Molecular Photofitting: Predicting ancestry and phenotype using DNA

Author(s): Tony N. Frudakis
ISBN: 978-0-12-088492-6
Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Inc.

In the field of forensics, there is a critical need for genetic tests that can function in a predictive or inferential sense, before suspects have been identified, and/or for crimes for which DNA evidence exists but eye-witnesses do not. Molecular Photofitting fills this need by describing the process of generating a physical description of an individual from the analysis of his or her DNA. The molecular photofitting process has been used to assist with the identification of remains and to guide criminal investigations toward certain individuals within the sphere of prior suspects. Molecular Photofitting provides an accessible roadmap for both the forensic scientist hoping to make use of the new tests becoming available, and for the human genetic researcher working to discover the panels of markers that comprise these tests. By implementing population structure as a practical forensics and clinical genomics tool, Molecular Photofitting serves to redefine the way science and history look at ancestry and genetics, and shows how these tools can be used to maximize the efficacy of our criminal justice system.

Microcirculation (Second Edition)

Edited by: Ronald F. Tuma, Walter N. Durán and Klaus Ley
ISBN: 978-0-12-374530-9
Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Inc.

Growth in knowledge about the microcirculation has been explosive with the field becoming fragmented into numerous sub-disciplines and subspecialties. This volume pulls all of the critical information into one volume eliminating the need to search through numerous books and journals which can be exhaustive and demanding. It provides cardiovascular physiologists with an integrated, in-depth evaluation of the latest research developments and will aide in developing new pathways of research and scholarship. This book is meticulously edited and reviewed. It provides investigators a unique tool to explore the significance of their findings in the context of other aspects of the microcirculation. In this way, the updated edition has a direct role in helping to develop new pathways of research and scholarship.It highlights the explosive growth in the knowledge about microcirculation including the biology of nitric oxide synthase (NOS), endothelial cell signaling, angiogenesis, cell adhesion molecules, lymphocyte trafficking, ion channels and receptors, and propagated vasomotor responses. Microcirculatory biology has become fragmented into numerous sub-disciplines and subspecialties, and these reference reintegrates the information in one volume. (Amazon)

Microbial Glycobiology: Structures, Relevance and Applications

Edited by: Otto Holst, Patrick J. Brennan and Mark von Itzstein
ISBN: 978-0-12-374546-0
Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Inc.

Microbiologists Infectious disease specialists are trying to understand how certain microbial pathogens (protozoa, bacteria, fungi, viruses etc) cause disease in humans. With insights from microbial glycobiology new diagnostic methods can be designed to detect the infectious agent and also to determine if one bug is more virulent than another, thus, helping disease diagnosis. Microbial glycobiology allows them to examine the role that sugars play in the disease process and help them determine a way to prevent a pathogen causing disease. Hence, new insights will be gained that could aid boost the immune system, thereby new biotheraputics and vaccines are being developed. By determining the structure of glycosylated proteins, lipids and other natural products from microbes, researchers can reveal the location of the sugars. They then have the ability to modify and control which sugars are attached and exactly how they are attached. This is important as it enables them to modify glycosylated biomolecules that are important in disease processes and turn these into better drugs.

Metabolic Syndrome and Psychiatric Illness: Interactions, Pathophysiology, Assessment and Treatment

Author(s): Scott D. Mendelson, M.D., Ph.D.
ISBN: 978-0-12-374240-7
Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Inc.

