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.

The OCR A level Lab Books support students in completing the A level Core Practical requirements. This lab book includes: all the instructions students need to perform the Core Practicals, consistent with our A level online teaching resources writing frames for students to record their results and reflect on their work CPAC Skills Checklists, so that students can track the practical skills they have learned, in preparation for their exams practical skills practice questions a full set of answers. This lab book is designed to help students to: structure their A level lab work to ensure that they cover the Core Practical assessment criteria track their progress in the development of A level practical skills create a record of all of the Core Practical work they will have completed, in preparation for revision.

During the past two decades international collaborative studies have yielded extensive information on genome sequences, genome architecture and their variations. The challenge we now face is to understand how these variations impact structure and function of organelles, physiological systems and phenotype. The goal of this book is to present steps in the pathways of exploration to connect genotype to phenotype and to consider how alterations in genomes impact disease.
In this book the author reviews published research in functional genomics carried out primarily since 2006 that sheds light on aspects of phenotypic variation. The goal of functional genomics is to gain insight into mechanisms through which specific changes in genome transcripts and regulation induce changes in proteins, pathways, organelles, cellular and tissue functions, morphology and ultimately in phenotype.
Topics reviewed include investigations in genome architecture, gene structure, gene regulation epigenetic modifications and function of organelles including mitochondria, and the endosome lysosome system. New insights into neurodevelopment and neurobehavioral disorders gained through functional genomic research are presented. Aspects of genomic studies in complex common diseases are reviewed. Molecular genetic variations and aberrations in cellular mechanisms involved in protein quality surveillance play a role in late onset diseases and one chapter deals with this topic. Molecular analyses of genes and proteins continue to shed light on the pathogenesis of malformation syndromes and specific examples of such studies are presented.
There is growing evidence that late onset disorders such as Parkinson disease, are frequently the end result of defects in functioning of components in different pathways and examples of these are discussed. There is evidence that genetic variation determines differences in response to environmental insults. Genetic variations in complement factor genes are an example of this and are discussed in the context of macular degeneration and pathogenesis of hemolytic uremic syndrome in response exposure to E coli Shiga toxin. In the final chapter the author briefly summarizes key features of the cascade of events that constitute functional genomics.

In the past, the stability of milk and milk products was the primary consideration, but this is no longer the principal objective due to the evolution of modern sanitary practices as well as pasteurization. Today, the manufacture of dairy products of consistently good flavor and texture is crucial. In previous flavor studies, researchers identified hundreds of volatile compounds, with little or no attention paid to their sensory contribution to overall flavor of dairy products. The availability of powerful chromatographic separation techniques like high resolution gas chromatography in combination with mass spectrometry and olfactory detection ports have revolutionized the work on characterization of dairy flavor. This along with recent developments in sensory methods and our increased knowledge about the genomics of diary culture organisms have allowed great advancements in our understanding of dairy flavor chemistry. Flavor of Dairy Products covers the evolution of dairy flavor research and presents updated information in the areas of instrumental analysis, biochemistry, processing and shelf-life issues related to the flavor of dairy products.

We are becoming increasingly aware of the overwhelming pollution of our limited water resources on this planet. And while many contaminants originate from Mother Earth, most water pollution comes as a direct result of anthropogenic activities. This problem has become so immense that it threatens the future of all humanity. If effective measures to reduce and/or remediate water pollution and its sources are not found, it is estimated by UN that 2.7 billion people will face water shortage by 2025 as opposed to 1.2 billion people who do not have access to clean drinking water now. Therefore, development of novel green technologies to address this major problem represents a priority of the highest importance. This book discusses green chemistry and other novel solutions to the water pollution problems which includes some interesting applications of nanoparticles. Novel Solutions to Water Pollution is a useful and informative text for those engaged in issues of water quality and water pollution remediation at operational, administrative, academic, or regulatory levels.

