Books by "Donald G. Mathews"
3 books found
Developmental Biology Using Purified Genes is a compilation of papers presented at the 1981 ICN-UCLA Symposia on Developmental Biology Using Purified Genes, held in Keystone, Colorado. Contributors representing a wide range of disciplines explore the mechanisms underlying gene control of development and explain how purified genes are transcribed in cells, how DNA sequences and non-DNA molecules regulate development, and how gene-control molecules or other developmental determinants are unequally distributed among embryonic cells. Organized into nine sections comprised of 54 chapters, this volume begins with an overview of the mechanism by which gene activity is regionally controlled and its role in development. It then proceeds with a discussion on eukaryotic genes and their structure, including the collagen gene and the albumin gene family. The next chapters focus on the transcription and translation of yolk protein mRNA in the fat bodies of Drosophila, the organization and expression of the actin multi-gene family in Dictyostelium, the cDNA clones encoding mouse transplantation antigens, and the role of double minute chromosomes in unstable methotrexate resistance. The book also introduces the nucleosome core particle, regulatory factors involved in the transcription of mouse ribosomal genes, and developmental control of 5S RNA gene expression before concluding with a chapter on synthetic oligodeoxyribonucleotides and their use in the isolation of specific cloned DNA sequences. This book will be of interest to microbiologists, molecular biologists, embryologists, geneticists, and researchers working in the fields of genetics and developmental biology.
Donald Matthews affirms once and for all the African foundation of African-American religious practice. His analysis of the methods employed by historians, social scientists, and literary critics in the study of African-American religion and the Negro spiritual leads him to develop a methodology that encompasses contemporary scholarship without compromising the integrity of African-American religion and culture. Because the Negro spiritual is the earliest extant body of African-American folk religious narration, Matthews believes that it holds the key to understanding African-American religion. He explores the works of such seminal black scholars as W. E. B. DuBois, Melville Herskovits, and Zora Neale Hurston, tracing the early development of the African-centered approach to the interpretation of African-American religion. This approach involves "cultural/structuralism", the author's term for the method used by DuBois, Herskovits, and Hurston that emphasizes the thick reading of narrative expressions. Such a reading allows the scholar to identify the cultural significance of particular oral and written texts and serves as a point of identification and a cultural link between African and African-American religion. Matthews' close analysis of the spiritual employs a dialectical and postmodernist reading and reveals a religious philosophy that addresses the deepest concerns and desires of Africans in America. These concerns are cultural, political, and psychological, but are ultimately related to African religious structures of meaning. This book poses a challenge to end the battle between Afrocentrists and multiculturalists by acknowledging their common intellectual heritage in the works of DuBois, Herskovits, and Hurston. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of African-American religion and culture and those interested in Afrocentric literature.
Excitation-Contraction Coupling and Cardiac Contractile Force
by Donald Bers
2012 · Springer Science & Business Media
How is the heartbeat generated? What controls the strength of contraction of heart muscle? What are the links between cardiac structure and function? How does our understanding of skeletal and smooth muscle and non-muscle cells influence our thinking about force development in the heart? Are there important species differences in how contraction is regulated in the heart? How do the new molecular data fit together in understanding the heart beat? What goes wrong in ischemia, hypertrophy, and heart failure? This book paints a modern `portrait' of how the heart works and in this picture the author shows a close-up of the structural, biochemical, and physiological links between excitation and contraction. The author takes the reader through a series of important, interrelated topics with great clarity and continuity and also includes many useful illustrations and tables. The book starts by considering the cellular structures involved in excitation-contraction coupling and then described the characteristics of the myofilaments as the end effector of excitation-contraction coupling. A general scheme of calcium regulation is described and the possible sources and sinks of calcium are discussed in simple, but quantitative terms. The cardiac action potential and its many underlying currents are reviewed. Then the characteristics of some key calcium transport systems (calcium channels, sodium/calcium exchange and SR calcium uptake and release) are discussed in detail. This is then built into a more integrated picture of calcium regulation in succeeding chapters by detailed discussions of excitation-calcium coupling mechanisms (in skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscle), the interplay between calcium regulatory processes, and finally mechanisms of cardiac inotropy, calcium overload, and dysfunction (e.g., ischemia, hypertrophy, and heart failure). Excitation-Contraction Coupling and Cardiac Contractile Force – Second Edition is an invaluable source of information for anyone who is interested in how the heart beat is controlled and especially suited for students of the cardiovascular system at all levels from medical/graduate students through senior investigators in related fields.