Humana Press Inc. – förlag

This volume discusses the latest techniques and methodologies used in the neurotrophin field to study the physiology of the Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). The book provides the tools essential to any researcher that intends to explore the peculiar regulation of this neurotrophin from gene expression to its release and the signaling by TrkB receptors, as well as to study the neuronal responses to BDNF or the role of neurotrophin in various neurological diseases. In Neuromethods series style, chapters include the kind of detail and key advice from the specialists needed to get successful results in your laboratory.Cutting edge and comprehensive, Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor(BDNF) is a valuable resource for researchers who want to further study the diversity of physiological roles of this important growth factor.

This volume provides key molecular biological protocols and experimental strategies currently employed to study the various stages of mammary gland development. Chapters are divided into four parts covering genetically modified mouse models that exhibit prenatal and pubertal mammary gland phenotypes, 2D and 3D-model culture systems, methodologies for mammary stem cell isolation, and translational applications that provide a bridge between experimental studies of mammary gland development and the study of human breast cancer. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.Authoritative and cutting-edge, Mammary Gland Development: Methods and Protocols  will be useful for researchers whose primary interest is in mammary gland development; developmental biologists, epithelial cell biologists,  and those with an interest in molecular mechanisms underlying breast cancer.

This volume compiles methodologies used for detailed studies of histone variants, from their basic properties to their functional roles in chromatin and as vectors of epigenetic information. Its four sections cover experimental approaches to probe the biochemistry of histone variants and variant nucleosomes; their dynamics throughout the cell cycle and at specific genomic locations; their functional impact on chromosome organization and genome stability; and their importance in development, disease and evolution. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, illustrations on the expected results, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. This anthology brings together contributions from many of the most highly recognized investigators in this community.Cutting-edge and thorough, Histone Variants: Methods and Protocols is a valuable resource for anyone interested in exploring the experimental and collaborative possibilities in this evolving field.

Reflecting the development of powerful new tools and high-throughput methods to analyze adenoviral particles and their interactions with host cells, the third edition of Adenovirus Methods and Protocols calls upon experts in the field to convey advances in molecular biology, genomics and proteomics, imaging, and bioinformatics.  Beginning with cryo-electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and mass spectrometry for a high resolution image and characterization of the virion, this detailed book then continues with capsid modifications and viral-like particles as promising alternatives to classical adenovirus vectors, and the study of adenovirus in host interactions in vitro at the cellular level as well as in vivo in animal models. Finally, the volume concludes with an extensive update of the most efficient protocols to generate, amplify, and/or purify, at small and large scale, standard human Ad5 as well as non-human, chimeric, and helper-dependent adenovirus vectors. Written in the greatly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Comprehensive and cutting-edge, Adenovirus Methods and Protocols, Third Edition serves as an ideal guide for scientists continuing to research this highly valuable viral tool.

Gerald Reaven, the discoverer of Syndrome X, and a panel of world-class investigators thoughtfully summarize our current understanding of how insulin resistance and its compensating hyperinsulinemia play a major role in the pathogenesis and clinical course of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease-the so-called diseases of Western civilization. These distinguished authorities detail, for the first time, the pathophysiological consequences and the clinical syndromes, excluding Type 2 diabetes, related to insulin resistance. They also examine the genetic and lifestyle factors that contribute to the wide differences in insulin action that exist in the population at large. Timely and authoritative, Insulin Resistance: The Metabolic Syndrome X illuminates the full importance of insulin resistance as a major cause of hypertension, heart disease, and polycystic ovary syndrome.

The past few years have seen the emergence of a growing, widespread desire in this country, and indeed everywhere, that positive actions be taken to restore the quality of our environment, and to protect it from the degrading effects of all forms of pollution-air, noise, solid waste, and water. Since pollution is a direct or" indirect consequence of waste, if there is no waste, there can be no pollution, and the seemingly idealistic demand for" zero discharge" can be construed as a demand for zero waste. However, as long as there is waste, we can only attempt to abate the consequent pollution by converting it to a less noxious form. In those instances in which a particular type of pollution has been recognized, three major questions usually arise: 1, How serious is the pollution? 2, Is the technology to abate it available? and 3, Do the costs of abatement justify the degree of abatement achieved? The principal intention of this series of books is to help the reader to formulate answers to the last two of the above three questions. The traditional approach of applying tried-and-true solutions to specific pollution problems has been a major factor contributing to the success of environmental engineering, and in large measure has accounted for the establishing of a "methodology of pollution control.

