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Books in Life sciences

  • Fearing Food

    Risk, Health and Environment
    • 1st Edition
    • December 2, 2012
    • Julian Morris + 1 more
    • English
    Environmental and consumer activists have for a long time blamed pesticides, fertilizers and other aspects of intensive farming for causing environmental degradation and human disease. Yet, as the authors in this book show, intensive farming has enabled growth in food production at a rate greater than population growth, thereby ensuring that people are better fed than ever before, whilst simultaneously limiting the effect of farming on the environment.The authors debunk numerous pervasive myths, including:Myth: Pesticides are bad for the environment and bad for human healthFact: Synthetic pesticides enable the production of large quantities of fresh fruit and vegetables, which means that people are better protected against cancer. In addition, the synthetic pesticides themselves are often less toxic than natural pesticides. Overall, synthetic pesticides present a net gain in health terms.Myth: Antibiotic resistance in animals is spreading to humans.Fact: The use of antibiotics in young animals keeps meat prices low and does not materially contribute to antibiotic resistance in humans.Myth: Nitrate fertilizers are a threat to human health.Fact: Nitrate fertilizers are probably beneficial to human health.Myth: Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are bad for the environment and bad for our health.Fact: Many environmental problems associated with agriculture can be reduced by using GMOs, which have the potential to improve yields and quality which simultaneously reducing associated inputs, such as fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. Commercially produced GM foodcrops have no known impacts on human health and future GM foodcrops are likely to have health benefits (enabling such things as low-fat chips/french fries and non-allergenic peanuts).Myth: Instances of food poisoning would be reduced if we had more regulations.Fact: Instances of food poisoning in the UK may have been exacerbated by over-cautious government regulation.Myth: Subsidies are needed to order to ensure that food and fish are produced in environmentally sound ways.Fact: Subsidies to fisheries and farming have caused widespread environmental degradation.Myth: Packaging and transporting food is environmentally unfriendly.Fact: Packaging enhances the shelf life of products and reduces wastage during transport. Transporting food allows society to take advantage of different environmental and socio-economic conditions that exist in different places.

  • Physiological Correlates of Emotion

    • 1st Edition
    • December 2, 2012
    • Perry Black
    • English
    Physiological Correlates of Emotion focuses on the major experimental approaches currently applied to the study of emotion and its physiological or behavioral parameters. It explores the heritability and developmental aspects of emotional behavior as well as its neurochemical and endocrine, neurophysiological, and psychophysiological correlates. In particular, it considers the modification of emotional behavior by intracranial administration of chemicals, the link between the limbic brain and psychoses, the role of nonspecific reticulo-thalamo-cor... systems in emotion, modulation of emotion by cerebral radio stimulation, and the role of brain function in emotion. Organized into five sections comprised of 13 chapters, this book begins with a historical overview of research in emotion and behavior theory. It then discusses the studies dealing with heritability of emotional behavior in animals. The remaining chapters tackle the maturation of social-emotional patterns, localization of biogenic amines in the brain, psychophysiological experiments on the endocrine and autonomic correlates of emotional behavior, and psychotic manifestations of limbic dysfunction in humans. It explains the two-way radio communication with the human brain, the behavioral significance of bradycardia and hypotension, the perception and labeling of bodily changes as determinants of emotional behavior, and the conditioned emotional states. The book concludes with a phenomenological analysis of brain function in emotion. This book is essential reading for psychologists, psychiatrists, physiologists, and those working in the medical and behavioral sciences.

