title: Signal amplification in biological and electrical engineering systems: universal role of cascades.
abstract: In this paper we compare the cascade mechanisms of signal amplification in biological and electrical engineering systems, and show that they share the capacity to considerably amplify signals, and respond to signal changes both quickly and completely, which effectively preserves the form of the input signal. For biological systems, these characteristics are crucial for efficient and reliable cellular signaling. We show that this highly-efficient biological mechanism of signal amplification that has naturally evolved is mathematically fully equivalent with some man-developed amplifiers, which indicates parallels between biological evolution and successful technology development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Maribor, Koroska cesta 160, SI-2000 Maribor, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Grubelnik
authors.forename: Bogdan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dugonik
authors.forename: Davorin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Osebik
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marhl
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004581:Electronics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins