PHYSIOLOGICAL FUNCTION IN SPECIAL ENVIR - PAGANELLI CHARLES V

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Résumé :
The numerous ways in which man and animals are affected by their physical environment, and the inborn and adaptive responses to change in the milieu exterieur have fascinated curious minds since the earliest days of recorded history. Development of the scientific method with its emphasis on evidence obtained through experimentation-perhaps best illustrated in this field by Paul Bert's encyclopedic work-allowed several generations of our predecessors to establish firmly some facts and reject erroneous beliefs, but it was only during the early 1940s that environmental physiology put on its seven-league boots. In 1941, a young physiologist named Hermann Rahn was recruited by Wallace O. Fenn, then Chairman of the Department of Physiology at the University of Rochester, who was engaged in a study of the effects of altitude on human performance. The years that followed witnessed some of Hermann Rahn's early achievements not only in the area of altitude, but in other aspects of environmental physiology as well. In particular, he participated in the definitive studies of human adaptive mechanisms in arid climates which formed the basis of Edward Adolph's classic Physi? ology of Man in the Desert (Wiley/Interscience, NY 1947). During those golden years, environmental physiology flourished, and important dis? coveries were reported in a seemingly endless stream from many labora? tories.

Sommaire:
I Physiology of Adaptation to Altitude.- 1. Structure and Function of Carotid Bodies at High Altitude.- 2. Where Does [H+] Fit in the Scheme of Ventilatory Acclimatization to Hypoxia?.- 3. Adventitial and Medial Proliferation of Lung Vessels in Neonatal Pulmonary Hypertension: The Calf at High Altitude.- 4. Muscle Function Impairment in Humans Acclimatized to Chronic Hypoxia.- II Physiology of Diving and Exposure to Elevated Pressure.- 5. Resistance and Inertance When Breathing Dense Gas.- 6. Diffusive Gas Mixing in the Lungs: A Possible Factor Limiting Alveolar Gas Exchange at Depth.- 7. Water Exchange in Hyperbaria.- 8. On the Use of a Bubble Formation Model to Calculate Nitrogen and Helium Diving Tables.- 9. Arterial Oxygen Tensions and Hemoglobin Concentrations of the Free Diving Antarctic Weddell Seal.- III Physiology of Exposure to Altered G-Force.- 10. Human Physiological Limitations to G in High-Performance Aircraft.- 11. Effects of Weightlessness on Human Fluid and Electrolyte Physiology.- IV Comparative Physiology.- 12. Aquatic Life and the Transition to Terrestrial Life.- 13. Gas-Exchange Efficiency of Fish Gills and Bird Lungs.- 14. Alterations in the Bimodal Gas Exchange of the African Catfish Clarias lazera.- 15. Homeostasis: Embracing Negative Feedback Enhanced and Sustained by Positive Feedback.- 16. Time, Energy, and Body Size.