1

Foreword

This special issue contains a selection of peer-reviewed articles presented in the interna-tional conference BIOCOMP2012 - Mathematical Modeling and Computational Topics inBiosciences, which took place in Vietri sul Mare, Italy, on the Amalfi Coast, 4-8 June 2012.The conference was dedicated to the memory of Professor Luigi M. Ricciardi, who passedaway on May 2011. Professor Ricciardi was an eminent scientist, an excellent teacher, aninvaluable mentor, a dear friend and colleague. As a pioneer in the fields of cyberneticsand of complex systems, he promoted enthusiastically interdisciplinary research. During hisacademic career, he developed the research activities in many areas, especially in the fieldsof neurobiology, biomathematics, queuing systems, molecular motors, stochastic orders,reliability and information theory. He devoted special attention to the construction andanalysis of stochastic models for the description of the behavior of dynamic systems, and tothe development of statistic-computational algorithms and simulation methods involved inthe study of related models. His research activities were carried out in collaboration withscientists from different countries, particularly from Japan and US. He was a leader, withan extraordinary capacity to guide all the researchers and friends that worked with him, hisstudents and colleagues to the desired objective, imprinting in all qualities of excellence notonly as scientists, but also as human beings. Professor Ricciardi was not only a scientist,he was a charming and warm person. A professional and academic biography of ProfessorRicciardi can be found in the first paper of this volume.

Like its predecessors, BIOCOMP2002 - Topics in Biomathematics and Related Compu-tational Problems at the Beginning of the Third Millennium 1, BIOCOMP2005 - DiffusionProcesses in Neurobiology and Subcellular Biology 2, and BIOCOMP 2007 - InternationalConference on Collective Dynamics: Topics on Competition and Cooperation in the Bio-sciences 3, BIOCOMP2012 was conceived as a program of invited lectures, selected con-tributed papers and roundtable discussions designed to bring together a group of mathe-maticians, physicists, and biologists for an in-depth discussion of model-building and com-putational strategies, this time in the fields of mathematical models, stochastic approachesand computational tools in information processing and neuronal coding, in ecology andpopulation dynamics. Some invited talks focused on current problems in various other ar-eas of applications of mathematics, probability and statistics to biosciences, and on relatedcomputational problems.

This special issue of Scientiae Mathematicae Japonicae contains a biography of ProfessorRicciardi and eleven articles chosen from about sixty papers submitted for the conferenceproceedings. These articles were selected with a careful eye both to scientific quality andto current or potential relevance to the specific topics of the conference or to the generalarea of methods and tools for biomathematics. The articles explore a variety of topics,including first-passage problems for diffusions, Zero-Hopf bifurcation in a predator-prey

1Proceedings in Special Issues of (i) Sci. Math. Jap, Vol. 58, no. 2, pp. 221-494, 2003. ISSN 1346-0862.International Society for Mathematical Sciences (Osaka, Japan); (ii) BioSystems, vol. 71, nos. 1-2, 2003,pp. 1-248. ISSN 0303-2647. Amsterdam: Elsevier (Netherlands); (iii) Math. Biosciences vol. 188, 2004,pp. 1-238. ISSN 0025-5564. New York: Elsevier Science Inc. (USA)

2Proceedings in Special Issues of (i) Sci. Math. Jap, Vol. 64, no. 2, 2006. ISSN 1346-0862. InternationalSociety for Mathematical Sciences (Osaka, Japan); (ii) BioSystems, ,vol. 88, n.3, 2005, pp. 175-356. ISSN0303-2647. Amsterdam: Elsevier (Netherlands); (iii) Math. Biosciences vol. 207, n.2, pp. 161-401. 2007.ISSN 0025-5564. New York: Elsevier Science Inc. (USA)

3Proceedings in Special Issues of (i) Sci. Math. Jap, vol. 67 n.2, p. 1-228, 2008, ISSN 1346-0862.International Society for Mathematical Sciences (Osaka, Japan); (ii) BioSystems vol. 93 nos. 1/2, p. 1-150,2008, Amsterdam: Elsevier Ireland Ltd., . ISSN 0303-2647. (iii) AIP Conference vol. 1028, p. 1-380, 2008,Melville New York : American Institute of Physics, ISBN: 978-0-7354-0552-3. (iv) Math. Biosciences vol.214, 2008, pp. 1-152. ISSN 0025-5564. New York: Elsevier Science Inc. (USA)

2

model, mathematical and computer modeling of the livers control mechanisms at the deltahepatitis, asymptotic results for random flights, fractional Poisson processes, stochasticdifferential equations, representation of time space-harmonic polynomials via symbolic Levyprocesses, effects of induced emotional states on emotional experience, Brownian motion andbiology, linear diffusion processes and related bridges. In short, the contributions includedin this volume can be classified into three broad categories: basic mathematics with currentor potential applications to biological modeling, mathematics as a tool to solve biologicalproblems, and new mathematical problems suggested by biology.

BIOCOMP2012 was developed under the patronage of Comune di Salerno, Comunedi Vietri sul Mare, Dipartimento per la Pubblica Amministrazione e la Semplificazione,Ministero degli Affari Esteri (MAE), Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio edel Mare (MATTM), Ministero delle Politiche Agricole, Alimentari e Forestali (MiPAAF),Provincia di Salerno, Universita di Napoli Federico II.

BIOCOMP2012 was co-organized by Dipartimento di Matematica e Applicazioni dell’U-niversita di Napoli Federico II, Dipartimento di Matematica dell’Universita di Salerno, Di-partimento di Matematica dell’Universita di Torino, Associazione BIOCOMP - Napoli. Par-ticipating institutions included Dipartimento di Matematica e Applicazioni dell’Universitadi Napoli Federico II - PRIN 2008, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile dell’Universita diSalerno - PRIN 2008, Gruppo Nazionale per il Calcolo Scientifico (GNCS-INdAM), Istitutoper le Applicazioni del Calcolo ”Mauro Picone” (IAC-CNR), Istituto Internazionale pergli Alti Studi Scientifici (IIASS), Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici (IISF), SocietaItaliana per la Matematica Applicata e Industriale (SIMAI).

We are especially grateful and express our greatest appreciation to Aniello (Nello)Buonocore and Antonio Di Crescenzo for their generous, precious and efficient dedicationto the all phases of the organization and development of BIOCOMP2012 and to the Pro-ceedings preparation. We thank particularly Laura Sacerdote for her cooperation in theorganization, the active chairing of some sessions of the conference and her partecipationin the editing process.

Numerous friends and colleagues have generously and efficiently helped us during allphases of the organization and development of the conference, in particular, Umberto Am-ato, Walter Balzano, Luigia Caputo, Gennaro Colaps, Maria Rosaria Del Sorbo, ElviraDi Nardo, Paola Festa, Maria Longobardi, Barbara Martinucci. To them we extend ourmost sincere thanks. Finally, it is a pleasure to express our heartfelt gratitude to Prof.Yoshinobu Teraoka (P.E. Osaka Prefecture Univ.), the Managing Editor of Scientiae Math-ematicae Japonicae and the President of International Society for Mathematical Sciences,for publishing this volume dedicated to the memory of Prof. Luigi M. Ricciardi.

February 1, 2013

Virginia GiornoAmelia G. NobileEnrica PirozziShunsuke Sato

LUIGI MARIA RICCIARDI

(1942-2011)