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Nutrition and Oral Health
Explores in depth the relationships between nutrition and oral health across all age groups. Discusses the latest knowledge on the consequences of poor diet for tooth loss and progression of oral diseases . Explains the importance of a disease-free and functional dentition for nutritional well-being
Nonsmooth Mechanics and Analysis : Theoretical and Numerical Advances
Nonsmooth mechanics concerns mechanical situations with possible nondifferentiable relationships, eventually discontinuous, as unilateral contact, dry friction, collisions, plasticity, damage, and phase transition. The basis of the approach consists in dealing with such problems without resorting to any regularization process. Indeed, the nonsmoothness is due to simplified mechanical modeling; a more sophisticated model would require too large a number of variables, and sometimes the mechanical information is not available via experimental investigations. Therefore, the mathematical formulation becomes nonsmooth; regularizing would only be a trick of arithmetic without any physical justification. Nonsmooth analysis was developed, especially in Montpellier, to provide specific theoretical and numerical tools to deal with nonsmoothness. It is important not only in mechanics but also in physics, robotics, and economics.
Nitrogen Fixation in Agriculture, Forestry, Ecology, and the Environment
Sustainability has a major part to play in the global challenge of continued development of regions, countries, and continents all around the World and biological nitrogen fixation has a key role in this process. This volume begins with chapters specifically addressing crops of major global importance, such as soybeans, rice, and sugar cane. It continues with a second important focus, agroforestry, and describes the use and promise of both legume trees with their rhizobial symbionts and other nitrogen-fixing trees with their actinorhizal colonization. An over-arching theme of all chapters is the interaction of the plants and trees with microbes and this theme allows other aspects of soil microbiology, such as interactions with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and the impact of soil-stress factors on biological nitrogen fixation, to be addressed. Furthermore, a link to basic science occurs through the inclusion of chapters describing the biogeochemically important nitrogen cycle and its key relationships among nitrogen fixation, nitrification, and denitrification. The volume then provides an up-to-date view of the production of microbial inocula, especially those for legume crops.
Nexus Network Journal 9,2 : Architecture and Mathematics
This volume is dedicated to "Mechanics in Architecture", that is, the science of structural mechanics, including the behaviour of structures, internal forces, and deformation, as well as the development of new structural systems to resist thrusts as a result of new architectural forms. It is a field of enquiry that examines a particular aspect of the relationships between architecture and the mathematical sciences. Some of the papers in this issue were presented at the Nexus 2006 conference during a special session dedicated to mechanics. Other research papers focus on an eighteenth-century Belgian pyramid, aspects of "fractal" architecture, and properties of a family of irrational values. The issue also includes a description and evaluation of a university-level course in architecture and mathematics, Rachel Fletcher's Geometer's Angle column, and book reviews.
New Horizons for Asian Museums and Museology
This book presents up-to-date information about museums and museology in present-day Asia, focusing on Japan, Mongolia, Myanmar, and Thailand. Asian countries today have developed or are developing their own museology and museums, which are not simple copies of European or North American models. This book provides readers with carefully chosen examples of museum activities—for example, exhibition and sharing information, database construction, access to and conservation of museum collections, relationships between museums and local communities, and international cooperation in the field of cultural heritage.
New Frontiers in Social Innovation Research
Interest in social innovation continues to rise, from governments setting up social innovation 'labs' to large corporations developing social innovation strategies. Yet theory lags behind practice, and this hampers our ability to understand social innovation and make the most of its potential. This collection brings together work by leading social innovation researchers globally, exploring the practice and process of researching social innovation, its nature and effects. Combining theoretical chapters and empirical studies, it shows how social innovation is blurring traditional boundaries between the market, the state and civil society, thereby developing new forms of services, relationships and collaborations. It takes a critical perspective, analyzing potential downsides of social innovation that often remain unexplored or are glossed over, yet concludes with a powerful vision of the potential for social innovation to transform society.
New Computational Paradigms : Changing Conceptions of What is Computable
This book examines new developments in the theory and practice of computation from a mathematical perspective, with topics ranging from classical computability to complexity, from biocomputing to quantum computing. The book opens with an introduction by Andrew Hodges, the Turing biographer, who analyzes the pioneering work that anticipated recent developments concerning computation’s allegedly new paradigms. The remaining material covers traditional topics in computability theory such as relative computability, theory of numberings, and domain theory, in addition to topics on the relationships between proof theory, computability, and complexity theory.
