A variable climate, political instability, and other constraints have limited agricultural development in African countries south of the Sahara. Genetically modified (GM) crops are one tool for enhancing agricultural productivity and food security despite such constraints. Genetically Modified Crops in Africa: Economic and Policy Lessons from Countries South of the Sahara investigates how this tool might be effectively used by evaluating the benefits, costs, and risks for African countries of adopting GM crops. The authors gather together studies on GM crops’ economic effects and impact on trade, how consumers view such crops, and other issues. They find that GM crops have had, on average, a positive economic effect in the nations where they were used and identify future steps for enhancing GM crop adoption’s positive effects. Promising policy initiatives include making biosafety regulations that do not make GM crop development prohibitively expensive, fostering intraregional trade in GM crops, and providing more and better information about GM crops to consumers who might currently be skeptical of them. These and other findings in Genetically Modified Crops in Africa indicate ways biotechnology can contribute to economic development in Africa south of the Sahara.

Histone Modifications in Therapy provides an in-depth analysis of the role of histone mechanisms in major diseases and the promise of targeting histone modifications for disease prevention and treatment. Here, researchers, clinicians and students will discover a thorough, evidence-based discussion of the biology of histones, the diseases engaged by aberrant histone modifications, and pathways with therapeutic potential. Expert chapter addresses the role of histone modifications across a variety of disorders, including cancer, neuropsychiatric, neurodegenerative, cardiac, metabolic, infectious, bacterial, autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, among others. In relation to these disease types, histone modifications are discussed, both as mechanisms of prevention and possible treatment. A concluding chapter brings together future perspectives for targeting histone modifications in therapy and next steps in research. - Examines the use of histone modifications in disease prevention and therapy - Explores the role of histone modifications in cancer, neuropsychiatric, neurodegenerative, cardiac, metabolic, infectious, bacterial, and inflammatory disease, among others - Features chapters from a broad range of international authors and disease specialists

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) are widely employed by all living organisms to control the enzymatic activity, localization or stability of proteins on a much shorter time scale than the transcriptional control. In eukarya, global analyses consistently reveal that proteins are very extensively phosphorylated, acetylated and ubiquitylated. Glycosylation and methylation are also very common, and myriad other PTMs, most with a proven regulatory potential, are being discovered continuously. The emergent picture is that PTM sites on a single protein are not independent; modification of one residue often affects (positively or negatively) modification of other sites on the same protein. The best example of this complex behavior is the histone “bar-code” with very extensive cross-talk between phosphorylation, acetylation and methylation sites. Traditionally it was believed that large networks of PTMs exist only in complex eukaryal cells, which exploit them for coordination and fine-tuning of various cellular functions. PTMs have also been detected in bacteria, but the early examples focused on a few important regulatory events, based mainly on protein phosphorylation. The global importance (and abundance) of PTMs in bacterial physiology was systematically underestimated. In recent years, global studies have reported large datasets of phosphorylated, acetylated and glycosylated proteins in bacteria. Other modifications of bacterial proteins have been recently described: pupylation, methylation, sirtuin acetylation, lipidation, carboxylation and bacillithiolation. As the landscape of PTMs in bacterial cells is rapidly expanding, primarily due to advances of detection methods in mass spectrometry, our research field is adapting to comprehend the potential impact of these modifications on the cellular physiology. The field of protein phosphorylation, especially of the Ser/Thr/Tyr type, has been profoundly transformed. We have become aware that bacterial kinases phosphorylate many protein substrates and thus constitute regulatory nodes with potential for signal integration. They also engage in cross-talk and eukaryal-like mutual activation cascades. The regulatory potential of protein acetylation and glycosylation in bacteria is also rapidly emerging, and the cross-talk between acetylation and phosphorylation has been documented. This topic deals with the complexity of the PTM landscape in bacteria, and focus in particular on the physiological roles that PTMs play and methods to study them. The topic is associated to the 1st International Conference on Post-Translational Modifications in Bacteria (September 9-10, 2014, Göttingen, Germany).

This book provides multifaceted components and full practical perspectives of systems engineering and risk management in security and defense operations with a focus on infrastructure and manpower control systems, missile design, space technology, satellites, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and space security. While there are many existing selections of systems engineering and risk management textbooks, there is no existing work that connects systems engineering and risk management concepts to solidify its usability in the entire security and defense actions. With this book Dr. Anna M. Doro-on rectifies the current imbalance. She provides a comprehensive overview of systems engineering and risk management before moving to deeper practical engineering principles integrated with newly developed concepts and examples based on industry and government methodologies. The chapters also cover related points including design principles for defeating and deactivating improvised explosive devices and land mines and security measures against kinds of threats. The book is designed for systems engineers in practice, political risk professionals, managers, policy makers, engineers in other engineering fields, scientists, decision makers in industry and government and to serve as a reference work in systems engineering and risk management courses with focus on security and defense operations.

Although the true economic impact of genetic modifications is yet to be realized, the potential of this new technology to benefit the food processing industry and to improve food quality is enormous. Specific genetically modified whole foods and food ingredients that have recently become available or are about to become available are described and discussed in relation to their technical performance and consumer acceptance. The regulatory, ethical and communication issues in food biotechnology are also reviewed. As the products of gene technology come on stream, decisions need to be made as to whether or not to use them. Yet, many food industry professionals have little or no background in biotechnology and have a limited concept of possible applications in foods. Therefore, this book aims to foster a greater understanding of the benefits and potential pitfalls of this new technology.