Are we satisfied with the rate of drug development? Are we happy with the drugs that come to market? Are we getting our money's worth in spending for basic biomedical research? In Translational Systems Biology, Drs. Yoram Vodovotz and Gary An address these questions by providing a foundational description the barriers facing biomedical research today and the immediate future, and how these barriers could be overcome through the adoption of a robust and scalable approach that will form the underpinning of biomedical research for the future. By using a combination of essays providing the intellectual basis of the Translational Dilemma and reports of examples in the study of inflammation, the content of Translational Systems Biology will remain relevant as technology and knowledge advances bring broad translational applicability to other diseases. Translational systems biology is an integrated, multi-scale, evidence-based approach that combines laboratory, clinical and computational methods with an explicit goal of developing effective means of control of biological processes for improving human health and rapid clinical application. This comprehensive approach to date has been utilized for in silico studies of sepsis, trauma, hemorrhage, and traumatic brain injury, acute liver failure, wound healing, and inflammation.

Through case studies, theoretical research and interviews with leading players in science and governance, this book introduces a new understanding of change in governance of bioscience research. In particular it examines change as it is shaped by approaches developed by Science and Technology Studies and Sociology of Scientific Knowledge theorists.

The conquest of scurvy by James Cook during his three famous circumnavigations of 1768-1780 was a product of Cook's character, of his leadership, and of the wisdom of the naturalists who accompanied Cook; specialists who helped locate antiscorbutic plants during stopovers. In this book, Dr. Cuppage shows the importance of careful observation, and of controlled clinical trials. This is an account of the lasting medical effects of Cook's voyages as he tried to liberate mankind from the scourge of scurvy. Cuppage captures the sense of adventure that explorers and scientists share.

Clinical laboratory directors and staff working with blood samples will benefit from the essential information in this hematology focused publication in Clinics in Laboratory Medicine. Leading a field of expert authors are two renown physicians in the field - Dr Carlo Brugnara and Dr Alexander Kratz. They present topics such as White Blood Cell Counts: Reference Methodology; Integration of Automated Heme and Bone Marrow Analysis; Red Cell Dynamics; Red Cell Diagnosis other than Anemia; Laboratory and Genetic Assessment of Iron Deficiency in Blood Donors; Body Fluid Cell Counting; Platelets: The Few, the Young, and the Active; Reticulocytes; Quality Control of Automated Cell Counters; Digital Image Analysis of Blood Cells; Blood Cell Counters in Urgent Care Settings; Novel Parameters in Blood Cell Counters; and the Development and Future of Automated Blood Cell Counters.

This volume provides an overview of RNA bioinformatics methodologies, including basic strategies to predict secondary and tertiary structures, and novel algorithms based on massive RNA sequencing. Interest in RNA bioinformatics has rapidly increased thanks to the recent high-throughput sequencing technologies allowing scientists to investigate complete transcriptomes at single nucleotide resolution. Adopting advanced computational technics, scientists are now able to conduct more in-depth studies and present them to you in this book. Written in the highly successful Methods of Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and equipment, step-by-step, readily reproducible bioinformatics protocols, and key tips to avoid known pitfalls. Authoritative and practical, RNA Bioinformatics seeks to aid scientists in the further study of bioinformatics and computational biology of RNA.

The blood system is multi-scale, from the organism to the organs to cells to intracellular signaling pathways to macromolecule interactions. Blood consists of circulating cells, cellular fragments (platelets and microparticles), and plasma macromolecules. Blood cells and their fragments result from a highly-ordered process, hematopoiesis. Definitive hematopoiesis occurs in the bone marrow, where pluripotential stem cells give rise to multiple lineages of highly specialized cells. Highly-productive and continuously regenerative, hematopoiesis requires a microenvironment of mesenchymal cells and blood vessels. A Systems Biology Approach to Blood is divided into three main sections: basic components, physiological processes, and clinical applications. Using blood as a window, one can study health and disease through this unique tool box with reactive biological fluids that mirrors the prevailing hemodynamics of the vessel walls and the various blood cell types. Many blood diseases, rare and common can and have been exploited using systems biology approaches with successful results and therefore ideal models for systems medicine. More importantly, hematopoiesis offers one of the best studied systems with insight into stem cell biology, cellular interaction, development; linage programing and reprograming that are every day influenced by the most mature and understood regulatory networks.

