Presenting an area of research that intersects with and integrates diverse disciplines, including molecular biology, applied informatics, and statistics, among others, Bioinformatics for Omics Data: Methods and Protocols collects contributions from expert researchers in order to provide practical guidelines to this complex study. Divided into three convenient sections, this detailed volume covers central analysis strategies, standardization and data-management guidelines, and fundamental statistics for analyzing Omics profiles, followed by a section on bioinformatics approaches for specific Omics tracks, spanning genome, transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome levels, as well as an assortment of examples of integrated Omics bioinformatics applications, complemented by case studies on biomarker and target identification in the context of human disease. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology (TM) series format, chapters contain introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and notes on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and accessible, Bioinformatics for Omics Data: Methods and Protocols serves as an ideal guide to scientists of all backgrounds and aims to convey the appropriate sense of fascination associated with this research field.

Asthma in the 21st Century: New Research Advances provides an overview on asthma, with discussions on its heterogeneity, risk factors and their interrelations, and e-health in an aging world based on current research knowledge. The book covers heterogeneity of the disease beyond severe asthma, new risk factors, new diagnoses with climate change, a focus on chemical exposures at home, e-health and links with aging, and notable advances in key areas such as diet and microbiota, the genetics of asthma, and the asthma versus COPD debate. Worldwide, the total number of asthma sufferers is estimated to be ~270 million with an additional 100 million expected to develop asthma by 2025, and asthma is the most common chronic disease among children. There are a number of clinical books available on asthma, but none with much discussion on current scientific findings and new disease understanding. Yet, the concept of asthma has evolved quickly in the past 5-10 years, with many clinicians struggling to keep up with new scientific findings.

An Insider's Perspective of Prostate Cancer: Understanding Effects, Management Options and Consequences provides scientifically based information on the management and treatment of prostate cancer. The text is designed to be neither prescriptive nor proscriptive, providing succinct, yet comprehensive details in 'bite size chunks' for ready assimilation and application. Sections cover recent approaches the prostate cancer landscape has made by providing background statistical and anatomical information that is followed by relevant genetic, immunological and background data. The book then proceeds to explain the mechanisms involved with cancer development and the spread and metastases that can occur in a minority of those diagnosed. In addition to acknowledging the importance of psychological effects of diagnosis and management interventions, the undervalued benefits of exercise are also emphasized, including information on holistic management. This comprehensive approach makes this a perfect reference for up-to-date information on all aspects of prostate cancer and its management.

Clinical Chemistry, Immunology and Laboratory Quality Control: A Comprehensive Review for Board Preparation, Certification and Clinical Practice, Second Edition presents core topics and 70 case studies that illustrate the application of clinical chemistry knowledge to everyday patient care. This succinct reference offers practical examples of how things function in the pathology clinic with useful lists, key points, case studies and a bullet point format ideal for quick pre-board review. While larger textbooks in clinical chemistry provide highly detailed information regarding instrumentation and statistics, this book is designed to educate senior medical students, residents and fellows on how tests are performed. This second edition successfully helps pathology residents gain command of clinical chemistry, toxicology, immunology, and laboratory statistics in an effort to help them prepare for the American Board of Pathology examination. Clinical chemistry is a topic in which many senior medical students and pathology residents face challenges.

Whole new areas of immunological research are emerging from the analysis of experimental data, going beyond statistics and parameter estimation into what an applied mathematician would recognise as modelling of dynamical systems. Stochastic methods are increasingly important, because stochastic models are closer to the Brownian reality of the cellular and sub-cellular world.

Approaches to the recovery of three-dimensional information on a biological object, which are often formulated or implemented initially in an intuitive way, are concisely described here based on physical models of the object and the image-formation process. Both three-dimensional electron microscopy and X-ray tomography can be captured in the same mathematical framework, leading to closely-related computational approaches, but the methodologies differ in detail and hence pose different challenges. The editors of this volume, Gabor T. Herman and Joachim Frank, are experts in the respective methodologies and present research at the forefront of biological imaging and structural biology. Computational Methods for Three-Dimensional Microscopy Reconstruction will serve as a useful resource for scholars interested in the development of computational methods for structural biology and cell biology, particularly in the area of 3D imaging and modeling.

