Since the dramatic discovery that the supernova SN1998bw coincided in position and time with a gamma-ray burst, the possibility was raised that these two types of spectacular explosions are related. This timely volume presents especially written articles by a host of world experts who gathered together for an international conference at the Space Telescope Science Institute. This was the first meeting in which the communities of supernova researchers and gamma-ray burst researchers were brought together to share ideas. The contributions review the mechanisms for these explosive events, the possible connections between them, and their relevance for cosmology. Both observations and theoretical developments are covered. This book is an invaluable source of information for both active researchers and graduate students in this exciting area of research.

The Initiation of DNA Replication contains the proceedings of the 1981 ICN-UCLA Symposia on Structure and DNA-Protein Interactions of Replication Origins, held in Salt Lake City, Utah on March 8-13, 1981. The papers explore the initiation of DNA replication and address relevant topics such as whether there are specific protein recognition sites within an origin; how many proteins interact at an origin and whether they interact in a specific temporal sequence; or whether origins can be subdivided into distinct functional domains. The specific biochemical steps in DNA chain initiation and how they are catalyzed are also discussed. This book is organized into six sections and comprised of 41 chapters. The discussion begins by analyzing the replication origin region of the Escherichia coli chromosome and the precise location of the region carrying autonomous replicating function. A genetic map of the replication and incompatibility regions of the resistance plasmids R100 and R1 is described, and several gene products produced in vivo or in vitro from the replication region are considered. The sections that follow focus on the DNA initiation determinants of bacteriophage M13 and of chimeric derivatives carrying foreign replication determinants; suppressor loci in E. coli; and enzymes and proteins involved in initiation of phage and bacterial chromosomes. The final chapters examine the origins of eukaryotic replication. This book will be of interest to scientists, students, and researchers in fields ranging from microbiology and molecular biology to biochemistry, molecular genetics, and physiology.

* Much progress has been made in the last 8 years in understanding the theory and practice of silane coupling agents. A major advance in this direction was the measurement of true equilibrium constants for the hydroly sis and formation of siloxane bonds. Equilibrium constants for bond reten tion are so favorable that a silane coupling agent on silica has a thousandfold advantage for bond retention in the presence of water over an alkoxysilane bond formed from hydroxy-functional polymers and silica. In practice, the bonds of certain epoxies to silane-primed glass resist debonding by water about a thousand times as long as the epoxy bond to unprimed glass. Oxane bonds of silane coupling agents to metal oxides seem to follow the same mechanism of equilibrium hydrolysis and rebonding, although equilibrium constants have not been measured for individual metal-oxygen silicon bonds. This suggests, however, that methods of improving bond retention to glass will also improve the water resistance of bonds to metals. of standard coupling agents with a hydrophobic silane or one Modification with extra siloxane cross-linking have improved the water resistance of bonds to glass and metals another hundredfold over that obtained with single coupling agents.