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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.

  • Germination Control. Metabolism, and Pathology

    • 1st Edition
    • T.T. Kozlowski
    • English
    Seed Biology, Volume II: Germination Control, Metabolism, and Pathology is a part of a three-volume treatise, which aims to bring together a large body of important information on seed biology. Organized into five chapters, this book begins with a discussion on environmental control of germination and its biological significance. Separate chapters follow that discuss physiology and metabolism of seeds with specific dormancy and anomalous storage history, as well as those germinated under abnormal conditions. This work will be useful to various groups of research biologists and teachers, including agronomists, plant anatomists, biochemists, ecologists, entomologists, foresters, horticulturists, plant pathologists, and plant physiologists.
  • Crop Safeners for Herbicides

    Development, Uses, and Mechanisms of Action
    • 1st Edition
    • Kriton Hatzios
    • English
    Crop Safeners for Herbicides aims to discuss the issue of chemical manipulation of crop tolerance to herbicides. This book resulted from a symposium titled ""Chemical Manipulation of Crop Tolerance to Herbicides"". Several chapters included herein are added contributions from experts outside of the symposium. The book not only serves as reference for the knowledge of the agronomic uses, development, chemistry, and mechanisms of action herbicide safeners, but it also assesses the impact of safeners all around the world. It also presents a discussion on alternative approaches that increases herbicide selectivity and explores future trends. Comprised of 16 chapters and divided into four parts, the book starts with a section on the development and uses of herbicide safeners. The text also offers a critical and extensive review of academic and industrial perspectives in the development of herbicide safeners in different parts of the world. Part 2 of this book starts with an overview of the physiological, biochemical, and molecular aspects of the mechanisms, and then further delves in to the prevalent mechanisms of action of selected classes of herbicide safeners. The third part of this book provides data on the potential use of alternative approaches for the manipulation of crop tolerance to herbicides. The last part is a summary of the progress and prospects of the topic of crop safening against herbicide injury. The book serves as an important resource for students and professionals interested in the field of agriculture, agronomy, pest research, weed science, and plant pathology and physiology.
  • Idiotypes

    • 1st Edition
    • Morris Reichin
    • English
    Idiotypes documents the proceedings of an International Conference on Idiotypes held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, October 20-23, 1985. The aims of the conference were to gather active investigators in the study of idiotypes; to assess progress in the field; and to explore directions for future research. The papers presented at the conference cover a wide range of subjects. Several papers deal with defining protein and DNA sequences which determine idiotypes. Evidence points to germ line genes encoding the V region structures which underlie idiotypy. Another subtheme which concerns several contributions is the occurrence of dominant idiotypes in induced immune responses (e.g., arsonate and lysozyme) and autoimmunity (e.g., thyroglobulin and rheumatoid factors). The presence of such dominant idiotypes is discussed from several viewpoints, but the recurrent theme is that such dominance is a manifestation of a selection process inherent in the idiotypic network. Two papers deal with idiotypic structures in T cells: on the one hand, identifying idiotypes on T helper cells and, on the other, I-J and Iat related structures which tightly govern cellular interactions in the evolution of an immune response. Network interactions through autoanti-idiotypic responses are shown to be associated with the effects on the specificity of both induced and naturally occurring immune responses. Autoanti-idiotypic responses are also shown to be correlated with the regulation of the anti-DNA response in human systemic lupus erythematosus. These data pointed to a role of the idiotype network in immune regulation.
  • Experimental Marine Biology

    • 1st Edition
    • Richard Mariscal
    • English
    Experimental Marine Biology consists of eight chapters dealing with the various disciplines of marine biology. This book aims to give insights into the problems and perspectives of each discipline, as well as point out new directions which research endeavors might most profitably follow. This reference material starts with the basic topic about aquarium technique, specifically closed-system marine aquariums. This book then presents field experiments in marine ecology and describes marine organisms' behavior, physiology, endocrinology, biochemistry, and toxicology. The development in marine organisms is also discussed. This work will be valuable to both interested students and experienced researchers in this field.
  • The Biochemistry and Physiology of Tetrahymena

    • 1st Edition
    • Donald G. Hill
    • English
    The Biochemistry and Physiology of Tetrahymena presents a review of the literature covering the physiology and biochemistry of the ciliate genus Tetrahymena, of which Tetrahymena pyriformis is the most studied species. Organized into 10 parts, this book first provides basic information about Tetrahymena, which is found in almost any body of water and is so unusual that one can debate quite rationally as to whether it is an animal or a plant. Other chapters are restricted to specific subjects about this organism, namely, carbohydrate, lipid, energy, protein, amino acid, purine, pyrimidine, and nucleic acid metabolism. The organism’s biochemical genetics, vitamin and inorganic requirements, and evolution are also shown. This book also explores the effect of radiation, drugs, and hydrostatic pressure on Tetrahymena. The documented information presented in this book will be sufficient to stimulate even more interest in the organism.
  • Anatomy and Physiology

