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Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Life sciences: general issues
Networks of Invasion bridges a conceptual gap between ecological network studies and invasion biology studies. This book contains chapters detailing pressing concerns regarding invasive species in food webs, but also extends the idea of networks of invasion to other systems, such as mutualistic networks or even the human microbiome. Chapters describe the tools, models, and empirical methods adapted for tackling invasions in ecological networks.
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.
Essential Clinically Applied Anatomy of the Nerves in the Head and Neck presents the reader with an easy access format to clinically-applied peripheral nervous system (PNS) anatomy. Perfect for a quick reference to essential details. The chapters review nerves of the head and neck, the origin(s), course, distribution and relevant pathologies affecting each are given, where relevant. The pathologies present typical injuries to the nerves of the PNS, as well as clinical findings on examination and treatments. It details modern clinical approaches to the surgery and other treatments of these nerve pathologies, as applicable to the clinical scenario.
Essential Clinical Anatomy of the Nervous System is designed to combine the salient points of anatomy with typical pathologies affecting each of the major pathways that are directly applicable in the clinical environment. In addition, this book highlights the relevant clinical examinations to perform when examining a patient's neurological system, to demonstrate pathology of a certain pathway or tract. Essential Clinical Anatomy of the Nervous System enables the reader to easily access the key features of the anatomy of the brain and main pathways which are relevant at the bedside or clinic. It also highlights the typical pathologies and reasoning behind clinical findings to enable the reader to aid deduction of not only what is wrong with the patient, but where in the nervous system that the pathology is.
The Two Selves takes the position that the self is not a "thing" easily reduced to an object of scientific analysis. Rather, the self consists in a multiplicity of aspects, some of which have a neuro-cognitive basis (and thus are amenable to scientific inquiry) while other aspects are best construed as first-person subjectivity, lacking material instantiation. As a consequence of its potential immateriality, the subjective aspect of self cannot be taken as an object and therefore is not easily amenable to treatment by current scientific methods. Klein argues that to fully appreciate the self, its two aspects must be acknowledged, since it is only in virtue of their interaction that the self of everyday experience becomes a phenomenological reality. However, given their different metaphysical commitments (i.e., material and immaterial aspects of reality), a number of issues must be addressed. These include, but are not limited to, the possibility of interaction between metaphysically distinct aspects of reality, questions of causal closure under the physical, the principle of energy conservation, and more. After addressing these concerns, Klein presents evidence based on self-reports from case studies of individuals who suffer from a chronic or temporary loss of their sense of personal ownership of their mental states. Drawing on this evidence, he argues that personal ownership may be the factor that closes the metaphysical gap between the material and immaterial selves, linking these two disparate aspects of reality, thereby enabling us to experience a unified sense of self despite its underlying multiplicity.
"Immune Biology of Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation" provides clinical and scientific researchers with a deep understanding of the current research in this field and the implications for translational practice. By providing an overview of the immune biology of HSCT, an explanation of immune rejection, and detail on antigens and their role in HSCT success, this book embraces biologists and clinicians who need a broad view of the deeply complex processes involved. It then moves on to discuss the immunobiology mechanisms that influence graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect, and transplantation success. Using illustrative figures, highlighting key issues, describing recent successes and discussing unanswered questions, this book sums up the current state of HSCT to enhance the prospects for the future. Allogeneic HSCT is a medical procedure in which a patient receives blood-forming stem cells from a genetically similar but not identical donor. This procedure is commonly performed for people with diseases of the blood, bone marrow, or certain cancers, but it remains risky with many possible complications. As such, experimental practice is reserved for preclinical animal models including the mouse and dog. These animal models have been essential in developing transplant
protocols, including preclinical testing of conditioning regimens,
treatment of GVHD, and understanding the pathology of GVHD as well
as the immunological mechanisms of GVHD and GVL effect. However,
recent research has revealed significant species differences
between humans and animal models that must be considered when
relating animal model studies to clinical allogeneic HSCT
scenarios.
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.
In recent years, a number of academic and commercial software
packages and databases have been developed for the analysis and
screening of biological data; however, the usability of these data
is compromised by so-called novel genes to which no biological
function is assigned. Annotating new genes outlines an approach to
the analysis of evolutionary-conserved, heart-enriched genes with
unknown functions, offering a step-by-step description of the
procedure from screening to validation. The book begins by offering
an introduction to the databases and software available, before
moving on to cover programming guidelines, including a specific
case study on the use of C-It for in silico screening. The second
half of the book offers a step-by-step guide to experimental
validation concepts and procedures, as well as an overview of
additional potential applications of this approach in the field of
stem cells and tissue regeneration, before a concluding chapter
summarises the concepts and theories presented.
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.
The senses can be powerful triggers for memories of our past,
eliciting a range of both positive and negative emotions. The smell
or taste of a long forgotten sweet can stimulate a rich emotional
response connected to our childhood, or a piece of music transport
us back to our adolescence. Sense memories can be linked to all the
senses - sound, vision, and even touch can also trigger intense and
emotional memories of our past.
