Adjoint equations and analysis of complex systems: Application to virus infection modelling

[摘要] Recent development of applied mathematics is characterized by ever increasing attempts to apply the modelling and computational approaches across various areas of the life sciences. The need for a rigorous analysis of the complex system dynamics in immunology has been recognized since more than three decades ago. The aim of the present paper is to draw attention to the method of adjoint equations. The methodology enables to obtain information about physical processes and examine the sensitivity of complex dynamical systems. This provides a basis for a better understanding of the causal relationships between the immune system's performance and its parameters and helps to improve the experimental design in the solution of applied problems. We show how the adjoint equations can be used to explain the changes in hepatitis B virus infection dynamics between individual patients. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[发布日期] 2005-12-01

[关键词] mathematical model;performance functional;optimization;sensitivity;adjoint equations;hepatitis B virus infection