This volume is an in-depth treatment of G-Protein Signaling, Part A, and will cover general methods of analysis of RGS protein analysis, including Expression and post-translational modification, Assays of GAP activity and allosteric control, Electrophysiological methods and RGS-insensitive Ga subunits, Mouse models of RGS protein action, Methods of RGS protein inhibition, and G-protein regulators of model organisms.
Table of Contents
-Expression and post-translational modification
-Assays of GAP activity and allosteric control
-Electrophysiological methods and RGS-insenstitive Ga subunits
-Mouse Models of RGS protein action
-Methods of RGS protein inhibition
-G-protein regulators of model organisms

A combination of population growth, public health failures, environmental degradation and rapid global transportation has resulted in a world that is at increasing risk to vectorborne and other infectious diseases. A large percentage of emerging diseases are vectorborne and over one-third of the agents on the list of greatest concern from bioterrorism are vectorborne. Many of these diseases are viral that have no effective drug or vaccine treatments. Drug and insecticide resistance is now common and has greatly compromised our ability to provide effective and affordable control. Parasitic diseases, including malaria, leishmmaniasis and African trypanosomiasis are likewise increasing in many parts of the world. Control programs for onchocerciasis and to some extent filariasis are reducing the impact of these diseases, largely due to the availability of filaricides such as ivermectin. Chagas disease has also declined significantly through home improvements and indoor insecticide application against the domicilary kissing bug vectors.
Despite these gains, this tend has not been sustainable. Instead, infectious disease is now responsible for greater than 25% of all deaths and nearly 50% of premature deaths among those under 45 years of age, and 63% for children less than 4 years of age. A significant proportion of these deaths is attributed to vectorborne diseases, particularly from malaria ( 11%). Indeed, more that 1 million people are killed annually by malaria, about 3000 per day. It is estimated that 700,000 children under the age of 5 die of malaria and at least 300 million are ill due to malaria each year. In response, the American Institute of Medicine (2003) has called for a renewed effort to rebuild public health infrastructures needed to conduct disease surveillance and vector control programs and to increase research to provide improved pesticides and their use, new repellents, new biopestcides and biocontrol agents to augment pesticidal control, as well as novel strategies to interrupt pathogen transmission.
With these goals in mind, we convened the first vector control symposium as part of the scientific program of the 3rd Pan-Pacific Conference of Pesticide Science in 2003. Five years after (2008), we re-convened this expanded topic at the 4th Pan-Pacific Conference on Pesticide Science and the scientific presentations made over two days comprise this current volume, Advances in Human Vector Control. The book covers two major areas: 1) Current Status and Control Practices, covering malaria, dengue, Chagas, human lice, cockroach and house dust mite issues; and 2) Novel Approaches and Resistance Management of these diseases. Chapters are provided by internationally-recognized experts who are actively involved in vector control and management, providing an up to date summary of this critically important area of public health. The effective use of novel control strategies is stressed and the status of recently acquired genomic approaches is critically reviewed.

Viruses that infect plants are responsible for reduction in both yield and quality of crops around the world, and thus are of great economic importance. This has provided the impetus for the extensive research into the molecular and cellular biology of these pathogens and into their interaction with their plant hosts and their vectors. However, interest in plant viruses extends beyond their ability to damage crops. Many plant viruses - for example, tobacco mosaic virus - have been used as model systems to provide basic understanding of how viruses express genes and replicate. Others permitted the elucidation of the processes underlying RNA silencing, now recognized as a core epigenetic mechanism underpinning numerous areas of biology. This book attests to the huge diversity of research in plant molecular virology. Written by world authorities in the field, the book opens with two chapters on the translation and replication of viral RNA. Following chapters cover topics such as viral movement within and between plants, plant responses to viral infection, antiviral control measures, virus evolution, and newly emerging plant viruses. The book concludes with two chapters on biotechnological applications of plant viruses. Throughout, the focus is on the most recent, cutting-edge research, making this book essential reading for everyone working with plant viruses.

