Intramembrane-Cleaving Proteases (I-CLiPs)
The aim of this book is to provide an update on this emerging group of unusual but important proteases for both the specialist and those with a broader interest in proteases. Amongst the target audience will be protease researchers, enzymologists, those working in academia and the pharmaceutical industry on biological processes and diseases involving I-CLiPs.
Interplanetary Mission Analysis and Design
The book describes current mission analysis and design techniques that may be applied to a very wide range of interplanetary missions from those targeting the inner planets to those destined for the outer planets and Solar System escape trajectories.
Intelligent drugs : How AI is transforming healthcare
The progress of biotechnologies and artificial intelligence allowed the development of vaccines in less than a year, thus saving millions of human lives and preserving the global economy. The emergence of intelligent drugs is highlighted, with the promise of ultra-targeted, more effective, and safer treatments against a wide range of diseases. Personalized medicine then becomes realistic, with computer-designed drugs, perfectly adapted to each individual, tested on virtual patients before their real use. In the near future, thanks to AI, new drugs will improve physical performance, stimulate cognitive abilities, prevent diseases, and slow down aging.
Integrated Molecular and Cellular Biophysics
Biophysics represents perhaps one of the best examples of interdisciplinary research areas, where concepts and methods from disciplines such as physics, biology, b- chemistry, colloid chemistry, and physiology are integrated. It is by no means a new ?eld of study and has actually been around, initially as quantitative physiology and partly as colloid science, for over a hundred years. For a long time, biophysics has been taught and practiced as a research discipline mostly in medical schools and life sciences departments, and excellent biophysics textbooks have been published that are targeted at a biologically literate audience. With a few exceptions, it is only relatively recently that biophysics has started to be recognized as a physical science and integrated into physics departments’ curr- ula, sometimes under the new name of biological physics.
Integrated Chemical Microsensor Systems in CMOS Technology
This book, "Integrated Chemical Microsensor Systems in CMOS Technology", provides a comprehensive treatment of the highly interdisciplinary field of CMOS chemical microsensor systems. It is targeted at students, scientists and engineers who are interested in gaining an introduction to the field of chemical sensing since all the necessary fundamental knowledge is included. However, as it provides detailed information on all important issues related to the realization of chemical microsensors in CMOS technology, it also addresses experts well familiar with the field.
Institutional Dynamics in Environmental Governance
This book presents fresh analyses of a number of well-known cases, but does so from one comprehensive view, the so-called policy arrangement approach. Cases discussed range over organic farming, integrated water management, nature policy, cultural heritage policy, integrated region-oriented policy, corporate environmental management and target group policy, always in search of the commonality of experience and conclusions to be drawn in understanding the past and in formulating future perspectives.
Insights into the pharmaceutical and clinical applications of nanoparticles in cancer therapy
Healthcare has long been on a quest for a ‘magic bullet’ to cure the dreaded disease cancer. As this book shows, nanoparticles perfectly fit the bill with their promising characteristics. Meticulously engineered nanostructures, with a useful drug or molecule, target a specific cancer in unique ways. However, as with many targeted systems, the effectiveness of the system needs to be weighed against the adverse effects. The toxicity of nanoparticles has been a worldwide concern, and evidence-based medicine analyses nanostructures for proof of safety and their efficacy in killing cancer cells. This book gives a fresh perspective on a wealth of diverse nanotechnological advances for various cancers.
Insights into Receptor Function and New Drug Development Targets
G-Protein Coupled receptors (GPCRs) and other receptors are significant targets for drug discovery, due to their roles in fundamental physiological processes. Among these roles are: regulation of growth, food intake, reproduction, water balance, sensory perception, blood pressure and heart rate. GPCR-directed drugs account for approximately $40 billion in sales and, of drugs at market, approximately 70% target GPCR function. The availability of combinatorial chemistry coupled with high throughput screening techniques have facilitated discovery of peptidic and non-peptidic ligands of membrane receptors. Mutant receptor models have revealed their role in health and disease and provided insight to new therapeutic approaches, based on control of protein trafficking. Understanding receptor-receptor interactions has provided one mechanism for receptor cross-talk and revealed unexpected interactions.
Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers
This book has its origins in courses taught by the author to various und- graduate and graduate students at the Indian Institute of Technology, K- pur, India. The diversity of inorganic chemistry and its impact on polymer chemistry has been profound. This subject matter has grown considerably in the last decade and the need to present it in a coherent manner to young minds is a pedagogic challenge. The aim of this book is to present to the students an introduction to the developments in Inorganic and - ganometallic polymers. This book is divided into eight chapters. Chapter 1 provides a general overview on the challenges of Inorganic polymer synthesis. This is f- lowed by a survey of organic polymers and also includes some basic f- tures of polymers. Chapters 3-8 deal with prominent families of inorganic and organometallic polymers. Although the target group of this book is the undergraduate and graduate students of chemistry, chemical engineering and materials science it is also hoped that chemists and related scientists in industry would find this book useful.
Inhibitory Regulation of Excitatory Neurotransmission
This book reviews aspects of GABAA receptor function, as well as the properties of a variety of other important inhibitory proteins, such as GABAC receptors, G-protein coupled receptors (specifically, GABAB receptors, metabotropic glutamate receptors and neuropeptide receptors), glycine receptors, GABA transporters and potassium channels. In addition, the consequences of mutations that disrupt the regulation of excitatory neurotransmission, and efforts to target the GABAergic system for therapeutic benefit, are discussed.
Inhibitors of protein kinases and protein phosphates
The aims of this volume are to highlight the tremendous pharmacological potential of protein kinase and protein phosphatase inhibitors, to provide a thorough overview of the most remarkable achievements in the field and to illustrate how beneficial these studies can be for the advancement of both basic knowledge on biological regulation and deregulation and for the clinical treatment of a wide spectrum of diseases.
Inflation and Unemployment in a Monetary Union
This book studies the coexistence of inflation and unemployment in a monetary union. The focus is on how to reduce the associated loss. The primary target of the European central bank is low inflation in Europe. The primary target of the German government is low unemployment in Germany. And the primary target of the French government is low unemployment in France. The European central bank has a quadratic loss function. The same applies to the German government and the French government. The key questions are: To what extent can the sequential process of monetary and fiscal decisions reduce the loss caused by inflation and unemployment? Is monetary and fiscal cooperation superior to the sequential process of monetary and fiscal decisions?
Immunotherapy in 2020 : Visions and trends for targeting inflammatory disease
Features contributions from participants of the ESRF symposium on Immunotherapy in 2020-Visions and Trends for Targeting Inflammatory Diseases held in Potsdam near Berlin, Germany, in October 2006. The symposium presentations covered the main mechanisms of immunoregulation.
Immunogenetics of Autoimmune Disease
Utoimmunity is the downstream outcome of a rather extensive and coordinated series of events that include loss of self-tolerance, peripheral lymphocyte Aactivation, disruption of the blood-systems barriers, cellular infiltration into the target organs and local inflammation. Cytokines, adhesion molecules, growth factors, antibodies, and other molecules induce and regulate critical cell functions that perpetuate inflammation, leading to tissue injury and clinical phenotype. The nature and intensity of this response as well as the physiological ability to restore homeostasis are to a large extent conditioned by the unique amino acid sequences that define allelic variants on each of the numerous participating mol ecules. Therefore, the coding genes in their germline configuration play a primary role in determining who is at risk for developing such disorders, how the disease progresses, and how someone responds to therapy. Although genetic components in these diseases are clearly present, the lack of obvious and homogeneous modes of transmission has slowed progress by prevent ing the full exploitation of classical genetic epidemiologic techniques. Furthermore, autoimmune diseases are characterized by modest disease risk heritability and m- tifaceted interactions with environmental influences. Yet, several recent discoveries have dramatically changed our ability to examine genetic variation as it relates to human disease. In addition to the development of large-scale laboratory methods and tools to efficiently recognize and catalog DNA diversity, over the past few years there has been real progress in the application of new analytical and data-manage ment approaches
Immunobiology of natural killer cell receptors
Natural Killer (NK) cells are large granular lymphocytes of the innate immune system. They are widespread throughout the body, being present in both lymphoid organs and non-lymphoid peripheral tissues. NK cells are involved in direct innate immune reactions against viruses, bacteria, parasites and other triggers of pathology, such as malignant transformation, all of which cause stress in affected cells. Importantly, NK cells also link the innate and adaptive immune responses, contributing to the initiation of adaptive immune responses and executing adaptive responses using the CD16 FcgRIIIA immunoglobulin Fc receptor. Such responses are mediated through two major effector functions, the direct cytolysis of target cells and the production of cytokines and chemokines. The authors focus here on the nature of recognition events by NK cells and address how these events are integrated to trigger these distinct and graded effector functions.