Neanderthals Revisited : New Approaches and Perspectives
This volume presents cutting-edge research by leading scientists re-examining the major debates in Neanderthal research with the use of innovative state-of-the art methods and exciting new theoretical approaches.Topics addressed include the re-evaluation of Neanderthal anatomy, inferred adaptations and habitual activities, developmental patterns, phylogenetic relationships, and the Neanderthal extinction; new methods include computer tomography, 3D geometric morphometrics, ancient DNA and bioenergetics. The diverse contributions offer fresh insights and advances in Neanderthal and modern human origins research.
Nano physical pharmaceutics
Nanomedicine is an emerging and rapidly evolving field, which could significantly help in early disease diagnosis, therapeutic improvement, novel therapeutic modality development, and medical expenditure reduction. The challenge remains, however, that the specially designed and carefully synthesized nanomedicines function poorly in animal verification despite great performance in vitro. A deeper understanding of the physicochemical properties of nanomedicine is the key. This book applies physical theories and models to determine the parameters for controlling the physicochemical properties of nanomedicines, including micelles, liposomes, and inorganic nanoparticles. Qualitative and quantitative relationships are established to provide guidance for nanomedicine design, characterization, and analysis. The text also compiles cutting-edge research in nanomedicine from the interdisciplinary team of the Department of Nanomedicine at Naval Medical University, China, which is currently establishing the characteristic discipline called Nano Physical Pharmaceutics. Edited by Wei Li, a prominent nanotechnology researcher, this book will appeal to anyone involved in nanotechnology, medicine, macromolecular science, biology, chemistry, and especially those with an interest in drug delivery or cancer therapy.
Mute people aiding application
Communication is an essential tool for human survival. It is a fundamental and effective method of sharing thoughts, needs, feelings, and opinions. However, a large portion of the world's population lacks the ability to communicate with others. Such as the ones suffering from hearing loss, speech disability, or even both. Those disabilities have a significant impact on their lives in terms of work and relationships. The majority of these people are sometimes unable to support themselves financially due to the lack of job opportunities. Given these difficulties, we have decided to develop an application to help them overcome the obstacles they may encounter in their daily lives. After consulting with two deaf and mute people we customized an application that works in two ways. One of which is to translate their sign language in real time by using mobile camera and recognizing hand motion. The other works by converting text-to-voice, and accurately expressing the user’s emotions with the help of the facial emotion recognition.
Multimodal Technologies for Perception of Humans ; International Evaluation Workshops CLEAR 2007 and RT 2007, Baltimore, MD, USA, May 8-11, 2007, Revised Selected Papers
This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed joint post-workshop proceedings of two co-located events: the Second International Workshop on Classification of Events, Activities and Relationships, CLEAR 2007, and the 5th Rich Transcription 2007 Meeting Recognition evaluation, RT 2007, held in succession in Baltimore, MD, USA, in May 2007.The workshops had complementary evaluation efforts; CLEAR for the evaluation of human activities, events, and relationships in multiple multimodal data domains; and RT for the evaluation of speech transcription-related technologies from meeting room audio collections.
Multimodal Technologies for Perception of Humans ; 1st International Evaluation Workshop on Classification of Events, Activities and Relationships, CLEAR 2006, Southampton, UK, April 6-7, 2006, Revised Selected Papers
This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the First International CLEAR 2006 Evaluation Campaign and Workshop on Classification of Events, Activities and Relationships for evaluation of multimodal technologies for the perception of humans, their activities and interactions. The workshop was held in the UK in April 2006.
Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Risk Assessment and Management
Provides in-depth guidance on how to use multi-criteria decision analysis methods for risk assessment and risk management. The frontiers of engineering operations management methods for identifying the risks, investigating their roles, analyzing the complex cause-effect relationships, and proposing countermeasures for risk mitigation are presented in this book. The most significant feature of this book is that it provides various systematic multi-criteria decision analysis methods for risk assessment and management, and illustrates the application of these methods in different fields.
Mud and Mudstones : Introduction and Overview
Our book provides the first elementary overview of mud and mudstone written for a broad spectrum of professionals, teachers and students in geology, petroleum geology and engineering, urban planning and development, paleontology and paleoecology, and architecture and archaeology. Mud and mudstone provide the foundations to master all their aspects and prepares you to dig deeply into the many fascinating questions of their origin, relationships to earth history and practical uses. Key topics include the production of mud, its transport, the important role of bottom oxygen, sites of deposition, burial, provenance, mudstones in basins and an overview of practical uses followed by an appendix and extended glossary.
