Biological individuality is without a doubt a key concept in philosophy of biology. Questions around the individuality of organisms, species, and biological systems can be traced throughout the philosophy of biology since the discipline’s inception, not to mention the sustained attention they have received in biology and philosophy more broadly. It’s high time the topic got its own Cambridge Element. McConwell’s Biological Individuality falls short of an authoritative overview of the debate on biological individuality. However, it sends a welcome message (...) to new and seasoned scholars to reorient the debate towards practically and politically relevant themes. (shrink)

Biological individuality is without a doubt a key concept in philosophy of biology. Questions around the individuality of organisms, species, and biological systems can be traced throughout the philosophy of biology since the discipline’s inception, not to mention the sustained attention they have received in biology and philosophy more broadly. It’s high time the topic got its own Cambridge Element. McConwell’s Biological Individuality falls short of an authoritative overview of the debate on biological individuality. However, it sends a welcome message (...) to new and seasoned scholars to reorient the debate towards practically and politically relevant themes. (shrink)

The calcium signals regulate the production and secretion of many signaling molecules like inositol trisphosphate ( $$IP_{3}$$ ) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in various cells including pancreatic $$\beta$$ -cells. The calcium signaling mechanisms regulating $$IP_{3}$$, ATP and insulin responsible for various functions of $$\beta$$ -cells are still not well understood. Any disturbance in these mechanisms can alter the functions of $$\beta$$ -cells leading to diabetes and metabolic disorders. Therefore, a mathematical model is proposed by incorporating the reaction-diffusion equation for calcium (...) dynamics and a system of first-order differential equations for $$IP_{3}$$, ATP-production and insulin secretion with initial and boundary conditions. The model incorporates the temporal dependence of $$IP_{3}$$ -production and degradation, ATP production and insulin secretion on calcium dynamics in a $$\beta$$ -cell. The piecewise linear finite element method has been used for the spatial dimension and the Crank-Nicolson scheme for the temporal dimension to obtain numerical results. The effect of changes in source influxes and buffers on calcium dynamics and production of $$IP_{3}$$, ATP and insulin levels in a $$\beta$$ -cell has been analyzed. It is concluded that the dysfunction of source influx and buffers can cause significant variations in calcium levels and dysregulation of $$IP_{3}$$, ATP and insulin production, which can lead to various metabolic disorders, diabetes, obesity, etc. The proposed model provides crucial information about the changes in mechanisms of calcium dynamics causing proportionate disturbances in $$IP_3$$, ATP and insulin levels in pancreatic cells, which can be helpful for devising protocols for diagnosis and treatment of various metabolic diseases. (shrink)

The globalization in business and tourism becomes crucial more and more for the economical sustainability of local communities. In the presence of an epidemic outbreak, there must be such a decision on the policy by the host community as whether to accept visitors or not, the number of acceptable visitors, or the condition for acceptable visitors. Making use of an SIRI type of mathematical model, we consider the influence of visitors on the spread of a reinfectious disease in a community, (...) especially assuming that a certain proportion of accepted visitors are immune. The reinfectivity of disease here means that the immunity gained by either vaccination or recovery is imperfect. With the mathematical results obtained by our analysis on the model for such an epidemic dynamics of resident and visitor populations, we find that the acceptance of visitors could have a significant influence on the disease’s endemicity in the community, either suppressive or supportive. (shrink)