Bücher veröffentlicht von IntechOpen

Health sciences require up-to-date and reliable information for decision-making related to the provision of health services and care. For this it is necessary that health professionals carry out relevant and correct research or appraise the available clinical research. Among the different research designs, cohort studies were developed over a century ago as a powerful methodological tool to determine risk factors for different events or health outcomes. Despite their potential biases and limitations, which are inherent in any epidemiological study, the findings derived from cohort studies provide a high level of evidence for health decision-making. In addition, for many questions derived from health care, and due to the ethical concern or logistic impossibility of conducting a clinical trial, the cohort study can be the best option for clinical research. This book highlights the main characteristics of cohort studies: comparative advantages and disadvantages and their main strengths and limitations; and through examples shows the contribution of findings from cohort studies to be used in the health field.

This book, "Histopathology-An Update" is a comprehensive book that deals with the latest advances in the field of histopathology. This book will be of help to pathologists, clinicians and researchers in the latest update in histopathology of various organs.

Epidemiological studies show that weight loss has many health benefits, so different strategies have been explored to lose weight, with health and esthetic reasons being the base of those strategies. Weight loss may be the result of pathologies, so both intentional and unintentional weight loss are different situations, each being a relevant focus of study. Along with that distinction, gender and ethnic topics are also relevant aspects, and different chapters of this book are related to male vs. female topics as well as to cultural differences related to weight loss. Childhood obesity from a parenting style perspective is also developed in this book. Finally, it must be noted that activity is essential to improve body composition and also to keep an ideal weight.

Shape-memory materials are materials that react under variations of electric or magnetic fields, physical or chemical changes, and that when returning to the initial conditions recover their original form, capable of repeating this process an infinite number of times without deteriorating. The characteristics, fabrication techniques, and thermomechanical treatment of various shape-memory materials are described in detail in this book. The book describes several principles and applications.

This book, when compared to other books on leadership, is expected to present a new understanding of the essential features of leadership and it varies from the wealth of literature in the following ways: firstly, this book attempts to include leaders at all management levels within an organization and across various sectors. This book also aims to provide experiences and reflections across a variety of sectors and organizational structures rather than focusing on one set of definitions (as is the case in current leadership sources). Finally, this book is expected to offer a new perspective addressing and inspiring actual leaders today and potential ones and contributing to the existing debate on leadership.

SiC and GaN devices have been around for some time. The first dedicated international conference on SiC and related devices, "ICSCRM," was held in Washington, DC, in 1987. But only recently, the commercialization of SiC and GaN devices has happened. Due to its material properties, Si as a semiconductor has limitations in high-temperature, high-voltage, and high-frequency regimes. With the help of SiC and GaN devices, it is possible to realize more efficient power systems. Devices manufactured from SiC and GaN have already been impacting different areas with their ability to outperform Si devices. Some of the examples are the telecommunications, automotive/locomotive, power, and renewable energy industries. To achieve the carbon emission targets set by different countries, it is inevitable to use these new technologies. This book attempts to cover all the important facets related to wide bandgap semiconductor technology, including new challenges posed by it. This book is intended for graduate students, researchers, engineers, and technology experts who have been working in the exciting fields of SiC and GaN power devices.

This book is intended to provide a deep understanding on the advanced treatments of thermal properties of materials through experimental, theoretical, and computational techniques. This area of interest is being taught in most universities and institutions at the graduate and postgraduate levels. Moreover, the increasing modern technical and social interest in energy has made the study of thermal properties more significant and exciting in the recent years. This book shares with the international community a sense of global motivation and collaboration on the subject of thermal conductivity and its wide spread applications in modern technologies. This book presents new results from leading laboratories and researchers on topics including materials, thermal insulation, modeling, steady and transient measurements, and thermal expansion. The materials of interest range from nanometers to meters, bringing together ideas and results from across the research field.

Weed populations in agriculture are a major cause of yield loss. Conventionally, crop rotation and tillage practices limit the number of weed flora. Several chemical herbicides are being applied to control weed growth, but the long-term use of those chemicals does not effectively control weeds, due to the development of resistant germplasms, which cause hazardous effects in living organisms. The global interest in organic farming endorses the alternative way of weed control against chemical herbicides. Recently, biological agents have been added to integrated weed management strategies. Several studies reveal that plant extracts, bacteria, fungi and their products effectively control weed seed germination and growth. The aim of this book is to discuss the current understanding of bioherbicides and strategies to weed control.

