This book presents recent advances in the design, fabrication and implementation of flexible printed sensors. It explores a range of materials for developing the electrode and substrate parts of the sensors, on the basis of their electrical and mechanical characteristics. The sensors were processed using laser cutting and 3D printing techniques, and the sensors developed were employed in a number of healthcare, environmental and industrial applications, including: monitoring of physiological movements, respiration, salinity and nitrate measurement, and tactile sensing. The type of sensor selected for each application depended on its dimensions, robustness and sensitivity. The sensors fabricated were also embedded in an IoT-based system, allowing them to be integrated into real-time applications.

Modern Vibrational Spectroscopy and Micro-Spectroscopy: Theory, Instrumentation and Biomedical Applications unites the theory and background of conventional vibrational spectroscopy with the principles of microspectroscopy. It starts with basic theory as it applies to small molecules and then expands it to include the large biomolecules which are the main topic of the book with an emphasis on practical experiments, results analysis and medical and diagnostic applications. This book is unique in that it addresses both the parent spectroscopy and the microspectroscopic aspects in one volume. Part I covers the basic theory, principles and instrumentation of classical vibrational, infrared and Raman spectroscopy. It is aimed at researchers with a background in chemistry and physics, and is presented at the level suitable for first year graduate students. The latter half of Part I is devoted to more novel subjects in vibrational spectroscopy, such as resonance and non-linear Raman effects, vibrational optical activity, time resolved spectroscopy and computational methods. Thus, Part 1 represents a short course into modern vibrational spectroscopy. Part II is devoted in its entirety to applications of vibrational spectroscopic techniques to biophysical and bio-structural research, and the more recent extension of vibrational spectroscopy to microscopic data acquisition. Vibrational microscopy (or microspectroscopy) has opened entirely new avenues toward applications in the biomedical sciences, and has created new research fields collectively referred to as Spectral Cytopathology (SCP) and Spectral Histopathology (SHP). In order to fully exploit the information contained in the micro-spectral datasets, methods of multivariate analysis need to be employed. These methods, along with representative results of both SCP and SHP are presented and discussed in detail in Part II.

An ideal resource for lecturers, this book provides a comprehensive review of experimental space astronomy. The number of astronomers whose knowledge and interest is concentrated on interpreting observations has grown substantially in the past decades; yet, the number of scientists who are familiar with and capable of dealing with instrumentation has dwindled. All of the authors of this work are leading and experienced experts and practitioners who have designed, built, tested, calibrated, launched and operated advanced observing equipment for space astronomy. This book also contains concise information on the history of the field, supported by appropriate references. Moreover, scientists working in other fields will be able to get a quick overview of the salient issues of observing photons in any one of the various energy, wavelength and frequency ranges accessible in space. This book was written with the intention to make it accessible to advanced undergraduate and graduate students.

This book provides knowledge of the basic theory, spectral analysis methods, chemometrics, instrumentation, and applications of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy-not as a handbook but rather as a sourcebook of NIR spectroscopy. Thus, some emphasis is placed on the description of basic knowledge that is important in learning and using NIR spectroscopy. The book also deals with applications for a variety of research fields that are very useful for a wide range of readers from graduate students to scientists and engineers in both academia and industry. For readers who are novices in NIR spectroscopy, this book provides a good introduction, and for those who already are familiar with the field it affords an excellent means of strengthening their knowledge about NIR spectroscopy and keeping abreast of recent developments.

This book provides an introduction to fundamental concepts of solid mechanics for the uninitiated. It also includes a concise review of fundamentals for those who have been away from the field for a time or are studying for a final exam or engineering license exam. The coverage ranges from fundamental definitions through constitutive equations, axial loading, torsion, bending, thermal effects, stability, pressure vessels, plates and shells, computational mechanics, and fibrous composite materials.

This volume highlights the potentials as well as the limits and challenges of human breath analysis and describes the current efforts made to advance this promising technology from bench to bed. Human breath analysis is a young, interdisciplinary and innovative research field aiming to provide a smart and non-invasive diagnostic tool, which can be used for screening, detecting and monitoring of diseases or metabolic disorders. This book presents different approaches for breath analysis including real-time and offline mass spectrometry as well as optical and semiconductor gas sensing methods. Besides, the role of smart algorithms to improve the performance of those technologies and the importance of pulmonary function diagnostics for more reliable and meaningful breath analysis are highlighted. Finally, current application scenarios and future perspectives of breath analysis and pulmonary functioning tests are addressed. The volume is useful for researchers, who are new in the field, to easily get an overview of the current status and the challenges present in human breath analysis. Topics from fundamental research over targeted sensor development and application scenarios are described. Thus, this volume covers all development stages providing support and inspiration for engineers, medical doctors and scientists from various fields.

