Advances in Parasitology serial highlights new advances in the field with this new volume presenting interesting chapters. Each chapter is written by an international board of authors.

The purpose of the book is to bring the two disciplines - vascular mechanics and pathology - together. In addition, the book bridges the gap in our knowledge and enhances engineering applications in medicine. This cutting-edge work presents the use of veins as arterial grafts and discusses the role of vein valves in graft stenosis. The book illustrates aneurysm formation, growth, and rupture, using pressure vessel principles. This new work details the investigation of, amongst other topics, aortic dissection, showing for the first time that the aortic root mechanics plays a vital role in the development of this pathology.

This book presents a comprehensive view on mycotoxins of agricultural as well as non-agricultural environments and their health effects in humans and animals. Mycotoxins have immunosuppressive effects; but some of them can cause cancers, mutagenicity, neurotoxicity, liver and kidney damage, birth defects, DNA damage and respiratory disorders. The problem of mycotoxins is long-lasting and their direct or indirect exposures to humans and animals must be further discussed. The first chapter will cover the historical perspective of mycotoxins along with timeline while the second one will provide overview including classification of mycotoxins and mycotoxicoses. The comprehensive information/ literature on traditional, emerging and mushroom mycotoxins will be given in chapters 3, 4 and 5 respectively. Chapter 6 will deal with mycotoxins co-occurrence poisoning whereas new and masked mycotoxins will be described in chapter 7. The important aspects of mycotoxin studies like extraction, characterization and analysis and management strategies will be summarized in 8 and 9 chapters. The last chapter of the book will cover the recent developments in toxicokinetic studies of mycotoxins. The book will have the most up-to-date information and recent discoveries to deliver accurate data and to illustrate essential points to a wide range of readers including mycologists, clinicians, agricultural scientists, chemists, veterinarians, environmentalists and food scientists.

In the summer of 1984, both of us were working with Professor Yechiel Becker in the Laboratory for Molecular Virology at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical center in Jerusalem. During a discussion about the increasing number of specialized journals and monographs, Dr. Becker pointed out that none covered both the clinical and molecular aspects of neurotropic virus infections, and he urged us to develop such a book with the help of colleagues who were conducting highly-regarded research in their individual areas related to neurotropic viruses. The responses to our request were gratifying, and each contribution provided both a comprehensive clinical description of the neurologic disease produced by a specific virus and an up-to-date review of the current research in the pathogenesis of the disease, with particular attention given to molecular mechanisms. Most, but not all chapters were written by clinical neurologists who applied basic science strategies and methodologies to the question of how neurotropic viruses produce disease. other chapters were written by virologists known for their longstanding commitment and expertise in the analysis of the pathogenesis of neurotropic virus infections. Thus, this unique monograph should be valuable to all clinicians caring for patients with CNS viral diseases and to "neurovirologists" needing an update of the clinical and molecular pathogenesis of neurotropic virus infections. While this monograph was being prepared, a rapidly expanding literature indicated that the human lenteviruses, human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) and HTLV-1 were highly neurotropic.

Immunometabolism has emerged as an intersectional crossroad between metabolism and immune response. Over the past decade, it has become clear that most - if not all - immune cell functions are not separated from cellular metabolism. Although seminal works have addressed the metabolic fate of immune cells during differentiation and function, the physiological status of a given tissue is also dependent on the cell metabolism. The dialogue between immune cells and their microenvironment can also modulate cellular metabolism, which can trigger the onset and progression of a multitude of inflammation-mediated diseases. Thus, uncovering the specific characteristics of the metabolism in different immune cells types and in different conditions, can shed light into the molecular mechanisms of disease and help develop new drugs and therapeutic strategies to treat immune diseases. The edited volume Essentials aspects of Immunometabolism will give the readers a broad view on how metabolic pathways can influence many types of immune cells during activation, differentiation and function, in health and disease. Of note, the structure of the book was created thinking not only on the experienced immunologist but also on undergraduate and graduate students, physicians, and all members of the scientific community interested in this exciting field of research.

This book introduces the translational informatics applied to most aspects of virus infection, including tracking of virus origin, detection and prevention of infection, drug discovery, and vaccine design as well as smart city-level monitoring and controlling of the virus epidemic by government. It covers the informatics for data mining and modelling at molecular, tissue/organ, individual, and population levels. The informatics for immunological mechanisms and the personalized prediction and treatment of infected patients are also summarized. The perspectives on the application of artificial intelligence to the prevention of virus outbreaks are also given. This book will be helpful to readers who are interested in prevention of virus infection, biomedical informatics, and artificial intelligence in medicine and healthcare.

This book targets new advances in areas of treatment and drug delivery sciences for Malaria. This is the only published book which compiles the complete road map of malarial drug delivery systems along with an overview on the pathology, current state of malaria across the globe, new clinical trials, emerging drugs and evolving novel drug delivery platforms. A wide variety of novel micro-and nano-formulations using promising technologies are being explored to deliver the malarial drug via different administration routes. This book addresses the gap between new approaches and old treatment modalities and how the former is superior in pharmacological performance when tested in in-vitro and in-vivo. Audience from wide range group like from researchers to regulatory bodies can benefit from the compiled information to find out patient needs and addresses a much-needed update to the existing malaria drug delivery research.

This second edition provides state-of-the-art and novel methods on antibiotic isolation and purification, identification of antimicrobial killing mechanisms, as well as methods for the analysis and detection of microbial responses and adaptation strategies. Antibiotics: Methods and Protocols, Second Edition, guides readers through updated and entirely new chapters on production and design, mode of action, and response and resistance. 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, Antibiotics: Methods and Protocols, Second Edition aims to inspire scientific work in the exciting field of antibiotic research.

Public Health Microbiology: Methods and Protocols is focused on microorganisms that can present a hazard to human health in the course of everyday life. There are chapters dealing with organisms that are directly pathogenic to humans, including bacteria, viruses, and fungi; on organisms that produce toxins during growth in their natural habitats; on the use of bacteriocins produced by such organisms as lactobacilli and bifidobacteria; as well as several chapters on hazard analysis, the use of disinfectants, microbiological analysis of cosmetics, and microbiological tests for sanitation equipment in food factories. Additional chapters look at the use of animals (mice) in the study of the various characteristics of milk and their relationships with lactic acid bacteria in particular. Other chapters focus on special methods for determining particular components of milk. In particular, in Parts I and II, on bacterial and viral pathogens, special attention is given to methods for PCR detection of genes with resistance to tetracycline, as well as to Salmonella enterica; for identification and typing of Campylobacter coli; for detection of the abundance of enteric viruses, hepatitis A virus, and rotaviruses in sewage, and of bacteriophages infecting the O157: H7 strain of Escherichia coli. Part III offers methods for computerized analysis and typing of fungal isolates, for isolation and enumeration of fungi in foods, and for the determination of aflatoxin and zearalenone

This book provides a comprehensive treatise on the chemical and biochemical consequences of damaging free radical reactions, the implications for the pathogenesis of disease and how this might be controlled endogenously and by radical scavenging drugs. Oxidative stress may be influenced by exogenous agents of oxidative stress, radiation, trauma, drug activation, oxygen excess, or by exogenous oxidative stress which is associated with many pathological states including chronic inflammatory disorders, cardiovascular disease, injury to the central nervous system, and connective tissue damage. This and many other such aspects are presented clearly and in depth.

The development of antioxidant drugs depends on the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the generation of excessive free radicals "in vivo," the factors controlling their release and the site of their action. This excellent volume presents an up-to-date account of the current state of knowledge in these areas.

This volume explores the latest techniques used to study Mycobacterium ulcerans, and more specifically M. ulcerans disease (Buruli ulcer). The chapters in this book are organized into three parts and cover methods for the detection of M. ulcerans and the analysis of host-pathogen interaction; the quantification and characterization of mycolactone, the macrolide toxin of M. ulcerans; and drug development against M. ulcerans. 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, Mycobacterium ulcerans: Methods and Protocols is a valuable resource that helps scientists advance their research on Buruli ulcer, which is still an under-researched field in infection biology.