This book investigates the emerging use of biomarkers as a diagnostic tool for the identification of patients with an abnormal condition or as a tool for staging the extent of disease, as an indicator of disease prognosis. Chapters in Part I focus on biomarkers for cancer, including breast cancer and pancreatic cancer, as well as circulating microRNA profiling in cancer biomarker discovery. Chapters in Part II focus on biomarkers of other diagnoses/diseases, including sepsis, childhood renal diseases, pulmonary diseases, Alzheimer's, leishmaniasis, and heart failure. This book investigates the emerging use of biomarkers as a diagnostic tool for the identification of patients with an abnormal condition or as a tool for staging the extent of disease, as an indicator of diseases prognosis. The book is of considerable importance for a broad range of people including researchers, clinicians, and university students.

The basic researches and clinical studies on biliary tree diseases continue to advance at a rapid pace. The articles in this book were written by recognized medical experts and researchers from North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa and aim to provide state-of-the-art reviews on the current knowledge and advances in the surgery of the biliary tree. It includes the most recent advances in that field, particularly cholangiocarcinoma, biliary tree injuries, and biliary cysts.

Porous ceramics have recently gained growing importance in industry because of their many applications like filters, absorbers, dust collectors, thermal insulation, hot gas collectors, dielectric resonators, bioreactors, bone replacement and automobile engine components. Generally, porous ceramics have good properties such as mechanical strength, abrasion resistance, and chemical and thermal stability. These porous network ceramic structures also have relatively low density, low mass and low thermal conductivity. Furthermore, permeability is one of the most important properties of porous ceramics for different applications such as membranes because this property directly relates to the pressure drop during filtration. Pore size control is one key factor in fabrication of porous ceramics. The size of particles and their distribution of the raw materials, manufacturing techniques, types of binder used, distribution of binder, and sintering affect the final porosity and pore connectivity, are important things that must be considered during the manufacturing of a porous ceramic body. Therefore, the development of porous ceramic research requires sufficient mechanical and chemical stability as well as permeability. This book covers a wide range of topics such as porous ceramic structure and properties, preparation, simulation and fabrication, sintering, applications for bioceramics, sensors, magnetics and energy saving.

This book consists of an introductory overview of secondary metabolites, which are classified into four main sections: microbial secondary metabolites, plant secondary metabolites, secondary metabolites through tissue culture technique, and regulation of secondary metabolite production. This book provides a comprehensive account on the secondary metabolites of microorganisms, plants, and the production of secondary metabolites through biotechnological approach like the plant tissue culture method. The regulatory mechanisms of secondary metabolite production in plants and the pharmaceutical and other applications of various secondary metabolites are also highlighted. This book is considered as necessary reading for microbiologists, biotechnologists, biochemists, pharmacologists, and botanists who are doing research in secondary metabolites. It should also be useful to MSc students, MPhil and PhD scholars, scientists, and faculty members of various science disciplines.

It is well known that improvements in space and aviation are the leader of today's technology, and the aircraft is the most important product of aviation. Because of this fact, the books on aircraft are always at the center of interest. In most cases, technologies designed for the aerospace industry are rapidly extending into other areas. For example, although composite materials are developed for the aerospace industry, these materials are not often used in aircraft. However, composite materials are utilized significantly in many different sectors, such as automotive, marine and civil engineering. And materials science in aviation, reliability and efficiency in aircraft technology have a major importance in aircraft design.

Pancreatic cancer is a growing source of cancer-related death and has poor survival rates, which have not improved in the last few decades. Its high-mortality rate is attributed to pancreatic cancer biology, difficulty in early diagnosis, and lack of standardized international guidelines in assessing the pancreatic masses. This book aims to provide an update in the current state of play in pancreatic cancer diagnosis and to evaluate the benefits and limitations of the available diagnostic technology and therapy. The main modalities for diagnosis are imaging with HCT, MRI, USE, and PET. Some chapters review the improvements in the techniques used. Timely and accurate diagnosis of pancreatic cancer can lead to improve in the current poor outcome of this disease.

Harmonic analysis is a diverse field including such branches as signal processing, medical imaging, power electrical systems, wireless telecommunications, etc. This book is primarily written with the objective of providing recent developments and new techniques in harmonic analysis. In the recent years, a number of methods of quality control of signals under different perturbations, and especially the harmonics, have emerged. Some of these techniques are described in this book. This book is the result of contributions from many researchers and is a collection of eight research works, which are focused around the harmonic analysis theme but with different applications. The topics mainly concern the areas of medical imaging, biopotential systems, renewable energy conversion systems, wireless telecommunications, power converters, as well as the different techniques for estimating, analyzing, reducing, and eliminating harmonics.

