Polysaccharides: Structural Diversity and Functional Versatility, Second Edition

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Completely revised and expanded to reflect the latest advancements in the field, Polysaccharides: Structural Diversity and Functional Versatility, Second Edition outlines fundamental concepts in the structure, function, chemistry, and stability of polysaccharides and reveals new analytical techniques and applications currently impacting the cosmetic, medicinal, chemical, and biochemical industries. The authoritative book discusses polysaccharides utilized in medical applications such as polysaccharide-based hydrogels, polysialic acids, proteoglycans, glycolipids, and anticoagulant polysaccharides; renewable resources for the production of various industrial chemicals and engineering plastics polysaccharides; and more.

The Functional Consequences of Biodiversity: Empirical Progress and Theoretical Extensions.

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The Functional Consequences of Biodiversity: Empirical Progress and Theoretical Extensions.

Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691088225

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Does biodiversity influence how ecosystems function? Might diversity loss affect the ability of ecosystems to deliver services of benefit to humankind? Ecosystems provide food, fuel, fiber, and drinkable water, regulate local and regional climate, and recycle needed nutrients, among other things. An ecosyste's ability to sustain functioning may depend on the number of species residing in the ecosystem--its biological diversity--but this has been a controversial hypothesis. There are many unanswered questions about how and why changes in biodiversity could alter ecosystem functioning. This volume, written by top researchers, synthesizes empirical studies on the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and extends that knowledge using a novel and coordinated set of models and theoretical approaches.

These experimental and theoretical analyses demonstrate that functioning usually increases with biodiversity, but also reveals when and under what circumstances other relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning might occur. It also accounts for apparent changes in diversity-functioning relationships that emerge over time in disturbed ecosystems, thereby addressing a major controversy in the field. The volume concludes with a blueprint for moving beyond small-scale studies to regional ones--a move of enormous significance for policy and conservation but one that will entail tackling some of the most fundamental challenges in ecology.

In addition to the editors, the contributors are Juan Armesto, Claudia Neuhauser, Andy Hector, Clarence Lehman, Peter Kareiva, Sharon Lawler, Peter Chesson, Teri Balser, Mary K. Firestone, Robert Holt, Michel Loreau, Johannes Knops, David Wedin, Peter Reich, Shahid Naeem, Bernhard Schmid, Jasmin Joshi, and Felix Schläpfer.

Amiloride-Sensitive Sodium Channels, Physiology and Functional Diversity (Current Topics in Membranes, Volume 47) (Current Topics in Membranes)

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Amiloride-Sensitive Sodium Channels, Physiology and Functional Diversity (Current Topics in Membranes, Volume 47) (Current Topics in Membranes)

Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0121533476

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Sodium reabsorbing epithelia play a major role in whole-body sodium homeostasis. Some examples of sodium regulating tissues include kidney, colon, lung, and sweat ducts. Sodium transport across these membranes is a two-step process: entry through an amiloride-sensitive sodium channel and exit via the ouabain-sensitive sodium/potassium ATPase. The sodium entry channels are the rate-limiting determinant for transport and are regulated by several different hormones. The sodium channels also play a significant role in a number of disease states, like hypertension, edema, drug-induced hyperkalemia, and cystic fibrosis. Amiloride-Sensitive Sodium Channels: Physiology and Functional Diversity provides the first in-depth exchange of ideas concerning these sodium channels, their regulation and involvement in normal and pathophysiological situations.

Key Features
* Summarizes current state of amiloride-sensitive sodium channel field
* Analyzes structure-function of epithelial sodium channels
* Discusses immunolocalization of epithelial sodium channels
* Examines hormonal regulation of sodium channels
* Discusses sodium channels in lymphocytes, kidney, and lung
* Considers mechanosensitivity of sodium channels
* Provides ideas on sodium channels and disease

Disability and Culture: Universalism and Diversity

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Disability and Culture: Universalism and Diversity

Manufacturer: Hogrefe & Huber Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 088937239X

Diversity and Development in Southeast Asia: The Coming Decade (1980's project/Council on Foreign Relations)

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Diversity and Development in Southeast Asia: The Coming Decade (1980's project/Council on Foreign Relations)
Guy J. Pauker
Manufacturer: Mcgraw-Hill (Tx)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Diversity of Interacting Receptors (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences)

