A review of the literature on the environmental health implications of the developing nanotechnology industry shows that the potential problem of exposure to airborne nanoparticles has not been adequately assessed. The health and safety of nanotechnology workers is of concern because these groups are likely to be exposed to elevated concentrations of nanomaterials. A gap exists between currently available particle measurement methods and those appropriate for nanoaerosol exposure assessment.
Nanoparticles in Humans: Experiments, Methods and Strategies presents new ideas, methods, and experimental results to measure the surface area and local deposition of nanoparticles in lungs and the true effectiveness of respirators. It includes a nanoparticles dosimetric road map that can be used as a general strategy for the assessment of dose, which is the most important physical cause of health effect in case of nanoparticles exposure.
This book proposes the 1 nm radioactive particle, called unattached activity of radon progeny, which can be used as a useful and safe experimental tool for nanoparticles study, including human study. Such ideas have not been presented in other publications before. It discusses problems related to the general strategy of risk assessment in nanoparticles exposure and concrete parameters related to dosage, which is the main cause of the health effects associated with nanoparticles.
The book uniquely uses graphs and diagrams to build an understanding of the methods for measuring the surface area and local deposition of nanoparticles in lungs and the effectiveness of respirators in case of nanoparticles exposure.

Plant endophytes are a potential source for the production of bioactive compounds that can fight against devastating diseases in both plants and humans. Among these endophytic microorganisms, endophytic fungi are one of the dominant group of microorganisms with a potential role in plant growth promotion and the discovery of noble bioactive natural products. Endophytic fungi possess several bioactivities like anticancer, antimicrobial, insecticidal, plant growth stimulants, crop protection, phytoremediation, etc. Presence of modular biosynthetic genes clusters like PKS and NRPS in several endophytic fungi underscores the need to understand and explore such organisms. This volume presents and demonstrates the applied aspects of endophytic fungi. Practical applications of such endophytes are discussed in detail, including studies in pharmaceutical development and agricultural management of important microbial diseases. The beneficial effects that endophytic fungi provide to host plants-enhancing growth, increasing fitness, strengthening tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses through secondary metabolites-are also discussed. The reader is provided with a comprehensive and detailed understanding of such relationships between endophytic fungi and their host.

The book discusses ways to overcome the side effects of using hydrocarbon-based products as energy sources. Hydrocarbons produce raw crude oil waste of around 600,000 metric tons per annum, with a range of uncertainty of 200,000 metric tons per year. The various chapters in this book focus on approaches to reduce these wastes through the application of potential microbes, in a process called bioremediation. The book is a one-stop reference resource on the methods, mechanisms and application of the bio-composites, in the laboratory and field. Focusing on resolving a very pressing environmental issue, it not only provides details of existing challenges, but also offers deeper insights into the possibility of solving problems using hydrocarbon bioremediation.

This book discusses, explains and provides detailed, up-to-date information on physics applied to clinical practice in anesthesiology, with the aid of simple examples from daily life. Almost everything that happens around us, including in the operating room and intensive care units, can be explained by physical laws. An awareness and understanding of relatively simple laws such as Bernoulli's theorem, Hagen-Poiseuille equation and Pascal's principle, to name just a few, offer anesthesiologists and intensivists fascinating insights into why they do what they do. Each of the 16 chapters starts with an everyday phenomenon, explains it with a physical law, and then shows why that law is important in anesthesia practice. Numerous illustrations are included for extra clarity. It is intended for anesthesiologists, intensivists, anesthesia teachers, anesthesia trainees, and medical students.

Biomechanics applies the laws and techniques of mechanics in the study of biological systems and related phenomena. Biomechanics uses mathematical and computational tools such as model construction of musclo-skeletal system, body fluid circulation, to aid medical diagnosis, therapeutics and surgery planning, designing of prostheses and implants or in tissue engineering. Present book targets specific topics pertaining to the biomechanics of soft tissues. Subjects addressed includes solids and multi-species mixtures as open systems: a continuum mechanics perspective; electro-chemo-mechanical couplings: tissues with a fixed electric charge and growth of biological tissues.

This book presents an approach to postmortem human identification using dental image processing based on dental features and characteristics, and provides information on various identification systems based on dental features using image processing operations. The book also provides information on a novel human identification approach that uses Infinite Symmetric Exponential Filter (ISEF) based edge detection and contouring algorithms. Provides complete details on dental imaging; Discusses the important features of a human identification approach and presents a brief review on DICOM standard for dental imaging; Presents human identification approach based on dental features.