Advances in genomics and biotechnology are enabling quantum leaps in the understanding of soybean molecular biology. The problems that face the soybean industry also are diversifying and escalating on a global scale. Designing Soybeans for 21st Century outlines current and emerging barriers in the global soybean market, principally: 1) long-term ability to sustain production to meet continued growth in demand for soybean and soybean products; 2) governmental and legislative policies; 3) global access to advances in soybean technology; and 4) customer and consumer trends in the use of soybean products. The book also addresses state-of-art steps that should help move soybeans past these market barriers as advances in genomics and genetic engineering are deployed to design soybeans and soybean products that meet the challenges of 21st century markets.
For over thirty years Susan Wolf has been writing about moral and nonmoral values and the relation between them. This volume collects Wolf's most important essays on the topics of morality, love, and meaning, ranging from her classic essay "Moral Saints" to her most recent "The Importance of Love." Wolf's essays warn us against the common tendency to classify values in terms of a dichotomy that contrasts the personal, self-interested, or egoistic with the impersonal, altruistic or moral. On Wolf's view, this tendency ignores or distorts the significance of such values as love, beauty, and truth, and neglects the importance of meaningfulness as a dimension of the good life. These essays show us how a self-conscious recognition of the variety of values leads to new understandings of the point, the content, and the limits of morality and to new ways of thinking about happiness and well-being.
Despite the massive scale of global inequalities, until recently few political philosophers or bioethicists addressed their ethical implications. Questions of justice were thought to be primarily internal to the nation state. Over the last decade or so, there has been an explosion of interest in the philosophical issues surrounding global justice. These issues are of direct relevance to bioethics. The links between poverty and health imply that we cannot separate questions of global health from questions about fair distribution of global resources and the institutions governing the world order. Similarly, as increasing numbers of medical trials are conducted in the developing world, researchers and their sponsors have to confront the special problems of doing research in an unjust world, with corresponding obligations to correct injustice and avoid exploitation. This book presents a collection of original essays by leading thinkers in political theory, philosophy, and bioethics. They address the key issues concerning global justice and bioethics from two perspectives. The first is ideal theory, which is concerned with the social institutions that would regulate a just world. What is the relationship between human rights and the provision of health care? How, if at all, should a global order distinguish between obligations to compatriots and others? The second perspective is from non-ideal theory, which governs how people should behave in the unjust world in which we actually find ourselves. What sort of medical care should actual researchers working in impoverished countries offer their subjects? What should NGOs do in the face of cultural practices with which they deem unethical? If coordinated international action will not happen, what ought individual states to do? These questions have more than theoretical interest; their answers are of direct practical import for policymakers, researchers, advocates, NGOs, scholars, and others. This book is the first collection to comprehensively address the intersection of global justice and bioethical dilemmas.
While scholars typically view Plato's engagement with medicine as uniform and largely positive, Susan B. Levin argues that from the Gorgias through the Laws, his handling of medicine unfolds in several key phases. Further, she shows that Plato views medicine as an important rival for authority on phusis (nature) and eudaimonia (flourishing). Levin's arguments rest on careful attention both to Plato and to the Hippocratic Corpus. Levin shows that an evident but unexpressed tension involving medicine's status emerges in the Gorgias and is explored in Plato's critiques of medicine in the Symposium and Republic. In the Laws, however, this rivalry and tension dissolve. Levin addresses the question of why Plato's rivalry with medicine is put to rest while those with rhetoric and poetry continue. On her account, developments in his views of human nature, with their resulting impact on his political thought, drive Plato's striking adjustments involving medicine in the Laws. Levin's investigation of Plato is timely: for the first time in the history of bioethics, the value of ancient philosophy is receiving notable attention. Most discussions focus on Aristotle's concept of phronesis (practical wisdom); here, Levin argues that Plato has much to offer bioethics as it works to address pressing concerns about the doctor-patient tie, medical professionalism, and medicine's relationship to society.
