DESCRIPTION:
Current Topics in Membranes provides a systematic, comprehensive, and rigorous approach to specific topics relevant to the study of cellular membranes. Each volume is a guest edited compendium of membrane biology. Articles in this volume discuss ion transport;
ocular aquaporins and aqueous humor dynamics;
the role of Ggap junction channels in the ciliary body secretory epithelium; regional dependence of inflow; functional modulators linking Iinflow with outflow of aqueous humor; aqueous humor outflow resistance; aqueous humor dynamics; the effects of circulatory events on
aqueous humor inflow and intraocular pressure; retinal ganglion cells and glaucoma; what functional genomics is teaching us about intraocular pressure regulation and glaucoma;
molecular approaches to glaucoma; outflow signaling mechanisms and new therapeutic strategies for the control of intraocular pressure.
*Guest edited by cell membrane experts
*Dynamic and thorough coverage of all aspects of the aqueous humor from inflow to outflow
*Provides the latest teachings on genomics and glaucoma
*Highlights new therapeutic strategies for the control of intraocular pressure

Eye-movement recording has become the method of choice in a wide variety of disciplines investigating how the mind and brain work. This volume brings together recent, high-quality eye-movement research from many different disciplines and, in doing so, presents a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art in eye-movement research.
Sections include the history of eye-movement research, physiological and clinical studies of eye movements, transsaccadic integration, computational modelling of eye movements, reading, spoken language processing, attention and scene perception, and eye-movements in natural environments.
* Includes recent research from a variety of disciplines
* Divided into sections based on topic areas, with an overview chapter beginning each section
* Through the study of eye movements we can learn about the human mind, and eye movement recording has become the method of choice in many disciplines

This book discusses the community of microbial species (the microbiota, microbiome), which inhabits the large bowel of humans. Written from the perspective of an academic who has been familiar with the topic for 40 years, it provides a long-term perspective of knowledge about this high profile and fast-moving topic. Building on general ecological principles, the book aims to help the reader to understand how the microbiota is formed, how it works, and what the consequences are to humans. Understanding the Gut Microbiota focuses on conceptual progress made from studies of the human bowel microbiota. Where appropriate, it draws on knowledge obtained from other animal species to provide conceptual enlightenment, but this is essentially a book about humans and their bowel microbes. Particular research approaches are recommended to fill knowledge gaps so that fundamental ecological theory and information about the microbiota can be translated into benefits for human health. The relationship between food for humans and resulting food for bowel bacteria emerges as an important topic for consideration. This concise scholarly treatise of the microbiota of the human bowel will be of great interest and use as a text and reference work for professionals, teachers and students across a wide range of disciplines, including the health sciences, general biology, and food science and technology. The provision of handy explanation of terms means that those with a general interest in science can also read the book with enjoyment.

Volume 5 in the series "Advances in Structural Biology" is based upon a selection of articles presented at the Workshop on Molecular Bio-physics of the Cytoskeleton: Microtubule Formation, Structure, Function, and Interactions (August 18-22 1997 at the Banff Conference Centre in Banff, Alberta, Canada). Its main objective was to review the state-of-the-art of the field and stimulate a multidisciplinary investigation into the molecular biology of the cytoskeleton, which is amply manifested in the articles selected and published in this volume.

The Myocardium, Second Edition is a comprehensive presentation of cardiac function, including ultrastructure, cellular development and morphogenesis, ion channels, ion transporters, excitation-contraction coupling and calcium compartmentation, mechanics and force production, and energy metabolism. The Second Edition presents the new molecular, subcellular, and cellular developments which have occurred in this rapidly expanding field during the past 22 years.
Key Features
* Comprehensive overview of all aspects of heart function at the cellular, subcellular, and molecular level
* Integrates molecular events to give understanding of global cardiac function
* Includes basis of important pathological states

This book presents the human hand from an overall perspective from the first appearance of hand-like structures in the fins of big fishes living millions of years ago to todays and the future s mind-controlled artificial hands.

Much focus is given to the extremely well-developed sensation of the hand, its importance and its linkage to brain plasticity mechanisms. How can active hands rapidly expand their representational area in the brain? How can the sense of touch substitute for other deficient senses, such as in Braille reading where hand sensation substitutes for missing vision? How can the mere observation of active hands, belonging to others, activate the hand area in the observer s own brain and what is the importance of this phenomenon for learning by imitation and the understanding of other peoples actions, gestures and body language?Why are some of us left-handed and what are the consequences from cultural and physiological viewpoints? Why does phantom sensation and phantom pain occur after hand amputation, and what can we do about it? Why can salamanders regenerate new extremities while humans can not? Is it possible to transplant a hand from a diseased individual to an amputee? Can artificial robotic hands be controlled by our mind, and can they ever gain the role of a normal hand?What role did the hand and the brain play during evolutionin toolconstruction and development of language and cognitive functions? The hand has a high symbolic value in religion, literature and art and our hands have a key role in gestures and body language.

