Bücher veröffentlicht von IntechOpen

Staphylococcus aureus S. aureus is a growing issue both within hospitals and community because of its virulence determinants and the continuing emergence of new strains resistant to antimicrobiotics. In this book, we present the state of the art of S. aureus virulence mechanisms and antibiotic-resistance profiles, providing an unprecedented and comprehensive collection of up-to-date research about the evolution, dissemination, and mechanisms of different staphylococcal antimicrobial resistance patterns alongside bacterial virulence determinants and their impact in the medical field. We include several review chapters to allow readers to better understand the mechanisms of methicillin resistance, glycopeptide resistance, and horizontal gene transfer and the effects of alterations in S. aureus membranes and cell walls on drug resistance. In addition, we include chapters dedicated to unveiling S. aureus pathogenicity with the most current research available on S. aureus exfoliative toxins, enterotoxins, surface proteins, biofilm, and defensive responses of S. aureus to antibiotic treatment.

The pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is incompletely understood. HLA class II alleles and T cells have been implicated for many years. The discovery of anticitrullinated peptide antibodies (ACPAs), along with the effectiveness of biological treatments targeting cytokines, such as TNF-?, IL-6, and also T cells and B cells, reinforced the pathogenetic role of the respective factors. ACPAs, induced by cigarette smoking and periodontitis in individuals with HLA-DRB1 shared epitope, appear to be autoantigens that initiate the inflammatory immune response in RA. MicroRNAs, part of epigenetic mechanisms, which also include DNA methylation, and histone modification, as well as microbiota, the composition of microbes in body cavities, also appear to influence arthritis and are discussed in this book.

Recently, new compounds from medicinal plants were discovered, and they were used as anti-severe diseases. Therefore, this book covers interested research topics dealing with isolation, purification, and identification of active ingredients from wild and medicinal plants. This discovery will lead to an increase in the global pharmaceutical market as well as open such new gate for medicinal plant research. This book will add significant information to medical researchers and can be used for postgraduate students.

This book was designed to be a comprehensive review of selected topics related to irrigation and drainage. Readers will find themes such as salinity control, decision support systems, subsurface drainage, irrigation scheduling in nurseries, irrigation with municipal wastewater, and sustainable drainage systems. These topics and pursuant discussions are expected to be very fruitful in the continuing debate on global food security.

With increasing efficacy of antiretroviral therapy, HIV/AIDS has shifted from a disease with high mortality to a chronic illness with substantial longevity. However, researchers, physicians and social workers still face many challenges, and it is important to raise awareness on several aspects that people living with HIV/AIDS have to deal in their daily lives. This book has assembled an array of chapters on the medical, social and economic aspects of HIV/AIDS. The chapters were written by experts from around the globe reflecting the importance of the topic. This book will be of great interest not only to graduate students but also to active academics and practitioners.

When it comes to life science and specially by considering animal-origin protein, one of the main topics to gain importance with respect to human nutrition and health is poultry science. This book presents an introductory overview to the different fields/branches of poultry science with four main divisions: different feed resources for poultry, biofilms of salmonella and campylobacter in the poultry industry, prevention of different contaminants in modern poultry farms, and mycotoxins in poultry feed.This book will be beneficial for the graduate students, teachers, researchers, farmers, and other professionals, who are interested to fortify and expand their knowledge about chicken products in fields of poultry science, biotechnology, plant science, and agriculture.

The contents of the book cover topics on vortex dynamics in a variety of flow problems and describe observational measurements and their interpretation. The book contains 13 chapters that first include vortices in the earth and planetary sciences related to vortices in the Venus plasma wake and also on tropical cyclones and on rotating shallow water in the earth's atmosphere. Vortices in fluid problems include airplane wake vortices, vorticity evolution in free-shear flows, together with axisymmetric flows with swirl, as well as thermal conductivities in fluid layers. Vortices in relativistic fluids, in magnetic disks, solitons and vortices, and relaxation for point vortices were also examined. Other chapters describe conditions in a vortex bioreactor and in vortex yarn structures.

