Mucosal Immunology and Virology
Mucosal Immunology and Virology is designed to provide the clinician with a thorough and yet approachable textbook describing the relationships between immunology, virology and the disease process. It includes a vast wealth of information and illustrations to enable the reader to become familiar with the clinical presentation of these diseases, the tests needed to establish the diagnosis, and the treatment of the disease including specific antiviral agents. Suitable for residents and clinicians in immunology, infectious diseases, internal medicine and dermatology the book reviews the systematic manifestations of mucosal viral infections, including those involving the mouth, gastrointestinal tract, respiratory system, anogenital mucosa and ocular infections
Mucins : Methods and protocols
Explores the latest advancements in mucin research. The chapters in this book are organized into 8 parts and cover a wide range of topics such as mucin extraction, isolation, physicochemical property analysis, and experimental methods. The chapters also discuss the origins of mucins in jellyfish, feces, saliva and salivary glands, bronchi, stomach, and cervical tract; organic synthesis of peptides glycosylated at specific sites; analysis of mucin gene expression and methylation-specific electrophoresis of genes; imaging of mucin networks by AFM; and experimental methods using supported molecular matrix electrophoresis. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.
Motion in Games ; 1st International Workshop, MIG 2008, Utrecht, The Netherlands, June 14-17, 2008. Revised Papers
This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-workshop proceedings of the First International Workshop on Motion in Games, held in Utrecht, The Netherlands, during June 14-17, 2008, in collaboration with the NLGD Festival of Games.The 24 revised papers presented during the workshop cover topics on crowd simulation; virtual humans; motion synthesis; interfaces; navigation and steering; and facial and behavioral animation.
Monitoring, Security, and Rescue Techniques in Multiagent Systems
This volume contains extended and improved versions of selected contributions presented at the International Workshop "Monitoring, Security and Rescue Techniques in Multiagent Systems".
Molluscs : From Chemo-ecological Study to Biotechnological Application
Marine molluscs are very promising candidates for a wide range of biotechnological applications. For example, they possess analgesic drugs more potent than morphine and very effective anticancer agents. The present book gives an up-to-date overview of the main classes of bioactive compounds from molluscs, moving from ecological observations, to chemical characterization, to biosynthesis, to large-scale synthesis, and to pharmacological applications. A truly outstanding international panel of experts from all continents provides complete coverage of the most stimulating topics related to molluscs. This knowledge of their history and current studies provides an open door to the future.
Molecular Targeting in Oncology
In Molecular Targeting in Oncology, authors present an overview of the development of targeted therapies for the treatment of cancer with an emphasis on clinical application. The volume covers the complexity of the rapidly developing area of targeted therapies for the treatment of patients with cancer and is structured in a way so readers may begin with chapters that most interest them and work through the rest of the chapters in the order of their choice. The volume is divided into five sections that cover the most important elements of drug development. The first section focuses on approaches using targeted therapies to inhibit cell growth. The second section describes how clinicians are evaluating targeted therapies in specific organ systems. The third section illustrates how various classes of pharmacologic and immunologic agents are developed for individual molecular targets. The fourth section details new drugs that have novel mechanisms of action. The final section looks to the future of targeted therapeutics and includes chapters on appropriate patient selection, use of combination therapy, dealing with tumor cell resistance, and more. Comprehensive and cutting-edge, Molecular Targeting in Oncology is an essential reference for those working in the field.
Molecular Paradigms of Infectious Disease : A Bacterial Perspective
This comprehensive volume, written by leading authors in the field, provides a fundamental understanding of the complex cellular and molecular processes that are important for bacterial virulence and the infectious disease process. Written in a clear and engaging manner, the book highlights key techniques and methodologies that have driven recent discoveries in bacterial pathogenesis, major structures and mechanisms in bacteria that are important for the pathogenesis of these organisms, the regulation of these virulence determinants by global regulators, and bacterial biowarfare agents. Molecular Paradigms of Infectious Disease: A Bacterial Perspective is an ideal book for students, microbiologists, immunologists and scientists and researchers of bacterial pathogenesis.
