Wat Moet Ons Met Ons Kerk Doen? is 'n poging om te probeer verstaan waar ons as Afrikaners teologies vandaan kom, watter kragte en magte ons en ons Kerk gevorm het en hoe ons Kerk tans daar uitsien.

Die N.G.Kerk was 'n belangrike en rigtinggewende rolspele in die opheffing van die Afrikaner na die Britse vergrype tydens en na die Tweede Vryheidsoorlog. Tans word die N.G.Kerk ervaar as 'n instansie wat ongevoelig teenoor die geestelike behoeftes van haar lidmate staan.

Hierdie is 'n moet-lees boek vir:

• Lidmate wat ons Kerk graag wil help om 'n gesonde, geestelike tuiste vir Suid-Afrikaners van die 21ste eeu te bied.
• Die klakkelose napraters van die dogma wat dink ons Kerk is steeds op die regte pad.
• Die plastiekpredikante van die radio en televisie wat met eentonige reëlmaat soetsappige, sogenaamd godsdienstige, pleisters plak.
• Diegene wat reeds ons Kerk tot die ashoop van die geloof verdoem het.

A groundbreaking exploration of the neuroscience of spirituality and a bold new paradigm for health, healing, and resilience.

Whether it's meditation or a walk in nature, reading a sacred text or saying a prayer, there are many ways to tap into a heightened awareness of the world around us and our place in it. Lisa Miller draws on decades of clinical experience and award-winning research to show that humans are universally equipped with this capacity for spirituality, and that our brains become more resilient and robust as a result of it. Bringing scientific rigour to the most intangible aspect of our lives, Miller's counterintuitive findings reveal the measurable positive effects of spirituality: for better decision-making, a healthier brain and an inspired life.

Brimming with inspiration and compassion, this landmark book revolutionizes our understanding of spirituality, mental health and how to find meaning and purpose in life.

A true-life scientific adventure story, this thrilling book takes the reader deep into South African caves to discover fossil remains that compel a monumental reframing of the human family tree.

In the summer of 2022, Lee Berger lost 50 pounds in order to wriggle though impossibly small openings in the Rising Star cave complex in South Africa—spaces where his team has been unearthing the remains of Homo naledi, a proto-human likely to have coexisted with Homo sapiens some 250,000 years ago. The lead researcher on the site, still Berger had never made his way into the dark, cramped, dangerous underground spaces where many of the naledi fossils had been found. Now he was ready to do so.

Once inside the cave, Berger made shocking new discoveries that expand our understanding of this early hominid—discoveries that stand to alter our fundamental understanding of what makes us human. So what does it all mean?

Join Berger on the adventure of a lifetime as he explores the Rising Star cave system and begins the complicated process of explaining these extraordinary finds—finds that force a rethinking of human evolution, and discoveries that Berger calls “the Rosetta stone of the human mind.”

A unified theory of conservation that addresses the broad problem of conservation, the principles that inform conservation choices, and the application of those principles to the management of the natural world. The conservation of natural resources, like that of any other asset, involves trade-offs. Yet, in a world faced with the harsh realities of climate change, crafting the right environmental policies is an increasingly urgent task. In Conservation, Charles Perrings and Ann Kinzig bring together new research in economics and biodiversity to investigate conservation decisions and the theory behind them. Perrings and Kinzig apply the concept of conservation broadly to examine how the principles of conservation apply to the management of the natural world. They demonstrate that the same basic principles serve as the foundation of all rational conservation decisions, from managing financial assets to safeguarding at-risk ecosystems. Whether someone is deciding to hold or dispose of a stock or whether to exploit or preserve a natural resource, they are better off choosing to conserve a resource when its value to them, if conserved, is greater than its value when converted. The book also considers the context of such conservation decisions. Just as national tax rules influence choices about financial investments, environmental regulations within countries, and environmental agreements between countries, impact the decisions regarding natural resources. Building on their basic theory of conservation, Perrings and Kinzig address key issues in the field of environmental economics, including the valuation of ecosystem services and environmental assets; the limits on the substitutability of produced and natural capital; and the challenges posed by the often weak markets for ecosystem services oriented toward the public good. They also address the problem of scale: while decisions might be easier to make at the local level, many conservation policies need to apply at either the national or international level to succeed. Written by experts from both social and hard sciences, this book presents a unified theory of conservation and provides a model for a more effective way to approach the vitally important issue.