Flora of North America brings together for the first time ever in a concise and easy to understand format information on all of the plants growing spontaneously in North America north of Mexico. Volume 24 of Flora North America is one of two volumes on grasses to be published in this series (Volume 25, though it follows sequentially, was published in 2003). 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, but there are many that do not fit into these categories. Among the additional species are several that the USDA has identified as major weed threats; and others that are known only as cultivated plants, some being cultivated for their ornamental value, others as sources for human food or animal forage. For instance, volume 24 includes such ecologically important genera as Elymus (wheatgrasses), Poa (bluegrasses), and Festuca (fescues), economically important species such as Triticum (wheat), Hordeum (barley), Oryza (rice), and Zizania (wild rice), several ornamental species, including some bamboos, and noxious weeds such as Elymus repens (quackgrass), and Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass).
The volume includes identification keys, descriptions, line drawings, and ecological characteristics for each of the species; distribution maps for the native and established species; and a list of commonly encountered synonyms for the accepted names. The treatments, each of which has been extensively reviewed, are based on a combination of original observations and critical review of the literature.

Ethicists and psychologists have become increasingly interested in the development of virtue in recent years, approaching the topic from the perspectives of virtue ethics and developmental psychology respectively. Such interest in virtue development has spread beyond academia, as teachers and parents have increasingly striven to cultivate virtue as part of education and child-rearing. Looking at these parallel trends in the study and practice of virtue development, the essays in this volume explore such questions as: How can philosophical work on virtue development inform psychological work on it, and vice versa? How should we understand virtue as a dimension of human personality? What is the developmental foundation of virtue? What are the evolutionary aspects of virtue and its development? How is virtue fostered? How is virtue exemplified in behavior and action? How is our conception of virtue influenced by context and by developmental and social experiences? What are the tensions, impediments and prospects for an integrative field of virtue study? Rather than centering on each discipline, the essays in this volume are orgnaized around themes and engage each other in a broader dialogue. The volume begins with an introductory essay from the editors that explains the full range of philosophical and empirical issues that have surrounded the notion of virtue in recent years.

The history of life is a nearly four billion year old story of transformative change. This change ranges from dramatic macroscopic innovations such as the evolution of wings or eyes, to a myriad of molecular changes that form the basis of macroscopic innovations. We are familiar with many examples of innovations (qualitatively new phenotypes that can provide a critical advantage) but have no systematic understanding of the principles that allow organisms to innovate. This book proposes several such principles as the basis of a theory of innovation, integrating recent knowledge about complex molecular phenotypes with more traditional Darwinian thinking. Central to the book are genotype networks: vast sets of connected genotypes that exist in metabolism and regulatory circuitry, as well as in protein and RNA molecules. The theory can successfully unify innovations that occur at different levels of organization. It captures known features of biological innovation, including the fact that many innovations occur multiple times independently, and that they combine existing parts of a system to new purposes. It also argues that environmental change is important to create biological systems that are both complex and robust, and shows how such robustness can facilitate innovation. Beyond that, the theory can reconcile neutralism and selectionism, as well as explain the role of phenotypic plasticity, gene duplication, recombination, and cryptic variation in innovation. Finally, its principles can be applied to technological innovation, and thus open to human engineering endeavours the powerful principles that have allowed life's spectacular success.

In this book, Chris Eliasmith presents a new approach to understanding the neural implementation of cognition in a way that is centrally driven by biological considerations. He calls the general architecture that results from the application of this approach the Semantic Pointer Architecture (SPA), based on the Semantic Pointer Hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, higher-level cognitive functions in biological systems are made possible by semantic pointers. These pointers are neural representations that carry partial semantic content and can be built up into the complex representational structures necessary to support cognition. The SPA architecture demonstrates how neural systems generate, compose, and control the flow of semantics pointers. Eliasmith describes in detail the theory and empirical evidence supporting the SPA, and presents several examples of its application to cognitive modeling, covering the generation of semantic pointers from visual data, the application of semantic pointers for motor control, and most important, the use of semantic pointers for representation of language-like structures, cognitive control, syntactic generalization, learning of new cognitive strategies, and language-based reasoning. He agues that the SPA provides an alternative to the dominant paradigms in cognitive science, including symbolicism, connectionism, and dynamicism.