  • Enzymatic Basis of Detoxication Volume 1

    • 1st Edition
    • December 2, 2012
    • William B. Jakoby
    • English
    Enzymatic Basis of Detoxication, Volume I focuses on the catalytic mechanisms and physiological expression of the enzymes that are involved in the detoxication of foreign compounds. The book explores foreign compound metabolism at the level of what specific enzymes can do. This book is organized into three sections and comprised of 17 chapters. The discussion begins with an overview of detoxication and covers both catalytic and non-catalytic removal of foreign substances, along with the general properties of the enzymes that are active in detoxication. The reader is then introduced to the physiological aspects of detoxication, paying particular attention to the kinetic aspects of metabolism and elimination of foreign compounds in animals, human genetic variation in detoxication enzymes, and how such enzymes are induced. The next section focuses on mixed function oxygenase systems and includes chapters on cytochrome P-450 and the detoxication reactions it catalyzes. The book also considers other oxidation-reduction systems, with reference to alcohol dehydrogenase, aldehyde reductase, aldehyde oxidizing enzymes, ketone reductases, xanthine oxidase and aldehyde oxidase, glutathione peroxidase, and superoxide dismutases. The final chapter is devoted to monoamine oxidase, its properties, substrate specificity, inhibitors, kinetics and mechanism, and multiple forms. Pharmacologists, toxicologists, and biochemists will find this book extremely helpful.

  • Soil disinfestation

    • 1st Edition
    • December 2, 2012
    • D Mulder
    • English
    Soil Disinfestation considers the effectiveness and necessity of soil disinfestation, while exposing the dangers of various treatments and the ways to overcome them. The book serves as a collection of heterogeneous articles written by a number of research workers in the field of soil science and microbial ecology. The book is divided into five sections and comprised of 15 chapters that cover the general aspects of standard, physical, chemical, and biological soil disinfestation and the fate of pesticides in the soil. The book discusses the causes and consequences of soil contamination and detection methods. The factors that influence the efficacy of each treatment and the practical application of commonly used pesticides, such as fumigants and fungicides, are also explained in this reference. Some of the contributors also give a critical retrospect about the subjects with speculation about the trends in soil disinfestation. Microbiologists and research workers in soil science, as well as students and novices in microbiology, pedology, and microbial ecology, will find this book invaluable for their practice and learning.

  • The Hormones V2

    Physiology, Chemistry and Applications
    • 1st Edition
    • December 2, 2012
    • Mohhamad Reza Kiani
    • English
    The Hormones: Physiology, Chemistry and Applications, Volume II covers the chemistry, physiology, and clinical applications of the mammalian endocrinology. This volume contains 10 chapters, and begins with discussions on the physiology and the role of ovarian hormones and androgens on vital processes. The subsequent chapters explore the biochemistry, physiology, and metabolism of specific secreted hormones, such as adrenal cortex, thyroid, and posterior pituitary hormones, and gonadotrophins. Other chapters deal also with the chemical control of nervous activity of acetylcholine, adrenaline, sympathin, and neurohormones. The concluding chapter focuses on the clinical applications of the covered hormones and their role in mammalian growth. This book is an invaluable source for mammalian endocrinologists, physiologists, biochemists, and researchers who are interested in mammalian development.

  • Problems with Temperature Regulation During Exercise

    • 1st Edition
    • December 2, 2012
    • Ethan Nadel
    • English
    Problems with Temperature Regulation during Exercise covers the proceedings of the 1976 Problems of Temperature Regulation during Exercise symposium in conjunction with the American College of Sports Medicine meeting, held in Anaheim, California. This book contains seven chapters that consider the various aspects of a specialized problem within the broader area of temperature regulation and exercise physiology. After briefly providing an overview of the temperature regulation during exercise, this text goes on discussing the physical means by which heat is transferred both within the body and between the body and its environment. These topics are followed by a presentation of the physiological systems that control the rates of heat transfer. The subsequent chapters examine the conditions in which the controlling systems are limited in their abilities to transfer heat and to adapt in their capabilities. The remaining chapters explore the specific influences that enhance heat dissipation mechanisms at a given level of central thermoregulatory drive. This work is of great benefit to circulatory physiologists and biophysicists.

