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Xenobiotic Metabolic Enzymes Bioactivation and Antioxidant Defense
Xenobiotics are commonly referred to as xenobiotics that humans digest or inhale and are not produced by the body, such as foods, drugs, other chemicals, and air pollutants. Metabolic conversion of xenobiotics to facilitate their removal from the body is catalyzed by activation and detoxification enzymes. These enzymes are essential for bioactivation and detoxification of xenobiotics. Many xenobiotics are non-toxic in nature; however, some of them become cytotoxic or carcinogenic after metabolic conversion. Reactive intermediates or metabolites generated during metabolic conversion are generally electrophilic in nature and are either cations or neutral compounds, including reactive oxygen species and free radicals. Metabolic reactive intermediate-mediated oxidative stress can cause damages to cellular components such as impairment of protein functions, membrane lipid peroxidation, and formation of DNA adduct.
Writing in Context(s) : Textual Practices and Learning Processes in Sociocultural Settings
The premise that writing is a socially-situated act of interaction between readers and writers is well established. This volume first, corroborates this premise by citing pertinent evidence, through the analysis of written texts and interactive writing contexts, and from educational settings across different cultures from which we have scant evidence. Secondly, all chapters, though addressing the social nature of writing, propose a variety of perspectives, making the volume multidisciplinary in nature. Finally, this volume accounts for the diversity of the research perspectives each chapter proposes by situating the plurality of terminological issues and methodologies into a more integrative framework. Thus a coherent overall framework is created within which different research strands (i.e., the sociocognitive, sociolinguistic research, composition work, genre analysis) and pedagogical practices developed on L1 and L2 writing can be situated and acquire meaning.
Work, Change and Workers
Provides a fresh account of the changing nature of work and how workers are changing as result of the requirements of contemporary working life. It explores the implications for preparing individuals for work and maintaining their skills throughout working life. This is done by examining the relations between the changing requirements for working life and how individuals engage in work. An analysis that engages the psychological, sociological, philosophical and anthropological literatures as they relate to work as well as recent empirical research that examines and elaborates perspectives of work and work practice as social institutions and as a vocation that individuals exercise with intentionality and agency. So a key basis for considering changing work and changing workers is the relationships between the social institutions and cultural needs and practices that necessitates and constitutes paid work and how individuals engage and elect to participate and learn in that work. Implications for vocational education, professional development and on-going learning throughout working life are addressed.
Words, objects and events in economics : The making of economic theory
This book examines from a variety of perspectives the disappearance of moral content and ethical judgment from the models employed in the formulation of modern economic theory, and some of the papers contain important proposals about how moral judgment could be reintroduced in economic theory. The chapters collected in this volume result from the favorable reception of the first volume of the Virtues in Economics series and represent further contributions to the themes set out in that volume: (i) examining the philosophical and methodological fallacies of this turn in modern economic theory that the removal of the moral motivation of economic agents from modern economic theory has entailed; and (ii) proposing a return descriptive economics as the means with which the moral content of economic life could be restored in economic theory.
Wild Urban Woodlands : New Perspectives for Urban Forestry
This volume focuses on a particular component of the urban forest - trix - urban wild woodlands. We understand these to be stands of woody plants, within the impact area of cities, whose form is characterized by trees and in which a large leeway for natural processes makes possible a convergence toward wilderness. The wilderness character of these urban woodlands can vary greatly. We differentiate between two kinds of w- derness. The "old wilderness" is the traditional one; it may return slowly to woodland areas when forestry use has been abandoned. The enhancement of wilderness is a task already demanded of urban and peri-urban forestry in many places. This book would like to direct the attention of the reader to a second kind of wilderness, which we call "new wilderness." This arises on heavily altered urban-industrial areas where abandonment of use makes such change possible. The wild nature of urban abandoned areas was discovered in the 1970s through urban-ecological research.
Wicked problems in public policy : Understanding and responding to complex challenges
This book offers the first overview of the ‘wicked problems’ literature, often seen as complex, open-ended, and intractable, with both the nature of the ‘problem’ and the preferred ‘solution’ being strongly contested. It contextualises the debate using a wide range of relevant policy examples, explaining why these issues attract so much attention.
