This book describes how the principle of self-sufficiency can be applied to a reconfigurable modular robotic organism. It shows the design considerations for a novel REPLICATOR robotic platform, both hardware and software, featuring the behavioral characteristics of social insect colonies. Following a comprehensive overview of some of the bio-inspired techniques already available, and of the state-of-the-art in re-configurable modular robotic systems, the book presents a novel power management system with fault-tolerant energy sharing, as well as its implementation in the REPLICATOR robotic modules. In addition, the book discusses, for the first time, the concept of "artificial energy homeostasis" in the context of a modular robotic organism, and shows its verification on a custom-designed simulation framework in different dynamic power distribution and fault tolerance scenarios. This book offers an ideal reference guide for both hardware engineers and software developers involved in the design and implementation of autonomous robotic systems.

This issue of "International Review of Neurobiology" brings together cutting-edge research on tissue engineering of the peripheral nerve. It reviews current knowledge and understanding, provides a starting point for researchers and practitioners entering the field, and builds a platform for further research and discovery.
This volume covers the cutting-edge research on tissue engineering of the peripheral nerve.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of nanotoxicity modeling and its implications for the development of novel nanomedicines. It lays out the fundamentals of nanotoxicity modeling for an array of nanomaterial systems, ranging from carbon-based nanoparticles to noble metals, metal oxides, and quantum dots. The author illustrates how molecular (classical mechanics) and atomic (quantum mechanics) modeling approaches can be applied to bolster our understanding of many important aspects of this critical nanotoxicity issue. Each chapter is organized by types of nanomaterials for practicality, making this an ideal book for senior undergraduate students, graduate students, and researchers in nanotechnology, chemistry, physics, molecular biology, and computer science. It is also of interest to academic and industry professionals who work on nanodrug delivery and related biomedical applications, and aids readers in their biocompatibility assessment efforts in the coming age of nanotechnology. This book also provides a critical assessment of advanced molecular modeling and other computational techniques to nanosafety, and highlights current and future biomedical applications of nanoparticles in relation to nanosafety.

This groundbreaking new guide helps you logically associate and link symptoms to likely diagnoses/conditions-a critical skill for passing the USMLE Step 1 Despite the recent changes to the USMLE Step 1, it remains a very important exam for medical students. In order to navigate the vignette-based questions, students must be able to determine a diagnosis based on the vignette, then understand the science behind the diagnosis-a process called pattern recognition. This innovative guide will help you master pattern recognition-a crucial skill to develop in order to thrive throughout the medical school curriculum. Organized by symptom to reflect exactly what you'll see on test day, First Aid Clinical Pattern Recognition for the USMLE Step 1 provides overviews for more than 50 symptoms, discussing differential diagnosis and the principles that should inform your thinking about each symptom. Overviews are followed by Step 1-style vignettes for every potential diagnosis that may be included in the Step 1 exam. Then, each vignette is followed by the diagnosis-and competing diagnoses-along with explanations of why the patterns fit for the correct diagnosis. Guiding principles provide important information (such as which diagnoses are common, which are rare, which are acute, which are chronic, etc.) to enhance the way you think about each symptom. Each vignette contains classic history/physical exam and lab/test findings that would be observed in a typical presentation of the disease.

Each of us has at least once in our lifetime come into contact with nurses of all backgrounds, whether in the course of being cared for or while they care for our family and friends. More often than not, we have seen nurses as what they truly are: compassionate professionals who often go above and beyond the call of duty in an unequivocally selfless manner. But not many of us have taken time to ponder over the challenges nurses confront, the experiences they encounter, and the stories that come with these opportunities to change people's lives and be sometimes changed in the course of doing so.
This book, Nursing Stories: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Journey, chronicles the challenges nurses face, the camaraderie they share, the experiences they have, and their unfaltering desire to make a difference. Many nurses of diverse specialties working across the globe have, in this book, succinctly told their stories, experiences, and challenges, not only to promote nursing as a profession in which one can make a difference, but also as one in which the difference one makes can help shape one's outlook on life. Every new page in this book highlights that while nurses try to change lives, a lot of them end up being changed themselves.
Nursing Stories: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Journey is a compilation of actual life-transforming stories that range from subtly hilarious stories to confronting clinical experiences. Some of the stories are intriguing, challenging, inspiring, scary, or outright inconceivable. Welcome to the world of nursing, welcome to Nursing Stories: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Journey.

This contributed volume provides insights into multiple applications using microbes to promote productivity in agriculture, to produce biochemicals or to respond to challenges in biomedicine. It highlights the microbial production of nanocompounds with medical functionality alongside new anti-mycobacterial strategies, and introduces plant-growth-promoting Rhizobacteria as well as the correlation between biofilm formation and crop productivity. Further, the authors illustrate the green synthesis of biochemical compounds, such as hydroxamid acid or biosurfactants, using microbial and fungal enzymes. It inspires young researchers and experienced scientists in the field of microbiology to explore the combined use of green, white and red biotechnology for industrial purposes, which will be one of the central topics for future generations.

