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The need for fresh water is increasing with the rapid growth of the world's population. In countries and regions with available water resources, it is necessary to ensure the health and safety of the water supply. However, in countries and regions with limited freshwater resources, priority is given to water supply plans and projects, among which the desalination strategy stands out. In the desalination process, membrane and thermal processes are used to obtain fresh water from salty water that is in abundant amounts in the sea. This book will outline valuable scientific contributions to the new desalination and water treatment technologies to obtain high quality water with low negative environmental impacts and cost. The editors would like to record their sincere thanks to the authors for their contributions.

Since the dawn of civilization, humans were selected, allocated and organized based on their skills and job criteria. Today, the role of Human Resources (HR) professionals goes beyond recruitment and management of human capital. Human Resource Planning for the 21st Century tackles the current trends of human resource management (HRM) and human resource planning while highlighting certain roles that HR professionals are involved in. Human Resource Planning for the 21st Century explores HRM systems and their roles within a corporate setting, elaborates on HR plans for crises, uncovers the effects of downsizing on company brand and looks at the possible impact of globalization on corporate social responsibility and HRM.

Changes in seabird populations are good indicators of large-scale and long-term change in marine ecosystems, and are important because of their global impacts on the marine environment. This book has six chapters that present a wide variety of global seabird-related issues, from India to Svalbard, Norway. It also gives a comprehensive history of the use and chemical content of guano and certification schemes in fisheries for seabird conservation in Argentina. With the knowledge available in this book we should know how best to protect seabirds, which need all our support to survive in changing environments and climates. We can all do our best to recycle plastic waste to reduce global plastic pollution, which has affected seabirds' physical state, food sources, and nesting areas.

Nanocrystals and nanostructures attract a special attention in the recent years due to their various properties and a wide range of applications such as in electrical, optical, optoelectronic, catalytic, medicine, chemo- and biosensing, and environmental protection fields. Although extensive research has been done in the field of nanocrystals, it is considered one growing research field. The main goal of this book is to present the current research activities in the field of nanocrystals and nanostructures covering issues regarding new synthesis methods, self-assembly strategies, characterization techniques, properties, and applications. Interesting reports regarding biomimetic modeling of the biomineralization processes and theoretical models to describe mechanisms of deformation twinning in nanocrystalline and ultrafine-grained materials have been presented. By structuring, approaching, and content, the work may be useful for specialist in the field of nano-/materials science, PhD students, students, and all those interested in this topic of high relevance.

DNA damage response (DDR) and lesion repair are vital processes ensuring genome integrity through various pathways depending mainly on the nature of DNA injury and cell cycle stage. DDR is finely regulated at many levels in co-ordination with other ongoing processes as is genome replication and cell cycle progression. Posttranslational modifications (PTMs), affecting both protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions, play a crucial role in finely tuning all processes involved in the restoration of genome lesions. Regarding damaged chromatin, PTMs serve in many cases as recruitment platforms for DNA repair mechanisms by facilitating binding sites or regulating interactions between involved proteins. Ubiquitination, the addition of ubiquitin moieties on a target protein, apart from controlling protein availability through degradation, is also involved, together with partner small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO), in controlling many pathways involved in DDR by modifying the structure-function relationship and thus interacting with partner molecules. The aim of this book is to cover a broad spectrum of current topics in ubiquitination and to a lesser extent SUMOylation involvement in regulation of DDR and repair in health and disease. This book is intended for pre- and postgraduate students and young scientists in this field. Members of both academic and research institutions, actively involved in the field, have described their current understanding of major mechanisms involved, highlighted key events, described ongoing applications in both developmental diseases and cancer and provided hints for future potential applications.

In a plural, complex, and diverse society, the school faces many challenges. Teachers must prepare their students for future professions, unthinkable nowadays, and the digital competences of teachers and students are one of the axes of an advanced school. This book presents a set of works rigorously elaborated by authors of different disciplines, on the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in educational centers and on the use of digital resources in the initial and continuing teacher training to improve them, as well as in the teaching of different subjects to achieve a better academic and social performance of students. Besides, the reader will find some innovative experiences in physical education to achieve a better physical, emotional, and social performance of students.

