In March 2000 leading scientists gathered at the Centro Seminariale Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland, for the Third International Symposium on "Fractals 2000 in Biology and Medicine". This interdisciplinary conference was held over a four-day period and provided stimulating contributions from the very topical field Fractals in Biology and Medicine. This Volume III in the MBI series highlights the growing power and efficacy of the fractal geometry in understanding how to analyze living phenomena and complex shapes. Many biological objects, previously considered as hopelessly far from any quantitative description, are now being investigated by means of fractal methods. Researchers currently used fractals both as theoretical tools, to shed light on living systems` self-organization and evolution, and as useful techniques, capable of quantitatively analyzing physiological and pathological cell states, shapes and ultrastructures. The book should be of interest to researchers and students from Molecular and C

Inhalt
Fractal Design of Biological Structures and Functions.- Pattern Complexity in Organogenesis and Carcinogenesis.- Fractal Structure of Space and Time is Necessary for the Emergence of Self-Organization, Connectivity, and Collectivity in Cellular System.- Diffusion Screening, Acinus Size and Optimal Design of Mammalian Lungs.- Three-Dimensional Model of the Human Airway Tree Based on a Fractal Branching Algorithm.- Fractal Dimension, Form and Shape Factors for the Quantification of Nuclear Signature Profiles.- Fractal Signature Vectors and Lacunarity Class Distance Matrices to Extract New Adaptive Texture Features from Cell Nuclei.- Morphofractal Reorganization of Plasma Membrane and Nuclear Components during the Apoptosis of Breast Cancer Cells.- Fractal Analysis of Chromatin during Apoptosis.- Fractal Structures in Tumours and Diseases.- Asymptotic Fractals, Geostatistics and Hurst Parameter; Heterogeneity and Histological Grades in Breast Cancer.- The Fractal Dimension of the Inner Surface of Neoplastic Mammary Ducts in Mammary Fibroadenomas and Mammary Carcinomas of Dog and Cat: Preliminary Data.- Classification of Prostatic Cancer Using Artificial Neural Networks.- Fractal Dimension Exponent for Quantitative Evaluation of Liver Extracellular Matrix in Biopsy Specimens.- Two-Dimensional Fractal Geometric Analysis of Bone Marrow Tissue in Hyperplasia, Refractory Anemia and Acute Leukemia.- Color-Based Method for Fractal Dimension Estimation of Pigmented Skin Lesion Contour.- The EEG Signal in Hepatic Encephalopathy: from a Time-Domain Statistical Analysis toward Fractional Brownian Processes.- A Fractal Approach of Pathological Voices.- A Vowel Fractal Dimension Study.- Bone Architecture Measured by Fractal Dimension and Connectivity Indices is More Precociously Altered than Mineral Content in the Orchidectomized Rat.- Texture Analyses of X-Ray Micrographs (Fractal Geometry and Run Length) are Better Predictors of Bone Loss than Mineral Content in a Rat Model of Localized Disuse Osteopenia.- Fractal Scaling of Heartrate Dynamics in Health and Disease.- Information States in Cardiac Rhythm.- Some Remarks on the Fractal Dimension Applications in.- Nuclear Medicine.- Organization and Evolution of Living Systems.- Fractional Calculus and Memory in Biophysical Time Series.- The Biological Meanings of DNA Correlations.- On the Fractal Structure of Evolutionary Trees.- Metabolic Hypercycles, Universality and Fractals in Biological Evolution.- The Universal Dynamic Complexity as Extended Dynamic Fractality: Causally Complete Understanding of Living Systems Emergence and Operation.- Modelling.- A Headful of T4 Coliphage DNA: Dynamical Modelling.- On Lacunarity Analysis.- The Fractal Dimension of the Coastline as a Determinant of Western Leadership in Science and Technology.- A Fractional Calculus Approach to Adsorbate Dynamics in.- Nanoporous Materials.- Complex Aspects of the Riemann Hypothesis: a Computational.- Approach.- Fractals in Architecture: Some Examples.