Bücher veröffentlicht von IntechOpen

Polyester is one of the most important polymers for fibers and composites. Significant developments in nanoparticle-doped polyester composites, polyester recycling, flame-retardant unsaturated polyester resins, and application of polyester for construction and automotive industry are currently carried out. Thus, this book provides leading edge research on improvements of functional properties of polyester, modifications of unsaturated polyester resins, and polyester (especially recycled polyester) usage in construction and in automotive application areas in the form of fiber, resin, and composite. The book also covers the characterization of unique features of polyester found by mechanical, chemical, physical, microstructural, and thermal analyses. This book intends to provide an understanding of the developments of functional polyester production, synthesis, and characterization and support to many academic researchers and graduate students in textile, polymer, composite, chemical science, and research and development managers in recycling and composite applications of polyester in the construction and automotive industry.

Excitons, as part of the InTech collection of international works on optics and optoelectronics, contains recent achievements of specialists from China, France, Japan, Switzerland, and Moldova jointly with Russia and the United States of America on properties and application of excitons in electronics. The growing number of countries participating in this endeavor and joint participation of the US, Moldova, Italy, and Russian scientists in investigations of excitons in the edition of this book testify to the unifying effect of science. An interested reader will find in the book the description of properties and possible applications of excitons, as well as the methods of fabrication and analysis of operation and the regions of application of modern excitonic devices.

According to Prof. D. Despommier, by the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth's population will reside in urban centers. Furthermore, the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim. New land will be needed to grow enough food to feed them. At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use. What can be done to avoid this impending disaster? One possible solution is indoor farming. However, not all crops can easily be moved in an indoor environment. Nevertheless, to secure the food supply, it is necessary to increase the automation level in agriculture significantly. This book intends to provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and automation examples in agriculture.

Sixty years after the "central dogma," great achievements have been developed in molecular biology. We have also learned the important functions of noncoding RNAs and epigenetic regulations. More importantly, whole genome sequencing and transcriptome analyses enabled us to diagnose specific diseases. This book is not only intended for students and researchers working in laboratory but also physicians and pharmacists. This volume consists of 14 chapters, divided into 4 parts. Each chapter is written by experts investigating biological stresses, epigenetic regulation, and functions of transcription factors in human diseases. All articles presented in this volume by excellent investigators provide new insights into the studies in transcriptional control in mammalian cells and will inspire us to develop or establish novel therapeutics against human diseases.

"Central dogma" was presented by Dr. Francis Crick 60 years ago. The information of nucleotide sequences on DNAs is transcribed into RNAs by RNA polymerases. We learned the mechanisms of how transcription determines function of proteins and behaviour of cells and even how it brings appearances of organisms. This book is intended for scientists and medical researchers especially who are interested in the relationships between transcription and human diseases. This volume consists of an introductory chapter and 14 chapters, divided into 4 parts. Each chapter is written by experts in the basic scientific field. A collection of articles presented by active and laboratory-based investigators provides recent advances and progresses in the field of transcriptional regulation in mammalian cells.

Since the advent of steam engines and higher throughput railways during the early nineteenth century, the rate of development has been rather steady and incremental. The development of advanced electronic control and command systems, increasing levels of automation, and electrified high-speed railways over the past few decades have transformed the rail transportation posing it as a competitor to aviation. Modern railways are no longer the sole forte of civil and mechanical engineering and involve a broad multidisciplinary engineering disciplines from advanced computing, telecommunications, and networking to big data analytics and even AI. This volume addresses the diverse, evolving, and advanced engineering disciplines including enabling practices and processes involved in shaping modern railways.

The purpose of this book is to provide an overview of the new industrial revolution: the "Industry 4.0." Globalization and competitiveness are forcing companies to review and improve their production processes. Industry 4.0 is a revolution that involves many different sectors and is still evolving. It represents the integration of tools already used in the past (big data, cloud, robot, 3D printing, simulation, etc.) that are now connected to a smart network by transmitting digital data at high speeds. The implementation of a 4.0 system represents a huge change for companies, which are faced with big investments. The idea of the book is to present practices, challenges, and opportunities related to the Industry 4.0. This book is intended to be a useful resource for anyone who deals with this issue.

This book looks at vegetation changes across the world. The use of normalized difference vegetation index, CORINE Land Cover, geographical information systems and remote sensing to monitor vegetation changes is highlighted. Conversion of dense forests into agricultural land, grazing areas or settlements and land cover changes in a Miombo woodland are reported. The role of neotropical forests as carbon pool stores and a reservoir of global biodiversity is explored. Influence of climate on island forest vegetation types, structure and diversity is reported in detail. Restoration of a degraded wildlife corridor through re-establishing native vegetation in India is also documented. Finally, the role of apomixes, a form of asexual reproduction via seed, in propagation of neotropical plants is discussed.