Towards Malaria Elimination - A Leap Forward was started to mark the occasion for renewed commitment to end malaria transmission for good (the WHO's call for "Malaria Free World" by 2030). This book is dedicated for the benefit of researchers, scientists, program and policy managers, students and anyone interested in malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases with the goal of sharing recent information on success stories, innovative control approaches and challenges in different regions of the world. Some main issues that emerged included multidrug-resistant malaria and pandemic risk, vaccines, cross-border malaria, asymptomatic parasite reservoir, the threat of Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium knowlesi, insecticide resistance in Anopheles vectors and outdoor malaria transmission. This book is one little step forward to bring together in 17 chapters the experiences of malaria-expert researchers from five continents to present updated information on disease epidemiology and control at the national/regional level, highlighting the constraints, challenges, accomplishments and prospects of malaria elimination.

Sea level rise and coastal erosion had drawn an increasing awareness recently as the repercussion of increase of sea level and coastal erosion would reshape the earth's system and induce a tremendous loss in ecological or economics cost. Governments are dedicated to meliorate the occurrence of these phenomena, or else all creations on the earth will suffer from the catastrophe. Global warming is one of the crucial factors resulting in the increase of sea level and coastal erosion. Remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) technologies are thoroughly adopted and applied to monitor the dynamic change of the nature system, such as coastal land use and land cover, sea level rise, and coastal infrastructure.

Clustering has emerged as one of the more fertile fields within data analytics, widely adopted by companies, research institutions, and educational entities as a tool to describe similar/different groups. The book Recent Applications in Data Clustering aims to provide an outlook of recent contributions to the vast clustering literature that offers useful insights within the context of modern applications for professionals, academics, and students. The book spans the domains of clustering in image analysis, lexical analysis of texts, replacement of missing values in data, temporal clustering in smart cities, comparison of artificial neural network variations, graph theoretical approaches, spectral clustering, multiview clustering, and model-based clustering in an R package. Applications of image, text, face recognition, speech (synthetic and simulated), and smart city datasets are presented.

Optical amplifiers are indispensable in long-haul communication systems operating in a relatively broad range of electromagnetic spectra. Various forms of optical amplifiers and their advancements have been extensively discussed in the literature emphasizing the relative merits and demerits of different types of configurations and/or designs and also usefulness in specific applications. The book - Optical Amplifiers: A Few Different Dimensions - aims at reporting developments in these devices in the recent years. The contributed chapters in this book encompass both theoretical and experimental results covering various aspects in the relevant research directions. This somehow makes the volume useful to both experts and novice researchers. Finally, the expectation remains of the contents to be of some merit for the R

Temperature is the most often-measured environmental quantity and scientists are continuously improving ways of sensing it. To present their work in the field of temperature sensing, researchers from distant parts of the world have joined their efforts and contributed their ideas according to their interest and engagement. Their articles will give you the opportunity to understand concepts and uses of fiber-optic sensing technology. The optical fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer for temperature sensing is presented, as well as the optical fiber-distributed temperature sensor and fiber Bragg grating-based sensor. You can learn about tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy and its various industrial applications. Last but not least, cutting temperature measurements during the machining of aluminum alloys provides us with an insight into the correlation between cutting conditions, mechanical strength of the aluminum alloy, and the cutting temperature measured using the tool-workpiece thermocouple system. The editors hope that the presented contributions will allow both professionals and readers not involved in the immediate field to understand and enjoy the topic.

The rock matrix and the fluids contained therein define the aquifer as a whole, the custodian of continuity of life on this planet Earth. Its sustainable development, equitable utilization, quality maintenance, and balanced discharge and recharge are the essential elements to ensure that the next generation receives the resource baton passed on by the current generation. Spanning across the political and regional frontiers, transboundary aquifers have the potential to provide a uniting platform to the participatory nations. The common good of water can be enhanced by synergized research, data and knowledge sharing, joint development ventures, and hazard mitigation. Covering the multifarious facets of aquifers, this book will form an essential and interesting reading for all stakeholders?researchers, engineers, academia, intelligentsia, and the common consumer.

