CY3E2: Biological cybernetics

Module Provider:

School of Systems Engineering

Number of credits:

10 [5 ECTS credits]

Level:

H (Honours)

Terms in which taught:

Spring

Module Convenor:

Dr RJ Mitchell

Pre-requisites:

Co-requisites:

Modules excluded:

Module version for:

2006/7

Aims:

Assessable learning outcomes:
The module aims to discuss 'natural feedback systems', whether they be biological or environmental. By the end of the module the students will be able to describe and analyse various natural feedback systems.

Additional outcomes:

Outline content:
Feedback processes in animals and plants: Gibbs free energy, water, chemical potential, irreversible thermodynamics and bioenergetics, Nernst potential, regulated membranes, the nervous system and coordination. Respiratory and circulatory systems. Body temperature and temperature-energy budgets. Homeostasis, blood and immunology, hormonal control. Nutrition. Feedback in plants and the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, solute transport.
Feedback processes in ecological systems: The match between organisms and their environments, conditions and resources, life and death in unitary and modular organisms, migration and dispersal in space and time. Intra-specific and inter-specific competition, the nature of predation, behaviour of predators, decomposers and detrivores, parasitism and disease, mutualism. Practical manipulations of abundance, killing and conserving. Flux of energy and matter through communities, the influence of competition, predation and disturbance on community structure. Islands, areas and colonisation. Patterns of species richness. Introduction to dimensional analysis and systems analysis using matroid theory.
Feedback processes occurring in the environment. Overview of positive and negative feedback in the environment. Population models: single species, multiple species including mutualist, competitive and predator prey systems, sex and population, and age related population models. Gaia theory and its feedback mechanisms: Daisyworld, including its applicability to Earth for temperature control; Early atmosphere model; Oxygen and Ozone control; salinity control.
60% of the module is spent on biological (animals, plant and ecology) systems, the remaining 40% is spent on environmental systems.

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:
The module comprises 2 lectures per week.

Contact hours:

Assessment:
Coursework
None
Examinations
One 2 hour paper, comprising two questions on biological systems and two on environmental systems.
Requirements for a pass
A mark of 40%
Reassessment arrangements
Re-examination the following year.