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Olfactory knows the truth
Olfaction, the sense of smell detects and discriminate odors as well as social cues which influence our innate responses. The olfactory system in human beings is found to be weak as compared to other animals; however, it seems to be very precise. It can detect and discriminate millions of chemical moieties (odorants) even in minuscule quantities. The sense of smell is greatly underappreciated, despite the fact that it monitors the intake of airborne agents into the human respiratory system and determine to a large degree the flavor and palatability of foods and beverage. In addition to enhancing quality of life, this primary sensory system warns of spoiled foods, leaking natural gas, polluted air and smoke, and mediates basic elements of communication (e.g., mother-infant interaction). It is now apparent that smell dysfunction is among the first clinical signs of such neurodegenerative diseases as Alzheimer’s disease and sporadic Parkinson’s disease.
Micro-, Meso- and Macro-Dynamics of the Brain
This book brings together leading investigators who represent various aspects of brain dynamics with the goal of presenting state-of-the-art current progress and address future developments. The topics cover the most fascinating facets of neuroscience from elementary computation of neurons, mesoscopic network oscillations, internally generated assembly sequences in the service of cognition, large-scale neuronal interactions within and across systems, the impact of sleep on cognition, memory and mental illness, brain controlled robots, motor-sensory integration, spatial navigation, large-scale computation and consciousness. Overall, this volume offers an integrated view of the challenges and opportunities in deciphering brain circuits in health and disease.
Medicina fisica e riabilitativa nei disturbi di equilibrio = Physical and rehabilitative medicine in balance disorders
Balance disorders are very common in the population: particularly frequent over the age of 40, are the first motivation for a medical examination after the age of 65 and frequently tend to become chronic. Balance disorders are symptoms of system dysfunction vestibular, complex sensory-psycho-motor system, whose task is that to control the activity of the antigravity muscles to maintain the erect station, of the oculomotor ones to allow the stabilization of the visual field during movement, and the neurovegetative functions they have relationship with standing and movement. Whether the vestibular system provides the information necessary for the check-up of the erect position, the rachis realizes it through a "stability dynamic ", allowed by its structural characteristics proprioception the spine is also a fundamental sensor for controlling balance ; therefore the techniques of physical and rehabilitative medicine and of manual medicine represent a powerful tool for curing ailments equilibrium. This volume comes from the comparison between a physiatrist and an audiologist, who for 15 years have integrated their clinical experience and therefore proposes a new one inter-specialist approach to the diagnostic and therapeutic problems of patients with balance disorders.
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.
Innervation of the Mammalian Esophagus
The esophagus is a relatively simple though vital organ. Beyond its role of propelling food from the pharynx to the stomach by a propulsive contraction wave representing the esophageal phase of deglutition, it is more recognized as a sensory organ from which a variety of respiratory and cardiovascular reflexes can be triggered.
Individual differences in sensory and consumer science : Experimentation, analysis and interpretation
Individual differences in sensory and consumer science: Experimentation, Analysis and Interpretation presents easily readable, State-of-the-art coverage on how to plan and execute experiments that give rise to individual differences, Also providing the framework for successful analysis and interpretation of results. The book highlights the different methodologies that can be applied and how to select the correct methodology based on the type of study you are performing, Be it product research and development, Quality control or consumer acceptance studies.Written by an experienced team of statisticians and sensory and consumer scientists, The book provides both academics and industry professionals with the first complete overview of a topic of ever-increasing importance.
Independent Component Analysis and Blind Signal Separation ; 6th International Conference, ICA 2006, Charleston, SC, USA, March 5-8, 2006, Proceedings
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Independent Component Analysis and Blind Source Separation, ICA 2006, held in Charleston, SC, USA, in March 2006. The 120 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 183 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on algorithms and architectures, applications, medical applications, speech and signal processing, theory, and visual and sensory processing.
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.
