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Books in Comparative physiology

  • Balancing a Sauropod

    The Physiology of a Dinosaur
    • 1st Edition
    • Brant E Isakson
    • English
    One completely unexplored area in terms of physiology is the era of dinosaurs—with good reason, they lived over 100 million years ago and we’re left to make inference based on fossilized bones. However, by merging classical, comparative, and extreme physiology and applying it to current paleontological knowledge of dinosaurs, Balancing a Sauropod: The Physiology of a Dinosaur will for the first time begin to provide a sound physiological underpinning for how they may have lived 100 million years ago. Sauropods were the largest land animals to ever walk the earth with an incredible distance from heart to brain, begging the question, how did they maintain blood flow in their brain? Also, the climate sauropods lived in was hypoxic compared to what we live in now, so how did the dinosaurs breathe in the hypoxic Jurassic era? These questions and others expand to multiple fascinating questions the book will dissect in order of organ systems. The topics focus on major organ systems and apply them to potential sauropod physiology. Less emphasis is given to the skeletal system, as that has been discussed extensively in other literature. Each organ system will be discussed in terms of function and current understanding of how they work in a comparative environment. Balancing a Sauropod: The Physiology of a Dinosaur is written at a technical level to both inform the lay reader and provide a sound argument to scientists in the field.

  • Comparative Anatomy and Histology

    A Mouse, Rat, and Human Atlas
    • 2nd Edition
    • Piper M. Treuting + 2 more
    • English
    The second edition of Comparative Anatomy and Histology is aimed at the new rodent investigator as well as medical and veterinary pathologists who need to expand their knowledge base into comparative anatomy and histology. It guides the reader through normal mouse and rat anatomy and histology using direct comparison to the human. The side by side comparison of mouse, rat, and human tissues highlight the unique biology of the rodents, which has great impact on the validation of rodent models of human disease.

  • Nature's Machines

    An Introduction to Organismal Biomechanics
    • 1st Edition
    • David E. Alexander
    • English
    Nature’s Machines: An Introduction to Organismal Biomechanics presents the fundamental principles of biomechanics in a concise, accessible way while maintaining necessary rigor. It covers the central principles of whole-organism biomechanics as they apply across the animal and plant kingdoms, featuring brief, tightly-focused coverage that does for biologists what H. M. Frost’s 1967 Introduction to Biomechanics did for physicians. Frequently encountered, basic concepts such as stress and strain, Young’s modulus, force coefficients, viscosity, and Reynolds number are introduced in early chapters in a self-contained format, making them quickly available for learning and as a refresher. More sophisticated, integrative concepts such as viscoelasticity or properties of hydrostats are covered in the later chapters, where they draw on information from multiple earlier sections of the book. Animal and plant biomechanics is now a common research area widely acknowledged by organismal biologists to have broad relevance. Most of the day-to-day activities of an animal involve mechanical processes, and to the extent that organisms are shaped by adaptive evolution, many of those adaptations are constrained and channelized by mechanical properties. The similarity in body shape of a porpoise and a tuna is no coincidence. Many may feel that they have an intuitive understanding of many of the mechanical processes that affect animals and plants, but careful biomechanical analyses often yield counterintuitive results: soft, squishy kelp may be better at withstanding pounding waves during storms than hard-shelled mollusks; really small swimmers might benefit from being spherical rather than streamlined; our bones can operate without breaking for decades, whereas steel surgical implants exhibit fatigue failures in a few months if not fully supported by bone.

  • Comparative Biology of the Normal Lung

    • 2nd Edition
    • Richard A. Parent
    • English
    Comparative Biology of the Normal Lung, Second Edition, offers a rigorous and comprehensive reference for all those involved in pulmonary research. This fully updated work is divided into sections on anatomy and morphology, physiology, biochemistry, and immunological response. It continues to provide a unique comparative perspective on the mammalian lung. This edition includes several new chapters and expanded content, including aging and development of the normal lung, mechanical properties of the lung, genetic polymorphisms, the comparative effect of stress of pulmonary immune function, oxygen signaling in the mammalian lung and much more. By addressing scientific advances and critical issues in lung research, this 2nd edition is a timely and valuable work on comparative data for the interpretation of studies of animal models as compared to the human lung.