"The Hand and the Brain" is aimed at anybody with interest in life sciences, in the medical field especially hand surgeons, orthopaedic specialists, neurologists and general practitioners, and those working in rehabilitation medicine and pain treatment. The original Swedish version of "The Hand and the Brain "has also become very popular among physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, and among a general population with an interest in science. "

Airway sensory nerve terminals are tailored to detect changes in the physical and chemical environment, thereby supplying local pulmonary information to the central nervous system. Since most intrapulmonary nerve terminals arise from fibres travelling in the vagal nerve, the classification of sensory airway receptors' is largely based on their action potential characteristics, electrophysiologically registered from the vagal nerve. However, the architecture of airways and lungs makes it nearly impossible to functionally locate the exact nerve terminals that are responsible for the transduction of a particular intrapulmonary stimulus. In this monograph we focus on three sensory receptor end organs in lungs that are currently morphologically well-characterised: smooth muscle-associated airway receptors (SMARs), neuroepithelial bodies (NEBs) and visceral pleura receptors (VPRs). Unravelling the main functional morphological and neurochemical characteristics of these sensory receptors using advanced immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy has already allowed us to draw important conclusions about their potential function(s). The current development of ex vivo lung models for the selective identification of SMARs, NEBs and VPRs using vital staining will certainly facilitate direct physiological studies of these morphologically well-characterised airway receptors, since these models allow direct live studies of their functional properties.

Leading neuroscientist Gordon M. Shepherd embarks on a paradigm-shifting trip through the "human brain flavor system," laying the foundations for a new scientific field: neurogastronomy. Challenging the belief that the sense of smell diminished during human evolution, Shepherd argues that this sense, which constitutes the main component of flavor, is far more powerful and essential than previously believed. Shepherd begins Neurogastronomy with the mechanics of smell, particularly the way it stimulates the nose from the back of the mouth. As we eat, the brain conceptualizes smells as spatial patterns, and from these and the other senses it constructs the perception of flavor. Shepherd then considers the impact of the flavor system on contemporary social, behavioral, and medical issues. He analyzes flavor's engagement with the brain regions that control emotion, food preferences, and cravings, and he even devotes a section to food's role in drug addiction and, building on Marcel Proust's iconic tale of the madeleine, its ability to evoke deep memories. Shepherd connects his research to trends in nutrition, dieting, and obesity, especially the challenges that many face in eating healthily. He concludes with human perceptions of smell and flavor and their relationship to the neural basis of consciousness. Everyone from casual diners and ardent foodies to wine critics, chefs, scholars, and researchers will delight in Shepherd's fascinating, scientific-gastronomic adventures.

The past ten years have witnessed intense research on the function of orbitofrontal cortex. As a result, the orbitofrontal cortex has been assigned roles in a number of human behaviors and emotions, from tasks such as assessing economic value and making decisions to the emotional states of regret and uncertainty. Orbitofrontal dysfunction has also been implicated in a variety of human disease states, including addiction, depression and bipolar, obsessive-compulsive, and attention deficit disorders.

Despite an enormous increase in our knowledge about this region, we still do not have an account of the contributions that the orbitofrontal cortex makes across different circuits to support human behavior, nor do we understand how changes in this structure or its connectivity may contribute to disease states. This volume explores areas of research are critical to move the field beyond a circuit-centric view of the orbitofrontal cortex to define the roles this area plays in human behavior and mental health. NOTE: Annals volumes are available for sale as individual books or as a journal. For information on institutional journal subscriptions, please visit http: //ordering.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/subs.asp?ref=1749-6632&doi=10.1111/(ISSN)1749-6632.

ACADEMY MEMBERS: Please contact the New York Academy of Sciences directly to place your order (www.nyas.org). Members of the New York Academy of Science receive full-text access to "Annals" online and discounts on print volumes. Please visit http: //www.nyas.org/MemberCenter/Join.aspx for more information about becoming a member.

