Seventh International Conference on Modelling in Medicine and Biology

 Overview

Computer models in particular have been increasingly successful in simulating biological phenomena.  They are lending support to many applications, including cardiovascular systems, the study of biomedicine, electrical simulation, among many others. Another important contribution is the wide availability of computer power to acquire, analyse, manage and visualise massive amounts of data.

 Opening Address

The Meeting was opened by Professor Carlos A Brebbia, Director of WIT and Chairman of the Conference.  He explained the different activities taking place at the Lodge:  

• Research
• Training
• Publishing
• Industrial support

Training at WIT is at post-graduate level, and includes a series of Master and PhD programmes, centred in the different research divisions:  

• Environmental fluid mechanics
• Information & communications engineering
• Damage mechanics
• Industrial research

Most training programmes are in collaboration with Universities and Research Institutions from different countries.  Many are organised in ‘sandwich’ type programmes during which the candidates spend part of the time in their own institutions and part on the WIT Campus.  

The Divisions work on a variety of research projects supported by UK, Europe and USA organisations and most of the projects involve close collaboration with other institutions.  

An important part of WIT’s activities is the organisation of courses and conferences. The latter, in particular, provides ideas and contacts that are the source of further research proposals and new meetings and publications.  The evaluation of the conference programme is the reason for its continuous success. The programme started 20 or so years ago with a series of engineering and physical sciences meetings and now comprises a substantial number of conferences dealing with ecological and environmental problems.  More recently, WIT has co-organised a series of trans-disciplinary meetings involving social, political and economic sciences in an effort to interact with disciplines of fundamental relevance to the solution of the problems of society.  

A successful WIT activity is the support of industry and the development of computational tools for engineering analysis.  This has resulted in close collaboration with the offshore and aerospace industries, as well as other mechanical sciences applications.  

The Publishing Division supports the publication of conference proceedings which are also incorporated in the Institute’s eLibrary (http://library.witpress.com/).  The eLibrary comprises all papers presented at WIT conferences since 1993; now totalling around 20,000 contributions.  The Library is very popular and currently registers around 15,000 downloads of abstracts and papers per month.  

Professor Brebbia finished by mentioning the new International Journal of Design and Nature, which is another inter-disciplinary activity of WIT.  The idea is to interpret nature in mathematical and physical terms to learn from it and improve our engineering and scientific design.  He invited the participants to contribute to the Journal which, in spite of being new, has attracted a series of outstanding papers (see http://journals.witpress.com/Default.asp).  

 Conference Topics

The Conference covered a series of topics, with the papers classified in the following sessions:  

View of the audience

• Cardiovascular systems
• Biomechanics
• Intracranial pressure dynamics
• Exposure to electromagnetic fields
• Computational fluid dynamics
• Data acquisition and analysis
• Computer simulation
• Skin and membranes

 Keynote Addresses

In addition, the following keynote addresses were delivered:  

• 
  Professor Miftahof
  “Comparison between linear elasticity and large elastic deformation in the study of the contraction of the myocardium”, by R M Shoucri, Royal Military College, Canada
• “A mathematical model for the diagnosis and treatment of idiopathic intracranial hypertension” by W D Lakin, University of Vermont, USA
• “A comprehensive cerebrovascular simulation model for teaching and research”, by M Ursino, University of Bologna, Italy
• “Simplified modelling of the human body exposed to power substation electric field using boundary element analysis”, by D Poljak, University of Split, Croatia
• “Electromagnetic modelling of a human eye exposed to conductive keratoplasty”, by A Peratta, Wessex Institute of Technology, UK
• “A method of visualization of a brain neural pathway by using critical points and target regions”, by A Doi, Iwate Prefectural University, Japan
• “Mathematical modelling in drug discovery and development”, by R Miftahof, Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Korea

 Excursions

During one of the lunch breaks, the delegates were taken to Buckler’s Hard, also a picturesque place of historic interest.  Originally it was dedicated to ship building using timber from the New Forest. Many fine wooden ships were built there, including the famous Agamemnon commanded by Nelson during the siege of Calvi. This ship, together with Swiftsure and Euryalus, all built at Buckler’s Hard, took place in the Battle of Trafalgar.

In 1818, the construction of ships ceased, mainly as a consequence of the enterprise having over-extended itself.  It is now a small village with an interesting Museum which provides an interesting display of the activities that took place there. 

 ISAC Meeting

The International Scientific Advisory Committee (ISAC) met over dinner to discuss the Conference and what changes ought to be made when the meeting is reconvened in 2009.  Several new topics were proposed, as well as a few more members for the Committee.  A series of possible locations were proposed and they will be investigated in the next few months.

 Conference Dinner

The Conference banquet took place at Rhinefield House, originally one of the New Forest Lodges and now a well known country hotel with a renowned restaurant. The dinner was held in the Alhambara private room.  This is of a unique construction in the Spanish-Moorish style.  It is decorated with columns of onyx and marble and the walls covered in ceramic tiles from Andalucia and the gesso type of intricate work associated with the famous Palace in Granada.  It was originally a smoking room given as a surprise present by the lady of the house to his seafaring husband, who saw it for the first time upon his return from a tour of duty aboard one of Her Majesty’s ships.  At the end of the meal, Professor Brebbia offered the participants a copy of his book on Patagonia, where a chapter is dedicated to the Welsh colonisation of that remote region.    He also gave the participants a specially commissioned bowl made by a local artist. This artist prepares his own clay and makes the individual pieces by hand, prepares his own glazes and fires the kiln in the traditional way, using wood.

 Publication of Papers

The proceedings of Modelling in Medicine and Biology VII, 352pp (ISBN: 1-84564- 089-7) are available in hard back from WIT Press priced at £116/US$232/€174. Orders can be placed by telephone: +44 (0) 238 029 3223, fax: +44 (0) 238 029 2853, e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or via the WIT Press web site at www.witpress.com.  

Papers from the conference will also be hosted online at the WIT eLibrary as volume 12 of WIT Transactions on Biomedicine and Health (ISSN: 1743-3525). For more details visit the WITeLibrary at www.witpress.com.  

Patagonia a forgotten land – from Magellan to Peron, by C.A. Brebbia,  384 pp (ISBN 978-1-84564-061-3) is available in hard back from WIT Press, priced at £33/US$59/€49.50.  Orders can be placed as above.  

The New Forest: A Personal View, by C.A. Brebbia, 112pp (ISBN 1-85312-504-0) is available in hard back from WIT Press, priced at £22.50/US$35.10/€37.50.  Orders can be placed as above.