Rethinking Thought takes readers into the minds of 30 creative thinkers to show how greatly the experience of thought can vary. It is dedicated to anyone who has ever been told, "You're not thinking!", because his or her way of thinking differs so much from a spouse's, employer's, or teacher's. The book focuses on individual experiences with visual mental images and verbal language that are used in planning, problem-solving, reflecting, remembering, and forging new ideas. It approaches the question of what thinking is by analyzing variations in the way thinking feels. Written by neuroscientist-turned-literary scholar Laura Otis, Rethinking Thought juxtaposes creative thinkers' insights with recent neuroscientific discoveries about visual mental imagery, verbal language, and thought. Presenting the results of new, interview-based research, it offers verbal portraits of novelist Salman Rushdie, engineer Temple Grandin, American Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, and Nobel prize-winning biologist Elizabeth Blackburn. It also depicts the unique mental worlds of two award-winning painters, a flamenco dancer, a game designer, a cartoonist, a lawyer-novelist, a theoretical physicist, and a creator of multi-agent software. Treating scientists and artists with equal respect, it creates a dialogue in which neuroscientific findings and the introspections of creative thinkers engage each other as equal partners. The interviews presented in this book indicate that many creative people enter fields requiring skills that don't come naturally. Instead, they choose professions that demand the hardest work and the greatest mental growth. Instead of classifying people as "visual" or "verbal," educators and managers need to consider how thinkers combine visual and verbal skills and how those abilities can be further developed. By showing how greatly individual experiences of thought can vary, this book aims to help readers in all professions better understand and respect the diverse people with whom they work.

The technique of in situ hybridization is now vital to molecular biologists and their understanding of the pathophysiology of cellular functions. This practical guide covers all aspects of in situ hybridization, describing: practical procedures and protocols; the scientific background; areas of application; and the limitations of the technology. This edition has been completely rewritten to take into acocunt the many advances in the seven years since its initial publication.

Consumers, regulators, and the food industry increasingly require that foods comply not only with label descriptions of food content, but also with information regarding the food's origin. For example, the wine industry has a long history of labeling wines based on varietal, regional, or age (vintage)-related properties. However, regulatory agencies are now beginning to require methods to confirm this label information. Food retailers are also facing voluntary or mandatory labeling requirements that will indicate regional or country-of-origin, species and/or varietal information. As a result, development of reliable analytical methods to confirm the authenticity of the label information is needed. This book presents the latest research on food and wine authentication. The chapters are authored by leading international scientists whose research focuses on the development and application of analytical methodologies used for the authentication of food and beverages.

Measuring metabolic rates is central to important questions in many areas of scientific research. Unfortunately these measurements are anything but straightforward, and numerous pitfalls await the novice and even the experienced investigator.
Measuring Metabolic Rates de-mystifies the field, explaining every common variation of metabolic rate measurement, from century-old manometric methods through ingenious syringe-based techniques, direct calorimetry, aquatic respirometry, stable-isotope metabolic measurement and every type of flow-through respirometry. Each variation is described in enough detail to allow it to be applied in practice. Background information on different analyzer and equipment types allows users to choose the best instruments for their application. Respirometry equations - normally a topic of terror and confusion to researchers - are derived and described in enough detail to make their selection and use effortless.
Vital topics such as manual and automated baselining, implementing multi-animal systems, and the correct analysis and presentation of metabolic data are covered in enough detail to turn a respirometry neophyte into a hardened metabolic warrior, ready to take on the task of publication in peer-reviewed journals.

The human pathogens Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae are exquisitely adapted to life within the human mucosa, their only natural niche. N. meningitidis is the causative agent of rapidly transmissible meningitis and septic shock. Vaccines developed to control this pathogen can be rendered ineffective by the pathogen's ability to undergo antigenic variation. In contrast, there are no current vaccination prospects for N. gonorrhoeae, the causative agent of sexually transmitted gonorrhoea. Historically, infections caused by N. gonorrhoeae were treated with antibiotics. However, the recent advent of new strains with resistance to all known antibiotics is causing such treatment regimes to fail, necessitating the need for new and more effective control strategies. In this book, leading Neisseria authorities review the most important research on pathogenic Neisseria to provide a timely overview of the field. The topics covered include: the link between pathogenesis and important metabolic pathways * vaccine development * antibiotic resistance * transcriptomics of regulatory networks * regulatory small RNAs * interactions with neutrophils * advances in humanized mouse models. An essential guide for research scientists, advanced students, clinicians, and other professionals working with Neisseria, the book is a recommended text for all microbiology libraries.

