Artificial Intelligence in the Age of Neural Networks and Brain Computing demonstrates that existing disruptive implications and applications of AI is a development of the unique attributes of neural networks, mainly machine learning, distributed architectures, massive parallel processing, black-box inference, intrinsic nonlinearity and smart autonomous search engines. The book covers the major basic ideas of brain-like computing behind AI, provides a framework to deep learning, and launches novel and intriguing paradigms as future alternatives. The success of AI-based commercial products proposed by top industry leaders, such as Google, IBM, Microsoft, Intel and Amazon can be interpreted using this book.

During these uncertain and turbulent times, intelligent technologies including artificial neural networks (ANN) and machine learning (ML) have played an incredible role in being able to predict, analyze, and navigate unprecedented circumstances across a number of industries, ranging from healthcare to hospitality. Multi-factor prediction in particular has been especially helpful in dealing with the most current pressing issues such as COVID-19 prediction, pneumonia detection, cardiovascular diagnosis and disease management, automobile accident prediction, and vacation rental listing analysis. To date, there has not been much research content readily available in these areas, especially content written extensively from a user perspective. Biomedical and Business Applications Using Artificial Neural Networks and Machine Learning is designed to cover a brief and focused range of essential topics in the field with perspectives, models, and first-hand experiences shared by prominent researchers, discussing applications of artificial neural networks (ANN) and machine learning (ML) for biomedical and business applications and a listing of current open-source software for neural networks, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. It also presents summaries of currently available open source software that utilize neural networks and machine learning. The book is ideal for professionals, researchers, students, and practitioners who want to more fully understand in a brief and concise format the realm and technologies of artificial neural networks (ANN) and machine learning (ML) and how they have been used for prediction of multi-disciplinary research problems in a multitude of disciplines.

Current Trends and Future Developments on (Bio-) Membranes: Membrane Processes in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnological field presents the main membrane techniques along with their basic principles, mode of operations, and applications. It covers well-known techniques such as ultrafiltration and membrane chromatography, while also exploring emerging membrane technologies which are finding their way in pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, including membrane emulsification, membrane bioreactors, and solvent-resistant nanofiltration. State-of-the-art applications of membrane systems in areas such as drug delivery and virus removal are also investigated by leading experts in the field. Current Trends and Future Developments on (Bio-) Membranes: Membrane Processes in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnological field is a definitive reference for academics, post-graduates, and researchers in the subjects of biochemical engineering, pharmaceutics, and biotechnology. It is also useful to R&D companies and institutions in these areas, specifically those interested in bioseparations, biopurification, bioproduction, and drug delivery.

Nursing care professionals are an essential part of the medical profession, known for their care and the assistance that they offer to patients. However, nurses must also tackle the challenges of the modern workplace, including the utilization of new technologies, gender inequity, negative workplace environments including navigating exclusionary behaviors such as incivility and bullying and relieving stress and burnout. As such, it is crucial for nurses, nurse managers, and other medical professionals to remain up to date with the latest education and training techniques and discussions surrounding the significant challenges that nurses face. The Research Anthology on Nursing Education and Overcoming Challenges in the Workplace is a comprehensive reference book that compiles numerous chapters on the latest training and educational strategies for nurses and discusses challenges facing this branch of the medical field. The anthology presents challenges common within the medical field and techniques used to solve or prevent them as well as nurse perspectives on new medical technologies and their perceived use and performance. Covering topics such as e-training, ethics, patient safety, burnout, incivility, and more, this text provides essential information for nurses, teachers, care professionals, hospital staff, managers, practitioners, medical professionals, nursing home and care facilities, academicians, researchers, and students.

Practical Guide for Biomedical Signals Analysis Using Machine Learning Techniques: A MATLAB Based Approach presents how machine learning and biomedical signal processing methods can be used in biomedical signal analysis. Different machine learning applications in biomedical signal analysis, including those for electrocardiogram, electroencephalogram and electromyogram are described in a practical and comprehensive way, helping readers with limited knowledge. Sections cover biomedical signals and machine learning techniques, biomedical signals, such as electroencephalogram (EEG), electromyogram (EMG) and electrocardiogram (ECG), different signal-processing techniques, signal de-noising, feature extraction and dimension reduction techniques, such as PCA, ICA, KPCA, MSPCA, entropy measures, and other statistical measures, and more. This book is a valuable source for bioinformaticians, medical doctors and other members of the biomedical field who need a cogent resource on the most recent and promising machine learning techniques for biomedical signals analysis.