Nanostructured solar cells are very important in renewable energy sector as well as in environmental aspects, because it is environment friendly. The nano-grating structures (such as triangular or conical shaped) have a gradual change in refractive index which acts as a multilayer antireflective coating that is leading to reduced light reflection losses over broadband ranges of wavelength and angle of incidence. There are different types of losses in solar cells that always reduce the conversion efficiency, but the light reflection loss is the most important factor that decreases the conversion efficiency of solar cells significantly. The antireflective coating is an optical coating which is applied to the surface of lenses or any optical devices to reduce the light reflection losses. This coating assists for the light trapping capturing capacity or improves the efficiency of optical devices, such as lenses or solar cells. Hence, the multilayer antireflective coatings can reduce the light reflection losses and increases the conversion efficiency of nanostructured solar cells.

This book is the outcome of contributions by many experts in the field from different disciplines, various backgrounds, and diverse expertise. This book provides information on biomass volume calculation methods and biomass valorization for energy production. The chapters presented in this book include original research and review articles. I hope the research presented in this book will help to advance the use of biomass for bioenergy production and valorization. The key features of the book are:Providing information on biomass volume estimation using direct, nondestructive and remote sensing methodsBiomass valorization for energy using thermochemical (gasification and pyrolysis) and biochemical (fermentation) conversion processes.

Fermentation is a theme widely useful for food, feed and biofuel production. Indeed each of these areas, food industry, animal nutrition and energy production, has considerable presence in the global market. Fermentation process also has relevant applications on medical and pharmaceutical areas, such as antibiotics production. The present book, Fermentation Processes, reflects that wide value of fermentation in related areas. It holds a total of 14 chapters over diverse areas of fermentation research.

The contents of the book cover a wide variety of topics related to the analysis of the dynamics of vortices and describe the results of experiments, computational modeling and their interpretation. The book contains 13 chapters reaching areas of physics in vortex dynamics and optical vortices including vortices in superfluid atomic gases, vortex laser beams, vortex-antivortex in ferromagnetic hybrids, and optical vortices illumination in chiral nanostructures. Also, discussions are presented on particle motion in vortex flows, on the simulation of vortex-dominated flows, on vortices in saturable media, on achromatic vortices, and on ultraviolet vortices. Fractal light vortices, coherent vortex beams, together with vortices in electric dipole radiation, and spin wave dynamics in magnetic vortices are examined as well.

The field of antenna engineering has been advancing at a remarkable pace to support modern communication systems. Recently, significant progress has been made in the development of new antennas and techniques targeted for applications in medical, defense, health care, communication, etc. The motivation of this project is to present cutting-edge research materials in the field of antennas for modern wireless communication.

Quality control and assurance cover a diverse area of modern life and play, undeniably, an important role. This book brings together a collection of international papers that showcase examples of current research and practice in industry and the medical profession. It is hoped that engineers, researchers and scientists will be assisted in their continuous quest for excelling in qualitative aspects. The Ancient Greek word arete means excellence or virtue and defines the highest qualitative state: a mans effectiveness and skill in goodness (optimum potentiae). Indeed, Ancient Greeks believed that without quality control, specifications are useless and may result to illegitimacy, which in turn may become a threat to society itself.

The UNHCR assures us that never before have there been so many people on the move at the same time, mainly because of war-inflicted circumstances. Authors from different reputed institutions share their knowledge on this open-access platform to disseminate their knowledge at the global level. This book captures issues involved in meeting the challenges of people's movements in the twenty-first century. It explores attitudes of previously colonized people in a post-colonial period, analyses food insecurity in Canada, quality of life of elderly Turkish and Polish migrants in Germany, suicidal behaviours of immigrants admitted to an Italian-teaching hospital, and migration from a public healthcare perspective and points to the problem of tuberculosis among immigrants. Challenges of a more personal nature relate to second-language learning and acculturation of Brazilian migrants in Portugal and Asians as model minorities. Empirical evidence of why immigrants leave Norway is provided, and there is a discussion on the new actors of international migration (foreign students). This book closes with the voices of trailing women when it comes to the decision to emigrate. The collective contributions from experts attempt to provide updates regarding ongoing research and developments pertaining to migration.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is the world's most comprehensive alternative and complementary medicine. With the rising morbidity of serious illnesses like diabetes, infertility, silicosis, etc., there are no highly effective treatments; even though Western medicine has made spectacular advances, this influenced us to seek Chinese medical therapies of health care. This book offers a unique perspective of Chinese medicine theories and therapies. It has practical chapters on diabetes, infertility, silicosis, kidney essence, and a compilation of contraindicated Chinese medicines for pregnancy. TCM is a treasure, and this ancient wisdom should be respected and applied to the modern medical system; it will provide more choices and a wider field of vision for Western medicine at the two cognitive crossroads of East and West.