Primary sexual traits, those structures and processes directly involved in reproduction, are some of the most diverse, specialized, and bizarre in the animal kingdom. Moreover, reproductive traits are often species-specific, suggesting that they evolved very rapidly. This diversity, long the province of taxonomists, has recently attracted broader interest from evolutionary biologists, especially those interested in sexual selection and the evolution of reproductive strategies.
Primary sexual characters were long assumed to be the product of natural selection, exclusively. A recent alternative suggests that sexual selection explains much of the diversity of "primary" sexual characters. A third approach to the evolution of reproductive interactions after copulation or insemination has been to consider the process one of sexual conflict. That is, the reproductive processes of a species may reflect, as does the mating system, evolution acting on males and on females, but in different directions.
In this volume, authors explore a wide variety of primary sexual characters and selective pressures that have shaped them, from natural selection for offspring survival to species-isolating mechanisms, sperm competition, cryptic female choice and sexual arms races. Exploring diverse reproductive adaptations from a theoretical and practical perspective, The Evolution of Primary Sexual Characters will provide an unparalleled overview of sexual diversity in many taxa and an introduction to the issues in sexual selection that are changing our view of sexual processes.

Rapid advances in high-throughput genome sequencing technologies foreshadow a near-future in which millions of individuals will gain affordable access to their complete genome sequence. This promises to offer unprecedented insights into the fundamental biological nature of ourselves and our species: where we came from, how we begin our lives, how we develop and grow, how we interact with our environment, how we get sick, how we get well, and how we age. Personal genomics is an essential component of the inevitable transition towards personalized health and medicine. As the medical establishment begins to explore and evaluate the role of personal genomics in health and medicine, both clinicians and patients alike will gain from becoming well versed in both the power and the pitfalls of personal genomic information. Furthermore, it is likely that all students of the biomedical sciences will soon be required to gain crucial understanding in the emerging field of personal genomics. Exploring Personal Genomics provides a novel, inquiry-based approach to the understanding and interpretation of the practical, medical, physiological, and societal aspects of personal genomic information. The material is presented in two parts: the first provides readers of all backgrounds with a fundamental understanding of the biology of human genomes, information on how to obtain and understand digital representations of personal genomic data, tools and techniques for exploring the personal genomics of ancestry and genealogy, discovery and interpretation of genetic trait associations, and the role of personal genomics in drug response. The second part offers more advanced readers an understanding of the science, tools, and techniques for investigating interactions between a personal genome and the environment, connecting DNA to physiology, and assessing rare variants and structural variation. This book aims to support undergraduate and graduate studies in medicine, genetics, molecular biology, and bioinformatics. Additionally, the design of the content is such that medical practitioners, professionals working in the biomedical sciences or related fields, and motivated lay individuals interested in exploring their personal genetic data should find it relevant and approachable.

Although the problem of controlling the spread of exotic invasive plant and animal species in the United States has been recognized for quite some time, it has been lacking an adequate legislative mandate, public awareness, and sufficient funding to meet the challenge. This ACS Symposium Series title showcases the many diverse efforts being made to control invasive species at the federal, state, and local levels. It recognizes the global extent of the problem and compares the methods used in other countries with those of the U.S., and includes recommendations of how best to proceed from here.

'What is emotion?' pondered the young Charles Darwin in his notebooks. How were the emotions to be placed in an evolutionary framework? And what light might they shed on human-animal continuities? These were among the questions Darwin explored in his research, assisted both by an acute sense of observation and an extraordinary capacity for fellow feeling, not only with humans but with all animal life. "After Darwin: Animals, Emotions, and the Mind "explores questions of mind, emotion and the moral sense which Darwin opened up through his research on the physical expression of emotions and the human-animal relation. It also examines the extent to which Darwin's ideas were taken up by Victorian writers and popular culture, from George Eliot to the "Daily News." Bringing together scholars from biology, literature, history, psychology, psychiatry and paediatrics, the volume provides an invaluable reassessment of Darwin's contribution to a new understanding of the moral sense and emotional life, and considers the urgent scientific and ethical implications of his ideas today.