Despite advances in materials and sterilisation, patients who receive biomaterials of medical device implants are still at risk of developing an infection around the implantation site. This book reviews the fundamentals of biomaterials and medical device related infections and methods and materials for the treatment and prevention of infection. The first part of the book provides readers with an introduction to the topic including analyses of biofilms, diagnosis and treatment of infection, pathology and topography. The second part of the book discusses a range of established and novel technologies and materials which have been designed to prevent infection.

At the age of eleven, Mark Greene nearly died. Neither he nor his parents knew that Mark suffered from end stage renal disease; he would need a kidney transplant to survive. Now, more than twenty-six years after his successful transplant operation, Greene tells the story of his survival following that operation.

Currently, there are approximately 170,000 organ transplant recipients in the United States, each with unique stories but sharing the commonality of improved quality of life. In "Life and Hope, " Greene discusses important principles that will not only contribute to the longevity of organ transplants, but also help recipients continue to improve their overall well-being. He blends personal experience and academic research to both teach and enlighten in a way that brings meaning to organ transplantation.

Greene shares a very personal story about his ordeal with a misdiagnosed illness that nearly took his life and nearly destroyed his family. His story is one of transformation, as he moves from the brink of death to a life full of meaning-a unique story and real-life experience that demonstrates how the organ transplant experience so eloquently contributes to the human experience.

'I am blown away by the level of detail Phil Cavell brings to his work.' - Elinor Barker MBE, multiple world champion and Olympic gold medallist 'The Midlife Cyclist is a triumph' - Cycling Plus 'An amazing accomplishment... a simple-to-understand precis of your midlife as a cyclist - you won't want to put it down.' - Phil Liggett, TV cycling commentator 'Phil is eminently qualified to write The Midlife Cyclist. Well, he is certainly old enough.' - Fabian Cancellara, Tour de France rider and two-time Olympic champion Renowned cycling biomechanics pioneer, Phil Cavell, explores the growing trend of middle-aged and older cyclists seeking to achieve high-level performance. Using contributions from leading coaches, ex-professionals and pro-team doctors, he produces the ultimate manifesto for mature riders who want to stay healthy, avoid injury - and maximise their achievement levels. Time's arrow traditionally plots an incremental path into declining strength and speed for all of us. But we are different to every other generation of cyclists in human history. An ever-growing number of us are determined to scale the highest peaks of elite physical fitness into middle-age and beyond. Can the emerging medical and scientific research help us achieve the holy triumvirate of speed and health with age? The Midlife Cyclist offers a gold standard road-map for the mature cyclist who aims to train, perform and even race at the highest possible level.

This clear-sighted volume introduces the concept of "disruptive cooperation"- transformative partnerships between the health and technology sectors to eliminate widespread healthcare problems such as inequities, waste, and inappropriate care. Emphasizing the most pressing issues of a world growing older with long-term chronic illness, it unveils a new framework for personalized, integrative service based in mobile technologies. Coverage analyzes social aspects of illness and health, clinically robust uses of health data, and wireless and wearable applications in intervention, prevention, and health promotion. And case studies from digital health innovators illustrate opportunities for coordinating the service delivery, business, research/science, and policy sectors to promote healthier aging worldwide. Included among the topics: Cooperation in aging services technologies The quantified self, wearables, and the tracking revolution Smart healthy cities: public-private partnerships Beyond silos to data analytics for population health Cooperation for building secure standards for health data Peer-to-peer platforms for physicians in underserved areas: a human rights approach to social media in medicine Disruptive Cooperation in Digital Health will energize digital health and healthcare professionals in both non-profit and for-profit settings. Policymakers and public health professionals with an interest in innovation policy should find it an inspiring ideabook.

The Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB) 2015 is an international, multidisciplinary conference for the presentation and discussion of current research in the theory and application of computational methods in problems of biological significance. Presentations are rigorously peer reviewed and are published in an archival proceedings volume. PSB 2015 will be held from January 4 - 8, 2015 in Kohala Coast, Hawaii. Tutorials and workshops will be offered prior to the start of the conference.PSB 2015 will bring together top researchers from the US, the Asian Pacific nations, and around the world to exchange research results and address open issues in all aspects of computational biology. It is a forum for the presentation of work in databases, algorithms, interfaces, visualization, modeling, and other computational methods, as applied to biological problems, with emphasis on applications in data-rich areas of molecular biology.The PSB has been designed to be responsive to the need for critical mass in sub-disciplines within biocomputing. For that reason, it is the only meeting whose sessions are defined dynamically each year in response to specific proposals. PSB sessions are organized by leaders of research in biocomputing's "hot topics." In this way, the meeting provides an early forum for serious examination of emerging methods and approaches in this rapidly changing field.

This expert volume covers an interdisciplinary and rapidly growing area of biomedical research comprising genetic, biochemical, pathological, and clinical studies aimed at the diagnosis and therapy of human diseases which are either caused by or associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. It dedicates itself to showcasing the tremendous efforts and the progress that has been made over the last decades in developing techniques and protocols for probing, imaging, and manipulating mitochondrial functions. Mitochondrial Medicine: Volume II, Manipulating Mitochondrial Function describes techniques developed for manipulating and assessing mitochondrial function under general pathological conditions and specific disease states. 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. Comprehensive and practical, Mitochondrial Medicine provides an essential source of know-how and inspiration to all researchers who are fascinated by this tiny organelle that seems so clearly to control the life and death of a single cell and whole organisms alike.

"Implantable Electronic Medical Devices" provides background information on the application of implantable devices and illustrates the latest techniques currently being used together with overviews of the latest commercially available medical devices. This book provides an overview on the design of medical devices as well as acting as a reference on existing medical devices. Fitzpatrick s book is a concise and straightforward guide and overview on the latest implantable electronic medical devices.
The book groups devices with similar functionality into distinct chapters and looks at the latest design ideas and techniques in each area as well as providing overviews of existing commercially available implantable devices. "Implantable Electronic Medical Devices" aims to equip the reader with essential background knowledge on the application of existing medical devices as well as providing an introduction to the latest techniques being used.
A catalogue of existing implantable electronic medical devices.Up-to-date information on the design of implantable electronic medical devices.Background information and reviews on the application and design of up-to-date implantable electronic medical devices."

This book addresses the background and significance of the factors potentially influencing the clinical and biological outcomes of metal-on-metal hip implants.Metal-on-metal bearings were introduced and evaluated as an alternative to other bearing couples, particularly metal-on-polyethylene, due to their enhanced wear resistance as determined in laboratory testing.Initially, reports of short-term clinical outcomes were favorable and an increasing number of metal-on-metal prostheses were implanted. Subsequently, isolated case findings describing adverse tissue responses around the articulation became the harbinger of an increasing number of reports describing pseudotumors and other significant lymphocytic-based responses associated with metal-on-metal prostheses. Questions have been raised as to whether this is an implant, design, or patient-specific response. The reasons why some patients have a negative biological response and pathology while others do not remain to be determined, but tens of thousands of patients in the US, the UK, and around the world are considered to be at risk. Leading researchers and clinicians describe the issues related to the nature of the biological and pathological responses and the protocols that should be followed to determine if an adverse response is occurring. This book is essential reading for researchers, engineers, and orthopaedic surgeons who are involved in the design, evaluation, and implantation of metal-on-metal prostheses."

