Sociology of the family: global advances and challenges
Essay - 8 pages - Biology
Sociology of the family as a field of research, education and action faces many challenges and critics, both within academic institutions and in the larger society. This paper focuses on recent developments in international family sociology in the context of the discipline of sociology, and its...
Biometric research as experimental method in science
Essay - 5 pages - Biology
Any discussion of research in a scienti?c ?eld is subject to caveats because research must of necessity be less de?nitive than a discussion of the ?eld's established operational practices. First, enumerations of current research topics will be dated and subject to the perspective of the...
Overview of manufacturing beer: Ingredients, processes and quality criteria
Essay - 10 pages - Biology
Beer is one of the oldest cultural achievements of mankind and one of the most popular beverages all over the world. From the technological point of view, beer has four main properties based on its contents and manufacturing processes. It is (i) pure, (ii) wholesome, (iii) valuable, and (iv) it...
Genetic systems of forest trees
Essay - 7 pages - Biology
The term ‘genetic system' was coined in 1932 by C.D. Darlington, one of the renowned pioneers of cytogenetics. His original de?nition was limited: Properties of heredity and variation, methods of reproduction and the control of breeding, we now realize, are in various ways bound up together...
Molecular biology of forest trees
Essay - 7 pages - Biology
In order to genetically engineer a plant, one must be able to insert a gene into the genome of an individual plant cell and then cause that cell to differentiate into a whole plant. The former process is referred to as transformation; the latter, regeneration. The most common way of transforming...
Sap-sucking insects in forests
Essay - 5 pages - Biology
Insects of the order Hemiptera have mouthparts specialized for piercing and sucking, and within the suborder Homoptera of this order two groups, the Auchenorhyncha and Sternorhyncha, speci?cally feed on plants. As their general name implies these insects feed on the sap of plants. This can be the...
Electronic computer industry - publié le 21/11/2008
Worksheets - 3 pages - Electronics, mechanics, engineering & technology
According to Standard Industrial Classification, the electronic computer industry has been classified under the four-digit code 3571, an industry of the Manufacturing Division and featuring in the major group 35 which includes Industrial and Commercial machinery and computer equipment. This...
Toll-like receptors as part of the innate immune response
Essay - 5 pages - Biology
There are two major arms of the immune system: innate immune response, and acquired, or adaptive, immune response. Phagocytic cells recognize pathogens that bind to specific receptor recognition molecules or through complement fixation, and then activate pathways to contain infection. Essential...
Foliage feeders in temperate and boreal forests
Essay - 7 pages - Biology
Insect consumers of tree foliage comprise one of the most abundant and diverse feeding guilds in forest ecosystems. Known as folivores, this guild is integral to the structure and functioning of forests. Folivores in?uence vital ecosystem processes in forests, including nutrient turnover,...
Neuroimmunology
Essay - 8 pages - Biology
Human skin consists of a sophisticated network of nerve fibers and specialized sensory structures to transduce sensations of touch, vibration, temperature, and pain. Nerve fibers have dual functions: to transmit afferent sensory impulses to the central nervous system and to secrete mediators into...
Biological impacts of deforestation and fragmentation
Essay - 7 pages - Biology
In addition to housing the majority of the planet's biodiversity, forest ecosystems are the basis for trillions of dollars in global revenue. They are homes to indigenous groups, sources of food, medicines, and raw materials for industry, and they provide opportunities for recreation and tourism....
Innate and adaptive immunity
Essay - 7 pages - Biology
Immunology has roughly been split into two major subdivisions: cellular immunity, which comprises all different immunocompetent cells, and humoral immunity, a collection of all molecules involved in immune processes, such as cytokines, immunoglobulins, complement factors, and many others. Serum...
Bark beetles
Essay - 7 pages - Biology
Bark beetles are small, dark, cylindrical beetles, usually less than 7mm long. As their name implies, they are usually associated with woody plants. Despite their small size and modest appearance, they have an intriguing assemblage of feeding and breeding habits, some of which result in...
Agroforestry
Essay - 6 pages - Biology
Agroforestry is a term for practices where trees are combined with farming, as well as for the interdisciplinary subject area embracing land use systems, at a range of scales from that of the ?eld to the planet, that involve interactions amongst trees, people, and agriculture. Put simply,...
Biodiversity in forests
Essay - 7 pages - Biology
Interest in biodiversity began in the mid-1980s with the Biodiversity Symposium, held in Washington, DC, sponsored by the National Academy of Science. Within increasing human populations and rising demands for resources and living space, the need to conserve biological diversity rose to the...