Together with other volumes in this series, Volume 56 presents thoughtful and forward-looking articles on developmental biology and developmental medicine.
Reviews include:
* Selfishness in moderation: evolutionary success of the yeast plasmid
* Nongenomic actions of androgen in sertoli cells
* Regulation of chromatin structure and gene activity by Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases
* Centromeres and Kinetochores, Who Needs 'Em? The Role of Non-centromeric Chromatin in Spindle Assembly
* Modeling Cardiogenesis: The Challenges and Promises of 3D Reconstruction
* Plasmid and Chromosome Traffic Control: How ParA and ParB Drive Partition
The exceptional reviews in this volume of Current Topics in Developmental Biology will be valuable to both clinical and fundamental researchers, as well as students and other professionals who want an introduction to current topics in cellular and molecular approaches to developmental biology and clinical problems of aberrant development.
* Series Editor Gerald Schatten is one of the leading minds in reproductive and developmental science
* Presents major issues and astonishing discoveries at the forefront of modern developmental biology and developmental medicine
* The longest-running forum for contemporary issues in developmental biology with over 30 years of coverage

Liposomes are cellular structures made up of lipid molecules. Important as a cellular model in the study of basic biology, liposomes are also used in clinical applications such as drug delivery and virus studies.
*Methods in Liposome Preparation
*Physiochemical Characterization of Liposomes

This book should be of value to anyone interested in bird evolution and taxonomy, biogeography, distributional history, dispersal and migration patterns. It provides an up-to-date synthesis of current knowledge on species formation, and the factors influencing current distribution patterns. It draws heavily on new information on Earth history, including past glacial and other climatic changes, on new developments in molecular biology and palaeontology, and on recent studies of bird distribution and migration patterns, to produce a coherent account of the factors that have influenced bird species diversity and distribution patterns worldwide.
Received the Best Bird Book of the Year award for 2004 from British Birds magazine.
* Winner of the British Birds/British Trust for Ornithology, Bird Book of the Year 2004
* The first book to deal comprehensively with bird speciation and biogeography
* Up-to-date synthesis of new information
* Clearly written
* No previous book covers the same ground
* Many maps and diagrams
* Makes difficult and widely scattered information accessible and easily understood
* A sound base for future research
* Takes full account of recent developments in molecular biology

Living cells are constantly sensing environmental changes, and their abilities to sense these changes and adapt to them are essential for their survival. In bacteria, histidine kinases are the major sensors for these environmental stresses, enabling cells to adapt to new growth conditions.
Written by leading experts in the field, this book provides an up-to-date and comprehensive review on the structure and function of histidine kinases. It also provides extensive information on the physiological roles of histidine kinases in bacteria and eukaryotes.
An an essential reference for cell biologists, microbiologists, molecular biologists, and biochemists interested in signal transduction. Experimental biologists and pharmacologists studying signal transduction systems in living organisms will also find it a valuable research tool.
Key Features
* The first comprehensive book on the roles of histidine kinases in cells
* 23 in-depth chapters written by leading experts in the field
* Describes the most recent advances in the field of signal transduction

Microbiological risk assessment (MRA) is one of the most important recent developments in food safety management. Adopted by Codex Alimentarius and many other international bodies, it provides a structured way of identifying and assessing microbiological risks in food. Edited by two leading authorities, and with contributions by international experts in the field, Microbiological risk assessment provides a detailed coverage of the key steps in MRA and how it can be used to improve food safety.
The book begins by placing MRA within the broader context of the evolution of international food safety standards.
Part one introduces the key steps in MRA methodology. A series of chapters discusses each step, starting with hazard identification and characterisation before going on to consider exposure assessment and risk characterisation. Given its importance, risk communication is also covered. Part two then considers how MRA can be implemented in practice. There are chapters on implementing the results of a microbiological risk assessment and on the qualitative and quantitative tools available in carrying out a MRA. It also discusses the relationship of MRA to the use of microbiological criteria and another key tool in food safety management, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems.
With its authoritative coverage of both principles and key issues in implementation, Microbiological risk assessment in food processing is a standard work on one of the most important aspects of food safety management.
Provides a detailed coverage of the key steps in microbiological risk assessment (MRA) and how it can be used to improve food safetyPlaces MRA within the broader context of the evolution of international food safety standardsIntroduces the key steps in MRA methodology, considers exposure assessment and risk characterisation, and covers risk communication

