Intechopen jan 2012 (216 Ergebnisse)

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The global phenomenon of organic food and farming, after three decades of progress, faces new challenges as markets mature and the impacts of the global recession start to change consumers and farmers' expectations. This global survey of the organic food and farming considers how the social sciences have come to understand in what way consumers make their choices as they shop, and how new national markets evolve. It also surveys how established organic sectors in North America and Europe are changing in response to the changes, that in part, the organic movement has created. Moving from a wide range of social science disciplines, methodologies and perspectives, this book represents an excellent starting place for new readers, and offers innovation to those already familiar with the literature. 230 pp. Englisch. …

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Natural resources conservation is one of the dilemmas currently facing mankind in both developed and the developing world. The topic is of particular importance for the latter, where the majority depend on terrestrial ecosystems for livelihood; more than one billion people live in abject poverty earning less than a dollar per day; more than 3.7 billion suffer from micronutrient deficiency and more than 800 million suffer from chronic hunger. Population increase, resource use conflicts, technological advancements, climate change, political doldrums, and unsustainable use and harvesting of resources have all put more pressure on natural resources leading to land degradation and poverty. To achieve a win-win situation, we need to change our mindset by thinking outside the box through advocating integrated and holistic approaches in managing our natural resources. This book presents a variety of sustainable strategies and/or approaches including use of GIS and Remote Sensing technologies, decision support system models, involvement of stakeholders in major decisions regarding use of natural resources, community level initiatives, and use of surveillance and monitoring mechanisms. 180 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -After the large-scale disasters that we have witnessed in the recent past, it has become apparent that complex and coordinated emergency management systems are required for efficient and effective relief efforts. Such management systems can only be developed by involving many scientists and practitioners from multiple fields. Thus, this book on emergency management discusses various issues, such as the impact of human behavior, development of hardware and software architectures, cyber security concerns, dynamic process of guiding evacuees and routing vehicles, supply allocation, and vehicle routing problems in preparing for, and responding to large scale emergencies. The book is designed to be useful to students, researchers and engineers in all academic areas, but particularly for those in the fields of computer science, operations research, and human factor. We also hope that this book will become a useful reference for practitioners. 104 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Weeds severely affect crop quality and yield. Therefore, successful farming relies on their control by coordinated management approaches. Among these, chemical herbicides are of key importance. Their development and commercialization began in the 1940's and they allowed for a qualitative increase in crop yield and quality when it was most needed. This book blends review chapters with scientific studies, creating an overview of some the current trends in the field of herbicides. Included are environmental studies on their toxicity and impact on natural populations, methods to reduce herbicide inputs and therefore overall non-target toxicity, and the use of bioherbicides as natural alternatives. 262 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Endocarditis is a disease that occurs as a result of the inflammation of the endocardium. It is an inflammatory process located in the inner lining of the cardiac chambers and native or prosthetic valves. It is characterized by colonization or invasion of the heart valve vegetations composed of platelets forming, fibrin and microcolonies of microorganisms, and occasionally of inflammatory cells. Other structures may also be affected, such as the interventricular septum, chordae tendineae, the mural endocardium or even intra-cardiac implants. The book covers, with scientific rigour, the most prevalent causes and current treatments of endocarditis, as well as the cases when the organs remote from the heart are affected by this disease. 162 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In this book, several important points regarding Crohn's disease are discussed. In the first section, we focus on etiopathogeny of Crohn's disease and the recent advances in our overall understanding of the disease - specifically, the role of the gut epithelium, alterations of the epithelial crypts, and the roles of the different cytokines in the pathophysiology of Crohn's disease. In the second section, a diagnosis of Crohn's disease is discussed. Another particular area of focus is in the diagnosis of intestinal tuberculosis, and the role of mycobacterium avium in Crohn's disease. In the third and final section, the management of Crohn's disease is discussed, with a focus on recent evidence-based medicine recommendations. 