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to computational epidemiology, highlighting its major methodological paradigms throughout the development of the field while emphasizing the needs for a new paradigm shift in order to most effectively address the increasingly complex real-world challenges in disease control and prevention. Specifically, the book presents the basic concepts, related computational models, and tools that are useful for characterizing disease transmission dynamics with respect to a heterogeneous host population. In addition, it shows how to develop and apply computational methods to tackle the challenges involved in population-level intervention, such as prioritized vaccine allocation. A unique feature of this book is that its examination on the issues of vaccination decision-making is not confined only to the question of how to develop strategic policies on prioritized interventions, as it further approaches the issues from the perspective of individuals, offering a well integrated cost-benefit and social-influence account for voluntary vaccination decisions. One of the most important contributions of this book lies in it offers a blueprint on a novel methodological paradigm in epidemiology, namely, systems epidemiology, with detailed systems modeling principles, as well as practical steps and real-world examples, which can readily be applied in addressing future systems epidemiological challenges. The book is intended to serve as a reference book for researchers and practitioners in the fields of computer science and epidemiology. Together with the provided references on the key concepts, methods, and examples being introduced, the book can also readily be adopted as an introductory text for undergraduate and graduate courses in computational epidemiology as well as systems epidemiology, and as training materials for practitioners and field workers.

This book sheds light on how dysregulated organelle functions contribute to the pathology and progression of human diseases. To offer a broad perspective, they discuss basic, translational, and clinical aspects across scales, from molecules to cells, tissues and organisms. Rather than providing a comprehensive introduction to the field, the authors focus on recent advances in organelle research, with each chapter inviting readers to consider today's key questions in the respective field. This book reviews the endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi Appartus, Lysosomes and other membrane-enclosed organelles, demonstrating how their dysregulated function contributes to various pathologies. The chapters not only offer a platform for new perspectives but also stimulate further investigations. Given the translational nature of this subject, this book is a valuable resource for physiologists and clinicians alike. Chapter "Lipid Droplets in Cancer" is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Updating Neanderthals: Understanding Behavioral Complexity in the Late Middle Paleolithic provides comprehensive knowledge on Neanderthals who lived throughout the European and Asian continents. The book synthesizes historical information about the study of Middle Paleolithic populations and presents current debates about their genetics, subsistence, technology, social and cognitive behaviors. It focuses on the last phase of Neanderthal settlements and presents the main patterns of modern humans across Europe. Written by international experts on the Middle Paleolithic who have conducted innovative studies in the last three decades, this book explores the implications of interactions between different human species, including Neanderthals, Denisovans and Sapiens. In addition, the book discusses the diversity and variability of human adaptations and behaviors in the changing climate and environment of the Late Pleistocene, and the relationship between these behaviors, demography and cognitive capabilities.

Biodiversity and Bioeconomy: Status Quo, Challenges and Opportunities comprehensively delivers the latest developments in theories of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and their major implications for biodiversity conservation through diversifying agriculture, forestry and biomass production systems. Sections provide basic understanding of biodiversity and bioeconomy, different views of their inter-relationship and their links with sustainable development goals, examine the research and practice of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in agriculture, forestry, and biomass production systems, and examine status, challenges and opportunities for biodiversity-centered bioeconomy providing a way forward. Edited and written by acclaimed researchers in the field, this book provides practitioners as well as graduate and undergraduate students the latest developments in biodiversity and bioeconomy research.

Mathematical Analysis of Infectious Diseases updates on the mathematical and epidemiological analysis of infectious diseases. Epidemic mathematical modeling and analysis is important, not only to understand disease progression, but also to provide predictions about the evolution of disease. One of the main focuses of the book is the transmission dynamics of the infectious diseases like COVID-19 and the intervention strategies. It also discusses optimal control strategies like vaccination and plasma transfusion and their potential effectiveness on infections using compartmental and mathematical models in epidemiology like SI, SIR, SICA, and SEIR. The book also covers topics like: biodynamic hypothesis and its application for the mathematical modeling of biological growth and the analysis of infectious diseases, mathematical modeling and analysis of diagnosis rate effects and prediction of viruses, data-driven graphical analysis of epidemic trends, dynamic simulation and scenario analysis of the spread of diseases, and the systematic review of the mathematical modeling of infectious disease like coronaviruses.