The public sector plays an important role for both regulation and in the delivery of services directly or indirectly. In this context, it is important to consider transformation, change, and innovation, which are the elements on which the main determinants that influence public management and the administration of economic, social, and political systems are based. This book describes the nature of the problem, its multidimensionality, and the need for original approaches, through the contribution of scholars belonging to different disciplines. This book contains nine chapters in a single section (Public Management and Administration), which, through the different approaches to the subject by the authors, help to explain the issues of the public sector.

The prevalence of anorectal disorders in the general population is probably much higher than that seen in clinical practice. Anorectal diseases have for a long time been considered of little interest, with their treatment considered of little prestige despite the social impact they cause to patients. Proctology was initiated late and developed slowly over the years. However, in the last 20 years, a renewed interest has begun, and today, we can say that proctology is a specialized branch of general surgery. This book "Proctological Diseases in Surgical Practice" provides a practical introduction to proctology, with a particular attention to the topics that have not yet been investigated. This book may be useful for the general physician as well as for the specialist.

Genetics and genomics in poultry have been the most rapidly advancing subjects since the completion of the chicken genome sequence in 2004 and have been extensively used to understand the genetic determinants of complex traits. This book intends to provide readers with a comprehensive overview of the current progress in the application of genetic and genomic science in the poultry field. The contents cover genetic variation detection, selection methods for breeding, transgenesis and genome editing, genetic basis of disease resistance, control of gene expression and regulation, reproduction and meat quality, etc. The book should prove useful to researchers and students working in related fields.

The book "Listeria monocytogenes" describes different topics that deal with L. monocytogenes in medical research, modelling the behaviour of the organism in meat, quality assurance of raw food material and food products, the impact of environmental stresses in virulence traits of L. monocytogenes relevant to food safety, contamination, prevention and control in food processing and food service environments. The aim of this book is to introduce the reader to different approaches, methods, and tools in understanding the pathogen, Listeria monocytogens, with regard to primary and public health, food safety, pathogenicity, virulence, and its ubiquity. Topics covered in this book deal with L. monocytogenes in medical research. modelling the behaviour of the organism in meat, quality assurance of raw food material and food products, the impact of environmental stresses in virulence traits of L. monocytogenes relevant to food safety, contamination, prevention and control in food processing and food services environments.

Endocarditis is a disease process that involves an infection of the heart, cardiac structures, or implantable cardiac support devices and can be a difficult clinical problem. As patients get older and have more comorbidities, their risks for infection increase. In addition, the growing problem of intravenous substance abuse has led to a considerable increase in these patients developing endocarditis. Advances in medical technology have facilitated diagnosis and management, particularly with greater emphasis on early surgical intervention. Nevertheless, success requires a team approach and individualization of care in the setting of very complex medical, surgical, and ethical problems. The goal of this book is to illustrate some of the evolving challenges and controversies in managing these very complex and often extremely sick patients.

Natural gas, particularly shale gas, is one of the main sustainable energy sources in the current century. It is an abundant energy resource, playing an active role in future energy demand and enabling nations to transition to higher support on renewable energy sources. The book aims to add some contributions and new advances in technologies and prospects on shale gas reserves in selected regions of the world, in terms of new technologies of extraction, new discoveries of promising reserves, synthesis and applications to get high quality of this cleanest consuming non-renewable energy source.

Nuclear engineering could be viewed as the engineering field that ensures optimum and sustainable technological applications of natural and induced radioactive materials in different industrial sectors. This book presents some advanced applications in radiation effects, thermal hydraulics, and radionuclide migration in the environment. These scientific contributions from esteemed experts introduce some nuclear safety principals, current knowledge about radiation types, sources and applications, thermal properties of heat transfer media, and the role of sorption in retarding radionuclide migration in the environment. This book also covers the advances in identifying radiation effects in dense gas-metal systems, application of dense granular materials as high power targets in accelerator driven systems and irradiation facilities, evaluation of boiling heat transfer in narrow channels, and application of fluorescence quenching techniques to monitor uranium migration.

The term extreme weather normally conjures up thoughts of massive storms or heat waves or overtly cold temperatures. These are all examples of what we might consider as weather events that occur out of the ordinary or what is regarded as the normal pattern of calm, heat, cold, dry, or wet conditions for one season of the year or another. The point is that if we consider an oscillation of data points in a weather pattern and plot a mean through it, extreme weather can be observed as a perturbation in a distribution of climatic events over time. These events may be short-lived, such as a wind gust occurrence, or of longer duration, such as heavy rain leading to flooding. Importantly, once initiated, a perturbation event has an associated consequence, which usually requires human intervention to rectify the event's consequences.