Regulation of pigment biosynthesis in flowers
Essay - 9 pages - Biology
Flower color, along with fragrance, floral shape and nectar reward, is important to the interaction between plants and pollinators; and preferences towards specific colors are exhibited by pollinators, whether they are birds, bees, butterflies or other insects. Commonly contributing to floral...
Cytokines and chemokines
Essay - 5 pages - Biology
Cytokines are soluble low-molecular weight glycoproteins or small polypeptides that act in an autocrine or paracrine manner between leukocytes and other cells. Cytokines have many biologic functions and are important for leukocyte growth and differentiation as well as activation and migration....
Reproductive ecology of forest trees
Essay - 8 pages - Biology
Plant reproductive processes encompass biotic interactions, such as pollination and seed predation and dispersal, and abiotic elements, notably disturbance that creates differential reproductive opportunities for plant groups and thereby maintains diverse forest formations. There are several...
Forest canopies
Essay - 12 pages - Biology
The word canopy is derived from the Latin conopeum, describing a mosquito net over a bed. For canopy researchers in many tropical and temperate forests, this derivation is all too ?tting. Forest canopies are home to perhaps 50% of all living organisms, many of which are uniquely specialized for...
Vernalization
Essay - 4 pages - Biology
The term vernalization is derived from the Latin word vernus meaning ‘of the spring'. Vernalization was defined as ‘the acquisition or acceleration of the ability to flower by a chilling treatment'. The promotion of flowering by vernalization is the result of subjecting an imbibed seed...
Illustrating the power of information in life science research
Essay - 4 pages - Computer science
The ironic proverbial saying that “a month in the lab can save you an hour in the library” is proving itself repeatedly and at a huge cost to both academic and commercial institutions alike. Missed information in the literature costs time, money, and quality. Both the quality of...
Vernalization requirement and vernalization response
Essay - 6 pages - Biology
The major loci controlling vernalization requirement in the diploid wheat Triticum monococcum are VRN1 and VRN2 (in cereals the VERNALIZATION, VRN, designation applies to genes conferring a vernalization requirement and differs from Arabidopsis genes of the same name that are involved in...
The birth of Antisepsis
Essay - 5 pages - Medical studies
Joseph Lister's publication of “On the Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery” presented to the medical world Lister's method of using antiseptics made from carbolic acid during surgery. Lister hoped to use disinfectants to not only effectively heal more surgical patients but...
Flower senescence
Essay - 4 pages - Biology
Flowers, no matter their size, shape, color or structure, have one important function for plants: sexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction consists of several distinct developmental processes including pollen production, ovule formation, and pollination, fusion of gametes and the development and...
Timing of senescence: The opening act
Essay - 4 pages - Biology
Flower senescence in this context will happen when it becomes more advantageous for the plant to construct a new flower - including renewed odds of getting pollinated - than to maintain an existing one. Flower senescence can therefore be defined as the events that lead to the death of flower...
Developmental control and biotechnology of floral pigmentation
Essay - 7 pages - Biology
For many angiosperms, pigment formation is a key part of flower development. At least 200 plant genera contain species that show color change during flower development. Thus, variation in flower color associated with a change in nectar and pollen availability may be a common occurrence. The...
Regulation of floral organ-identity gene expression
Essay - 5 pages - Biology
A key advance in the field of flower development has been the uncovering of a direct role for the FM-identity gene LEAFY (LFY) in activation of the floral organ-identity genes. LFY encodes a novel plant-specific DNA-binding protein that can bind in vitro to the promoters of several floral...
Molecular biology of floral organogenesis
Essay - 4 pages - Biology
In the early 1990s, genetic studies on Arabidopsis thaliana and Antirrhinum majus led to the isolation and characterization of floral organ-identity genes (also called floral homeotic genes) and the establishment of the seminal ABC model for flower development. This model proposed that different...
Biotechnology of floral development
Essay - 8 pages - Biology
The understanding of floral development at a molecular level has proceeded at an unprecedented rate. Molecular genetic studies on two model plants, Antirrhinum and Arabidopsis in particular, have provided the foundation for this progress through the initial identification of genes involved in...
NASA
Essay - 4 pages - Physics
NASA began full operation on October 1, 1958, after the National Advisor Committee on Aeronautics was abolished. Getting a little head start, NASA inherited the committee's facilities, laboratories, and personnel and immediately set to work planning its future. According to a Twenty-Fifth...