The Systems Biology of Parkinson s Disease will be underpinned by new measurement techniques. This is particularly true of the pathology of Parkinson's Disease, where recent developments in brain imaging have offered new insights into the morphology of dopaminergic neurons that have profound implications for the special vulnerability and role of this class of neurons.

This detailed volume presents a variety of animal models that are commonly used to study sepsis and some key procedures to measure specific disease outcomes. The chapters describe well-established surgical and nonsurgical rodent models of sepsis, presented by experts in the field. In addition, the book includes protocols for burn injury and sepsis, modeling the mouse intensive care unit (MICU), and the development of humanized mice, which may be useful tools to increase the translational potential of rodent sepsis research. There is a chapter discussing the use of biomarkers for sepsis diagnosis and prognosis in humans and mice, as well as chapters describing specific methods for biomarker measurement, and the use of analgesics and humane endpoints in rodent sepsis research. Finally, agent-based computational modeling is presented as a valuable complementary approach to study sepsis. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, 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 practical, Sepsis: Methods and Protocols serves as an ideal guide for researchers working toward improving the identification and treatment of septic patients.

This Springer Protocols manual is a practical guide to the application of key molecular biology techniques in microbiological research. The focus is on experimental protocols, which are presented in an easy-to-follow way, as step-by-step procedures for direct use in the laboratory. Notes on how to successfully apply the procedures are included, as well as recommendations regarding materials and suppliers. In addition to the practical protocols, important background information and representative results of experiments using the described methods are presented. Researchers in all areas applying microbial systems, such as in molecular biology, genetics, pathology, and agricultural research will find this work of great value.

Proceedings of a NATO ARW held in Crete, Greece, June 22-July 1, 1996

This volume begins with a short history of malaria and follows with a summary of its biology. It then traces the fascinating history of the discovery of quinine for malaria treatment, and then describes quinine's biosynthesis, its mechanism of action, and its clinical use, concluding with a discussion of synthetic antimalarial agents based on quinine's structure. It also covers the discovery of artemisinin and its development as the source of the most effective current antimalarial drug, including summaries of its synthesis and biosynthesis, its mechanism of action, and its clinical use and resistance. A short discussion of other clinically used antimalarial natural products leads to a detailed treatment of additional natural products with significant antiplasmodial activity, classified by compound type. Although the search for new antimalarial natural products from Nature's combinatorial library is challenging, it is very likely to yield new antimalarial drugs. This book thus ends by identifying ten natural products with development potential as clinical antimalarial agents.

This detailed volume explores various aspects of the dengue virus and its four serotypes (DENV1-4). Beginning with a section on protocols to produce DENV and its proteins that are fundamental for many biophysical, biochemical, immunological, and cellular studies, the book continues by covering protocols to study the interactions between DENV and cellular proteins, DENV immunopathogenesis and diagnosis, as well as recent advances in animal models that can be used in studies of DENV immunopathogenesis and vaccine development. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, 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 practical, Dengue Virus: Methods and Protocols serves as an ideal guide for researchers attempting to further understand this critical threat to worldwide public health.

In an age of antibiotic resistant infections, the study of biofilms is increasingly important. Microbes more than often exist in complex multi-species or polymicrobial communities, making infections difficult to detect, diagnose and treat. Given the increased focus on studying biofilms in research and laboratory settings, particularly under conditions that closely mimic the clinical state, it is important to get an overview of the recent methods, model systems and tools being developed and employed in this context. This book offers readers the opportunity to learn more about current methods being used in the investigation of multi-species biofilms, both in vivo and in vitro. For this, the book highlights new technologies built and designed for the study of multiple species within biofilm communities, including those that can be leveraged for the evaluation of antimicrobial treatment approaches. The application of these state-of-the-art techniques to further our understanding of multi-species biofilms will be discussed and the reader will learn how the clinical microenvironment and the development of biofilm communities are considered when developing such tools. With cutting-edge contributions from experts in the respective domains, this book will benefit translational and basic research scientists, as well as clinicians, and is an informative resource for educators and their students.

