Neural and Neuroendocrine Mechanisms in Host Defense and Autoimmunity
This comprehensive volume, written by experts in the integrative fields of neuroscience, endocrinology and immunology, provides insight into the mechanisms by which neural and neuroendocrine factors influence susceptibility to infection and autoimmunity. The book focuses on multiple sclerosis as the prototypic autoimmune disease and discusses infectious diseases including anthrax, influenza virus, herpes virus and human immunodeficiency virus. The effects of stress on experimental models of multiple sclerosis and also clinical observations of stress in multiple sclerosis patients are discussed. Neural and Neuroendocrine Mechanisms in Host Defense and Autoimmunity is an ideal book for researches and professionals in the fields of immunology, neuroscience, infectious disease, psychology, microbiology, virology, public health and pharmaceutical sciences.
Model Based Learning and Instruction in Science
This book describes new, model based teaching methods for science instruction. It presents research that describes these new methods in a very diverse group of settings: middle school biology, high school physics, and college chemistry classrooms. Mental models in these areas such as understanding the structure of the lungs or cells, molecular structures and reaction mechanisms in chemistry, or causes of current flow in electricity are notoriously difficult for many students to learn. Yet these lie at the core of conceptual understanding in these areas. The studies focus on a variety of teaching strategies such as discrepant questioning, analogies, animations, model competition, and hands on activities.
Experimental models of multiple sclerosis
This book combines for the first time the different experimental models for MS (including immune-mediated and viral) under one roof, and highlights aspects that are different or shared among these experimental models. It’s aim is to improve our understanding of this devastating disease and help us think about potential additional therapies for it.
Dipeptidyl Aminopeptidases : Basic Science and Clinical Applications
Dipeptidyl Aminopeptidases exert a potent modulatory role at an interface between immune mechanisms, metabolic responses, and neuroendocrine pathways. Experimental models and clinical studies addressing the role of these enzymes and the effect of specific inhibitors pave the way to novel therapeutic concepts in immunology, rheumatology, oncology, reproductive medicine and diabetes. Leading experts in the field will contribute to this book, which will present a state-of-the-art view on these enzymes at a time when our understanding of their function is growing ever more rapidly and therapeutic options have become imminent. The sections of the book will focus on various topics including DP IV and related enzymes in: expression and function, metabolic disorders, immune mechanisms and immune disorders, neuronal diseases and cancer, and related drug development.
L’insuffisance rénale aiguë = Acute renal failure
The aim of this book is to make current data from the experimental and clinical literature accessible to readers. More than a thousand articles are published each year on the theme and the authors aim to synthesize this information. These data relate in particular to the identification of early markers of renal dysfunction without which screening, recognition of the main pathophysiological determinants and prevention remain uncertain. This book focuses attention on clinical situations characterized by the renal impact of the main dysfunctions of vital functions, the prognosis of which is worsened by the occurrence of this renal failure. The following will be treated in particular: the renal consequences of oxidative stress, the renal consequences of respiratory dysfunction, cardiac dysfunction, hepatic dysfunction, alterations in hemostasis, septic shock and hemorrhagic shock. Finally, the physiopathological data from experimental models are gradually finding their echo in the clinical field, opening up therapeutic avenues whose recent evaluations will be analyzed.
Ambiguities in Decision-oriented Life Cycle Inventories: The Role of Mental Models and Values
Shows for the first time how mental models and values influence this attribution in the life cycle inventory step of LCA. One of the key findings is that the different management rules for a sustainable use of materials must be taken into account for the attribution of material and energy flows to a product. Otherwise, improvement options recommended by an LCA might turn out to even worsen the environmental situation if reassessed from a meta-perspective. As a consequence of this book, the claim of unambiguitiy (‘objectivity’) of the life cycle inventory must be abandoned. A group-model building process for LCA is developed that allows one to grasp the decision makers' mental models and values in the inventory analysis on a case- and situation-specific basis. Only by this, LCA results will become relevant in a decision-making process. Two case studies on the modelling of recycling and other end-of-life options of aluminium windows and beech wood railway sleepers in LCA complement the methodological part.





