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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.

  • Water and Plant Disease

    • 1st Edition
    • T.T. Kozlowski
    • English
    Water Deficits and Plant Growth, Volume V: Water and Plant Disease presents a comprehensive treatment of the role of water deficits and excesses in the plant disease complex. This book highlights water relations of diseased plants and the effects of water stress induced by disease and environmental factors, along with water deficits related to disease and water stress as a predisposing factor in plant disease. This volume is organized into nine chapters and begins with an overview of the water relations of diseased plants, focusing on root, foliar, and shoot diseases, as well as vascular wilts. The following chapters examine the effects of water deficits on pathogen and host, the degree and duration of water deficits as predisposing factors in plant disease, and important abiotic diseases induced by water deficits and excess. The discussion then turns to water in relation to active and passive liberation of spores, as well as to the infection process. This book also explains soil moisture in relation to spread and survival of pathogens, the link between water and seed decay, field and storage fungi that affect seeds, and water in relation to wood deterioration. This volume concludes with a chapter on moisture as a factor in epidemiology and the forecasting of disease. This book is a valuable resource for scientists and investigators in fields such as botany, plant pathology, forestry, agriculture, and biology.
  • Transporting Epithelia

    • 1st Edition
    • Michael Berridge
    • English
    Transporting Epithelia summarizes the progress that has been made in understanding a wide range of epithelial transport systems. This book discusses the epithelia involved in osmotic and ionic regulation from protonephridia to the mammalian kidney. It also explains the digestive and absorptive epithelia, as well as the epithelia that produce special secretions, such as milk, endolymph, aqueous humor, cerebrospinal fluid, sweat, and tears. Furthermore, this book describes the role of the epithelium in the physiology of the animal and the structure of the epithelium. Then, the structure of the epithelium is correlated with its physiological properties. This book will be valuable both for teaching and as a reference for research workers interested in comparative aspects of transport phenomena.
  • Insects, and Seed Collection, Storage, Testing, and Certification

    • 1st Edition
    • T.T. Kozlowski
    • English
    Seed Biology: Insects, and Seed Collection, Storage, Testing, and Certification, Volume III brings together a large body of important information on seed biology. The book describes seed collection, identification, storage, testing, and certification. It also considers insects that directly affect seeds, seed-producing organs, or seed-bearing structures of plants. Organized into six chapters, this volume begins by outlining man’s dependency on seeds as source of food, fiber, spices, beverages, oils, vitamins, and drugs. Harmful effects of seeds are also mentioned. Separate chapters focus on seed development, dissemination, germination (including metabolism, environmental control, internal control, dormancy, and seed and seedling vigor), protection from diseases and insects, longevity, and deterioration. The book concludes with a discussion on the certification of field and tree seeds, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development certification schemes, and trends in seed certification. This book is a valuable source of information for seed producers and users as well as various groups of research biologists and teachers, including agronomists, plant anatomists, biochemists, ecologists, entomologists, foresters, horticulturists, plant pathologists, and plant physiologists.
  • The Viruses

    Biochemical, Biological, and Biophysical Properties
    • 1st Edition
    • F Burnet
    • English
    The Viruses: Biochemical, Biological, and Biophysical Properties, Volume 2: Plant and Bacterial Viruses deals with the biochemistry, biology, and biophysics of plant viruses. The viruses considered are tobacco and turnip yellow mosaic viruses; tobacco ringspot virus; potato virus X; and bacterial viruses, such as lysogenic bacteria and phages. This volume is organized into 10 chapters and begins with a discussion of the tobacco mosaic virus and other plant viruses, emphasizing the process of infection and synthesis and general features of the host-virus system. The next chapters focus on the purification and protein components of plant viruses; the chemical correlates of biological variability in viruses; and biological cycles of plant viruses in insect vectors. This book describes the bacteriophage, which is considered as a model virus in comparison with typical microorganisms and cellular organelles. It also introduces the reader to the kinetics of phage reproduction; the intracellular multiplication of bacterial viruses; and the process of lysogeny in bacteria. The book concludes with a chapter on irradiation of phage with ultraviolet light, decay of incorporated radiophosphorus (""suicide""), and ionizing radiation (usually X-rays). Biologists, botanists, biochemists, biophysicists, and microbial physiologists will find this book a rich source of information on plant and bacterial viruses.
  • Insect Photoperiodism

    • 2nd Edition
    • Stanley D. Beck
    • English
    Insect Photoperiodism reviews the many aspects of photoperiodism, particularly in insects, emphasizing the concepts that serve to place the subject in a meaningful relationship to the whole of modern biology. Photoperiodism is the study of the adaptive mechanisms by which living systems exploit this source of temporal information. Organized into 12 chapters, this book begins by discussing the relationships between an endogenous behavioral rhythm and the exogenous photoperiod. Aside from behavioral activities, it also shows that some observable developmental events tend to occur at species-typical times of the day and to be photoperiodically regulated. Notably, photoperiod may exert either or both of two regulatory effects on insect development: growth rate effects or polymorphism. Furthermore, the characteristics of some of the principal physiological rhythms that have been studied; role of photoperiod in the control of diapauses; and the circadian functions and theoretical nature of biological clock are explored in this book.
  • Insect Colonization and Mass Production