With the discovery of stem cells capable of multiplying indefinitely in culture and differentiating into many other cell types in appropriate conditions, new hopes were born in repair and replacement of damaged cells and tissues. The features of stem cells may provide treatment for some incurable diseases with some therapies are already in clinics, particularly those from adult stem cells. Some treatments will require large number of cells and may also require multiple doses, generating a growing demand for generating and processing large numbers of cells to meet the need of clinical applications. With this in mind, our aim is to provide a book on the subject of stem cells and cell therapy for researchers and students of cell biotechnology, bioengineering and bioproduction. This book is exceptional as it teaches researchers stem cells and cell therapy in that it covers the concepts and backgrounds necessary so that readers get a good understanding of the production of stem cells. The book covers three topics: The basics of stem cells and cell therapy, the use of stem cells for the treatment of human diseases, and stem cell processing. It includes chapters on neural and vascular stem vascular stem cell therapy, expansion engineering of embryonic stem cells, stem cell based production of blood cells and separation technologies for stem cells and cell therapy products. It is an informed and informative presentation of what modern research, science and engineering have learned about stem cells and their production and therapies. Addressing both the medical and production issues, this book is an invaluable contribution to having an academic and industrial understanding with respect to R&D and manufacturing of clinical grade stem cells.

The book covers novel strategies of state of the art in engineering and clinical analysis and approaches for analyzing abdominal imaging, including lung, mediastinum, pleura, liver, kidney and gallbladder. In the last years the imaging techniques have experienced a tremendous improvement in the diagnosis and characterization of the pathologies that affect abdominal organs. In particular, the introduction of extremely fast CT scanners and high Magnetic field MR Systems allow imaging with an exquisite level of detail the anatomy and pathology of liver, kidney, pancreas, gallbladder as well as lung and mediastinum. Moreover, thanks to the development of powerful computer hardware and advanced mathematical algorithms the quantitative and automated\semi automated diagnosis of the pathology is becoming a reality. Medical image analysis plays an essential role in the medical imaging field, including computer-aided diagnosis, organ/lesion segmentation, image registration, and image-guided therapy. This book will cover all the imaging techniques, potential for applying such imaging clinically, and offer present and future applications as applied to the abdomen and thoracic imaging with the most world renowned scientists in these fields. The main aim of this book is to help advance scientific research within the broad field of abdominal imaging. This book focuses on major trends and challenges in this area, and it presents work aimed to identify new techniques and their use in medical imaging analysis for abdominal imaging.

Volume64 in the internationally acclaimed "Advances in Clinical Chemistry" contains chapters authored by world renowned clinical laboratory scientists, physicians and research scientists.The serialprovides the latest and most up-to-date technologies related to the field of Clinical Chemistry andis the benchmark for novel analytical approaches in the clinical laboratory.
Expertise of international contributorsLatest cutting-edge technologiesComprehensive in scope"

"Advances in Cancer Research" provides invaluable information on the exciting and fast-moving field of cancer research. Here, once again, outstanding and original reviews are presented on a variety of topics.
Provides information on cancer researchOutstanding and original reviewsSuitable for researchers and students

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are expected to promote new applications for the ambulatory health monitoring of chronic patients and elderly population, aiming to improve their quality of life and independence. These networks are composed by wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) used for measuring physiological variables (e.g., glucose level in blood or body temperature) or controlling therapeutic devices (e.g., implanted insulin pumps). These nodes should exhibit a high degree of energy autonomy in order to extend their battery lifetime or even make the node supply to rely on harvesting techniques. Typically, the power budget of WSNs is dominated by the wireless link and, hence, many efforts have been directed during the last years toward the implementation of power efficient transceivers.

Because of the short range (typically no more than a few meters) and low data rate (typically in between 10 kb/s and 1 Mb/s), simple communication protocols can be employed. One of these protocols, specifically tailored for WBAN applications, is the Bluetooth low energy (BLE) standard.