224 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Crop production depends on the successful implementation of the soil, water, and nutrient management technologies. Food production by the year 2020 needs to be increased by 50 percent more than the present levels to satisfy the needs of around 8 billion people. Much of the increase would have to come from intensification of agricultural production. Importance of wise usage of water, nutrient management, and tillage in the agricultural sector for sustaining agricultural growth and slowing down environmental degradation calls for urgent attention of researchers, planners, and policy makers. Crop models enable researchers to promptly speculate on the long-term consequences of changes in agricultural practices. In addition, cropping systems, under different conditions, are making it possible to identify the adaptations required to respond to changes. This book adopts an interdisciplinary approach and contributes to this new vision. Leading authors analyze topics related to crop production technologies. The efforts have been made to keep the language as simple as possible, keeping in mind the readers of different language origins. The emphasis has been on general descriptions and principles of each topic, technical details, original research work, and modeling aspects. However, the comprehensive journal references in each area should enable the reader to pursue further studies of special interest. The subject has been presented through fifteen chapters to clearly specify different topics for convenience of the readers. 290 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -It can be said that now is the best time for everyone infected to become aware of their own HIV status. The state of the art in HIV management progressively reveals that antiretroviral treatment can prevent transmission, as well as chronic damage in the human body, if started early. Unfortunately, antiretrovirals are not widely available in many places, especially in developing countries. In these parts of the world, diagnosis of HIV infection must be kept in the agenda as a priority, in order to understand specific details of local epidemics and as an effort to interrupt the chain of HIV transmission. 146 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The World Health Organization (WHO) has established dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) as the best densitometric technique for assessing bone mineral density (BMD) in postmenopausal women and has based the definitions of osteopenia and osteoporosis on its results. DXA enables accurate diagnosis of osteoporosis, estimation of fracture risk and monitoring of patients undergoing treatment. Additional features of DXA include measurement of BMD at multiple skeletal sites, vertebral fracture assessment and body composition assessment, including fat mass and lean soft tissue mass of the whole body and the segments. This book contains reviews and original studies about DXA and its different uses in clinical practice (diagnosis of osteoporosis, monitoring of BMD measurement) and in medical research in several situations (e.g. assessment of morphological asymmetry in athletes, estimation of resting energy expenditure, assessment of vertebral strength and vertebral fracture risk, or study of dry bones such as the ulna). 160 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Pathogenesis and Treatment of Periodontitis includes comprehensive reviews on etiopathogenic factors of periodontal tissue destruction related to microbial dental plaque and also host response components. Adjunctive treatment modalities are also addressed in the book. Topics covered range from microbial pathogenic factors of P. gingivalis to the relationship between metabolic syndrome and periodontal disease, and from management of open gingival embrasures to laser application in periodontal treatment. 214 pp. Englisch. …

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Since the establishment of the conductive properties of intrinsic conductive polymers, a huge variety of basic and applied research has been carried out, involving different polymers, copolymers, blends, mixtures and composites. Thus, fundamental understanding of physical and chemical properties of these materials has been sought, while the applied aspects have advanced very rapidly, crossing the boundaries between disciplines. Today, the applications of conducting polymers in various fields such as neuroscience, nanotechnology and green chemistry, are easily found. This development is dynamic and it needs to be updated and hence the motivation for the set of results presented in this book; which provides information about the development of fundamentals, and about some applications of conductive polymers. 222 pp. Englisch. …

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -A Compendium of Essays on Alternative Therapy is aimed at both conventional and alternate therapy practitioners, besides serving as an educational tool for students and lay persons on the progress made in the field. While this resource is not all-inclusive, it does reflect the current theories from different international experts in the field. This will hopefully stimulate more research initiatives, funding, and critical insight in the already increasing demand for alternate therapies that has been evidenced worldwide. 294 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The past decade has seen the field of proteomics expand from a highly technical endeavor to a widely utilized technique. The objective of this book is to highlight the ways in which proteomics is currently being employed to address issues in the biological sciences. Although there have been significant advances in techniques involving the utilization of proteomics in biology, fundamental approaches involving basic sample visualization and protein identification still represent the principle techniques used by the vast majority of researchers to solve problems in biology. The work presented in this book extends from overviews of proteomics in specific biological subject areas to novel studies that have employed a proteomics-based approach. Collectively they demonstrate the power of established and developing proteomic techniques to characterize complex biological systems. 