Hardly any phenomenon in the modern environment is as ubiquitous as electromagnetic fields and waves. We have learned to understand the physical characteristics of these energy forms, and we have applied them in abundant ways to embellish our ways of life and our standards of living. Furthermore, we have come to depend on them for health, safety, information, comfOli, and conveyance. Apart from their intended roles, these electromagnetic fields and waves produce other effects which may influence the activities of living organisms. The effects produced depend on many physical, chemical, and biological factors. They may be grossly apparent and visible soon after exposure of the living organism or they may not appear to have influenced the organism at all upon casual examination. Even then, there may be subtle changes which are only detectable upon careful chemical or microscopic study, or which are apparent only after a considerable time delay. Nevertheless, our understanding of the interaction of electromagnetic fields with living systems is advancing in a wide range of topical areas. This bi-annual series with invited reviews by recognized leaders in their respective specialties, will present progress to date in key areas of research and scholarship. The guiding philosophy of this undertaking is the presentation of integrated, known, and confilmed phenomenological observations, basic mechanism of interactions, and applications in biology and medicine, as well as perspectives on current topics of interest.

Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology attempts to provide concise, critical reviews of timely advances, philosophy, and significant areas of accomplished or needed endeavor in the total field of xenobiotics, in any segment of the environment, as well as toxicological implications.

Many organisms have evolved the ability to enter into and revive from a dormant state. They can survive for long periods in this state (often even months to years), yet can become responsive again within minutes or hours. This is often, but not necessarily, associated with desiccation. Preserving onea (TM)s body and reviving it in future generations is a dream of mankind. To date, however, we have failed to learn how cells, tissues or entire organisms can be made dormant or be effectively revived at ambient temperatures. In this book studies on organisms, ranging from aquatic cyanobacteria that produce akinetes to hibernating mammals, are presented, and reveal common but also divergent physiological and molecular pathways for surviving in a dormant form or for tolerating harsh environments. Attempting to learn the functions associated with dormancy and how they are regulated is one of the great future challenges. Its relevance to the preservation of cells and tissues is one of the key concerns of this book.

This book presents the "helical wormlike chain" model - a general model for both flexible and semiflexible polymer chains. It explains how statistical-mechanical, hydrodynamic, and dynamic theories of their solution properties can be developed on the basis of this model. This new second edition has been carefully updated and thoroughly revised. It includes a new chapter covering "Simulation and More on Excluded-Volume Effects", as well as the discussion of new experimental data and the application of the theory to ring polymers. The authors provide analysis of important recent experimental data by the use of their theories for flexible polymers over a wide range of molecular weights, including the oligomer region, and for semiflexible polymers, including biological macromolecules such as DNA. This is all clearly illustrated using a reasonable number of theoretical equations, tables, figures, and computer-aided forms, which support the understanding of the basic theory and help to facilitate its application to experimental data for the polymer molecular characterization.

The 21st century will witness the unprecedented marketing of therapeutic drugs developed from cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system. Cannabinoids is a timely volume, which represents a comprehensive review of the most important issues in cannabinoid research as well as those of most likely therapeutic relevance. For the first time, the multi-faceted aspects of cannabinoid chemistry, biology and medicine are presented in one volume.
Key topics of discussion:

-major families of phytocannabinoids;
-pharmacological activity of phytocannabinoids;
-interactions of phytocannabinoids with their proposed molecular target;
-components of the endocannabinoid system;
-molecular mechanisms of the endocannabinoid system;
-Physiological and pathological role of endocannabinoids;
-industrial applications of studies on the cannabinoids;
-therapeutic uses of agonists and antagonists of cannabinoids receptors. This book is a must for graduate and pre- and post-doctoral students in disciplines ranging from organic and natural product chemistry, pharmacology, biochemistry and medicine.

Applications of EPR in Radiation Research is a multi-author contributed volume presented in eight themes: I. Elementary radiation processes (in situ and low temperature radiolysis, quantum solids); II: Solid state radiation chemistry (crystalline, amorphous and heterogeneous systems); III: Biochemistry, biophysics and biology applications (radicals in biomaterials, spin trapping, free-radical-induced DNA damage); IV: Materials science (polymeric and electronic materials, materials for treatment of nuclear waste, irradiated food); V: Radiation metrology (EPR-dosimetry, retrospective and medical applications); VI: Geological dating; VII: Advanced techniques (PELDOR, ESE and ENDOR spectroscopy, matrix isolation); VIII: Theoretical tools (density-functional calculations, spectrum simulations).

