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The volume assembles current information on the role of ceramide as a signalling molecule in 16 chapters written by leading workers in this area. Specific attention is given to mechanisms of analysis of ceramide and its biophysical properties, on enzymes of ceramide metabolism and down-stream targets of ceramide, on the cross-talk of ceramide signalling with other signalling pathways, and on the role of ceramide in neuronal signalling. Finally, the book closes with a section on the therapeutic implications of ceramide action, in the areas of cannabinoid action, chemotherapy, and atherosclerosis, and illustrates the potential medical significance of delineating the roles of ceramide in cell signalling. This is the first volume specifically devoted to ceramide signalling, and will act as an invaluable resource for basic and medical researchers and graduate students wishing to get a state of the art overview of this rapidly moving field.

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We are both immensely pleased to have played supporting roles in the archaeological research that led to this volume. As a faculty member at the Universidad del Centro (Huancayo) in the 1960s and later at the Universidad Nacional de San Marcos (Lima), Matos Mendieta developed a special interest in the Upper Mantaro and adjacent Tarma drainages, and during the 1960s and 1970s, he carried out general reconnaissance and several excavations in the area between Lake Junin and Huancayo. Matos Mendieta began his field research in the Sierra Central as part of the "Proyecto Andino de Estudios Arqueologicos" sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution. As a fellow at the Smithsonian Institution in the mid-1960s, Matos Mendieta began to interact more closely with North American scholars; during this period, he began to encourage and facilitate the interests of several US. -based archaeologists in the Peruvian Sierra Central, including Craig Morris, John Murra, and Donald Thompson, who were beginning fieldwork at and around the Inka provincial center of Huanuco Pampa north of Lake Junin, and David Browman, who in 1969 carried out one of the very first systematic archaeological surveys in highland Peru over parts of the main Mantaro Valley between Huancayo and Jauja.

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Psychoneuroimmunology is the first textbook to examine the complex functional relationships between the nervous system, the neuroendocrine and the immune system. The international leaders in this field have been brought together to create this pioneering text; each contributing from their area of expertise. The result is a comprehensive yet accessible interdisciplinary introduction to psychoneuroimmunology which also takes you further than the foundations of those fascinating topics by covering the most recent research in HIV/AIDS, autoimmune diseases, and the reactivation of latent herpes viruses. Attention is also given to the effects of behavior such as physical exercise, sleep, acute and chronic stress, and conditioning of immune functions in animals and humans. The whole is brought together with a wealth of cited research studies, and over 200 illustrations.

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The past decade has brought important advances in our understanding of the brain, particularly its influence on the behavior, emotions, and personality of children and adolescents. In the tradition of its predecessors, the third edition of the Handbook of Clinical Child Neuropsychology enhances this understanding by emphasizing current best practice, up-to-date science, and emerging theoretical trends for a comprehensive review of the field. Along with the Handbook’s impressive coverage of normal development, pathology, and professional issues, brand-new chapters highlight critical topics in assessment, diagnostic, and treatment, including, The role and prevalence of brain dysfunction in ADHD, conduct disorder, the autistic spectrum, and other childhood disorders; The neuropsychology of learning disabilities; Assessment of Spanish-speaking children and youth; Using the PASS (planning, attention, simultaneous, successive) theory in neurological assessment; Forensic child neuropsychology; Interventions for pediatric coma. With singular range, timeliness, and clarity, the newly updated Handbook of Clinical Child Neuropsychology reflects and addresses the ongoing concerns of practitioners as diverse as neuropsychologists, neurologists, clinical psychologists, pediatricians, and physical and speech-language therapists.

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Based on course material used by the author at Yale University, this practical text addresses the widening gap found between the mathematics required for upper-level courses in the physical sciences and the knowledge of incoming students. This superb book offers students an excellent opportunity to strengthen their mathematical skills by solving various problems in differential calculus. By covering material in its simplest form, students can look forward to a smooth entry into any course in the physical sciences.

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Applying a unified quantum approach, contributors offer fresh insights into the theoretical developments in the excitation energy transfer processes in condensed matter. This comprehensive volume examines Frenkel and Wannier excitonic processes; rates of excitonic processes; theory of laser sputter and polymer ablation; and polarons, excitonic polarons and self-trapping.

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The first, second, and third editions of this book seem to occur at ten year intervals. The intent is to keep the book up-to-date. Many-body theory is a field which continually evolves in time. Journals only publish new results, conferences only invite speakers to report new phenomena, and agencies only fund scientists to do new physics. Today's physics is old hat by tomorrow. Students want to learn new material, and textbooks must be modified to keep up with the times. The early chapters in this book teach the techniques of many-body theory. They are largely unchanged in format. The later chapters apply the techniques to specific problems. The third edition increases the number of applications. New sections have been added, while old sections have been modified to include recent applications. The previous editions were set in type using pre-computer technology. No computer file existed of the prior editions. The publisher scanned the second edition and gave me a disk with the contents. This scan recorded the words accurately and scrambled the equations into unintelligible form. So I retyped the equations using LaTeX. Although tedious, it allowed me to correct the infinite numbers of typographical errors in the previous edition. The earlier typesetting methods did not permit such corrections. The entire book was edited sentence-by­ sentence. Most old sections of the book were shortened by editing sentences and paragraphs.