Extrusion is a very popular manufacturing process, especially because of its versatility in terms of materials and shapes. Representing the vast and multifaceted field of extrusion, this book contains write-ups on latest developments from experts in the field. Part (A) on Metal Extrusion contains chapters on spur gear manufacturing, stiff vacuum extrusion, and indirect extrusion for subsurface tubular expansion. Part (B) on Food and Polymer Extrusion includes chapters on extrusion cooking of functional foods, changes in nutritional properties in extrusion of cereals, physicochemical changes of starch in extrusion of corn flour, extruded aquaculture feed, optimal design of polymer extrusion dies, and extrusion cooking technology for food products.

Antibody Engineering comprises in vitro selection and modification of human antibodies including humanization of mouse antibodies for therapy, diagnosis, and research. This book comprises an overview about the generation of antibody diversity and essential techniques in antibody engineering: construction of immune, naive and synthetic libraries, all available in vitro display methods, humanization by chain shuffling, affinity maturation techniques, de novo synthesis of antibody genes, colony assays for library screening, construction of scFvs from hybridomas, and purification of monoclonal antibodies by exclusion chromatography. In addition, other topics that are discussed in this book are application and mechanism of single domain antibodies, structural diversity of antibodies, immune-mediated skin reactions induced by TNF-alpha recombinant antibodies, and bioinformatic approaches to select pathogen-derived peptide sequences for antibody targets.

Through parenting, adults raise their children and introduce them into the belonging community. Parents are active determinants of their children's well-being, but children themselves are too. The volume focuses on some relevant theoretical issues related to children's and adolescent adjustments, adult maternal and paternal behaviors, and their self-efficacy beliefs and competence interacting with children's characteristics. The volume also presents evidence-based treatments involving parents as key components of the intervention strategies for childhood internalizing/externalizing disorders. Parent behaviors produce changes and consequences in the child's emotive-behavioral adjustment; thus, a modification of the parenting style may be an effective way to help children and to ameliorate the family climate. Practitioners interested in parenting will find in the updated studies here reviewed new suggestions for preventive family interventions.

Biomimetic prosthetics are advanced devices that mimic the physical and functional properties of the replaced limb, thus restoring near-natural form and function. This flourishing field of research will continue to play an important role in improving quality of life, independence, and community participation for individuals with disabilities. This humble compilation showcases a few representative examples of progress in this exciting field.

The goal of this book is to provide readers with a broad appraisal of topics in global advancements in theoretical and experimental facts, and practical applications of nano-HAp materials based on their synthesis, properties, prospects, and potential biomedical treatments. The perspective of this book involves the preparation of crystalline nano-HAP materials including preferential orientation, various properties and new prospects in biomimetics, bone tissue infections, biomedical implants, regenerative medicinal treatments and a wide range of technological applications. This book is categorized into two main sections: Hydroxyapatite: synthesis, properties, perspectives, and prospects; and the application of hydroxyapatite: a synergistic outlook. Individual chapters provide a base for a wide range of readers from diversified fields, including students and researchers, who will find in this book simply explained basics as well as advanced techniques of specific subjects related to these phenomena. The book is made up of nine contributions, compiled by experts from wide-ranging fields involved in biomaterials/materials in science and technology from over 15 research institutes across the globe.

The book on Advanced Chemical Kinetics gives insight into different aspects of chemical reactions both at the bulk and nanoscale level and covers topics from basic to high class. This book has been divided into three sections: (i) "Kinetics Modeling and Mechanism," (ii) "Kinetics of Nanomaterials," and (iii) "Kinetics Techniques." The first section consists of six chapters with a variety of topics like activation energy and complexity of chemical reactions; the measurement of reaction routes; mathematical modeling analysis and simulation of enzyme kinetics; mechanisms of homogeneous charge compression ignition combustion for the fuels; photophysical processes and photochemical changes; the mechanism of hydroxyl radical, hydrate electron, and hydrogen atom; and acceptorless alcohol dehydrogenation. The understanding of the kinetics of nanomaterials, to bridge the knowledge gap, is presented in the second section. The third section highlights an overview of experimental techniques used to study the mechanism of reactions.

The book "Simulation and Gaming" discusses the following topics and research areas: game-based methods of problem solution and data processing, analysis, and information mining; educational games and game features, including game characteristics, story, mechanics, and methodology; development of integrated games tasked with helping students in interpreting, translating, and manipulating the field of kinematics through formal presentations; possibility of research integration through real and practical examples and games as well, in the field of physics; analysis of game engines from various aspects such as modularity, performance, and usability; virtual reality (VR) and interaction mechanisms used for three-dimensional (3D) game development; analysis, development, design, implementation, and evaluation of the simulation model in the field of engineering and metallurgy, according to ADDIE model; concept of computational thinking, with an accent on its inclusion in compulsory education; overview of the current prominence of AI simulation based in the gaming leisure industry, mainly for research purposes in the context of gambling and forecasting of online casino patron's churn behavior; innovative modeling and simulation approach using newly proposed advanced game-based mathematical framework, unified game-based acquisition framework, and a set of war-gaming engines to address the challenges for acquisition of future space systems; modification of simulation of a complex system and a physics model through programming, achieved with a block-based programming language.