In Mecanisme de la Physionomie Humaine, the great nineteenth-century French neurologist Duchenne de Boulogne combined his intimate knowledge of facial anatomy with his skill in photography and expertise in using electricity to stimulate individual facial muscles to produce a fascinating interpretation of the ways in which the human face portrays emotions. This book was pivotal in the development of psychology and physiology as it marked the first time that photography had been used to illustrate, and therefore "prove," a series of experiments. Duchenne's book, which contained over 100 original photographic prints pasted into an accompanying Album, was rare, even when it first appeared in 1862. Duchenne was a superb clinical neurologist and in this study he applied his enormous experience in neurological research to the question of the mechanism of human facial expression. Duchenne has been little cited and little known in this century; his book has been virtually unobtainable, and copies are available in only a few libraries in the United States and Europe.

Leading neuroscientist Gordon M. Shepherd embarks on a paradigm-shifting trip through the "human brain flavor system," laying the foundations for a new scientific field: neurogastronomy. Challenging the belief that the sense of smell diminished during human evolution, Shepherd argues that this sense, which constitutes the main component of flavor, is far more powerful and essential than previously believed.

Shepherd begins "Neurogastronomy" with the mechanics of smell, particularly the way it stimulates the nose from the back of the mouth. As we eat, the brain conceptualizes smells as spatial patterns, and from these and the other senses it constructs the perception of flavor. Shepherd then considers the impact of the flavor system on contemporary social, behavioral, and medical issues. He analyzes flavor's engagement with the brain regions that control emotion, food preferences, and cravings, and he even devotes a section to food's role in drug addiction and, building on Marcel Proust's iconic tale of the madeleine, its ability to evoke deep memories.

Shepherd connects his research to trends in nutrition, dieting, and obesity, especially the challenges that many face in eating healthily. He concludes with human perceptions of smell and flavor and their relationship to the neural basis of consciousness. Everyone from casual diners and ardent foodies to wine critics, chefs, scholars, and researchers will delight in Shepherd's fascinating, scientific-gastronomic adventures.

Because of developments in powerful computer technology, computational techniques, advances in a wide spectrum of diverse technologies, and other advances coupled with cross disciplinary pursuits between technology and its greatly significant applied implications in human body processes, the field of biomechanics is evolving as a broadly significant area. This Third Volume presents the advances in widely diverse areas with significant implications for human betterment that occur continuously at a high rate. These include dynamics of musculo-skeletal systems; mechanics of hard and soft tissues; mechanics of muscle; mechanics of bone remodeling; mechanics of implant-tissue interfaces; cardiovascular and respiratory biomechanics; mechanics of blood flow, air flow, flow-prosthesis interfaces; mechanics of impact; dynamics of man machine interaction; and numerous other areas. The great breadth and depth of the field of biomechanics on the international scene requires at least four volumes for adequate treatment. These four volumes constitute a well integrated set that can be utilized as individual volumes. They provide a substantively significant and rather comprehensive, in-depth treatment of biomechanic systems and techniques that is most surely unique on the international scene.

The secretions of the exocrine pancreas provide for digestion of a meal into components that are then available for processing and absorption by the intestinal epithelium. Without the exocrine pancreas, malabsorption and malnutrition result. This chapter describes the cellular participants responsible for the secretion of digestive enzymes and fluid that in combination provide a pancreatic secretion that accomplishes the digestive functions of the gland. Key cellular participants, the acinar cell and the duct cell, are responsible for digestive enzyme and fluid secretion, respectively, of the exocrine pancreas. This chapter describes the neurohumoral pathways that mediate the pancreatic response to a meal as well as details of the cellular mechanisms that are necessary for the organ responses, including protein synthesis and transport and ion transports, and the regulation of these responses by intracellular signaling systems. Examples of pancreatic diseases resulting from dysfunction in cellular mechanisms provide emphasis of the importance of the normal physiologic mechanisms. Table of Contents: Introduction / Anatomy / Pancreatic Embryology and Development / Digestive Enzymes / Water and Ion Secretion from the Pancreatic Ductal System / Regulation of Whole-Organ Pancreatic Secretion / Measurement of Exocrine Pancreatic Secretion in Humans / Clinical Application of Knowledge of Pancreatic Physiology / Summary / References

