Bøger udgivet af Springer Netherlands

Investigations on various aspects of plant-pathogen interactions have the ultimate aim of providing information that may be useful for the development of effective crop disease management systems. Molecular techniques have accelerated the formulation of short- and long-term strategies of disease management. Exclusion and eradication of plant pathogens by rapid and precise detection and identification of microbial pathogens in symptomatic and asymptomatic plants and planting materials by employing molecular methods has been practiced extensively by quarantines and certification programs with a decisive advantage. Identification of sources of resistance genes, cloning and characterization of desired resistance genes and incorporation of resistance gene(s) into cultivars and transformation of plants with selected gene(s) have been successfully performed by applying appropriate molecular techniques. Induction of resistance in susceptible cultivars by using biotic and abiotic inducers of resistance is a practical proposition for several crops whose resistance levels could not be improved by breeding or transformation procedures. The risks of emergence of pathogen strains less sensitive or resistant to chemicals have been reduced appreciably by rapid identification of resistant strains and monitoring the occurrence of such strains in different geographical locations.

Battery Management Systems: Accurate State-of-Charge Indication for Battery-Powered Applications describes the field of State-of-Charge (SoC) indication for rechargeable batteries. With the emergence of battery-powered devices accurately estimating the battery SoC, and even more important the remaining time of use, becomes more and more important.An overview of the state-of-the-art of SoC indication methods including available market solutions from leading semiconductor companies, e.g. Texas Instruments, Microchip, Maxim, is given in the first part of this book. Furthermore, a universal SoC indication system that enables 1% or better accuracy under all realistic user conditions is developed. A possible integration with a newly developed ultra-fast recharging algorithm is also described.The contents of this book builds further on the contents of the first volume in the Philips Research Book Series, Battery Management Systems - Design by Modelling. Since the subject of battery SoC indication requires a number of disciplines, this book covers all important disciplines starting from (electro)chemistry to understand battery behaviour, via mathematics to enable modelling of the observed battery behaviour and measurement science to enable accurate measurement of battery variables and assessment of the overall accuracy, to electrical engineering to enable an efficient implementation of the developed SoC indication system. It will therefore serve as an important source of information for any person working in engineering and involved in battery management.

Boron is one of the essential micronutrients for higher plants growth and development, and more and more studies have been conducted to establish boron as an essential element in animals and humans. This book reviews all aspects of boron research in recent years and is based on the Third International Symposium on all Aspects of Plant and Animal Boron Nutrition which was held in Wuhan, P.R. China. The following issues are discussed:boron sorption mechanisms in soilsdeficiency and toxicity of boronboron fertilizer applicationbasic research on the physiology and molecular biology of plant boron nutritionthe nutritional function of boron in animals and humansThis book is aimed at scientists, Masters or PhD students focusing on boron research field. Furthermore, it provides managers involved in agricultural production with an important reference to recent developments in boron nutrition research.

An enduring controversy in evolutionary biology is the genetic basis of adaptation. Darwin emphasized "e;many slight differences"e; as the ultimate source of variation to be acted upon by natural selection. In the early 1900's, this view was opposed by "e;Mendelian geneticists"e;, who emphasized the importance of "e;macromutations"e; in evolution. The Modern Synthesis resolved this controversy, concluding that mutations in genes of very small effect were responsible for adaptive evolution. A decade ago, Allen Orr and Jerry Coyne reexamined the evidence for this neo-Darwinian view and found that both the theoretical and empirical basis for it were weak. Orr and Coyne encouraged evolutionary biologists to reexamine this neglected question: what is the genetic basis of adaptive evolution?In this volume, a new generation of biologists have taken up this challenge. Using advances in both molecular genetic and statistical techniques, evolutionary geneticists have made considerable progress in this emerging field. In this volume, a diversity of examples from plant and animal studies provides valuable information for those interested in the genetics and evolution of complex traits.

ELlA M. LEIBOWITZ Director, Wise Observatory Chair, Scientific Organizing Committee The international symposium on "e;Astronomical Time Series"e; was held at the Tel Aviv University campus in Tel Aviv, from December 30 1996 to January 11997. It was organized in order to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Florence and George Wise Observatory (WO) operated by Tel Aviv University. The site of the 1 meter telescope of the observatory is near the town of Mitzpe-Ramon, some 220 km south of Tel Aviv, at the center of the Israeli Negev highland. There were two major reasons for the choice of Time Series as the sub- ject matter for our symposium. One is mainly concerned with the subject matter itself, and one is related particularly to the Wise Observatory. There is hardly any doubt that astronomical time series are among the most ancient concepts in human civilization and culture. One can even say that astronomical time series preceeded astronomy itself, as the impression of the day /night cycle on Earth is probably the first and most fundamental effect that impress a. human being, or, in fact, most living creatures on this planet. An echo of this idea. can be heard in the Biblical story of Creation, where the concept of night and day preceeds the creation of the astronomical objects.