Why Popcorn Costs So Much at the Movies : And Other Pricing Puzzles
How Prices Matter rices are ubiquitous, so much so that their importance to the smooth operation of a market economy (even one constrained by extensive polit- P ical controls as is the case in China) can go unnoticed and unheralded. Prices are what all trades, whether at the local mall or across the globe, are built around. Tey facilitate trades among buyers and sellers who don’t know each other, meaning they make less costly, or more socially benefcial, the allocation and redistribution of the planet’s scarce resources. Indeed, as the late Friedrich Hayek is renowned for having observed, prices summarize a vast amount of - formation on the relative scarcity and, hence, the relative cost of resources (with much of the information subjective in nature) that can be known only by ind-i viduals scattered across markets and cannot be collected in centralized loc- tions, except through market-determined prices.
Why care for Nature? : In search of an ethical framework for environmental responsibility and education
this book, resulting from a comprehensive inquiry into the ethical and politico-philosophical dimensions of environmental education. Two sources of inspiration and responsibility are discussed in particular. First, as citizens of a civil society, inspiration stems from our commitment to the continuation of the collective practices in which we are already engaged. Second, inspiration emerges from our sensual-aesthetic acquaintanceship with the natural surroundings in the course of our everyday activities. This study concludes that there is insufficient room for these sources of inspiration and responsibility within the prevailing framework of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
Who Cares About Wildlife? : Social Science Concepts for Exploring Human-Wildlife Relationships and Conservation Issues
Concerning the human dimensions of wildlife management comes at an opportune time as global warming threatens extinction of large numbers of species. After considering the biological bases of human-wildlife interaction, Manfredo reviews and applies major social science theories and research to wildlife management.
White Sea : Its Marine Environment and Ecosystem Dynamics Influenced by Global Change
The authors address a wide range of issues, including geographical position and the paleogeological background of the White Sea Basin. They provide the most recent data on the White Sea bathymetry, examine the White Sea ecosystem profile, and provide extensive historical marine and riverine data records. An integrated assessment of the state of the ecology, vulnerability and sustainability of the White Sea is presented. They look specifically at the applications of satellite Earth observation (remote sensing) oceanographic investigations into changes in regional physical oceanography and ecology, provide extensive coverage of the problems of multi-faceted data assimilation in ocean modelling and conclude with a look at the present state of the art and future developments in this area of nature conservation.
Wetlands and water framework directive : Protection, management and climate change
This book compares the lessons learned from a wetland-perspective approach to the changing climate and the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) with regard to environmental conservation. Examples from Germany and Poland are discussed due to the efficiency of their respective implementations of water conservation policies. Although the general scientific interest in specific issues such as wetlands, climate change, nature conservation and the WFD enjoy a well established position in international environmental research, these four elements are rarely considered together due to the complexity of the processes, biased scenarios of global change and subjective policy background. Major challenges involved in carrying out environmental conservation actions that assess the potential impacts of climate change and management plans on water bodies are identified.
Web Content Delivery
The concept of content delivery has become increasingly more important due to rapidly growing demands for efficient distribution and fast access of information from the Internet. The content can be diverse, ranging from HTML documents, images, multimedia streams, database tables to dynamically generated contents. Moreover, to facilitate ubiquitous information access, the varied network architectures and hardware devices can include broadband wired/fixed networks, bandwidth constrained wireless/mobile networks, powerful workstations/PCs, PDAs and cellular phones. The need to deliver quality information--given the nature of the content, network connections and client devices--introduces various challenges for content delivery technologies.
Web Archiving
The public information available on the Web today is larger than information distributed on any other media. The raw nature of Web content, the unpredictable remote changes that can affect it, the wide variety of formats concerned, and the growth in data-driven websites make the preservation of this material a challenging task, requiring specific monitoring, collecting and preserving strategies, procedures and tools. Julien Masanès, Director of the European Archive, has assembled contributions from computer scientists and librarians that altogether encompass the complete range of tools, tasks and processes needed to successfully preserve the cultural heritage of the Web. His book serves as a standard introduction for everyone involved in keeping alive the immense amount of online information, and it covers issues related to building, using and preserving Web archives both from the computer scientist and librarian viewpoints.
