Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Efficiency, effectiveness, perfection, optimization: their use in understanding vertebrate evolution
- 2 On the efficiency of energy transformations in cells and animals
- 3 Adapting skeletal muscle to be efficient
- 4 Efficiency and other criteria for evaluating the quality of structural biomaterials
- 5 Efficiency and optimization in the design of skeletal support systems
- 6 Efficiency in aquatic locomotion: limitations from single cells to animals
- 7 The concepts of efficiency and economy in land locomotion
- 8 Respiration in air breathing vertebrates: optimization and efficiency in design and function
- 9 Cardiac energetics and the design of vertebrate arterial systems
- 10 An evolutionary perspective on the concept of efficiency: how does function evolve?
- Index
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Efficiency, effectiveness, perfection, optimization: their use in understanding vertebrate evolution
- 2 On the efficiency of energy transformations in cells and animals
- 3 Adapting skeletal muscle to be efficient
- 4 Efficiency and other criteria for evaluating the quality of structural biomaterials
- 5 Efficiency and optimization in the design of skeletal support systems
- 6 Efficiency in aquatic locomotion: limitations from single cells to animals
- 7 The concepts of efficiency and economy in land locomotion
- 8 Respiration in air breathing vertebrates: optimization and efficiency in design and function
- 9 Cardiac energetics and the design of vertebrate arterial systems
- 10 An evolutionary perspective on the concept of efficiency: how does function evolve?
- Index
Summary
This book is based on the proceedings of a symposium sponsored by the American Society of Zoologists, held during the society's San Francisco meeting (27–30 December 1988). Arguably, most physiological symposia focus, with varing degree of specificity, on issues within a classical division of the subject. This traditional approach has been, and continues to be, worthwhile and fruitful. However, the impetus here was to take a general theme (efficiency) and explore it broadly from a variety of perspectives and fields. The general consensus of opinion of the participants and audience at the San Francisco meeting was that the symposium was successful and worthy of publication. The resulting book consists of ten chapters (contributed by the symposium speakers) which vary somewhat in depth of coverage, length, style, and organization. This reflects a conscious decision on my part not to strive for uniformity through ‘heavy handed’ editing. A brief outline of the book's structure and content follows.
Chapter 1 (C. Gans) establishes definitions for a variety of terms (e.g. adequacy, efficiency, optima, perfection) that are employed by some authors in subsequent chapters. Gans discusses these concepts in the context of evolutionary biology, bearing on adaptation, development, and speciation. This issue is returned to in Chapter 10 (G.V. Lauder) where it is argued that concepts of efficiency may be used in integrating the discipline of physiology with historical biology. In Chapter 2 (R.W. Blake) the influence of the choice of formalism, interpreting high and low values, and the relevance of laboratory results to field situations are considered for efficiency criteria in physiological systems.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Efficiency and Economy in Animal Physiology , pp. xi - xiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992