Human Haptic Perception : Basics and Applications
Active touch perception – also known as haptic perception – is of primary importance for the planning, direction and execution of everyday actions. This most complex of human sensory systems is gaining ever more importance for various scientific disciplines as well as practical industrial applications.In this book an international team of 80 authors presents a comprehensive collection of writings on both aspects of research on human haptic perception. After a theoretical and historical introduction, the chapters are dedicated to neurophysiological basics as well as the psychological, clinical and neuropsychological aspects of haptic perception. Results of studies into human haptic perception in the fields of virtual haptics and robotics are also included. In the final section, contributions from the applied and industrial sectors illustrate the practical uses of knowledge about the human sense of touch.
Hearing : From Sensory Processing to Perception
Hearing – From Sensory Processing to Perception presents the papers of the latest International Symposium on Hearing. The 59 chapters treat topics such as: the physiological representation of temporal and spectral stimulus properties as a basis for the perception of modulation patterns, pitch and signal intensity; spatial hearing and the physiological mechanisms of binaural processing in mammals.
Handbook of neurochemistry and molecular neurobiology : Sensory neurochemistry
This volume of the Handbook of Neurochemistry and Molecular Biology focuses on molecular events involved in synapse formation, synaptic plasticity and ongoing neural activity. The volume explores axonal growth cones, synapse development, and mechanisms of LTP and LTD, and calcium dynamics.
Hand transplantation
This book presents the global experimental and clinical experience on hand transplantation and all types of other composite tissue allografts so far performed. A complete review of all aspects of these innovative and ground-breaking procedures is clearly presented in 15 different sections. They include the experimental basis of hand transplantation, strategies for selecting ideal candidates and preparing successful hand transplantation programmes, surgical techniques, most effective immunosuppressive drug regimes, analysis of the unique immunological behaviour of these transplants and rehabilitation protocols to achieve optimal sensory and motor recovery. Each section is dedicated to a special issue, such as psychological and medicolegal implications, brain remodelling after hand transplantation and introduction of a new scoring system for overall comprehensive outcome evaluation. A complete list of composite tissues allografts currently carried out around the world is reported in detail, including the face, abdominal wall, uterus, larynx and knee joint.
Hair Cell Regeneration, Repair, and Protection
Hair Cell Regeneration, Repair, and Protection provides a comprehensive survey of what is currently known about the regeneration, repair and protection of sensory hair cells and subsequent recovery of function in the auditory and vestibular system. The aim is to provide graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, clinicians and scientists in related disciplines with the biological bases of hair cells and with an understanding of the factors that contribute to their regeneration and repair.
Future approaches for safe and effective pain management
Pain is defined as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience that is associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage. It is subjective and considered an important physiological mechanism by which humans prevent themselves from developing tissue injury. However, pain patients do not respond to treatment in the same way, which makes it challenging to issue a consistent treatment for all pain conditions. Excessive pain can markedly increase psychological health problems and decrease health‐related quality of life; therefore, pain should be managed appropriately by analgesics. Analgesics act in various ways on the peripheral and central pain pathways and are regarded as one of the most valuable but equally dangerous groups of medications. Individual variability in pain perception and differences in the efficacy of analgesic drugs are complex phenomena and are partly genetically predetermined. Pain severities as well as responses to analgesics, can also be very variable among sufferer.
Fundamentals of Space Medicine
Topics discussed in this book include: adaptation of sensory-motor, cardio-vascular, bone, and muscle systems to the microgravity of spaceflight; psychological and sociological issues of living in a confined, isolated, and stressful environment; operational space medicine, such as crew selection, training and in-flight health monitoring, countermeasures and support; results of space biology experiments on individual cells, plants, and animal models; and the impact of long-duration missions such as the human mission to Mars. The author also provides a detailed description of how to fly a space experiment, based on his own experience with research projects conducted onboard Salyut-7, Mir, Spacelab, and the Space Shuttle. Now is the time to look at the future of human spaceflight and what comes next. The future human exploration of Mars captures the imagination of both the public and the scientific community. Many physiological, psychological, operational, and scientific issues need to be solved before the first crew can explore the enigmatic Red Planet. This book also identifies the showstoppers that can be foreseen and what we need to learn to fully understand the implications and risks of such a mission.