Now published by "Academic Press" and revised from the author's previous "Five Kingdoms, Third Edition", this extraordinary, all inclusive catalogue of the world's living organisms describes the diversity of the major groups, or phyla, of nature's most inclusive taxa. Developed after consultation with specialists, this modern classification scheme is consistent both with the fossil record and with recent molecular, morphological and metabolic data. Generously illustrated, now in full color, "Kingdoms and Domains" is remarkably easy to read. It accesses the full range of life forms that still inhabit our planet and logically and explicitly classifies them according to their evolutionary relationships. Definitive characteristics of each phylum are professionally described in ways that, unlike most scientific literature, profoundly respect the needs of educators, students and nature lovers. This work is meant to be of interest to all evolutionists as well as to conservationists, ecologists, genomicists, geographers, microbiologists, museum curators, oceanographers, paleontologists and, especially nature lovers whether artists, gardeners or environmental activists. "Kingdoms and Domains" is a unique and indispensable reference for anyone intrigued by a planetary phenomenon: the spectacular diversity of life, both microscopic and macroscopic, as we know it only on Earth today. This work also carries: new foreword by Edward O. Wilson; the latest concepts of molecular systematics, symbiogenesis, and the evolutionary importance of microbes; newly expanded chapter openings that define each kingdom and place its members in context in geological time and ecological space; definitions of terms in the glossary and throughout the book; ecostrips, illustrations that place organisms in their most likely environments such as deep sea vents, tropical forests, deserts or hot sulfur springs; and, a new table that compares features of the most inclusive taxa. This book shows an application of a logical, authoritative, inclusive and coherent overall classification scheme based on evolutionary principles.
The book is based on data collected during the past 10 years by
Zackenberg Ecological Research Operations (ZERO) at Zackenberg
Research Station in northeast Greenland. This volume covers the
function of Arctic ecosystems based on the most comprehensive
long-term data set in the world from a well-defined Arctic
ecosystem. Editors offer a comprehensive and authoritative analysis
of how climate variability is influencing an Arctic ecosystem and
how the Arctic ecosystems have inherent feedback mechanisms
interacting with climate variability or change.
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.
In the last fifteen years, there has been significant interest in studying the brain structures involved in moral judgments using novel techniques from neuroscience such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Many people, including a number of philosophers, believe that results from neuroscience have the potential to settle seemingly intractable debates concerning the nature, practice, and reliability of moral judgments. This has led to a flurry of scientific and philosophical activities, resulting in the rapid growth of the new field of moral neuroscience. There is now a vast array of ongoing scientific research devoted towards understanding the neural correlates of moral judgments, accompanied by a large philosophical literature aimed at interpreting and examining the methodology and the results of this research. This is the first volume to take stock of fifteen years of research of this fast-growing field of moral neuroscience and to recommend future directions for research. It features the most up-to-date research in this area, and it presents a wide variety of perspectives on this topic.
Although we no longer live in the relative simplicity of the
Jurassic age, and even though we are not aware of them, primitive
mammalian brain that developed in that era still live on inside our
skulls and remain crucial to our daily functions. The challenges we
face today in the information age--how to process the vastly
greater, more varied and quickly changing inputs we receive--are
very different from those that our ancestors faced during the
Jurassic age. As we struggle to process overwhelming amounts of
information, we may sometimes ask whether our brains can change to
help us adapt. In fact, our brains have always changed gradually,
so the questions we should ask are really how our brains will
change, and whether we will be able to take full advantage of the
changes, perhaps even enhance them, to help us keep up with the
accelerating evolution of machines. To understand how our brains
will change, we need to understand how they evolved in the first
place, as well as how the interactions of the resulting brain
structures, including the relics of primitive mammalian and even
reptilian processes, influence how we think and act.
The book is based on data collected during the past ten years by
Zackenberg Ecological Research Operations (ZERO) at Zackenberg
Research Station in Northeast Greenland. This volume covers the
function of Arctic ecosystems based on the most comprehensive
long-term data set in the world from a well-defined Arctic
ecosystem. Editors offer a comprehensive and authoritative analysis
of how climate variability is influencing an Arctic ecosystem and
how the Arctic ecosystems have inherent feedback mechanisms
interacting with climate variability or change.
This textbook provides a thorough and comprehensive overview of the
human brain and spinal cord for medical and graduate students as
well as residents in the clinical neurosciences. Standing on the
shoulders of training from outstanding scientist-teacher mentors
and based on more than 30 years of experience teaching about the
brain and spinal cord to medical and graduate students, this single
authored text presents everything the reader would need as they
begin their study of the nervous system. At the same time the
experienced neuroscientist will find much useful and valuable
information in these pages that is based almost exclusively on
studies in experimental primates and observations in humans. Every
effort has been made to present the complexities of the nervous
system as simply and clearly as possible. The careful reader will
discover a clarity and depth of coverage that makes the reading
both instructional and enjoyable. Topics are presented logically
and the text in an easy-to-read style. The accompanying line
drawings emphasize important concepts in a clear and uncluttered
manner.
The " Radioactivity in the Environment Series" addresses the key
aspects of this socially important and complex interdisciplinary
subject. Presented objectively and with the ultimate authority
gained from the many contributions by the world's leading experts,
the negative and positive consequences of having a radioactive
world around us is documented and given perspective. In a world in
which nuclear science is not only less popular than in the past,
but also less extensively taught in universities and colleges, this
book series will fill a significant educational gap.
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.
This volume in the Progress in Brain Research series features reviews on the functional neuroanatomy and connectivity of the brain areas involved in controlling eye movements. Oculomotor control of the eyes is now the subject of many research projects and advances in this field are relevant to understanding motor control in general. |
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