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Elsevier

Elsevier Science

  • Gap Junctions

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 30
    • E.L. Hertzberg
    • English
    The objective in editing this volume was twofold: to provide a reasoned overview of the field as well as to furnish one that provided this overview within the context of the intellectual boundaries of those who initially attempted to define the purview of gap junction research. The latter objective has been realized by selecting the topics for review in this volume. The former objective was achieved by securing the cooperation of leaders in their fields as chapter co-authors.

  • Advances in Space Biology and Medicine

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 7
    • S.L. Bonting
    • English
    During the past several years there has been a shortage of flight opportunities for biological and medical projects. And those that were available usually had severe restrictions on instrumentation, number of subjects, duration, time allotted for performing the experiments, a possibility for repetition of experiments. It is our hope and expectation that this will change once the international Space Station is in full operation. The advantages of a permanent space station, already demonstrated by the Russian Mir station, are continuous availability of expert crew and a wide range of equipment, possibility of long-term experiments where this is waranted, increased numbers of subjects through larger laboratory space, proper controls in the large 1-G centrifuge, easier repeatability of experiments when needed.The limited number of flight opportunities during recent years probably explains why it has taken so long to acquire a sufficient number of high quality contributions for this seventh volume of Advances in Space Biology and Medicine. While initially the series wassailed at annually appearing volumes, we are now down to a biannual appearance. Hopefully, it will be possible to return to annual volumes in the future when results from space station experimentation at beginning to pour in.The first three chapters of this volume deal with muscle. Fejtek and Wassersug provide a survey of all studies on muscle of rodents flown in space, and include an interesting demography of this aspect of space research. Riley reviews our current knowledge of the effects of long-term spaceflight and re-entry on skeletal muscle, and considers the questions still to be answered before we can be satisfied that long-term space missions, such as on the space station, can be safely undertaken. Stein reviews our understanding of the nutritional and hormonal aspects of muscle loss in spaceflight, and concludes that the protein loss in space could be deleterious to health during flight and after return. Strollo summarizes our understanding of the major endocrine systems on the ground, then considers what we know about their functioning in space, concluding that there is much to be learned about the changes taking place during spaceflight. The many problems of providing life support (oxygen regeneration and food supply) during extended stay on the Moon, on Mars, or in space by means of plant cultivation are discussed by Salisbury. The challenges of utilizing electrophoresis in microgravity for the separation of cells and proteins are illustrated and explained by Bauer and colleagues. Finally, the chapter on teaching of space life sciences by Schmitt shows that this field of science has come of age, but also that its multidisciplinary character poses interesting challenges to teaching it.

  • Ecosystems of Disturbed Ground

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 16
    • L.R. Walker
    • English
    As the human population inexorably grows, its cumulative impact on the Earth's resources is hard to ignore. The ability of the Earth to support more humans is dependent on the ability of humans to manage natural resources wisely. Because disturbance alters resource levels, effective management requires understanding of the ecology of disturbance. This book is the first to take a global approach to the description of both natural and anthropogenic disturbance regimes that physically impact the ground. Natural disturbances such as erosion, volcanoes, wind, herbivory, flooding and drought plus anthropogenic disturbances such as foresty, grazing, mining, urbanization and military actions are considered. Both disturbance impacts and the biotic recovery are addressed as well as the interactions of different types of disturbance. Other chapters cover processes that are important to the understanding of disturbance of all types including soil processes, nutrient cycles, primary productivity, succession, animal behaviour and competition. Humans react to disturbances by avoiding, exacerbating, or restoring them or by passing environmental legislation. All of these issues are covered in this book.Managers need better predictive models and robust data-collections that help determine both site-specfic and generalized responses to disturbance. Multiple disturbances have a complex effect on both physical and biotic processes as they interact. This book provides a wealth of detail about the process of disturbance and recovery as well as a synthesis of the current state of knowledge about disturbance theory, with extensive documentation.