278 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The book 'Echocardiography - In Specific Diseases' brings together contributions from well- known researchers from around the world, some of them specialized in imaging science in their clinical orientation, but also representatives from academic medical centers. Each chapter is structured and written to be accessible to those with a basic knowledge of echocardiography but also to be stimulating and informative to experts and researchers in the field of echocardiography. This book is primarily aimed at cardiology fellows during their basic echocardiography rotation, fellows of internal medicine, radiology and emergency medicine, but also experts in echocardiography. During the past few decades technological advancements in echocardiography have been developing rapidly, leading to improved echocardiographic imaging using new techniques. The authors of this book tried to explain the role of echocardiography in several special pathologies, which the readers may find in different chapters of the book. 174 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The book 'Echocardiography - New Techniques' brings worldwide contributions from highly acclaimed clinical and imaging science investigators, and representatives from academic medical centers. Each chapter is designed and written to be accessible to those with a basic knowledge of echocardiography. Additionally, the chapters are meant to be stimulating and educational to the experts and investigators in the field of echocardiography. This book is aimed primarily at cardiology fellows on their basic echocardiography rotation, fellows in general internal medicine, radiology and emergency medicine, and experts in the arena of echocardiography. Over the last few decades, the rate of technological advancements has developed dramatically, resulting in new techniques and improved echocardiographic imaging. The authors of this book focused on presenting the most advanced techniques useful in today's research and in daily clinical practice. These advanced techniques are utilized in the detection of different cardiac pathologies in patients, in contributing to their clinical decision, as well as follow-up and outcome predictions. In addition to the advanced techniques covered, this book expounds upon several special pathologies with respect to the functions of echocardiography. 232 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -There has been significant progress in haptic technologies but the incorporation of haptics into virtual environments is still in its infancy. A wide range of the new society's human activities including communication, education, art, entertainment, commerce and science would forever change if we learned how to capture, manipulate and reproduce haptic sensory stimuli that are nearly indistinguishable from reality. For the field to move forward, many commercial and technological barriers need to be overcome. By rendering how objects feel through haptic technology, we communicate information that might reflect a desire to speak a physically- based language that has never been explored before. Due to constant improvement in haptics technology and increasing levels of research into and development of haptics-related algorithms, protocols and devices, there is a belief that haptics technology has a promising future. 248 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The 21st Century has seen a resurgence of research of the gastrointestinal tract, especially since it was established that it plays a central role as an immune system organ and consequentially has a huge impact on causation, impact and transmission of most human ailments. New diseases such as the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, hepatitis and tumours of the gastrointestinal tract have emerged and they are currently subjects of intensive research and topics of scientific papers published worldwide. Old diseases like diarrhea have become extremely complex to diagnose with new and old pathogens, drugs, tumours and malabsorptive disorders accounting for the confusion. This book has set out algorithms on how to approach such conditions in a systematic way both to reach a diagnosis and to make patient management cheaper and more efficient. 'Current Concepts in Colonic Disorders' attempts to put all the new information into proper perspective with emphasis on aetiopathogenesis and providing rational approach to management of various old and new diseases. As the book editor, I have found this first edition extremely interesting and easy to understand. Comments on how to improve the content and manner of presentation for future editions are extremely welcome. 290 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Alcoholic liver disease occurs after prolonged heavy drinking. Not everyone who drinks alcohol in excess develops serious forms of alcoholic liver disease. It is likely that genetic factors determine this individual susceptibility, and a family history of chronic liver disease may indicate a higher risk. Other factors include being overweight and iron overload. This book presents state-of-the-art information summarizing the current understanding of a range of alcoholic liver diseases. It is hoped that the target readers - hepatologists, clinicians, researchers and academicians - will be afforded new ideas and exposed to subjects well beyond their own scientific disciplines. Additionally, students and those who wish to increase their knowledge will find this book a valuable source of information. 