J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964) is widely appreciated as one of the greatest and most influential British scientists of the 20th century, making significant contributions to genetics, physiology, biochemistry, biometry, cosmology, and other sciences. More remarkable, then, is the fact that Haldane had no formal qualification in science. He made frequent appearances in the media, making pronouncements on a variety of poignant topics including mining disasters, meteorites, politics, and the economy, and was a popular scientific essay writer. Haldane also was famed for conducting painful experiments on himself, including several instances in which he permanently himself. A staunch Marxist and convert to Hinduism, Haldane lived a diverse, lively and interesting life that is still revered by today's science community. A biography of Haldane has not been attempted since 1968, and that book provided an incomplete account of the man's scientific achievement. "The Life and Works of J.B.S. Haldane" serves to fix this glaring omission, providing a complete biographical sketch written by Krishna Dronamraju, one of the last living men to have worked personally with Haldane. A new genre of biographies of 20th-century scientists has come into being, and thus far works have been written about men like Einstein, Oppenheimer, Bernal, Galton, and many more; the inclusion of Haldane within this genre is an absolute necessity. Dronamraju evaluates Haldane's social and political background, as well as his scientific creativity and accomplishments. Haldane embodies a generation of intellectuals who believed and promoted knowledge for its own sake, and that spirit of scientific curiosity and passion is captured in this biography.

In the past few years, the subject of climate change has frequently garnered headlines due to the usual political controversy surrounding it. However, setting aside the argument as to whether climate change is a man-made effect or not, we cannot deny the fact that humanity has been discharging carbon increasingly into the atmosphere for centuries. Likewise, similar reports on the growing Great Pacific Garbage Patch-and the general accumulation of plastics everywhere-are alarming. Moreover, it has also been recently demonstrated that microplastics are finally entering the food webs which include the human consumer. Air, soil, and water pollution are increasing; in some ways forcing certain countries and governments to modify their politics, while also creating new opportunities and opening new niches for the marketing of products, such as air and water filters. With current techniques, it is not possible to completely eliminate all toxic and hazardous waste, which means that security deposits are necessary. Security deposits are storage areas prepared for certain toxic and dangerous industrial waste, so that its harmful properties cannot affect the natural environment and human health-at least, in any case, for a very long time. Due to their geomorphological composition, topography, and hydrographic conditions, there are sites that can be used as waste deposits, given their natural isolation and projected stability for hundreds of years. Thus, they become security deposits. In addition, every day new materials and construction techniques are developed that allow for a total isolation of the waste. A relatively new view in the material life cycle is the reuse of the generated waste as new resources. This helps to mitigate the cost increases in raw materials, energy, and regulations regarding waste disposal, which have caused the industry to rethink its production methods, leading to a better use of raw materials and energy. Clean technologies are those used by the industry to reduce the need for treatment or disposal of waste and to reduce the demand for raw materials, energy, and water. For the proper implementation of clean technologies, industries and municipalities must develop a deep understanding of their own processes and activities, and must analyze the characteristics of their equipment and make any possible modifications. An environmental evaluation of the situation provides suitable information on the efficiency of each component and its integration in the whole process, on the proportion of waste, on energy consumption, and on how to reorganize or modify to improve cost-efficiency in economic and environmental terms, which in a middle term view results in synergistic goals. With this concise introduction to the world of waste and pollutant treatment technologies, the editors believe it is clear that the solutions are to be developed on a case-by-case basis; because the larger the number of mixed pollutants, the more complex and intimated the process will be. This book presents a series of selected approaches that can be used to approach different cases, also depending upon budget and viability of a sustainable approach. This book serves as a source of information, triggers ideas, and fosters interaction between all the players taking action in sustainable development initiatives.