  • Peripheral and Spinal Mechanisms in the Neural Control of Movement

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 123
    • M.D. Binder
    • English
    In the last decade, we have witnessed a striking maturation of our understanding of how neurons in the spinal cord control muscular activity and movement. Paradoxically, a host of new findings have revealed an unexpected versatility in the behavior of these well-studied neural elements and circuits. In this volume, the world's leading experts review the current state of our knowledge of motor control, outline their latest results and developments, and delineate the seminal unresolved questions in this vibrant field of research. The volume begins with a commentary and overview of our current understanding of the peripheral and spinal basis of motor control. The remainder of the volume is divided into seven sections, each focused on a different problem. The first chapter in each section provides some historical review and presages the experimental findings and hypotheses that are discussed in subsequent chapters.Topics include the biomechanics of neuromuscular systems, the properties of motoneurons and the muscle units they control, spinal interneurons, pattern generating circuits, locomotion, descending control of spinal circuits, comparative physiology of motor systems, and motor systems neurophysiology studied in man. The book serves as a unique reference volume and should be essential reading for anyone interested in motor systems. Moreover, the volume's comprehensive coverage of a wide range of topics make it an effective textbook for graduate level courses in motor control neurobiology, kinesiology, physical therapy, and rehabilitation medicine.

  • Interlaboratory Studies and Certified Reference Materials for Environmental Analysis

    The BCR Approach
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 22
    • E.A. Maier + 1 more
    • English
    The participation in interlaboratory studies and the use of Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) are widely recognised tools for the verification of the accuracy of analytical measurements and they form an integral part of quality control systems used by many laboratories, e.g. in accreditation schemes. As a response to the need to improve the quality of environmental analysis, the European Commission has been active in the past fifteen years, through BCR activity (now renamed Standards, Measurements and Testing Programme) in the organisation of series of interlaboratory studies involving expert laboratories in various analytical fields (inorganic, trace organic and speciation analysis applied to a wide variety of environmental matrices). The BCR and its successor have the task of helping European laboratories to improve the quality of measurements in analytical sectors which are vital for the European Union (biomedical, agriculture, food, environment and industry); these are most often carried out in support of EC regulations, industrial needs, trade, monitoring activities (including environment, agriculture, health and safety) and, more generally, when technical difficulties hamper a good comparability of data among EC laboratories. The collaborative projects carried out so far have placed the BCR in the position of second world CRM producer (after NIST in the USA).Interlaboratory Studies and Certification of Reference Materials for Environmental Analysis gives an account of the importance of reference materials for the quality control of environmental analysis and describes in detail the procedures followed by BCR to prepare environmental reference materials, including aspects related to sampling, stabilization, homogenisation, homogeneity and stability testing, establishment of reference (or certified) values, and use of reference materials. Examples of environmental CRMs produced by BCR within the last 15 years are given, which represent more than 70 CRMs covering different types of materials (plants, biological materials, waters, sediments, soils and sludges, coals, ash and dust materials) certified for a range of chemical parameters (major and trace elements, chemical species, PAHs, PCBs, pesticides and dioxins).The final section of the book describes how to organise improvement schemes for the evaluation method and/or laboratory performance. Examples of interlaboratory studies (learning scheme, proficiency testing and intercomparison in support to prenormative research) are also given.

