This edition of the companion volumes Muscle Pain: Understanding the Mech- isms and Muscle Pain: Diagnosis and Treatment is essential reading for those interested in clinical approaches to acute and chronic pain conditions involving muscle tissues and in the mechanisms underlying these conditions. The volumes cover a very important topic in pain medicine, since muscle pain is very common and can often be dif?cult to diagnose and treat effectively. Furthermore, chronic pain involving muscle and other components of the musculoskeletal system increases with age, such that it is a common complaint of those of us who are middle-aged or older. Indeed, as changing population demographics in "west- nized" countries result in higher proportions of the population living longer and being middle-aged and elderly, chronic muscle pain will likely become even more of a health problem. In the case of acute muscle pain, this can often be very intense, and in the short term can limit or modify the use of components of the musculoskeletal system associated with the sensitive muscle. Chronic muscle pain can also be intense, as well as unpleasant and disabling, and it is in many cases the over-riding symptom of most musculoskeletal disorders that are associated with long-term deleterious changes in musculoskeletal function.

Dr. Judah Folkman is considered the "father of angiogenesis." Because of Folkman's discovery and research, the possibilities of angiogenic therapy have broadened beyond cancer to many noncancerous diseases. Angiogenesis: An Integrative Approach from Science to Medicine is a comprehensive, concise summary of tumor angiogenesis. It is an up-to-date and authoritative reference for the angiogenesis field as it relates to oncology. This book represents the first collection in a volume of which Folkman is co-editor. Folkman has authored nearly 400 original papers and more than 100 book chapters.

Current molecular understanding of estrogen action has greatly profited from advances in molecular cell biology. These advances, and their implications for clinical use, were discussed by leading researchers from industry and academia during an international symposium held in Berlin, 1-3 March 2006 and are featured in this volume.

For years lipids have fascinated cell biologists and biochemists due to their profound effects on cell function. "Cellular Lipid Metabolism" highlights new concepts and recent findings, but also reviews important discoveries made in the past. Outstanding international experts contribute 13 chapters on the genetics, molecular and cell biology of lipids. Presenting analyses at the molecular level they reveal the principles by which cellular lipid metabolism functions. Further, numerous intriguing observations that cannot yet be explained are identified, stimulating the readers to future studies. This book provides an invaluable source of information for biomedical researchers in energy metabolism, vascular biology, endocrinology and lipidology.

This edition of the companion volumes Muscle Pain: Understanding the Mech- isms and Muscle Pain: Diagnosis and Treatment is essential reading for those interested in clinical approaches to acute and chronic pain conditions involving muscle tissues and in the mechanisms underlying these conditions. The volumes cover a very important topic in pain medicine, since muscle pain is very common and can often be dif?cult to diagnose and treat effectively. Furthermore, chronic pain involving muscle and other components of the musculoskeletal system increases with age, such that it is a common complaint of those of us who are middle-aged or older. Indeed, as changing population demographics in "west- nized" countries result in higher proportions of the population living longer and being middle-aged and elderly, chronic muscle pain will likely become even more of a health problem. In the case of acute muscle pain, this can often be very intense, and in the short term can limit or modify the use of components of the musculoskeletal system associated with the sensitive muscle. Chronic muscle pain can also be intense, as well as unpleasant and disabling, and it is in many cases the over-riding symptom of most musculoskeletal disorders that are associated with long-term deleterious changes in musculoskeletal function.

