This volume comprises the edited proceedings of the International Taurine Sympo sium held in Osaka, Japan, in June 1995, as a Satellite Symposium of the 15th Biennial of the International Society for Neurochemistry. This Taurine Symposium was the Meeting latest in a series held since 1975 at approximately two-year intervals by an informal group of international researchers. It attracted contributions from 20 countries, ranging from Armenia via Finland and Spain to the United States. Some 121 participants attended. The Symposium was organized and chaired by Junichi Azuma, University of Osaka. Other members of the Organizing Committee in Japan consisted of Kinya Kuriyama and Masao Nakagawa, both from the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, and Akemichi Baba, from Osaka University. The Committee had to contend with the disaster of the Kobe earthquake, which struck on January 21. The epicenter was only around 25 miles from the meeting site, and the quake demolished the home of one Committee member. Despite this unnaturally natural handicap, the participants experienced a superbly organized meeting, one which more than maintained the high social and scientific standards established for this series. In his Welcome Message, Dr. Azuma listed a threefold objective for the Symposium: To provide a forum for the interdisciplinary exchange of information on taurine; to give an opportunity for renewing old friendships and making new friends; and to promote coopera tion among participants from around the world.

This volume describes in detail the technique of molecular orbital calculations for biochemistry. The level of presentation will be accessible to biochemists, and biophysicists.

Today, as the large international genome sequence projects are gaining a great amount of public attention and huge sequence data bases are created it be comes more and more obvious that we are very limited in our ability to access functional data for the gene products - the proteins, in particular for enzymes. Those data are inherently very difficult to collect, interpret and standardize as they are highly distributed among journals from different fields and are often sub ject to experimental conditions. Nevertheless a systematic collection is essential for our interpretation of the genome information and more so for possible appli cations of that knowledge in the fields of medicine, agriculture, etc .. Recent pro gress on enzyme immobilization, enzyme production, enzyme inhibition, coen zyme regeneration and enzyme engineering has opened up fascinating new fields for the potential application of enzymes in a large range of different areas. It is the functional profile of an enzyme that enables a biologist of physician to analyze a metabolic pathway and its disturbance; it is the substrate specificity of an enzyme which tells an analytical biochemist how to design an assay; it is the stability, specificity and efficiency of an enzyme which determines its usefulness in the biotechnical transformation of a molecule. And the sum of all these data will have to be considered when the designer of artificial biocatalysts has to choose the optimum prototype to start with.

Containing 45 papers written by outstanding international authors from 14 countries, this three-volume compendium brings together the elements needed to understand the factors which influence the utilization of amino acids. The wide-ranging topics include descriptions of metabolic pathways and mechanisms of the biological utilization of amino acids, as well as factors that influence amino acid bioavailability in enteral and parenteral nutrition. The use of amino acids to improve the quality and safety of the diet is presented. Also discussed are amino acid precursors of biogenic amines and the role of amino acids in atherosclerosis, cancer, and immunity. Scientists from many disciplines will benefit from this broad overview.

Abstracts contains the abstracts of work presented at the 7th International Congress of Pharmacology: invited lectures, symposia, methodological seminars, and free communications. The abstracts are organized in chronological order of presentation at the Congress. Some abstracts focus on chemistry and biochemistry of pituitary endorphins and their precursors; the biosynthesis and release of the enkephalins; enkephalin dynamics and neuronal localization; and physiological and pathophysiological relevance of the opiate receptors and their endogenous ligands. Other papers center on the mechanism of muscarinic receptor action; regulation of cholinergic receptor metabolism in skeletal muscle; the role of vitamin E in ozone-induced pulmonary toxicity; alcohol and electrophysiology of the central nervous system; and pharmacokinetic aspects of drug-alcohol interaction.

Leading medical specialists critically review for the general practitioner the latest techniques for the clinical management of diabetic neuropathy. These authoritative contributors focus on the practical aspects of diabetic neuropathy and describe in detail the treatments that are currently available or expected to become available in the near future. They also include concise discussions of the causes of diabetic neuropathy and highlight the relatively unknown features of neuropathy that can significantly impact a patient's life. Comprehensive, up-to-date bibliographies at the end of each chapter provide an opportunity for the interested physician to gain a more detailed picture of a particular topic. This book offers family physicians, internists, endocrinologists, podiatrists, cardiologists, neurologists, and gastroenterologists an authoritative practical guide and a vital day-to-day reference source for the management of their neuropathic diabetic patients.

The purpose of NEURAL MECHANISM in TASTE is to emphasize physiological principles and reveal new insights of this most recent research. This book is aimed to reach scientists within the broad area of neurophysiology as well as those in other disciplines who have interests in sensory mechanisms. The focus is on two major themes--peripheral mechanisms and neural processing at the central level. Every chapter is written by an expert on the subject matter, including definitive updates on the status of each topic. This work is not only useful to researchers in taste, but also to basic and applied scientists in related fields (such as food technology), doctoral and postdoctoral students.

Chronic alcohol use is associated with heart, liver, brain, and other organ pathology. Alcohol is a drug of abuse and a caloric food and it causes poor intake and absorption of nutrients, thus playing a major role in many aspects of clinical consequences. Alcohol use lowers consumption of fruit and vegetables, lowers tissue nutrients, and, in some cases, requires nutritional therapy by clinicians. Alcohol, Nutrition, and Health Consequences will help the clinician define the causes and types of nutritional changes due to alcohol use and also explain how nutrition can be used to ameliorate its consequences. Chapters present the application of current nutritional knowledge by physicians and dietitians. Specific areas involving alcohol-related damage due to nutritional changes are reviewed, including heart disease, obesity, digestive tract cancers, lactation, brain function, and liver disease. In addition, alcohol’s effects on absorption of minerals and nutrients, a key role in causing damage are treated. The importance of diet in modifying alcohol and its metabolite damage is also explained. Alcohol, Nutrition, and Health Consequences is essential reading for alcohol therapists and researchers as well as primary care physicians and dietitians and is an easy reference to help the clinician, student, and dietitian comprehend the complex changes caused by direct and indirect effects of ethanol at the cellular level via its nutritional modification.