This genre-defying debut memoir by Betty Trask Prize winner, Samantha Harvey, weaves a tapestry of confessional anguish, flash fiction, cathartic poetry, and feverish observations on politics and psychology in a transcendent search for reality and truth. In 2016, Samantha Harvey began to lose sleep. She tried everything to appease her wakefulness: from medication to therapy, changes in her diet to changes in her living arrangements. Nothing seemed to help. The Shapeless Unease is Harvey's darkly funny and deeply intelligent anatomy of her insomnia, an immersive interior monologue of a year without one of the most basic human needs. Original and profound, and narrated with a lucid breathlessness, this is a startlingly insightful exploration of memory, writing and influence, death and the will to survive, from "this generation's Virginia Woolf" (Telegraph).

This book documents the history of ideas about problem gambling and its link to addictive disorders. The book uses a combination of literature review and conceptual and linguistic analysis to explore the way ideas about problem gambling gave changed over time. It examines the religious, socio-cultural, and medical influences on the development of the concept of problem gambling as a disease, along with the ways in which such ideas were influenced by attitudes about substance abuse. The history of mental illness, notably as it pertains to themes such as loss of control over behavior, is also addressed. The book ends with a discussion of the current status and future prospects, with an eye to which ideas about problem gambling and addictions seem most promising and which should perhaps be left behind.

This book provides an insight into recent technological trends and innovations in mobility solutions and platforms to improve mobility of visually impaired people. The authors' goal is to help to contribute to the social and societal inclusion of the visually impaired. The book's topics include, but are not limited to, obstacle detection systems, indoor and outdoor navigation, transportation sustainability systems, and hardware/devices to aid visually impaired people. The book has a strong focus on practical applications, tested in a real environment. Applications include city halls, municipalities, and companies that can keep up to date with recent trends in platforms, methodologies and technologies to promote urban mobility. Also discussed are broader realms including education, health, electronics, tourism, and transportation. Contributors include a variety of researchers and practitioners around the world. Features practical, tested applications of technological mobility solutions for visual impaired people; Presents topics such as obstacle detection systems, urban mobility, smart home services, and ambient assisted living; Includes a number of application examples in education, health, electronics, tourism, and transportation.

Fall-induced hip fracture is an epidemic health risk among elderly people. This book presents an image-based multilevel modeling approach to understanding the biomechanics involved in fall-induced hip fracture. By hierarchically integrating a body-level dynamics model, a femur-level finite element model, and a local bone failure model, the biomechanics approach is able to simulate all stages in sideways falls and to incorporate all biomechanical variables affecting hip fracture. This book is useful for clinicians to accurately evaluate fracture risk, for biomechanical engineers to virtually test hip protective devices, and for biomedical students to learn image-based biomechanical modeling techniques. This book also covers: Biomechanical viewing on bone composition, bone remodeling, and bone strength Bone imaging and information captured for constructing biomechanical models Bone mechanical testing and mechanical properties required for biomechanical modeling

Diagnosing Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in young people has long been a tough call for clinicians, either for fear of stigmatizing the child or confusing the normal mood shifts of adolescence with pathology. Now, a recent upsurge in relevant research into early-onset BPD is inspiring the field to move beyond this hesitance toward a developmentally nuanced understanding of the disorder.

The "Handbook of Borderline Personality Disorder in Children and Adolescents" reflects the broad scope and empirical strengths of current research as well as promising advances in treatment. This comprehensive resource is authored by veteran and emerging names across disciplines, including developmental psychopathology, clinical psychology, child psychiatry, genetics and neuroscience in order to organize the field for an integrative future. Leading-edge topics range from the role of parenting in the development of BPD to trait-based versus symptom-based assessment approaches, from the life-course trajectory of BPD to the impact of the DSM-5 on diagnosis. And of particular interest are the data on youth modifications of widely used adult interventions, with session excerpts.

Key areas featured in the "Handbook"

The history of research on BPD in childhood and adolescence.Conceptualization and assessment issues.Etiology and core components of BPD.Developmental course and psychosocial correlates.Empirically supported treatment methods.Implications for future research, assessment and intervention.

The "Handbook of Borderline Personality Disorder in Children and Adolescents" is a breakthrough reference for researchers and clinicians in a wide range of disciplines, including child and school psychology and psychiatry, social work, psychotherapy and counseling, nursing management and research and personality and social psychology.

In a normal physiological state, several bacteria are present in the human gut that is essential to maintain the normal to healthy gastrointestinal function. Disturbances in this "normal flora" lead to gut inflammation and infection. This volume explores the potential of probiotics, the healthy bacteria, to manage gut-related diseases including gastrointestinal cancers, ulcerative colitis, H. pylori infections, and diarrhea; vaginosis; oral health; airway inflammation; and atopic dermatitis. The concept of designer probiotics, edible vaccines and future scope of research in the field is also presented. The animal models used for studying the benefits of probiotics in gut inflammation are described for beginners.