A rapid development in diverse areas of molecular biology and genetic engineering resulted in emergence of variety of tools. These tools are not only applicable to basic researches being carried out world over, but also exploited for precise detection of abnormal conditions in plants, animals and human body. Although a basic researcher is well versed with few techniques used by him/her in the laboratory, they may not be well acquainted with methodologies, which can be used to work out some of their own research problems. The picture is more blurred when the molecular diagnostic tools are to be used by physicians, scientists and technicians working in diagnostic laboratories in hospitals, industry and academic institutions. Since many of them are not trained in basics of these methods, they come across several gray areas in understanding of these tools. The accurate application of molecular diagnostic tools demands in depth understanding of the methodology for precise detection of the abnormal condition of living body. To meet the requirements of a good book on molecular diagnostics of students, physicians, scientists working in agricultural, veterinary, medical and pharmaceutical sciences, it needs to expose the reader lucidly to: Give basic science behind commonly used tools in diagnostics Expose the readers to detailed applications of these tools and Make them aware the availability of such diagnostic tools The book will attract additional audience of pathologists, medical microbiologists, pharmaceutical sciences, agricultural scientists and veterinary doctors if the following topics are incorporated at appropriate places in Unit II or separately as a part of Unit-III in the book. Molecular diagnosis of diseases in agricultural crops Molecular diagnosis of veterinary diseases. Molecular epidemiology, which helps to differentiate various epidemic strains and sources of disease outbreaks. Even in different units of the same hospital, the infections could be by different strains of the same species and the information becomes valuable for infection control strategies. Drug resistance is a growing problem for bacterial, fungal and parasitic microbes and the molecular biology tools can help to detect the drug resistance genes without the cultivation and in vitro sensitivity testing. Molecular diagnostics offers faster help in the selection of the proper antibiotic for the treatment of tuberculosis, which is a major problem of the in the developing world. The conventional culture and drug sensitivity testing of tuberculosis bacilli is laborious and time consuming, whereas molecular diagnosis offers rapid drug resistant gene detection even from direct clinical samples. The same approach for HIV, malaria and many more diseases needs to be considered. Molecular diagnostics in the detection of diseases during foetal life is an upcoming area in the foetal medicine in case of genetic abnormalities and infectious like TORCH complex etc. The book will be equally useful to students, scientists and professionals working in the field of molecular diagnostics.

The study and modulation of cortical connections is a rapidly growing area in neuroscience. This unique book by prominent researchers in the field covers recent advances in this area. The first section of the book describes studies of cortical connections, modulation of cortical connectivity and changes in cortical connections with activities such as motor learning and grasping in primates. The second section covers the use of non-invasive brain stimulation to study and modulate cortical connectivity in humans. The last section describes changes in brain connectivity in neurological and psychiatric diseases, and potential new treatments that manipulate brain connectivity. This book provides an up-to-date view of the study of cortical connectivity, and covers its role in both fundamental neuroscience and potential clinical applications.

This book discusses the architecture, functioning, and biomechanics of the human body, its bones, joints, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. The book explains energy extraction from food and drink, what efforts the body is capable of, and how our efforts depend on the coordination among the respiratory, circulatory, and metabolic systems. This text shows how the body monitors itself, how it reacts to work loads and the environment such as heat or cold, humidity and wind. The book also explains how to measure a person's ability to work at high efficiency: by observation of breathing rate, heart beat frequency, oxygen consumption, and by careful evaluation of subjective judgements.The text discusses, in practical terms, effects of environmental conditions and how shift work arrangements during day, evening, and night affect task performance.

This book summarizes present knowledge of different mechanisms involved in the development of positive and negative consequences of cardiac adaptation. Particular attention is paid to the still underestimated adaptive cardiac responses during development, to adaptation to the frequently occurring pressure and volume overload as well as to cardiac changes, induced by enduring exercise and chronic hypoxia. Cardiac Adaptations will be of great value to cardiovascular investigators, who will find this book highly useful in their cardiovascular studies for finding solutions in diverse pathological conditions; it will also appeal to students, fellows, scientists, and clinicians interested in cardiovascular abnormalities.