Functional Neuroanatomy of Pain
Pain is an unpleasant but very important biological signal for danger. Nociception is necessary for survival and maintaining the integrity of the organism in a potentially hostile environment. Pain is both a sensory experience and a perceptual metaphor for damage and it is activated by noxious stimuli that act on a complex pain sensory apparatus. However, chronic pain having no more a protective role can become a ruining disease itself, termed "neuropathic pain".
Four seasons (Restaurant series design)
يهدف مشروع تصميم مطعم الفصول الأربعة إلى تقديم تجربة حسية متكاملة تعكس أجواء الفصول المختلفة داخل فضاء داخلي مبتكر ينقسم المطعم إلى أربعة أقسام، يمثل كل منها فصلاً من فصول السنة حيث تم تصميم كل قسم بعناية ليحاكي عناصر الفصل من حيث الألوان، الإضاءة، الخامات، والأجواء العامة. يتميز المشروع بإمكانية تجربة العيش في أجواء فصل معين في غير موسمه مما يخلق تجربة فريدة للزوار يعتمد التصميم على دمج العناصر الطبيعية والتقنيات الحديثة لخلق بيئة غامرة توفر الراحة والاستمتاع البصري والحسي. يركز المشروع على الجانب الوظيفي والجمالي في آنٍ واحد. مع مراعاة معايير التصميم الداخلي الحديثة الابتكار في تقديم المساحات التفاعلية.
Formulas, ingredients and production of cosmetics technology of skin- and hair-care products in Japan
Provides the comprehensive knowledge and instruction necessary for researchers to design and create cosmetics products. The book’s chapters cover a comprehensive list of topics, which include, among others, the basics of cosmetics, such as the raw materials of cosmetics and their application; practical techniques and technologies for designing and manufacturing cosmetics, as well as theoretical knowledge; emulsification; sensory evaluations of cosmetic ingredients; and how to create products such as soap-based cleansers, shampoos, conditioners, creams, and others. The potential for innovation is great in Japan’s cosmetics industry. This book expresses the hope that the high level of dedicated research continues and proliferates, especially among those who are innovators at heart.
Face Biometrics for Personal Identification : Multi-Sensory Multi-Modal Systems
This book provides an ample coverage of theoretical and experimental state-of-the-art work as well as new trends and directions in the biometrics field. It offers students and software engineers a thorough understanding of how some core low-level building blocks of a multi-biometric system are implemented. While this book covers a range of biometric traits including facial geometry, 3D ear form, fingerprints, vein structure, voice, and gait, its main emphasis is placed on multi-sensory and multi-modal face biometrics algorithms and systems. "Multi-sensory" refers to combining data from two or more biometric sensors, such as synchronized reflectance-based and temperature-based face images. "Multi-modal" biometrics means fusing two or more biometric modalities, like face images and voice timber. The first part addresses new and emerging face biometrics. Emphasis is placed on biometric systems where single sensor and single modality are employed in challenging imaging conditions. The second part on multi-sensory face biometrics deals with the personal identification task in challenging variable illuminations and outdoor operating scenarios by employing visible and thermal sensors. The third part of the book focuses on multi-modal face biometrics by integrating voice, ear, and gait modalities with facial data. The last part presents generic chapters on multi-biometrics fusion methodologies and performance prediction techniques.
Electroreception
Through studies of electroreception, researchers have gained extensive knowledge about a complete sensory system, from molecular biology to computation, communication and behavior. The book Electroreception will examine the behavior, structure and function of the electrosensory systems of fish and other vertebrates. As a comprehensive volume on the subject, the book will serve as both an introduction to the study of electroreception and a reference and review volume for researchers in related fields.
