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Les douleurs abdominales en questions : Rôle physiopathologique de la sensibilité viscérale = Abdominal pain in question : The pathophysiological role of visceral sensitivity

The gut-brain axis refers to the network of nerve pathways that connect the myenteric plexus, the veritable "gut brain," to the central nervous system. Nearly 80% of these neurons are sensory neurons, and the afferent pathways that transmit information from the digestive tract to the central nervous system play a crucial role in the physiological regulation of digestive functions, as well as in certain pathological conditions. A large majority of these sensations remain unconscious and give rise to reflex responses. Only those requiring a conscious response reach the level of awareness in a normal state (hunger, thirst, the urge to defecate). In pathological situations, the same is true for painful sensations of digestive origin. Functional bowel disorders are a frequent reason for consultation. Their pathophysiology is now based on a model integrating the various etiological factors around the brain-gut axis. These patients frequently present with visceral hypersensitivity, which manifests as an increased perception of digestive sensations, notably the onset of pain in response to stimuli that are not painful in normal subjects. Recognizing the role of visceral hypersensitivity has made it possible to explain the mechanism of action of medications used to treat functional bowel disorders and paves the way for the development of new molecules acting on digestive afferents. In this book, we will describe the anatomical and physiological basis for understanding the concept of visceral sensitivity and the role of digestive afferents in the pathophysiology of acute and chronic abdominal pain, particularly irritable bowel syndrome.

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Communication in Plants : Neuronal Aspects of Plant Life

Plant neurobiology is a newly emerging field of plant sciences. It covers signalling and communication at all levels of biological organization – from molecules up to ecological communities. In this book, plants are presented as intelligent and social organisms with complex forms of communication and information processing. Authors from diverse backgrounds such as molecular and cellular biology, electrophysiology, as well as ecology treat the most important aspects of plant communication, including the plant immune system, abilities of plants to recognize self, signal transduction, receptors, plant neurotransmitters and plant neurophysiology. Further, plants are able to recognize the identity of herbivores and organize the defence responses accordingly. The similarities in animal and plant neuronal/immune systems are discussed too. All these hidden aspects of plant life and behaviour will stimulate further intense investigations in order to understand the communicative plants in their whole complexity.

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Auditory Perception of Sound Sources

Auditory Perception of Sound Sources covers higher-level auditory processes that are perceptual processes. The chapters describe how humans and other animals perceive the sounds that they receive from the many sound sources existing in the world. This book will provide an overview of areas of current research involved with understanding how sound-source determination processes operate. This book will focus on psychophysics and perception as well as being relevant to basic auditory research.

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An ecological and societal approach to biological control

Biological control is among the most promising methods for control of pests (including vectors), diseases and weeds. In this book ecological and societal aspects are for the first time treated together. In an ecological approach the aim is to evaluate the significance of certain biological properties like biodiversity and natural habitats. Also, it is important to see biological control from an organic (or ecological) farming point of view. In a societal approach terms like ‘consumer’s attitude’, ‘risk perception’, ‘learning and education’ and ‘value triangle’ are recognised as significant for biological production and human welfare.

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Advances in cognitive neurodynamics ICCN 2007; Proceedings of the International conference on cognitive neurodynamics - 2007

Contains the Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Cognitive Neurodynamics held in Shanghai, November 17-21, 2007. The participants were treated to an exciting and stimulating conference that left everyone with an enthusiastic vision for the future of the field. The latest important progress was covered by 13 mini-symposia including: Models of Mental Disorders; Cognitive Machines; Dynamics in learning and memory; Central nervous system synchronization; Neuroinformatics; Cognitive Computational Modeling of Human Language Processing; Cognitive Neurodynamics of Attention; Bottom-Up and Top-Down; Brain Networks; From Anatomy to Dynamics; Translational Cognitive Neuroimaging; K-sets; Theory and Applications; Advanced Signal Processing Techniques for Brain Data Analysis; Visual cortex: information processing and dynamics; Dynamics of Firing Patterns and Synchronization in Neuronal Systems.

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Machine Learning and Robot Perception

Presents some of the most recent research results in the area of machine learning and robot perception. The chapters represent new ways of solving real-world problems. This book will appeal to researchers, senior undergraduate/postgraduate students, application engineers and scientists.

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Biometrics, Computer Security Systems and Artificial Intelligence Applications

This book presents the most recent achievements in some fascinating and rapidly developing fields within Computer Science. The scientific works presented in this book have been partitioned into three topical groups: Image Analysis and Biometrics, Computer Security Systems, and Artificial Intelligence and Applications. Image Analysis and Biometrics is the branch of Computer Science dealing with the very difficult task of artificial, visual perception of objects and surroundings, as well as the problems connected with it. Computer Security and Safety is at present a very important and intensively investigated branch of Computer Science because of the menacing activity of hackers and computer viruses.

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Artificial intelligence for multimedia signal processing

Artificial intelligence technologies are also actively applied to broadcasting and multimedia processing technologies. A lot of research has been conducted in a wide variety of fields, such as content creation, transmission, and security, and these attempts have been made in the past two to three years to improve image, video, speech, and other data compression efficiency in areas related to MPEG media processing technology. Additionally, technologies such as media creation, processing, editing, and creating scenarios are very important areas of research in multimedia processing and engineering. This book contains a collection of some topics broadly across advanced computational intelligence algorithms and technologies for emerging multimedia signal processing as: Computer vision field, speech/sound/text processing, and content analysis/information mining.

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Ambient intelligence for scientific discovery : Foundations, theories, and systems

Many difficult scientific discovery tasks can only be solved in interactive ways, by combining intelligent computing techniques with intuitive and adaptive user interfaces. It is inevitable to use human intelligence in scientific discovery systems: human eyes can capture complex patterns and relationships, along with detecting the exceptional cases in a data set; the human brain can easily manipulate perceptions to make decisions. Ambient intelligence is about this kind of ubiquitous and autonomous human interaction with information. Scientific discovery is a process of creative perception and communication, dealing with questions like: how do we significantly reduce information while maintaining meaning, or how do we extract patterns from massive data and growing data resources. Originating from the SIGCHI Workshop on Ambient Intelligence for Scientific Discovery, this state-of-the-art survey is organized in three parts: new paradigms in scientific discovery, ambient cognition, and ambient intelligence systems. Many chapters share common features such as interaction, vision, language, and biomedicine.

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Advanced CBCT for Endodontics : Technical Considerations, Perception, and Decision-Making

This book encourages endodontists to develop a sound technical and theoretical understanding of CBCT. The authors compare the capabilities of modern CBCT imaging with traditional radiography and also present vital information about image interpretation and perception to increase competence and confidence in CBCT interpretation and minimize overdiagnosis and subsequent overtreatment.

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Management Andragogics 2 : Zurich Living Case

At a time when managers often provide fodder for unseemly headlines, and some are even compared unflatteringly with locusts, today’s business leaders are called upon as never before to demonstrate the moral justification for their activities, and to ensure that it is understood by all the key stakeholders of a company. What is required is nothing less than a management renaissance, based on a thoroughgoing concept of corporate leadership; there is no less a need for decision makers who hold themselves to the highest standards, with a positive perception of their fu- tion as agents of dissemination, and who are committed to the good not only of “their” firm, but also of society in general.

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Aesthetics in digital photography

Aesthetics in Digital Photography presents theories developed over the last 25 centuries by philosophers and art critics, who have sometimes been governed by the objectivity of perception, and other times, of course, by the subjectivity of human judgement. It explores the advances that have been made in neuro-aesthetics and their current limitations.

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Art in Focus

The premier art history text! This integrated, chronological approach to the study of art demonstrates the interrelationships of aesthetics, art criticism, art history, and studio art.