Professor Steve Peters is a Consultant Psychiatrist and author of the bestselling self-help book, The Chimp Paradox. He has years of experience as a clinician, an educator and has worked with some of the world's most successful athletes. His new book 'A Path through the Jungle' will help you to become robust and resilient. Professor Peters explains complex neuroscience in straightforward terms with his Chimp Management Mind Model Robust: Becoming robust means having plans in place to manage your own mind and whatever situations you meet in life. Resilient: is being able to bounce back and manage the challenges of life. Resilience is a skill. A Path through the Jungle offers a structured programme with exercises and practical real-life examples. This book will help you to improve in areas such as: * Managing stress and anxiety * Improved relationships * Emotional management * Grief and loss * Self-confidence * Peace of mind * Happiness * Managing stress

In 2005, The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) provided the first global assessment of the world's ecosystems and ecosystem services. It concluded that recent trends in ecosystem change threatened human wellbeing due to declining ecosystem services. This bleak prophecy has galvanized conservation organizations, ecologists, and economists to work toward rigorous valuations of ecosystem services at a spatial scale and with a resolution that can inform public policy.
The editors have assembled the world's leading scientists in the fields of conservation, policy analysis, and resource economics to provide the most intensive and best technical analyses of ecosystem services to date. A key idea that guides the science is that the modelling and valuation approaches being developed should use data that are readily available around the world. In addition, the book documents a toolbox of ecosystem service mapping, modeling, and valuation models that both The Nature Conservancy and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) are beginning to apply around the world as they transform conservation from a biodiversity only to a people and ecosystem services agenda. The book addresses land, freshwater, and marine systems at a variety of spatial scales and includes discussion of how to treat both climate change and cultural values when examining tradeoffs among ecosystem services.

Why do people find monkeys and apes so compelling to watch? One clear answer is that they seem so similar to us-a window into our own minds and how we have evolved over millennia. As Charles Darwin wrote in his Notebook, "He who understands baboon would do more toward metaphysics than Locke." Darwin recognized that behavior and cognition, and the neural architecture that support them, evolved to solve specific social and ecological problems. Defining these problems for neurobiological study, and conveying neurobiological results to ethologists and psychologists, is fundamental to an evolutionary understanding of brain and behavior. The goal of this book is to do just that. It collects, for the first time in a single book, information on primate behavior and cognition, neurobiology, and the emerging discipline of neuroethology. Here leading scientists in several fields review work ranging from primate foraging behavior to the neurophysiology of motor control, from vocal communication to the functions of the auditory cortex. The resulting synthesis of cognitive, ethological, and neurobiological approaches to primate behavior yields a richer understanding of our primate cousins that also sheds light on the evolutionary development of human behavior and cognition.

Levels of mycotoxin contamination in agricultural commodities are regulated in more than 100 countries, and exposure to these naturally occurring toxins presents serious risks to the health of humans and animals with negative impacts to commodity values. This symposium series book presents significant scientific developments in the multifaceted approach to reducing exposure to these naturally occurring toxins. A broad-spectrum of subject matter of the multidisciplinary field of mycotoxin research is conveniently compiled in this single volume, and general themes include prevention, control, exposure, molecular biology, biosynthesis, analytical methodology, and emerging techniques. The book opens with an overview of prevention of mycotoxin production by means of biological control and human exposure to contaminated foods, including tofu, apples, figs, and a broad range of fruits.
The second section focuses on molecular biological approaches to control mycotoxin exposure. Topics covered include genomic approaches, detoxification, structure-activity studies of biosynthetic precursors, and mycotoxin biosynthesis. The success of these strategies is supported by the reduction of mycotoxin occurrence and incidence in foods. Accurate estimates of mycotoxin concentration in foods are important for food safety and wholesomeness.
The final section covers analytical approaches, including sampling plans for foods and dietary supplements, extraction efficiency of mycotoxins from naturally contaminated grains, traditional detection methods such as chromatography/mass spectrometry, and emerging techniques such as the use of molecularly imprinted polymers for purification and isolation and cyclodextrins for fluorescent enhancement of several mycotoxins.