  • Caribbean Basins

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 4
    • P. Mann
    • English
    This 21-chapter volume provides a regionally-comprehen... collection of original studies of Caribbean basins conducted by academic and petroleum geologists and geophysicists in the early and mid-1990s. The common tectonic events discussed in the volume including the rifting and passive margin history of North and South America that led to the formation of the Caribbean region; the entry of an exotic, Pacific-derived Great Arc of the Caribbean at the leading edge of the Caribbean oceanic plateau; the terminal collision of the arc and plateau with the passive margins fringing North and South America; and subsequent strike-slip and accretionary tectonics that affected the arc-continent collision zone.Two introductory chapters (Part A) utilize recent advances in quantitative plate tectonic modeling and satellite-based gravity measurements to place the main phases of Caribbean basin formation into a global plate tectonic framework. Nineteen subsequent chapters are organized geographically and focus on individual or groups of genetically-linked basins. Part B consists of five chapters which mainly focus on basins overlying the North America plate in the Gulf of Mexico, Cuba and the Bahamas that record its rifting from South America in late Jurassic to Cretaceous time. Part C has six chapters that focus on smaller, usually heavily faulted and onshore Cenozoic basins of the northern Caribbean that formed in response to arc collisional and strike-slip activity along the evolving North America-Caribbean plate boundary. The two chapters in Part D focus on Cenozoic basins related to the Lesser Antilles arc system of the eastern Caribbean. Part E is comprised of three chapters on the Jurassic-Recent sedimentary basins of the eastern Venezuela and Trinidad area of the southeastern Caribbean. These basins reflect both the Jurassic-Cretaceous rifting and passive margin history of separation between the North and South America plates as well as a much younger phase of Oligocene to recent transpression between the eastward migrating Lesser Antilles arc and accretionary wedge and the South America continent. The three chapters of Part F contain deep penetration seismic reflection and other geophysical data on the largely submarine Cretaceous Caribbean oceanic plateau that forms the nucleus of the present-day Caribbean plate.

  • Handbook of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry

    From Macromolecules to Man
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 4
    • Richard B. Kemp
    • English
    The applications and interest in thermal analysis and calorimetry have grown enormously during the last half of the 20th century. These techniques have become indispensable in the study of processes such as catalysis, hazards evaluation etc., and in measuring important physical properties quickly, conveniently and with markedly improved accuracy. Consequently, thermal analysis and calorimetry have grown in stature and more scientists and engineers have become at least part-time, practitioners. People new to the field therefore need a source of information describing the basic principles and current state of the art. The last volume of this 4 volume handbook, devoted to many aspects of biological thermal analysis and calorimetry, completes a comprehensive review of this important area. All chapters have been prepared by recognized experts in their respective fields. The approach taken is "how and what to do and when to do it". The complete work is a valuable addition to the already existing literature.

  • Protein Liquid Chromatography

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 61
    • M. Kastner
    • English
    Protein Liquid Chromatography is a handbook-style guide to liquid chromatography as a tool for isolating and purifying proteins, consisting of 25 individual chapters divided into three parts: Part A covers commonly-used, classic modes of chromatography such as ion-exchange, size-exclusion, and reversed-phase; Part B deals with various target protein classes such as membrane proteins, recombinant proteins, and glycoproteins; and Part C looks at various miscellaneous related topics, including coupling reaction, buffer solution additives, and software. The text as a whole can be viewed as a systematic survey of available methods and how best to use them, but also attempts to provide an exhaustive coverage of each facet. How to solve a specific problem using a chosen method is the overall essence of the volume. The principle philosophy of this compilation is that practical application is everything; therefore, both classical and modern methods are presented in detail, with examples involving conventional, medium- and high-pressure techniques. Over-exposure to history, concept, and theory has deliberately been avoided. The reader will find a wealth of tips and tricks from users for users, including advice on the advantages and disadvantages of each method. Easy-to-read sections on "Getting started now" and "Where to go from here" attempt to provide hands-on, fool-proof detailed practical procedures with complete and even standard model runs for any scientist or technician at work in this area.

  • Automotive Plastics and Composites

    Worldwide Markets and Trends to 2007
    • 2nd Edition
    • D. Mann
    • English
    Following the success of the first (1995) edition, this fully updated report will provide a global overview of the use of automotive plastics and composites in passenger vehicles, with an analysis of markets and trends to the year 2007. Special attention is given to vehicle weight reduction. For a PDF version of the report please call Tina Enright on +44 (0) 1865 843008 for price details.

  • Advances in Synthetic Metals

    Twenty Years of Progress in Science and Technology
    • 1st Edition
    • P. Bernier + 2 more
    • English
    This edited work contains eight extensive, review-type contributions by leading scientists in the field of synthetic metals. The authors were invited by the organisers of the International Conference on Science and Technology of Synthetic Metals '98 (ICSM'98) to review the progress of research in the past two decades in a unifying and pedagogical manner. The present work highlights the state-of-the-art of the field and assesses the prospects for future research.

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