This book reviews current research, including applications of matrices, spaces, and other characteristics. It discusses the application of matrices, which has become an area of great importance in many scientific fields. The theory of row/column determinants of a partial solution to the system of two-sided quaternion matrix equations is analyzed. It introduces a matrix that has the exponential function as one of its eigenvectors and realizes that this matrix represents finite difference derivation of vectors on a partition. Mixing problems and the corresponding associated matrices have different structures that deserve to be studied in depth. Special compound magic squares will be considered. Finally, a new type of regular matrix generated by Fibonacci numbers is introduced and we shall investigate its various topological properties.

This book has been written to represent the efficient applications of sustainability upon building designs. The book intends to illustrate various techniques of action of sustainability on building conceptions. The book is divided into four parts and eight chapters. Part I "Introduction into Target Theme" includes a chapter with title "Introductory Chapter." It makes an overview of the meaning and the target of sustainable building and sustainable building material. Part II "Sustainable Building Design, Process, and Management" discusses many forms and concepts of sustainable building and includes three chapters. Part III "Sustainable Building by Using Energy Efficiency in Building Design" includes one chapter. Part IV "Sustainability in Building Materials: Study Cases" includes three chapters.

Ozone has an important and irreplaceable function in nature and human society. It preserves life on the Earth by stratospheric ozone layer. On the other hand, the formation of ground-level ozone by reactions of hydrocarbons with nitrogen dioxide in the presence of sunlight has adverse effects on humans and animals as well as on various materials. This book concentrates on the protection of stratospheric ozone and prevention of ground-level ozone formation; applications of its strong oxidizing properties in the treatment of water, wastewater and sludge; odor and color removal; uses in medicine as a disinfectant; and various other ozone therapies. It also deals with catalytic ozonation in water treatment, control methods for ozone applications on biological systems, various areas of ozone use in dental care, follow-up therapy and prevention.

This book is about the novel aspects and future trends of the hyperspectral imaging in agriculture, food, and environment. The topics covered by this book are hyperspectral imaging and their applications in the nondestructive quality assessment of fruits and vegetables, hyperspectral imaging for assessing quality and safety of meat, multimode hyperspectral imaging for food quality and safety, models fitting to pattern recognition in hyperspectral images, sequential classification of hyperspectral images, graph construction for hyperspectral data unmixing, target visualization method to process hyperspectral image, and soil contamination mapping with hyperspectral imagery. This book is a general reference work for students, professional engineers, and readers with interest in the subject.

Tissue regeneration is a vast subject, with many different important aspects to consider. Regenerative medicine is a new branch of medicine that tries to change the course of chronic diseases and, in many cases, regenerates the organ systems that fail due to age, disease, damage, or genetic defects. The main purpose of this book is to point out the interest of some important topics of tissue regeneration and the progress in this field as well as the variety of different surgical fields and operations. This book includes 7 sections and 11 chapters that provide an overview of the essentials in tissue regeneration science and their potential applications in surgery. The authors of each chapter have given consolidated information on ground realities and attempted to provide a comprehensive knowledge of tissue engineering and regeneration. This book will be useful to researchers and students of biological and biomedical sciences (medical and veterinarian researchers).

The main scope of this study is to emphasize exergy efficiency in all fields of industry. The chapters collected in the book are contributed by invited researchers with a long-standing experience in different research areas. I hope that the material presented here is understandable to a wide audience, not only energy engineers but also scientists from various disciplines. The book contains seven chapters in three sections: (1) "General Information about Exergy," (2) "Exergy Applications," and (3) "Thermoeconomic Analysis." This book provides detailed and up-to-date evaluations in different areas written by academics with experience in their fields. It is anticipated that this book will make a scientific contribution to exergy workers, researchers, academics, PhD students, and other scientists in both the present and the future.

