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Books in Agricultural and biological sciences

The Agricultural and Biological Sciences collection advances science-based knowledge for the improvement of animal and plant life and for secure food systems that produce nutritious, novel, sustainable foods with minimal environmental impact. Food Science titles include not only those products from agriculture but all other aspects from food production to nutrition, health and safety, chemistry to security, policy, law and regulation. Biological Sciences address animal behaviour and biodiversity, organismal and evolutionary biology, entomology, marine biology and aquaculture, plant science and forestry.

  • Improving and Tailoring Enzymes for Food Quality and Functionality

    • 1st Edition
    • Rickey Y. Yada
    • English
    Improving and Tailoring Enzymes for Food Quality and Functionality provides readers with the latest information on enzymes, a biological processing tool that offers the food industry a unique means to control and tailor specific food properties. The book explores new techniques in the production, engineering, and application of enzymes, covering sourcing, isolation, and production of enzymes for food applications. In addition, chapters include detailed discussions of enzyme processing, analytical and diagnostic applications of enzymes in the food industry, and enzyme applications in specific food commodities.
  • Aquatic Functional Biodiversity

    An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective
    • 1st Edition
    • Andrea Belgrano + 2 more
    • English
    Aquatic Functional Biodiversity: An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective provides a general conceptual framework by some of the most prominent investigators in the field for how to link eco-evolutionary approaches with functional diversity to understand and conserve the provisioning of ecosystem services in aquatic systems. Rather than producing another methodological book, the editors and authors primarily concentrate on defining common grounds, connecting conceptual frameworks and providing examples by a more detailed discussion of a few empirical studies and projects, which illustrate key ideas and an outline of potential future directions and challenges that are expected in this interdisciplinary research field. Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in using network approaches to disentangle the relationship between biodiversity, community structure and functioning. Novel methods for model construction are being developed constantly, and modern methods allow for the inclusion of almost any type of explanatory variable that can be correlated either with biodiversity or ecosystem functioning. As a result these models have been widely used in ecology, conservation and eco-evolutionary biology. Nevertheless, there remains a considerable gap on how well these approaches are feasible to understand the mechanisms on how biodiversity constrains the provisioning of ecosystem services.
  • Six Chemicals That Changed Agriculture

    • 1st Edition
    • Robert L Zimdahl
    • English
    Six Chemicals That Changed Agriculture is a scientific look at how the chemicals used in today's food production were developed, evaluated, and came to be in wide-spread use. From fertilizers to pest management, antibiotics to DNA, chemicals have transformed the way our food is grown, protected, and processed. Agriculture is the world's most important environment interaction, the essential human activity, and an increasingly controversial activity because of its use and presumed misuse of chemistry. The major characteristics of US agriculture for at least the last six decades have been rising productivity, declining number of mid-size farms, increasing farm size, an increasing percentage of farm production on fewer, large farms, increasing dependence of chemical technology and more developmental research being done by the agricultural chemical industry rather than by independent land-grant universities. Another equally important feature of modern agriculture is wide-spread suspicion of its technology by the public. The book will recount examples of this suspicion related to specific chemicals and present the essence of the suspicion and its results.
  • Wood Composites

    • 1st Edition
    • Martin P Ansell
    • English
    Recent progress in enhancing and refining the performance and properties of wood composites by chemical and thermal modification and the application of smart multi-functional coatings have made them a particular area of interest for researchers. Wood Composites comprehensively reviews the whole field of wood composites, with particular focus on their materials, applications and engineering and scientific advances, including solutions inspired biomimetrically by the structure of wood and wood composites. Part One covers the materials used for wood composites and examines wood microstructure, and wood processing and adhesives for wood composites. Part Two explores the many applications of wood composites, for example plywood, fibreboard, chipboard, glulam, cross-laminated timber, I-beams and wood-polymer composites. The final part investigates advances in wood composites and looks at the preservation and modification of wood composites, environmental impacts and legislative obligations, nano-coatings and plasma treatment, biomimetic composite materials, the integration of wood composites with other materials and carbonized and mineralized wood composites.
  • Food Safety