The interaction of electromagnetic waves with matter in the frequency range between 10-6 and 1012 Hz is the domain of broadband dielectric spectroscopy. In this extraordinarily extended dynamic range molecular and collective dipolar fluctuations, charge transport and polarisation effects at inner and outer boundaries take place and determine the dielectric properties of the material being studied. Hence, broadband dielectric spectroscopy enables one to gain a wealth of information on the dynamics of bound (dipoles) and mobile charge carriers depending on the details of a molecular system. It is the intention of this book to be both an introductory course to broadband dielectric spectroscopy as well as a monograph describing recent dielectric contributions to current topics. In this respect the book will correspond to the needs of graduate students but also to specialized researchers, molecular physicists, polymer scientists and materials scientists in academia and in industry.

This volume presents methods used for the analysis of glycoproteins at different levels-intact, subunit, glycopeptide, and monosaccharide--, and discusses and solves most analytical challenges that a scientist working on glycoproteins may come across. The chapters in this book cover topics such as the role of glycosylation on the properties of therapeutic glycoproteins; different analytical methods to characterize glycosylation, from the intact proteins to the glycan level, for both N-linked and O-linked glycoproteins; mass spectrometry imaging methodology for glycosylation analysis in tissues; approaches to characterizing glycosylation on cultured cells; and the use of cloud computing to deploy mass spectrometry data analysis. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Cutting-edge and thorough, Mass Spectrometry of Glycoproteins: Methods and Protocols is a valuable resource for scientists interested in learning more about this developing field.

This thesis addresses elementary dislocation processes occurring in single-crystalline alloys based on Fe-Al, and investigates correspondences between dislocation distribution inside crystals characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and surface patterns observed using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Fe-Al alloys with different degrees of ordering were prepared and deformed in compression at ambient temperature in-situ inside the AFM device. The evolution of slip line structures was captured in the sequences of AFM images and wavy slip bands, while cross slip at the tip of the slip band and homogeneous fine slip lines were also identified. Further, the thesis develops a technique for constructing 3D representations of dislocations observed by TEM without the prohibitive difficulties of tomography, and creates 3D models of dislocation structures. Generally speaking, the thesis finds good agreement between AFM and TEM observations, confirming the value of AFM as a relevant tool for studying dislocations.

The series Advances in Polymer Science presents critical reviews of the present and future trends in polymer and biopolymer science. It covers all areas of research in polymer and biopolymer science including chemistry, physical chemistry, physics, material science. The thematic volumes are addressed to scientists, whether at universities or in industry, who wish to keep abreast of the important advances in the covered topics. Advances in Polymer Science enjoys a longstanding tradition and good reputation in its community. Each volume is dedicated to a current topic, and each review critically surveys one aspect of that topic, to place it within the context of the volume. The volumes typically summarize the significant developments of the last 5 to 10 years and discuss them critically, presenting selected examples, explaining and illustrating the important principles, and bringing together many important references of primary literature. On that basis, future research directions in the area can be discussed. Advances in Polymer Science volumes thus are important references for every polymer scientist, as well as for other scientists interested in polymer science - as an introduction to a neighboring field, or as a compilation of detailed information for the specialist. Review articles for the individual volumes are invited by the volume editors. Single contributions can be specially commissioned. Readership: Polymer scientists, or scientists in related fields interested in polymer and biopolymer science, at universities or in industry, graduate students

The reader is provided with information about methods of calibration of light sources and photodetectors as well as responsiveness of spectral instruments ranging from near infrared to vacuum UV spectral, 1200 - 100 nm, and radiation intensities of up to several quanta per second in absolute and arbitrary units. The author describes for the first time original methods of measurements they created and draws upon over 40 years of experience in working with light sources and detectors to provide accurate and precise measurements. This book is the first to cover these aspects of radiometry and is divided into seven chapters thatexamine information about terminology, units, light sources and detectors, methods, including author's original ones, of absolute calibration of detectors, spectral instruments responsiveness, absolute measurements of radiation intensity of photoprocesses, and original methods of their study. Of interest to researchers measuring; luminescence spectra, light intensities from IR to vacuum UV, spectral range in wide-light intensity ranges, calibrate light sources and detectors, absolute or relative quantum yields of photoprocess determination.