Plants are the basic source of food for both humans and animals. Most of the food is made of fruits and seeds. For these to be formed, pollination must first take place. This process is the transfer of pollen grains from the anther, which is the male structure of the flower, to the sigma on the female structure of the flower. The transfer process requires agents to be carried out. The agents can be either biotic or abiotic. Nature perfected this arrangement between the pollination agents and the plants. As ecosystems and agricultural systems are changing, this balanced arrangement becomes disturbed. This makes it necessary that pollination systems be studied so that necessary measures can be undertaken to ensure productivity. The chapters of this book present results in research undertaken to improve productivity in crops such as Actinidia chinensis (the kiwifruit), Theobroma cacao (cocoa), and Manicaria saccifera (a tropical forest palm). Some results are presented on tests to check the viability of pollen grains and the delivery of sperm cells through pollen tubes to the embryo sac. These results can serve as guidelines to any person seeking to improve pollination and productivity or to check the efficiency on pollination in ecosystems or agricultural production systems.

The book Reflections on Bioethics is an effort that brings together works grouped into five sections: "Bioethics and Health", "Bioethics and Education", "Bioethics and Technology", "Bioethics in the Use of Experimental Animals",and "Selected Topics of Bioethics". In each of these sections, the fundamental concepts of bioethics and their relationship with each of these branches of knowledge are covered. The purpose is to give the reader a specific document of topics, it is not intended to be a treaty because the study of any of the five sections is very broad. However, this is an effort that manages to combine in interdisciplinary subjects that are fundamental for professionals of all fields of knowledge.

Superfood is a food that contains active ingredients or important nutrients at extremely high levels. Protective effects of superfoods on diseases have been remarked. Recently, several foods such as camu camu, chia seeds and goji berries are well known, and their trade has been rapidly increasing in the past 10 years. The purpose of this book is the development of a novel concept of superfoods and diet-containing superfoods. In the chapters, researchers have introduced the active components of superfoods and diets using such foods. Superfoods derived from fish and by-products of beer brewing are also introduced. Moreover, the procedure of bio-accessibility is also considered. I expect that the readers understand this novel concept of superfoods.

Musculoskeletal disorders are defined as disorders that affect a part of the body's musculoskeletal system, which includes bones, nerves, tendons, ligaments, joints, cartilage, blood vessels, and spinal disks. These are the injuries that result from repeated motions, vibrations, and forces placed on human bodies while performing various job actions. They are extremely common and costly problems for people and companies. Thus, this book is designed to include a wide array of extensive and comprehensive discussions provided on occupational, educational, and medical aspects of ergonomics. Thus, it can be utilized as a guide to identify and analyze the risk factors, reveal the impact of prevention and intervention, and discuss treatment of musculoskeletal disorders.

This book is devoted to different aspects of tectonic researches. New results and interpretations are presented here for diverse tectonic settings. Most of the chapters include up-to-date materials of detailed geological investigations, often combined with geophysical data, which can help understand more clearly the essence of mechanisms of different tectonic processes. Some chapters are devoted to the tectonic evolution of regions (East Antarctica, East Kazakhstan, Mongolo-Okhotsk orogenic belt), and others have dealt with the different aspects of tectonic events: influence of detachment structural deformation on pore structure evolution in shales, evolution of drainage in response to brittle-ductile dynamics and surface processes, soft sediment deformation structures triggered by the modern earthquakes, and post-opening deformation history of the Japan Sea back-arc basin.

The rapid fragmentation and habitat change in natural environments have created a need for management and conservation, which will ensure areas are protected from anthropogenic interference. These protected areas are necessary to provide adequate location for biodiversity conservation, environmental monitoring, and scientific research where a complete understanding of the natural process and full protection of ecosystems can be attained. This book highlights various approaches for managing and conserving protected areas in temperate and tropical regions to respond to some pressing global challenges today. It is divided into five main sections, viz., protected area management, fish and wildlife conservation, biodiversity conservation, ecotourism and recreation, and local community participation. The book enhances the understanding of the important roles national parks play in the environment and society.

Oxygen represents only 20% of the Earth's atmosphere, yet it is vital for the survival of aerobic organisms. There is a dark part of the use of oxygen that consists in generating reactive species that are potentially harmful to living organisms. Moreover, reactive oxygen species can combine with nitrogen derivatives and generate many other reactive species. Thus, living organisms are continuously assaulted by reactive species from external or internal sources. However, the real danger comes in the case of high concentrations and prolonged exposure to these species. This book presents an image of the mechanisms of action of reactive species and emphasizes their involvement in diseases. Inflammation and cancer are examined to determine when and how reactive species turn the evolution of a benign process to a malignant one. Some answers may come from recent studies indicating that reactive species are responsible for epigenetic changes.