This concise introduction to the gastrointestinal system encapsulates the fundamental facts and principles of this rapidly growing and changing specialty. Written by experienced clinicians and teachers, the text covers the basic concepts of both the science surrounding the gastrointestinal system and the basics of clinical practice in an accessible, lucid format. Now fully supported by a companion website at www.ataglanceseries.com/gastro containing interactive MCQs and downloadable digital flashcards, The Gastrointestinal System at a Glance is the ideal revision aid for medical and allied health students, and provides valuable insight for anyone seeking a comprehensive and concise guide to this subject area. * Fully revised and updated to include further coverage of diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy, revised liver chapters and a new chapter on embryology * Now in full colour throughout * Supported by a companion website containing interactive self-assessment and digital flashcards - perfect for both study and revision * Provides an integrated approach to both the basic and clinical science of this core specialty

Olfaction and its relation to mental health is an area of growing interest, evidenced by the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine being awarded for discoveries relating to odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system. Olfaction is of particular interest to specialists seeking a fuller understanding of schizophrenia, as clear deficits in the sense of smell could predict schizophrenia in apparently unaffected individuals. In this timely book, Warrick Brewer and his team of experts set out our current understanding of olfaction and mental health, relating it to broader principles of neural development and processing as a foundation for understanding psychopathology. The neuropathological, neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric aspects of olfactory function and disfunction are all covered (drawing on the latest neuroimaging techniques where appropriate), and indications for future research and applications are discussed. This will be a source of state-of-the art information and inspiration to all mental health professionals.

Containing a selection of teaching tools for general anatomy and pathology, this work, with flip charts, offers an overview and understanding of the subject matter. It is useful for student or patient education. It is suitable for the home, the school library, or the physicians office and can be written on by a dry marker.

Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product. Gain a complete understanding of the functioning of the gastrointestinal system with this concise, engagingly written textGastrointestinal Physiology explains the operation and performance of one of the body's most crucial systems. Using clear, compelling language, the book's presentation makes it easy to absorb the content andintegrate it as you learn the physiology of other bodilysystems. Written to help you understand essential conceptsrather than merely memorize facts, this unique textexamines many medically relevant facets of this important body system, including anatomy, pathophysiology, andtherapeutics, in concert with physiological information. FEATURES: Provides a thorough review of core concepts and highlights clinical application Covers the physiologic principles needed to understand and treat patients with digestive and liver diseases Includes clinical examples that link basic science with the practice of medicine Incorporates new information on emerging topics such as the communication between the intestine and central nervous system that controls food intake, the myriad rolesnewly ascribed to the intestinal microbiota, contemporary approaches to therapy for a number of GI maladies, and the role of the gut in obesity Enhanced by valuable learning aids such as study questions, learning objectives, key concepts, numerous illustrations and charts, and recommended readings

Visual attention is a relatively new area of study combining a number of disciplines: artificial neural networks, artificial intelligence, vision science and psychology. The aim is to build computational models similar to human vision in order to solve tough problems for many potential applications including object recognition, unmanned vehicle navigation, and image and video coding and processing. In this book, the authors provide an up to date and highly applied introduction to the topic of visual attention, aiding researchers in creating powerful computer vision systems. Areas covered include the significance of vision research, psychology and computer vision, existing computational visual attention models, and the authors' contributions on visual attention models, and applications in various image and video processing tasks. This book is geared for graduates students and researchers in neural networks, image processing, machine learning, computer vision, and other areas of biologically inspired model building and applications. The book can also be used by practicing engineers looking for techniques involving the application of image coding, video processing, machine vision and brain-like robots to real-world systems. Other students and researchers with interdisciplinary interests will also find this book appealing. * Provides a key knowledge boost to developers of image processing applications * Is unique in emphasizing the practical utility of attention mechanisms * Includes a number of real-world examples that readers can implement in their own work: * robot navigation and object selection * image and video quality assessment * image and video coding * Provides codes for users to apply in practical attentional models and mechanisms

This book contains all of Leonardo Da Vinci's drawings on the heart and its physiology, accompanied by re-translations of all of the associated notes. All Leonardo's drawings have been interpreted in the light of modern knowledge by a practicing cardiac clinician and anatomist. The veracity of his work is proven against contemporary dissections of cardiac structure and comparison of his illustrations with contemporary images generated by Magnetic Resonance scanners and high definition ultrasound will astound the reader. Perhaps the most interesting element is the re-dissection of the Ox heart set against Leonardo's own drawings. His place in the greater scheme of anatomical development will be put into context with his ideas of man's place in the microcosm/macrocosm continuum.

This book provides accurate information about the scientific rationale for an increase of attention of clinicians towards the mechanisms involved in hypertension, a pathology in which it is difficult to reach optimal efficacy with the currently used treatments. The book will appeal to medical students, basic science students and biomedical researchers, as well non-medical professionals interested in this field.