In the last 500 years, the worldwide community of chemistry has produced individuals who attempted to synthesize a coherent view of chemistry that could be taught to actual students. This book attempts to define the characteristics of good chemical preceptors. Even chemical geniuses can become so focused on their own work that they are not understood by the bulk of their contemporaries and cannot contribute to the synoptic view of chemistry needed for effective teaching. It is hoped that the insights presented in this work will be of benefit to all current preceptors in chemistry.

This thesis presents a series of experimental techniques based on scanning probe microscopy, which make it possible access the degree of freedom of protons both in real and energy space. These novel techniques and methods allow direct visualization of the concerted quantum tunneling of protons within the hydrogen-bonded network and quantification of the quantum component of a single hydrogen bond at a water-solid interface for the first time. Furthermore, the thesis demonstrates that the anharmonic quantum fluctuations of hydrogen nuclei further weaken the weak hydrogen bonds and strengthen the strong ones. However, this trend was reversed when the hydrogen bond coupled to the local environment. These pioneering findings substantially advance our understanding of the quantum nature of H bonds at the molecular level.

This thesis contains three breakthrough results in condensed matter physics. Firstly, broken reflection symmetry in the hidden-order phase of the heavy-fermion material URu2Si2 is observed for the first time. This represents a significant advance in the understanding of this enigmatic material which has long intrigued the condensed matter community due to its emergent long range order exhibited at low temperatures (the so-called "hidden order"). Secondly and thirdly, a novel collective mode (the chiral spin wave) and a novel composite particle (the chiral exciton) are discovered in the three dimensional topological insulator Bi2Se3. This opens up new avenues of possibility for the use of topological insulators in photonic, optoelectronic, and spintronic devices. These discoveries are facilitated by using low-temperature polarized Raman spectroscopy as a tool for identifying optically excited collective modes in strongly correlated electron systems and three-dimensional topological insulators.

The authoritative guide to analyzing protein interactions by mass spectrometry
Mass spectrometry (MS) is playing an increasingly important role in the study of protein interactions. Mass Spectrometry of Protein Interactionspresents timely and definitive discussions of the diverse range of approaches for studying protein interactions by mass spectrometry with an extensive set of references to the primary literature. Each chapter is written by authors or teams of authors who are international authorities in their fields. This leading reference text:
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Discusses the direct detection of protein interactions through electrospray ionization (ESI-MS); ion mobility analysis; and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI-MS)
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Covers the indirect analysis of protein interactions through hydrogen-deuterium exchange (HX-MS); limited proteolysis; cross-linking; and radial probe (RP-MS)
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Guides researchers in the use of mass spectrometry in structural biology, biochemistry, and protein science to map and define the huge number and diversity of protein interactions
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Reviews the latest discoveries and applications and addresses new and ongoing challenges
This is a comprehensive reference for researchers in academia and industry engaged in studies of protein interactions and an excellent text for graduate and postgraduate students.

This book summarizes the results of years of research on the problem of strength and fracture of polymers and elastomers. It sets out the modern approach to the strength theory from the standpoint of fractals, the kinetic and thermodynamic theories as well as the meso-mechanic destruction. The dimension reduction method is applied to model the friction processes in elastomers subjected to the complex dynamic loading. Finally, it analyses a relation between the fracture mechanism and the relation phenomena, and provides new experimental data on the sealing nodes in accordance with their specific working conditions where the effect of self-sealing is observed.

This book explains the operating principles of atomic force microscopy with the aim of enabling the reader to operate a scanning probe microscope successfully and understand the data obtained with the microscope. This enhanced second edition to "Scanning Probe Microscopy" (Springer, 2015) represents a substantial extension and revision to the part on atomic force microscopy of the previous book. Covering both fundamental and important technical aspects of atomic force microscopy, this book concentrates on the principles the methods using a didactic approach in an easily digestible manner. While primarily aimed at graduate students in physics, materials science, chemistry, nanoscience and engineering, this book is also useful for professionals and newcomers in the field, and is an ideal reference book in any atomic force microscopy lab.

