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Functional significance of biological variability

dc.contributor.authorConrad, Michaelen_US
dc.date.accessioned2006-04-07T17:14:40Z
dc.date.available2006-04-07T17:14:40Z
dc.date.issued1977en_US
dc.identifier.citationConrad, Michael (1977)."Functional significance of biological variability." Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 39(2): 139-156. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/23030>en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6WC7-4GP24XH-3/2/b40e69bbff416a5d39184423189c6cfeen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/23030
dc.identifier.urihttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=851658&dopt=citationen_US
dc.description.abstractThe variability of biological matter contributes to both its adaptability and reliability. To represent the structure of this variability we treat a complete biological system (e.g. community and environment) as a system with sets of states and certain (unknown) probabilities governing the state to state transitions. Adaptability (defined operationally in terms of the maximum tolerable uncertainty of the environment) consists of behavioral uncertainty, ability to anticipate the environment, and indifference to the environment. It may also be decomposed into components associated with genetic, organismic, population, and community levels of organization. Considerations of adequate design suggest that adaptability tends to fall to its lowest allowable value in the course of evolution. This means that any change in adaptability associated with one level or unit of organization tends to be compensated by opposite changes in the adaptability associated with other levels or units, or by opposite changes in the indifference to the environment. The analysis shows that the adaptability is not independent of reliability, and that each functionally distinct state consists of : (1) finer states which mediate the processing of information about the environment; (2) redundant sets of such states; and (3) informationally equivalent states associated with macroscopically equivalent microdescriptions.en_US
dc.format.extent1156524 bytes
dc.format.extent3118 bytes
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.format.mimetypetext/plain
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherElsevieren_US
dc.titleFunctional significance of biological variabilityen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dc.rights.robotsIndexNoFollowen_US
dc.subject.hlbsecondlevelMolecular, Cellular and Developmental Biologyen_US
dc.subject.hlbsecondlevelGeneticsen_US
dc.subject.hlbtoplevelScienceen_US
dc.subject.hlbtoplevelHealth Sciencesen_US
dc.description.peerreviewedPeer Revieweden_US
dc.contributor.affiliationumDepartment of Computer and Communication Sciences, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, U.S.A.en_US
dc.identifier.pmid851658en_US
dc.description.bitstreamurlhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/23030/1/0000599.pdfen_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0092-8240(77)80003-7en_US
dc.identifier.sourceBulletin of Mathematical Biologyen_US
dc.owningcollnameInterdisciplinary and Peer-Reviewed


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