    Emerging Issues, Technologies and Systems
    • 1st Edition
    • Steven Ricke + 2 more
    • English
    Food Safety: Emerging Issues, Technologies and Systems offers a systems approach to learning how to understand and address some of the major complex issues that have emerged in the food industry. The book is broad in coverage and provides a foundation for a practical understanding in food safety initiatives and safety rules, how to deal with whole-chain traceability issues, handling complex computer systems and data, foodborne pathogen detection, production and processing compliance issues, safety education, and more. Recent scientific industry developments are written by experts in the field and explained in a manner to improve awareness, education and communication of these issues.
  • Plant Transcription Factors

    Evolutionary, Structural and Functional Aspects
    • 1st Edition
    • Daniel H Gonzalez
    • English
    Plant Transcription Factors: Evolutionary, Structural and Functional Aspects is the only publication that provides a comprehensive compilation of plant transcription factor families and their complex roles in plant biology. While the majority of information about transcription factors is based on mammalian systems, this publication discusses plant transcription factors, including the important aspects and unifying themes to understanding transcription factors and the important roles of particular families in specific processes.
  • Laboratory Animal Medicine

    • 3rd Edition
    • Lynn C. Anderson + 4 more
    • English
    Laboratory Animal Medicine, Third Edition, is a fully revised publication from the American College of Laboratory Medicine’s acclaimed blue book series. It presents an up-to-date volume that offers the most thorough coverage of the biology, health, and care of laboratory animals. The book is organized by species, with new inclusions of chinchillas, birds, and program and employee management, and is written and edited by known experts in the fields. Users will find gold-standard guidance on the study of laboratory animal science, as well as valuable information that applies across all of the biological and biomedical sciences that work with animals.
  • Food Waste Recovery

    Processing Technologies and Industrial Techniques
    • 1st Edition
    • Charis M. Galanakis
    • English
    Food Waste Recovery: Processing Technologies and Industrial Techniques acts as a guide to recover valuable components of food by-products and recycle them inside the food chain, in an economic and sustainable way. The book investigates all the relevant recovery issues and compares different techniques to help you advance your research and develop new applications. Strong coverage of the different technologies is included, while keeping a balance between the characteristics of current conventional and emerging technologies. This is an essential reference for research outcomes.
  • Land Plants - Trees

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 74
    • English
    Advances in Botanical Research publishes in-depth and up-to-date reviews on a wide range of topics in plant sciences. Currently in its 74th volume, the series features several reviews by recognized experts on all aspects of plant genetics, biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, physiology, and ecology. This volume features reviews on the advances in knowledge for the main traits important in fruit trees and forest trees, the advances in tools and resources for genetics and genomics in these species, and the knowledge developed in three rather separated communities of researchers: forest, fruit trees, and grapevines.
  • Medicinal Plants

    Chemistry, Biology and Omics
    • 1st Edition
    • Da-Cheng Hao + 2 more
    • English
    Medicinal Plants: Chemistry, Biology and Omics reviews the phytochemistry, chemotaxonomy, molecular biology, and phylogeny of selected medicinal plant tribes and genera, and their relevance to drug efficacy. Medicinal plants provide a myriad of pharmaceutically active components, which have been commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine and worldwide for thousands of years. Increasing interest in plant-based medicinal resources has led to additional discoveries of many novel compounds, in various angiosperm and gymnosperm species, and investigations on their chemotaxonomy, molecular phylogeny and pharmacology. Chapters in this book explore the interrelationship within traditional Chinese medicinal plant groups and between Chinese species and species outside of China. Chapters also discuss the incongruence between chemotaxonomy and molecular phylogeny, concluding with chapters on systems biology and “-omics” technologies (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics), and how they will play an increasingly important role in future pharmaceutical research.