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Now in a revised and expanded second edition, this concise, straightforward and clearly written text presents the latest information on the evaluation and management of common issues and conditions in pediatric endocrinology. Endocrinologists, pediatricians, family physicians, residents, fellows and medical students will all benefit from the discussion of endocrine physiology and its application to common clinical practice. As in the original edition, the text presents the major signs and symptoms in the diagnosis and management of pediatric endocrine disorders, often allowing the practitioner to avoid an unnecessary consultation and preparing a provider for informed communication with parents of a child with an endocrine condition. The concepts covered in the text are designed to address the first 10 headings in the content outline of the Sub-board of Pediatric Endocrinology of The American Board of Pediatrics: disorders of the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, growth, calcium metabolism and bone, the thyroid gland, puberty, and the adrenal gland, among others. Concluding each chapter is a Suggested Reading section, directing the reader to outstanding larger and more detailed texts, manuscripts and websites that offer increased detail.Practical and user-friendly, Pediatric Endocrinology, Second Edition is not simply a checklist of everything that could be done but leads the reader toward a more specific goal of what should be done.

This text is designed for those clinicians who feel comfortable diagnosing these illnesses and wish to enhance their knowledge base and skill set regarding treatment options. Referrals for pelvic pain are common in urological and gynaecological practice; and may lead to varied diagnoses such as interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome, chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome, pelvic floor dysfunction, chronic orchialgia, and vulvodynia. To make matters more complex, each of these conditions is frequently associated by co-morbidities. The text is unique in being organized by the multiple and multifaceted therapies that are available, rather than by specific disorders. The text is richly illustrated with multiple diagrams, figures, and tables, making it the “go to” and “how to” reference for patient treatment.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Computational Methods in Systems Biology, CMSB 2017, held in Darmstadt, Germany, in September 2017. The 15 full papers, 4 tool papers and 4 posters presented together with 1 invited talk were carefully reviewed and selected from 41 regular paper submissions. Topics of interest include formalisms for modeling biological processes; models and their biological applications; frameworks for model verication, validation, analysis, and simulation of biological systems; high-performance computational systems biology and parallel implementations; model inference from experimental data; model integration from biological databases; multi-scale modeling and analysis methods; and computational approaches for synthetic biology.

This book focuses on the salient features of the biology of Bone Morphogenetic Proteins and the advances in our understanding of their structure and function and of downstream signaling, as well as their governance in systems biology from bone and dentin to kidney, cancer, diabetes, iron homeostasis and angiogenesis, including rare musculoskeletal disorders. BMPs, also referred to as growth and differentiation factors, are members of the TGF-beta superfamily and are highly conserved from fruit flies to mammals and are responsible for the formation of practically every organ during embryo development and involved in adult tissue injury and repair. BMPs establish their extracellular gradient by interacting with their respective antagonists and regulate their function through SMAD-dependent down-stream signaling effector genes.This volume is aimed at scientists and professionals dealing with metabolic disorders, nutrition, systems biology diseases, rare musculoskeletal conditions, and disorders related to iron metabolism, including anemia of chronic disease, hereditary hemochromatosis and beta thalassemia.

This new edition includes the most up-to-date information about the pathophysiology and new therapeutic alternatives for osteoporosis of advanced age. It is written by investigators (clinicians and basic scientists) in the field of aging bone research.It was just recently that a new syndrome, osteoporosis of advanced age, was recognized as a new entity with its own pathophysiology and potential treatments. Unfortunately, and despite the fact that hip fractures are mostly a consequence of this process, and apart from the first edition of this book, there are few publications about this subject. The first edition of this book demonstrated that there is a need to understand the particular features of osteoporosis in older persons, which is the main aim of this book. The institutions where the authors are affiliated are highly recognized as the main centers in aging bone research. As an innovation, the second edition includes some aspects of muscle and bone interaction focusing of the impact of age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia) on the pathogenesis of falls and fractures in older persons. As in the previous edition, this book is expected to be the reference guide for geriatricians, gerontologists, and bone biologists as well as medical trainees in order to understand the mechanisms of senile osteoporosis with a practical approach to the treatment of its consequences.