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Architectural colossi and the human body buildings and metaphors

Architectural Colossi and the Human Body discusses the role of Platonic and Cartesian philosophy and how philosophers such as Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, and theoreticians such as Frascari and Pallasmaa, have seen, described and analysed the human body and the role of architecture and perception. Drawing upon three key case studies and by employing theoretical ideas of Venturi and others, this book will provide an understanding of the role of anthromorphism and the relation and use of the human body with reference to selected architects and artists.

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James Carpenter : Environmental Refractions

Iron filings under the influence of a magnetic field. The appearance of James Carpenter’s work is serene. It gives the impression, however, that _ something new will happen amidst its supposed serenity, and that other forces apart from those _ already apparent are about to enter its field. The work produces an inhabited depth, by shifting emphasis away from the visual registers of perception, towards multiple engagements of a subject, her/his spatial constructs, and their resulting environment.

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Architectural tiles : Conservation and restoration

It not only contains new and up to date information on materials, practical methods, and historical research but also reflects changes in the attitudes, outlook and perceptions within the wider conservation, architectural heritage and construction communities which give a new dimension to the conservation and restoration. The growing interest in the preservation of post war ceramic tile murals and the subsequent demand for information pertaining specifically to this era is a welcome and useful addition.

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Leibniz and the natural world : Activity, passivity and corporeal substances in Leibniz's Philosophy

In the present book, Pauline Phemister argues against traditional Anglo-American interpretations of Leibniz as an idealist who conceives ultimate reality as a plurality of mind-like immaterial beings and for whom physical bodies are ultimately unreal and our perceptions of them illusory. Re-reading the texts without the prior assumption of idealism allows the more material aspects of Leibniz's metaphysics to emerge. Leibniz is found to advance a synthesis of idealism and materialism. His ontology posits indivisible, living, animal-like corporeal substances as the real metaphysical constituents of the universe; his epistemology combines sense-experience and reason; and his ethics fuses confused perceptions and insensible appetites with distinct perceptions and rational choice. In the light of his sustained commitment to the reality of bodies, Phemister re-examines his dynamics, the doctrine of pre-established harmony and his views on freedom.

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Lectures in Supercomputational Neurosciences : Dynamics in Complex Brain Networks

The present volume is an introduction, largely from the physicists' perspective, to the subject matter with in-depth contributions by system neuroscientists. A conceptual model for complex networks of neurons is introduced that incorporates many important features of the real brain, such as various types of neurons, various brain areas, inhibitory and excitatory coupling and the plasticity of the network. The computational implementation on supercomputers, which is introduced and discussed in detail in this book, will enable the readers to modify and adapt the algortihm for their own research.

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Lectures in Supercomputational Neurosciences : Dynamics in Complex Brain Networks

The present volume is an introduction, largely from the physicists' perspective, to the subject matter with in-depth contributions by system neuroscientists. A conceptual model for complex networks of neurons is introduced that incorporates many important features of the real brain, such as various types of neurons, various brain areas, inhibitory and excitatory coupling and the plasticity of the network. The computational implementation on supercomputers, which is introduced and discussed in detail in this book, will enable the readers to modify and adapt the algortihm for their own research.

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Lateral Alignment of Epitaxial Quantum Dots

Accurate positioning of self-organized nanostructures on a substrate surface can be regarded as the Achilles’ heel of nanotechnology. This perception also applies to self-assembled semiconductor quantum dots. This book describes the full range of possible strategies to laterally align self-assembled quantum dots on a substrate surface, starting from pure self-ordering mechanisms and culminating with forced alignment by lithographic positioning. The text addresses both short- and long-range ordering phenomena and paves the way for the future high integration of single quantum dot devices on a single chip. Contributions by the best-known experts in this field ensure that all relevant quantum-dot heterostructures are elucidated from diverse relevant perspectives.

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