Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 8
. A web of intracellular-extracellular signaling pathways organized as complex regu-
latory networks. Shown for example purposes only is the intrinsic cardiac nested layers of
self-regulation (see Figure 6). Diagrammatic generalization of the network of signaling events
(receptor-ligand type) that mediate neuronal, hormonal, and mechanically dependent interac-
tion between Neural (N), Endothelial (E), and Myocardial (M) cells. The emergent extrinsic
function is manifested as a finite and ordered (mechanistic) expression, limited in the degrees
of operational freedom, i.e., much of the "internal complexity" is not made evident in the
externalized homeokinetic functions of regulated stable systems.
5.1. Transfer Function and Organizational Analysis
In those cases (of which there are many) in which there is no biodynamic
theory to explain system behavior, it is nonetheless possible to gain some under-
standing and derive an empirical inference as to the complex structure of system
integrity by observing the outputs generated by the system itself (see Part II,
chapters 1 [Shalizi] and 2 [Socolar], this volume):
Input
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{ PROCESS }
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Output