This text provides a concise, straightforward and clearly written approach for the evaluation of common topics in pediatric endocrinology. Pediatricians, family physicians, residents, fellows and medical students will benefit from the discussion of endocrine physiology and its application to common clinical practice. The text presents the major signs and symptoms and the diagnosis and management of pediatric endocrine disorders. The information presented can prepare a provider for communication with parents of a child with an endocrine condition and may allow the practitioner to avoid an unnecessary consultation. The concepts covered in the text are designed to address the first 10 headings in the content outline of the Sub-board of Pediatric Endocrinology of The American Board of Pediatrics with varying degrees of specificity. The Suggested Reading sections at the conclusion of each chapter direct the reader to outstanding larger and more detailed texts, manuscriptsand websites which offer increased detail.

A thorough introduction is provided to the variety and complexity of the roles that glycoconjugates play in the cells of the nervous system. Basic information as well as the latest developments in neural glycobiology are discussed. Topics covered range from the structure and metabolism of the saccharide chains and current approaches used in their study, to changes glycoconjugates undergo during development and aging of the nervous system and the roles they have in neurological disease. The breadth and depth of topics covered make it an essential reference for those new to the field as well more seasoned investigators.

This book updates the latest development in production, stabilization and structural analysis techniques of membrane proteins. This field has made significant advances since the elucidation of the first 3-D structure of a recombinant G Protein Coupled Receptor (GPCR), rhodopsin, with the structure of several more GPCRs having been solved in the past five years. In fact, the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for groundbreaking discoveries on the inner workings of GPCRs. This book is essential reading for all researchers, biochemists and crystallographers working with membrane proteins, who are interested by the structural characterization of their favorite protein and who wish to follow the expression, migration, modifications and recycling of a membrane protein.

The Ghrelin receptor was identified before its natural ligand ghrelin. This receptor is found both centrally and peripherally, and has been shown to affect various processes, such as food intake, gut motility, memory, glucose and lipid metabolism, cardiovascular performances, reproduction, memory, and immunological responses, amongst others. The functions of the ghrelin receptor in the central nervous system are numerous and are still being explored. In this book we specifically focus on the various roles of the ghrelin receptor in the central nervous system. In a first set of chapters, the book will focus on the discovery and the properties of this intriguing constitutively active G-protein coupled receptor, on its multiple intracellular transduction mechanisms and the various subtypes of the currently known ghrelin receptor complexes. Next, the book will elaborate on the mitochondrial mechanisms regulated by the ghrelin receptor, its role in feeding and drug addictive mechanisms, memory, sleep and arousal. The final chapters focus on the potential of this receptor as a target for the treatment of neurological disorders including Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, anxiety and depression.

This volume describes the latest findings on transcriptional and translational regulation of stem cells. Both transcriptional activators and repressors have been shown to be crucial for the maintenance of the stem cell state. A key element of stem cell maintenance is repression of differentiation factors or developmental genes – achieved transcriptionally, epigenetically by the Polycomb complex, and post-transcriptionally by RNA-binding proteins and microRNAs. This volume takes two approaches to this topic – (1) illustrating the general principles outlined above through a series of different stem cell examples – embryonic, iPS and adult stem cells, and (2) describing several molecular families that have been shown to have roles in regulation of multiple stem cell populations.

In recent years, the progress made in the prevention of mortality and morbidity caused by communicable diseases and malnutrition has changed the disease spectrum in both developed and, particularly developing countries. As a result, noncommunicable diseases, includ­ ing genetic disorders, have achieved considerable importance in public health. Furthermore, it is now evident that inherited predisposition is important in a number of common diseases that occur in later life, such as atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and in some rheumatic, oncological, and mental illnesses that appear at an early stage and develop into severe handicaps in predisposed people. Rapid advances in gene mapping concerned with international human genome research make it almost certain that the use of new genetic knowledge will dramatically increase the requirement for genetic approaches in the control of a wide spectrum of diseases, and will provide possibilities for their prevention and treatment in the form of changes in lifestyle, diet modification, periodic check-ups, or the administration of gene therapy. It appears that one of the main problems in delivering genetics services is the difficulty involved in informing the health profession and the community of the real sig­ nificance of genetic problems. There is, therefore, a need for international collaboration in improving genetic health education at all levels and in improving health through genetic approaches.