This book gives a concise overview of bionanomaterials with applications for skin regeneration. The advantages and challenges of nanoscale materials are covered in detail, giving a basic view of the skin structure and conditions that require transdermal or topical applications. Medical applications, such as wound healing, care for burns, skin disease, and cosmetic care, such as aging of the skin and photodamage, and how they benefit from bionanomaterials, are described in detail. A final chapter is devoted to the ethical and social issues related to the use of bionanomaterials for skin regeneration. This is an ideal book for researchers in materials science, medical scientists specialized in dermatology, and cosmetic chemists working in formulations. It can also serve as a reference for nanotechnologists, dermatologists, microbiologists, engineers, and polymer chemists, as well as students studying in these fields.

This SpringerBrief explores the motor performance and biomechanics of golf putting, providing methodologies, studies and approaches to this concept. Presenting outcomes of research published over the past six years, it offers guidelines from a scientifically oriented perspective, and employs new technologies and mathematical methods to assess golf putting. The chapters cover aspects such as pendulum-like motion in sports, setting up the experimental design, and performance metrics for putting variables. Paving the way for an improved understanding of what leads to failure and success in golf putting, this book offers an invaluable reference source for sports scientists, engineers and mathematicians, as well as golfers.

This thesis lays the groundwork for the automatic supervision of the laser incision process, which aims to complement surgeons' perception of the state of tissues and enhance their control over laser incisions. The research problem is formulated as the estimation of variables that are representative of the state of tissues during laser cutting. Prior research in this area leveraged numerical computation methods that bear a high computational cost and are not straightforward to use in a surgical setting. This book proposes a novel solution to this problem, using models inspired by the ability of experienced surgeons to perform precise and clean laser cutting. It shows that these new models, which were extracted from experimental data using statistical learning techniques, are straightforward to use in a surgical setup, allowing greater precision in laser-based surgical procedures.

This book presents cutting-edge research focused on current challenges towards the realization of Biologically Inspired intelligent agents, or Cognitive Architectures (BICA). The chapters are written by both world-recognized experts (including Antonio Chella, Olivier Georgeon, Oliver Kutz, Antonio Lieto, David Vernon, Paul Verschure, and others) and young researchers. Together, they constitute a good mixture of new findings with tutorial-based reviews and position papers, all presented at the First International Early Research Career Enhancement School on Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures (FIERCES on BICA 2016), held April 21-24 in Moscow, Russia. Most works included here cross boundaries between disciplines: from neuroscience to social science, from cognitive science to robotics, and from bioengineering to artificial intelligence. A special emphasis is given to novel solutions to urgent problems that have been resisting traditional approaches for decades. Intended for providing readers with an update on biologically inspired approaches towards the computational replication of all the essential aspects of the human mind (the BICA Challenge), this book is expected to foster lively discussions on the topic and stimulate cross-disciplinary, cross-generation and cross-cultural collaboration.

Engineering of Biomaterials for Drug Delivery Systems: Beyond Polyethylene Glycol examines the combined issues of PEGylation and viable biomaterials as alternatives. With a strong focus on polymeric biomaterials, the book first reviews the major issues associated with PEGylation and its use in vivo. Chapters then focus on alternative polymer systems for drug delivery systems. Finally, nanoparticles and future perspectives are examined. This book is a valuable resource for scientists and researchers in biomaterials, pharmaceuticals and nanotechnology, and all those who wish to broaden their knowledge in this field.

This authored monograph supplies empirical evidence for the Bayesian brain hypothesis by modeling event-related potentials (ERP) of the human electroencephalogram (EEG) during successive trials in cognitive tasks. The employed observer models are useful to compute probability distributions over observable events and hidden states, depending on which are present in the respective tasks. Bayesian model selection is then used to choose the model which best explains the ERP amplitude fluctuations. Thus, this book constitutes a decisive step towards a better understanding of the neural coding and computing of probabilities following Bayesian rules. The target audience primarily comprises research experts in the field of computational neurosciences, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students who want to specialize in this field.