Not long ago, a colleague chided me for using the term "the biological revolution. " Like many others, I have employed it as an umbrella term to refer to the seemingly vast, rapidly-moving, and fre­ quently bewildering developments of contemporary biomedicine: psy­ chosurgery, genetic counseling and engineering, artificial heart-lung machines, organ transplants-and on and on. The real "biological revo­ lution," he pointed out, began back in the nineteenth century in Europe. For it was then that death rates and infant mortality began to decline, the germ theory of disease was firmly established, Darwin took his famous trip on the Beagle, and Gregor Mendel stumbled on to some fundamental principles of heredity. My friend, I think, was both right and wrong. The biological revolution did have its roots in the nineteenth century; that is when it first began to unfold. Yet, like many intellectual and scientific upheav­ als, its force was not felt for decades. Indeed, it seems fair to say that it was not until after the Second World War that the full force of the earlier discoveries in biology and medicine began to have a major impact, an impact that was all the more heightened by the rapid bi­ omedical developments after the war.

Chemical pesticides continue as a point of major controversy in our society. Increasingly stringent regulatory actions on the part of state and federal agencies, exemplified by the RPAR (Rebuttable Presump­ tion Against Registration) program of the Environmental Protection Agency, are supported by environmental groups and are generally op­ posed or viewed with skepticism by agriculturalists. The energy crisis invokes other questions on benefits of pesticides versus nonchemical controls and effects on labor utilization. As DDT and other persistent pesticides have been phased out, the more labile, short-lived chemicals have filled the voids in pest management systems; and effects on nontarget species appear to have declined in recent years as the shift occurred. However, nagging ques­ tions of the hazard to man and other nontarget species from long-term, low-level exposure to pesticides are frequently raised; and recent suggestions that certain well-known and long-used chemicals cause cancer, increase sterility, and initiate or augment other deleterious effects in test animals have instilled a sense of caution and raised con­ cern about the continued availability of some pesticides previously considered safe. So the facade of concern and confusion continues. This book is an outgrowth of a symposium at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in February, 1978. An introduction has been added, and some of the papers have been modified since presentation.

The intense current interest in the development of solar energy as a viable energy alternative comes as no surprise in view of the widespread awareness of impending world-wide energy shortages. After all, the magnitude of energy available from the sun is impressive, its diffuseness and intermittent nature notwithstanding. The fact that, as a source, it represents a constant and inex­ haustible supply of energy is alluring. The fact that most solar application schemes are nonpolluting in nature is an attractive bonus. In spite of these impressive attributes, research and development in the area of solar energy is in its infancy, owing largely to the prior lack of any need to exploit such diffuse sources. Indeed efforts in this area have traditionally been within the province of solid-state physics and engineering. The problems associated with efficient light harvesting and storage, however, are not simply technological ones. Effec­ tive solutions to these problems appear to lie beyond the current forefront of the chemical sciences. Consequently input fr9m scientists previously engaged in fundamental chemistry has begun to emerge. Thus many of the contributions in this volume represent input from research groups with a relatively short history of involvement in solar energy. On the other hand, the long-standing and perceptive commitment of Professor Melvin Calvin to research involving solar energy represents the other extreme. This volume covers a variety of approaches to the problem of efficiently converting and storing solar energy.

The past few years have seen the emergence of a growing, widespread desire in this country, and indeed everywhere, that positive actions be taken to restore the quality of our environment, and to protect it from the degrading effects of all forms of pollution-air, noise, solid waste, and water. Since pollution is a direct or" indirect consequence of waste, if there is no waste, there can be no pollution, and the seemingly idealistic demand for" zero discharge" can be construed as a demand for zero waste. However, as long as there is waste, we can only attempt to abate the consequent pollution by converting it to a less noxious form. In those instances in which a particular type of pollution has been recognized, three major questions usually arise: 1, How serious is the pollution? 2, Is the technology to abate it available? and 3, Do the costs of abatement justify the degree of abatement achieved? The principal intention of this series of books is to help the reader to formulate answers to the last two of the above three questions. The traditional approach of applying tried-and-true solutions to specific pollution problems has been a major factor contributing to the success of environmental engineering, and in large measure has accounted for the establishing ofa "methodology of pollution control.

The earliest and still most widely used method of identification of cancer tissue or cells is the structural resemblance of cancer tissue to fetal or immature tissue.