Risk assessment is one of the main parts of complex systematic research of natural and man-made hazards and risks together with the concepts of risk analysis, risk management, acceptable risk, and risk reduction. It is considered as the process of making a recommendation on whether existing risks are acceptable and present risk control measures are adequate, and if they are not, whether alternative risk control measures are justified or will be implemented. Risk assessment incorporates the risk analysis and risk evaluation phases. Risk management is considered as the complete process of risk assessment, risk control, and risk reduction. The book reflects on the state-of-the-art problems and addresses the risk assessment to establish the criteria for ranking risk posed by different types of natural or man-made hazards and disasters, to quantify the impact that hazardous event or process has on population and structures, and to enhance the strategies for risk reduction and avoiding.

The world is governed by motions. The term kinetics partially originated from the Greek word "kinisis," which means motion. How important is motion in our life is easily understood. But, how the kinetic theories have been developed during years? Which are the new kinetic theories and updates in recent years? This question and many others can be answered with this book. Some important areas discussed in this book are the kinetic theory of gases, kinetic theory of liquids and vapors, thermodynamic aspects, transportation phenomena, adsorption-kinetic theories, linear and nonlinear kinetic equations, quantum kinetic theory, kinetic theory of nucleation, plasma kinetic theory, and relativistic kinetic theory.

Professional and semiprofessional sports as well as excessive amateur exercise inevitably lead to some degree of musculoskeletal injury once in a sportsman's career. Some injuries are represented as chronic injuries, which can result in irreversible long-term tissue changes and deformities. The subject of this book is to represent the up-to-date knowledge about etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, management, and prevention of chronic injuries or sport-related long-term changes in locomotor system.

The management of chronic diseases is one of the tasks of all members of the health team, and different models need to be applied in the practice of chronic care management. One of these models is home care services. There are two main sections in this book. In the first part of the section, the concept of caregiving and care at home is explained. In the second part, the responsibilities of caregivers at home and the responsibilities of caregivers of people who have health problems that occur during different periods of life are discussed. In the second section, the problems of caregivers are also included. I would like to think that what is quoted in this book, which contains examples from different cultures of the world for home care approaches, will contribute to the development of home care services. This book is presented to all health professionals working in the field of health services as well as health politics professionals and students trained in these areas.

This work is the result of a partnership that began in 2011, when I received for the first time the invitation to be the scientific editor of a book on bone grafting, by the still little publisher known as InTech. Now six years later, InTech has grown and thrived. My respect and warm approval for the quality of the publisher's work only increased. The hyaline cartilage is a tissue that challenges tissue engineering and regenerative medicine because of its avascular nature. In the 11 chapters of this book, the reader will find texts written by researchers working on advanced topics related to basic laboratory research, as well as excellent reviews on the clinical use of currently available therapies.

Nitrogen is the most yield-restraining nutrient in crop production globally. Efficient nitrogen management is one of the most important factor for improving nitrogen use efficiency, field crops productivity and profitability. Efficient use of nitrogen for crop production is therefore very important for increasing grain yield, maximizing economic return and minimizing nitrous oxide (N2O) emission from the fields and nitrate (NO3) leaching to ground water. Integrated nitrogen management is a good strategy to improve plant growth, increase yield and yield components, grain quality and reduce environmental problems. Integrated nitrogen management (combined use of chemical + organic + bio-fertilizers) in field crop production is more resilient to climate change.

Shifting the performance of an invasive procedure from operating room or interventional lab to the ICU has advantages for both the patient and the doctor performing the procedure. The book is a guide to interventions that are commonly performed in the intensive care unit, without the need of an operating room. In the following chapters, the authors show that procedures like endotracheal intubation, videolaryngoscopy, pericardial puncture, lumbar puncture and percutaneous cholecystostomy, and intra-abdominal pressure monitoring can be safely performed outside the operating room, at the bed of the patient. All the chapters of the book are clinically orientated providing explanations and illustrations for invasive procedures. Practical recommendations are given in the book, accompanied by figures for techniques performed in critically ill patients. It will serve the experienced doctor who has not performed a procedure for a long time as well as the young doctors needing a practical assistance when facing a new patient.