Metabolic syndrome is a set of risk factors that includes: abdominal obesity, a decreased ability to process glucose (insulin resistance), dyslipidemia (unhealthy lipid levels), and hypertension. Patients who have this syndrome have been shown to be at an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease and/or type 2 diabetes. Metabolic syndrome is a common condition that goes by many names (dysmetabolic syndrome, syndrome X, insulin resistance syndrome, obesity syndrome, and Reaven’s syndrome). This is the first book to fully explain the relationships between psychiatric illness, Metabolic Syndrome, diet, sleep, exercise, medications, and lifestyle choices. Metabolic Syndrome is a major risk factor in Major Depression, Alzheimer’s Disease, Sleep Disorders, Sexual Dysfunction, Fibromyalgia, and several other illnesses of psychiatric significance. Conversely, some psychiatric illnesses tend to predispose patients to Metabolic Syndrome. Of further interest is the fact that some of the medications used in the treatment of psychiatric illnesses have been found to cause or exacerbate Metabolic Syndrome. The author here provides basic information about what genetic predispositions, medical conditions, and lifestyle choices make Metabolic Syndrome more likely to occur. Among the contributing factors that are discussed are genetics, habitual intake of high glycemic index carbohydrates, fructose, saturated fats, trans fatty acids, vitamins, micronutrients, obesity, smoking, and lack of exercise. The author describes the actual mechanisms by which Metabolic Syndrome progresses and causes damage in the body, including the action of insulin and the pathophysiology of insulin resistance. Details are provided on what occurs in the liver, pancreas, muscle, fat cells, and immune system as Metabolic Syndrome progresses. New findings are presented on fat cells, including the fact that they are beginning to be considered as endocrine cells. There is a substantive discussion of leptin, which is one of the important adipocytokines. Also carbohydrate, ‚bad fats‘, inflammation, oxidative damage, over-stimulation of the ‚fight or flight‘ system, and high levels of the stress hormone cortisol can actually cause the manifestations of Metabolic Syndrome. These explanations set the stage for an explanation of the inter-relationships between Metabolic Syndrome, psychiatric illness, dementia and effects of not only diet and life choices, but also the effects of psychiatric medications. Finally, there is an important and unique section on the relationship between Metabolic Syndrome and various psychiatric illnesses, and how they exacerbate each other. The significance of Metabolic Syndrome in Major Depression, Bipolar Affective Disorder, Schizophrenia, fibromyalgia and Polycystic Ovary Disease is vast and it is important to realise the effects of psychiatric medications on Metabolic Syndrome. The author discusses antidepressants, mood stabilizers and the new atypical antipsychotics. There are dramatic differences among medications in the way they affect Metabolic Syndrome and pharmaceutical companies will want to promote patient awareness with this book.

Medicinal Chemistry of Anticancer Drugs

Author(s): Carmen Avendaño and J. Carlos Menéndez
ISBN: 978-0-444-52824-7
Copyright © 2008 Elsevier B.V.

Antitumour chemotherapy is nowadays a very active field of research, and a huge amount of information on the topic is generated every year. Although many books are available that deal with clinical aspects of cancer chemotherapy, this book addresses the need for an updated treatment from the point of view of medicinal chemistry and drug design. Cytotoxic chemotherapy is gradually being supplemented by a new generation of drugs that recognize specific targets on the surface or inside cancer cells. These therapies are in their infancy, but they hold promise of more effective therapies with fewer side effects. Resistance to antitumour drugs is another important but normally neglected field. The focus of Medicinal Chemistry of Anticancer Drugs is on the mechanism of action of antitumour drugs from the molecular point of view and on the relationship between chemical structure and chemical and biochemical reactivity of antitumour agents, aiming at the rationalization of the action of this type of drugs, which would allow the design of new active structures.

Matlab for Neuroscientists

Author(s): Pascal Wallisch, Michael Lusignan, Marc Benayoun,
Tanya I. Baker, Adam S. Dickey and Nicholas G. Hatsopoulos
ISBN: 978-0-12-374551-4, Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Inc.