Mucosal Immunology and Virology
Mucosal Immunology and Virology is designed to provide the clinician with a thorough and yet approachable textbook describing the relationships between immunology, virology and the disease process. It includes a vast wealth of information and illustrations to enable the reader to become familiar with the clinical presentation of these diseases, the tests needed to establish the diagnosis, and the treatment of the disease including specific antiviral agents. Suitable for residents and clinicians in immunology, infectious diseases, internal medicine and dermatology the book reviews the systematic manifestations of mucosal viral infections, including those involving the mouth, gastrointestinal tract, respiratory system, anogenital mucosa and ocular infections
Morphology, Molecules, Evolution and Phylogeny in Polychaeta and Related Taxa; Proceedings of two ISSI Workshops, 18–22 October 1999 and 15–19 May 2000, Bern, Switzerland
Recently, evidence has been accumulated which shows that some of the groups formerly regarded as independent "phyla" such as Pogonophora (now recognized as Siboglinidae), Echiura, Myzostomida and perhaps Sipuncula, are most probably nothing else than greatly modified Annelida. The extreme morphological diversity found especially in Polychaeta displays the plasticity of a simple segmented organisation that basically is nothing else but a serial repetition of identical units. Thus, annelids are highly important to our understanding of fundamental questions about morphological and adaptive diversity, as well as clarifying evolutionary changes and phylogenetic relationships. The book aims to summarize our knowledge on Polychaetes polychaetes and their allies and gives an overview of recent advances gained by studies that employed conventional and modern methods plus, increasingly and importantly, the use of molecular markers and computer-assisted kinship analyses. It also reflects the state of art in polychaete sciences and presents new questions and controversies. As such it will significantly influence the direction of research on Polychaeta and their related taxa.
Molecular Mechanisms of Plant and Microbe Coexistence
Molecular Mechanisms of Plant and Microbe Coexistence presents studies on the complex and manifold interactions of plants and microbes at the population, genomics and proteomics level. The role of soil microbial diversity in enhancing plant health and plant microbe beneficial symbioses is discussed. Microbial communities are shown in the light of evolution. Main topics include genome coexistence and the functional genomics and proteomics of plant-associated microbes, which could form the basis for new environmentally benign strategies to combat infectious plant diseases and regulate plant growth. Further chapters focus on the role of signaling during the different stages of plant microbe coexistence, in symbiotic or pathogenic relationships, in quorum sensing and plant viral infections. Methods for studying the interactions in the root zone complement the book, which will certainly be of relevance in the practical application to agriculture, food security and for maintaining the balance of our ecosystems.
Modern Trends in Geomechanics
This book is loaded with rich and stimulating articles by a roster of brilliant scholars, reflecting some recent trends in the frontier research of geomechanics. This collection of 32 contributions stems from an international workshop on "Modern Trends of Geomechanics" held in Vienna. The contributions span a wide range of topics and an enormous range of physical scales, from micromechanics at grain scale to engineering problems at large scale; from laboratory and field testing over constitutive modelling to numerical analysis.
Modeling of Soft Matter
Soft matter plays a role in a wide variety of important processes and application. For example, gel swelling and dynamics are an essential part of many biological and individual processes, such as motility mechanisms in bacteria and the transport and absorption of drugs. Ferroelectrics, liquid crystals, and elastomers are being used to design ever faster switching devices. Experimental studies, such as scattering, optical and electron microscopy, have provided a great deal of detailed information on structures. But the integration of mathematical modeling and analysis with experimental approaches promises to greatly increase our understanding of structure-property relationships and constitutive equations. The workshop on Modeling of Soft Matter has taken such an integrated approach.
Microbes in agri-forestry biotechnology
Explores recent advances on the use of microbes for agri-forestry biotechnological applications. It provides technical concepts and discussions on the use of microorganisms for processes such as bioprocessing, bioremediation, soil enhancement, aquaponics advances, and plant-host symbiosis. The book provides an overview of the microbial approach to the tools and processes used in agriculture and forestry that make or modify products, improve plants for specific uses, and make use of livestock in agricultural systems. The authors discuss the main process conditions that enhance agri-forestry applications with the use of microbes and introduce the use of genetically modified (GM) microbes in agrobiotechnology. Finally, the authors explore the main technological advances in the production of secondary metabolites with potential applications in agri-forestry.