The present book is composed of modern theoretical and applied studies that highlight the core principles and evidence of sustainable agriculture. This work is systematically divided into two sections, which summarize crucial insights into this theme, such as agroecological concepts, case studies, soil health, and agroforestry systems. The chapters included in this book have been written by researchers whose expertise allows the relatively complex sustainable agroecosystem-related topics to be easily understood by any reader. Therefore, the target audience comprises not only scholars and specialists in the field but also common people and enthusiasts about this theme. Such chapter's collection is certainly a valuable resource about agricultural sustainable principles and a pleasure reading for those who are willing to dive more deeply into the study of "sustainability of agroecosystems."

Intelligent system is an advanced machine that can perceive, learn, and solve the problems with a great accuracy. Technologies with intelligent system are currently available in the market and used in real-world applications, i.e., self-driving cars, Siri, Alexa, Facebook, and so on. To exceed human cognitive capabilities, the important keys rely on the development of sensors and algorithms. Therefore, the insight into artificial intelligence (AI) methods becomes a fundamental building block for design and construction of intelligent system with particular applications. This book aims to describe the AI systems ranging from the basic knowledge, i.e., algorithm and mathematical models of AI techniques, fundamentals of machine learning, genetic algorithm, and fuzzy logic, to the current state-of-the-art applications, such as smart road and biomedical applications.

In the recent years changes in gastrointestinal surgery have experienced great acceleration, based on a better understanding of the pathophysiology of the diseases, evolving technologies, and new therapies. In many areas of gastrointestinal surgery, new therapeutic and technical results have been accessible because of better connections with well-known pathological evolutions of diseases, more detailed diagnostic perspectives, and wide employment of mini-invasive and laparoscopic procedures.

Hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBO2) is a widely accepted adjuvant therapy in various health conditions that exhibit impaired tissue blood flow. At high pressures, the delivery of the dissolved oxygen in plasma is enhanced, which contributes to better tissue oxygenation, cellular metabolism and ultimately, healing. However, this is not the only beneficial outcome of HBO2 treatment since oxygen is a highly reactive molecule and can induce upregulation of many enzymatic systems in the cell at the cellular, genetic and molecular level. Particularly, vascular/endothelial function is affected by the HBO2. Our understanding of these mechanisms is still emerging. There have been many controversies related to the HBO2 protocols and indications. As well as exhibiting beneficiary effects on the tissue perfusion, it is known that HBO2 demonstrates high toxicity at higher pressures, due to increased oxidative stress and barotrauma. On the other hand, there is a lack of translation of the knowledge on the mechanisms of action of HBO2 obtained from the experimental research to the clinical practice. Thus, this book presents the reader with an overview of the current knowledge on the mechanisms of HBO2 effects in various experimental models and clinical treatment protocols, in an attempt to provide a better understanding of how and when HBO2 should be used as an effective therapy without unwanted side effects.

The book "Recent Developments in Optoelectronic Devices" is about the latest developments in optoelectronics. This book is divided into three categories: light emitting devices, sensors, and light harvesters. This book also discusses the theoretical aspects of device design for iridium complexes as organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), strategies for developing novel nanostructured materials, silicon-rich oxide (SRO) electroluminescent devices, and multifunctional optoelectronic devices developed on resistive switching effects. The worldwide participation of authors has contributed to the unifying effect of science. Furthermore, interested readers will also find information on the screen printed technology using semiconductor devices, nonlinear phenomena in quantum devices, experimental set up of optoelectronics flexible logic gate to realize logic operations, autonomous vehicles, and the latest developments in perovskites as solar cells.

This book on data mining explores a broad set of ideas and presents some of the state-of-the-art research in this field. The book is triggered by pervasive applications that retrieve knowledge from real-world big data. Data mining finds applications in the entire spectrum of science and technology including basic sciences to life sciences and medicine, to social, economic, and cognitive sciences, to engineering and computers. The chapters discuss various applications and research frontiers in data mining with algorithms and implementation details for use in real-world. This can be through characterization, classification, discrimination, anomaly detection, association, clustering, trend or evolution prediction, etc. The intended audience of this book will mainly consist of researchers, research students, practitioners, data analysts, and business professionals who seek information on the various data mining techniques and their applications.

Metrology, the science of measurement, is crucial for many sciences and technological developments. Since metrology helps to improve many other sciences, the book reflects in general metrology and some special metrological approaches at different fields such as radiation and frequency measurements in detail. This book also focuses on technical testing and control applications in the industry. It also intends the fundamentals of metrology concerning the related standards and systems of units. In addition, the book considers the calibration of measurement instruments and measurement uncertainties as the basic requirements of the related quality standards.