This book highlights peer reviewed articles from the 1st International Conference on Renewable Energy and Energy Conversion, ICREEC 2019, held at Oran in Algeria. It presents recent advances, brings together researchers and professionals in the area and presents a platform to exchange ideas and establish opportunities for a sustainable future. Topics covered in this proceedings, but not limited to, are photovoltaic systems, bioenergy, laser and plasma technology, fluid and flow for energy, software for energy and impact of energy on the environment.

This book discusses fragmentation mechanisms of molecules under mass spectrometry conditions and the resulting peaks observed in ESI-MS/MS experiments. The underlying principles are used to understand everything from small molecules to biological poly-peptides collision induced dissociation. In a theoretical approach, gas phase reactivity of molecular ions is coupled with chemical dynamics simulations.

This volume discusses the latest mass spectrometry (MS)-based technologies for proteoform identification, characterization, and quantification. Some of the topics covered in this book include sample preparation, proteoform separation, proteoform gas-phase fragmentation, and bioinformatics tools for MS data analysis. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Cutting-edge and comprehensive, Proteoform Identification: Methods and Protocols is a valuable resource for researchers in both academia and the biopharmaceutical industry who are interested in proteoform analysis using MS.

This volume presents updated methods and new developments in the field of mass spectrometry imaging. Chapters guide readers through four parts covering imaging, software, data analysis, new instrumentation, and new methodological approaches. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective 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 cutting-edge, Mass Spectrometry Imaging of Small Molecules aims to be a useful practical guide to researchers to help further their study in this field.

With the increasing role of porous solids in conventional and newly emerging technologies, there is an urgent need for a deeper understanding of fluid behaviour confined to pore spaces of these materials especially with regard to their transport properties. From its early years, NMR has been recognized as a powerful experimental technique enabling direct access to this information. In the last two decades, the methodological development of different NMR techniques to assess dynamic properties of adsorbed ensembles has been progressed. This book will report on these recent advances and look at new broader applications in engineering and medicine. Having both academic and industrial relevance, this unique reference will be for specialists working in the research areas and for advanced graduate and postgraduate studies who want information on the versatility of diffusion NMR.

E = mc2 and the Periodic Table . . .

RELATIVISTIC EFFECTS IN CHEMISTRY

This century's most famous equation, Einstein's special theory of relativity, transformed our comprehension of the nature of time and matter. Today, making use of the theory in a relativistic analysis of heavy molecules, that is, computing the properties and nature of electrons, is the work of chemists intent on exploring the mysteries of minute particles.

The first work of its kind, Relativistic Effects in Chemistry details the computational and analytical methods used in studying the relativistic effects in chemical bonding as well as the spectroscopic properties of molecules containing very heavy atoms. The second of two independent volumes, Part B: Applications contains specific experimental and theoretical results on the electronic states of molecules containing very heavy atoms as well as their spectroscopic properties and electronic structures. The first one-volume catalog of comprehensive computational results, Part B details:

• the relativistic effects on the electronic structure of transition metal clusters, such as the Cu, Ag, and Au triad
• the electronic structure of open-shell transition metal clusters such as Rh3 and Ir3
• the electronic and spectroscopic properties of heteronuclear diatomics of main group p-block elements from Ga to Po, especially the diatomic hydrides, halides, and chalconides
• the clusters of the very heavy main group p-block elements from Ga to Po
• the relativistic effects on molecules containing lanthanide and actinide atoms, including metals inside fullerenes.

An extraordinary new examination of Periodic Table elements, Part B of Relativistic Effects in Chemistry is also evidence of the enduring influence of Einstein's revolutionary theory.

This book describes the state of the art across the broad range of spectroscopic techniques used in the study of biological systems. It reviews some of the latest advances achieved in the application of these techniques in the analysis and characterization of small and large biological compounds, covering topics such as VUV/UV and UV-visible spectroscopies, fluorescence spectroscopy, IR and Raman techniques, dynamic light scattering (DLS), circular dichroism (CD/SR-CD), pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance techniques, Moessbauer spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, X-ray methods and electron and ion impact spectroscopies. The second part of the book focuses on modelling methods and illustrates how these tools have been used and integrated with other experimental and theoretical techniques including also electron transfer processes and fast kinetics methods. The book will benefit students, researchers and professionals working with these techniques to understand the fundamental mechanisms of biological systems.