This book deals with the new method of laser-driven acceleration for application to radiation biophysics and medicine. It provides multidisciplinary contributions from world leading scientist in order to assess the state of the art of innovative tools for radiation biology research and medical applications of ionizing radiation. The book contains insightful contributions on highly topical aspects of spatio-temporal radiation biophysics, evolving over several orders of magnitude, typically from femtosecond and sub-micrometer scales. Particular attention is devoted to the emerging technology of laser-driven particle accelerators and their application to spatio-temporal radiation biology and medical physics, customization of non-conventional and selective radiotherapy and optimized radioprotection protocols.

Damage to the central nervous system resulting from pathological mechanical loading can occur as a result of trauma or disease. Such injuries lead to significant disability and mortality. The peripheral nervous system, while also subject to injury from trauma and disease, also transduces physiological loading to give rise to sensation, and mechanotransduction is also thought to play a role in neural development and growth. This book gives a complete and quantitative description of the fundamental mechanical properties of neural tissues, and their responses to both physiological and pathological loading. This book reviews the methods used to characterize the nonlinear viscoelastic properties of central and peripheral neural tissues, and the mathematical and sophisticated computational models used to describe this behaviour. Mechanisms and models of neural injury from both trauma and disease are reviewed from the molecular to macroscopic scale. The book provides a comprehensive picture of the mechanical and biological response of neural tissues to the full spectrum of mechanical loading to which they are exposed. This book provides a comprehensive reference for professionals involved in pre prevention of injury to the nervous system, whether this arises from trauma or disease.

Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) devices integrate and scale down laboratory functions and processes to a miniaturized chip format. Many LOC devices are used in a wide array of biomedical and other analytical applications including rapid pathogen detection, clinical diagnosis, forensic science, electrophoresis, flow cytometry, blood chemistry analysis, protein analysis, and DNA analysis. LOC devices can be fabricated from many types of material including various polymers, glass, or silicon - or combinations of these materials. A broad variety of fabrication technologies are used for LOC device fabrication. LOC systems have several common features including microfluidics and sensing capabilities. Microfluidics deals with fluid flow in tiny channels using flow control devices (e.g. channels, pumps, mixers, and valves). Sensing capabilities, usually optical or electrochemical sensors, can also be integrated into the chip. This invaluable book describes the latest methods and novel technologies being developed for the fabrication of LOC devices and the new approaches for fluid control and manipulation. Expert authors from around the world describe and discuss the newest technologies for the prototyping of devices, including replication and direct machining methods of fabrication. Part I of the book covers all aspects of fabrication including laser micromachining, silicon and glass micromachining, PMMA and COC microfluidic substrates, and xurography (LOC prototyping with a cutting plotter). Part II focuses on fluid control and manipulation for LOC systems. As well as providing examples of the use of pumps in microfluidics, the topics covered include electrokinetic pumping (electroosmois), electrochemical pumping and electrowetting, and the fabrication of a microchip for rapid polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This comprehensive volume presents the current technologies in the field and includes theoretical and technical information to enable both the understanding of the technology and the reproduction of experiments. The book will help the reader to understand current LOC technologies, to perform similar experiments, to design new LOC systems, and to develop new methodologies and applications. It is an essential book for biologists and clinicians using LOC technology and developing applications and also for engineering, chemical, and physical science researchers developing analytical technologies. It will also be useful as a teaching tool for bioengineering, biomedical engineering, and biology.

This book highlights recent advances and applications in terahertz (THz) technology, addressing advanced topics such as THz biomedical imaging, pattern recognition and tomographic reconstruction for THz biomedical imaging by machine learning and artificial intelligence, THz imaging radars for autonomous vehicle applications, and THz imaging systems for security and surveillance. It also discusses theoretical, experimental, established and validated empirical work on these topics.

