Abstract
In the search for general trends and laws in Nature, there is a tendency to exorcise variation as an artifact, for which imperfection and inaccuracy of observation are held responsible. However, there is often a residual variation and unpredictability when measurement error and external uncontrollable disturbance (noise) have been effectively removed. The following principle can be stated:
Variation is an inherent characteristic of objects and systems—be they cells or organisms, cities or countries, rocks or mountains, electric bulbs or airplanes—a consequence of the statistical (macroscopically apparently nondeterministic) nature of the processes by which the objects and systems are formed (or manufactured) from simpler elements.
Variability is a deeply ingrained characteristic of nature and man’s appreciation of variability is the source of knowledge, beauty and tolerance. Kubis (1966)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Andrew, W., 1962, An electron microscope study of age changes in liver of the mouse, Am J. Anat. 110:1–18.
Andrew, W., 1968, The fine structural and histochemical changes in aging, in: The Biological Basis of Medicine (E. E. Bittar and N. Bittar, eds.), Academic Press, New York.
Bartlett, M. S., 1970, Age distributions, Biometrics 26:377–385.
Bazovsky, L., 1961, Reliability Theory and Practice, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Bompas-Smith, J. H., 1973, Mechanical Survival: The Use of Reliability Data, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Brook, R. H. W., 1972, Reliability Concepts in Engineering Manufacture, Wiley, New York.
Calloway, N. O. and Dollevoet, P. L., 1977, Selected tabular material on aging, in: Handbook of the Biology of Aging (C. E. Finch and L. Hayflick, eds.), Van Nostrand-Reinhold, Princeton, N.J.
Carter, A. D. S., 1972, Mechanical Reliability, Wiley, New York.
Dawkins, R., 1976, The Selfish Gene, Oxford University Press, New York.
Economos, A. C., 1979a, A non-Gompertzian paradigm for mortality kinetics of metazoan animals and failure kinetics of manufactured products, Age 2:74–76.
Economos, A. C., 1979b, Systems Analysis Study of Physiological Adaptation to Weightlessness and Dependence of Adaptation Capacity upon Biological Age, Technical report for NASA.
Economos, A. C., and Miquel, J., 1977, Stochastic analysis of body weight as a tool in time-condensed studies of the effect of various agents on mortality kinetics of mice, 30th Annual Meeting of the Gerontology Society, San Francisco.
Economos, A. C., and Miquel, J., 1979, Analysis of population mortality kinetics with application to the longevity follow-up of the Navy’s “1000-aviators,” Aviat. Space Environ. Med. 50:397–401.
Economos, A. C., and Miquel, J., 1980, Usefulness of stochastic analysis of body weight of mice as a tool in experimental aging research, Exp. Aging Res 6:417–430.
Economos, A. C., Miquel, J., Binnard, R., and Kessler, S., 1979a, Quantitative analysis of mating behavior in aging male Drosophila melanogaster, Mech. Ageing Dev. 10:233–240.
Economos, A. C., Miquel, J., and Burns, M. K., 1979b, Morphometrics of mouse liver mitochondria: Effects of aging, alcohol and antioxidants, Age 2:134.
Ganong, W. F., 1977, Survey of departments of physiology, 1977, Physiologist 20:23–25.
Gross, A. J., and Clark, V. A., 1975, Survival Distributions: Reliability Applications in the Biomedical Sciences, Wiley, New York.
Haviland, R. P., 1964, Engineering Reliability and Long Life Design, Van Nostrand, Princeton, N.J.
Herbener, G. H., 1976, A morphometric study of age-dependent changes in mitochondrial populations of mouse liver and heart, J. Gerontol. 31:8–12.
Jardine, A. K. S., 1973, Maintenance, Replacement, and Reliability, Wiley, New York.
Johnson, J. E., Jr., Miquel, J., Binnard, R., and Economos, A. C., 1978, Effects of antioxidants on the liver of aging mice, 8th Annual Meeting of the American Aging Association, San Francisco.
Kapur, K. C., and Lamberson, L. R., 1977, Reliability in Engineering Design, Wiley, New York.
Kubis, J. F., 1966, Preface, in: The Biology of Human Variation (E. M. Weyer, ed.), Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 134:501.
Kunstyr, I., and Leuenberger, H. G. W., 1975, Gerontological Data of C57BL/6J Mice. I. Sex differences in survival curves, J. Gerontol. 30:157–162.