234 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book covers many aspects of human musculoskeletal biomechanics. As the title represents, aspects of forces, motion, kinetics, kinematics, deformation, stress, and strain are examined for a range of topics such as human muscles, skeleton, and vascular biomechanics independently or in the presence of devices. Topics range from image processing to interpret range of motion and/or diseases, to subject specific temporomandibular joint, spinal units, braces to control scoliosis, hand functions, spine anthropometric analyses along with finite element analyses. Therefore, this book will be valuable to students at introductory level to researchers at MS and PhD level searching for science of specific muscle/vascular to skeletal biomechanics. This book will be an ideal text to keep for graduate students in biomedical engineering since it is available for free, students may want to make use of this opportunity. Those that are interested to participate in the future edition of this book, on the same topic, as a contributor please feel free to contact the author. 256 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Thermal power plants are one of the most important process industries for engineering professionals. Over the past few decades, the power sector has been facing a number of critical issues. However, the most fundamental challenge is meeting the growing power demand in sustainable and efficient ways. Practicing power plant engineers not only look after operation and maintenance of the plant, but also look after a range of activities, including research and development, starting from power generation, to environmental assessment of power plants. The book Thermal Power Plants covers features, operational issues, advantages, and limitations of power plants, as well as benefits of renewable power generation. It also introduces thermal performance analysis, fuel combustion issues, performance monitoring and modelling, plants health monitoring, including component fault diagnosis and prognosis, functional analysis, economics of plant operation and maintenance, and environmental aspects. This book addresses several issues related to both coal fired and gas turbine power plants. The book is suitable for both undergraduate and research for higher degree students, and of course, for practicing power plant engineers. 280 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Investigation of muscle diseases has changed dramatically with the understanding of genetic basis of a wide range of muscle diseases. Muscle biopsy has become a powerful tool not only to provide diagnosis but to make tissue available for genetic studies and to basic scientists for biomedical research. Accurate interpretation of muscle biopsy to detect cell dysfunction/ damage/death or absence / abnormality of a protein or genetic defect by the sophisticated technologies is important to guide treatment of various muscle diseases. In this book on muscle biopsy various chapters deal with the procedure and interpretation of muscle biopsy, its use in the culture of myotubes and membrane transport studies.Muscle biopsy is an important technique to investigate mitochondrial dysfunction and the mitochondrial DNA integrity in oxidation. Phosphorylation in various metabolic diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus and peripheral vascular disease is explored in the other chapters with detailed descriptions on methodology. This book provides the advances in the basic techniques of muscle biopsy for a neuroscientist. 164 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The book embraces a wide spectrum of problems falling under the concepts of 'Quantum optics' and 'Laser experiments'. These actively developing branches of physics are of great significance both for theoretical understanding of the quantum nature of optical phenomena and for practical applications. The book includes theoretical contributions devoted to such problems as providing a general approach to describe electromagnetic field states with correlation functions of different nature, nonclassical properties of some superpositions of field states in time-varying media, photon localization, mathematical apparatus that is necessary for field state reconstruction on the basis of restricted set of observables, and quantum electrodynamics processes in strong fields provided by pulsed laser beams. Experimental contributions are presented in chapters about some quantum optics processes in photonic crystals - media with spatially modulated dielectric properties - and chapters dealing with the formation of cloud of cold atoms in magneto optical trap. All chapters provide the necessary basic knowledge of the phenomena under discussion and well-explained mathematical calculations. 196 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The book 'Polycrystalline Materials - Theoretical and Practical Aspects' is focused on contemporary investigations of plastic deformation, strength and grain-scale approaches, methods of synthesis, structurals, properties, and application of some polycrystalline materials.It is intended for students, post-graduate students, and scientists in the field of polycrystalline materials. 178 pp. Englisch. …

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book shares knowledge gained through water management related research. It describes a broad range of approaches and technologies, of which have been developed and used by researchers for managing water resource problems. This multidisciplinary book covers water management issues under surface water management, groundwater management, water quality management, and water resource planning management subtopics. The main objective of this book is to enable a better understanding of these perspectives relating to water management practices. This book is expected to be useful to researchers, policy-makers, and non-governmental organizations working on water related projects in countries worldwide. 