Nanotechnology plays a key leading role in developing tools able to identify, measure, and study cellular events at the nanometric level as well as in contributing to the disclosure of unknown biological interactions and mechanisms, which opens the door for advances including nanodevices for diagnostic and therapy, drug delivery systems, and regenerative medicine. In Nanotechnology in Regenerative Medicine: Methods and Protocols, expert researchers in the field provide an overview of a very wide range of currently used technologies and methods that involve nanotechnology principles applicable to tissue regeneration. Being that the application of nanotechnology to regenerative medicine is a very broad field, this book focuses its interests on particular areas such as its use as a means to produce efficient platforms and structures for tissue engineering, delivery systems and biosensors, as well as the use of some techniques to study materials surfaces and the interactions between cells, biomolecules, and surfaces at the nanoscale. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology (TM) series format, chapters include introductions to their related topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and accessible, Nanotechnology in Regenerative Medicine: Methods and Protocols provides established scientists, junior researchers, and students involved in the bioengineering, biotechnology, and biomedical fields with a sound foundation in a variety of vital nanotechnology approaches in regenerative medicine.

This book offers a comprehensive, timely snapshot of current research, technologies and applications of soft robotics. The different chapters, written by international experts across multiple fields of soft robotics, cover innovative systems and technologies for soft robot legged locomotion, soft robot manipulation, underwater soft robotics, biomimetic soft robotic platforms, plant-inspired soft robots, flying soft robots, soft robotics in surgery, as well as methods for their modeling and control. Based on the results of the second edition of the Soft Robotics Week, held on April 25 - 30, 2016, in Livorno, Italy, the book reports on the major research lines and novel technologies presented and discussed during the event.

Analysis of information transfer has found rapid adoption in neuroscience, where a highly dynamic transfer of information continuously runs on top of the brain's slowly-changing anatomical connectivity. Measuring such transfer is crucial to understanding how flexible information routing and processing give rise to higher cognitive function. "Directed Information Measures in Neuroscience" reviews recent developments of concepts and tools for measuring information transfer, their application to neurophysiological recordings and analysis of interactions. Written by the most active researchers in the field the book discusses the state of the art, future prospects and challenges on the way to an efficient assessment of neuronal information transfer. Highlights include the theoretical quantification and practical estimation of information transfer, description of transfer locally in space and time, multivariate directed measures, information decomposition among a set of stimulus/responses variables and the relation between interventional and observational causality. Applications to neural data sets and pointers to open source software highlight the usefulness of these measures in experimental neuroscience. With state-of-the-art mathematical developments, computational techniques and applications to real data sets, this book will be of benefit to all graduate students and researchers interested in detecting and understanding the information transfer between components of complex systems.

Recent developments in stem cell biology have opened new directions in cell therapy. This book provides the state-of-the-art developments in using biomaterials as artificial niches for engineering stem cells, both for the purpose of better understanding their biology under 3D biomimetic conditions as well as for developing new strategies for efficient long term maintenance and directed differentiation of stem cells into various therapeutic lineages. Animal and human stem cells of both embryonic and adult origin are discussed with applications ranging from nerve regeneration, orthopedics, cardiovascular therapy, blood cell generation and cancer therapy. Both synthetic and natural biomaterials are reviewed with emphasis on how material-stem cell interactions direct specific signaling pathways and ultimately modulate the cell fate. This book is valuable for biomaterial scientists, tissue engineers, clinicians as well as stem cell biologists involved in basic research and applications of adult and embryonic stem cells.

This thesis describes an in-depth study of an indolizine-based fluorophore, from understanding of its structure-photophysical property relationship to its application as a useful biological reporter. Organic fluorophores have been extensively used in the field of molecular biology owing to their excellent photophysical property, suitable cell permeability, and synthetic flexibility. Understanding of the structure-photophysical property relationship of a given fluorophore often paves the road to the development of valuable molecular probes to visualize and transcribe biological networks. In this thesis, respective chapters deal with molecular design, organic synthesis, structure-property analysis, and quantum-mechanical interpretation of unexplored family of indolizine-based molecules. This systematic exploration has led to rational development of a new microalgae lipid droplet probe, colorful bioorthogonal fluorogenic probes, and a bright mitochondrial probe, working under live cell conditions. Harnessing the optical properties of a given fluorophore has been an important topic for a couple of decades, both in industry and in academia. This thesis provides useful insights for the improvement and development of unique small fluorescent materials, or optical materials.