This book describes the challenges and solutions for the design of ultra-low power transceivers for WBANs applications and presents the implementation details of a BLE transceiver prototype. Coverage includes not only the main concepts and architectures for achieving low power consumption, but also the details of the circuit design and its implementation in a standard CMOS technology."

This book addresses the pressing issues involved with the ethical conduct of research in one developing world region - the Arab Region. Clinical research has soared in the developing world -as pharmaceutical companies continue their search for regions with large, treatment naive populations - including the Arab region, and has profound implications for the health and the economies for the area. The ethical issues involved with the conduct of such research, however, have so far not been adequately addressed. This volume presents the issues regarding research ethics and research governance that have relevance for health authorities, regulators, industry, and academia. As a multi-authored volume it includes both international and local experts on ethical issues in research, representing all stakeholders, thus presenting a balanced view on this timely topic.

Recent evidence demonstrates that normal prostate tissue contains stem cells. There is also accumulating evidence that prostate cancer contains a population of cells with stem cell-like characteristics referred to as cancer stem cells, or tumor initiating cells. Both the normal prostate stem cell and cancer stem cell populations have important implications for the generation, therapeutic targeting, and prevention of prostate cancer. The purpose of this book is to explore the role of stem cells in prostate cancer, which is becoming an increasingly hot trend in cancer research.

This book is the 4th in a series of Acute Care books written with the aim to address the NEEDS of health care providers when handling the acutely ill patients. Globally it has become apparent that the study of pharmacology and subsequent clinical training has not always adequately equipped young doctors with the ability to administer drugs to their patients safely and confidently, particularly in the critically ill patient. Compounding this issue is the lack of resource material related to these pharmacological concepts contained in one book that can help health care providers to understand and manage drug therapy in the acute situation. In spite of progressively newer and more developed protocols, guidelines, algorithms and many other books addressing the technical aspects of what needs to be done, most health care providers still find it difficult to grasp the basic pharmacological knowledge and rationally deliver the CARE that is required in the acute phase of patient management. The editors/authors have therefore aimed for a book that highlights topics and pharmacological issues pertinent to management of patients in their hour of need. This is a multi-author book but the style has been guided by 3 editors. The editors have used a different perspective - that of normalizing abnormal physiological processes with pharmacological agents - to address the GAPS in a bedside to bench approach. The details are pared down but important principles/concepts are emphasized.

The goal of this book is to provide, in a friendly and refreshing manner, both theoretical concepts and practical techniques for the important and exciting field of Artificial Intelligence that can be directly applied to real-world healthcare problems. Healthcare - the final frontier. Lately, it seems like Pandora opened the box and evil was released into the world. Fortunately, there was one thing left in the box: hope. In recent decades, hope has been increasingly represented by Intelligent Decision Support Systems. Their continuing mission: to explore strange new diseases, to seek out new treatments and drugs, and to intelligently manage healthcare resources and patients. Hence, this book is designed for all those who wish to learn how to explore, analyze and find new solutions for the most challenging domain of all time: healthcare.

This new volume of Current Topics in Developmental Biology covers Stem Cells in Development and Disease. The chapters provide a comprehensive set of reviews covering such topics as the mechanisms of pluripotency in vivo and in vitro, hematopoietic stem cell development, intestinal stem cells and their defining niche, epithelial stem cells in adult skin, the mammary stem cell hierarchy, satellite cells, neural stem cells of the hippocampus, lung stem and progenitor cells in tissue homeostasis and disease, spermatogonial stem cell functions in physiological and pathological conditions, the origin, biology, and therapeutic potential of facultative adult hepatic progenitor cells, nephron progenitor cells, adult stem cell niches, cancer stem cells, pluripotency and cellular heterogeneity, and cellular mechanisms of somatic stem cell aging
Covers the area of Stem Cells in Development and DiseaseInternational board of authors Provides a comprehensive set of reviews covering such topics as Intestinal Stem Cells, Nephron Stem Cells/Progenitors, Skin epithelial Stem Cells and Lung Stem Cells