This book provides therapists with the background knowledge they require before they can safely and accurately treat patients with musculoskeletal disorders of the spine. Thoroughly referenced and extensively illustrated with over 200 specially prepared and original diagrams of the highest quality, Functional Anatomy of the Spine will be invaluable to the student and practitioner physiotherapists, chiropractors and osteopaths, and indeed to all those who regularly treat spinal dysfunction. Accessory and physiological spinal movements are thoroughly described. Palpation is covered in detail. Numerous guidelines for safe practice are provided. A valuable, comprehensive chapter covers posture, lifting, and the prevention of injury. Coverage of applied anatomy and biomechanics is written by therapists for therapists. New theories on thoracic biomechanics are presented, rarely covered by other anatomy books. All topics have been updated to reflect recent scientific evidence, enabling the reader to more effectively formulate and manage treatment plans. New illustrations to complement the text and improve readers' understanding of the material. A one-of-a-kind chapter covering the sacroiliac joint has been comprehensively revised. Expanded material is provided on the autonomic nervous system, thoracic spine biomechanics, and the biomechanics of the lower limb as it relates to the spine. New sections address adverse neural tension, cervical discs, proprioception and muscle imbalance, and mechanics of the jaw and upper cervical spine. An update on vertebral artery and blood supply presents the latest knowledge on the subject.

Advances in telemedicine technologies have offered clinicians greater levels of real-time guidance and technical assistance for diagnoses, monitoring, operations or interventions from colleagues based in remote locations. The topic includes the use of videoconferencing, mentorship during surgical procedures, or machine-to-machine communication to process data from one location by programmes running in another. This edited book presents a variety of technologies with applications in telemedicine, originating from the fields of biomedical sensors, wireless sensor networking, computer-aided diagnosis methods, signal and image processing and analysis, automation and control, virtual and augmented reality, multivariate analysis, and data acquisition devices. The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), surgical robots, telemonitoring, and teleoperation systems are also explored, as well as the associated security and privacy concerns in this field. Topics covered include critical factors in the development, implementation and evaluation of telemedicine; surgical tele-mentoring; technologies in medical information processing; recent advances of signal/image processing techniques in healthcare; a real-time ECG processing platform for telemedicine applications; data mining in telemedicine; social work and tele-mental health services for rural and remote communities; applying telemedicine to social work practice and education; advanced telemedicine systems for remote healthcare monitoring; the impact of tone-mapping operators and viewing devices on visual quality of experience of colour and grey-scale HDR images; modelling the relationships between changes in EEG features and subjective quality of HDR images; IoMT and healthcare delivery in chronic diseases; and transform domain robust watermarking method using Riesz wavelet transform for medical data security and privacy.

Advanced Biosensors for Health Care Applications highlights the different types of prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers associated with cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, brain and retinal diseases, cardiovascular diseases, bacterial infections, as well as various types of electrochemical biosensor techniques used for early detection of the potential biomarkers of these diseases. Many advanced nanomaterials have attracted intense interests with their unique optical and electrical properties, high stability, and good biocompatibility. Based on these properties, advanced nanoparticles have been used as biomolecular carriers, signal producers, and signal amplifiers in biosensor design. Recent studies reported that there are several diagnostic methods available, but the major issue is the sensitivity and selectivity of these approaches. This book outlines the need of novel strategies for developing new systems to retrieve health information of patients in real time. It explores the potential of nano-multidisciplinary science in the design and development of smart sensing technology using micro-nanoelectrodes, novel sensing materials, integration with MEMS, miniaturized transduction systems, novel sensing strategy, that is, FET, CMOS, System-on-a-Chip (SoC), Diagnostic-on-a-Chip (DoC), and Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC), for diagnostics and personalized health-care monitoring. It is a useful handbook for specialists in biotechnology and biochemical engineering.

With the growing dependency on prescription drugs and concerns about the rise of opioid addiction, providing effective pain management alternatives is a primary concern for health professionals and all of society. Online tools and alternative therapies are becoming more prevalent in supporting the management of pain and provide treatment opportunities for patients who do not want to rely solely on prescription medication. Alternative Pain Management: Solutions for Avoiding Prescription Drug Overuse is an essential reference source that provides alternative solutions for managing and treating chronic pain, including through the use of mobile applications, online programs, self-management strategies, and virtual reality. Additionally, the book promotes a further understanding of pain and how it is diagnosed and reviews pharmaceutical accountability when prescribing drugs for pain management. Highlighting a range of topics such as cryotherapy, pain assessment, and prescription tracking, this publication is an ideal reference source for physicians, nurses, hospital staff, surgeons, medical professionals, pharmacists, researchers, academics, and upper-level students.

Bone Repair Biomaterials: Regeneration and Clinical Applications, Second Edition, provides comprehensive reviews on materials science, engineering principles and recent advances. Sections review the fundamentals of bone repair and regeneration, discuss the science and properties of biomaterials used for bone repair, including metals, ceramics, polymers and composites, and discuss clinical applications and considerations, with chapters on such topics as orthopedic surgery, tissue engineering, implant retrieval, and ethics of bone repair biomaterials. This second edition includes more chapters on relevant biomaterials and a greatly expanded section on clinical applications, including bone repair applications in dental surgery, spinal surgery, and maxilo-facial and skull surgery. In addition, the book features coverage of long-term performance and failure of orthopedic devices. It will be an invaluable resource for researchers, scientists and clinicians concerned with the repair and restoration of bone.