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Diversity of Interacting Receptors (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences)
D. C.) Functional Diversity of Interacting Receptors (1994 Washington
Manufacturer: New York Academy of Sciences
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Functional diversity and composition of microalgae and photosynthetic bacteria in marine wetlands: Spatial variation, succession, and influence on productivity : (Dissertation)

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Functional diversity and composition of microalgae and photosynthetic bacteria in marine wetlands: Spatial variation, succession, and influence on productivity : (Dissertation)
Christopher Nathan Janousek
Manufacturer: ProQuest Information and Learning
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Binding: Digital

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Functional Diversity of Plants in the Sea and on Land

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Functional Diversity of Plants in the Sea and on Land
A. R. O. Chapman
Manufacturer: Jones & Bartlett Publishers
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Binding: Hardcover

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Functional Diversity Primer 2003

Manufacturer: Diversity Best Practices
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0962841749

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This report addresses all the core issues of diversity and women's leadership. It delves into diversity integration, creating synergies among all business functions in the effort to build a more inclusive business strategy and demonstrate the success and value of the Diversity program.

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Functional Diversity Primer 2005
Business Women's Network
Manufacturer: Business Women's Network
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0976649926
Release Date: 2005-06-24

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FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITY PRIMER, 2005 describes the latest ¡ÈBest Practices¡É diversity programs that successful companies use. It offers models and case studies that show strategies and innovation in all areas. It analyzes these strategies and makes the case for a vibrant understanding of diversity as a strategy for profitability, increased market share, and growth. We delve into diversity integration and reveal company-wide strategies that promote bottom-line success. This book is for your company¡Çs diversity officer, the diversity team, and each member of the Executive Diversity Council. Certain parts can be summarized for the CEO and top executives. This book is a management resource for setting goals and measuring progress toward them. The Primer will help diversity leadership analyze where to excel and help discover which new procedures, programs, and management systems the organization wish to adopt.

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Why do mass extinctions occur? The demise of the dinosaurs has been discussed exhaustively, but has never been out into the context of other extinction events. This is the first systematic review of the mass extinctions of all organisms, plant and animal, terrestrial and marine, that have occurred in the history of life. This includes the major crisis 250 million years ago which nearly wiped out all life on Earth. By examining current paleontological, geological, and sedimentological evidence of environmental changes, the cases for explanations based on climate change, marine regressions, asteroid or comet impact, anoxia, and volcanic eruptions are all critically evaluated.

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Superb presentation.......2006-04-18

This book is not for the amateur interested in a general discussion of dinosaur extinctions. It's a professional text, probably intended for the paleontologist or paleontology student. If you're one of those whose avocation is along these lines, however, and you're able to read and understand the professional journals on the subject, it's full of information that you might find interesting and useful. If you're someone whose notion of a "journal" is Discover Magazine, you'll be bored to tears.

This said, Wow!

The topic of extinction is of course one of emotive interest to the general public, and of course because of this to the makers of TV documentaries and the authors of popular books on the subject. As Hallam and Wignall point out in Mass Extinctions and their Aftermath, popular interest in the extinction of the Cretaceous dinosaurs is way out of proportion to their importance as one of the world's life forms and certainly to their representation in the faunal fossil record, so the proliferation of documentaries and books specific to the life form misrepresents the significance of their demise. They also make it seem as though the "problem" is all settled--conveniently by the most dramatic event possible. Unfortunately this focus also makes it seem as though nothing else of significance happened in the rest of geologic history, which is patently untrue, as the authors make abundantly clear. They've gone a long way toward correcting the deficit in the literature, with the obvious proviso that non-professionals read the book.

For the professional paleontologist, much of general geologic information is probably known to you. If you've been long in the field, but behind in your reading, the book will give you an excellent coverage of "what's new," and what is, is a lot. Certainly anyone looking to write a paper on a specific topic in extinction will find Hallam and Wignall's bibliography an excellent starting point for a literature search. The entries are comprehensive, global, and cover most theories. Just the thought of the amount of work involved in compiling this bibiliography, let alone sifting it for well executed research results, is exhausting to me. Presumably some of it was done by computer and some by student "slaves," but it still represents a major effort on the part of the authors, and I think the book shows it.

