This book highlights the complexity of spinel nanoferrites, their synthesis, physio-chemical properties and prospective applications in the area of advanced electronics, microwave devices, biotechnology as well as biomedical sciences. It presents an overview of spinel nanoferrites: synthesis, properties and applications for a wide audience: from beginners and graduate-level students up to advanced specialists in both academic and industrial sectors. There are 15 chapters organized into four main sections. The first section of the book introduces the readers to spinel ferrites and their applications in advanced electronics industry including microwave devices, whereas the second section mainly focus on the synthesis strategy and their physio-chemical properties. The last sections of the book highlight the importance of this class of nanomaterials in the field of biotechnology and biomedical sector with a special chapter on water purification.

This book introduces a variety of well-proven and newly developed nature-inspired optimization algorithms solving a wide range of real-life biomedical and healthcare problems. Few solo and hybrid approaches are demonstrated in a lucid manner for the effective integration and finding solution for a large-scale complex healthcare problem. In the present bigdata-based computing scenario, nature-inspired optimization techniques present adaptive mechanisms that permit the understanding of complex data and altering environments. This book is a voluminous collection for the confront faced by the healthcare institutions and hospitals for practical analysis, storage, and data analysis. It explores the distinct nature-inspired optimization-based approaches that are able to handle more accurate outcomes for the current biomedical and healthcare problems. In addition to providing a state-of-the-art and advanced intelligent methods, it also enlightens an insight for solving diversified healthcare problems such as cancer and diabetes.

This book gathers revised selected papers from the 3rd International Workshop on Gerontechnology, IWoG 2020, held on October 5-6, 2020, in Evora, Portugal. They reports on cutting-edge technologies and optimized workflows for promoting active aging and assisting and elderly people at home, as well as in healthcare centers. It discusses the main challenges in the development, use and delivery of health care services and technologies. Not only they proposes solutions for improving in practice the monitoring and management of health parameters and age-related diseases, yet they also describes improved approaches for helping seniors in their daily tasks and facilitating their communication and integration with assistive technologies, thus improving their quality of life, as well as their social integration. The book provides health professionals, researchers, and service providers with extensive information on the latest trends in the development and practical application of gerontechnology in elderly care.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the third international conference AsiaHaptics 2018, held in Songdo, Korea. It presents the state-of-the-art of the diverse haptics (touch)-related research, including perception and illusion, development of haptics devices, and applications to a wide variety of fields such as education, medicine, telecommunication, navigation and entertainment. This book is a valuable resource not only for active haptics researchers, but also for general readers wishing to understand the status quo in this interdisciplinary area of science and technology.

This book reviews the latest technological developments of bioengineering approaches in cell and tissue research. It is meant to have life and spirit, and to become a pioneer in technology and sciences, especially the life science. The chapters are written by excellent scientists on advanced, frontier technology and address scientific questions that need considerable thinking in terms of engineering. The aims are to provide the readers, including students, faculty, and all scientists working in academia and industry, new information on bioengineering in cell and tissue research to enhance their understanding and innovation.

Machine Learning and the Internet of Medical Things in Healthcare discusses the applications and challenges of machine learning for healthcare applications. The book provides a platform for presenting machine learning-enabled healthcare techniques and offers a mathematical and conceptual background of the latest technology. It describes machine learning techniques along with the emerging platform of the Internet of Medical Things used by practitioners and researchers worldwide. The book includes deep feed forward networks, regularization, optimization algorithms, convolutional networks, sequence modeling, and practical methodology. It also presents the concepts of the Internet of Things, the set of technologies that develops traditional devices into smart devices. Finally, the book offers research perspectives, covering the convergence of machine learning and IoT. It also presents the application of these technologies in the development of healthcare frameworks.

Smart Homes (SH) offer a promising approach to assisted living for the ageing population. Yet the main obstacle to the rapid development and deployment of Smart Home (SH) solutions essentially arises from the nature of the SH field, which is multidisciplinary and involves diverse applications and various stakeholders. Accordingly, an alternative to a one-size-fits-all approach is needed in order to advance the state of the art towards an open SH infrastructure. This book makes a valuable and critical contribution to smart assisted living research through the development of new effective, integrated, and interoperable SH solutions. It focuses on four underlying aspects: (1) Sensing and Monitoring Technologies; (2) Context Interference and Behaviour Analysis; (3) Personalisation and Adaptive Interaction, and (4) Open Smart Home and Service Infrastructures, demonstrating how fundamental theories, models and algorithms can be exploited to solve real-world problems. This comprehensive and timely book offers a unique and essential reference guide for policymakers, funding bodies, researchers, technology developers and managers, end users, carers, clinicians, healthcare service providers, educators and students, helping them adopt and implement smart assisted living systems.

Handbook of Computational Intelligence in Biomedical Engineering and Healthcare helps readers analyze and conduct advanced research in specialty healthcare applications surrounding oncology, genomics and genetic data, ontologies construction, bio-memetic systems, biomedical electronics, protein structure prediction, and biomedical data analysis. The book provides the reader with a comprehensive guide to advanced computational intelligence, spanning deep learning, fuzzy logic, connectionist systems, evolutionary computation, cellular automata, self-organizing systems, soft computing, and hybrid intelligent systems in biomedical and healthcare applications. Sections focus on important biomedical engineering applications, including biosensors, enzyme immobilization techniques, immuno-assays, and nanomaterials for biosensors and other biomedical techniques. Other sections cover gene-based solutions and applications through computational intelligence techniques and the impact of nonlinear/unstructured data on experimental analysis.

Thermal Ablation Therapy: Theory and Simulation includes detailed theoretical and technical concepts of thermal ablation therapy in different body organs. Concepts of ablation technology based on different thermal ablation methods are introduced, along with changes in the tissues' mechanical properties due to thermal denaturation. The book emphasizes the mathematical and engineering concepts of RF and MW energy propagation through tissues and where high heating rates produced by MW systems can overcome the heat-sink effects from nearby vessels. The design and tuning of the MW antennas to deliver energy efficiently to specific organ systems such as the liver or lung is also covered. Other sections cover the computational modeling of radiofrequency ablation and microwave ablation procedures for developing and implementing new efficient ablation in clinical systems, numerical simulations for different scenarios of different organs with different size using RF and MW ablation systems with different antennas'/probes design and configurations, and numerical techniques for temperature profile in tissues.

This volume presents a timely recognition, warning and mapping of the fast approaching wave, or "bio-tsunami", of global socio-technical transformation, built by a much wider spectrum of converging powers, including biotechnology, new agriculture, novel foods, health, quality of life, environment, energy, sustainability, education, knowledge management, and design of smart applications. The book contains eight sections corresponding to different clusters of bioeconomic and socio-technical change, as identified by the editors' "Scanning the Horizon" foresight research; it also offers an integrated view of the future bioeconomy landscape though the convergence of several technologies that affect everyday life. The clusters offer methodologies for forecasting the future bioeconomy, and how these predictions can affect target-setting and the orientation of policies and actions to manage cultural and societal change, and achieve sustainable development in less developed areas. The book will be of interest to researchers, producers, logistics experts, policy makers, regulators, business and financial institutions, and biotechnologists (e.g. geneticists, food experts, etc.).

This book describes the multitude of interactions between plant, soil, and micro-organisms. It emphasizes on how growth and development in plants, starting from seed germination, is heavily influenced by the soil type. It describes the interactions established by plants with soil and inhabitant microbial community. The chapters describe how plants selectively promote certain microorganisms in the rhizospheric ecozone to derive multifarious benefits such as nutrient acquisition and protection from diseases. The diversity of these rhizospheric microbes and their interactions with plants largely depend on plant genotype, soils attributes, and several abiotic and biotic factors. Most of the studies concerned with plant-microbe interaction are focused on temperate regions, even though the tropical ecosystems are more diverse and need more attention. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how soil type and climatic conditions influence the plant-soil-microbes interaction in the tropics. Considering the significance of the subject, the present volume is designed to cover the most relevant aspects of rhizospheric microbial interactions in tropical ecosystems. Chapters include aspects related to the diversity of rhizospheric microbes, as well as modern tools and techniques to assess the rhizospheric microbiomes and their functional roles. The book also covers applications of rhizospheric microbes and evaluation of prospects improving agricultural practice and productivity through the use of microbiome technologies. This book will be extremely interesting to microbiologists, plant biologists, and ecologists.

Structural Biomaterials: Properties, Characteristics, and Selection serves as a single point of reference to digest current research and develop a deeper understanding in the field of biomaterials engineering. This book uses a materials-focused approach, allowing the reader to quickly access specific, detailed information on biomaterials characterization and selection. Relevant to a range of readers, this book provides holistic coverage of the broad categories of structural biomaterials currently available and used in medical applications, highlighting the property requirements for structural biomaterials, their biocompatibility performance and their safety regulation in key categories such as metals, ceramics and polymers. The materials science perspective of this text ensures the content is accessible even to those without an extensive background in applied medicine, positioning this text not just for students, but as an overview and reference for researchers, scientists and engineers entering the field from related materials science disciplines.

Handbook of Decision Support Systems for Neurological Disorders provides readers with complete coverage of advanced computer-aided diagnosis systems for neurological disorders. While computer-aided decision support systems for different medical imaging modalities are available, this is the first book to solely concentrate on decision support systems for neurological disorders. Due to the increase in the prevalence of diseases such as Alzheimer, Parkinson's and Dementia, this book will have significant importance in the medical field. Topics discussed include recent computational approaches, different types of neurological disorders, deep convolution neural networks, generative adversarial networks, auto encoders, recurrent neural networks, and modified/hybrid artificial neural networks.

Web Semantics strengthen the description of web resources to exploit them better and make them more meaningful for both humans and machines, thereby contributing to the development of a knowledgeintensive data web. The world is experiencing the movement of concept from data to knowledge and the movement of web from document model to data model. The underlying idea is making the data machine understandable and processable. In the light of these trends, conciliation of Semantic and the Web is of paramount importance for further progress in the area. Web Semantics: Cutting Edge and Future Directions in Healthcare describes the three major components of the study of Semantic Web, namely Representation, Reasoning, and Security with a special focus on the healthcare domain. This book summarizes the trends and current research advances in web semantics, emphasizing the existing tools and techniques, methodologies, and research solutions. It provides easily comprehensible information on Web Semantics including semantics for data and semantics for services.

This book examines the role of nanobiosensors in point-of-care applications for personalized healthcare and management. It begins by discussing various biomaterials that are used for the development of biosensors in medical diagnostics, and reviews advances in their fabrication and the miniaturization of biosensor devices for lab-on-chip analysis. In turn, it explores the rapidly evolving applications of nanomaterials in the context of biomaterial diagnostics. The book also explores the immense potential of biosensors in medical diagnostics, where they are increasingly being used to detect a wide range of biomolecules and biomarkers. In closing, it discusses the current challenges and outlines the future role of nanobiosensors in the development of next-generation point-of-care applications.

This book coherently presents advances in design principles, processes, and methods in healthcare product design. It captures the implications of technological advances on designing healthcare products especially when market and societal needs pull each other in opposite directions. The contents focus on innovative design thinking processes and methods in developing healthcare products, applications of digital technologies in healthcare product design, amalgamation of artificial intelligence and design thinking for healthcare product design and quality, sustainability, and regulatory aspects in the design process. This book is a useful reference for those in the industry and academia.

Plastic is one of the widely used polymers around the globe since its discovery. It is highly impossible to think the ease of life without the aid of plastic. Every year billion tons of plastic waste gets accumulated in the environment and leads to death of both marine and terrestrial animals. Plastic is very durable and needs around 1000 years to degrade under the natural environment. The present book illustrates the importance and significance of the bioremediation to tackle the problem of plastic waste. Previously, we have reported elite rhizobacterial isolates (Lysinibacillus fusiformis strain VASB14/WL and Bacillus cereus strain VASB1/TS) of Avicennia marina Vierh (Forsk.) from the West Coast of India with the potential to degrade plastic (polythene). The present book attempted to address the bioremediation scenario of plastic waste (including micro plastic) using microbes with bacteria in particular. Various strategies used to tackle with the plastic waste were highlighted with case studies of plastic waste management, including in vitro, in situ and ex situ with a special reference to biodegradation technology. After the biodegradation of the plastic using microbes, the generated plastic (polythene) degradation products (PE-DPs) were also documented using GC-MS technique followed by their deleterious effect on both animal and plant systems. The book also enhances the awareness of the plastic-free society and also suggests some alternative materials to be used instead of plastic. Lastly, the book suggests/recommends the strategies to be followed by the lawmakers in the government organizations/non-government organizations/social organizations to frame the regulations and guidelines to implement at mass level to reduce the generation of plastic waste.

Applications of Big Data in Healthcare: Theory and Practice begins with the basics of Big Data analysis and introduces the tools, processes and procedures associated with Big Data analytics. The book unites healthcare with Big Data analysis and uses the advantages of the latter to solve the problems faced by the former. The authors present the challenges faced by the healthcare industry, including capturing, storing, searching, sharing and analyzing data. This book illustrates the challenges in the applications of Big Data and suggests ways to overcome them, with a primary emphasis on data repositories, challenges, and concepts for data scientists, engineers and clinicians. The applications of Big Data have grown tremendously within the past few years and its growth can not only be attributed to its competence to handle large data streams but also to its abilities to find insights from complex, noisy, heterogeneous, longitudinal and voluminous data. The main objectives of Big Data in the healthcare sector is to come up with ways to provide personalized healthcare to patients by taking into account the enormous amounts of already existing data.

Second-Order Consensus of Continuous-Time Multi-Agent Systems focuses on the characteristics and features of second-order agents, communication networks, and control protocols/algorithms in continuous consensus of multi-agent systems. The book provides readers with background on consensus control of multi-agent systems and introduces the intrinsic characteristics of second-order agents' behavior, including the development of continuous control protocols/algorithms over various types of underlying communication networks, as well as the implementation of computation- and communication-efficient strategies in the execution of protocols/algorithms. The book's authors also provide coverage of the frameworks of stability analysis, algebraic criteria and performance evaluation. On this basis, the book provides an in-depth study of intrinsic nonlinear dynamics from agents' perspective, coverage of unbalanced directed topology, random switching topology, event-triggered communication, and random link failure, from a communication networks' perspective, as well as leader-following control, finite-time control, and global consensus control, from a protocols/algorithms' perspective. Finally, simulation results including practical application examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness and the practicability of the control protocols and algorithms proposed in this book.

Dental Implants: Materials, Coatings, Surface Modifications and Interfaces with Oral Tissues provides readers with information on past and contemporary advances in the design and modification of dental implants to enhance osseointegration and biocompatibility. The book begins with a look at the current status of dental implants, materials and fabrication methods. Chapters then cover surface modification techniques and a variety of inorganic, organic and biological coatings. Final sections cover tissue-implant interfaces. Written by a multidisciplinary team of materials scientists, dental clinicians and implantologists, this book is an essential reference for materials scientists, dental practitioners and researchers and students in academia.

This open access book establishes a dialog among the medical and intelligent system domains for igniting transition toward a sustainable and cost-effective healthcare. The Person-Centered Care (PCC) positions a person in the center of a healthcare system, instead of defining a patient as a set of diagnoses and treatment episodes. The PCC-based conceptual background triggers enhanced application of Artificial Intelligence, as it dissolves the limits of processing traditional medical data records, clinical tests and surveys. Enhanced knowledge for diagnosing, treatment and rehabilitation is captured and utilized by inclusion of data sources characterizing personal lifestyle, and health literacy, and it involves insights derived from smart ambience and wearables data, community networks, and the caregivers' feedback. The book discusses intelligent systems and their applications for healthcare data analysis, decision making and process design tasks. The measurement systems and efficiency evaluation models analyze ability of intelligent healthcare system to monitor person health and improving quality of life.

