Digital images play a significant role in representing useful information; however, they may get distorted while passing through several operational stages, such as image acquisition, compression, transmission, processing, and reconstruction. Similarly, during the transmission of images, some data may be lost and the quality of the image may degrade due to bandwidth limitation. The use of distorted images in any application compromises its performance; and therefore, the identification and quantification of degradation become key issues to address in restoring the distorted images.This book covers different quality assessment techniques for natural images. It further discusses image enhancement techniques that are based on estimated quality. This book presents image quality assessment techniques for different distortions, such as poor contrast, poor illumination, noise and artifacts in deblocked images. Also presented are quality-aware techniques for image enhancement for different distortions.Review and objective questions (with answers) for each chapter will be available online as part of the supplementary material.

This edited book provides a conceptual framework of managing flexibility in the areas of people, process, technology and business supported by researches/case applications in various types of flexibilities in business. The book is organized into following five parts: (i) Managing Flexibility; (ii) People Flexibility; (iii) Process Flexibility; (iv) Flexibility in Technology and Innovation Management; and (v) Business Flexibility. Managing flexibility at the level of people, process, technology and business encompasses the requirements of both choice and speed. The need for managing flexibility is growing to cope with the developments and challenges in the global business environment. This can be seen from reactive as well as proactive perspectives. Flexibility is a major dimension of business excellence and deals with a paradoxical view point such as stability and dynamism, continuity and change, centralization and decentralization, and so on. It needs to be managed at the levels of people, process, technology and various business functions and it is important to create flexibility at the level of people to create and manage flexibility in processes and technologies in order to support flexible business requirements.

This new volume, Herbal Product Development: Formulation and Applications, addresses some of the challenges that hinder the path of successful natural products from laboratory to market. Highly skilled, experienced, and renowned scientists and researchers from around the globe offer up-to-date information that describes characteristics of herbs and herbal products, applications, evaluation techniques, and more. There is also a section dedicated to alternative medicinal strategies for the treatment and cure of diverse diseases. Also considered, of course, is the efficacy and safety of herbal products, which are of major concern. This valuable volume will be an important addition to the library of those involved in herbal product development and testing, including researchers, scientists, academicians, industry professionals, and students in this area.

This new volume, Herbal Product Development: Formulation and Applications, addresses some of the challenges that hinder the path of successful natural products from laboratory to market. Highly skilled, experienced, and renowned scientists and researchers from around the globe offer up-to-date information that describes characteristics of herbs and herbal products, applications, evaluation techniques, and more. There is also a section dedicated to alternative medicinal strategies for the treatment and cure of diverse diseases. Also considered, of course, is the efficacy and safety of herbal products, which are of major concern. This valuable volume will be an important addition to the library of those involved in herbal product development and testing, including researchers, scientists, academicians, industry professionals, and students in this area.

This book presents the state-of-the-art techniques and recent research progress on Ear Biometrics. Among the various physiological traits, the reasons for the ear to gain much attention in recent years are many folds. It has been found to be a reliable biometrics for human verification and identification. Ears are remarkably consistent and unlike face, it does not change shape with different expressions or age, and remain fixed in the middle of the side of the head against a predictable background. The book contains figures, tables and plots to illustrate the techniques in an easy and lucid manner. The book also provides an extensive literature on the subject, where readers have the benefit of receiving all the relevant material at one place in a very comprehensive manner. This book caters students, academics, researchers, practitioners who are interested in the field of Ear Biometrics and its applications in face recognition and security.

This edited book provides a conceptual framework of managing flexibility in the areas of people, process, technology and business supported by researches/case applications in various types of flexibilities in business. The book is organized into following five parts: (i) Managing Flexibility; (ii) People Flexibility; (iii) Process Flexibility; (iv) Flexibility in Technology and Innovation Management; and (v) Business Flexibility. Managing flexibility at the level of people, process, technology and business encompasses the requirements of both choice and speed. The need for managing flexibility is growing to cope with the developments and challenges in the global business environment. This can be seen from reactive as well as proactive perspectives. Flexibility is a major dimension of business excellence and deals with a paradoxical view point such as stability and dynamism, continuity and change, centralization and decentralization, and so on. It needs to be managed at the levels of people, process, technology and various business functions and it is important to create flexibility at the level of people to create and manage flexibility in processes and technologies in order to support flexible business requirements.

Coffee is one of the most widely traded commodities in the world. Coffee cultivation faces a number of challenges including over reliance on a relatively small number of varieties vulnerable to a range of abiotic and biotic stresses as well as increasing expectations of quality amongst consumers. These challenges are addressed by this volume. Part 1 looks at advances in understanding plant physiology and ensuring genetic diversity. These provide the basis for summarising developments in breeding improved varieties of Arabica and Robusta coffee. The second part of the book reviews our understanding of the chemical composition, sensory properties and potential nutraceutical benefits of coffee. With its distinguished editor and international range of expert authors, this volume will be a standard reference for coffee scientists, growers and processors.

Master's Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Engineering - Chemical Engineering, grade: -, Andhra University (Andhra University College of Engineering (A)), course: M.Tech Bio Technology, language: English, abstract: Herbal drug product has a special place in the world of pharmaceuticals. Terminalia chebula is a deciduous tree, used in traditional medicines. It is reported to contain various bio chemical compounds such as tannins, chebulinic acid, ellagic acid, gallic acid, punicalagin, flavonoids etc. It has been reported as antioxidant, antidiabetic, antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, anticancerous, antiulcer, antimutagenic, wound healing activities etc. The optimization of physico-chemical parameters like effects of different solvents, soaking time, extraction time with hexane, particle size, different solvent percentages, different volumes of hexane with ethanol and methanol as solvents and pH for the extraction of Total Phenolic Content, Chebulinic acid and Quercetin were studied. The extraction was carried out by employing various organic solvents using Soxhlet extractor method. Ethanol was found to be the best solvent for the extraction of Chebulinic acid from Terminalia chebula species. Soxhlet extractor was carried out using ethanol at different extraction times to verify the mathematical model proposed in this work. The optimization of physico-chemical parameters required for obtaining the highest production of Chebulinic acid using Baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisia.Among the extraction process (Batch, Soxhlet& Fermentation process) the highest Chebulinic acid production was obtained from fermentation process. The partition coefficient for fermentation, soxhlet & batch extraction were found to be 3.83, 2.0 & 0.64. The extraction of Chebulinic acid from Terminalia chebula by Soxhlet extraction and purify the Chebulinic acid by using Column chromatography. Chebulinic acid showed many bioactivities including inhibition of cancer cell growth,