For the paleontology student, the book is a well conceived text. It describes the divisions of the various biologic eras in a finer detail than I've seen done in textbooks in the past. Most importantly, it doesn't just leave a term like "Maastrichtian"--my favorite--hanging out there in limbo. The authors provide it with a proper nitch among its brethren, identifying "upper, lower, and middle" what-have-you as its temporal location. Although it is not discussed in the text, the graphs and charts make it clear that the stages are derived from "type sites," and many of the zones by specific "type fossils." The method of choosing these sites is made clear by discussion of individual locations and their data, as is the ability to change the location of THE site as needed. The authors also show clearly in these charts where globally derived and ocean-terrestrial zones are believed to overlap so that causation can be discussed. That's a lot of information for a student, information not often easily found in other texts but very important in understanding the literature. This is probably one of the few books on paleontology I've read where the charts and graphs are truly an integral part of the learning process and definitely NOT to be neglected by the student.

Also for the student--and the interested general reader--the extinction literature is very well presented. The authors provide a very comprehensive discussion of events during each episode of proposed or possible extinction, referring to the pertinent literature world wide. This is significant, because to confirm a "massive" extinction requires world wide research. Events in narrow segments of the globe can always have been "local." The water column is presented from top to bottom, including information about in-fauna, which makes the discussions about causation of extinction very clear for the reader. It offers the student a window on the thought processes of research in extinction, on insights from technology, and on the causes of disagreement.

One of the most significant, though passive, instructions the student receives by reading this text is the very objective, balance, and neutral approach to assessing the work of others--with one exception early in the book. The various differing views, even of the authors, are presented in a clear manner with the authors' "take" on things generally reserved for the end of the section. Their point of view is documented and discussed, and where they have nothing more to add than the rest of their colleagues, they say so plainly. At no time in the book is the student imposed upon with a biased, one-sided view of the knowledge of the field. Can't ask for more than that.

Research methods are also presented. In particular Hallam and Wignall note that the extinction scientists can't make blind assumptions about data set. In particular they discusse some of the critics of Sepkowski and Raup's theories and data. Authors appealed to findings of two specific faunal types, namely fish and echinoderms, but failed to notice that the particular choice of these animals distorted their own results by virtue of the resistance to extinction in the former case and poor representation in the geological record in the second case. Issues like the effect of differential preservation are not always obvious unless the reader does research of a similar kind himself and then, quite obviously, not always then. Certainly the student planning a research project for a degree program would be wise to read the first few chapters of the book to see what pitfalls they need to avoid.

In general the text covers the "Big Five" extinctions and discusses some of the smaller ones in as thorough a manner as is possible in the limited number of pages. It certainly gives the student a better comprehension of what constitutes a mass extinction, how such an event is represented in the faunal record, how the data available can be statistically manipulated to produce a clearer understanding of what was occurring at the time, and how all of this information can help identify possible causes for the phenomenon of mass extinction itself.

In general a superb presentation of the field, but not really for the uninitiated.

A Thorough Introduction; Be Prepared to Work........2005-10-10

Hallem and Wignell present a very detailed analysis of mass extinction. Unfortunately, it is too detailed for me. [But see my later notes, below, for more about that.] I've never studied geology and there was much more detail than I could absorb. Also, the times are given in stages, not periods. "Late Devonian" I understand, but not "Frasnian-Famennian".

But I did gain some insight into the relationship between geology and life, and I expect to read it again and gain more. Before I do that, I will make a chart of geologic time and, as I read the first chapters, I will write notes. If you're not an evolutionary scientist and you decide to read this book, I recommend you do the same.

It starts out with a discussion of how one recognizes a mass extinction. For example, a decline in the numbers of fossils might just indicate that conditions for fossilization were less favorable, or it could accurately reflect a decline in numbers of species. The authors explain some ways to distinguish the two cases and settle on five periods which they consider to be real mass extinctions.

Then there is a discussion of the tools used to search for possible causes of extinction. For example, a change in the ratio of carbon-13 to carbon-12 can indicate a decline in the amount of oxygen available for life. Or a change in sea level can lead to a rise in oxygen level. It will help you to make notes of anything in this section with which you are not already familiar.

Finally, the book goes through each of the five major extinctions and examines each in terms of the tools. This is the bulk and payoff of the book.

I was disappointed by one thing: there's not as much material as I would like on the aftermath mentioned in the title. I am very interested in this because I believe that, after a mass extinction clears away most animals, there is plenty of opportunity for new forms to evolve.

There are quite a number of questions left unanswered and disputes unsettled. This may be frustrating to some readers, but it is inevitable in a book on current science. Creationists will call these "gaps"; Ph.D.s will call them job opportunities and many readers will think of them as "to be continued".