This book covers the nutritional and nutraceutical profiles of a wide range of popularly consumed vegetables and nuts. The first half of the book focuses on popular vegetables, and describes how higher vegetable consumption reduces the risk of diseases ranging from diabetes to osteoporosis, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases and cancer. The book also includes an interesting section on the antioxidant potential of mushrooms. In turn, the second half discusses the nutritional value of various nuts. Nuts are nutrient-dense foods with complex matrices rich in unsaturated fats, high-quality protein, fiber, minerals, tocopherols, phytosterols and phenolics. The respective chapters illustrate how the consumption of nuts could ward off chronic diseases like hypertension, cancer, inflammation, oxidative stress, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease etc. In order to effectively promote vegetable and nut consumption, it is necessary to know and understand the nutritional and nutraceutical profiles of vegetables & nuts. Given its scope, the book will be of interest to students, researchers, food scientists, olericulturists, dietitians and agricultural scientists alike. Those working in the vegetable and nut processing industries, horticultural departments and other agricultural departments will also find the comprehensive information relevant to their work.

This book is the output of Anthropological Survey of India's National Project "DNA Polymorphism of Contemporary Indian Population" conducted during 2000 to 2018. The book compiles the independent and collaborative work of 49 scientific personnel. Genomics facilitate the study of genetic constitution and diversity at individual and population levels. Genomic diversity explains susceptibility, predisposition and prolongation of diseases; personalized medicine and longevity; prehistoric demographic events, such as population bottleneck, expansion, admixture and natural selection. This book highlights the heterogeneous, genetically diverse population of India. It shows how the central geographic location of India, played a crucial role in historic and pre-historic human migrations, and in peopling different continents of the world. The book describes the massive task undertaken by AnSI to unearth genomic diversity of India populations, with the use of Uni-parental DNA markers mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) and Y -chromosome in 75 communities. The book talks about the 61 maternal and 35 paternal lineages identified through these studies. It brings forth interesting, hitherto unknown findings such as shared mutations between certain communities. This volume is a milestone in scientific research to understand biological diversity of Indian people at genomic level. It addresses the basic priority to identify different genes underlying various inborn genetic defects and diseases specific to Indian populations. This would be highly interesting to population geneticists, historians, as well as anthropologists.

Personalized Computational Hemodynamics: Models, Methods, and Applications for Vascular Surgery and Antitumor Therapy offers practices and advances surrounding the multiscale modeling of hemodynamics and their personalization with conventional clinical data. Focusing on three physiological disciplines, readers will learn how to derive a suitable mathematical model and personalize its parameters to account for pathologies and diseases. Written by leading experts, this book mirrors the top trends in mathematical modeling with clinical applications. In addition, the book features the major results of the "Research group in simulation of blood flow and vascular pathologies" at the Institute of Numerical Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Two important features distinguish this book from other monographs on numerical methods for biomedical applications. First, the variety of medical disciplines targeted by the mathematical modeling and computer simulations, including cardiology, vascular neurology and oncology. Second, for all mathematical models, the authors consider extensions and parameter tuning that account for vascular pathologies.

This book discusses fundamentally new biomedical imaging methods, such as holography, holographic and resonant interferometry, and speckle optics. It focuses on the development of holographic interference microscopy and its use in the study of phase objects such as nerve and muscle fibers subjected to the influence of laser radiation, magnetic fields, and hyperbaric conditions. The book shows how the myelin sheath and even the axon itself exhibit waveguide properties, enabling a fresh new look at the mechanisms of information transmission in the human body. The book presents theoretically and experimentally tested holographic and speckle-optical methods and devices used for investigating complex, diffusely scattering surfaces such as skin and muscle tissue. Additionally, it gives broad discussion of the authors' own original fundamental and applied research dedicated to helping physicians introduce new contact-less methods of diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the cardiovascular and neuromuscular systems into medical practice. The book is aimed at a broad spectrum of scientific specialists in the fields of speckle optics, holography, laser physics, morphology and cytochemistry, as well as medical professionals such as physiologists, neuropathologists, neurosurgeons, cardiologists and dentists.