  • Knobil and Neill's Physiology of Reproduction

    • 4th Edition
    • Tony M. Plant + 1 more
    • English
    The Fourth Edition of Knobil & Neill continues to serve as a reference aid for research, to provide the historical context to current research, and most importantly as an aid for graduate teaching on a broad range of topics in human and comparative reproduction. In the decade since the publication of the last edition, the study of reproductive physiology has undergone monumental changes. Chief among these advances are in the areas of stem cell development, signaling pathways, the role of inflammation in the regulatory processes in the various tissues, and the integration of new animal models which have led to a greater understanding of human disease. The new edition synthesizes all of this new information at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels of organization and present modern physiology a more understandable and comparative context.

  • Aspects of Developmental and Comparative Immunology

    Proceedings of the 1st Congress of Developmental and Comparative Immunology, 27 July - 1 August 1980, Aberdeen
    • 1st Edition
    • J. B. Solomon
    • English
    Aspects of Developmental and Comparative Immunology contains the proceedings of the 1st Congress of Developmental and Comparative Immunology, held from July 27 to August 1, 1980 in Aberdeen, Scotland. The papers explore various aspects of developmental and comparative immunology and cover topics ranging from the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and membrane immunoglobulins to idiotypes and diversity, comparative ontogeny, and evolution of lymphoid organ function. Comprised of 105 chapters, this volume begins with an overview of how the host immune system utilizes polymorphic MHC antigens as the principal tool for pseudo-self versus true self distinction. The reader is then introduced to the immunology of earthworms, membrane immunoglobulins, idiotypes, and diversity. Subsequent chapters focus on the evolution of lymphoid organs in vertebrates; differentiation clocks in comparative immunology of mammals and birds; immunorecognition in invertebrates such as insects and gastropods; and the phylogeny of leucocytes in vertebrates and invertebrates. The remaining sections deal with stem cells, immune responses of gut-associated lymphoepithelial tissue, and the ontogeny of resistance to infection as well as the ontogeny of killer cells. Finally, the immunology of fish, amphibians, reptiles, chickens, and mammals is examined. This monograph will be of interest to immunobiologists.

  • Comparative Toxicogenomics

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 2
    • English
    Functional genomics has come of age. No longer is it an adventure for the avant garde scientist, but it has become an increasingly standardized mainstream tool accessible to any modern biological laboratory. Toxicogenomics studies are now generating an avalanche of data that, with the aid of established informatics methodology, is being translated into biologically meaningful information. This is enabling us to start harvesting the benefits from years of investment in terms of technology, time, and (of course) money. It is therefore timely to bring together leading toxicologists with a wide variety of scientific aims in this book to demonstrate how microarray technology can be successfully applied to different research areas. This book transects biology from bacteria to human, from ecologically relevant sentinel organisms to well-characterized model species, and represents the full toxicogenomics arena from exploratory "blue sky" science to the prospects for incorporation into regulatory frameworks.

  • The Anatomical Basis of Mouse Development

    • 1st Edition
    • Matthew H. Kaufman + 1 more
    • English
    This book is an essential anatomical resource for developmental biologists who need to know about any aspect of mouse developmental anatomy, as well as for geneticists using the mouse embryo as a model. The book is a companion to Kaufman's The Atlas of Mouse Development, and details the developmental anatomy of the early embryo, the transitional tissues, and all the major organ systems. It also provides extensive comparisons with human developmental anatomy, both normal and abnormal. The book has extensive reference indexes detailing developmental stage criteria. The Anatomical Basis of Mouse Development will be a key reference work for anyone who needs to understand developmental anatomy in normal and mutant mice.

  • Sense Organs Integration, and Behavior

    • 1st Edition
    • Talbot Waterman
    • English
    The Physiology of Crustacea, Volume II: Sense Organs, Integration, and Behavior focuses on the three components of self-regulation for crustaceans and examines the behavior that emerges therefrom. This book provides the physiology of the class Crustacea from a comparative point of view. Organized into chapters, this volume starts with an overview of the sensitivity to electromagnetic energy at wavelengths extending from the ultraviolet to the infrared, which is an important adaptive function in crustaceans. This text then explores the innervation of crustacean sensory hairs and describes the sensitivity among crustaceans to external changes in mechanical force by direct contact with solids or by fluid movement. Other chapters consider the two types of pigmentary effectors in crustaceans, namely, the chromatophores and the pigments of the compound eye. The final chapter deals with the four major categories in developing a comparative physiology. Physiologists, biochemists, and researchers will find this book useful.