  • Differences in Visual Perception

    The Individual Eye
    • 1st Edition
    • December 2, 2012
    • Jules Davidoff
    • English
    Differences in Visual Perception: The Individual Eye examines the differences in visual perception that can occur in various circumstances when observers perceive the “same” event. More specifically, the book considers the distinction between “what happens when a person looks at the world directly and when he sits with his eyes closed and thinks.” This book is organized into five chapters and begins with an overview of differences in perception that are in operation for only a short time, emphasizing the distinction between short and long-term effects and at what point “short” becomes “long.” The reader is then introduced to the development of perception, touching on topics such as the nature-nurture issue, visual acuity and visual discrimination, color-vision, space perception, and attentional processes. The ambiguity of the stimulus is also discussed, along with the perceptual theory known as “transactionalism,” how the visual world is interpreted, and the nature of the input to the visual system. The theme that runs throughout this work is the fact that the same external input does not necessarily bring about in all of us the same perception. This book will prove useful to students as well as established researchers interested in visual perception and cognition.

  • The Photosynthetic Apparatus: Molecular Biology and Operation

    Cell Culture and Somatic Cell Genetics of Plants
    • 1st Edition
    • December 2, 2012
    • Lawrence Bogorad
    • English
    The Photosynthetic Apparatus: Molecular Biology and Operation: Cell Culture and Somatic Cell Genetics of Plants, Volume 7B is a collection of papers that discuss plastids – organelles found in plants that set them apart from other organisms. The book is divided into two parts. Coverage of Part I includes concepts such as photosynthesis and the photosynthetic apparatus - light energy and photosynthetic electronic transport, photosynthetic phosphorylation, and fractionation of the photosynthetic apparatus; photosystem II – its protein components, genetic aspects, and structure and function; the cytochrome b6/f complex; and the structure and function of coupling factor components. Coverage of Part II includes the biochemistry and molecular biology of chlorophyll; genes and enzymes for carotenoid biosynthesis; photoregulated development of chloroplasts; and the differentiation of amyloplasts and chromoplasts. The text is recommended for botanists, molecular biologists, and biochemists who are interested in the study of plant cells and photosynthesis.

  • Toxic Constituents of Animal Foodstuffs

    • 1st Edition
    • December 2, 2012
    • Irvin Liener
    • English
    Toxic Constituents of Animal Foodstuffs focuses on toxic substances that occur naturally as well as those that are deliberately or inadvertently introduced by man in animal foodstuffs. This book gives specific discussions on food contaminants in meat, dairy products, avian and fish eggs, shellfish, fish, and algae. It notes that the naturally occurring toxicants seem to be confined mainly to avian and fish eggs and to certain kinds of shellfish and amphibia. Examples of toxicity due to the introduction of synthetic chemicals may be found in most meat and dairy products. Moreover, special consideration is given to the problem of the carcinogenic nitrosamines in meat products to which nitrites have been added. This reference will convey an increased awareness of the fact that even products of animal origin may prove to be potentially hazardous to health because of certain toxic substances. Consequently, there will be a vital need for their close surveillance in the food chain.

  • Molecular Biology of Plant Nuclear Genes

    • 1st Edition
    • December 2, 2012
    • Indra Vasil
    • English
    Cell Culture and Somatic Cell Genetics of Plants, Volume 6: Molecular Biology of Plant Nuclear Genes focuses on the spectacular and rapid advances in the molecular biology and genetics of plants. This book consists of 19 chapters. Chapters 1 to 5 describe the most commonly used approaches for the genetic transformation of plants. The light-inducible and tissue-organ-specifi... genes are discussed in Chapters 6 to 11. In Chapters 12 to 14, the genes regulating phytohormone synthesis, heat shock proteins, and nodulation in legume roots are treated, while in Chapters 15 to 16, the relationship between chromatin structure and gene expression and molecular biology of plant RNA viruses are analyzed. The development of transgenic plants resistant to viruses, insects, and herbicides is dealt with in the last three chapters. This volume is suitable for plant molecular biologist, genetic engineers, and researchers concerned with plant cell and tissue culture.

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