Matlab is the accepted standard for scientific computing, used globally in virtually all Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology laboratories. For instance, SPM, the most used software for the analysis and manipulation of fMRI images in research and clinical practice is fully programmed in matlab, and its use of the possibility to allow for sophisticated software modules to be freely added to the software has established it as the by far dominant software in the field. Many universities now offer, or are beginning to offer matlab introductory courses in their neuroscience and psychology programs. Nevertheless, so far there hasn’t been a textbook specific to this market, and the use of the plethora of existing engineering focused Matlab textbooks is notoriously difficult for teaching the package in those environments. This is the first comprehensive teaching resource and textbook for the teaching of Matlab in the Neurosciences and in Psychology. Matlab is unique in that it can be used to learn the entire empirical and experimental process, including stimulus generation, experimental control, data collection, data analysis and modeling. Thus a wide variety of computational problems can be addressed in a single programming environment. The idea is to empower advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students by allowing them to design and implement their own analytical tools. As students advance in their research careers, they will have achieved the fluency required to understand and adapt more specialized tools as opposed to treating them as „black boxes“. Virtually all computational approaches in the book are covered by using genuine experimental data that are either collected as part of the lab project or were collected in the labs of the authors, providing the casual student with the look and feel of real data. In some rare cases, published data from classical papers are used to illustrate important concepts, giving students a computational understanding of critically important research. The ability to effectively use computers in research is necessary in an academic environment that is increasingly focused on quantitative issues. Matlab represents an ideal language of scientific computing. It is based on powerful linear algebra structures which lend themselves to empirical problems on the one hand, while at the same time allowing the student to make rapid problem-oriented progress (particularly in terms of visualization of data points) without having to lose focus by worrying too much about memory allocation and other „plumbing“ minutiae as would be required in other, more low-level programming languages such as C or C++. Currently, there are several books that provide introductions to Matlab that are either too generic and fundamental or too irrelevant for neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists who typically face a very circumscribed range of problems in data collection, data analysis and signal processing. Some non-book tutorials and primers that are in use in the community are typically out of date. Matlab versions are usually not backwards compatible. Many commands and functions used in older tutorials and primers, such as „flops“ won’t work in current versions of Matlab, necessitating a book that is timely and up-to-date. The complete lack of a relevant resource in this area, combined with a clearly felt need for such a text provided the primary and initial impetus for this project. The authors provide such a dearly needed resource adapting and pooling materials that developed for and used in highly rated courses involving the use of Matlab in Neuroscience at the University of Chicago. Two co-authors (PW and NH) have presented their respective work on teaching Matlab at national meetings and two of the co-authors (PW and MB) were awarded the coveted University of Chicago’s Booth Prize for excellence in teaching these courses.

Managing Relationships with Industry: A Physician’s Compliance Manual

Edited by: Steven C. Schachter, MD, William Mandell,
Esq, L. Scott Harshbarger, Esq, and Randall Grometstein, JD, PhD
ISBN: 978-0-12-373653-6
Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Now more than ever, doctors are being targeted by government prosecutors and whistleblowers challenging the legality of their relationships with drug and device companies. With reputations at stake and the risk of civil and criminal liability, it is incumbent upon doctors to protect themselves. Managing Relationships with Industry: A Physician’s Compliance Manual is an indispensable resource for doctors, professional societies, academic medical centers, community hospitals, and group practices struggling to understand the ever changing law and ethical standards on interactions with pharmaceutical and device companies. It is the first comprehensive summary of the law and ethics on physician relationships with industry written for the physician. Authored by a former state Attorney General, Harvard Medical School Professor, health care lawyer and professor of ethics, Managing Relationships approaches the topic from a balanced and reasoned perspective adding to the on-going national dialogue and debate on the proper limits to medicine’s relationship with industry.

The Limits of Dream: A Scientific Exploration of the Mind/Brain Interface

Author(s): J.F. Pagel, ISBN: 978-0-12-374215-5
Elsevier 2008. Edited by: T.W.J. Gadella.
ISBN: 9780080549583. 534 Seiten

The Limits of Dream focuses on what we currently know of the human central nervous system (CNS), examining the basic sciences of neurochemisty, neuroanatomy, and CNS electrophysiology as these sciences apply to dream, then reaching beyond basic science to examine the cognitive science of dreaming including the processes of memory, the perceptual interface, and visual imagery. Building on what is known of intrapersonal CNS processing, the book steps outside the physical body to explore artificially created dreams and their use in filmmaking, art and story, as well as the role of dreaming in creative process and creative ?madness.? The limits of our scientific knowledge of dream frame this window that can be used to explore the border between body and mind. What is known scientifically of the cognitive process of dreaming will lead the neuroscientist, the student of cognitive science, and the general reader down different paths than expected into an exploration of the fuzzy and complex horizon between mind and brain.

Laboratory Techniques in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Volume 33: Fret and Flim Techniques

Elsevier 2009. Edited by: T.W.J. Gadella. ISBN: 9780080549583. 534 Seiten

The books in this well established series LABORATORY TECHNIQUES IN BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY cover all aspects of laboratory work in biochemistry and molecular biology. Each volume provides sufficient information for laboratory workers to apply a new technique without having seen it in practice or having any prior knowledge of it. The series is published in hardbound and paperback versions. In those cases where a volume consists of more than one part, a hardbound edition combines the parts for reference purposes.As topical as its subject, the Laboratory Techniques series provides an up-to-date and comprehensive coverage of biochemical and molecular biological research techniques, and is specifically designed for use by researchers and laboratory technicians. Each book in the series provides a clear, concise, and easy-to-follow layout, which is ideal for use as a reference source, on-the-bench, or as a student tutorial.

