The Brescia division of the Italian Association of Blood donors (AVIS Brescia) celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1985. The idea of organizing a Postgraduate Course on Viral Hepatitis on this occasion developed for ob vious reasons. Viral hepatitis is a major concern in blood transfusion and Brescia is located in the region of Lombardy characterized by a high HBsAg carrier rate in its population. Thus it seemed timely to convene a scientific forum in which the present state of knowledge on viral hepatitis would be summarized. This would allow us to review the tremendous progress achieved over...

Arachidonic acid metabolites are known to playa regulatory role in a number of biological systems, in which they function as microenviron- mental hormones and intracellular signal mediators. One of the most exciting areas of research of these compounds is the one that studies the relationship between prostaglandins and tumor cell growth and function. In the last few years there has been an extraordinary evolution of data on prostaglandins (and related compounds) and cancer. This vol- ume is based on papers presented at the 1986 International Confer- ence on Prostaglandins and Cancer organized...

Although the 32 kOa-polypeptide (0-1) is a minor component of thyla- koids in algae and higher plants. much attention has been focused on it. It was shown to be the binding site for herbicides (Pfister et al. 1981). the rapidly synthesized polypeptide of thylakoid membranes (Edelman and Reisfeld 1978; Owens et al. 1982) and to participate in Qa binding (Arntzen et al. 1984; Kyle et al. 1984; Ohad et al. 1984). Measurements of the stoichiometry of the various PS II polypeptides in C. reinhardii showed that thylakoids contain about one herbicide binding polypeptide per one PS II unit and the...

The idea of Professors Bolis and Gilles to gather together for a 3 days' meeting in the splendid environment of Crans-Montana in Switzerland a limited number of people around the subject of calcium and calcium bind ing proteins seemed at first particularly attractive, and when they asked me to take charge of the scientific organization of the symposium, I accepted with enthusiasm. It rapidly became clear that the major problem would be the selection of the topics, since it was impossible to cover completely and in depth such a broad and dynamic area of research. In our view, one imperative...

This book contains the contributions to an European symposium on "Trace Elements in Environmental History," held from June 24th to 26th at GCittingen, FRG. The confe rence was organised by the Institute of Anthropology of the Georg August-University in GCittingen. At first glance, it might be surprising that the organizers are anthropolo gists. But this is a result of change of paradigm prehistoric anthropology is facing at the time. For decades, population development and population processes in the past have been looked at in terms of morphology, thus describing the diversity of human...

Hepatic cells are involved in the metabolization and elimination of a variety of endogenous and exogenous substances. They mediate the uptake, processing and subsequent secretion of biliary compounds, such as various drugs or hormones, and the passage of metabolites to be released into different blood compartments. To perform vectorial passages hepatocytes show a strong polarity with sites for endocytotic processes or specific carrier molecules, and a specified system of organelles for intracellular transport and sorting, metabolization and secretion of compounds. Several aspects, e.g....

The role of arthropods in forest ecosystems is poorly understood. Yet such knowledge may be critical in order to explain fully the fundamental forces that shape the structure and regulate the functioning of such ecosys tems. There are numerous hypotheses about the roles of various arthropods, but few, if any, of these hypotheses have been rigorously tested. Some, however, have been repeated so often and so widely that they are now accept ed by many as unequivocal fact. Nothing could be further from the truth. Forest arthropods which derive most of their sustenance from plants are usually...

This volume is a compilation of the papers presented at a meeting that took place in April 1980 at the Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, Florida. The meeting and this volume are outgrowths of two earlier international meetings on marine bio-acoustics that occurred in 1963 and 1966 (Tavolga 1964, 1967). The first meeting took place at the Lerner Marine Laboratory of the American Museum of Natural History, while the second meeting was at the American Museum itself, and was under the sponsorship of the Department of Animal Behavior. It is apparent that these two volumes have had immense impact...

Cajal and contemporary scientists have laid the basis of the modem concepts of the organization of the nervous system: the cir cuits of the brain are made up of individual neurons which transfer information via specialized structures called synapses. Soma and den drites usually receive the inputs, then the signal is carried all along the axon to the target areas. To fulfIll this task several types of neurons have developed their unique geometry characterized by a large recep tive area (soma and dendrites) and an often very extensive distal branching with the axon terminals. The volume of...

This volume is one of those published from the proceedings of the invited lectures to the First International Congress of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry I organized at Liege (Belgium) in August 1984 under the auspices of the Section of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry of the International Union of Biological Sciences. In a general foreword to these different volumes, it seems to me appropriate to consider briefly what may be the comparative approach. Living organisms, beyond the diversity of their morphological forms, have evolved a widespread range of basic solutions to cope...