MacDonald, E. J., 1963, The epidemiology of melanoma, Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 100:4–5.
McNelly, N. A., and Dittmer, J. E., 1976, Glomerular basement membrane width and proteinuria in the aging hamster kidney, J. Gerontol. 11:49–55.
Miquel, J., and Blasco, M., 1979, A simple technique for evaluation of vitality loss in aging mice, by testing their muscular coordination and vigor, Exp. Gerontol. 13:389–396.
Miquel, J., Lundgren, P. R., and Binnard, R., 1972a, Negative geotaxis and mating behavior in control and gamma-irradiated Drosophila, Drosophila Inform. Service 48:60.
Miquel, J., Bensch, K. G., Philpott, D. E., and Atlan, H., 1972b, Natural aging and radiation-induced life shortening in Drosophila melanogaster, Mech. Ageing Dev. 1:71–97.
Miquel, J., Lundgren, P. R., and Bensch, K. G., 1975, Effects of oxygen-nitrogen (1:1) at 760 Torr on the life span and fine structure of Drosophila melanogaster, Mech. Ageing Dev. 4:41–57.
Miquel J., Lundgren, P. R., Bensch, K. G., and Atlan, H., 1976, Effects of temperature on the life span, vitality and fine structure of Drosophila melanogaster, Mech. Ageing Dev. 5:347–370.
Morowitz, H. J., 1968, Energy Flow in Biology, Academic Press, New York.
Murphy, D. P., 1954, Maternal age and malformation, Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 57:503–506.
Oldham, P. D., 1968, Measurement in Medicine: The Interpretation of Numerical Data, Lippincott, Philadelphia.
Papageorgiou, J. C., 1976, Competition in nature and the lognormal model, Kybernetes 5:31–34.
Papaikonomou, E. Economos, A. C., 1974, Biocybernetics, Biosystems Analysis, and the Pituitary Adrenal System, Nooy’s Drukkerij, Purmerend, The Netherlands.
Papoulis, A., 1965, Probability, Random Variables, and Stochastic Processes, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Pieri, C., Nagy, I. Z., Mazzufferi, G., and Giuli, C., 1975, The aging of rat liver as revealed by electron microscopic morphometry. I. Basic parameters, Exp. Gerontol. 10:291–304.
Rockstein, M., and Lieberman, H. M., 1959, A life table for the common housefly, Musca domestica, Gerontology 3:23–36.
Schmucker, D. L., and Jones, A. L., 1975, Hepatic fine structure in young and aging rats treated with oxandrolone: A morphometric study, J. Lipid Res. 16:143–150.
Schmucker, D. L., Jones, A. L., and Mills, E. S., 1974, Morphometric analysis of the ultrastructural changes in the liver of aging rats, J. Gerontol. 29:506–513.
Shock, N. W., 1960, Some of the facts of aging, in: Aging: Some Social and Biological Aspects (N. W. Shock, ed.), American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C.
Shooman, M. L., 1968, Probabilistic Reliability: An Engineering Approach, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Sohal, R. S., and Bridges, R. G., 1977, Effects of experimental alterations in phospholipid composition on the size and number of mitochondria in the flight muscles of the housefly, Musca domestica, J. Cell Sci. 27:273–287.
Tate, E. L., and Herbener, G. H., 1976, A morphometric study of the density of mitochondrial cristae in heart and liver of aging mice, J. Gerontol. 31:129–134.
Tauchi, H., and Sato, T., 1962, Some micromeasuring studies of the hepatic cells in senility, J. Gerontol. 17:254–259.
Tauchi, H., and Sato, T., 1968, Age changes in size and number of mitochondria of human hepatic cells, J. Gerontol. 23:454–461.
von Alven, W. H. (ed.), 1964, Reliability Engineering, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Wilson, P. D., and Franks, L. M., 1975, The effect of age on mitochondrial ultrastructure, Gerontology 21:81–94.
Yeager, V. L., Chiemchanya, S., and Chaiseri, P., 1975, Changes in size of lacunae during life of osteocytes in osteons of compact bone, J. Gerontol. 30:9–14.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1981 Plenum Press, New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Economos, A.C., Miquel, J., Ballard, R.C., Johnson, J.E. (1981). Variation Principles and Applications in the Study of Cell Structure and Aging. In: Johnson, J.E. (eds) Aging and Cell Structure. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-3929-8_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-3929-8_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-3931-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-3929-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive