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Over the past half-century, the central dogma, in which DNA makes RNA makes protein, has dominated thinking in biology, with continuing refinements in understanding of DNA inheritance, gene expression, and macromolecular interactions. However, we have also witnessed the elucidation of epigenetic phenomena that violate conventional notions of inheritance. Protein-only inheritance involves the transmission of phenotypes by self-perpetuating changes in protein conformation. Proteins that constitute chromatin can also transmit heritable information, for example, via posttranslational modifications of histones. Both the transmission of phenotypes via the formation of protein conformations and the inheritance of chromatin states involve self-perpetuating assemblies of proteins, and there is evidence for some common structural features and conceptual frameworks between them. To foster interactions between researchers in these two fields, the National Academy of Sciences convened an Arthur M.Sackler Colloquium entitled "Self-Perpetuating Structural States in Biology, Disease, and Genetics" in Washington, DC, on March 22-24, 2002. Participants described new phenomenology and provided insights into fundamental mechanisms of protein and chromatin inheritance. Perhaps most surprising to attendees was emerging evidence that these unconventional modes of inheritance may be common.
Scores of talented and dedicated people serve the forensic science community, performing vitally important work. However, they are often constrained by lack of adequate resources, sound policies, and national support. It is clear that change and advancements, both systematic and scientific, are needed in a number of forensic science disciplines to ensure the reliability of work, establish enforceable standards, and promote best practices with consistent application. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward provides a detailed plan for addressing these needs and suggests the creation of a new government entity, the National Institute of Forensic Science, to establish and enforce standards within the forensic science community. The benefits of improving and regulating the forensic science disciplines are clear: assisting law enforcement officials, enhancing homeland security, and reducing the risk of wrongful conviction and exoneration. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States gives a full account of what is needed to advance the forensic science disciplines, including upgrading of systems and organizational structures, better training, widespread adoption of uniform and enforceable best practices, and mandatory certification and accreditation programs. While this book provides an essential call-to-action for congress and policy makers, it also serves as a vital tool for law enforcement agencies, criminal prosecutors and attorneys, and forensic science educators.
There is a curious parallel between the philosophy of science and psychiatric theory. The so-called demarcation question, which has exercised philosophers of science over the last decades, posed the problem of distinguishing science proper from non-science - in par ticular, from metaphysics, from pseudo-science, from the non rational or irrational, or from the untestable or the empirically meaningless. In psychiatric theory, the demarcation question appears as a problem of distinguishing the sane from the insane, the well from the mentally ill. The parallelism is interesting when the criteria for what fails to be scientific are seen to be congruent with the criteria which define those psychoses which are marked by cognitive failure. In this book Dr Yehuda Fried and Professor Joseph Agassi - a practicing psychiatrist and a philosopher of science, respectivel- focus on an extreme case of psychosis - paranoia - as an essentially intellectual disorder: that is, as one in which there is a systematic and chronic delusion which is sustained by logical means. They write: "Paranoia is an extreme case by the very fact that paranoia is by definition a quirk of the intellectual apparatus, a logical delusion. " (p. 2.
This book represents the proceedings of a conference, Rheumaderm, that was held in December 1997. The meeting was a dialogue between the specialties of Rheumatology and Dermatology, exploring and discussing areas of common interest. The aim was to present problems common to both specialties, thereby emphasising the team approach to such problems and helping to combine various skills.
Biodiversity-the genetic variety of life-is an exuberant product of the evolutionary past, a vast human-supportive resource (aesthetic, intellectual, and material) of the present, and a rich legacy to cherish and preserve for the future. Two urgent challenges, and opportunities, for 21st-century science are to gain deeper insights into the evolutionary processes that foster biotic diversity, and to translate that understanding into workable solutions for the regional and global crises that biodiversity currently faces. A grasp of evolutionary principles and processes is important in other societal arenas as well, such as education, medicine, sociology, and other applied fields including agriculture, pharmacology, and biotechnology. The ramifications of evolutionary thought also extend into learned realms traditionally reserved for philosophy and religion. The central goal of the In the Light of Evolution (ILE) series is to promote the evolutionary sciences through state-of-the-art colloquia-in the series of Arthur M. Sackler colloquia sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences-and their published proceedings. Each installment explores evolutionary perspectives on a particular biological topic that is scientifically intriguing but also has special relevance to contemporary societal issues or challenges. This tenth and final edition of the In the Light of Evolution series focuses on recent developments in phylogeographic research and their relevance to past accomplishments and future research directions.
The DNA of eukaryotes is packaged into chromosomes - each chromosome consisting of a very long molecule of DNA and various proteins (e.g. histones), and the number of chromosomes being characteristic for the species concerned. Chromosome analysis can provide a great deal of information for many aspects of cellular genetics such as DNA replication, protein:DNA interactions and genetic manipulation. The book is structured in a methodical fashion - the introductory chapters are centred around analysis of chromatin with chapters on the mapping of protein:DNA interactions in vivo using ligation-mediated PCR and the mapping of chromatin-associated proteins by formaldehyde cross-linking. The next chapters concentrate on the study of whole chromosome structure, including: fission yeast chromosome analysis using FISH and CHIP, isolation of vertebrate metaphase chromosomes and their analysis by FISH, the study of vertebrate chromosome progression through mitosis, and the analysis of mammalian interphase chromosomes by immunofluorescence and FISH. There then follow chapters on FISH in whole-mount tissues and the analysis of the sub-structure of mammalian nuclei in vitro. The final two chapters deal with the experimental manipulation of chromosome structure, including: chromosome assembly in vitro using Xenopus egg extracts and chromosome fragmentation in vertebrate cell lines. This comprehensive and informative laboratory manual includes a diverse range of experimental models for the analysis of chromosomes - such as vertebrates, Drosophila, yeast and Xenopus. Fully illustrated, it focuses on modern techniques and approaches to the study of chromosome structure and will be invaluable to researchers and academic staff in genetics, biomedical science and molecular biology.
This volume represents a collection of contributions presented during the Third Annual University of Chicago Oriental Institute Seminar Religion and Power: Divine Kingship in the Ancient World and Beyond, held at the Oriental Institute, February 23-24, 2007. The purpose of this conference was to examine more closely concepts of kingship in various regions of the world and in different time periods. The study of kingship goes back to the roots of fields such as anthropology and religious studies, as well as Assyriology and Near Eastern archaeology. More recently, several conferences have been held on kingship, drawing on cross-cultural comparisons. Yet the question of the divinity of the king as god has never before been examined within the framework of a cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary conference. Some of the recent anthropological literature on kingship relegates this question of kings who deified themselves to the background or voices serious misgivings about the usefulness of the distinction between divine and sacred kings. Several contributors to this volume have pointed out the Western, Judeo-Christian background of our categories of the human and the divine. However, rather than abandoning the term divine kingship because of its loaded history it is more productive to examine the concept of divine kingship more closely from a new perspective in order to modify our understanding of this term and the phenomena associated with it.