The development of gender differences as an area of research has been rapid over the last decades. Varieties of studies have focused on the gender differences as well as the similarities of women and men. The common purpose of the research attempt is to find out the possibilities and even the consequences of gender differences and the impact on human beings on one side, and social and cultural environment on the other. This book is an attempt to provide theoretical and empirical framework to better understand gender differences in various contexts and on different levels. Therefore, the contributions cover an array of themes that span from an individual level to an organizational and societal level.

Magnesium alloys usually have desirable properties including high chemical stability, easy processing and manufacturing, and also lightweight. Magnesium alloys weigh about 70% of aluminum alloy weight and 30% of iron and steel weight. Most of these alloys are used for fabrication of structures in aerospace industries. Magnesium belongs to the second main group of the periodic table of elements (alkaline earth metal) and therefore can't be found in pure state in nature and only exists as a chemical composition. This book collects new developments about magnesium alloys and their use in different industries.

Ionic liquids, including the newer subcategory of deep eutectic solvents, continue to attract a great deal of research attention in an even increasing number of areas, including traditional areas such as synthesis (organic and materials), electrochemistry, and physical property studies and predictions, as well as less obvious areas such as lubrication and enzymatic transformations. In this volume, recent advances in a number of these different areas are reported and reviewed, thus granting some appreciation for the future that ionic liquid research holds and affording inspiration for those who have not previously considered the application of ionic liquids in their area of interest.

X-ray scattering techniques are a family of nondestructive analytical techniques. Using these techniques, scientists obtain information about the crystal structure and chemical and physical properties of materials. Nowadays, different techniques are based on observing the scattered intensity of an X-ray beam hitting a sample as a function of incident and scattered angle, polarization, and wavelength.This book is intended to give overviews of the relevant X-ray scattering techniques, particularly about inelastic X-ray scattering, elastic scattering, grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering, small-angle X-ray scattering, and high-resolution X-ray diffraction, and, finally, applications of X-ray spectroscopy to study different biological systems.

This book contains a total of 21 chapters, each of which was written by experts in the corresponding field. The objective of this book is to provide a comprehensive and updated overview of cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying hypoxia's impacts on human health, as well as current advances and future directions in the detection, recognition, and management of hypoxia-related disorders. This collection of articles provides a clear update in the area of hypoxia research for biomedical researchers, medical students, nurse practitioners, and practicing clinicians in the fields of high altitude biology, cardiovascular biology and medicine, tumor oncology, obstetrics, pediatrics, and orthodontics and for others who may be interested in hypoxia.

This book is devoted to diverse aspects of earthquake researches, especially to new achievements in seismicity that involves geosciences, assessment, and mitigation. Chapters contain advanced materials of detailed engineering investigations, which can help more clearly appreciate, predict, and manage different earthquake processes. Different research themes for diverse areas in the world are developed here, highlighting new methods of studies that lead to new results and models, which could be helpful for the earthquake risk. The presented and developed themes mainly concern wave's characterization and decomposition, recent seismic activity, assessment-mitigation, and engineering techniques. The book provides the state of the art on recent progress in earthquake engineering and management. The obtained results show a scientific progress that has an international scope and, consequently, should open perspectives to other still unresolved interesting aspects.

As concerns increase over the scarcity of water resources and the role of anthropogenic activities, water quality is evermore important. Activities ranging from agriculture to mining have had a bearing on the quality of water that they impact. Several studies assessing such impacts have been conducted at local and global scales over the years. This book, consisting of contributions by authors in various water-related fields, delves into some approaches that are used to understand and/or to improve water quality, and these include assessment of water chemistry, biomonitoring, modelling and water treatment. This book will be useful to environmental scientists, water professionals, researchers, academics and students.