Ghrelin, the endogenous ligand for the growth hormone secretagogue (GHS) receptor, is critical in the control of food intake and energy balance. The ghrelin receptors are now known to have important physiological properties as modulators of growth hormone release, appetite, glucose homeostasis, metabolism, immune function, neurotransmitter activity, cognitive function and neurodegeneration. Bringing all of this information together in the first comprehensive text on the topic, Ghrelin in Health and Disease provides a state-of-the-art synthesis of the latest work in this area for physicians and physician-scientists. This volume addresses the unique property of ghrelin as a modulator of function. Such a property provides potential utility for safe intervention in a wide variety of disease states. Indeed as we learn more about the basic physiology of ghrelin, the potential for treating new disease targets emerge requiring validation in the clinic. Each chapter in this volume is authored by a leading investigator in the field. The introductory chapter sets the background for the book and provides a superb overview of the relevance of ghrelin to physiology, describing how the discovery of ghrelin has prompted us to completely rethink traditional physiology. The authors conclude their chapters by critically addressing the future translational aspects of ghrelin biology and outlining what key basic research and clinical questions remain to be addressed. An invaluable resource, Ghrelin in Health and Disease distinguishes itself as the first comprehensive title covering all of the molecular and clinical issues relating to ghrelin and advancing our clinical understanding of obesity, growth, and reproductive pathogenesis.

Since its ?rst description in 1942 in both serum and cerebrospinal ?uid, transthyretin (TTR) has had an eventful history, including changes in name from "prealbumin" to "thyroxine-binding prealbumin" to "transthyretin" as knowledge increased about its functions. TTR is synthesised in a wide range of tissues in humans and other eutherian mammals: the liver, choroid plexus (blood- cerebrospinal ?uid barrier), retinal pigment epithelium of the eye, pancreas, intestine and meninges. However, its sites of synthesis are more restricted in other vertebrates. This implies that the number of tissues synthesising TTR during vertebrate evolution has increased, and raises questions about the selection pressures governing TTR synthesis. TTR is most widely known as a distributor of thyroid hormones. In addition, TTR binds retinol-binding protein, which binds retinol. In this way, TTR is also involved with retinoid distribution. More recently, TTR has been demonstrated to bind a wide variety of endocrine disruptors including drugs, pollutants, industrial compounds, heavy metals, and some naturally occurring plant ?avonoids. These not only interfere with thyroid hormone delivery in the body, but also transport such endocrine disruptors into the brain, where they have the potential to accumulate.

Hopefully, this book will be taken off of the shelf frequently to be studied carefully over many years. More than 40 researchers were involved in this project, which examines respiration, circulation, and metabolism from ?sh to the land vertebrates, including human beings. A breathable and stable atmosphere ?rst appeared about 500 million years ago. Oxygen levels are not stable in aquatic environments and exclusively water-breathing ?sh must still cope with the ever-changing levels of O 2 and with large temperature changes. This is re?ected in their sophisticated count- current systems, with high O extraction and internal and external O receptors. 2 2 The conquest for the terrestrial environment took place in the late Devonian period (355-359 million years ago), and recent discoveries portray the gradual transitional evolution of land vertebrates. The oxygen-rich and relatively stable atmospheric conditionsimpliedthatoxygen-sensingmechanismswererelativelysimpleandl- gain compared with acid-base regulation. Recently, physiology has expanded into related ?elds such as biochemistry, molecular biology, morphology and anatomy. In the light of the work in these ?elds, the introduction of DNA-based cladograms, which can be used to evaluate the likelihood of land vertebrates and lung?sh as a sister group, could explain why their cardio-respiratory control systems are similar. The diffusing capacity of a duck lung is 40 times higher than that of a toad or lung?sh. Certainly, some animals have evolved to rich high-performance levels.

The obesity epidemic has generated immense interest in recent years due to the wide-ranging and significant adverse health and economic consequences that surround the problem. Much attention has been focused on behaviors that lead to obesity, in particular to over consumption of energy-dense food and to sedentary lifestyle. However, obesity is an extremely complex condition with poorly defined pathogenesis. Thanks to greatly enhanced research in the area, the discovery of pathways in the brain and peripheral organs that mediate energy homeostasis has provided a framework for understanding the biological basis of obesity. Metabolic Basis of Obesity adds an important new dimension to the growing literature on obesity by offering a comprehensive review of specifically how metabolic imbalance culminates in obesity. Developed by a team of expert authors, this important title discusses the principles of energy balance, genetics of body weight regulation, hormones and adipokines, and metabolic pathways in the brain, liver, muscle and fat, to name just several of the areas covered. The book also examines the connection between obesity and diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other complications. Current and future diagnostic and treatment strategies are also reviewed. Comprehensive and timely, Metabolic Basis of Obesity is an essential reference for understanding the burgeoning problem of obesity.