This volume and its companion Volume 351 will supplement Volume 194 of MIE. The guides are specifically designed to meet the needs of graduate students and postdocs as well as researchers. Whether an established researcher or newcomer to the field, these volumes will contain all the up-to-date methods needed to study "Genes in Yeast." Procedures are included to enable newcomers to set up a yeast laboratory and to master basic manipulations. Relevant background and reference information will be given for proven procedures that can be used as a guide for developing protocols in a number of disciplines.

This ACS Symposium Series is the product of a symposium held at the 241st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Anaheim, CA on March 27-31, 2011. It includes chapters on new biobased building blocks such as the furandicarboxylic acid, polyesters and polyamides from adipic, succinic and sebacic acids with aliphatic diols such as 1,3-propylene glycol, 1,4-butanediol, 1,12-dodecylenediol and isosorbide. The conversion of hydroxymethylfurfural, the dehydration product of hexose sugars, to succinic acid and 1,4-butanediol to produce poly(butylene succinate) is described in one chapter. Also the synthesis of new polymers from plant-derived olefinic monomers such as tulipalin A and studies of composites from cotton by-products are featured in other chapters. There is a strong emphasis on biocatalytic synthesis and polymerization within the book. Chapter topics include the synthesis of ?-hydroxyfatty acids and polymers therefrom, an interesting discussion on the structural differences of the products of the biocatalytic and chemical catalytic synthesis of polyesters from oleic diacid and glycerol and the ability to produce polylactic acid (PLA) and PLA-PHA copolyesters within a "microbial cell factory". Other areas of interest explored in other chapters include recent developments of biobased polymer fibers and oleate-based pressure sensitive adhesives and composites. One chapter describes a large increase in cold-drawn fiber tensile strength by the blending of a small amount of ultrahigh molecular weight (MW) poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) with a much lower MW 3-hydroxybutyrate polymer. The addition of a rubber and inorganic fillers to normally brittle PLA was found to dramatically improve its ductility. Finally, there are several chapters on seed oil-based polyurethanes, one on fibers from soy proteins and composites from starch.

Recent years have seen the rise of a remarkable partnership between the social and computational sciences on the phenomena of emotions. Rallying around the term Affective Computing, this research can be seen as revival of the cognitive science revolution, albeit garbed in the cloak of affect, rather than cognition. Traditional cognitive science research, to the extent it considered emotion at all, cases it as at best a heuristic but more commonly a harmful bias to cognition. More recent scholarship in the social sciences has upended this view.
Increasingly, emotions are viewed as a form of information processing that serves a functional role in human cognition and social interactions. Emotions shape social motives and communicate important information to social partners. When communicating face-to-face, people can rapidly detect nonverbal affective cues, make inferences about the other party's mental state, and respond in ways that co-construct an emotional trajectory between participants. Recent advances in biometrics and artificial intelligence are allowing computer systems to engage in this nonverbal dance, on the one hand opening a wealth of possibilities for human-machine systems, and on the other, creating powerful new tools for behavioral science research.
Social Emotions in Nature and Artifact reports on the state-of-the-art in both social science theory and computational methods, and illustrates how these two fields, together, can both facilitate practical computer/robotic applications and illuminate human social processes.

Volume 4 of the critically acclaimed Flora of North America series is one of 19 volumes on dicots to be published in this collection. Together they will provide a comprehensive, authoritative, illustrated account of this important group of plants. Most of the species treated are either native to North America north of Mexico or are introduced species that are now established in the region. It also includes many important species that do not fit into these categories.