The refinement of molecular techniques and the development of new probes of the phylogeny of diazotrophs has revealed an extreme biodiversity among the nitrogen fixers, which helps explain the role that nitrogen fixation plays in maintaining life on Earth. The most efficient ecosystems are those where the bacteria are associated with a plant in differentiated organs to benefit crop productivity. Most short-term benefit from fundamental research on nitrogen fixation is likely to result in the improvement of existing nitrogen-fixing symbiotic or associative systems. Longer-term efforts are aimed at extending the nitrogen-fixing capacity to other organisms, including transfer of the genetic information for efficient nitrogen fixation into the plant genome and using current knowledge of microbe-plant interactions to extend symbiosis to cereals and, in particular, to rice. Related challenges in sustainable agriculture and forestry include the creation of new nitrogen-fixing associations. All of these approaches were discussed at the 11th International Congress on Nitrogen Fixation, Paris, France, July 20-25, 1997 and covered in the present proceedings volume.

How do plant compounds affect our bodies? Plants defend themselves from other organisms through the production of bioactive metabolites. Introduced to the body, these compounds bind to particular biochemical targets, most notably to proteins involved in signalling by hormones and neurotransmitters. This, essentially, is the basis for the effects of herbal medicine. Though whilst herbal medicine preparations may act by complex synergistic interactions, molecular explanations of herbal medicine efficacy and side-effects will ultimately require definition of the biochemical targets of individual plant bioactive constituents.
This volume is a comprehensive and user-friendly reference guide to biochemical targets of plant defensive compounds. It presents a mine of succinctly summarized information relating to bioactive compound structures, plant sources, biochemical targets and physiological effects which can be readily accessed via the plant genus index and chemical compound index. With introductory chapters providing reviews of the structural diversity of plant defensive compounds and biochemistry, Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds is an invaluable reference for biomedical professionals in the fields of complementary medicine, natural product chemistry, toxicology and pharmacology.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203013719

Voltage-sensitive ion channels are macromolecules embedded in the membranes of nerve and muscle fibers of animals. Because of their physiological functions, biochemical structures and electrical switching properties, they are at an intersection of biology, chemistry and physics. Despite decades of intensive research under the traditional approach of gated structural pores, the relation between the structure of these molecules and their function remains enigmatic.This book critically examines physically oriented approaches not covered in other ion-channel books. It looks at optical and thermal as well as electrical data, and at studies in the frequency domain as well as in the time domain. Rather than presenting the reader with only an option of mechanistic models at an inappropriate pseudo-macroscopic scale, it emphasizes concepts established in organic chemistry and condensed state physics.

This book focuses on the envelope of Gram-positive bacteria including its composition, the latest discoveries in the mechanisms behind its assembly, and its role in pathogenesis. Furthermore, new applications in biotechnology and vaccine development involving these bacteria are discussed in detail. This concise volume consists of eleven chapters by prominent experts in the field, which review the latest findings and current state of knowledge on a range of diverse yet interlinked aspects. This book is written for all researchers, clinicians and technicians engaged in basic or applied science projects on Gram-positive bacteria.

Serotonin (5-HT) was isolated and chemically characterized nearly four decades ago, and is now generally accepted to function as a neurotransmitter and neuromodulatory agent. Early research focused on the measurement of concentrations, synthesis, and metabolism of 5-HT, and only recently has the focus shifted to characterization of 5-HT receptors. Gaddum and Picarelli first sug gested in 1957 that the effect of 5-HT in the guinea pig ileum is mediated by two pharmacologically distinguishable receptors; however, the possibility of dual5-HT receptors was not explored systematically or successfully until the past decade. It is now clear that more, perhaps many more, subclasses of 5-HT receptors exist. The purpose of this book is to provide an up-to-date report on 5-HT receptors. This is a difficult task considering the astonishing speed at which research in this field is expanding. As the first of what we can expect to be a steady stream of monographs focusing on 5-HT receptors, the book confirms that we are in an exciting time in the history of 5-HT. For those of us who have been work ing on 5-HT for many years, our dream of equal progress and recognition with the more extensively studied catecholamines is finally being realized. We now have a Serotonin Club that held its first international scientific meeting in 1987, and several more international meetings are in the planning stages."

This book presents emerging contemporary optical techniques of ultrafast science which have opened entirely new vistas for probing biological entities and processes. The spectrum reaches from time-resolved imaging and multiphoton microscopy to cancer therapy and studies of DNA damage. The book displays interdisciplinary research at the interface of physics and biology. Emerging topics on the horizon are also discussed, like the use of squeezed light, frequency combs and terahertz imaging as the possibility of mimicking biological systems. The book is written in a manner to make it readily accessible to researchers, postgraduate biologists, chemists, engineers, and physicists and students of optics, biomedical optics, photonics and biotechnology.

