Technological progress has allowed us to develop devices which make it possible to record blood pressure and heart rate outside the real living conditions. Furthermore, technological progress has provided computer tools to analyse data on a beat-to-beat basis, offering a large body of information on the complex patterns of blood pressure and heart rate variability in health and in disease which has clarified a number of mechanisms responsible for cardiovascular regulation during the day and night. This book aims at providing an updated state of the art on the analysis of blood pressure and heart rate variability from the different perspectives of physiologists, clinicians and engineers by gathering the contributions of experts taken from both the biomedical and the engineering environment. In particular, attention was focused on 1) the methodology of ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate analyses, 2) the mathematical models that can be derived from the data and the implications they have for the understating of normal and deranged cardiovascular control and 3) the present and future use of computer analysis of dynamically collected observations for the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases.

Over the last two decades, the analysis of blood pressure and heart rate variability has been increasingly used to obtain information on the mechanisms responsible for cardiovascular regulation in different physiological and pathological conditions. The evidence gathered so far has strongly supported the ability of this approach to provide unique insights into the factors involved in cardiovascular control. However, studies making use of these techniques have also underlined a number of problems concerning both the selection of the most appropriate analysis procedure to be used in a given situation and the interpretation of the results thus obtained. In this book volume leading experts from both the technological and the medical milieu have deeply addressed these issues. New tools for describing the regulation of the heart and the peripheral circulation in terms of 1/f processes, nonlinear and chaotic and complex systems have also been discussed. The overall result is a collection of contributions which provide the most recent development in this stimulating field.

Functional diversity (FD) defined as the value, range, and abundance of functional traits in a given community or ecosystem is increasingly accepted as a synthetic ecological concept that sheds light on ecosystem functioning. Functional group richness and functional biodiversity indices have been proposed to quantify the FD of a community, or some of its components. The comparative assessment of FD in different ecosystems and for different ecosystem processes would be an invaluable tool for a better and more general understanding of what are the functional roles of biodiversity in the provision of ecosystem services. In this volume we offer a synthesis of the methods used to quantify functional diversity and step by step examples to define functional groups and to estimate functional indices. We also compare communities, and changes of diversity along environmental gradients. All the examples may be reproduce using electronic data files and FDiversity, a free software.

Der 2. der geplanten 5 Teilbande der Rontgendiagnostik im Thoraxraum ist sowohl der unspezifischen Entziindung der Lunge und des Bronchialsystems (Bronchiektasien) gewidmet als auch den Pneumokoniosen, der Lungenlues, den allergischen Reaktionen, als auch den Pilzerkrankungen der Lunge und der Echinokokkose. Die Autoren versuchen auf Grund einer genauen morphologischen Analyse der ront genologischen Lungenbefunde, in Verwertung des klinischen Ablaufes, der Verlaufsform im Rontgenbild wie auch auf Grund der eventuell sich einstellenden Komplikationen, Riickschliisse auf die jeweilige Atiologie der Lungenaffektion zu ziehen. In umfangreichen differentialdiagnostischen Diskussionen wird versucht, dem Rontgendiagnostiker die entsprechenden Moglichkeiten der Differenzierung aufzuzeigen. Die Lungenlues ist als eine pulmonale Erscheinung aufgezeigt, an die der Differential diagnostiker haufiger denken sollte, ebenso wie an die allergischen Reaktionen des Lungen parenchyms, deren Rontgenbild sehr oft eine auffallende Diskrepanz gegeniiber dem klinischen Verlauf bietet. In dem umfangreichen Kapitel Pneumokoniosen wird versucht, die im Rontgenbild erfaBbaren, oft nur minimalen Veranderungen auf die einzelnen Staubarten zu beziehen und Differenzierungsmoglichkeiten gegen andere ahnlich ablaufende Reaktionen des Parenchyms aufzuzeigen. Die Pilzerkrankung und die Lungenechinokokkose werden von zwei siidamerikanischen Autoren bearbeitet, die auf dem jeweiligen Teilgebiet besonderes Beobachtungsgut und Erfahrung besitzen. Frankfurt a. M., Dezember 1968 F. STRNAD Preface The second of the five sub-volumes planned on roentgen diagnosis of the thoracic region covers non-specific inflammation of the lungs and bronchial system (bronchi ectasis), pneumoconiosis, syphilitic lung, allergic reactions and fungus and tapeworm infestations."

Kyle Querif e un ragazzo di sedici anni, con una vita all'insegna dello sport e degli amici. Tutto cambiera con l'arrivo di un misterioso oggetto dal cielo che lo obblighera a sfidare i propri limiti attraverso un pericoloso viaggio intorno al globo. Tra segreti millenari e una guerra nell'ombra, dovra imparare a prendersi le proprie responsabilita e diventare uomo.