Molecular Neurosurgery with Targeted Toxins
Focuses on the highly successful use of the immunotoxins, 192 IgG-saporin and ME20.4-saporin, to lesion the cholinergic basal forebrain in order to model the behavior, anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology of Alzheimer's disease in animals. Also discussed are the uses of anti-DBH-saporin immunotoxin to make remarkably selective lesions of catecholaminergic neurons, hypocretin-saporin that can produce narcoleptic animals, and other saporin conjugates, such as neuropeptide-saporin conjugates for pain research and cholera toxin B chain-saporin to produce a model of central nervous system demyelination. Overview perspectives and, in some cases, more practical details are provided that allow the reader to appreciate exactly what is involved in using these agents. Both practical and theoretical, Molecular Neurosurgery With Targeted Toxins provides readers with not only the background to understand these techniques, but also numerous real-life examples that can be readily adapted to new purposes and an ever-increasing number of new targeted toxins.
Molecular Mimicry : Infection Inducing Autoimmune Disease
The conceptual basis for molecular mimicry was first defined in the early 1980s when monoclonal antibodies against viruses were also shown to react with non-viral host protein; in this case, measles virus phosphoprotein cross-reacted with host cell cytokeratin, herpes simplex virus type 1 with host-cell vimentin and vaccinia virus with host-cell intermediate filaments. Following this discovery, others emerged, again at the clonal level, that T cell clones against proteins from a variety of infectious agents also reacted with host antigenic determinants. The clonal distinction was imperative fo.
Molecular Imaging ; An Essential Tool in Preclinical Research, Diagnostic Imaging, and Therapy
The continuous progress in the understanding of molecular processes of disease formation and progression attributes an increasing importance to biomedical molecular imaging methods. The purpose of this workshop was to discuss and overview multiple applications and emerging technologies in the area of diagnostic imaging including its fundamental capabilities in preclinical research, the opportunities for medical care, and the options involving therapeutic concepts. The book provides the reader with state-of-the-art information on the different aspects of diagnostic imaging, illuminating new developments in molecular biology, imaging agents and molecular probe design, and therapeutic techniques.
Molecular Biology of the Parathyroid
Caintaining extracellular calcium concentrations within a narrow range is critical for the survival of most vertebrates. PTH, together with vitamin D, responds to hypocalcemia to increase extracellu M lar calcium levels, by acting on bone, kidney and intestine. The recent intro duction of PTH as a major therapeutic agent in osteoporosis has directed renewed interest in this important hormone and in the physiology of the parathyroid gland. The parathyroid is unique in that low serum calcium stimulates PTH secretion. As hypocalcemia persists, there is also an increase in PTH synthesis. Chronic hypocalcemia leads to hypertrophy and hyper plasia of the parathyroid gland together with increased production of the hormone. Phosphate is also a key modulator of PTH secretion, gene expres sion and parathyroid cell proliferation. Understanding the biology of the parathyroid as well as the mecha nisms of associated diseases has taken great strides in recent years. This book summarizes the molecular mechanisms involved in the function of the para thyroid gland. The first chapter reviews the development of the parathyroid gland and the genes involved in this process as identified using genetically manipulated mice. Then the biosynthetic pathway of PTH from gene ex pression to its intracellular processing and the sequences in the gene control ling its transcription as well as those regulating mRNA processing, stability and translation are described.
Molecular Biology in Plant Pathogenesis and Disease Management : Microbial Plant Pathogens ; Vol.1
Studies on molecular biology of pathogens, infection process and disease resistance, have provided information essentially required to understand the vulnerable stages at which the pathogens can be tackled effectively and to adopt novel strategies to incorporate disease resistance genes from diverse sources and /or to induce resistance of cultivars with desirable agronomic attributes using biotic or abiotic agents. The nature of interaction between the gene products of the pathogen and plant appears to determine the outcome of the interaction resulting in either disease progression or suppression. Transgenic plants with engineered genes show promise for effective exploitation of this approach for practical application. Research efforts during the recent years to sequence the whole genomes of the pathogens and plants may lead to development of better ways of manipulating disease resistance mechanisms enabling the grower to achieve higher production levels and the consumer to enjoy safer food and agricultural products. Experimental protocols included in appropriate chapters will be useful for researchers and graduate students.
Modulation of host gene expression and innate immunity by viruses
This book is reference on a relatively young area of research in which virology, cellular biology and molecular pathogenesis govern the principles of coinvestigation. Infection of a naïve (non-immune) host with a virus elicits an immediate response which results in a cascade of changes in the host, including an interferon response (innate immunity). The outcome of this interaction is influenced by the genes of the virus as well as the genes of the host. Interestingly, different viruses do it in different ways. Not only is there a plethora of mechanisms used by the invading organisms, but the host has also evolved a great variety of redundant and robust countermeasures. This interplay of host and virus represents one of the most significant frontiers in biology today. A clearer understanding of the mechanisms involved will arm us with better strategies to deal with viruses, including emerging pathogens and potential bioterrorism agents. This book is sure to benefit students, scientists, and physicians working in the areas of virology, immunology, microbiology, and infectious diseases.