This is the first book solely devoted to single-molecule biochemistry and molecular biology. Authors were selected on the basis of their contribution to this new and exciting field, and were asked to focus more on the biological problems that can be approached using single-molecule techniques rather than on the techniques per se. It is thought that such techniques will eventually dominate the physical characterization of biologically important macromolecules.

Containing a comprehensive collection of convenient and quantitative methods for studying centrosomes, spindle pole bodies and related organelles, this text is a valuable resource for researchers and others interested in studying the role of these organelles in cell replication. Chapters outlining the role of these organelles in other cell functions are also included, and a wide variety of experimental systems for analyzing these organelles are presented. Detailed protocols for experiments are contained in each chapter for researchers to perform in their own labs. This volume outlines key methodologies used to analyze centrosomes and spindle pole bodies, their replication, and reproduction in the clear, well-illustrated style of the METHODS IN CELL BIOLOGY series.

Aquaporins summarizes the present knowledge in this expanding field of research, starting with the structural analysis of water channel proteins. Subsequent chapters begin with mammalian aquaporins, examining physiology and pathophysiology, analysis of knock-out model animals, and the regulation of aquaporin function. Also covered is the distribution and regulation of aquaporins in plants and the function of water and glycerol channels in microbial systems.
Key Features
* Comprehensive treatment of a topical research field
* Authored by world leaders in the field
* Covers structural biology and physiology
* Covers different experimental and biological systems
* Chapters on plant and microbial systems
* Extensive treatment of mammalian physiology and pathophysiology
* Structural analysis excellently illustrated

Retaining the introductory flavor of the now classic First Edition, this revision includes all the latest techniques in the field. New information on methods of radio tag harnessing, new sections on satellite tracking techniques and new types of data analysis are all included. Still the only comprehensive, up-to-date, introduction to this fundamental technique for wildlife and behavioral biologists.
* A unique guide to the subject
* Full coverage of the very latest techniques in both terrestrial and satellite tracking
* Detailed, practical guidance in how to fit tags, track animals, source and evaluate equipments and techniques and analyse resulting data

This book is a pioneering study of the often forgotten Sephardi voices of the Holocaust. It is an account of the Sephardi Jewish community of the Greek city of Salonika, which at one point numbered 80,000 members, but which was almost completely annihilated during the German occupation of Greece in the Second World War. Through her systematic series of interviews with the remnants of this once-flourishing community, the author reawakens the communal memory and is able to show how individual identities and memories can be seen to have been shaped by historical experience. She traces the radical demographic and political changes Salonika itself has undergone, in particular the ethnic and religious composition of the citys population, and she interprets the narratives of the Salonikan Jewish survivors in the context of this changing landscape of memory and as part of contemporary Greece. With the vivid power of oral history and ethnography, this book highlights a significant aspect of t

Sensory substitution and augmentation devices are built to try to replace or enhance one sense by using another sense. For example, in tactile-vision, stimulation of the skin driven by input to a camera is used to replace the ordinary sense of vision that uses our eyes. The feelSpace belt aims to give people a magnetic sense of direction using vibrotactile stimulation driven by a digital compass. Fiona Macpherson brings together researchers -neuroscientists, psychologists and philosophers -who are developing these technologies, studying the minds and behaviour of subjects who use them. Sensory Substitution and Augmentation has three specific aims. The first is to present the latest empirical research on sensory substitution and augmentation. Second, philosophers and scientists who adopt a very different approach comment on the empirical work. Their commentaries are often critical of the assumptions of the work, but often they make and call for clarifications, suggest extensions to the work, or comment on features of the application of the work that the original authors do not. This is one reason why Sensory Substitution and Augmentation is more than simply a collection of papers on the same topic. Finally, philosophers look at the nature of sensory substitution and augmentation, tackling issues such as the nature and limitations of sensory substitution, the nature of the sensory experiences, theories of perception, and the potential for these devices to help those people with disabilities, in part due to future amendments of the devices that are suggested. Throughout, there is a particular focus on the nature of the perceptual experiences, the sensory interactions, and the changes that take place in the mind and brain over time that occur while using and training to use these technologies.

