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Immobilized Biocatalysts.
210
really the body of the subject., The author chooses the FitzHugh-Nagumo model for nerve conduction, which is a two_dime~Gonal and autonomous system. The singular perturbation method is applied close to the discontinuous solution, and the author concludes that there is a unique stable periodic solution of the singularly perturbed system for each sufficiently small parameter. In the case of the cardiac Purkinje fiber, the Noble model is used, which can be reduced to a three-dimensionztl system. This thn~dimensional system does not have periodic solutions. Finally, the author gives further directions for study of the Noble model and other cardiac models. It may be asked here why the possible apparition of chaotic regimes as the number of differential equations in the system increases’is not discussed. In summary, this book should serve as a good introduction to the interdisciplinary subject of the mathematical treatment of nervous conduction for researchers and graduate students in mathematics, physics, biology or medicine. D. GALLEZ
BmsseIs
fmmobilized Biocatalysts. W. Hartmeyer. 3-540-7.6335-2,x + 211 pp., DM39.00.
Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1988, ISBN
Immobilised systems are finding increasing fields of use due to their advantages of higher stability and lower costs. These systems are applied both to industrial biotechnological process because of their cleanliness and to analytical determinations. The most common immobilised systems are biooatalysts: there are enzymes, tissues or bacteria with differences in availability, in stability, or in cost. The first point limiting the use of these systems is evidently related to the support on which the biocatalyst is immobilised and to the immobiiation procedure, which can either be of a chemical nature, with the advantage of stronger bonding but also with the possible risk of less activity, or of a physical one, with the advantage of unmodified chemical structure but with the danger of low stability and thus low activity after short time. All these subjects are treated wisely in the book, both from a theoretical and a practical point of view. The latter is of particular interest, with some practical, experiments being accurately described and able to put the reader in the position to understand clearly r.he adopted procedures. These experiments fall into the different fields of application: industrial production (aspartic acid, penicillins, aminoacids), analysis (po tentiometry, chromatography, enzyme thermistors), medicine (intra- and eXtraaqJOr&d therapy, analysis in vivo, artifical organs), basic research (structural studies, enzymes subunits, degeneration and regeration, simulation of natural systems), and special developments and trends (immobilisatio~ of +n~ cells, organelles, mamma&n G%, gcnetechnology, %&phase systems, multiple immobilisation).
211
Finally, a well-chosen bibliography on the subject is provided, arranged per chapter according to kind of document (book, paper). L. CAMPANELLA
Rome
Cytochromes c. G.W. Pettigrew and G.B. Moore. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, 1987, ISBN 3-540-17843-0, xiv + 282 pp., DM198.00. &on after the fundamental findings of David Keilin in the 192Os, cytochromes became one of the most studied groups of proteins and, among them, cytochrome c now &ares wiph hemoglobin the qualification of best-known biological macromolecule. Nevertheless, after the famous book of Barret, the literature still missed a really comprehensive and up-to-date treatise of the field, the major reasons probably being the difficulties involved in collecting the enormous amount of information available and, even more important, in presenting it in a unified and objective perspective, stressing the fundamental problems and the sign&ant solutions, more than collecting ideas and results according to some more or less arbitrary criterium. In our opinion the authors of this book have fully succeeded in the task ‘I.. . to bring order into the inchoate mass of current data relating to structure and Function of cytochrome c . . . ” and in providing “an integrated presentation of findings evaluated as to reliability and significance.. . “. They achieved this by organizing the subject into four chapters, the first and the last of which cover, respectively, the general problems of chars.cterization and classification, a;ld of biosynthesis. The central chapters are devoted to mitochondrial and to bacterial and photosynthetic cytochromes c. Throughout the book the treatment of the recent research literature is complete and detailed, and incorporates much methodological material with emphasis on the interpretation of results and critical discussion of theories and models. The subtitle of this volume indicates that in reviewing both the functional and the structural information on cytochromes c the viewpoint of a biologist has been adopted almost exclusively: the more chemically-inclined reader should obtain full satisfaction fi,om the second volume, which will presumably focus on the results obtained from the new and sophisticated versions of a great variety of spectrcscopical and other physico-chemical techniques. Even in this single volume, however, any researcher interested in any aspect of the biophysical-chemistry and/or of the molecular biology of cytochromes c, will find m impressive amount of pertinent information clearly organized and critically presented. M.C. SILWSTRINI L’Aquiia
really the body of the subject., The author chooses the FitzHugh-Nagumo model for nerve conduction, which is a two_dime~Gonal and autonomous system. The singular perturbation method is applied close to the discontinuous solution, and the author concludes that there is a unique stable periodic solution of the singularly perturbed system for each sufficiently small parameter. In the case of the cardiac Purkinje fiber, the Noble model is used, which can be reduced to a three-dimensionztl system. This thn~dimensional system does not have periodic solutions. Finally, the author gives further directions for study of the Noble model and other cardiac models. It may be asked here why the possible apparition of chaotic regimes as the number of differential equations in the system increases’is not discussed. In summary, this book should serve as a good introduction to the interdisciplinary subject of the mathematical treatment of nervous conduction for researchers and graduate students in mathematics, physics, biology or medicine. D. GALLEZ
BmsseIs
fmmobilized Biocatalysts. W. Hartmeyer. 3-540-7.6335-2,x + 211 pp., DM39.00.
Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1988, ISBN
Immobilised systems are finding increasing fields of use due to their advantages of higher stability and lower costs. These systems are applied both to industrial biotechnological process because of their cleanliness and to analytical determinations. The most common immobilised systems are biooatalysts: there are enzymes, tissues or bacteria with differences in availability, in stability, or in cost. The first point limiting the use of these systems is evidently related to the support on which the biocatalyst is immobilised and to the immobiiation procedure, which can either be of a chemical nature, with the advantage of stronger bonding but also with the possible risk of less activity, or of a physical one, with the advantage of unmodified chemical structure but with the danger of low stability and thus low activity after short time. All these subjects are treated wisely in the book, both from a theoretical and a practical point of view. The latter is of particular interest, with some practical, experiments being accurately described and able to put the reader in the position to understand clearly r.he adopted procedures. These experiments fall into the different fields of application: industrial production (aspartic acid, penicillins, aminoacids), analysis (po tentiometry, chromatography, enzyme thermistors), medicine (intra- and eXtraaqJOr&d therapy, analysis in vivo, artifical organs), basic research (structural studies, enzymes subunits, degeneration and regeration, simulation of natural systems), and special developments and trends (immobilisatio~ of +n~ cells, organelles, mamma&n G%, gcnetechnology, %&phase systems, multiple immobilisation).
211
Finally, a well-chosen bibliography on the subject is provided, arranged per chapter according to kind of document (book, paper). L. CAMPANELLA
Rome
Cytochromes c. G.W. Pettigrew and G.B. Moore. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, 1987, ISBN 3-540-17843-0, xiv + 282 pp., DM198.00. &on after the fundamental findings of David Keilin in the 192Os, cytochromes became one of the most studied groups of proteins and, among them, cytochrome c now &ares wiph hemoglobin the qualification of best-known biological macromolecule. Nevertheless, after the famous book of Barret, the literature still missed a really comprehensive and up-to-date treatise of the field, the major reasons probably being the difficulties involved in collecting the enormous amount of information available and, even more important, in presenting it in a unified and objective perspective, stressing the fundamental problems and the sign&ant solutions, more than collecting ideas and results according to some more or less arbitrary criterium. In our opinion the authors of this book have fully succeeded in the task ‘I.. . to bring order into the inchoate mass of current data relating to structure and Function of cytochrome c . . . ” and in providing “an integrated presentation of findings evaluated as to reliability and significance.. . “. They achieved this by organizing the subject into four chapters, the first and the last of which cover, respectively, the general problems of chars.cterization and classification, a;ld of biosynthesis. The central chapters are devoted to mitochondrial and to bacterial and photosynthetic cytochromes c. Throughout the book the treatment of the recent research literature is complete and detailed, and incorporates much methodological material with emphasis on the interpretation of results and critical discussion of theories and models. The subtitle of this volume indicates that in reviewing both the functional and the structural information on cytochromes c the viewpoint of a biologist has been adopted almost exclusively: the more chemically-inclined reader should obtain full satisfaction fi,om the second volume, which will presumably focus on the results obtained from the new and sophisticated versions of a great variety of spectrcscopical and other physico-chemical techniques. Even in this single volume, however, any researcher interested in any aspect of the biophysical-chemistry and/or of the molecular biology of cytochromes c, will find m impressive amount of pertinent information clearly organized and critically presented. M.C. SILWSTRINI L’Aquiia