The systematic study of the planets has experienced a slow but steady progress from the efforts of a single individual (Galileo Galilei, 1564-1642) to nations that individually and collectively create whole agencies and complex infrastructures devoted to the exploration and understanding of our solar system. This quest for knowledge continues in earnest today as we attempt to understand Earth's unique place among its closest neighbors. Known diversities emphasize fractionation processes that may have occurred in the nebula during early solar system formation, and the vastly different evolutionary paths taken by the planets and their satellites. The discovery of similarities and differences among the planets has given rise to a discipline of "e;Comparative Planetology. "e; Here terrestrial properties and giant planet atmospheres are viewed and probed, surface geologies are related to atmospheres and oceans, interior structures are envisioned, magnetic fields mapped, and bizarre differences in satellites and ring systems continue to enlighten, amaze and confound the detectives of planetary science. A science organizing committee with international participation was formed to develop a conference program to address the basic issues and the fundamental processes that are common among the planets. The goals of the meeting were twofold: first the production of a reference source on comparative planetology for academia, and second, the provision of an impetus for NASA to begin a program devoted to this emerging science discipline. The conference program accommodated seventeen invited papers and nineteen poster presentations.

Recently, research in robot kinematics has attracted researchers with different theoretical profiles and backgrounds, such as mechanical and electrica! engineering, computer science, and mathematics. It includes topics and problems that are typical for this area and cannot easily be met elsewhere. As a result, a specialised scientific community has developed concentrating its interest in a broad class of problems in this area and representing a conglomeration of disciplines including mechanics, theory of systems, algebra, and others. Usually, kinematics is referred to as the branch of mechanics which treats motion of a body without regard to the forces and moments that cause it. In robotics, kinematics studies the motion of robots for programming, control and design purposes. It deals with the spatial positions, orientations, velocities and accelerations of the robotic mechanisms and objects to be manipulated in a robot workspace. The objective is to find the most effective mathematical forms for mapping between various types of coordinate systems, methods to minimise the numerical complexity of algorithms for real-time control schemes, and to discover and visualise analytical tools for understanding and evaluation of motion properties ofvarious mechanisms used in a robotic system.

This book of the proceedings of the 1997 NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI) on Direct Methods for Solving Macromolecular Structures was assembled from the lecturers' contributions and represents a comprehensive and in-depth overview of crystallographic structure determination methods for macromolecules. While having a focus based on the direct methods, the Institute adopted an inclusive and broad perspective. Thus, both direct and experimental phasing techniques are presented in this book, highlighting their complementarities and synergies. As weil, methodologies spanning the full crystallographic image reconstruction process - from low resolution envelope definition to high resolution atomic refinement- are discussed. The first part of the book introduces the array of tools currently used in structure determination, whether originating from a mathematical, computational or experimental framework. This section of the book displays the variety and ingenuity of old and new phasing approaches developed to solve increasingly complex structures. Some of the contributions focus on recent developments and/or implementations that have given older approaches a new life. A case in point is the re-implementation of Buerger's superposition approach, which is now solving protein structures. Another beautiful example is found in the introduction to the traditional multiple isomorphous replacement approach where new techniques, such as site-directed mutagenesis and the use of inert gases in the preparation of heavy atom derivatives, are described. Equally impressive are the presentations of newer approaches, which take advantage of advances on the experimental front (e. g.

Plant reproductive biology has undergone a revolution during the past five years, with the cloning, sequencing and localization of the genes important in reproduction. These advantages in plant molecular biology have led to exciting applications in plant biotechnology, including the genetic engineering of male sterility and other reproductive processes. This book presents an interesting and contemporary account of these new developments from the scientists in whose laboratories they have been made. The chapters focus on two areas: the molecular biology of self-incompatibility, which is the system of self-recognition controlled by the S-gene and related genes; and the cellular and molecular biology of pollen development and genetic dissection of male sterility. Some chapters feature Arabidopsis, with its unique genetic system. Reproduction is vital for seed production in crop plants, and this book presents new approaches to manipulate plant breeding systems for the 21st century.