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There has been a great upsurge in interest in light microscopy in recent years due to the advent of a number of significant advances in microscopy, one of the most important of which is confocal microscopy. Confocal microscopy has now become an important research tool, with a large number of new fluorescent dyes becoming available in the past few years, for probing your pet structure or molecule within fixed or living cell or tissue sampies. Many of the people interested in using confocal microscopy to further their research do not have a background in microscopy or even cell biology and so not only do they find considerable difficulty in obtaining satisfactory results with a confocal microscope, but they may be mislead by how data is being presented. This book is intended to teach you the basic concepts ofmicroscopy, fluorescence, digital imaging and the principles of confocal microscopy so that you may take full advantage ofthe excellent confocal microscopes now available. This book is also an excellent reference source for information related to confocal microscopy for both beginners and the more advanced users. For example, do you need to know the optimal pinhole size for a 63x 1. 4 NA lens? Do you need to know the fluorescence emission spectrum of Alexa 568? Access to the wealth of practical information in this book is made easier by using both the detailed index and the extensive glossary.

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In this volume of the series Human Brain Function: Assessment and Rehabilitation we cover the area of how brain function is assessed with behavioral or neuropsycholog­ ical instruments. These assessments are typically conducted by clinical neuropsy­ chologists or behavioral neurologists, and so we made an effort to present the somewhat differing approaches to these two related disciplines. Clinical neuropsy­ chologists are psychologists who typically utilize standardized tests, while behav­ ioral neurologists are physicians who generally assess brain function as part of the clinical neurological evaluation. Both approaches have much to offer. The basic assumption of neuropsychological assessment is that the brain is the organ of behavior, and therefore, the condition of the brain may be evaluated with behavioral measures. Neuropsychological tests are those measures found by re­ search to be particularly sensitive to alterations in brain function. An adequate neuropsychological test is a procedure that can be related to some objective mea­ sure of alteration in brain function. Over the years, these objective measures have changed, but generally involve documentation through direct observation of brain tissue, or through histological, pathological, neuroimaging, or other laboratory procedures. The methods described in the first two volumes of this series describe the neuroimaging procedures that are often used in the validation of neuropsycho­ logical tests.

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This guidebook has been developed as a skill-training package to teach psychologists, counselors, social workers, and other applied­ mental-health professionals a model for the delivery of behavioral interventions through a behavioral consultation approach. This train­ ing guide is an abridged version of the skills taught as part of a behavioral consultation model. As such it is not intended to be an exhaustive program in behavioral consultation. Usually, consultation skills are taught over a period of several months in university training programs. Also, the most successful use of the guidebook can be accom­ plished only with prerequisite training in behavioral analysis and assessment as a method of delivering psychological services. Thus, individuals using this guidebook should obtain supervised training in this area. The book is also designed to accompany Bergan and Kratochwill (1990). Some individuals may have a background in behavioral assess­ ment and intervention. In this case, the use of this guidebook can provide the user who has not been exposed to the specifics of the behavioral consultation approach valuable information regarding in­ terviewing forms of assessment and intervention. Such activities can be extremely useful when incorporated into regular clinical work in applied settings and supplemented with other assessment and inter­ vention methods. Given the importance of successful interviewing in applied settings, a major clinical tool should be available after careful study of this guidebook.

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Examination stress and test anxiety are pervasive problems in modern society. As the information age continues to evolve, test scores will become even more important than they are today in evaluating applicants for demanding jobs and candidates for admission into highly competitive educational programs. Because test anxiety gen- ally causes decrements in performance and undermines academic achievement, the development of effective therapeutic interventions for reducing its adverse effects will continue to be an important priority for counselors, psychologists, and educators. Alleviating test anxiety will also serve to counteract the diminished access to edu- tional and occupational opportunities that is frequently experienced by test-anxious individuals. As its title promises, this volume provides a state-of-the-art evaluation of the nature, antecedents, correlates, and consequences of examination stress and test anxiety. Professor Zeidner’s cogent and comprehensive analysis of the affective, cognitive, somatic, and behavioral manifestations of test anxiety are grounded in the extensive knowledge he has gained from his own research on the assessment and treatment of test anxiety. This work has also benefitted from the author’s lo- standing and productive collaboration with leading contributors to test anxiety theory and research, and his active participation in national and international conferences devoted to understanding test anxiety, including those convened by the Society for Test Anxiety Research (STAR).

