Systems Theory in Immunology : Proceedings of the Working Conference, Held in Rome, May 1978

This volume collects the contributions presented at the "Working Conference on System Theory in Immunology", held in Rome, May 1978. The aim of the Conference was to bring together immunologists on one side and experts in system theory and applied mathematics on the other, in order to identify problems of common interest and to establish a network of joint effort toward their solution. The methodologies of system theory for processing experimental data and for describing dynamical phenomena could indeed contribute significantly to the under­ standing of basic immunological facts. Conversely, the complexity of experimental results and of interpretative models should stimulate mathematicians to formulate new problems and to design appropriate procedures of analysis. The multitude of scientific publications in theoretical biology, appeared in recent years, confirms this trend and calls for extensive interaction between mat- matics and immunology. The material of this volume is divided into five sections, along the scheme of the Conference program. Front Matter....Pages N2-XI Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Mechanism of B Lymphocyte Activation....Pages 2-12 Clonal Dominance: Presentation of Antigenic Subsites is the Determining Factor....Pages 13-27 Hierarchic Immunogenicity of Protein Determinants....Pages 28-36 Control of B Lymphocyte Activation Through Reversible Binding of Multivalent Antigen: A Simple Model....Pages 37-51 Front Matter....Pages 53-53 Some Cellular Interactions Involved in the Primary Immune Response....Pages 54-65 Some Models for the Interaction between Cells of the Immune System....Pages 66-74 Stimulation of Memory Cells and Abrogation of Suppression with a Mobile Antigen-Laden Cell....Pages 75-86 Involvement of the Fc receptor in immune regulation: a hypothesis....Pages 87-101 Front Matter....Pages 103-103 Problems in the Evaluation of Antibody Affinity Distribution during the Immune Response....Pages 104-116 Biological Variations of IgM Antibody Affinity....Pages 117-125 Speculations on Some Fundamental Aspects of the Regulation of the Quantity and Affinity of Antibody Produced during an Immune Response....Pages 126-138 Front Matter....Pages 139-139 Deterministic and Stochastic Bounded Rate Models in Immunology....Pages 140-154 Some Basic Properties of Stochastic Population Models....Pages 155-164 Systems Compartmentation in Immunological Modeling....Pages 165-174 A Mathematical Model of the “Two Signal” Theory for T-B Cells Cooperation....Pages 175-189 Front Matter....Pages 191-191 Idiotypic Regulation and H2 Restriction....Pages 192-203 Immunoglobulin Gene Suppression and Expression....Pages 204-218 Complexity and Regulation of the Immune System: The Network Approach....Pages 219-227 The Stability of the Immune Network....Pages 228-238 A Mathematical Model of the Stable States of a Network Theory of Self-Regulation....Pages 239-257 Front Matter....Pages 191-191 Approaches for Data Reduction in Biological Networks....Pages 258-273 Back Matter....Pages 275-277 This volume collects the contributions presented at the "Working Conference on System Theory in Immunology", held in Rome, May 1978. The aim of the Conference was to bring together immunologists on one side and experts in system theory and applied mathematics on the other, in order to identify problems of common interest and to establish a network of joint effort toward their solution. The methodologies of system theory for processing experimental data and for describing dynamical phenomena could indeed contribute significantly to the underƯ standing of basic immunological facts. Conversely, the complexity of experimental results and of interpretative models should stimulate mathematicians to formulate new problems and to design appropriate procedures of analysis. The multitude of scientific publications in theoretical biology, appeared in recent years, confirms this trend and calls for extensive interaction between mat- matics and immunology. The material of this volume is divided into five sections, along the scheme of the Conference program "This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the IFIP TC3 ED-L2L Conference held at the 20th World Computer Congress in Milano, Italy on September 7-10, 2008." "The IFIP series publishes state-of-the-art results in the sciences and technologies of information and communication. The scope of the series includes: foundations of computer science; software theory and practice; education; computer applications in technology; communication systems; systems modeling and optimization; information systems; computers and society; computer systems technology; security and protection in information processing systems; artificial intelligence; and human-computer interaction. Proceedings and post-proceedings of refereed international conferences in computer science and interdisciplinary fields are featured. These results often precede journal publication and represent the most current research. The principal aim of the IFIP series is to encourage education and the dissemination and exchange of information about all aspects of computing."--BOOK JACKET