A comprehensive and detailed overview of the current state of preclinical research on histamine and histamine receptors. Part of the book focuses on novel approaches to the study of histamine receptors such as polymorphism, genetic linkage, and computational analysis, and on the use of new histaminergic ligands in diseases such as asthma and dermatitis. Several chapters will be devoted to the role of histamine in the control of homeostatic and behavioral responses such as the sleep-wake cycle, regulation of the blood brain barrier, food intake, alertness, itch, and memory formation and consolidation.

The definitive interdisciplinary reference work for wound ballistics Basics The book begins by providing the necessary basic knowledge about physics, ballistics and ammunition and weapons. Then it describes the behaviour of projectiles in humans and animals (the physics of gunshot injuries) and introduces the experimental simulation of gunshot wounds, including the materials suitable for this purpose. Applications These basic principles can be applied in forensic medicine and criminalistics. The gunshot wound provides some forensic traces and the experimental reconstruction helps to understand the dynamic crime process. The wounding potential of non-lethal weapons can be determined. In emergency and war surgery, injuries caused by small arms bullets and fragments as well as by gas jets (of gas weapons) can be assessed. International conventions could be freed from undefined terms (such as "unnecessary suffering") with the help of physical quantities. Reference work Detailed tables as e. g. ballistic data of numerous cartridge types, also older ones, material properties, as well as many otherwise difficult to access data and a trilingual glossary of ballistic and technical terms in the languages German, English and French. NEW Wound Ballistics of European Police ammunition References to recent research results Partly coloured illustrations Due to the increase in terrorist and criminal activities worldwide, it is not only members of the armed forces who are affected. Surgeons, forensic doctors, police officers and criminalists also need to know and be able to assess the specifics of gunshot wounds.

This volume focuses on the roles of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in contexts ranging from human cancers to cardiovascular disease and ageing. The role of lncRNAs in X-inactivation and those lncRNAs derived from pseudogenes, past retroelements integrated within the human genome, as well as the role these pseudogene-derived lncRNAs play in cancer development are discussed in detail. Further, the book examines the function of lncRNAs in diseases such as diabetes, in smooth muscle formation, and in the modulation of nuclear receptors, as well as in connection with perspectives on the development of personalized therapeutics. It offers an appealing and insightful resource for scientists and clinicians alike.

The shift of weather patterns has affected the incidence and prevalence of infectious diseases, including mycoses. Mycoses have remained neglected due to a lack of training and recognition within the medical community. Nonetheless, these diseases remain common worldwide while frequently being underdiagnosed. Climate change affects the distribution of fungal communities, provoking outbreaks in locations where these mycoses were absent or in low frequencies. Moreover, the reports of clinical cases related to new fungal pathogens have increased due to the description of new fungal species or due to the ability of some species to shift to new hosts. Thus, this book, The Impact of Climate Change on Fungal Diseases, is a contribution to the knowledge of a global environmental phenomenon and its relation to these diseases, and it serves as a guide for health professionals to dive deep into the repercussions of climate change and how they can implement measures for the prevention and control of fungal infections.

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), isolated in 1966, continues to draw worldwide attention as an important human pathogen. Its impor tance is largely related to the continuing accumulation of evidence that implicates EBV as an etiological factor for certain types of human cancer. More recent investigations on this virus have focused on the identity of the viral genes responsible for the different disease mani festations observed following viral infection. It is hoped that by thorough investigation of this virus, clues to how cancer develops from a normal cell will surface. In addition, many of the gene products are now being exploited for the development of new and more sensitive tests for the diagnosis and clinical management of individu als with EBV -associated diseases. Thus, studies on this virus continue to provide new information of importance to our understanding of the malignant process. In an effort to attract both basic and clinical scientists to the same meeting for purposes of scientific exchange and fostering a closer interaction between these individuals, a series of international symposia was initiated in 1984. The first meeting was held in Loutraki, Greece, and was attended by approximately 100 participants. The second international symposium was held in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1986, and was attended by approximately twice as many partici pants as attended the Loutraki meeting."