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Writing a comprehensive book on satellite communications requires the com­ mand of many technical disciplines and the availability of up-to-date information on international recommendations, system architectures, and equipment stand­ ards. It is therefore necessary to involve many authors, each possessing a good level of knowledge in a particular discipline. The problem of using a coherent and unambiguous set of definitions and basic terms has been solved by including in the book all the background information needed for understanding satellite communication systems, without any major reference to other textbooks specializing in particular disciplines. The obvious consequence of this approach has been the large size of the book, with the advantages, however, of practically complete independence from other books, more systematic discussion of the subject matter, and better readability. After the required background information, emphasis has been placed on the discussion of techniques and system design criteria rather than on specific equipment implementation or description of particular systems. The book may be divided in five parts as follows: • The first five chapters provide most of the required background information. • Chapter 6 is an introductory outline of satellite communication systems. • Chapters 7 to 13 deal with the various aspects of technical system design. • Chapter 14 discusses system economics. • Chapter 15 provides a brief insight into some foreseeable future develop­ ments of satellite communications.

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Composed of papers written by leading engineers and scientists in the field, this valuable collection reports the most recent advances in cryocooler development, contains extensive performance test results and comparisons, and relates the latest experience in integrating cryocoolers into advanced applications.

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ST MEDICINE IN A CHANGING UNIVERSE AT THE THRESHOLD OF THE 21 CENTURY Hoyle Leigh, M. D. I Professor ofPsychiatry San Francisco, University ofCalifornia, and Fresno VAMedical Center INTRODUCTION During my lifetime, the universe has changed beyond recognition. The universe into 111 which I was born, in the first halfofthe 20 century, was still infinite, permanent, orderly, and tranquil --- a universe that worked like a masterfully constructed clock. Matter and energy followed Newton's lawsofconservation. Shortly after my birth, Hiroshima proved, with a big bang, that matter was no longer permanent, everything was relative. Einstein had also shown thateverything that happened was local, that is, there was an event horizon beyond which no information could reach as nothing can travel faster than light. When I was growing up, the moon was for lovers, and going there was an impossible dream. Cosmologically, the Big Bang theory that postulates that the universe was born out ofan explosion some 10-15 billion years ago from a primordial point won over steady state. Ithas been expanding ever since, although the ultimate fateofthe universe is still unknown ­ whetherit will keep on expanding resulting in aperpetual stateofheat death, or will at some point startcontracting, resulting in a big crunch ofgravitational collapse ending in a single black hole out ofspace, time, and existence. Quantum theory has defeated even Einstein's genius and proven that God indeed plays dice.

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The use oflasers has entered almost every facet of medicine and biology. Therefore, it is to be expected that the reviews contained in this vol­ urne will reflect this diversity. As dinical acceptance has grown with various diagnostic and therapeutic applications, so has the need for a more thorough understanding of the theoretical background for each. This is especially true where a correlation is to be made between the theoretical background and the experimental data. It is only in this way that we can attain the optimal form of any therapy. The basic coupling ofenergy into biological tissue and its conversion into heat is characterized by many parameters. One ofthe most important is pulse duration. The review by Bimgruber in Chapter 6 shows how our knowledge ofthis parameter has been extended.The need for a more basic understanding of the interaction of electromagnetic energy with various kinds of materials has led to investigations on the nature of plasmas­ their stability and instability,and how theyexist. Docchio reviews the factors that cause them to occur at a specific locale and then to move away from that site. The availabilityofmany types ofoptical fibers has extended our ability to deliver laser energy from various types oflasers into almost anyselected location. This is particularly useful in medicine, where less invasive ap­ proaches to surgery and diagnosis are always helpful. However, as Rol and his colleagues explain, the power-handling capabilities ofoptical fibers limit many applications, particularly for short-duration, high-peak-power laser pulses.

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Volume 30 of this authoritative series provides detailed information about current advances in both fundamental and applied electrochemical research.

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This book includes a discussion of the propagation of forensic psychology as a field of specialization, professional preparation issues for training as a forensic psychologist, unique ethical concerns, and an authoritative discussion of issues in several prominent areas of forensic psychology practice.

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The production of this book represents a culmination for me of some 25 years of interest in the field of personality and substance use and abuse. In choosing the field of substanceuse and abuse for the focus of our research, all of the investi- tors collaborating in this research have been sustained by the awareness that the work we are doing has an important purpose. Substance abuse continues to have enormous impacts on individuals and families,and prevention and treatment - proaches developed to date have not always been as successful as we would hope to see. New advances in our fundamental understanding of the causal mec- nisms involved in the development ofaddiction may be necessary to advance our success in developing new forms of prevention and treatment for alcohol and drug abuse. The work in this book builds on the work of numerous previous investi- tors who have been drawn to investigate this topic. As you will notice in the extensive reference list, there have been hundreds of articles published on this topic. Although each of these references has added a small piece to our und- standing of the relationship between personality and alcohol abuse, the majority of these studies have been done on clinical samples and often involved no control groups or poorly matched control groups. Several important previous longitu- nal investigations have been conducted,but these investigations have usually not included general population samples or comprehensivepersonality test batteries.

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