Cognitive psychology has matured and flourished in the last half-century, as new theories, research tools, and theoretical frameworks have allowed cognitive psychologists and researchers to explore a broad array of topics. In the same vein, the depth of understanding and the methodological and theoretical sophistication have also grown in wonderful ways. Given the expanse of the field, an up-to-date and inclusive resource such as this handbook is needed for aspiring generalists who wish to read the book cover to cover, and for the many readers who are simply curious to know the current happenings in other cognition laboratories. Guided by this need, this volume's 64 chapters cover all aspects of cognition, spanning perceptual issues, attention, memory, knowledge representation, language, emotional influences, judgment, problem solving, and the study of individual differences in cognition. Additional chapters turn to the control of complex actions and the social, cultural, and developmental context of cognition. The authors include a mix of well-established influential figures and younger colleagues in order to gain an understanding of the field's forward trajectory. The volume also includes a mix of "tutorial" chapters and chapters that powerfully represent a particular research team's point of view.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

'Motor Cognition' describes the field of motor cognition - one to which the author's contribution has been seminal. The book examines how the motor actions we perform and watch others perform play a pivotal role in the construction of the 'self' - our ability to acknowledge and recognise our own identity.

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.

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.

While politicians, entrepreneurs, and even school children could tell you that sustainability is an important and nearly universal value, many of them, and many of us, may struggle to define the term, let alone trace its history. What is sustainability? Is it always about the environment? What science do we need to fully grasp what it requires? What does sustainability mean for business? How can governments plan for a sustainable future? This short, accessible book written in the signature question-and-answer format of the What Everyone Needs to Know (R) series tackles these and numerous other questions. Sustainability is a porous topic, which has been adapted and reshaped for developing ecological models, improving corporate responsibility, setting environmental and land-use policies, organizing educational curricula, and reimagining the goals of governance and democracy. Where other treatments of this topic tend to focus on just one application of sustainability, this primer encompasses everything from global development and welfare to social justice and climate change. With chapters that discuss sustainability in the contexts of profitable businesses, environmental risks, scientific research, and the day-to-day business of local government, it gives readers a deep understanding of one of the most essential concepts of our time. Bringing to bear experience in natural resource conservation, agriculture, the food industry, and environmental ethics, authors Paul B. Thompson and Patricia E. Norris explain clearly what sustainability means, and why getting it right is so important for the future of our planet.

Current Legal Issues, like its sister volume Current Legal Problems, is based upon an annual colloquium held at University College London. Each year, leading scholars from around the world gather to discuss the relationship between law and another discipline of thought. Each colloquium examines how the external discipline is conceived in legal thought and argument, how the law is pictured in that discipline, and analyses points of controversy in the use, and abuse, of extra-legal arguments within legal theory and practice.
Law and Bioethics, the latest volume in the Current Legal Issues series, contains a broad range of essays by scholars interested in the interactions between law and bioethics. It includes studies examining the regulation of stem cell research, human rights and bioethics, the regulation of reproductive technologies, and distributive justice in healthcare and pandemic planning.

The Motoneurone and its Muscle Fibres presents a state-of-the-art summary of knowledge concerning the motoneurones, vital for innervating and commanding skeletal muscles. No muscle action would be possible without motoneurones. These cells are therefore absolutely essential for the execution of normal behaviour and for life support. It is their degeneration that leads to various kinds of motoneurone disease (e.g. ALS) that are often ultimately lethal. However, the study of motoneurones is also important for general insights as to how neurones work, because the motoneurone is probably the best understood kind of nerve cell so far in neuroscience. Motoneurones of the spinal cord were the first type of central nerve cell to be subjected to detailed physiological measurements, and much is known about how their activity is regulated by synapses from other central neurones. For most of the individual neurones within the central nervous system, the precise functional tasks are difficult to define. However, for motoneurones much is now known about their short- and long-term interactions with their main targets, the skeletal muscle fibres. Functions of neurones must be analyzed in relation to the response properties of their target cells. Therefore, this book deals with both, summarizing classical as well as recent knowledge concerning the motoneurone and its muscle fibres. This is the first time that so many aspects of this broad subject matter are treated in one comprehensive monograph.