As the molecular basis of human disease becomes better characterized, and the implications for understanding the molecular basis of disease becomes realized through improved diagnostics and treatment, Molecular Pathology, Second Edition stands out as the most comprehensive textbook where molecular mechanisms represent the focus. It is uniquely concerned with the molecular basis of major human diseases and disease processes, presented in the context of traditional pathology, with implications for translational molecular medicine. The Second Edition of Molecular Pathology has been thoroughly updated to reflect seven years of exponential changes in the fields of genetics, molecular, and cell biology which molecular pathology translates in the practice of molecular medicine. The textbook is intended to serve as a multi-use textbook that would be appropriate as a classroom teaching tool for biomedical graduate students, medical students, allied health students, and others (such as advanced undergraduates). Further, this textbook will be valuable for pathology residents and other postdoctoral fellows that desire to advance their understanding of molecular mechanisms of disease beyond what they learned in medical/graduate school. In addition, this textbook is useful as a reference book for practicing basic scientists and physician scientists that perform disease-related basic science and translational research, who require a ready information resource on the molecular basis of various human diseases and disease states.

In the area of controlled release of active substances, such as drugs, a strong interest in nanoparticles as carriers of active ingredients has arisen. Some of the active components are extremely hydrophobic, without cellular permeability and susceptible to metabolic degradation. Owing to this, their use is limited. This kind of agent can be transported without any problem through physiological media by using nanoparticles. The size of particles is an important parameter because it governs the efficiency of the delivery system. For this type of application, particles that have a diameter smaller than 1 m are especially useful. Polymeric nanoparticles that have diameters in the colloidal range are produced by means of polymerization processes in dispersed media. Drugs are taken up into the nanoparticles by adsorption, absorption, or "entrapment," or covalent bonding and they are delivered (release) by desorption, diffusion, polymer degradation, or a combination of these mechanisms. Nanoparticles (including nanogels) that release their contents by external triggering open up new possibilities for therapeutic strategies. External triggering by light, heat, change in pH, or application of ultrasound opens up the possibility to release the material on demand. If only a part of the wall of the nanoparticle (nanocapsule) is responsive, we are dealing with the so-called nanobottles, a nanocontainer with the active substance and a lid on the container that can be "opened" and "closed" by external triggering. This book focuses on responsive nanoparticles and brings together two interesting areas: nanoparticles and responsive polymers. The concept of the book is that of a systematic approach from nanoparticles synthesis via responsive polymers to nanobottles. The second part of the book presents contributions from experts in the field and provides a state-of-the-art overview of the field.

This doctoral thesis reports on an innovative data repository offering adaptive metadata management to maximise information sharing and comprehension in multidisciplinary and geographically distributed collaborations. It approaches metadata as a fluid, loosely structured and dynamical process rather than a fixed product, and describes the development of a novel data management platform based on a schemaless JSON data model, which represents the first fully JSON-based metadata repository designed for the biomedical sciences. Results obtained in various application scenarios (e.g. integrated biobanking, functional genomics and computational neuroscience) and corresponding performance tests are reported on in detail. Last but not least, the book offers a systematic overview of data platforms commonly used in the biomedical sciences, together with a fresh perspective on the role of and tools for data sharing and heterogeneous data integration in contemporary biomedical research.

The Second Edition of the bestselling Measurement, Instrumentation, and Sensors Handbook brings together all aspects of the design and implementation of measurement, instrumentation, and sensors. Reflecting the current state of the art, it describes the use of instruments and techniques for performing practical measurements in engineering, physics, chemistry, and the life sciences and discusses processing systems, automatic data acquisition, reduction and analysis, operation characteristics, accuracy, errors, calibrations, and the incorporation of standards for control purposes. Organized according to measurement problem, the Electromagnetic, Optical, Radiation, Chemical, and Biomedical Measurement volume of the Second Edition: Contains contributions from field experts, new chapters, and updates to all 98 existing chapters Covers sensors and sensor technology, time and frequency, signal processing, displays and recorders, and optical, medical, biomedical, health, environmental, electrical, electromagnetic, and chemical variables A concise and useful reference for engineers, scientists, academic faculty, students, designers, managers, and industry professionals involved in instrumentation and measurement research and development, Measurement, Instrumentation, and Sensors Handbook, Second Edition: Electromagnetic, Optical, Radiation, Chemical, and Biomedical Measurement provides readers with a greater understanding of advanced applications.