In context of entrepreneurship, this book was motivated by a desire of a team of well-known authors. The book consists of 23 closely related thematic contributions, which fall into 4 separate sections: Interactions between Economy and Entrepreneurship; Innovation in Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth; Current Trends in Family Business, Social Entrepreneurship and Responsibility; and The Role of Human Resource Management, Education and Gender in Entrepreneurship. Authors-contributors have submitted the results of their recent research and presented essential findings about the decision-making process of entrepreneurs in order to maintain their businesses competitive. The reader can get an insight into the selection of the best scientific contributions that have been reviewed and ready for debate. Our piece of work, Entrepreneurship: Development Tendencies and Empirical Approach, has interdisciplinary features. This work by authors from different countries - Finland, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Malaysia - is dedicated to readers providing up-to-date research data and background for further research as well as implementation techniques in business practice.

This book provides a concise yet comprehensive source of current information on Down syndrome. It focuses on exciting areas of research on chromosome editing, neurogenomics and diseases associated with Down syndrome. Research workers, scientists, medical graduates and physicians will find this book as an excellent source for consultation and references. Key features of this book are chromosome engineering in Down syndrome, mental retardation and cognitive disability, prenatal diagnosis and diseases associated with Down syndrome. Although aimed primarily for research workers on Down syndrome, we hope that the appeal of this book will extend beyond the narrow confines of academic interest and be exciting to wider audience, especially parents, relatives and health care providers who work with infants and children with Down syndrome.

Contributions to Mineralization provide some new aspects on economically important mineral deposits from various locations in Asia, Africa, and Europe in terms of their genesis, geochemical, and age considerations. Mining industry and mineral engineering issues are also discussed in the book through some new statistical approaches and economic aspects. The book represents a useful guide for specialists in the fields of mineralogy, economic geology, mining engineering, environmental impacts, and mining industry.

Powder-based materials and treatment technologies rank high in contemporary scientific-technical progress due to their numerous significant technoeconomic qualities. Sintering of such materials allows saving on materials and lowering the cost price of the product, as well as manufacturing complex composite materials with unique combinations of qualities. Materials of record high values of some physic-mechanical and also biochemical characteristics can be obtained owing to structural peculiarities of super dispersed condition.Sintering of functional materials for innovative perspectives in automotive and aeronautical engineering, space technology, lightweight construction, mechanical engineering, modern design, and many other applications requires established relationship in the materials-process-properties system. Therefore, the industry being interested in understanding theoretical modeling, and control over behavior of such powdered materials has promoted the research activities of this manuscript's authors.

Cassava is a staple food for many nations owing to its resilience for growth under various climatic conditions. It is a good source of carbohydrates and is the third largest source of food carbohydrates in the tropics, after rice and maize. This book focuses on the morphological traits and nutritive properties of cassava and its production processes, postharvest techniques and diseases that affect the growth of the crop. Given its extensive usage and market value, it is one of the agricultural produces for which many biotechnological interventions have been applied for ascertaining food security. It is hoped that readers will gain knowledge on cassava as well as use some of the techniques mentioned herein for improvement of the production of the crop.

The purpose of this book is to help you concentrate on recent developments in polymerization. The chapters collected in the book are contributions by invited researchers with a long-standing experience in different research areas. I hope that the material presented here is understandable to a broad audience, not only chemists but also scientists from various disciplines. The book contains nine chapters in three sections: (1) "General Information about Polymerization," (2) "Biomaterial Content Polymer Composites," and (3) "Mechanical Properties of Polymerization." The book provides detailed and current reviews in these different areas written by experts in their respective fields. This book is expected to be useful for polymer workers and other scientists alike and contribute to the training of current and future researchers, academics, PhD degree students, as well as other scientists.

Early detection of breast cancer with screening mammography is still the best method we have in saving countless women's lives and decreasing the harms of overtreatment. This textbook encompasses relevant topics in daily patient care with breast imaging to technical innovations for improving breast cancer detection and treatment.

One of the main reasons to name this book as Financial Management from an Emerging Market Perspective is to show the main differences of financial theory and practice in emerging markets other than the developed ones. Our many years of learning, teaching, and consulting experience have taught us that the theory of finance differs in developed and emerging markets. It is a well-known fact that emerging markets do not always share the same financial management problems with the developed ones. This book intends to show these differences, which could be traced to several characteristics unique to emerging markets, and these unique characteristics could generate a different view of finance theory in a different manner. As a consequence, different financial decisions, arrangements, institutions, and practices may evolve in emerging markets over time. The purpose of this book is to provide practitioners and academicians with a working knowledge of the different financial management applications and their use in an emerging market setting. Six main topics regarding the financial management applications in emerging markets are covered, and the context of these topics are "Capital Structure," "Market Efficiency and Market Models," "Merger and Acquisitions and Corporate Governance," "Working Capital Management," "Financial Economics and Digital Currency," and "Real Estate and Health Finance."