Tissue engineering is a new field of biomedical engineering, in which synthetic materials are used together with biological components such as tissue fragments, cells, proteins to encourage tissue regeneration, regrowth, and repair. This book introduces the principles of tissue engineering in a unique way that is ideally suited for the modern engineering student. A review of developmental biology is presented early in the book, since biological development is the fundamental process of most relevance for tissue engineering. The study of development provides a pathway to basic bioengineering units on cell adhesion, migration, assembly, and transport, which are integrated in the final sections of the book into tissue engineering processes (such as cell delivery, growth factor administration, and polymeric scaffold materials).

In order to gain an understanding of the dynamics of human individual and average growth patterns it is essential that the right methods are selected. There are a variety of methods available to analyse individual growth patterns, to estimate variation in different growth measures in populations and to relate genetic and environmental factors to individual and average growth. This volume provides an overview of modern techniques for the assessment and collection of growth data and methods of analysis for individual and population growth data. The book contains the basic mathematical and statistical tools required to understand the concepts of the methods under discussion and worked examples of analyses, but it is neither a mathematical treatise, nor a recipe book for growth data analysis. Aimed at junior and senior researchers involved in the analysis of human growth data, this book will be an essential reference for anthropologists, auxologists and paediatricians.

In the space of one generation major changes have begun to take place in the field of human reproduction. A rapid increase in the control of fertility and the understanding and treatment of sexual health issues have been accompanied by an emerging threat to reproductive function linked to increasing environmental pollution and dramatic changes in lifestyle. Organised around four key themes, this book provides a valuable review of some of the most important recent findings in human reproductive ecology. Major topics include the impact of the environment on reproduction, the role of physical activity and energetics in regulating reproduction, sexual maturation and ovulation assessment and demographic, health and family planning issues. Both theoretical and practical issues are covered, including the evolution and importance of the menopause and the various statistical methods by which researchers can analyse characteristics of the menstrual cycle in field studies.

It is generally accepted that the earliest human ancestors grew more like apes than like humans today. If they did so, and we are now different, when, how and why did our modern growth patterns evolve? This book focuses on species within the genus Homo to investigate the evolutionary origins of characteristic human patterns and rates of craniofacial and postcranial growth and development, and to explore unique ontogenetic patterns within each fossil species. Experts examine growth patterns found within available Plio-Pleistocene hominid samples, and analyse variation in ontogenetic patterns and rates of development in recent modern humans in order to provide a comparative context for fossil hominid studies. Presenting studies of some of the newer juvenile fossil specimens and information on Homo antecessor, this book will provide a rich data source with which anthropologists and evolutionary biologists can address the questions posed above.

In this book, Benoit Dubreuil explores the creation and destruction of hierarchies in human evolution. Combining the methods of archaeology, anthropology, cognitive neuroscience and primatology, he offers a natural history of hierarchies from the point of view of both cultural and biological evolution. This volume explains why dominance hierarchies typical of primate societies disappeared in the human lineage and why the emergence of large-scale societies during the Neolithic period implied increased social differentiation, the creation of status hierarchies, and, eventually, political centralisation.

Origins of Language: A Slim Guide offers a concise and accessible overview of what is known about the evolution of the human capacity for language. Non-human animals communicate in simple ways: they may be able to form simple concepts, to feel some limited empathy for others, to cooperate to some extent, and to engage in mind-reading. Human language, however, is characterized by its ability to efficiently express a wide range of subtle and complex meanings. After the first simple beginnings, human language underwent an explosion of complexity, leading to the very complicated systems of grammar and pronunciation found in modern languages. Jim Hurford looks at the very varied aspects of this evolution, covering human prehistory; the relation between instinct and learning; biology and culture; trust, altruism, and cooperation; animal thought; human and non-human vocal anatomy; the meanings and forms of the first words; and the growth of complex systems of grammar and pronunciation. Written by an internationally recognized expert in the field, it draws on a number of disciplines besides linguistics, including philosophy, neuroscience, genetics, and animal behaviour, and will appeal to a wide range of readers interested in language origins and evolution.