Reports on waste valorization in the winemaking industry and converting the waste into more useful products including oils, antioxidants and other valuable materials. Explores research which contributes to environmental sustainability and circular economy in the winemaking industry. Describes other ways to reduce the ecological footprint of the wine industry such as using less fertilizer, more benign pesticides and reduction of water footprint. Proposes options for a potential wine waste biorefining. Reviews alternative uses of agro-industrial wine wastes as sources of additives for the food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.

This book is a collection of carefully reviewed papers presented during the HP-SEE User Forum, the meeting of the High-Performance Computing Infrastructure for South East Europe s (HP-SEE) Research Communities, held in October 17-19, 2012, in Belgrade, Serbia. HP-SEE aims at supporting and integrating regional HPC infrastructures; implementing solutions for HPC in the region; and making HPC resources available to research communities in SEE, region, which are working in a number of scientific fields with specific needs for massively parallel execution on powerful computing resources. HP-SEE brings together research communities and HPC operators from 14 different countries and enables them to share HPC facilities, software, tools, data and research results, thus fostering collaboration and strengthening the regional and national human network; theproject specifically supports research groups in the areas of computational physics, computational chemistry and the life sciences. The contributions presented in this book are organized in four main sections: computational physics; computational chemistry; the life sciences; and scientific computing and HPC operations.

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Key Features: Provides botanical descriptions, distribution and pharmacological investigations of notable medicinal and herbal plants used to prevent or treat diabetes. Discusses phytochemical and polyherbal formulations for the management of diabetes and other related complications. Contains reports on antidiabetic plants and their potential uses in drug discovery based on their bioactive molecules.

This book provides a uniform framework describing how fuzzy rough granular neural network technologies can be formulated and used in building efficient pattern recognition and mining models. It also discusses the formation of granules in the notion of both fuzzy and rough sets. Judicious integration in forming fuzzy-rough information granules based on lower approximate regions enables the network to determine the exactness in class shape as well as to handle the uncertainties arising from overlapping regions, resulting in efficient and speedy learning with enhanced performance. Layered network and self-organizing analysis maps, which have a strong potential in big data, are considered as basic modules,. The book is structured according to the major phases of a pattern recognition system (e.g., classification, clustering, and feature selection) with a balanced mixture of theory, algorithm, and application. It covers the latest findings as well as directions for future research, particularly highlighting bioinformatics applications. The book is recommended for both students and practitioners working in computer science, electrical engineering, data science, system design, pattern recognition, image analysis, neural computing, social network analysis, big data analytics, computational biology and soft computing.

Hepatic Fibrosis: Mechanisms and Targets is a complete volume of liver extracellular matrix biology, including molecular signaling pathways, cells and factors that modulate fibrogenesis and fibrosis. The book uses an integrated approach toward the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in the synthesis and degradation of hepatic fibrotic tissue, emphasizing the possible molecular targets to fight fibrosis. This important reference describes, in detail and didactically, the cellular and molecular events that are conducive to fibrosis that leads to cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and death. The provided information allows readers to understand the molecular mechanisms of hepatic fibrogenesis to accelerate the development of new therapies.

Translational Sports Medicine covers the principles of evidence-based medicine and applies these principles to the design of translational investigations. This title is an indispensable tool in grant writing and funding efforts with its practical, straightforward approach that will help aspiring investigators navigate challenging considerations in study design and implementation. It provides valuable discussions of the critical appraisal of published studies in translational sports medicine, allowing the reader to learn how to evaluate the quality of such studies with respect to measuring outcomes and to make effective use of all types of evidence in patient care. In short, this practical guidebook will be of interest to every medical researcher or sports medicine clinician who has ever had a good clinical idea but not the knowledge of how to test it. Readers will come to fully understand important concepts, including case-control study, prospective cohort study, randomized trial and reliability study. Medical researchers will benefit from greater confidence in their ability to initiate and execute their own investigations, avoid common pitfalls in translational sports medicine, and know what is needed in collaboration.

Nanotechnology in Ophthalmology is a comprehensive and up-to-date reference on the role and applications of nanotechnology in ophthalmology, from drug delivery and treatment of ocular diseases to toxicity issues. Written by experts from the nanotechnology, ophthalmology, and pharmacology fields, this book has a unique, broad and diverse scope, including chapters on nanosensor-based diagnostic tools, delivery of nanobiomaterials, implantable materials and devices, delivery of nanobiomaterials, nanotechnology for medical and surgical treatment, regenerative medicine, and more. This book provides a valuable reference to researchers working in the areas of ophthalmology, nanoscience and pharmacology, and clinical fellows who are interested in nanoophthalmology as a reference for their practice and research.