Water and the Search for Life on Mars
This highly absorbing book relates how NASA and ESA have sought evidence of life on Mars. ‘Follow the water’ with noted science writer David Harland as he assembles and weighs the evidence in this timely and compelling book. It contains what you need to know behind today’s, and possibly tomorrow’s, headlines, including details of the Mariner, Viking, and Pathfinder missions and evolving theories of Martian geology and climate. It explains how the search accelerates with the Mars Orbiter and Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Harland sets this within the broader perspective of the likely nature of life on Mars as compared to primitive life on Earth. Finally, he analyzes the implications of there being life on both planets.
Vulnerability Analysis and Defense for the Internet
Provides packet captures, flow charts and detailed analysis of a protocol and concepts of Reverse Engineering, which enables a user to identify whether an application / protocol is vulnerable and how the vulnerability affects the software. If an application is vulnerable, then a user will be able to understand the complexity, and the theory behind the vulnerability. This edited volume contributed by world leaders in this field, also provides psuedo code for effective signatures to prevent vulnerabilities and case studies where the latest exploits are discussed.
Voltage-Sensitive Ion Channels : Biophysics of Molecular Excitability
Explores the complexity of a microscopic bit of matter that exists in a myriad of copies within our bodies, the voltage-sensitive ion channel. We seek to investigate the way in which these macromolecules make it possible for the long fibers of our nerve and muscle cells to conduct impulses. These integral components of cell membranes are marvels of nature's evolutionary adaptation. To understand them we must probe the boundaries of physics and chemistry. Since function is intimately related to structure, we examine the molecular structure of channels, focusing on physical principles that govern all matter. With the application of genetic methods, our knowledge of ion channels has broadened and deepened. In the hope that research can help ameliorate suffering, we discuss the diseases that arise from channel malfunctions due to genetic mutations.
Volcanic Unrest : From Science to Society
Volcanic unrest is a complex multi-hazard phenomenon. The fact that unrest may, or may not lead to an imminent eruption contributes significant uncertainty to short-term volcanic hazard and risk assessment. Although it is reasonable to assume that all eruptions are associated with precursory activity of some sort, the understanding of the causative links between subsurface processes, resulting unrest signals and imminent eruption is incomplete. When a volcano evolves from dormancy into a phase of unrest, important scientific, political and social questions need to be addressed. This book is aimed at graduate students, researchers of volcanic phenomena, professionals in volcanic hazard and risk assessment, observatory personnel, as well as emergency managers who wish to learn about the complex nature of volcanic unrest and how to utilize new findings to deal with unrest phenomena at scientific and emergency managing levels.
Vitamin B12
Vitamin, any of several organic substances that are necessary in small quantities for normal health and growth in higher forms of animal life. Vitamins are distinct in several ways from other biologically important compounds such as proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids. Although these latter substances also are indispensable for proper bodily functions, almost all of them can be synthesized by animals in adequate quantities. Vitamins, on the other hand, generally cannot be synthesized in sufficient amounts to meet bodily needs and therefore must be obtained from the diet or from some synthetic source. For this reason, vitamins are called essential nutrients. Vitamins also differ from the other biological compounds in that relatively small quantities are needed to complete their functions. In general, these functions are of a catalytic or regulatory nature, facilitating or controlling vital chemical reactions in the body’s cells.
Visual Question Answering : From Theory to Application
Combines visual inputs like image and video with a natural language question concerning the input and generates a natural language answer as the output. This is by nature a multi-disciplinary research problem, involving computer vision (CV), natural language processing (NLP), knowledge representation and reasoning (KR), etc. Provides a comprehensive overview of VQA, covering fundamental theories, models, datasets, and promising future directions. Given its scope, it can be used as a textbook on computer vision and natural language processing, especially for researchers and students in the area of visual question answering. It also highlights the key models used in VQA.
Visa Policy within the European Union Structure
The book focuses on the common visa policy as a case study on the constitutional structure of the European Union. After introducing the nature of visas, the book concentrates on the difficulties in forging a common visa policy at European level. Cooperation on visas has been characterized by a continuous reformulation of the framework for cooperation. The book describes cooperation before the Treaty on European Union adopted at Maastricht, under the Maastricht Treaty, and under the Treaty of Amsterdam. Furthermore, the book traces the essential characteristics of the common visa policy.
