This reader comprises 33 articles obtained from a variety of publications, both scholarly and popular. It is intended to help you gain a basic understanding of genetics and its varied applications in the real world.

After years of stagnation, much has been happening in the diagnosis and treatment of kidney diseases. This book contains a comprehensive review of the main developments in AKI, CKD, hemodialysis and kidney transplantation. The section on AKI deals with the key innovations in extracorporeal technologies. The section on nephrology and CKD concentrates on mineral metabolism alterations, restenosis in hemodialytic fistulas, mycophenolate mofetil as an alternative treatment for IgA nephropathy, and the genetics and progression of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease. The part on hemodialysis includes contributions on expanded hemodialysis, potassium profiling and home hemodialysis. Chapters on the treatment of acute antibody-mediated rejection after transplantation, pathogenesis and therapy of chronic allograft injury, and non-invasive surrogate biomarkers of acute rejection round out the subjects covered. Due to the wide variety of topics included in each section, this book is not only of interest to nephrologists, but also to professionals from related fields.

This root-and-branch re-evaluation of Darwin’s concept of sexual selection tackles the subject from historical, epistemological and theoretical perspectives. Contributions from a wealth of disciplines have been marshaled for this volume, with key figures in behavioural ecology, philosophy, and the history of science adding to its wide-ranging relevance. Updating the reader on the debate currently live in behavioural ecology itself on the centrality of sexual selection, and with coverage of developments in the field of animal aesthetics, the book details the current state of play, while other chapters trace the history of sexual selection from Darwin to today and inquire into the neurobiological bases for partner choices and the comparisons between the hedonic brain in human and non-human animals. Welcome space is given to the social aspects of sexual selection, particularly where Darwin drew distinctions between eager males and coy females and rationalized this as evolutionary strategy. Also explored are the current definition of sexual selection (as opposed to natural selection) and its importance in today’s biological research, and the impending critique of the theory from the nascent field of animal aesthetics. As a comprehensive assessment of the current health, or otherwise, of Darwin’s theory, 140 years after the publication of his Descent of Man, the book offers a uniquely rounded view that asks whether ‘sexual selection’ is in itself a progressive or reactionary notion, even as it explores its theoretical relevance in the technical biological study of the twenty-first century.

Advances in the understanding of cardiomyopathies and the growth of cardiology have paralleled one another. Over the years, many classification methods have been developed for cardiomyopathies based on aetiology, structural models and the functional approach. The new concepts and events that have occurred in cardiology generally and in cardiomyopathies specifically are sufficient changes to justify this book. Developments in cardiomyopathies have advanced at a rapid rate, largely because of the progress that has been made in instrumental analysis and the integration of clinical cardiology with other fields of basic research. The material in this book encompasses and blends the knowledge recently acquired in genetics, pathology and physiology with the practical matters of diagnosis and treatment.

Birds have and continue to fascinate scientists and the general public. While the avian respiratory system has unremittingly been investigated for nearly five centuries, important aspects on its biology remain cryptic and controversial. In this book, resolving some of the contentious issues, developmental-, structural- and functional aspects of the avian lung-air sac system are particularized: it endeavors to answer following fundamental questions on the biology of birds: how, when and why did birds become what they are? Flight is a unique form of locomotion. It considerably shaped the form and the essence of birds as animals. An exceptionally efficient respiratory system capacitated birds to procure the exceptionally large quantities of oxygen needed for powered (active) flight. Among the extant air-breathing vertebrates, comprising ~11,000 species, birds are the most species-rich-, numerically abundant- and extensively distributed animal taxon. After realizing volancy, they easily overcame geographical obstacles and extensively dispersed into various ecological niches where they underwent remarkable adaptive radiation. While the external morphology of birds is inconceivably uniform for such a considerably speciose taxon, contingent on among other attributes, lifestyle, habitat and phylogenetic level of development have foremost determined the novelties that are displayed by diverse species of birds. Here, critical synthesizes of the most recent findings with the historical ones, evolution and behavior and development, structure and function of the exceptionally elaborate respiratory system of birds are detailed. The prominence of modern birds as a taxon in the Animal Kingdom is underscored. The book should appeal to researchers who are interested in evolutionary processes and how adaptive specializations correlate with biological physiognomies and exigencies, comparative biologists who focus on how various animals have solved respiratory pressures, people who study respiration in birds and other animals and ornithologists who love and enjoy birds for what they are – profoundly interesting animals.

Headache, as a main neurological problem in everyday life, still takes place as a contributor on top of the list of many partially solved neurological conditions. Not only primary headaches but secondary headaches are still clinical concerns of diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and therapy. This book is quite different from classical headache books. First of all, it does not contain the classical schema of a classical headache textbook. Most of the chapters composing this book contain many answers for many unanswered questions about headache in general, for example, "Is headache a genetic condition?", "What do smartphones do to our brains? Do they cause headaches?", and "Does botulinum toxin really improve chronic migraine?". We hope this book will be an interesting read and perhaps a guide in some new aspects of headache and help understand "some interesting headache issues" while stressing some of the less known mentioned above.