Observing Bioethics examines the history of bioethics as a discipline related not only to modern biology, medicine, and biotechnology, but also to the core values and beliefs of American society and its courts, legislatures, and media. The book is written from the perspective of two social scientists--a sociologist of medicine(Renee C. Fox) and a historian of medicine (Judith P. Swazey)--who have participated in bioethics since the emergence of this multidisciplinary field more than 30 years ago.
Fox and Swazey draw on first-hand observations and experiences in a variety of American bioethical settings; face-to-face interviews with first- and second-generation figures in the genesis and early unfolding of bioethics; a detailed examination of the theatrical media coverage of what was considered to be a banner event in the annals of bioethics (the creation and birth of the cloned sheep, Dolly); case studies of how bioethics has internationally developed; and a large corpus of primary documents and secondary source materials.
While recognizing the intellectual, moral, and sociological importance of American bioethics, Fox and Swazey are critical of its characteristics. Foremost among these are what they identify as the problems of thinking socially, culturally, and internationally in American bioethics; the 'tenuous interdisciplinarity' of the field; and the troubling extent to which the 'culture wars' have penetrated bioethics.
This book will appeal to a wide range of doctors, scientists, and academics who are involved in the history and sociology of bioethics.

In recent decades there has been an explosion in work in the social and physical sciences describing the similarities between human and nonhuman as well as human and non-animal thinking. This work has explicitly decentered the brain as the sole, self-contained space of thought, and it has found thinking to be an activity that operates not only across bodies but also across bodily or cellular membranes, as well as multifaceted organic and inorganic environments. For example, researchers have looked at the replication and spread of slime molds (playfully asking what would happen if they colonized the earth) to suggest that they exhibit 'smart behavior' in the way they move as a potential way of considering the spread of disease across the globe. Other scholars have applied this model of non-human thought to the reach of data mining and global surveillance. In The Biopolitics of Alphabets and Embryos, Ruth Miller argues that these types of phenomena are also useful models for thinking about the growth, reproduction, and spread of political thought and democratic processes. Giving slime, data and unbounded entities their political dues, Miller stresses their thinking power and political significance and thus challenges the anthropocentrism of mainstream democratic theories. Miller emphasizes the non-human as highly organized, systemic and productive of democratic growth and replication. She examines developments such as global surveillance, embryonic stem cell research, and cloning, which have been characterized as threats to the privacy, dignity, and integrity of the rational, maximizing and freedom-loving democratic citizen. By shifting her level of analysis from the politics of self-determining subjects to the realm of material environments and information systems, Miller asks what might happen if these alternative, nonhuman thought processes become the normative thought processes of democratic engagement.

For modern scientists, history often starts with last week's journals and is regarded as largely a quaint interest compared with the advances of today. However, this book makes the case that, measured by major advances, the greatest decade in the history of brain studies was mid-twentieth century, especially the 1950s. The first to focus on worldwide contributions in this period, the book ranges through dozens of astonishing discoveries at all levels of the brain, from DNA (Watson and Crick), through growth factors (Hamburger and Levi-Montalcini), excitability (Hodgkin and Huxley), synapses (Katz and Eccles), dopamine and Parkinson's (Carlsson), visual processing (Hartline and Kuffler), the cortical column (Mountcastle), reticular activating system (Morruzzi and Magoun) and REM sleep (Aserinsky), to stress (Selye), learning (Hebb) and memory (HM and Milner). The clinical fields are also covered, from Cushing and Penfield, psychosurgery and brain energy metabolism (Kety), to most of the major psychoactive drugs in use today (beginning with Delay and Deniker), and much more.
The material has been the basis for a highly successful advanced undergraduate and graduate course at Yale, with the classic papers organized and accessible on the web. There is interest for a wide range of readers, academic, and lay because there is a focus on the creative process itself, on understanding how the combination of unique personalities, innovative hypotheses, and new methods led to the advances. Insight is given into this process through describing the struggles between male and female, student and mentor, academic and private sector, and the roles of chance and persistence. The book thus provides a new multidisciplinary understanding of the revolution that created the modern field of neuroscience and set the bar for judging current and future advances.