The developments in mass spectrometry over the past fifteen years have been impressive in their implications in bioanalytical chemistry. The achievements begin with the inventions of Cf-252 Plasma Desorption Mass Spectrometry by Macfarlane and Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry by Comisarow and Marshall in the mid 1970s. The former showed the feasibility of producing large gas-phase ions from large biomolecules whereas the latter enhanced the capabilities for ion trapping especially in analytical mass spectrometry. A major achievement was the development by Barber of Fast Atom Bombardment (FAB) mass spectrometry, an advance that heralded a new era in biological mass spectrometry. Contemporary and routine instruments such as magnetic sectors and quadrupoles were rapidly adapted to F AB, and nearly the entire universe of small molecules became amenable to study by mass spectrometry. The introduction of FAB also paved the way for improvement of instrument capability. For example, the upper mass limit of magnet sector mass spectrometers was increased by nearly an order of magnitude by the instrument manufacturers. Furthermore, the technique of tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) was given new meaning because important structural information for biomolecules could now be produced for ions introduced by FAB into the tandem instrument. The evolution of MS/MS continues today with the development of ion traps, time-of-flight, and sector instruments equipped with array detection.

Contents: Yves Canac and Remi Chauvin: Neutral eta1-carbon ligands: beyond carbon monoxide; Esteban P. Urriolabeitia: Ylide Ligands; Wolfgang Petz and Gernot Frenking: Carbodiphosphoranes and related ligands; Mareike C. Jahnke and F. Ekkehardt Hahn: Chemistry of N-Heterocyclic Carbene Ligands; Tsuyoshi Kato, Eddy Maerten, Antoine Baceiredo: Non-NHCs stable singlet carbene ligands; Victorio Cadierno, Sergio E. Garc a-Garrido: All-Carbon-Substituted Allenylidene and Related Cumulenylidene Ligands; Victorio Cadierno, Sergio E. Garc a-Garrido: Heteroatom-Conjugated Allenylidene and Related Cumulenylidene Ligands.

This new series on The Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Fishes grew out of the demand for state-of-the-art review articles in a rapidly expanding field of research. Up to the present, most research literature on biochemistry involved rats and humans, but new breakthroughs in the piscine setting have indicated that the field is ready for a review series of its own. Because of funding and experimental availability restrictions, most research in the field has dealt with fish and insects. Within the insect field, comparative biochemistry and comparative physiology have proceeded along independent paths as opposed to the piscine field, where the tendency has been for the latter to envelop the former.
This volume sets out to make comparative biochemistry and comparative physiology independent of each other within the piscine setting, another important rationale for this review series as well as detailing the phylogenetic evolution of fishes. The goal of the series is to provide researchers and students with an appropriate balance between experimental results and theoretical concepts.

Methods for processing of biological materials into useful products represent essential core manufacturing activities of the food, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. On the one hand the techniques involved include well established process engineering methodologies such as mixing, heat transfer, size modification and a variety of separatIon and fermentation procedures. In addition, new bioprocessing practices arising from the exciting recent advances in biotech nology, including innovative fermentation cell culture and enzyme based operations, are rapidly extending the frontiers of bioprocessing. These develop ments are resulting in the introduction to the market place of an awesome range of novel biological products having unique applications. Indeed, the United States Office of Technology Assessment. has concluded that 'competitive advantage in areas related to biotechnology may depend as much on developments in bioprocess engineering as on innovations in genetics, immunology and other areas of basic science'. Advances in analytical instrumentation, computerization and process automation are playing an important role in process control and optimization and in the maintenance of product quality and consistency characteristics. Bioprocessing represents the industrial practice of biotechnology and is multidisciplinary in nature, integrating the biological, chemical and engineering sciences. This book discusses the individual unit operations involved and describes a wide variety of important industrial bioprocesses. I am very grateful to Sanjay Thakur who assisted me in the collection of material for this book."

Here is the first effort in a single volume to cover all of the integrative functions of calcium signalling - how changes in intracellular calcium coordinate a variety of coherent cellular responses. Written by a team of internationally established researchers, Integrative Aspects of Calcium Signalling provides the latest experimental data and concepts, bringing together a detailed analysis of the events, processes, and functions regulated by calcium signalling. A unique resource for professionals and students of physiology, biophysics, neurobiology, biochemistry, and all related fields.