As old age is increasing globally, some challenges arise such as multimorbidity, a unique medical condition that has multiple potential complications and thus needs high-quality care directed by qualified healthcare providers. Multimorbidity is an important daily challenge to internists worldwide due to its many difficulties. Junior physicians dealing with multimorbidity must have the knowledge to practice high-quality care for their elderly patients. Cases on Multimorbidity and Its Impact on Elderly Patients considers approaches to manage multimorbidity and its unique complications and challenges to aid in appropriate daily decision making. Covering key topics such as weight loss, aging, and frailty, this reference work is ideal for medical professionals, nurses, policymakers, researchers, scholars, academicians, practitioners, instructors, and students.

Laboratory Assessment of Vitamin Status provides a comprehensive understanding of the limitations of commonly used approaches used for the evaluation of vitamin status, reducing harm in the general health setting. It outlines the application of 'Best Practice' approaches to the evaluation of vitamin status, giving physicians and other healthcare professionals the opportunity to make evidence-based interventions. Nearly every metabolic and developmental pathway in the human body has a dependency on at least one micronutrient. Currently, the clinical utility of approaches taken by laboratories for the assessment of vitamin status is generally poorly understood, missing the opportunity to diagnosis vitamin deficiencies. This essential reference gives clinical and biomedical scientists an understanding of the limitations of commonly used approaches to the evaluation of vitamin status in the general health setting through change in practice. Nutritionists and dietitians gain an understanding of more sophisticated markers of vitamin status.

Computational Intelligence for Multimedia Big Data on the Cloud with Engineering Applications covers timely topics, including the neural network (NN), particle swarm optimization (PSO), evolutionary algorithm (GA), fuzzy sets (FS) and rough sets (RS), etc. Furthermore, the book highlights recent research on representative techniques to elaborate how a data-centric system formed a powerful platform for the processing of cloud hosted multimedia big data and how it could be analyzed, processed and characterized by CI. The book also provides a view on how techniques in CI can offer solutions in modeling, relationship pattern recognition, clustering and other problems in bioengineering. It is written for domain experts and developers who want to understand and explore the application of computational intelligence aspects (opportunities and challenges) for design and development of a data-centric system in the context of multimedia cloud, big data era and its related applications, such as smarter healthcare, homeland security, traffic control trading analysis and telecom, etc. Researchers and PhD students exploring the significance of data centric systems in the next paradigm of computing will find this book extremely useful.

Advanced Dental Biomaterials is an invaluable reference for researchers and clinicians within the biomedical industry and academia. The book can be used by both an experienced researcher/clinician learning about other biomaterials or applications that may be applicable to their current research or as a guide for a new entrant into the field who needs to gain an understanding of the primary challenges, opportunities, most relevant biomaterials, and key applications in dentistry.

Theranostic Bionanomaterials is an invaluable study of recent advances and trends in the development and application of functional bionanomaterials for theranostic applications. This book describes the design and characterization of nanomaterials which exhibit distinctive physical, chemical and biological properties and discusses how these functional nanomaterials enable the precise manipulation of architectural, physical and biochemical cell microenvironments in vitro. In addition, it covers how they can act as the carriers of diagnostic or therapeutic agents, thus providing new pathways or strategies for disease diagnosis and treatment. Specific chapters discuss protein delivery, drug delivery, tissue regeneration, bioimaging, biodetection, and much more. This book will be a critical resource for those involved in cutting-edge research in theranostics bionanomaterial.

Healthcare Dynamics for the Specialist Professional Nurse is the first text to present important current healthcare practices in the healthcare environment for specialised nurses and healthcare practitioners at district, provincial and national levels. It examines aspects of healthcare dynamics and comprehensive service delivery for all healthcare institutions, within a framework of health legislation, ethics, and professional practice. In addition to fulfilling the developmental needs of specialised nurses, it is a reference tool for healthcare service management for any practising healthcare professional. This new publication has been peer-reviewed nationally and internationally. It is the result of a collaboration between various academics in the field of nursing and healthcare and is a culmination of their collective experience of management and leadership practice, research and education in the healthcare service context. Healthcare Dynamics for the Specialist Professional Nurse draws on the insight of expert nursing academics, and healthcare practitioners in the private and public sectors. It reviews: specialised healthcare needs and the profile of a community through the lens of health education; the role of formal and in-service education programmes for clinical nurse specialists and other team members to ensure best practice in specialised nursing and healthcare services; programmes for the personal and professional growth of members of a specialised healthcare team; projects in different areas of specialisation that require advisory and facilitative processes; consultancy and referral processes through a client and service-centred process; evaluation of specialised healthcare units, programmes and services through accredited assessment tools; role modelling and mentorship in the specialised healthcare team to develop coping mechanisms for the emotional demand of clinical specialists; professional excellence and competence in ethical, legal and policy frameworks, with a focus on human rights, transformation and advocacy; the empowerment of patients, families and communities to access existing appropriate resources through continuing health education; and quality assurance activities and information systems in specialised healthcare services.