The book is the proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on NeuroRehabilitation (ICNR 2014), held 24th-26th June 2014 in Aalborg, Denmark. The conference featured the latest highlights in the emerging and interdisciplinary field of neural rehabilitation engineering and identified important healthcare challenges the scientific community will be faced with in the coming years. Edited and written by leading experts in the field, the book includes keynote papers, regular conference papers, and contributions to special and innovation sessions, covering the following main topics: neuro-rehabilitation applications and solutions for restoring impaired neurological functions; cutting-edge technologies and methods in neuro-rehabilitation; and translational challenges in neuro-rehabilitation. Thanks to its highly interdisciplinary approach, the book will not only be a highly relevant reference guide for academic researchers, engineers, neurophysiologists, neuroscientists, physicians and physiotherapists working at the forefront of their field, but will also help to act as bridge between the scientific, engineering and medical communities.

This book focuses on neuro-engineering and neural computing, a multi-disciplinary field of research attracting considerable attention from engineers, neuroscientists, microbiologists and material scientists. It explores a range of topics concerning the design and development of innovative neural and brain interfacing technologies, as well as novel information acquisition and processing algorithms to make sense of the acquired data. The book also highlights emerging trends and advances regarding the applications of neuro-engineering in real-world scenarios, such as neural prostheses, diagnosis of neural degenerative diseases, deep brain stimulation, biosensors, real neural network-inspired artificial neural networks (ANNs) and the predictive modeling of information flows in neuronal networks. The book is broadly divided into three main sections including: current trends in technological developments, neural computation techniques to make sense of the neural behavioral data, and application of these technologies/techniques in the medical domain in the treatment of neural disorders.

Ever since the birth of molecular biology, the tantalizing possibility of treating disease at its genetic roots has become increasingly feasible. Gene therapy - though still in its infancy - remains one of the hottest areas of research in medicine. Its approach utilizes a gene transfer vehicle ('vector') to deliver therapeutic DNA or RNA to cells of the body in order to rectify the defect that is causing the disease. Successful therapies have been reported in humans in recent years such as cures in boys with severe immune deficiencies. Moreover, gene therapy strategies are being adapted in numerous biomedical laboratories to obtain novel treatments for a variety of diseases and to study basic biological aspects of disease. Correction of disease in animal studies, is steadily gaining ground, highlighting the immense potential of gene therapy in the medical profession.This book will cover topics that are at the forefront of biomedical research such as RNA interference, viral and non-viral gene transfer systems, treatment of hematological diseases and disorders of the central nervous system. Leading experts on the respective vector or disease will contribute the individual chapters and explain cutting-edge technologies. It also gives a broad overview of the most important gene transfer vectors and most extensively studied target diseases. This comprehensive guide is therefore a must-read for anyone in the biotechnology, biomedical or medical industries seeking to further their knowledge in the area of human gene therapy.

This book presents a systematic review of research concerning processes and systems in Emergency Departments (EDs), the issues faced by EDs, and their solutions to ensure the delivery of proper and ideal healthcare services for patients through superior quality process management. The book evaluates two decades of data, from 2000 to 2019, in order to examine the processes used in ED operations. Emergency Department has become evident particularly in the current scenario when the world is in the grip of the deadly COVID-19. The two decades of data revealed a lack of literary content on bringing improvement for EDs in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia through the deployment of simulation models. Simulation model in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia is being considered for the first time by this book.

This thesis reports on the development of a fully integrated and automated microsystem consisting of low-cost, disposable plastic chips for DNA extraction and PCR amplification, combined with a reusable glass capillary array electrophoresis chip, which can be employed in a modular-based format for genetic analysis. In the thesis, DNA extraction is performed by adopting a filter paper-based method, followed by an "in-situ" PCR carried out directly in the same reaction chamber of the chip without elution. PCR products are then co-injected with sizing standards into separation channels for detection using a novel injection electrode. The entire process is automatically carried out by a custom-made compact control and detection instrument. The author thoroughly tests the system's performance and reliability by conducting rapid genetic screening of mutations on congenital hearing loss and pharmacogenetic typing of multiple warfarin-related single-nucleotide polymorphisms. The successful development and operation of this microsystem establishes the feasibility of rapid "sample-in-answer-out" testing in routine clinical practice.