288 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Ulcerative Colitis (UC) is a rapidly evolving medical field, and will continue to be very exiting in the next few decades. Although the underlying cause of this disease is still unknown, results in research dealing with various issues related to this disease are published every day. Chapters included in this book review the most recent literature on related advancements in regard to this chronic disease, which is controllable but not curable. Aspects like epidemiology, pathophysiology, genetics, incriminated etiologies, clinical aspects, complications, and disease management, including advancements in the diagnostic and therapeutic options, were documented by well known clinicians, researchers, and world wide authorities in their fields. This book on UC will be a valuable addition to each doctor's library interested in this subject, or for physicians dealing with patients suffering from this disease. Authors have also included figures and diagrams to depict their point, and to easily reach the minds of the readers in the simplest way. 236 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book presents ten chapters that give us important information about epidemiological, biological, clinical and psychological aspects of common mental disorders during pregnancy and in the postnatal period. Some of the issues covered in this book are: detecting postnatal depression using different instruments at the right time, which is very important to avoid the negative effects on the children of depressed mothers; understanding the impact of anxiety and depression during pregnancy and in the postnatal period; biological issues of perinatal anxiety and depression; epidemiological information about perinatal mental health problems among minorities, like immigrant population and underserved rural women. Some information is also provided on postnatal depression in men, which is frequently overlooked. 202 pp. Englisch. …

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Monitoring of water and land objects enters a revolutionary age with the rise of ubiquitous remote sensing and public access. Earth monitoring satellites permit detailed, descriptive, quantitative, holistic, standardized, global evaluation of the state of the Earth skin in a manner that our actual Earthen civilization has never been able to before. The water monitoring topics covered in this book include the remote sensing of open water bodies, wetlands and small lakes, snow depth and underwater seagrass, along with a variety of remote sensing techniques, platforms, and sensors. The Earth monitoring topics include geomorphology, land cover in arid climate, and disaster assessment after a tsunami. Finally, advanced topics of remote sensing covers atmosphere analysis with GNSS signals, earthquake visual monitoring, and fundamental analyses of laser reflectometry in the atmosphere medium. 252 pp. Englisch. …

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Despite significant technological advances in recent years, their impact on our overall health and social, well-being is not always clear to see. Perhaps, one of the best examples of this can be highlighted by the fact that mortality rates as a result of cerebrovascular diseases have hardly changed, if at all. This places cerebrovascular diseases as one of the most prominent causes of both disability and death. In Cuba, for instance, a total of 22,000 cases of cerebrovascular diseases are reported each year in a country where life expectancy should increase to 80 years in the near future. In such a situation, to have a book that includes in a clear and summarized way, a group of topics directly related to the preclinical investigations advances and the therapeutic procedures for the cerebrovascular disease in its acute phase constitutes a useful tool for the wide range of the contributors to this affection's problems solution. In this group is included students, professors, researchers, and health policy makers whose work represents one of the greatest social and human impact challenges of the XXI century basic and clinical neurosciences. 250 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Generally speaking, scheduling is the procedure of mapping a set of tasks or jobs (studied objects) to a set of target resources efficiently. More specifically, as a part of a larger planning and scheduling process, production scheduling is essential for the proper functioning of a manufacturing enterprise. This book presents ten chapters divided into five sections. Section 1 discusses rescheduling strategies, policies, and methods for production scheduling. Section 2 presents two chapters about flow shop scheduling. Section 3 describes heuristic and metaheuristic methods for treating the scheduling problem in an efficient manner. In addition, two test cases are presented in Section 4. The first uses simulation, while the second shows a real implementation of a production scheduling system. Finally, Section 5 presents some modeling strategies for building production scheduling systems. This book will be of interest to those working in the decision-making branches of production, in various operational research areas, as well as computational methods design. People from a diverse background ranging from academia and research to those working in industry, can take advantage of this volume. 244 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -According to Virchow's triad, venous thrombosis can occur as a result of one or more of three factors: changes in the dynamics of the blood flow, endothelial injury/dysfunction of the blood vessel and hypercoagulability. The blood in the veins is constantly forming microscopic thrombi that are routinely broken down by the body, and significant clotting can occur only when the balance of thrombus formation and resolution is altered. This book is a fresh synthesis of venous thromboembolism care and considers the opinions and studies from different fields of medicine. As venous thrombosis spectrum is wide and can affect many organ systems, from deep veins of the leg to the cerebral venous system, our intent is for this to be a comprehensive, up-to-date and readable book. We tried to present a synthesis of existing material infused with new ideas and perspectives and authors own clinical studies and even case-reports. 244 pp. Englisch.…