In this book, authors provide latest results of scientific research projects within the area of e-business: Challenges of Information and Communication Technology Usage in E-business Systems; A Proposal for Brand Analysis with Opinion Mining; Customers Online Interaction Experiences with Fashion Brands: E-information and E-buying; Payment System's Determination by Universal Financial Industry Message Scheme According to Single Euro Payment Area; and CSFs for SMEs in Measuring E-commerce Success.

This book discusses energy efficient buildings and the role they play in our efforts to address climate change, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by considering buildings and the construction sector's unique position along a critical path to decarbonisation from a multi-perspective and holistic viewpoint. Topics covered in the book range from daylighting, building topology comparison, building envelope design, zero energy homes in hot arid regions, life-cycle considerations and energy efficiency analysis to managing energy demand through equipment selection. Each chapter addresses an important aspect of energy efficient building and serves as a vital building block towards constructing a timely and relevant body of knowledge in energy efficient buildings.

Differential geometry is a very active field of research and has many applications to areas such as physics and gravity, for example. The papers in this book cover a number of subjects which will be of interest to workers in these areas. It is hoped that the papers here will be able to provide a useful resource for researchers with regard to current fields of research in this important area.

This book contains a collection of latest research developments on the urban transportation systems. It describes rail transit systems, subways, bus rapid transit (BRT) systems, taxicabs, automobiles, etc. This book also studies the technical parameters and provides a comprehensive overview of the significant characteristics for urban transportation systems, including energy management systems, wireless communication systems, operations and maintenance systems, transport serviceability, environmental problems and solutions, simulation, modelling, analysis, design, safety and risk, standards, traffic congestion, ride quality, air quality, noise and vibration, financial and economic aspects, pricing strategies, etc. This professional book as a credible source can be very applicable and useful for all professors, researchers, students, experienced technical professionals, practitioners and others interested in urban transportation systems.

Hydrogen is one of the abundant elements on earth majorly in the form of water (H2O) and mainly as hydrogen gas (H2). Catalytic hydrogenation is a key reaction that has versatile applications in different industries. The main objective of this book is to bring together various applications of hydrogenation through the perspective of leading researchers in the field. This book is intended to be used as a graduate-level text book or as a practical guide for industrial engineers.

Umbilical cord blood (UCB) and, more recently, umbilical cord tissue (UCT) have been stored cryopreserved in private and public cord blood and tissue banks worldwide, since the umbilical cord blood was used for the first time in a child with Fanconi anemia with his HLA-identical sibling, following strict guidelines that imply high-quality standards and total rastreability of these units. The hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are clinically used in hematopoietic treatments for blood disorders and hemato-oncological diseases. Also, the mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) isolated from the UCT and UCB, nowadays, can be used as coadjuvants of hematopoietic transplants. In the near future, these stem cells will have a crucial role in regenerative medicine. For this reason, these cells have been tested in several clinical trials and compassive treatments in children and adults, concerning a wide range of pathologies and diseases, for instance, for the treatment of cerebral paralysis. Considering the worldwide availability of UCB and UCT units and the absence of ethical concerns will probably become the best sources for cell-based therapies for hematological and nonhematological pathologies. The UCB will also have a crucial role in neonatology-predictive analysis in the near future.

Microwave systems are key components of every modern wireless communication system. The main objective of this book was to collect as many different state-of-the-art studies as possible in order to cover in a single volume the main aspects of microwave systems and applications. This book contains 17 chapters written by acknowledged experts, researchers, academics, and microwave engineers, providing comprehensive information and covering a wide range of topics on all aspects of microwave systems and applications. This book is divided into four parts. The first part is devoted to microwave components. The second part deals with microwave ICs and innovative techniques for on-chip antenna design. The third part presents antenna design cases for microwave systems. Finally, the last part covers different applications of microwave systems.

There has been a great increase in the consumption of animal products. The intention of agricultural activities is to provide safety and adequate food by respecting the environment. Although many questions are being raised concerning the sustainability of the world's food-animal agricultural resources. This book presents some in-depth reviews of selected topics in livestock science written by experts in their respective areas. The book is divided into eight chapters, consisting of topics in food-animal production systems, management of several animal products, health-threaten example by ticks in animals, and contaminants that may be found in animal foods. We hope that a wide variety of scientists, researchers, and others may benefit from this book.