Laboratory Methods in Food Microbiology describes a wide range of methods for use in the microbiological analysis of foods, including approaches to counting and detection procedures for microorganisms, identification of bacteria, yeasts and fungi, microbiological analysis for the main food commodity groups, and safety in the food microbiology laboratory. The book also discusses specific food poisoning outbreaks in the United States.
CONTENTS INCLUDE
* Comprehensive methods and advice on choosing appropriate techniques
* Discussion of internationally recognized standards
* Detection and enumeration of food-borne pathogenic and toxigenic microorganisms
* Detailed sections on analyses appropriate for the main food commodity groups
* Identification of bacteria, yeasts, and fungi isolated from foods
* Safety in the food microbiology laboratory
* Appendix of recipes for media and reagents

Appreciating that coastal areas are under threat from misuse and overuse worldwide, this book reviews the need for marine conservation, summarizes general measures for ocean and coastal conservation, and explains the rationale for establishing marine protected areas. The second half of the book is a guideline for designing and implementing protected areas in order to make them viable and long-lasting in their effectiveness.

In The Intelligent Movement Machine: An Ethological Perspective on the Primate Motor System, Michael Graziano offers a fundamentally new theory of motor cortex organization: the rendering of the movement repertoire onto the cortex. The action repertoire of an animal is highly dimensional, whereas the cortical sheet is two-dimensional. Rendering the action space onto the cortex therefore results in a complex pattern, explaining the otherwise inexplicable details of the motor cortex organization. This clearly written book book includes a complete history of motor cortex research from its discovery to the present, a discussion of the major issues in motor cortex research, and an account of recent experiments that led to Graziano's "action map" view. Though focused on the motor cortex, the book includes a range of topics from an explanation of how primates put food in their mouths, to the origins of social beahvior such as smiling and laughing, to the mysterious link between movement disorders and autism. This book is written for a general audience, and should be of interest to experts, students, and the scientific lay.

DNA sequence specificity is a sub-specialty in the general area of molecular recognition. This area includes macromolecular-molecular interactions (e.g., protein-DNA), oligomer-DNA interacitons (e.g., triple strands), and ligand-DNA interactions (e.g., drug-DNA). It is this latter group of DNA sequence specificity interactions that is the subject of Volumes 1 and 2 of "Advances in DNA Sequence Specific Agents." As was the case for Volume 1, Part A also covers methodology, but in Volume 2 we include calorimetric titrations, molecular modeling, X-ray crystallographic and NMR structural studies, and transcriptional assays. Part B also follows the same format as Volume 1 and describes the sequence specificities and covalent and noncovalent interactions of small ligands with DNA.
This volume is aimed in general at scientists who have an interest in deciphering the molecular mechanisms for sequence recognition of DNA. The methods have general applicability to small molecules as well as oligomers and proteins, while the examples provide general principles involved in sequence recognition.

This practical book provides the detailed methodology and expert guidance required for measuring and manipulating cytosolic ion concentrations. In addition, the strengths, weaknesses, and pitfalls of various techniques are presented. It is an invaluable source for those needing an objective evaluation of current methodologies and for those contemplating setting up such procedures.
Key Features
* A one-source reference for measuring and manipulating intracellular ions and for comparing and evaluating current methodologies
* Includes overviews of
* Optical probes and reagents
* Fabrication and use of ion-selective microelectrodes
* Use of NMR spectroscopy
* Ionophores

Gene probes, whether RNA or DNA, have played a central role in the rapid development of molecular biology. The wide variety of applications is matched by a considerable diversity in the methods used for generating probes, a complete account of which would be very difficult to make. Instead, this second volume in the series combines a selection of newer gene probe procedures with a review of the most important established methods, together with some examples of the ways in which gene probes can be applied. In doing so, the book aims to act not only as an introductory manual for newcomers to the field, but also as a means of broadening the horizons of existing researchers.