Kidnapping: An Investigator’s Guide to Profiling

2008 Elsevier Inc. Author(s): Diana M. Concannon, Bruce Fain, Dianna Fain, Alan B. Honeycutt, Jana Price-Sharps and Matthew Sharps. ISBN: 978-0-12-374031-1

Kidnapping: An Investigator’s Guide to Profiling is based on a three-part analysis of 100 randomly selected kidnapping cases prosecuted in the United States that have survived Supreme Court appeal. The results of the analysis are incorporated into each chapter as part of the exploration of the inductive profile of each kidnapping subtype, thereby offering a statistically based tool that can inform investigative strategies and the allocation of limited resources. The analysis includes standardized input from four levels of professional law enforcement including a forensic psychologist, a crime analyst, a detective, and a city prosecutor. In addition to chapters pertaining to the kidnapping subtypes, an introductory chapter is dedicated to the evolution of U.S. kidnapping law and intervention strategies, including a review of relevant case law (Megan’s Law, Amber Alert). Appendices include a concise summary of all the subtypes and Tabletop Drills that law enforcement can use to support potential kidnapping victims prepare and better respond to a kidnapping threat.

Juvenile Osteology: A Laboratory and Field Manual

2009 Elsevier Inc. Author(s): Maureen Schaefer, Sue Black and Louise Scheuer. ISBN: 978-0-12-374635-1

The need for a laboratory and field manual to assist with the evaluation of juvenile skeletal material is long overdue. This resource is essential for the practising osteoarchaeologist and forensic anthropologist who requires a quick, reliable and easy-to-use reference to aid in the identification, siding and aging of juvenile osseous material. While excellent reference books on juvenile osteology are currently available, no pre-existing source adequately fills this particular niche in the market. This field manual is designed with practicality as its primary directive. Descriptions of each bone contain 1) morphological characteristics useful for identification, 2) other elements with which the bone may be confused, 2) tips for siding, 3) illustrations of varying developmental phases, 4) data useful for ageing, and 5) a summary of developmental timings. Concise, bullet-style descriptions assist with quick retrieval of information. Unique to this manual is the presentation of data collected from a variety of populations, utilizing a range of observational methods, as an alternative to providing one overall aging summary that is derived from a compilation of many individual sources. This manual provides a host of data on a variety of populations to enable the user to select the reference most applicable to their needs. The final chapter combines information from each bone to provide a summary of developmental changes occurring at different life stages to act as an immediate ‚ready reckoner‘ for the knowledgeable practitioner. It also provides forms useful for documenting juvenile material and diagrams to help with the recognition of commingled juvenile remains. The manual is a must for anyone responsible for the evaluation of juvenile osseous material through dry bone assessment, radiographs, sonograms, and or CT scans.

Introduction to Quantitative EEG and Neurofeedback (Second Edition): Advanced Theory and Applications

2009 Elsevier Inc., Author(s): Thomas H. Budzynski, PhD, Helen Kogan Budzynski, PhD, RN, James R. Evans, PhD, and Andrew Abarbanel, MD. ISBN: 978-0-12-374534-7

The study of Quantitative EEGs and Neurofeedback offer a window into brain physiology and function via computer and statistical analyses, suggesting innovative approaches to the improvement of attention, anxiety, mood and behavior. Resources for understanding what QEEG and Neurofeedback is, how they are used, and to what disorders and patients they can be applied are scarce, and this volume serves as an ideal tool for clinical researchers and practicing clinicians, providing a broad overview of the most interesting topics relating to the techniques. The revised coverage of advancements, new applications (e.g. Aspberger’s, music therapy, LORETA, etc.), and combinations of prior approaches make the second edition a necessary companion to the first. The top scholars in the field have been enlisted and contributions will offer both the breadth needed for an introductory scholar and the depth desired by a clinical professional.