This unique book bridges the gap between toxicology and chemistry at a level understandable by a wide spectrum of readers with various interests and a broad range of backgrounds in chemistry, biochemistry, and toxicology. The third edition has been thoroughly updated and expanded to reflect recent advances in important areas of research, including toxicogenetics and toxic effects on various body systems. Toxicological Chemistry and Biochemistry, Third Edition begins by outlining the basic concepts of general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry needed to understand the topics in the book. The author then presents an overview of environmental chemistry so that you can understand the remainder of the material covered within that framework. He also discusses biodegradation, bioaccumulation, and biochemical processes that occur in water and soil.

The new chapter on toxic effects considers toxicities to the endocrine and reproductive systems, and the section on xenobiotics analysis deals with the determination of toxicants and their metabolites in blood and other biological materials. The chapter on the genetic aspects of toxicology discusses the ways in which chemical damage to DNA can cause mutations, cancer, and other toxic effects on specific body systems, and it considers the role of genetics in determining individual susceptibilities to various toxicants.

Toxicological Chemistry and Biochemistry, Third Edition retains the basic information and structure that made the first two editions popular with students and industry professionals, while enhancing the usefulness of the book and modernizing it in important areas. Review questions and supplementary references at the end of each chapter round out the third edition of this bestselling work.

The Fifth International Meeting on Cholinesterases convened in Madras, India, in September of 1994. The long and rich history and culture of India provided an excellent setting for the meeting. More than 120 delegates from Asia, Australia, Europe and North America heard 54 oral presentations and viewed 54 posters on current research on enzymes of the cholinesterase family. The aim of this book is to compile the presentations of the Fifth International Meeting on Cholinesterases into a volume that describes recent investigations on the structure and catalytic function of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) and related enzymes, as well as studies on the molecular and cellular biology of these enzymes and the genes which encode them. Cholinesterases enjoy a long and storied history in diverse areas. In basic biochemical research, AChE is one of the best studied, though yet enigmatic, of enzymes. The efficient catalytic function of this enzyme presents the biochemist with a fundamental challenge in understanding the relationship between structure and function. AChE and BuChE belong to a family of proteins, the alB hydrolase fold family, whose constituents evolutionarily diverged from a common ancestor. Proteins in this family have a wide range of physiological functions. In commerce, AChE is a prime target for agricultural insect control, and for the development of therapeutic agents for Alzheimer's disease.

The marine environment has been, and continues to be, a fruitful source of novel chemical compounds that are not found in terrestrial and freshwater organisms. Many of these substances show potential biomedical applications, which could lead to development of new pharmaceutical products. Research on the utilization of natural products from marine organisms is growing by leaps and bounds; one important reason why being that, investigators, through new diving technologies, are becoming able to explore at greater depths. Studies of these marine natural products include investigations of neuronal membrane-active toxins, ion channel blockers, antitumor and antiviral agents, and anti-inflammatory molecules. This volume is the sixth in the ongoing series.

Global warming has worsened the water resource crisis in many arid zones worldwide, from Africa to Asia, affecting millions of people and putting them at risk of hunger. Effective management of arid zone resources, including understanding the risks of toxic trace and heavy elements to humans, coupled with the need to produce more food to feed the world's growing population, has thus become increasingly important. This very timely book, the only one of its kind on the market, fills the gap of our knowledge of trace elements in these regions.This book begins by introducing the nature and properties of arid zone soil, followed by an updated overview and comprehensive coverage of the major aspects of the trace elements and heavy metals of most concern in the world's arid and semi-arid soils.

Specific biomolecular interactions occur in practically every bio- logical process, usually involving macromolecules such as proteins and nucleic acids. Thus, it is not surprising that great attention has been devoted by biologists, chemists, and physical chemists to the general phenomenon of macromolecular recognition in order to gain a better understanding of the principles, forces, and energetics that de- termine the often remarkable specificities of such interactions as those of enzymes and their substrates and inhibitors, antibodies with anti- gens, hormones with their receptors, and DNA with drugs. These studies have allowed the unraveling of some basic principles of mol- ecular recognition, such as complementarity, specificity, and dynam- ics of the interacting species, and at the same time have led to development of analytical and separation techniques based on bio- logical specificity (e. g. , affinity chromatography and other bioaffinity methods). This volume was assembled to address current research and developing ideas in biomolecular recognition through the contribu- tions presented at the Conference on "Mechanisms of Recognition in Biological Macromolecules" held in Siena, Italy, September 4-6,1986. The Conference was cosponsored by the National Research Council of Italy, the Italian Biochemical Society, the University of Siena, and the International Interest Group in Biorecognition Technology.