The main objective of this book is to provide a comprehensive review on stem cells and their role in tissue regeneration, homeostasis and therapy. In addition, the role of cancer stem cells in cancer initiation, progression and drug resistance are discussed. The cell signaling pathways and microRNA regulating stem cell self-renewal, tissue homeostasis and drug resistance are also mentioned. Overall, these reviews will provide a new understanding of the influence of stem cells in tissue regeneration, disease regulation, therapy and drug resistance in several human diseases.

This book was adapted from graduate courses on signal transduction taught by the editor, where the need for a good overview of recent developments on each of the topics being discussed became apparent. Given the wide range of research topics in signaling, a selection was made that not only reflects the current research interest, but also anticipates those areas that will continue to be of interest over the next several years. The health-relatedness of research was a major criterion for selection, as can be seen in the list of topics covered, such as G protein coupled receptors, growth factors, nuclear receptors, reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, the cell cycle and cancer. The emphasis is on areas of signaling research with direct clinical significance. Another field covered, one rarely highlighted in signal transduction books, is that of signaling platforms, which has been emerging as a significant research area relevant to cellular metabolism, cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer.

Although osteoporosis has been de? ned as “a metabolic bone disease characterized by low bone mass and microarchitectural deterioration of bone tissue leading to enhanced bone fragility and a consequent increase in fracture risk,” it is not clear that osteoporosis represents a single disease as much as a similar response of bone to different pathophysiologies. In the 1940s Fuller Albright and colleagues recognized “osteoporosis of old age” and distinguished it from osteoporosis associated with the postme- pausal state, as well as from osteoporosis from disuse, osteoporosis from malnutrition, and other forms of osteoporosis. He nevertheless pointed out that it was unclear how much of osteoporosis is due to old age per se, in view of the fact that “in many cases osteoporosis of disuse, of malnutrition, of the postmenopausal state and of senility are inseparably superimposed. ” In this volume, Duque and Kiel have gathered an international panel of experts to highlight the unique features of senile osteoporosis and cons- eration of this disease spans the very basic through the clinical and the epidemiologic. As an organ which harbors stem cells, bone may clearly in? uence not only its own regeneration but also the regeneration of other tissues, notably the hematopoietic system.

Understanding Biology Using Peptides: Proceedings of the 19th American Peptide Symposium highlights many of the recent developments in peptide science, with a particular emphasis on how these advances are being applied to basic problems in biology and medicine. Specific topics covered include novel synthetic strategies, peptides in biological signaling, post-translational modifications of peptides and proteins, peptide quaternary structure in material science and disease, and peptides as tools in drug discovery.

The present multi-volume Book Series, CANCER GROWTH AND PROGRESSION, encompasses the widest possible framework of cutting edge research in the field of neoplastic pathology and other integrated fields. Normal and pathologic growth is one of the most intensively studied yet challenging areas in pathology. Thus the individual volumes in this series focus on the topics of highest scientific interest for basic and clinical researchers, pathologists, medical and surgical oncologists and allied multidisciplinary teams interested in the study of these aspects of neoplastic growth, progression and inhibition. The range of topics covered is extensive, including but not limited to autonomous growth characteristics of malignancy, phenomena of progression of malignant growth involving the various body systems, and recent advances being made in successful neoplastic inhibition and control. Cell function may be described as producing progression or regression, often found as alternating features in tumors or as variations between normal tissues and tumors. The source of regression in normal melanin producing cells may not be the same as in melanomas. These functions of living matter persist in all phyla of eumetazoans vascular plants as well as in particular species of fungi. However, homo sapiens are the eumetazoan species, which interest us the most. Normal growth processes cannot be entirely understood in all its diversity until we have a thorough knowledge of what constitutes normal growth in various organisms.