In healthcare systems, medical devices help physicians and specialists in diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutics. As research shows, validation of medical devices is significantly optimized by accurate signal processing. Biomedical Signal and Image Processing in Patient Care is a pivotal reference source for progressive research on the latest development of applications and tools for healthcare systems. Featuring extensive coverage on a broad range of topics and perspectives such as telemedicine, human machine interfaces, and multimodal data fusion, this publication is ideally designed for academicians, researchers, students, and practitioners seeking current scholarly research on real-life technological inventions.

This book focuses on the application and development of information geometric methods in the analysis, classification and retrieval of images and signals. It provides introductory chapters to help those new to information geometry and applies the theory to several applications. This area has developed rapidly over recent years, propelled by the major theoretical developments in information geometry, efficient data and image acquisition and the desire to process and interpret large databases of digital information. The book addresses both the transfer of methodology to practitioners involved in database analysis and in its efficient computational implementation.

This book introduces the latest research in molecular, cellular, and tissue engineering of the vascular system. Topics covered include the roles of endothelial surface glycocalyx as a mechano-sensor and transducer for blood flow, a barrier to water and solute transport across the vascular wall and to the interaction between circulating cells and the vessel wall, the roles of nuclear envelope proteins and nuclear lamina in regulating vascular functions under blood flow-induced forces, and the roles of smooth muscle cells and extracellular components in arterial vasoconstriction. Other topics covered include non-surgical vascular interventions for coronary artery diseases, genesis and mechanisms of atherosclerotic plaque microcalcifications and human abdominal aortic aneurysms, experiments and modelling for red blood cell and tumor cell movement in microcirculation, transport across the blood-brain barrier and its role in Alzheimer's disease, mathematical models for cell survival after hyperthermia, application of hypothermia in enhancing treatment for brain and spinal cord injuries, and damage of eardrums due to blast waves. This is an ideal book for biomedical engineers and researchers, medical researchers, and students in biomedical engineering and medical sciences.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of flow-based, microfluidic VLSI. The authors describe and solve in a comprehensive and holistic manner practical challenges such as control synthesis, wash optimization, design for testability, and diagnosis of modern flow-based microfluidic biochips. They introduce practical solutions, based on rigorous optimization and formal models. The technical contributions presented in this book will not only shorten the product development cycle, but also accelerate the adoption and further development of modern flow-based microfluidic biochips, by facilitating the full exploitation of design complexities that are possible with current fabrication techniques.

This volume deals with topics such as mechanism and machine design, biomechanics and medical engineering, gears, mechanical transmissions, mechatronics, computational and experimental methods, dynamics of mechanisms and machines, micromechanisms and microactuators, and history of mechanisms and transmissions. Following MeTrApp 2011 and 2013, held under the auspices of the IFToMM, these proceedings of the 3rd Conference on Mechanisms, Transmissions and Applications offer a platform for original research presentations for researchers, scientists, industry experts and students in the fields of mechanisms and transmissions with special emphasis on industrial applications in order to stimulate the exchange of new and innovative ideas.

This book presents a systematic approach to analyzing the challenging engineering problems posed by the need for security and privacy in implantable medical devices (IMD). It describes in detail new issues termed as lightweight security, due to the associated constraints on metrics such as available power, energy, computing ability, area, execution time, and memory requirements. Coverage includes vulnerabilities and defense across multiple levels, with basic abstractions of cryptographic services and primitives such as public key cryptography, block ciphers and digital signatures. Experts from Computer Security and Cryptography present new research which shows vulnerabilities in existing IMDs and proposes solutions. Experts from Privacy Technology and Policy will discuss the societal, legal and ethical challenges surrounding IMD security as well as technological solutions that build on the latest in Computer Science privacy research, as well as lightweight solutions appropriate for implementation in IMDs.

Recent studies have shown that novel processing and modeling techniques may be used to create patient-specific prostheses, artificial tissues, and other implants using data obtained from magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, or other imaging techniques. For example, customized prostheses may be fabricated that possess suitable features, including geometry, size, and weight, for a given medical condition. Many advances have been made in the development of patient-specific implants in the past decade, yet this information is not readily available to scientists and students. Printed Biomaterials: Novel Processing and Modeling Techniques for Medicine and Surgery provides the biomaterials scientist and engineer, as well as advanced undergraduate or graduate students, with a comprehensive discussion of contemporary medical implant research and development. The development of printed biomaterials is multidisciplinary, and includes concepts traditionally associated with engineering, materials science, medicine, and surgery. This text highlights important topics in these core fields in order to provide the fundamentals necessary to comprehend current processing and modeling technologies and to develop new ones.