Human skin cancers, the most common type of tumors, represent a significant health burden. The deadliest is unquestionably melanoma. Half of melanomas have an activating mutation in the BRAF gene, prompting development of novel drugs, vemurafenib and dabrafenib, specifically targeting mutated BRAF. Trametinib and cobimetinib, which block MEK, a BRAF effector protein, have been used in combination with BRAF inhibitors. A promising new melanoma treatment is immunotherapy, approach that boosts patient's own immune system to attack cancer. Pembrolizumab and nivolumab inhibit PD-1, whereas Ipilimumab targets CTLA-4, another immunity check point, to boost the immune response. Here we focus on pathways, mechanisms, targets and treatments of human skin cancers, with particular emphasis on the new developments in the research on melanomas.

Nowadays, nobody can imagine practicing obstetrics without using obstetrical ultrasound. Working in the prenatal diagnosis field requires dedication, patience, skills, experience, caution, and empathy. The concept of this book was guided by the desire to provide some help to the ultrasound operators. On a daily basis, they are confronted with the challenging task of ruling out or suspecting/confirming the diagnosis of fetal anomalies, either structural or chromosomal. The chapters of this book contain objective and exhaustive updated reviews of the pertinent literature, so that the reader would have a wide reference basis on each subject. Yet, many authors scan the fetus themselves or are directly involved with managing pregnancies with structural malformations or chromosomal anomalies. They kindly shared their personal experience and lessons learned over the years. This book is beneficial for all the professionals working in the prenatal diagnosis.

Ebola epidemics have had immediate and lasting impact in Africa and beyond, with its high case fatality and societal disruption. Its rapid spread, coupled with the limited knowledge, serves as a recipe for disaster and panic in the community. Health workers are particularly at risk, paying heavily with their lives. Sharing knowledge from various experts in basic sciences that support vaccine and drug development, as well as improving community surveillance and case management, enriches our understanding of this highly fatal and contagious disease. In a world that is fast becoming a global village, communicable diseases from low-resource setting are gradually becoming a global health threat. This book seeks to discuss emerging advances in the Ebola control.

This book is a wonderful celebration of culture and identity, especially from the cultural lens of the various authors' nation of origin. Culture is viewed as a collective programming of the mind and is at times compared to an onion?the more you peel off the layers, the more you get to learn about the values, beliefs, and norms of the respective societies. As complex as the onion diagram is, and it gives the possibilities of tears due to its complexity, a great understanding is critical to interact and communicate effectively. It is a unique tribute to the many scholars who have embarked on this journey of exploring culture and how identity is defined. It is an intellectual discourse that could act as a springboard for many more experiments to be conducted around the world, more specifically the multidimensional aspects of culture and identity. Other interesting elements in this book are the many historical details and the abundance of insightful illustrations.

This contribution book collects five among reviews and original articles from eminent experts working in the interdisciplinary area of biomaterial synthesis and application. From their direct and recent experience, the readers can access the novel and ongoing potentialities of different synthetic and engineered biomaterials. Contributions reflect the fundamental studies, with a particular attention to the physico-chemical mechanical characterization of biomaterials, along with biocompatibility studies and potential clinical use. After an introductory chapter on the question of storage stability for biomaterial-based devices and products and for polymeric nanomedicines, a first review deals with the use and commercial sources of hydroxyapatite in tissue engineering and other biomedical applications. A study follows on optical fiber laser marking on the properties of stainless steel in implant manufacturing. Two other reviews, respectively, focused on the approaches to prevent or treat the effects of calcification that occurs in vivo on biomaterial-based implants and on the encapsulation of pancreatic islet cells for the treatment of type I diabetes will be presented. Finally, an overview on the physical bases and application in biomaterial science of the spray-drying process will close the volume. This setting will allow to achieve a general view of how classical and novel biomaterials can be applied, along with the methodologies necessary to design, develop, and characterize them, without the restrictions necessarily imposed by industrial or profit concerns. Readers will be apprised about the methodologies used to develop biomaterials possessing the physical and biological properties needed for specific medical and clinical applications.