Immediate Early Genes in Sensory Processing, Cognitive Performance and Neurological Disorders
This book reviews and details experiments and theories that challenge the reader to expand their view on how IEG research is currently being used to advance our understanding of static and active brain circuits, enabling the processing, acquisition and storage of new information in healthy systems. In addition, we explore roles of IEGs in clinical neuropathology, with potential utility in molecular modeling, to highlight, on a go-forward basis, candidate mechanisms for novel targets in clinical intervention.
Imaging in Drug Discovery and Early Clinical Trials
Efficient tools for the selection and validation of drug targets both at the preclinical and clinical level are required. Non-invasive imaging and in particular molecular imaging methods are becoming essential technologies to support drug discovery and dvelopment. Imaging provides structural, functional, metabolic and molecular readouts that are being applied to characterize a disease phenotype (diagnosis), to elucidate molecular mechanisms involved, to evaluate drug efficacy and safety, and to identify potential biomarkers of the drug's mechanism-of-action, efficacy and safety. Non-invasive imaging techniques constitute a bridge between preclinical and clinical drug evaluation. In this monograph the contribution of imaging modalities to the various stages of drug discovery and development, from early target validation to their use in clinical development programs, is described. Chapters are devoted to the description of the drug discovery process as such, to the various imaging modalities being used both preclinically and clinically, to applications of imaging during the optimization of a lead compound (addressing issues such as bioavailability and efficacy) and during the drug safety evaluation.
IAEA Atlas of Cardiac PET/CT : A Case-Study Approach
This book presents a wide portfolio of examples of positron emission tomography coupled with computer tomography (PET/CT) studies in various cardiac conditions in order to provide a rationale for the implementation of this technology in an array of clinical conditions. Cardiovascular diseases are a major contributor to premature morbidity and mortality worldwide. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are particularly affected by cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), with more than 75% of all CVDs deaths occurring in these countries. For this reason, target 3.4 of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda aims at a 30% reduction in premature mortality due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which include CVDs, by 2030.
Hypertension in the Elderly
Topics range from basic concepts, epidemiology and trials, and evaluation and management, to pharmacological treatment, special populations, and adherence, all presented with an emphasis on the optimal management of patients. The authors examine in detail the mechanisms of hypertension in the elderly, particularly age-related changes in vascular stiffness, and methodically review the lifestyle and outcomes trials that were conducted in older persons. The problems of clinical evaluation, secondary hypertension, and target organ damage are also fully addressed, and a practical approach is provided for correctly determining blood pressure, one of the most important tasks in evaluating an older patient. Extensive discussions of pharmacological therapy detail the role of individual drug classes, including diuretics and b-blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, calcium antagonists, a-1 blockers, and combination drug therapies. Additional chapters focus on special populations, such as African Americans, patients with diabetes, and patients with arthritis, as well as on the clinician's role in improving therapeutic adherence in older patients. Offers family practitioners and general internists an up-to-date, user-friendly reference on the diagnosis, treatment, and complications of hypertension in the elderly.
Hyperspectral Data Compression
HYPERSPECTRAL DATA COMPRESSION presents the most recent results in the field of compression of remote sensing 3D data, with a focus on multispectral and hyperspectral imagery. This book is essential for researchers working across related fields including: multi-dimensional data compression, multispectral and hyperspectral data archives, remote sensing, scientific image processing, military and aerospace image processing, image segmentation, image classification, and target detection.



