This book looks at how the human brain got the capacity for language and how language then evolved. Its four parts are concerned with different views on the emergence of language, with what language is, how it evolved in the human brain, and finally how this process led to the properties of language. Part I considers the main approaches to the subject and how far language evolved culturally or genetically. Part II argues that language is a system of signs and considers how these elements first came together in the brain. Part III examines the evidence for brain mechanisms to allow the formation of signs. Part IV shows how the book's explanation of language origins and evolution is not only consistent with the complex properties of languages but provides the basis for a theory of syntax that offers insights into the learnability of language and to the nature of constructions that have defied decades of linguistic analysis, including including subject-verb inversion in questions, existential constructions, and long-distance dependencies. Denis Bouchard's outstandingly original account will interest linguists of all persuasions as well as cognitive scientists and others interested in the evolution of language.

There is a significant amount of research that substantiates the connection between social support/relationships and the development, onset, and/or recovery of several physical diseases/illnesses. Research has shown, for example, that an unhappy marriage can increase the likelihood of becoming ill by 35% while stressful communication can lead to an increase in cardiovascular reactivity which in turn increases the risk of coronary heart disease and premature mortality. This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the influences of communication on physiology and physical health status occurring in a variety of contexts, from families, interpersonal relationships, and public speaking to sport fandom, affection, fear, and the escalation of conflict. It offers a broad and up-to-date review of the relevant literature in this area of study.

First published in 1981, Professor Tanner's volume traces the history of studies of the physical growth of children from the time of the Ancient Greeks onwards. The author summarises the background to and the achievement of the surveys of child growth made in the course of social reform throughout the nineteenth century, and shows their relevance for social and economic history. These are studies to which the author himself made outstanding contributions and the text shows an intimate knowledge, both as to programmes and personalities. It is a unique historical record. The author not only follows the evolution of ideas that lies behind the gradual emergence of studies of growth, but also summarises the results of these studies, charting the growth of children during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This book will be of value for medical, social and economic historians as well as for paediatricians and biological anthropologists.

This comprehensive synthesis of current medical and evolutionary literature addresses key questions about the role body fat plays in human biology. It explores how body energy stores are regulated, how they develop over the life-course, what biological functions they serve, and how they may have evolved. There is now substantial evidence that human adiposity is not merely a buffer against the threat of starvation, but is also a resource for meeting the energy costs of growth, reproduction and immune function. As such it may be considered as important in our species evolution as other traits such as bipedalism, large brains, and long life spans and developmental periods. Indeed, adiposity is integrally linked with these other traits, and with our capacity to colonise and inhabit diverse ecosystems. It is because human metabolism is so sensitive to environmental cues that manipulative economic forces are now generating the current obesity epidemic.

This comprehensive synthesis of current medical and evolutionary literature addresses key questions about the role body fat plays in human biology. It explores how body energy stores are regulated, how they develop over the life-course, what biological functions they serve, and how they may have evolved. There is now substantial evidence that human adiposity is not merely a buffer against the threat of starvation, but is also a resource for meeting the energy costs of growth, reproduction and immune function. As such it may be considered as important in our species evolution as other traits such as bipedalism, large brains, and long life spans and developmental periods. Indeed, adiposity is integrally linked with these other traits, and with our capacity to colonise and inhabit diverse ecosystems. It is because human metabolism is so sensitive to environmental cues that manipulative economic forces are now generating the current obesity epidemic.

Human settlement of the western fringes of the Pacific began at least 40,000 years ago. Long, hazardous sea voyages were the only way of reaching the tiny islands scattered through this vast expanse of ocean. Food and shelter were hard to come by, even on land. This book, first published in 1996, documents how these settlers adapted culturally and biologically to the distinctive Pacific environment, and how they evolved into the large-bodied, muscular people seen today in New Zealand, Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia. Philip Houghton considers studies of DNA, patterns of health and disease, and computer simulations of human survival at sea based on the likely routes through the Pacific. People of the Great Ocean is a unique work based on extensive research and careful analysis. Philip Houghton's text presents detailed technical information, but remains highly readable and persuasive.