Complexity increases with increasing system size in everything from organisms to organizations. The nonlinear dependence of a system's functionality on its size, by means of an allometry relation, is argued to be a consequence of their joint dependency on complexity (information). In turn, complexity is proven to be the source of allometry and to provide a new kind of force entailed by a system's information gradient. Based on first principles, the scaling behavior of the probability density function is determined by the exact solution to a set of fractional differential equations. The resulting lowest order moments in system size and functionality gives rise to the empirical allometry relations. Taking examples from various topics in nature, the book is of interest to researchers in applied mathematics, as well as, investigators in the natural, social, physical and life sciences. Contents Complexity Empirical allometry Statistics, scaling and simulation Allometry theories Strange kinetics Fractional probability calculus

Laboratory Experiments in Trace Environmental Quantitative Analysis is a collection of student-tested experiments that introduce important principles that underlie various laboratory techniques in the field of trace environmental organics and inorganics quantitative analysis. It crosses the more traditional academic disciplines of environmental science and analytical chemistry. The text is organized to begin with minimally rigorous session/experiments and increase in rigor as each session/experiment unfolds. Each experiment features learning objectives, expected student outcomes, and suggestions for further study. Additional features include: Students are introduced to the principles and laboratory practice of instrumental analysis (determinative techniques) that are clearly presented. Students are carefully taken through various ways to prepare samples for trace quantitative analysis (sample prep techniques). Safety warnings are listed within each experiment. Students are introduced to all three types of instrument calibration: external, internal and standard addition. Instructors who are responsible for laboratory courses in analytical chemistry with potential application to environmental sample matrices will find this textbook of value. Graduate programs in environmental science and engineering will also greatly benefit from the content.

This book offers an accessible introduction to random walk and diffusion models at a level consistent with the typical background of students in the life sciences. In recent decades these models have become widely used in areas far beyond their traditional origins in physics, for example, in studies of animal behavior, ecology, sociology, sports science, population genetics, public health applications, and human decision making. Developing the main formal concepts, the book provides detailed and intuitive step-by-step explanations, and moves smoothly from simple to more complex models. Finally, in the last chapter, some successful and original applications of random walk and diffusion models in the life and behavioral sciences are illustrated in detail. The treatment of basic techniques and models is consolidated and extended throughout by a set of carefully chosen exercises.

Many, if not all, essential biological processes require selective interactions between proteins. Complex signaling systems require sequential, ordered protein-protein interactions at essentially all levels of the signaling cascade. For example, peptide hormones interact with selective membrane receptor proteins, and autophosphorylation of the receptor then recruits other key regulatory proteins that initiate kinase cascades in which each phosphorylation event requires selective recognition of the protein substrate. The ultimate signaling effect, in many cases, is the regulation of RNA polymerase II-directed transcr- tion in the nucleus, a process that involves numerous, multiprotein complexes important for transcription initiation, elongation, termination, and reinitiation. Defining, characterizing, and understanding the relevance of these protein- protein interactions is an arduous task, but substantial inroads have been made over the past 20 years. The development of more recent methodologies, such as mammalian expression systems, immunopurification schemes, expression cloning strategies, surface plasmon resonance (BiaCore), and nanosequencing technologies, has contributed a wealth of new insights into these complex multiprotein mechanisms and clearly accelerated the discovery process. Arguably, the yeast two-hybrid system has been one of the predominant and most powerful tools in this discovery process.

This work introduces a new method for analysing measured signals: nonlinear mode decomposition, or NMD. It justifies NMD mathematically, demonstrates it in several applications and explains in detail how to use it in practice. Scientists often need to be able to analyse time series data that include a complex combination of oscillatory modes of differing origin, usually contaminated by random fluctuations or noise. Furthermore, the basic oscillation frequencies of the modes may vary in time; for example, human blood flow manifests at least six characteristic frequencies, all of which wander in time. NMD allows us to separate these components from each other and from the noise, with immediate potential applications in diagnosis and prognosis. Mat Lab codes for rapid implementation are available from the author. NMD will most likely come to be used in a broad range of applications.