Immunology as a Metaphor for Computational ... - Napier University

Chapter 2BackgroundThis chapter begins with a brief introduction to immunology, necessary to set the scenefor the remainder of the thesis. It is of course a vast topic, and only the most relevantfeatures are covered here. For a more detailed overview, the interested reader isreferred to an introductory immunology text such as [Roitt et al., 1988]. This introductionis followed by a review and comparison of existing AIS implementations, andan overview of existing literature in the application of immune systems to the chosendomains of scheduling and data-clustering. Finally, there is a discussion of the relationshipof the immune system to a class of associative memories known as SparseDistributed Memories.2.1 Basic ImmunologyThis section presents some basic immunological concepts which are central to theadaptive immune response. As already stated, it is with this aspect of the immune systemthat most artificial systems are concerned. Key to all adaptive responses is a classof cells known as lymphocytes which specifically recognise individual pathogens, regardlessof the location of those pathogens, whether in blood, tissue fluids or actuallyinside host cells. Lymphocytes fall into two categories, T-Cells (Thymus dependent),and B-Cells, (Bone marrow dependent). The function of the B-Cell is to attack extracellularpathogens by releasing antibodies, i.e. specific molecules which recognise and10