Smart Nanomaterials for Bioencapsulation focuses on the fundamentals, synthesis methods and matrix design for the encapsulation of drugs, drug release, food and nutraceuticals, mechanisms of nano- encapsulated drugs on liposomes, micelles, silica composites, carbon nanotubes, dendrimers, and protein inorganic nanohybrids. Providing detailed information on the encapsulation of food and drug derivatives, the book helps create new and modern approaches for both pharmaceutical and nutritional science. The target delivery of pharmacological agents, as well as food additives under various conditions is covered, including sections on systemic release of drug molecules, minimum loss at non-target sites, the accumulation of diseased tissue or organs, and more. Smart nanomaterial-based nanocarriers protect the loaded molecules from premature degradation in the biological environment and enhance bioavailability for cellular uptake. The tuned properties of smart nanomaterials, such as porosity, pore-volume, surface area-to-volume ratio, coating with inert and labile materials, and more help determine the in vivo performance of the bioencapsulated food and drug derivatives.

Nanomaterials for Biocatalysis explains the fundamental design concepts and emerging applications of nanoscale biocatalysts, such as bioconversions, bioelectronics, biosensors, biocomputing and therapeutic applications. Nano-biocatalysts refers to the incorporation of enzymes into nanomaterials. These enzyme-enhanced nanocarriers have many advantages, including low mass transfer limitation, high enzyme capacity, better stabilization, and the formation of single-enzyme nanoparticles. Smart nanocontainers have been developed for the smart release of their embedded active substances. These smart releases can be obtained by using smart coatings as their outer nanoshells. In addition, these nanocontainers could protect the enzymes from chemical or metabolic alterations on their delivering pathways towards the target. This is an important reference source for materials scientists and chemical engineers who want to know more about how nanomaterials are being used for biocatalysis applications.

The Fourth Latin-American Symposium on Surface Physics (SLAFS 4) was held from July 14 to 18, 1986, at the Unversidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela, as part of a program of the Centro Latinoamericano de Fisica (CLAF) aimed at improving the scientific relations and coop- eration among Latin-American researchers in the field of surface physics. This symposium, which brought together about 60 scientists, included 12 invited talks given by internationally recognized experts covering a wide range of surface physics topics and showing the most recent develop- ments of the theory and spectroscopies involved. This proceedings volume contains the text of the 12 invited lectures plus a selection of the Latin- American contributed papers. The topics covered during the conference were: thin films, chemisorption theory, and surface spectroscopies such as high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS), inverse pho- toemission, Auger deexcitation, SEXAFS, LEED, Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and deuteron solid state FT-nuclear magnetic resonance spec- troscopy. There were also some contributions related to the application of surface analysis to the chemical and semiconductor industries. In addi- tion to the talks there were two poster exhibitions, which showed mainly Latin-American contributions, making it possible to discuss extensively the work presented. Finally, we wish to acknowledge the assistance given by the local or- ganizing committee, especially the diligent cooperation of Luis Cortina, Ivan Escalona, Helena Isern, Miguel Martin, Claudio Mendoza and Ivar Pettersson in developing the symposium program.

This book briefly reviews the basic concepts of type-2 fuzzy systems and then describes the proposed definitions for interval type-3 fuzzy sets and relations, also interval type-3 inference and systems. The use of type-2 fuzzy systems has become widespread in the leading economy sectors, especially in industrial and application areas, such as services, health, defense, and so on. However, recently the use of interval type-3 fuzzy systems has been receiving increasing attention and some successful applications have been developed in the last year. These issues were taken into consideration for this book, as we did realize that there was a need to offer the main theoretical concepts of type-3 fuzzy logic, as well as methods to design, develop and implement the type-3 fuzzy systems. A review of basic concepts and their use in the design and implementation of interval type-3 fuzzy systems, which are relatively new models of uncertainty and imprecision, are presented. The main focus of this work is based on the basic reasons of the need for interval type-3 fuzzy systems in different areas of application. In addition, we describe methods for designing interval type-3 fuzzy systems and illustrate this with some examples and simulations.

Nanomaterials for Bioreactors and Bioprocessing Applications explores the potential of nanomaterials in improving the efficiency of bioprocessing industries and next-generation bioreactors. The book provides information on various newly synthesized nanomaterials in bioreactors for scaling up the bioprocess to an industrial level, the criteria and properties of nanomaterials to be used in bioprocessing, advantages, challenges while using the nanomaterials, and the economic constraints. In addition, the book also discusses the fate of various nanomaterials in the bioprocess, the chances of product contamination and its prevention. This book is an important reference source for materials scientists and biomedical engineers information on the synthesized nanomaterials that are available for bioreactors and bioprocesses, and the various optimized conditions and precautions to be taken.

In this book four new methods are proposed. In the first method the generalized type-2 fuzzy logic is combined with the morphological gra-dient technique. The second method combines the general type-2 fuzzy systems (GT2 FSs) and the Sobel operator; in the third approach the me-thodology based on Sobel operator and GT2 FSs is improved to be applied on color images. In the fourth approach, we proposed a novel edge detec-tion method where, a digital image is converted a generalized type-2 fuzzy image. In this book it is also included a comparative study of type-1, inter-val type-2 and generalized type-2 fuzzy systems as tools to enhance edge detection in digital images when used in conjunction with the morphologi-cal gradient and the Sobel operator. The proposed generalized type-2 fuzzy edge detection methods were tested with benchmark images and synthetic images, in a grayscale and color format. Another contribution in this book is that the generalized type-2 fuzzy edge detector method is applied in the preprocessing phase of a face rec-ognition system; where the recognition system is based on a monolithic neural network. The aim of this part of the book is to show the advantage of using a generalized type-2 fuzzy edge detector in pattern recognition applications. The main goal of using generalized type-2 fuzzy logic in edge detec-tion applications is to provide them with the ability to handle uncertainty in processing real world images; otherwise, to demonstrate that a GT2 FS has a better performance than the edge detection methods based on type-1 and type-2 fuzzy logic systems.

In this book, a series of granular algorithms are proposed. A nature inspired granular algorithm based on Newtonian gravitational forces is proposed. A series of methods for the formation of higher-type information granules represented by Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Sets are also shown, via multiple approaches, such as Coefficient of Variation, principle of justifiable granularity, uncertainty-based information concept, and numerical evidence based. And a fuzzy granular application comparison is given as to demonstrate the differences in how uncertainty affects the performance of fuzzy information granules.

In the land of Espada a knight by the name of Jonathan Bertrand has fallen in love with a young maiden named Davina. When the knight is at first rejected, he pushes on and proves his love to the maiden. But in the midst of all this, the king's daughter, Josephina, has wanted Bertrand for herself for a long time. In her desire for Bertrand, the princess sets off a chain of events that will lead those involved to places of danger. Will Bertrand and Davina be able to avoid the princess' schemes, or will they fall prey to them? Inspired by the Medieval Romance tales of centuries past, The Tale of Sir Bertrand and Lady Davina is certainly worth a read for lovers of medieval literature. It brings the feel of the Medieval Romance into the modern age.

Esta obra recoge diferentes testimonios directos y analiza la evoluci n, desde sus primeras manifestaciones en Cuba, de las principales religiones existentes, que hoy en d a conviven en una mezcla variopinta. El acento se pone en las relaciones entre el gobierno y las diferentes religiones en el periodo que va desde 1959 hasta el verano de 2012, incluyendo la participaci n de la c pula de la Iglesia cat lica en la liberaci n de los presos de la Primavera Negra y sus propuestas para un cambio en el sistema.