The study of how the brain processes temporal information is becoming one of the most important topics in systems, cellular, computational, and cognitive neuroscience, as well as in the physiological bases of music and language. During the last and current decade, interval timing has been intensively studied in humans and animals using increasingly sophisticated methodological approaches. The present book will bring together the latest information gathered from this exciting area of research, putting special emphasis on the neural underpinnings of time processing in behaving human and non-human primates. Thus, Neurobiology of Interval Timing will integrate for the first time the current knowledge of both animal behavior and human cognition of the passage of time in different behavioral context, including the perception and production of time intervals, as well as rhythmic activities, using different experimental and theoretical frameworks. The book will the composed of chapters written by the leading experts in the fields of psychophysics, functional imaging, system neurophysiology, and musicology. This cutting-edge scientific work will integrate the current knowledge of the neurobiology of timing behavior putting in perspective the current hypothesis of how the brain quantifies the passage of time across a wide variety of critical behaviors.

Signal Transduction in Cardiovascular System Health and Disease highlights the major contributions of different signaling systems in modulating normal cardiovascular functions and how a perturbation in these signaling events leads to abnormal cell functions and cardiovascular disorders. This title is volume 3 in the new Springer series, Advances in Biochemistry in Health and Disease.

Since the publication of the first edition of this book ten years ago, international research into the physiological ecology of plants in the tropics has increased enormously in quantity and quality. This brand new edition brings the story right up to date. New approaches have been developed in remote sensing while at the other end of the scale molecular biology has come on in leaps and bounds, particularly regarding ecological performance of tropical plants, e.g. in understanding the adaptation of resurrection plants to the extreme habitat of inselbergs. In this fully revised and updated second edition the wealth of new information has made it necessary to break large chapters down into smaller ones.

This insightful and comprehensive book covers nearly every aspect of glutamate receptor structure and function for the working researcher and student. It condenses two previous landmark volumes into one easily accessible volume, and covers the extraordinary research and significant developments in the decade since the previous books were published. This includes the central role glutamate receptors play in neurotransmission.

Originally published in 1985, Hormones and Human Behaviour provides an account of knowledge concerning the influence of hormones on human behaviour, largely from a physiological point of view. The topics covered include the control of eating, drinking, sexual behaviour, emotional behaviour, learning and memory, as well as the ways in which psychiatric states may affect these activities, and in which hormones may alter mental function. Thus the book will be of interest to those working in the behavioural sciences and psychiatry, as well as to those studying for specialist qualifications in psychological medicine.

This volume is the most recent installment of the Progress in Motor Control series. It contains contributions based on presentations by invited speakers at the Progress in Motor Control IX meeting held in at McGill University, Montreal, in July, 2013. Progress in Motor Control is the official scientific meeting of the International Society of Motor Control (ISMC). The Progress in Motor Control IXI meeting, and consequently this volume, provide a broad perspective on the latest research on motor control in humans and other species."

The mechanisms and physiological functions of urea transporters across biological membranes are subjects of long-standing interests. Although urea represents roughly 40% of all urinary solutes in normal human urine, the handling of urea in the tissues has been largely neglected in the past and few clinical or experimental studies now report data on urea. Most recent physiological text books include chapters on water and electrolyte physiology but no chapter on urea. Our aim in writing this book is to stimulate further research in new directions by providing novel and provocative insights into the further mechanisms and physiological significance of urea metabolism and transport in mammals. This book offers a state-of-the-art report on recent discoveries concerning urea transport and where the field is going. It mainly focuses on advances made over the past 20 years on the biophysics, genetics, protein structure, molecular biology, physiology, pathophysiology and pharmacology of urea transport in mammalian cell membranes. It will help graduate students and researchers to get an overall picture of mammalian urea transporters and may also yield benefits for pharmaceutical companies with regard to drug discovery based on the urea transporter. Baoxue Yang is a professor and vice chairman of the Department of Pharmacology, Peking University. He is also an adjunct professor of Jilin University and a visiting professor of Northeast Normal University. Prof. Yang has been researching urea transporters for nearly 20 years and has published more than 70 original research articles in this field.

