an interesting presentation in the area of network reliability. Frances Yao considers maximum flows in networks, the problem most often thought of in connection with the mathematics of networks. Richard Karp gives an account of the computational complexity of network problems. Using the case study method, Shen Lin demonstrates the effective use of heuristic algorithms in network design. Four applications of the mathematics of networks are presented by Daniel Kleitman. These include: the design of irrigation systems, the theory of electrical networks, the scheduling of delivery trucks, and the physics of ice. Finally, Nicholas Pippenger presents a chapter on telephone switching networks, an area of network theory that leads to difficult mathematics drawn from such apparently unrelated fields as harmonic analysis.
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