The book presents a new, powerful model of neuronal networks, consisting of a three-dimensional neuronal culture in which 3D neuronal networks are coupled to micro-electrode-arrays (MEAs). It discusses the main advantages of the three-dimensional system compared to its two-dimensional counterpart, and shows that the network dynamics, recorded during both spontaneous and stimulated activity, differs between the two models, with the 3D system being better able to emulate the in vivo behaviour of neural networks. The book offers an extensive analysis of the system, from the theoretical background, to its design and applications in neuro-pharmacological studies. Moreover, it includes a concise yet comprehensive introduction to both 2D and 3D neuronal networks coupled to MEAs, and discusses the advantages, limitations and challenges of their applications as cellular and tissue-like in vitro experimental model systems.

Addressing a cutting-edge, multidisciplinary field, this book reviews nanomaterials and their biomedical applications. It covers regeneration, implants, adhesives, and biosensors and strategies for more efficient therapy, diagnosis, and drug delivery with the use of nanotechnology. Addresses the increasing demand for nanomedicine in a cutting-edge, multidisciplinary field Introduces concepts, strategies, and requirements of developing materials Discusses hot topics in drug delivery, such as neural regeneration, cartilage regeneration, bone tissue regeneration, dental regeneration, biomedical imaging, tissue adhesives and biosensors Includes a chapter about nanotoxicology to help readers further understand the biocompatability of nanomaterials

This book brings together the most up-to-date information on the fabrication techniques, properties, and potential applications of low dimensional silicon carbide (SiC) nanostructures such as nanocrystallites, nanowires, nanotubes, and nanostructured films. It also summarizes the tremendous achievements acquired during the past three decades involving structural, electronic, and optical properties of bulk silicon carbide crystals. SiC nanostructures exhibit a range of fascinating and industrially important properties, such as diverse polytypes, stability of interband and defect-related green to blue luminescence, inertness to chemical surroundings, and good biocompatibility. These properties have generated an increasing interest in the materials, which have great potential in a variety of applications across the fields of nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, electron field emission, sensing, quantum information, energy conversion and storage, biomedical engineering, and medicine. SiC is also a most promising substitute for silicon in high power, high temperature, and high frequency microelectronic devices. Recent breakthrough pertaining to the synthesis of ultra-high quality SiC single-crystals will bring the materials closer to real applications. Silicon Carbide Nanostructures: Fabrication, Structure, and Properties provides a unique reference book for researchers and graduate students in this emerging field. It is intended for materials scientists, physicists, chemists, and engineers in microelectronics, optoelectronics, and biomedical engineering.

This book is a timely report on current neurotechnology research. It presents a snapshot of the state of the art in the field, discusses current challenges and identifies new directions. The book includes a selection of extended and revised contributions presented at the 2nd International Congress on Neurotechnology, Electronics and Informatics (NEUROTECHNIX 2014), held October 25-26 in Rome, Italy. The chapters are varied: some report on novel theoretical methods for studying neuronal connectivity or neural system behaviour; others report on advanced technologies developed for similar purposes; while further contributions concern new engineering methods and technological tools supporting medical diagnosis and neurorehabilitation. All in all, this book provides graduate students, researchers and practitioners dealing with different aspects of neurotechnologies with a unified view of the field, thus fostering new ideas and research collaborations among groups from different disciplines.

This thesis reports on a novel system for extracellular recordings of the activity of excitable cells, which relies on an organic, charge-modulated field-effect transistor (FET) called OCMFET. The book shows how, thanks to the intrinsic biocompatibility, lightness, and inexpensiveness of the material used, this new system is able to overcome several problems typical of of "classic" electronic and bioelectronic. It provides a full description of the system, together with a comprehensive report of the successful experimental trials carried out on both cardiac and nerve cells, and a concise yet comprehensive overview of bioelectronic interfaces and organic sensors for electrophysiological applications.

This work represents an inventive attempt to apply recent advances in nanotechnology to identify and characterise novel polymer systems for drug delivery through the skin. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements of the nanoscale mechanical properties of topical, drug-containing polymeric films enabled the author to identify optimal compositions, in terms of flexibility and substantivity, for application to the skin. To elucidate the enhanced drug release from polyacrylate films incorporating medium chain triglycerides, the author combined AFM studies with the complementary technique of Raman micro-spectroscopy. This experimental strategy revealed that the significant increase in the drug released from these films is the result of a nanoscale two-phase structure. Finally, in experiments examining the microporation of skin using femtosecond laser ablation, the author demonstrated that the threshold at which the skin's barrier function is undermined can be dramatically reduced by the pre-application of ink. The approach allows thermal damage at the pore edge to be minimised, suggesting a very real potential for substantially increasing drug delivery in a minimally invasive fashion.