Böcker utgivna av Morgan & Claypool Publishers

Describes the general structure of G protein-coupled receptors, including the information obtained from crystal structure determination that has given an insight into the activation mechanism of these receptors. In addition, the book summarizes the components of the signal transduction system (including G proteins, effectors and second messengers generally activated by the neuropeptide receptors).

Provides a history of the early studies linking immune system function with hypertension and an overview of the large number of studies published in the past decade. The major focus is on the components of the innate and adaptive immune systems for which there is considerable evidence of their contributions to blood pressure control.

The gastrointestinal mucosal defense system serves to minimize mucosal injury by either ingested or endogenously produced noxious substances. However, there are two situations in which the mucosal defense system is known to be ineffective and result in gastric mucosal injury: inadvertent ingestion of H. pylori. or intentional ingestion of NSAIDs.

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. Examples of pancreatic diseases resulting from dysfunction in cellular mechanisms provide emphasis of the importance of the normal physiologic mechanisms.

Several physiological mechanisms act to regulate renal potassium excretion and distribution. Together they comprise an integrated control system that may be envisioned as being made up of several interacting negative feedback control mechanisms. The intent of this volume is to describe the mechanisms of potassium regulation.

The control of breathing during exercise remains the source of considerable debate. Classical schemes of the exercise hyperpnea have incorporated elements of proportional feed-back from chemoreceptor sites and feed-forward neurogenic control. However, the precise details of the control process are still not fully resolved.

Edmund C. Berkeley (1909-1988) was a mathematician, insurance actuary, inventor, publisher, and a founder of the Association for Computing Machinery. This biography, based on primary sources, provides a lens to understand social and political decisions surrounding early computer development, and the consequences of these decisions in our 21st century lives.

Examines the forces of nature, and what investigations of these forces can tell us about the world we see about us. The intention of this book is to introduce ideas of how the visible world, and those parts of it that we cannot observe, either because they are too small or too large for our scale of perception, can be understood by consideration of only a few fundamental forces.

This book is a concise introduction to the key concepts of classical field theory for beginning graduate students and advanced undergraduate students who wish to study the unifying structures and physical insights provided by classical field theory without dealing with the additional complication of quantization. In that regard, there are many important aspects of field theory that can be understood without quantizing the fields. These include the action formulation, Galilean and relativistic invariance, traveling and standing waves, spin angular momentum, gauge invariance, subsidiary conditions, fluctuations, spinor and vector fields, conservation laws and symmetries, and the Higgs mechanism, all of which are often treated briefly in a course on quantum field theory.

This book describes modern focused ion beam microscopes and techniques and how they can be used to aid materials metrology and as tools for the fabrication of devices that in turn are used in many other aspects of fundamental metrology. Beginning with a description of the currently available instruments including the new addition to the field of plasma-based sources, it then gives an overview of ion solid interactions and how the different types of instrument can be applied. Chapters then describe how these machines can be applied to the field of materials science and device fabrication giving examples of recent and current activity in both these areas.

Examines the role of two well-characterized opsonic receptors, the Fc? receptor and the complement receptor, CR3 in macrophages. In particular, it focuses on the different mechanisms employed by these receptors during particle recognition and phagocytic uptake.

Bacteria have lived in and on animal hosts since multicellular life evolved about 1 billion years ago. Hosts provide habitat and nutrition to the microbial communities and derive many benefits from their guests that contribute with metabolic (recovery of energy and nutrients), defensive (barrier effect against invaders) and trophic (immune regulation, neuro-endocrine development) functions.

Adiabatic quantum computation (AQC) is an alternative to the better-known gate model of quantum computation. This monograph presents an introductory overview of this unusual and rapidly developing approach to computation. The discussion throughout is aimed at an audience of computer scientists with little background in quantum computation or in physics.

Instead of viewing interference as an inherently counterproductive phenomenon that should to be avoided, this title examines how to design practical systems that transform interference into a harmless, and even a beneficial phenomenon. To achieve this goal, the book considers how wireless signals interact when they interfere, and use this understanding in our system designs.

The prohormone convertases (PC) 1/3 and 2 are calcium-activated eukaryotic subtilisins with low pH optima which accomplish the limited proteolysis of peptide hormone precursors within neurons and endocrine cells. This title reviews the biochemistry, regulation, and roles of PC1/3 and 2 in disease, with an emphasis on the work published in the last 10 years.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) influence various physiological processes including host defense, hormone biosynthesis, and cellular signaling. Increased ROS production (oxidative stress) is implicated in many diseases of the cardiovascular system, including hypertension, atherosclerosis, cardiac failure, stroke, diabetes, and kidney disease.

The corpus callosum is the largest fibre tract in the human brain and subserves many of the brain's higher-order functions. Disconnection syndromes resulting from surgical ablation, developmental absence (agenesis of the corpus callosum), disease, or injury of the corpus callosum can have profound consequences on cognition.

Describes the important role of the immune system, including microglia, during brain development, and discusses some of the many ways in which immune activation during early brain development can affect the later-life outcomes of neural function, immune function, and cognition.

Highlights the important role that HO enzymes and their related metabolites, bilirubin and CO, play in the regulation of renal function and in the response of the kidney to both acute and chronic pathologies.

In the intestine, a unique immunological system that is different from the systemic immune system exists to provide adaptive immunity in response to luminal bacteria and dietary antigens. There are many lymphoid cell aggregates called gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) including Peyer's patches (PPs), which function as important induction sites for the mucosal immune response.

Describes the development of placodes and their derivatives and summarizes recent advances in the characterization of the repertoire of transcription factors underlying their development. The text also reviews recent studies that have started to address the role of several classes of signalling molecules in placode induction and segregation.

Provides an overview of fundamental aspects of oocyte and early embryonic development and the interference and genetic approaches that have provided access to maternally regulated aspects of vertebrate development. Some of the pathways and molecules highlighted in this review are well known and are essential regulators of multiple aspects of animal development.

The microcirculation of the gastrointestinal tract is under the control of both myogenic and metabolic regulatory systems. The myogenic mechanism contributes to basal vascular tone and the regulation of transmural pressure, while the metabolic mechanism is responsible for maintaining an appropriate balance between O2 demand and O2 delivery.