Neanderthals and Modern Humans develops the theme of the close relationship between climate change, ecological change and biogeographical patterns in humans during the Pleistocene. In particular, it challenges the view that Modern Human 'superiority' caused the extinction of the Neanderthals between 40 and 30 thousand years ago. Clive Finlayson shows that to understand human evolution, the spread of humankind across the world and the extinction of archaic populations, we must move away from a purely theoretical evolutionary ecology base and realise the importance of wider biogeographic patterns including the role of tropical and temperate refugia. His proposal is that Neanderthals became extinct because their world changed faster than they could cope with, and that their relationship with the arriving Modern Humans, where they met, was subtle.

Measuring Behaviour is the established go-to text for anyone interested in scientific methods for studying the behaviour of animals or humans. It is widely used by students, teachers and researchers in a variety of fields, including biology, psychology, the social sciences and medicine. This new fourth edition has been completely rewritten and reorganised to reflect major developments in how behavioural studies are conducted. It includes new sections on the replication crisis, covering Open Science initiatives such as preregistration, as well as fully up-to-date information on the use of remote sensors, big data and artificial intelligence in capturing and analysing behaviour. The sections on the analysis and interpretation of data have been rewritten to align with current practices, with advice on avoiding common pitfalls. Although fully revised and revamped, this new edition retains the simplicity, clarity and conciseness that have made Measuring Behaviour a classic since the first edition appeared more than 30 years ago.

In past years considerable interest has been focused on migration as an important cause of change in the genetic and demographic structure of human populations. This book synthesises the biological consequences of changes environments on the migrants and the genetic impact of immigration on the host populations. Patterns of migration, past and present and genetic, epidemological and demographic consequences are considered, forming a unique synthesis for human biologists in general. Individual chapters deal with the peopling of the continents, migration in the recent past, the effects of gene flow and rural to urban migration. In addition, a detailed analysis of the relationship between migration, adaptation and disease is presented. Advanced students and research workers in a wide variety of disciplines, including population genetics, demography, anthropology and social geography will find this book particularly valuable in relating their own special interests to other biological aspects of human migration.

Working capacity is the physiological key to understanding man's ability, in technically less advanced communities, to exploit his environment, and hence to understanding his role in the ecological balance. In this volume the knowledge of working capacity in tropical populations is reviewed in a series of illustrative papers. Topics cover the measurement of working capacity in populations: the functional consequences of malnutrition; growth, size and muscular efficiency; ethnic differences in working capacity; energy; expenditure and endemic disease; and energy flow in tropical ecosystems. These papers and their ensuing discussions lead to a series of recommendations on studies to be incorporated in the Decade of the Tropics research programme of the International Union of Biological Sciences.

This book presents new directions in the study of cognitive archaeology. Seeking to understand the conditions that led to the development of a variety of cognitive processes during evolution, it uses evidence from empirical studies and offers theoretical speculations about the evolution of modern thinking as well. The volume draws from the fields of archaeology and neuropsychology, which traditionally have shared little in the way of theories and methods, even though both disciplines provide crucial pieces to the puzzle of the emergence and evolution of human cognition. The twelve essays, written by an international team of scholars, represent an eclectic array of interests, methods, and theories about evolutionary cognitive archaeology. Collectively, they consider whether the processes in the development of human cognition simply made a better use of anatomical and cerebral structures already in place at the beginning of hominization. They also consider the possibility of an active role of hominoids in their own development and query the impact of hominoid activity in the emergence of new cognitive abilities.

First published in 1988, this book examines the causes and consequences of different mating patterns in man with particular reference to biological, medical and demographic factors. Although the effects of inbreeding on genetic structure and gene frequencies have been well covered in the medical genetics literature, and specific social systems have been described in social anthropology texts, this attempts to present an holistic approach. Four main areas are covered: historical and demographic aspects; mate choice and assortative mating; social systems, religious rules and mating practices; medical and genetic issues. The papers in each section have been carefully edited and integrated to present a cohesive treatment of value to advanced students and research workers in human biology and genetics.