Over the past decade, significant efforts have been made to develop stem cell-based therapies for difficult to treat diseases. Multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells, also referred to as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), appear to hold great promise in regards to a regenerative cell-based therapy for the treatment of these diseases. Currently, more than 200 clinical trials are underway worldwide exploring the use of MSCs for the treatment of a wide range of disorders including bone, cartilage and tendon damage, myocardial infarction, graft-versus-host disease, Crohn s disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, critical limb ischemia and many others.

MSCs were first identified by Friendenstein and colleagues as an adherent stromal cell population within the bone marrow with the ability to form clonogenic colonies "in vitro. "In regards to the basic biology associated with MSCs, there has been tremendous progress towards understanding this cell population s phenotype and function from a range of tissue sources. Despite enormous progress and an overall increased understanding of MSCs at the molecular and cellular level, several critical questions remain to be answered in regards to the use of these cells in therapeutic applications. Clinically, both autologous and allogenic approaches for the transplantation of MSCs are being explored. Several of the processing steps needed for the clinical application of MSCs, including isolation from various tissues, scalable "in vitro "expansion, cell banking, dose preparation, quality control parameters, delivery methods and numerous others are being extensively studied. Despite a significant number of ongoing clinical trials, none of the current therapeutic approaches have, at this point, become a standard of care treatment. Although exceptionally promising, the clinical translation of MSC-based therapies is still a work in progress.

The extensive number of ongoing clinical trials is expected to provide a clearer path forward for the realization and implementation of MSCs in regenerative medicine. Towards this end, reviews of current clinical trial results and discussions of relevant topics association with the clinical application of MSCs are compiled in this book from some of the leading researchers in this exciting and rapidly advancing field. Although not absolutely all-inclusive, we hope the chapters within this book can promote and enable a better understanding of the translation of MSCs from bench-to-bedside and inspire researchers to further explore this promising and quickly evolving field.

This invaluable resource delineates procedures for development and use of stem cells in the laboratory and explores the potential for clinical applications. The text discusses mesenchymal stem cell isolation, isolation of adipose derived stem cells, new trends of induced pluripotent stem cells in disease treatment, cord blood banking, future directions of the discussed therapies and much more. The chapters are contributed by preeminent scientists in the field and present a comprehensive picture of stem cell processes, from development in the laboratory to effects and side-effects of clinical application. Stem Cell Processing and the other books in the Stem Cells in Clinical Applications series, edited by Dr. Phuc Van Pham, is essential reading for scientists, researchers, advanced students and clinicians working in stem cells, regenerative medicine or tissue engineering.

"The authors' approach to creating a transforming culture through use of foundations laid in the theoretical development of "Nursing As Caring" offers a solid foundation upon which to recalibrate and reconfigure toward a caring organizational health system."

-Tim Porter-O'Grady, DM, EdD, APRN, FAAN, FACCWS Associate Professor, Leadership Scholar, College of Nursing and Healthcare
Innovation, Arizona State University Clinical Professor, Leadership Scholar, College of Nursing, The Ohio State University

This is a time-tested, practical guide for nurses and other healthcare professionals who wish to transform their healthcare systems based on caring values and the promotion of intra- and inter-professional dialogue among stakeholders. It describes a theoretically grounded model created by nurses for transforming the culture of healthcare systems at all levels, and features tested strategies that facilitate accessibility, efficiency, effectiveness, and enhanced outcomes. At its most basic level, this model, the Dance of Caring Persons, expresses the fundamental beliefs and attitudes that each person in the healthcare system lives caring meaningfully in unique and valuable ways, and the contributions of each person to the whole of the enterprise have a significant place within it.

The book features successful examples of how various units of the healthcare system can apply specific strategies to their inter- and intra-professional work, and how to engage and sustain authentic dialogue among and between stakeholders. Chapters feature information from a great variety of health professionals that represent a broad range of participants in healthcare. Detailed information is presented in a variety of formats ranging from formal written responses to chapter contents to transcriptions of small group conversations relating to the topic at hand. The book reflects the interests of such major stakeholders as patients and families, nurses, physicians and other primary and adjunctive care providers, ancillary service providers, administrators and managers, and all other individuals involved in the many aspects of organizational models and delivery of health care and human resource functions and outcomes. Each chapter includes questions to consider and suggested resources to help with implementation of strategies. The text incorporates professional standards and essentials from the Joint Commission, ANCC, and AACN (DNP).

Key Features: Presents a theoretically grounded, proven caring-based model for healthcare system change for all stakeholders across the continuum of care Provides practical strategies for transformation in all aspects of a healthcare system applicable across the range of health services Describes how healthcare system change happens, who initiates it, and how to sustain it through caring science Includes success stories from patients and their families, nurses, physicians, ancillary service providers, healthcare administrators, and others Promotes inter- and intra-professional dialogue and collaboration