The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Global High-Tech Challenge at the Interface of Science, Politics, and Illusions discusses COVID-19 as the first pandemic in the Internet era and our current reality of continuous reports, news, and updates. Since its beginning, we were daily bombarded with news of what was happening around the world. There was no global political leadership. The United States was politically partially paralyzed. Russia and China hoped to gain diplomatic profile worldwide, but their vaccines are of limited efficacy, and trust in their clinical data is rightly low. The European Union did not order enough vaccines in time, but sued a large manufacturer for delivery delays. Now it is setting up yet another bureaucratic institution. At least the pharmaceutical or life science industry paved the way out, but is not enthusiastically praised for it. It would be too easy and superficial to blame mistakes of governments and leaders on stupidity. Idiocy exists, but we have to go deeper to understand how illusions and blind spots in today’s common perception and science, inertia, arrogance, conflicts of interest, competition of individuals, and states and institutions for public recognition have contributed to a multitude of flawed assessments and direct mistakes. Healthcare professionals and anyone interested in an in-depth understanding of humankind’s response to the COVID-19 challenge will not get around the key conclusions of this book.
Food Lipids: Sources, Health Implications, and Future Trends presents specific and updated details related to human health and emerging technologies to obtain valuable lipids and lipid analysis of food products. The book covers the most relevant topics of food lipids as main sources (animal, marine and vegetable) and their composition, the implication of different lipids in human health, the main degradative processes and analytical methods for quality. Written for nutrition researchers, food scientists, food chemists and chemical engineers, R&D managers, new product developers, and other professionals working in the food industry and academia, including students, this book is sure to be a welcomed reference. Lipids are vital for human nutrition as they provide energy to the biological processes of the body and contain substances with high importance as essential fatty acids or fat-soluble vitamins. Furthermore, lipids are responsible for many desirable characteristics of foods. However, in recent years consumers are increasingly aware of the diet-health relationship, especially the implication that some lipids exert in the development of different diseases.
Perioperative Neurosciences: Translational Research examines current clinical research focused on complications and the improvement of patient outcomes in neuroanesthesia and neurocritical care. The book addresses important translational topics including neuroanesthetics, pharmacogenomics, neuroprotection and neurotoxicity. In addition, it covers special considerations for topics such as stroke, traumatic brain injury and pain, as well as for specific patient populations like geriatric and pediatric.
Insect Ecology: An Ecosystem Approach, Fifth Edition provides the most updated and comprehensive knowledge of the diversity of insect responses to environmental changes and their effects on ecosystem properties and services. Written by an expert in the field, this book addresses ways in which insect morphology, physiology and behavior tailor their adaptation to particular environmental conditions, how those adaptations affect their responses to environmental changes, and how their responses affect ecosystem properties and the ecosystem services on which humans depend for survival. This edition also addresses recent reports of global declines in insect abundance and how these declines could affect human interests. Insect Ecology: An Ecosystem Approach, Fifth Edition is an important resource for researchers, entomologists, ecologists, pest managers and conservationists who want to understand insect ecology and to manage insects in ways that sustain the delivery of ecosystem services. Graduate and advanced undergraduate students may also find this as a useful resource for entomology and specifically insect ecology courses.
The Vitamins: Fundamental Aspects in Nutrition and Health, Sixth Edition presents both overviews and in-depth discussions of the sources, chemistry, metabolism and functions of these essential nutrients in physiology and health. Sections cover perspectives (history of discovery, general properties and impacts), individual Vitamins (their respective chemistries, metabolism), and their dietary sources and global needs. In addition, the inclusion and interpretation of recent clinical research findings relevant to all vitamins, particularly vitamins A, D, E, K, C, thiamin, folate and vitamin B12 is included, along with an expanded discussion on single-carbon metabolism), implications to neuropathies, and more.
Contemporary Medical Biotechnology Research for Human Health discusses a range of currently available solutions required to defeat the ever-increasing human health challenges. The junction between biotechnology and biomedical/health sciences has led to several improvements in patients’ treatment, diagnosis and well-being. The book discusses vital topics ranging from biofilms and UTI, mycobacterial infections, diabetes, aplastic anemia, oral cancer, and possible applications of nanoparticles. In addition, it discusses computer-aided drug design using natural products and new technologies to develop antibiotics. This is a valuable resource for biotechnology and biomedical researchers, bioinformaticians and members of health sciences interested in understanding recent technological developments.
Augmenting Neurological Disorder Prediction and Rehabilitation Using Artificial Intelligence focuses on how the neurosciences can benefit from advances in AI, especially in areas such as medical image analysis for the improved diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, early detection of acute neurologic events, prediction of stroke, medical image segmentation for quantitative evaluation of neuroanatomy and vasculature, diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease, autism spectrum disorder, and other key neurological disorders. Chapters also focus on how AI can help in predicting stroke recovery, and the use of Machine Learning and AI in personalizing stroke rehabilitation therapy. Other sections delve into Epilepsy and the use of Machine Learning techniques to detect epileptogenic lesions on MRIs and how to understand neural networks.
Investigating Human Diseases with the Microbiome: Metagenomics Bench to Bedside is a summary of underlying principles for human health and disease studies from a microbiome point-of-view. From birth to old age, microbiomes in fecal, oral/nasal, vaginal, and skin samples contain important information that can predict disease risks in the future. Tissue samples also contain microbes that are relevant for diseases. The microbiome connects genetic and environmental factors and is poised to greatly facilitate precision medicine, including prevention, diagnosis and effective treatment of many complex diseases. Based in traditional microbiology and adding a more wholistic view of the advent of high-throughput sequencing, this reference poses the key questions of the total number of microbial cells and their distribution in the human body while also considering concepts from macroecology and from causal reasoning. An entire chapter is dedicated to methods, providing hands-on information for important considerations when collecting samples for metagenomic studies.
*Textbook and Academic Authors Association (TAA) Most Promising New Textbook Award Winner, 2024*Biomedical Engineering Design presents the design processes and practices used in academic and industry medical device design projects. The first two chapters are an overview of the design process, project management and working on technical teams. Further chapters follow the general order of a design sequence in biomedical engineering, from problem identification to validation and verification testing. The first seven chapters, or parts of them, can be used for first-year and sophomore design classes. The next six chapters are primarily for upper-level students and include in-depth discussions of detailed design, testing, standards, regulatory requirements and ethics. The last two chapters summarize the various activities that industry engineers might be involved in to commercialize a medical device.
Epigenetics of Stress and Stress Disorders, a new volume in the Translational Epigenetics series, examines the epigeneticmechanisms involved in modifying DNA following prolonged stress or trauma. This is accomplished through theevaluation of both the physiological and molecular effects of stress on the body that can eventually lead to stressdisorders. The book begins by providing a psychiatric, biological, and phenomenological foundation for understandingstress disorders, before delving into the genomics of stress disorders. From here, chapter authors discuss a range ofrecent epigenetic research in the area, highlighting epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS), exciting developmentsin noncoding RNA studies, possible effects of prolonged stress on telomere shortening, and the long-term physicaleffects of PTSD on the health of patients. The book also examines the effect of adversity during sensitive periods ordevelopment and across the life span. The book concludes by looking at possible transgenerational stress-inducedepigenetic alterations on future offspring and important areas of research for public health, along with the potential forepigenetic therapeutics or “epidrugs.”