This book presents new directions in the study of cognitive archaeology. Seeking to understand the conditions that led to the development of a variety of cognitive processes during evolution, it uses evidence from empirical studies and offers theoretical speculations about the evolution of modern thinking as well. The volume draws from the fields of archaeology and neuropsychology, which traditionally have shared little in the way of theories and methods, even though both disciplines provide crucial pieces to the puzzle of the emergence and evolution of human cognition. The twelve essays, written by an international team of scholars, represent an eclectic array of interests, methods, and theories about evolutionary cognitive archaeology. Collectively, they consider whether the processes in the development of human cognition simply made a better use of anatomical and cerebral structures already in place at the beginning of hominization. They also consider the possibility of an active role of hominoids in their own development and query the impact of hominoid activity in the emergence of new cognitive abilities.

The peoples of the high-altitude regions of the world have long fascinated both scientists and laymen from the lowlands. This book, while it draws heavily on the research conducted in the International Biological Programme, is a comprehensive review of our knowledge about the biology of the high-altitude peoples of the world. While several other accounts have considered the general problems of human populations living and working under the reduced oxygen pressure found at high altitude, this volume is the first attempt to analyse the total human biology of the peoples of the world living in extremely high mountain areas. The contributors are experts in a variety of topics within human biology. In addition, each has conducted personal research in the high-altitude areas such as the Andes, Ethiopian highlands, Himalayas or Tien Shan mountains. While the book is not designed for the layman, technical language has been reduced in an effort to make the various topics covered comprehensible to professionals working in any branch of the sciences concerned with man.

The processes that control senescence have been the subject of more then a century of serious biological research. Two institutions closely involved in this programme, the Society for the Study of Human Biology and the British Society for Research in Ageing, held a joint symposium in 1984 to consider human ageing and longevity from an interdisciplinary point of view. The resulting book has four main sections: the evolution and genetics of ageing, biological age assessment, demographic and social aspects, and the nutritional and physiological aspects of ageing and longevity. The fundamental nature of the subject will generate interest across a wide range of biological and medical disciplines.

First published in 1977, this volume is a collection of eleven studies conducted during the International Biological Programme on the biological structure of human populations. They deal particularly with population genetics, demography and ecology, and discuss the experimental strategies to be adopted when making such studies. Each chapter is in the form of a broad review aimed at those wanting to understand human population biology. The volume is an international one, both in terms of its authorship and of the populations studied, and the projects discussed represent the whole variety of problems and approaches tackled by the IBP investigators interested in population biology. In short, this book represents an excellent evaluation of human biology in the mid-twentieth century. It will be of importance to university teachers, research workers and graduate students in anthropology and human biology.

One of the objectives of investigations carried out within the Human Adaptability section of the International Biological Programme was to obtain comparable data on population characteristics over a wide range of ecosystems. This volume provides a brief survey of the variables affecting the physiological work capacity of various populations. The items considered include body weight, fatness, maximum oxygen intake, muscular strength, and the process of oxygen transport from the air to the working muscles. The discussion is based largely on data collected under the auspices of the IBP, using methods standardised for the programme. The influence of race, heredity, environment and disease are considered, and a detailed analysis is made of various classes of athlete. The material will be useful to human and environmental physiologists, anthropologists, and those interested in physical education.

The International Biological Programme investigated the biology of circumpolar human populations in the period 1967 1974. This research was carried out by multidisciplinary teams and covered demography, genetics, craniofacial development, growth, ophthalmology, nutrition physiology and behaviour. The populations studied include Eskimos, Lapps and Ainu as well as certain of those from Russia. The environment inhabited by the populations has low temperatures, seasonal extremes of light and dark and relatively meagre ecological resources, but despite such harsh conditions the groups have survived for thousands of years. The study elucidates the biological and behavioural processes leading to this successful adaptation.

Fertility in animals reflects access to scarce resources, such as food and territory. In humans the situation is more complex. Patterns of breast feeding, contraception and ideas about age at marriage and desired family size all affect fertility. The relation between these and access to scarce resources such as housing and employment, via income, education and other factors that affect status, is explored. In this book, the gap between socio-ecology and population demography is bridged, by showing how animals and humans adjust their fertility to environmental conditions.