Traditional research methodologies in the human respiratory system have always been challenging due to their invasive nature. Recent advances in medical imaging and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) have accelerated this research. This book compiles and details recent advances in the modelling of the respiratory system for researchers, engineers, scientists, and health practitioners. It breaks down the complexities of this field and provides both students and scientists with an introduction and starting point to the physiology of the respiratory system, fluid dynamics and advanced CFD modeling tools. In addition to a brief introduction to the physics of the respiratory system and an overview of computational methods, the book contains best-practice guidelines for establishing high-quality computational models and simulations. Inspiration for new simulations can be gained through innovative case studies as well as hands-on practice using pre-made computational code. Last but not least, students and researchers are presented the latest biomedical research activities, and the computational visualizations will enhance their understanding of physiological functions of the respiratory system.

Of the approximately 640 muscles in the human body, over 10% of them are found in the craniofacial region. The craniofacial muscles are involved in a number of crucial non-locomotor activities, and are critical to the most basic functions of life, including vision, taste, chewing and food manipulation, swallowing, respiration, speech, as well as regulating facial expression and controlling facial aperture patency. Despite their importance, the biology of these small skeletal muscles is relatively unexplored. Only recently have we begun to understand their unique embryonic development and the genes that control it and characteristic features that separate them from the skeletal muscle stereotype. This book is the most comprehensive reference to date on craniofacial muscle development, structure, function, and disease. It details the state-of-the-art basic science of the craniofacial muscles, and describes their unique response to major neuromuscular conditions. Most importantly, the text highlights how the craniofacial muscles are different from most skeletal muscles, and why they have been viewed as a distinct allotype. In addition, the text points to major gaps in our knowledge about these very important skeletal muscles and identified key gaps in our knowledge and areas primed for further study and discovery.

Novel Approaches into the Origins of Neurodevelopmental Disorders: The Fetal Physiology Foundation Over the past two decades, autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder that is defined by behavior and was once believed to be rare, became recognized in increasing numbers of children and recently received distinction as an "epidemic" [1]. While numbers of affected children have steadily increased, our knowledge is still ins- ficient to explain autism's diverse causes and broad range of presentations. Despite remarkable progress in research, available medical diagnostic testing applies only to a small minority of affected children. Thus, scientifically based explanations with which physicians can diagnose and treat the majority of children with autism and advise their parents are quite limited. Our society and scientific community were unprepared for the rise in autism, which explains our present inability to understand most of its causes. Researchers in neurodevelopmental disorders have long been aware of other disorders that, despite extensive efforts, have not yielded clear genetic or environmental origins, and autism has become symbolic of the need for new approaches to research into these complex conditions. Although autism has captured our attention in recent years, the prevalence of other neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention de- cit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and bipolar disorder, among others, also has been increasing [2-4].

The volume raises attention to the need of a completely new approach to breast cancer based on the knowledge collected on early breast cancer in the past two decades. The chapters are contributed by experts of all the fields participating in the clinical research and care of breast cancer. The practical importance of such a book is underlined by the increasing number of breast cancer cases, and also the increasing proportion of early stage-cases. The ultimate goal of the book is to point to the heterogeneous nature of the disease which is more striking and has more importance in care at the very early stages than at the more advanced stages. The book recommends the utilization of all the information provided by multimodality imaging and special pathological methods, a new classification system and therapeutic guidelines since early breast cancers should not be treated based on experience obtained with palpable tumors. No similar book has been yet released to the market. The book is written for all the members of the team participating in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer (radiologists, pathologists, surgeons, clinical and radiation oncologists), but may be useful for medical students and residents too. The chapters are illustrated with didactic pictures, and special emphasis is given to provide a peep into the practice of the special procedures for the careful examination and individualized therapy of each case.