This book addresses the important clinical problem of accurately diagnosing osteoporosis, and analyzes how Bone Turnover Markers (BTMs) can improve osteoporosis detection. In her research, the author integrated microfluidic technology with electrochemical sensing to embody a reaction/detection chamber to measure serum levels of different biomarkers, creating a microfluidic proteomic platform that can easily be translated into a biomarker diagnostic. The Osteokit System, a result of the integration of electrochemical system and microfluidic chips, is a unique design that offers the potential for greater sensitivity. The implementation, feasibility, and specificity of the Osteokit platform is demonstrated in this book, which is appropriate for researchers working on bone biology and mechanics, as well as clinicians.

This book addresses the possibilities and challenges in mimicking biological membranes and creating membrane-based sensor and separation devices. Recent advances in developing biomimetic membranes for technological applications will be presented with focus on the use of integral membrane protein mediated transport for sensing and separation. It describes the fundamentals of biosensing as well as separation and shows how the two processes are working in a cooperative manner in biological systems. Biomimetics is a truly cross-disciplinary approach and this is exemplified using the process of forward osmosis will be presented as an illustration of how advances in membrane technology may be directly stimulated by an increased understanding of biological membrane transport. In the development of a biomimetic sensor/separation technology, both channels (ion and water channels) and carriers (transporters) are important. An ideal sensor/separation device requires the supporting biomimetic matrix to be virtually impermeable to anything but the solute in question. In practice, however, a biomimetic support matrix will generally have finite permeabilities to water, electrolytes, and non-electrolytes. These non-protein mediated membrane transport contributions will be presented and the implications for biomimetic device construction will be discussed. New developments in our understanding of the reciprocal coupling between the material properties of the biomimetic matrix and the embedded proteins will be presented and strategies for inducing biomimetic matrix stability will be discussed. Once reconstituted in its final host biomimetic matrix the protein stability also needs to be maintained and controlled. Beta-barrel proteins exemplified by the E. Coli outer membrane channels or small peptides are inherently more stable than alpha-helical bundle proteins which may require additional stabilizing modifications. The challenges associated with insertion and stabilization of alpha-helical bundle proteins including many carriers and ligand and voltage gated ion (and water) channels will be discussed and exemplified using the aquaporin protein. Many biomimetic membrane applications require that the final device can be used in the macroscopic realm. Thus a biomimetic separation device must have the ability to process hundred of liters of permeate in hours - effectively demanding square-meter size membranes. Scalability is a general issue for all nano-inspired technology developments and will be addressed here in the context biomimetic membrane array fabrication. Finally a robust working biomimetic device based on membrane transport must be encapsulated and protected yet allowing massive transport though the encapsulation material. This challenge will be discussed using microfluidic design strategies as examples of how to use microfluidic systems to create and encapsulate biomimetic membranes. The book provides an overview of what is known in the field, where additional research is needed, and where the field is heading.

This book provides a thorough overview of cutting-edge research on electronics applications relevant to industry, the environment, and society at large. It covers a broad spectrum of application domains, from automotive to space and from health to security, while devoting special attention to the use of embedded devices and sensors for imaging, communication and control. The book is based on the 2020 ApplePies Conference, held online in November 2020, which brought together researchers and stakeholders to consider the most significant current trends in the field of applied electronics and to debate visions for the future. Areas addressed by the conference included information communication technology; biotechnology and biomedical imaging; space; secure, clean and efficient energy; the environment; and smart, green and integrated transport. As electronics technology continues to develop apace, constantly meeting previously unthinkable targets, further attention needs to be directed toward the electronics applications and the development of systems that facilitate human activities. This book, written by industrial and academic professionals, represents a valuable contribution in this endeavor.

Image processing algorithms based on the mammalian visual cortex are powerful tools for extraction information and manipulating images. This book reviews the neural theory and translates them into digital models. Applications are given in areas of image recognition, foveation, image fusion and information extraction. The third edition reflects renewed international interest in pulse image processing with updated sections presenting several newly developed applications. This edition also introduces a suite of Python scripts that assist readers in replicating results presented in the text and to further develop their own applications.