Arieh

Th e discovery of leptin, the obese (ob) gene product which is not expressed as a functional protein in ob/ob mice, focused the scientifi c community’s attention on its role as an anorexic hormone involved in the negative regulation of food intake. Almost 14 years aft er this breakthrough discovery and over 14,000 leptin-related publications later, leptin is now known to participate in a wide range of biological functions that include, in addition to its early envisaged function as an adipostat, glucose metabolism, glucocorticoid synthesis, CD4+ T-lymphocyte proliferation, cytokine secretion, phagocytosis, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis regulation, reproduction, cardiovascular pathology, bone formation, apoptosis and angiogenesis.

This book was planned and written with one central goal in mind: to demonstrate that statistical thermodynamics can be used successfully by a broad group of scientists, ranging from chemists through biochemists to biologists, who are not and do not intend to become specialists in statistical thermodynamics.

If the Jews wish to become a nation of 'Jewish Culture,'" Eliezer Ben-Yehuda wrote in 1904, "they must first become truly a nation.

Every now and then, a good book comes along and quite rightfully makes itself a distinguished place amongthe existing books of the electric power engineering literature. This book by Professor Arieh Shenkman is one of them.