With the advent of Fourier transform spectrometers of great sensitivity, it has become practical to obtain carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance (C-13 NMR; l3C NMR; CMR) spectra routinely on organic molecules, and this technique has become one of the highest utility in determining structures of organic unknowns. When the usual spectrometric techniques­ proton magnetic resonance (H-I NMR; IH NMR; PMR), infrared (lR), mass (MS), and ultraviolet (UV)-do not readily reveal a compound's structure, a C-13 NMR spectrum will often provide sufficient additional information to yield it unequivocally. With this in mind, the present work was designed to give advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and practicing chemists a working knowledge of and facility with the use of this valuable technique. Some familiarity with other spectrometric techniques is assumed (recommended book: Silverstein, Bassler, and Morrill, Spectrometric Identification of Organic Compounds), but no prior knowledge of C-13 NMR -which is treated very lightly, if at all, in the widely used elementary organic texts-is necessary. A discussion of C-13 NMR spectroscopy is followed by 125 problems, each consisting of a molecular formula, two types of C-13 NMR spectra (partially and completely proton decoupled, with connecting lines to facilitate multiplicity assignments), an integrated H-I NMR spectrum, and the most important IR, UV, and MS data. These problems have been very carefully prepared, thoroughly tested by students at the University of Arizona, and we believe that very few errors remain.

The initial impetus to create a work combining aspects of cel- lular immunology with their clinical applications grew from the ed- itors' discussions of the area's needs with many of the leaders in the field over a period of time. From the nucleus of ideas that emerged, we have here attempted to create a unified and inte- grated coverage of the rapidly growing field of cellular immunology research and to trace out-from what seems at times a genuine plethora of important new findings-the many and often impor- tant clinical implications. Because of this approach, the chapters of Clinical Cellular Im- munology attempt to be more than critical reviews of research and clinical data, going beyond analysis to synthesize working hypotheses about the functional meaning of cellular immunological phenomena and their likely clinical significance. To accomplish this undertaking, the text begins first with a consid- eration of the molecular aspects of antigen recognition (Luderer and Harvey) and of the ensuing regulatory program initiation (Fathman).Then, the functional subsets oflymphocytes as they in- teract to produce and control the developing immune response are explored in detail (Sigel et a1.), followed by a unique analytical dis- section of the action of immunosuppressive agents on the sundry inductive and regulatory immunologic pathways (Sigel et al.). A majority of the data and conclusions drawn by the authors in the previous chapters arise from work on murine systems, al- though wherever appropriate, human data has been introduced.

It is an honour for me to be asked to contribute a foreword to the book of my friends Therese and Ralph Spitzer. I got to know them during an assignment as Visiting Professor at the University of British Columbia at Vancouver, and I have shared to the full the distress that comes to all those who have to watch people that they love affected by mental illness in one form or another. I have been an orientalist for only half my life; for the first half I was a biochemist, embryologist, and experimental morphologist. "When I, a young man, was called to the bar" (as Gilbert & Sullivan have it), in other words, when in the early twenties I was starting life as a research biochemist, I was greatly attracted to the biochemistry of mental disease. I followed the lectures for the Diploma in Psychological Medicine, and worked at the Fulbourn Mental Hospital near Cambridge on the creatinine metabolism in catatonic patients suffering from what we used to call in those days dementia praecox. I published one paper (with T. J. McCarthy), but my hopes soon faded, and when I read an excellent review on the subject which covered much literature, and ended by saying that biochemists had grown tired of "fishing in distilled water for the causes of mental disease," I realised that I had better find something more worthwhile. Eggs and embryos were the answer, and very worthwhile they were.

BASIC Microcomputing and Biostatistics is designed as the first practical "how to" guide to both computer programming in BASIC and the statis­ tical data processing techniques needed to analyze experimental, clinical, and other numerical data. It provides a small vocabulary of essential com­ puter statements and shows how they are used to solve problems in the bio­ logical, physical, and medical sciences. No mathematical background be­ yond algebra and an inkling of the principles of calculus is assumed. All more advanced mathematical techniques are developed from "scratch" before they are used. The computing language is BASIC, a high-level lan­ guage that is easy to learn and widely available using time-sharing com­ puter systems and personal microcomputers. The strategy of the book is to present computer programming at the outset and to use it throughout. BASIC is developed in a way reminiscent of graded readers used in human languages; the first programs are so sim­ ple that they can be read almost without an introduction to the language. Each program thereafter contains new vocabulary and one or more con­ cepts, explained in the text, not used in the previous ones. By gradual stages, the reader can progress from programs that do nothing more than count from one to ten to sophisticated programs for nonlinear curve fitting, matrix algebra, and multiple regression. There are 33 working programs and, except for the introductory ones, each performs a useful function in everyday data processing problems encountered by the experimentalist in many diverse fields.