[Original review 9 Oct 2005; this paragraph 22 June 2006] If this book sounds too technical for you, you might want to read the book Extinction: How Life on Earth Nearly Ended 250 Million Years Ago, by Douglas H. Erwin. (Click on "See all my reviews" for a review.) It's rather elementary, and it covers only the Permian extinction, but it has a lot of information. Furthermore, Erwin gradually introduces technical matters at a rate that many non-scientists can absorb. By the time you finish Erwin, you might want to read Hallam and Wignall.

[Added 4 July 2006] I have just finished reading this book for the second time. With the knowledge gained from the first reading, and with what I learned from Erwin's book, I found it much more readable. With my "jargon anxiety" greatly reduced, I was able to follow much of the remaining jargon with the help of charts in this book. [For example, "Frasnian" and "Fammenian" are now entirely familiar to me.] Hallam and Wignall is aimed at advanced students, and there is much that I will probably never follow, especially regarding categories of marine invertebrates. But, not being a scientist, I don't need all of that. (E.g., I don't need to know the difference between rugose and scleractinian corals. The important thing is that one type went extinct at the end of the Permian and that the other eventually took over.) It's a great book for an interested non-scientist who likes to work at learning.

And, yes, I did make some notes about the early material and I referred back to them often as I read.

Regarding my disappointment over the shortage of material on recovery: on further consideration, what I really missed was material on how our mammal-like ancestors managed to squeeze through the Permian extinction. Thanks to both H & W and Erwin, I realize that evidence for this is just about non-existent.

Not For The Faint of Heart.......2001-07-18

An excellent reference work for the devotee of paleontology. Should be read with your biology/botany/geology reference books in hand. Definitely a research work and at times, too scientific. Lacked continuity in some chapters (not surprising since the geological record is hazy at best) and could've been enhanced by chapter and overall summaries in layman's terms. If one's looking for an read along the lines of "Discovery Channel's" Age of the Dinosaurs, this is not the book to purchase. Well written, yes; as a good read, fair.

A Good Overview of Mass Extinctions.......2000-06-22

'Mass Extinctions and Their Aftermath' by A. Hallam and P. B. Wignall is a good overview of the episodes of mass extinctions in the history of life. Beginning with a brief primer on the 'anatomy' and significance of mass extinctions, the book covers both major and minor mass extinction events chronologically and succintly, with plenty of references. It summarizes the plausible cause (or causes) of these extinctions, as well as post-extinction recoveries. All-in-all, a slim volume which, through its compartmentalized structure and excellent reference database, provides a stepping stone to more specialized work.

A Good Overview of Mass Extinctions.......2000-06-22

Late Early Triassic microbial reefs of the western United States: a description and model for their deposition in the aftermath of the end-Permian mass ... Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]

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Late Early Triassic microbial reefs of the western United States: a description and model for their deposition in the aftermath of the end-Permian mass ... Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]
S.B. Pruss , and D.J. Bottjer
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000RQZ9R6

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Research in the western United States to reinvestigate and characterize the previously reported stromatolites of the latest Early Triassic (Spathian) Virgin Limestone Member of the Moenkopi Formation has shown that these microbial build-ups formed patch reef mounds. Detailed field analysis of these reef mounds and the surrounding beds has established that they attained 1-2 m of topographic relief above the seafloor. A petrographic study of these microbial mounds illustrates that they consisted of microbial fabrics, as well as voids with early marine cements and formed in the absence of in situ metazoans. These reef mounds formed during the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction that spanned the Early Triassic. Due to the devastation of marine metazoans at this extinction, the Early Triassic has often been deemed a reef gap because no metazoan reefs are found at this time. Whereas colonial metazoan reefs are globally absent from Lower Triassic strata, microbial build-ups similar to these described from the western United States have been found in south China, Armenia, southern Turkey and Greenland. A regional Early Permian to late Early Triassic unconformity exists in the study region. However, analysis of these microbial reefs within a global context suggests that conditions favouring microbial reef development must have existed as long as 4-8 m.y. after the end-Permian mass extinction. A depositional model of these microbial mounds indicates that flooding of the shelf with anoxic and/or CO"2-rich deep waters may have fostered their occurrence.

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Mass Extinctions and Their Aftermath
P. B. Wignall A. Hallam
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press(UK)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKVPC8

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