    • 1st Edition
    • Geoffrey Bourne
    • English
    The Rhesus Monkey, Volume I: Anatomy and Physiology discusses the anatomic and physiological measurement, microscopic anatomy, learning, skills, general behavior, and vocalization of rhesus monkey. The rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) is widely used for biomedical and psychological studies. Accordingly, an enormous fund of scientific information is available in papers and some collected data. This book is generally a collection of data from over 2000 papers on rhesus monkey. It covers topics on the cerebral angiography, electrocardiogram, and vector cardiogram of the rhesus monkey. It also provides additional information on morphology and function of rhesus kidney; the development and eruption of teeth in rhesus; and the histology and histochemistry of the rhesus monkey. This book serves as an invaluable reference work for all who work with this primate.
  • The Living State

    With Observations on Cancer
    • 1st Edition
    • Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
    • English
    The Living State: With Observations on Cancer explores some facets of life, including its pattern and structure, cellular mechanisms, and its connection with biochemistry and biophysics. It reflects the author’s journey in his desire to understand life by looking at cells, animals, bacteria, molecules, and electrons, as well as his observations on cancer. Organized into eight chapters, this volume begins with an overview of the scientific community's longstanding pursuit to understand life and its origins. It then discusses water as an essential medium of organic matter on which life's machinery is built, along with the motion of muscle; biological stability and the paradox of evolution; the energetics of the biosphere based on the interaction of hydrogen and oxygen; the principles of defense against cellular damage; and how defense is linked to the regulation of growth in plants and animals. The reader is also introduced to growth regulation as a defense mechanism, which corrects mechanical injury in animals; the way that ketone aldehydes inhibit cell division; the theory of cancer; and cancer therapy. Biologists, chemists, and physicists will find this book an interesting read.
  • Physiological Mechanisms Of Marine Pollutant Toxicity

    • 1st Edition
    • Winona Vernberg
    • English
    Physiological Mechanisms of Marine Pollutant Toxicity contains the proceedings of a symposium on ""Pollution and Marine Organisms"" held at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina, on November 30 to December 3, 1981. It explores the effects of pollutants, such as petroleum hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and pesticides, on the physiology of marine organisms, along with the functional aspects of detoxification and the environmental health implications of pollution. Organized into three sections encompassing 24 chapters, this volume begins with a discussion of subcellular accumulation and detoxification of metals in aquatic animals such as fishes, crabs, and polychaetes. The reader is then introduced to the physiological mechanisms of pollutant toxicity, including the sublethal effects of pollutants on the gill morphology of the scallop, Placopecten magellanicus; mechanisms underlying the tolerance of killifish embryos to heavy metals; increased sensitivity of smolts in seawater to petroleum hydrocarbons, such as toluene and naphthalene; and physiological effects of sublethal concentrations of benzene and dimethylnaphthalene on blue crab juveniles. The book concludes by outlining research directions for linking cause and effect concerning pollution and marine organisms. This book will be a valuable resource for marine scientists, ecologists, and students.
  • The Genetics Of Altruism

    • 1st Edition
    • Scott Boorman + 1 more
    • English
    The Genetics of Altruism covers the primary findings on social evolution, social trait, and altruism from a population genetics standpoint to establish a system of genetic boxes. It presents an evolutionary question with two faces: Why are there so many social species? Why, in all the diversity of the animal kingdom, are the social species so few? To address the evolutionary question, this book focuses on recognition of the fact that on an evolutionary time, scale genetics must underlie all changes in the capacity for social structure and other aspects of organic evolution. It presents comparative analyses framed in mathematical terms; mathematical concepts as a means of getting outside human, perhaps more generally primate and carnivore; frames of reference; and alternative network combinatorics as a natural basis for comparing social structures that are phylogenetically remote. It also discusses the comparative biology of social behavior on a purely descriptive basis through the social and evolutionary structures emergent. The book concludes by discussing major evolutionary pathways, various kinds of preadaptedness for sociality, and the use of cascade principle to suggest ways in which human evolution may have been a special case. This book is a valuable resource for biologists, social scientists, researchers, students, and all those who want to broaden their knowledge in the field of social behavior and altruism.
  • Invertebrate Immunity

    • 1st Edition
    • Karl Maramorosch
    • English
    Invertebrate Immunity: Mechanisms of Invertebrate Vector-Parasite Relations consists of chapters presented at a workshop on invertebrate defense mechanisms, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and held in Bethesda, Maryland, on April 17 and 18, 1974. Organized into four parts, having a total of 24 chapters, this book first discusses the barrier imposed by the gut of invertebrates to invading parasites. It then centers on the role of invertebrate hemocytes and other phagocytic cells in immunity, as well as the humoral defense mechanisms of these organisms. Other topics discussed include parasite encapsulation in insects, role of melanin in host-parasite interaction, and use of host hormones by insect parasites to make the host environment favorable for their growth and development. This book will be essential for those interested in comparative immunology and in invertebrate immune responses. It will be of special interest to entomologists, protozoologists, physicians, veterinarians, ecologists, pathologists, research workers, science teachers, and graduate students.