Metal Carcinogenesis Testing explains fundamental principles of metal carcinogenesis as they are currently understood, and provides detailed practical descriptions of rapid and inexpensive in vitro assay methodology presently in use for the detection of potentially carci­ nogenic metals and their compounds. Mounting experimental evidence has suggested that a number of metals and their compounds are potentially carcinogenic to humans. Since humans are exposed to these potentially carcinogenic metals in industrial situations and through environmental pollution, it is essential that experimental protocols be available to identify the specific metal compounds that are potentially carcinogenic. This book affords a thorough description of the various carcinogenesis test systems available for metals, centering on those that are rapid, inexpensive, and most reliable. The principles are discussed at the level of human exposure, of animal studies, and of research in vitro. Additionally, the molecular mechanisms of metal-induced cancer are considered at each ofthese three levels.In large part, the emphasis rests on the use of in vitro, biochemical and bacterial studies, including tissue culture, because these methods are the basis of the rapid and inexpensive screening of potentially carcinogenic substances.

This book represents the proceedings of a Satellite Symposium of the XIth International Congress of Biochemistry on "Control of Membrane Fluidity" which was held on July 7, 1979 at the Charles H. Best Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. The meeting was organized by M. Kates and A. Kuksis and was supported by the International Congress of Biochemistry. The purpose of the meeting was to review recent progress in many different areas of investigation bearing on the role of lipids in the structural and functional property of the cell membrane commonly referred to as fluidity. The aim was to emphasize the factors controlling membrane fluidity as studied in appropriate in vitro and in vivo experiments. The Symposium included invited review papers and short papers offered by discussants. In assem· bling the book no distinction has been made between the two types of presentations, nor has any significance been attached to the chronological order of their presentation in the Symposium. As a result it was possible to provide a much more coherent and continuous presentation than that available at the meeting.

Women most fully experience the consequences of human reproductive technologies. Men who convene to evaluate such technologies discuss Itthem ": the women who must accept, avoid, or even resist these technologies; the women who consume technologies they did not devise; the women who are the objects of policies made by of women is neither sought nor listened to. The men. So often the input and perspectives that women bring to the privileged insights consideration of technologies in human reproduction are the subject of these volumes, which constitute the revised and edited record of a Workshop on "Ethical Issues in Human Reproduction Technology: Analysis by W omen" (EIR TAW), held in June, 1979, at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Some 80 members of the workshop, 90 percent of them women (from 24 states), represented diverse occupations and personal histories, different races and classes, varied political commitments. They included doctors, nurses, and scientists, lay midwives, consumer advocates, historians, and sociologists, lawyers, policy analysts, and ethicists. Each session, however, made plain that ethics is an everyday concern for women in general, as well as an academic profession for some.

Women have been the objects of scientific and ethical discussions about reproductive freedom and its control for over a century. And they have increasingly endured experiments on their bodies involving ever more powerful technologies, technologies that until now have been largely generated and socially controlled by men. Here, in this study women themselves raise critical questions bout the ethics, the scientific nature, and the social context of these developments.

Women most fully experience the consequences of human reproductive technologies. Men who convene to evaluate such technologies discuss "them": the women who must accept, avoid, or even resist these technologies; the women who consume technologies they did not devise; the women who are the objects of policies made by men. So often the input of women is neither sought nor listened to. The privileged insights and perspectives that women bring to the consideration of technologies in human reproduction are the subject of these volumes, which constitute the revised and edited record of a Workshop on "Ethical Issues in Human Reproduction Technology: Analysis by Women" (EIRTAW), held in June, 1979, at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Some 80 members of the workshop, 90 percent of them women (from 24 states), represented diverse occupations and personal histories, different races and classes, varied political commitments. They included doctors, nurses, and scientists, lay midwives, consumer advocates, historians, and sociologists, lawyers, policy analysts, and ethicists. Each session, however, made plain that ethics is an everyday concern for women in general, as well as an academic profession for some.

Women most fully experience the consequences of human reproductive technologies. Men who convene to evaluate such technologies discuss "them": the women who must accept, avoid, or even resist these technologies; the women who consume technologies they did not devise; the women who are the objects of policies made by men. So often the input of women is neither sought nor listened to. The privileged insights and perspectives that women bring to the consideration of technologies in human reproduction are the subject of these volumes, which constitute the revised and edited record of a Workshop on "Ethical Issues in Human Reproduction Technology: Analysis by Women" (EIRTAW), held in June, 1979, at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Some 80 members of the workshop, 90 percent of them women (from 24 states), represented diverse occupations and personal histories, different races and classes, varied political commitments. They included doctors, nurses, and scientists, lay midwives, consumer advocates, historians, and sociologists, lawyers, policy analysts, and ethicists. Each session, however, made plain that ethics is an everyday concern for women in general, as well as an academic profession for some.