    • 1st Edition
    • Carroll Smith
    • English
    Insect Colonization and Mass Production reviews the great strides that have been made in the colonization and mass production of insects, including the methods used in rearing representative species and the general principles of nutrition and management that can be applied to the colonization of other species. The book highlights some of the notable successes in mass production and some examples of groups in which the difficulties inherent in laboratory rearing have not yet been overcome. Organized into five sections encompassing 39 chapters, this book begins with an overview of research in entomology that is facilitated by the availability of thriving insect colonies, along with the possibility of controlling insects directly by utilizing the insects, themselves, or by utilizing products derived from insects. Each chapter contains some historical background, as well as a description of the most efficient methods of production. Some chapters are concerned with only a single species, serving as an example of its taxonomic group, and to a lesser extent of other insects with similar nutritional and environmental requirements. Other chapters discuss rearing methods for entire groups of species that share common requirements. Insects covered by the book range from lice and ticks to fleas, flies, moths, yellow fever mosquitoes, and different species of worms. This book will be of interest to entomologists as well as students involved in insect physiology, behavior, and genetics.
  • Free Radicals in Biology V1

    • 1st Edition
    • William Pryor
    • English
    Free Radicals in Biology, Volume 1, provides an introduction to some of the basic concepts of free radical biology. The book emerged from the President's Symposium of the American Society for Experimental Pathology held in Atlantic City in April 1970. The book's opening chapter introduces a mechanistic view of free radical reactions using examples from biological systems. This is followed by a discussion of autoxidative damage to lipids in membranes. Some of the special chemistry of lipid oxidation are presented, and a number of novel ideas are suggested. The third chapter deals with the uses of electron-spin resonance in biology. Spin labeling is also discussed, which is one of the most useful methods of probing the chemical and physical environment of molecules in cells. The remaining chapters cover free radicals which occur in photosynthesis and the importance of the enzyme, superoxide dismutase. The study of the occurrence and reactions of this enzyme provides an important and extensive body of data clearly pointing to the significance of free radicals in cellular chemistry.
  • Comparison of Forest Water and Energy Exchange Models

    • 1st Edition
    • S Halldin
    • English
    Comparison of Forest Water and Energy Exchange Models includes results of comparisons and tests on micrometeorological and hydrological models against independent field data gathered from an International Union of Forestry Research Organizations workshop. The comparisons are made using the SWECON computer by means of the ECODATA program package and the SIMP simulation package. This book is divided into four sections, covering data and computer facilities; atmospheric exchange and radiation models; soil water and interception models; and comparison of models. The first part includes discussion on the climatic data and databases; evapotranspiration measurements; instrumentation; data gathering and processing; the storage, retrieval and analysis of continuously recorded ecosystems data; and the SIMP-interactive mini-computer package for simulating dynamic and static models. The second part presents the MICROWEATHER simulation model that is applied to a forest; the energy exchange model of a pine forest canopy; the simulation of the quality and quantity of short-wave radiation within and above canopies; and the physical model to simulate energy exchange of plant canopies. The third part offers the model HEJMDAL, which simulates water state and flow in the soil-plant-atmospher... system; the water regime of forests and meadow model; the annual energy and water flow in a layered soil model; and the model ETFOREST for the calculation of the actual evapotranspiration. The last section presents a comparison of radiation models, energy exchange models, and interception models.
  • A New Look at Mechanisms In Bioenergetics

    • 1st Edition
    • Efraim Racker
    • English
    A New Look at Mechanisms in Bioenergetics features eight lectures based on the Robbins Lectures given at Pomona College in April 1973. These lectures are based mainly on the author's own laboratory work and are intended for students of biology and biochemistry who want to devote their lives to research. Lecture 1 presents some of the general lessons learned from research in the field of bioenergetics. It also discusses methods for measuring oxidative phosphorylation and the resolution of soluble multienzyme systems. Lecture 2 explains the biochemical approach to the problem of photophosphorylation... Lecture 3 considers the intersection of oxidative phosphorylation and membranology. Lecture 4 discusses the coupling device and its partial reactions. Lecture 5 focuses on the oxidation chain in mitochondria. Lecture 6 discusses the resolution and reconstitution of oxidative phosphorylation. Lecture 7 examines the reconstitution of ion pumps. Finally, Lecture 8 covers oxidation control in glycolysis; the high aerobic glycolysis of tumor cells; ATPases in tumor cells; and the repair of ion pumps in tumor cells.
  • Dry Biological Systems

    • 1st Edition
    • James S. Clegg
    • English
    Dry Biological Systems contains the proceedings of the 1977 American Institute of Biological Sciences symposium held in East Lansing, Michigan. Divided into seven parts encompassing 17 chapters, the book focuses on the adaptive strategy phenomenon of organisms under dry state or absence of water. The book answers several fundamental questions on dry biological systems, such as how an organism achieve a state that destroys most living systems; what adaptations permit the survival of dehydration; and what activities occur in the dry organisms. After briefly discussing the nature of intracellular water in normal cells, the book examines the ultrastructure of dry organisms, including their metabolic activities during drying, in the dry state, and during rehydration. Parts IV to VI discuss the causes of cell viability loss while in dry, as well as their ecology and enzyme reaction at reduced water activity. Several presentations are made in which freezing and dehydration as stress vectors are compared. Covered papers in the book illustrate the belief that freezing and rehydration can be considered to be the same phenomenon, particularly with respect to the state of intracellular water.