Torpor And Hibernation Metabolic And Physiological Paradigms

Torpor or heterothermy corresponds to a state of depressed metabolism and is associated with specific metabolic, cellular and molecular adaptations that often occur on a seasonal basis. Yet the exact mechanisms and functioning of these changes are poorly understood. Interestingly, the potential of such extraordinary animal adaptation for human and animal health as well as other biomedical considerations has raised particular attention especially in the last decade. The strong metabolic and physiological adaptations of heterotherms can be of particular inspiration for current biomedical and pathological situations (e.g., obesity and related diseases, cardiovascular and metabolic dysfunctions, ischemia-reperfusion injuries, immune depression) and for the health and longevity of animal species, including humans.

Metabolic Ecology Most of ecology is about metabolism, the ways that organisms use energy and materials. The energy requirements of individuals (their metabolic rates) vary predictably with their body size and temperature. Ecological interactions are exchanges of energy and materials between organisms and their environments. Therefore, metabolic rate affects ecological processes at all levels: individuals, populations, communities and ecosystems. Each chapter focuses on a different process, level of organization, or kind of organism. It lays a conceptual foundation and presents empirical examples. Together, the chapters provide an integrated framework that holds the promise for a unified theory of ecology. The book is intended to be accessible to upper-level undergraduates and graduate students, but also of interest to senior scientists. Its easy-to-read chapters and clear illustrations can be used in lecture and seminar courses. This is an authoritative treatment that will inspire future generations to study metabolic ecology.

ROBERT WILLIAM McCARLEY Laboratory of Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, and Brockton V A Medical Center, Brockton, Massachusetts The alternation of waking and sleeping, the daily course of the ad vancing and receding tides of consciousness, has long been a familiar part of our experience. But it is a new idea that autonomic and respiratory phys iology are equally and dramatically altered in a parallel fashion, and it is this concept that is summarized and developed here. The editors have drawn together thematically related chapters written by researchers with direct experience and a high level of expertise in the areas they address. The main theme is the relationship of general physiological alterations during sleep to cellular physiology and to the pathology of sleep. What is distinctive and especially appealing about this book on sleep is its emphasis on the autonomic and respiratory systems. This volume is, I believe, the first to explore these topics systematically and to blend phe nomenological description with possible cellular mechanisms and ties to clinical pathology. As such, this book should find an important place in the library of workers in the fields of sleep research, autonomic and respiratory physiology, and related neuroscience disciplines; it also belongs in the li brary of clinicians concerned with the disorders of sleep. This overview of topics and chapters gives an indication of their cath olicity.

This book summarises the newest information on seasonal adaptation in animals. Topics include animal hibernation, daily torpor, thermoregulation, heat production, metabolic depression, biochemical adaptations, neurophysiology and energy balance. The contributors to this book present interdisciplinary research at multiple levels ranging from the molecular to the ecophysiological, as well as evolutionary approaches. The chapters of this book provide original data not published elsewhere, which makes it the most up-to-date, comprehensive source of information on these fields. The book’s subchapters correspond to presentations given at the 14th International Hibernation Symposium in August 2012 in Austria. This is a very successful series of symposia (held every four years since 1959) that attracts leading researchers in the field. Like the past symposia, this meeting – and consequently the book – is aimed not only at hibernation but at covering the full range of animal adaptations to seasonal environments. For the next four years, this book will serve as the cutting-edge reference work for graduate students and scientists active in this field of physiology and ecology. .

Volume 47 in the internationally acclaimed Advances in Clinical Chemistry contains chapters submitted from leading experts from academia and clinical laboratory science. Authors are from a diverse field of clinical chemistry disciplines and diagnostics, ranging from basic biochemical exploration to cutting-edge microarray technology. Leading experts from academia and clinical laboratory science Volume emphasizes novel laboratory advances with application to clinical laboratory diagnostics and practical basic science studies

This book gives an up-to-date account of the current knowledge of cold adaptation in animals, including phenomena like hibernation, daily torpor, thermoregulation and thermogenesis, metabolic regulation, freeze tolerance, anaerobiosis, metabolic depression and related processes. For the next four years - until the 12th International Hibernation Symposium - it will serve as a state-of-the-art reference source for every scientist and graduate student working in these areas of physiology and zoology.