In tracing their origin and their fate, the beginning and the end of their environment, humans have often been guided by curiosity. Such concern has helped man to discover, among other things, the structure of the universe from star to atom and the evolution of life from unicellular organism to human being. The study of disease is unique. Although it may have been in spired by the curiosity of a few, it has always been the concern of all, because preventing or curing disease has meant survival not only of individuals, but of entire nations, not only of humans, but of fellow living creatures....

Growth of population, communication and interdependence among countries has sharpened the impact of natural disasters. Not only have calamities and miseries been given wider publicity, but the realization has grown that through rational study and foresight much can be done to mitigate these hazards to life and social wellbeing. In this book we present a summary account of hazards which nowadays are usually classified as geological: earthquakes, faulting, tsunamis, seiches, vol canoes, avalanches, rock and soil slides, differential settlement and liquefaction of soil, and inundation. The book...

Since 1950 geologists have learned more about the origin and lithification of carbonate sediments than in all the previous years of the history of science. This is true in all the diverse fields of carbonate geology: the study of Recent environments, marine zoology and botany, organic geochemistry, trace element and isotope geochemistry, mineralogy, microfacies of depositional environments, and trace-fossil and sedimentary structure investigation. A synthesis of this new knowledge is just beginning to be formulated. The purpose of this volume is to introduce the advanced student and petroleum...

Following the overwhelmingly successful response to the first printing in hardcover, the hottest topics in Selective Neurotoxicity are now available in this special softcover edition."
Researchers are provided with well-grounded information on the cellular and subcellular targets of neurotoxins and their mode of action at the level of ion-channels, receptors and neurotransmitters. The use of bacterial toxins as a tool in neuroscientific research is an important aspect in this context. The chapters that interest clinicians as well deal with protective barriers in the...

The first five chapters of this book form an introductory course in piece wise-linear topology in which no assumptions are made other than basic topological notions. This course would be suitable as a second course in topology with a geometric flavour, to follow a first course in point-set topology, andi)erhaps to be given as a final year undergraduate course. The whole book gives an account of handle theory in a piecewise linear setting and could be the basis of a first year postgraduate lecture or reading course. Some results from algebraic topology are needed for handle theory and these...

Again rapid advances in the brain sciences have made it necessary, after only a few years, to issue a revised edition of this text. All the chapters have been reviewed and brought up to date, and some have been largely rewritten. The major revision has occurred in the chap ters on the autonomic nervous system and the integrative functions of the central nervous system. But in the discussion of the motor systems and other subjects as well, recent insights have necessitated certain conceptual modifications. In the description of the autonomic nervous system, the role of the intestinal...

In recent years, molecular biology has infiltrated into all branches of botany. This is particularly true of plant physiology. This book attempts to provide an introduction to the metabolic and developmental physiology of higher plants from a molecular biological point of view. Starting from the heterocatalytic function of DNA the first ten chapters deal with metabolism; development is presented in the last nine, starting from the autocatalytic functions of DNA and including certain topics oriented more toward metabolic physiology. Both fields of plant physiology are so closely linked that an...

This two-volume treatise, the collected effort of more than 50 authors, represents the first comprehensive survey of the chemistry and biology of the set of molecules known as peptide growth factors. Although there have been many symposia on this topic, and numerous publications of reviews dealing with selected subsets of growth factors, the entire field has never been covered in a single treatise. It is essential to do this at the present time, as the number of journal articles on peptide growth factors now makes it almost impossible for anyone person to stay informed on this subject by...

After UNCED (United Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, July 1992), a second edition of Desertification was necessary. About 150 corrections, amendments and additions take scientific progress into account. The author also presents an updated chapter in which the results of UNCED are analyzed.
This book aims at an understanding of what is commonly called "desertification" - a term which is proposed to be replaced by "land degradation." Each level of technology, excessive or insufficient, creates its own mismanagement. This is reflected in an increase in land...