Lasers are relatively recent additions to the analytical scientist's arsenal. Because of this, many analysts-whether their concern is research or some range of applications-are in need of a tutorial introduction not only to the principles of lasers, their optics, and radiation, but also to their already diverse and burgeoning applications. The artic1es presented in this volume, carefully enhanced and edited from lectures prepared for the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry 1979 Summer Symposium, are designed to provide just such a broad introduction to the subject. Thus, in addition to several excellent chapters on laser fundamentals, there are many practically oriented artic1es dealing with laser analytical methodology, inc1uding techniques based on the absorption oflaser radiation, on laser-induced fluorescence, and on some of the uses of lasers in chemical instru­ mentation. The first of these sections is pivotal and reflects in part our philosophy in organizing this collection. The authors of the initial chapters were invited not only because of their expertise in the field of lasers and analytical chemistry, but also because their didactic approach to writing and their c1arity of presentation were well known to us. It is our hope that individual readers with little knowledge of lasers will gain from these introductory chapters sufficient information to render the later, more detailed artic1es both useful and meaningful.

One of the first applications of ultrasound was in submarine sonar equip­ ment. Since then ultrasound has found increasing applications, particularly in industry, but increasingly in biomedicine. For many years ultrasound has been used in physical therapy, although only in the past decade or two has it evolved from laboratory curiosity to a well-established diagnostic imaging modality. Ultrasound is now a widely accepted, indeed pervasive, diagnos­ tic and therapeutic tool in the medical field, and its applications are increasing rapidly. Our intent in developing this book is to provide a coherent tutorial intro­ duction to the field of medical ultrasound at a level suitable for those en­ tering the area from either medical or scientific backgrounds. The topics discussed should be of interest to nearly all medical and health care per­ sonnel needing to understand or operate ultrasonic devices, including clini­ cians, medical technicians, physiotherapists, medical physicists, and other biomedical scientists interested in the field. The book opens with a description of the basic principles of propagating acoustic waves, explains how they interact with a wide range of biological systems, and outlines the effects they produce. To provide practical infor­ mation to operators of ultrasound equipment, we have included thorough coverage of the details of ultrasonic instrumentation and measurement techniques, and set forth the framework for an effective quality assurance program.

The ability to diagnose cancer by simple measurement of a serum or tissue' 'marker" has been a goal of medical science for many years. There is ample evidence that tumor cells are different from normal cells and pro­ duce substances that can be detected by currently available immuno­ chemical or biochemical methods. These "cancer markers" may be se­ creted proteins, enzymes, hormones, fetal serum components, monoclonal immunoglobulins, cell surface components, or cytoplasmic constituents. The purpose of this book is to present the current status of our knowledge of such cancer markers. The first tumor marker identified by laboratory means was Bence­ Jones protein. In a series of lectures delivered to the Royal College of Phy­ sicians in London in 1846, Dr. H. Bence Jones described studies on a urine sample sent to him with the following note: "Dear Dr. Jones-The tube contains urine of very high specific gravity. When boiled it becomes slightly opaque . . . . etc. " Dr. Jones found that heating of the urine after addition of nitric acid resulted in formation of a heavy precipitate; acid ad­ dition may have been required to bring the urine to pH 4-6 at which Bence Jones proteins are more likely to precipitate when heated. This urinary pre­ cipitate was associated with a bone disease termed "mollities ossium. " [H. Bence Jones, Papers on Chemical Pathology, Lecture III. Lancet 2, 269-274 (1847)].

In April 1979 a symposium on "Multiple Somatic Sensory Motor, Visual and Auditory Areas and Their Connectivities" was held at the FASEB meeting in Dallas, Texas. The papers presented at that symposium are the basis of most of the substantially augmented, updated chapters in the three volumes of Cortical Sensory Organi­ zation. Only the material in chapter 8 of volume 3 was not pre­ sented in one form or another at that meeting. The aim of the symposium was to review the present status of the field of cortical representation in the somatosensory, visual and auditory systems. Since the early 1940s, the number of recognized cortical areas related to each of these systems has been increasing until at present the number of visually related areas exceeds a dozen. Although the number is less for the somatic and auditory systems, these also are more numerous than they were earlier and are likely to increase still further since we may expect each system to have essentially the same number of areas related to it.