Models in Cooperative Game Theory : Crisp, Fuzzy, and Multi-Choice Games
This book investigates the classical model of cooperative games with transfer able utility (TU-games) and models in which the players have the possibility to cooperate partially, namely fuzzy and multichoice games. In a crisp game the agents are either fully involved or not involved at all in cooperation with some other agents, while in a fuzzy game players are allowed to cooperate with infinitely many different participation levels, varying from non-cooperation to full cooperation. A multichoice game describes an intermediate case in which each player may have a fixed number of activity levels. Part I of the book is devoted to the most developed model in the theory of cooperative games, that of a classical TU-game with crisp coalitions, which we refer to as crisp game along the book. It presents basic notions, solutions concepts and classes of cooperative crisp games in such a way that allows the reader to use this part as a reference toolbox when studying the corresponding concepts from the theory of fuzzy games (Part II) and from the theory of multichoice games (Part III).
Models in Cooperative Game Theory
Cooperative game theory is a booming research area with many new developments in the last few years. So, our main purpose when prep- ing the second edition was to incorporate as much of these new dev- opments as possible without changing the structure of the book. First, this o?ered us the opportunity to enhance and expand the treatment of traditional cooperative games, called here crisp games, and, especially, that of multi-choice games, in the idea to make the three parts of the monograph more balanced. Second, we have used the opportunity of a second edition to update and enlarge the list of references regarding the three models of cooperative games. Finally, we have benefited from this opportunity by removing typos and a few less important results from the ?rst edition of the book, and by slightly polishing the English style and the punctuation, for the sake of consistency along the monograph.
Modeling Decisions for Artificial Intelligence ; Vol.3885 ; 3rd International Conference, MDAI 2006, Tarragona, Spain, April 3-5, 2006, Proceedings
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference on Modeling Decisions for Artificial Intelligence, MDAI 2006, held in Tarragona, Spain, in April 2006.
Modeling Communication with Robots and Virtual Humans ; Second ZiF Research Group International Workshop on Embodied Communication in Humans and Machines, Bielefeld, Germany, April 5-8, 2006, Revised Selected Papers
The 17 articles in this state-of-the-art survey address artificial intelligence research on communicative agents and also provide an interdisciplinary perspective from linguistics, behavioral research, theoretical biology, philosophy, communication psychology, and computational neuroscience. The topics include studies on human multimodal communication; the modeling of feedback signals, facial expression, eye contact, and deception; the recognition and comprehension of hand gestures and head movements; communication interfaces for humanoid robots; the evolution of cognition and language; emotion and social appraisal in nonverbal communication; dialogue models and methodologies; theory of mind and intentionality; complex systems, dynamic field theory, and connectionist modeling.
Modeling and using context ; 6th International and interdisciplinary Conference, CONTEXT 2007, Roskilde, Denmark, August 20-24, 2007, Proceedings
This volume contains the papers presented at CONTEXT 2007, the Sixth International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Modeling and Using Context. We believe that the papers of this volume represent a snapshot of current work and contribute to both theoretical and applied aspects of research.
Model-Driven Design Using Business Patterns
This book takes exactly this step: it shows you how to apply the pattern ideas in business applications and presents more than 20 structural and behavioral business patterns that use the REA (resources, events, agents) pattern as a common backbone. If you are a developer working on business frameworks, you can use the patterns presented to derive the right abstractions (e.g., business objects) and to design and ensure that the meta-rules (e.g., process patterns) are followed by the developers of the actual applications. And if you are an application developer, you can use these patterns to design your business application, to ensure that it does not violate the domain rules, and to adapt the application to changing requirements without the need to change the overall architecture. As with patterns in general, this approach allows for both more flexible and more solid software architectures and hence better software quality.
Model checking and artificial intelligence ; 4th Workshop, MoChArt IV, Riva del Garda, Italy, August 29, 2006, Revised Selected and Invited Papers
This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Model Checking and Artificial Intelligence, MoChArt IV, held in Riva Del Garda, Italy in August 2006, as a satellite event of ECAI0 2006, the 17th biannual European conference on Artificial Intelligence.



















