Bentham Science Publishers

Reliability Calculations with the Stochastic Finite Element presents different methods of reliability analysis for systems. Chapters explain methods used to analyze a number of systems such as single component maintenance system, repairable series system, rigid rotor balance, spring mechanics, gearbox design and optimization, and nonlinear vibration. The author proposes several established and new methods to solve reliability problems which are based on fuzzy systems, sensitivity analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, HL-RF methods, differential equations, and stochastic finite element processing, to name a few.

This handbook is a useful update on reliability analysis for mechanical engineers and technical apprentices.

This monograph explains the physiological, biochemical and behavioral processes of male bat reproduction. Chapters cover spermatogenesis, sperm ultrastructure, reproductive homeostasis, apoptotic processes, sperm maturation, sperm storage in female bats, and sexual selection processes.

The volume also presents studies focused on the reproductive physiology of Mexican cave bat species.

This monograph is a suitable reference for undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as researchers interested in chiropteran reproductive biology.

Research Protocols for Ophthalmic Disease Mechanisms and Therapeutics: Glaucoma – Ocular Hypertension offers a detailed, step-by-step protocols for isolating, characterizing, and analyzing cells and tissues of the eye’s anterior segment—where OHT originates—using techniques from molecular biology, pharmacology, and histology.

Across eight thematic sections, the book covers ocular anatomy, drug screening, receptor localization, cell-based assays, in vitro and in vivo models, drug formulation, and cutting-edge technologies such as gene editing, single-cell RNA sequencing, and stem cell therapies. Each protocol is designed to support reproducibility and translational relevance.

Key Features:

Details validated protocols for drug discovery and disease modeling

Demonstrates methods for studying receptor function and pharmacokinetics

Provides animal models and ex vivo systems to evaluate therapeutic strategies

Incorporates emerging tools such as CRISPR, metabolomics, and exosomes

Bridges experimental design with clinical relevance for glaucoma research

The aim of the Ebook series of Research Topics in Agricultural & Applied Economics (RTAAE) is to publish high quality economic researches applied to both the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors of the economy. The subject areas of this Ebook series include, among others, supply and demand analysis, technical change and productivity, industrial organization, labor economics, growth and development, environmental economics, marketing, business economics and finance. By covering a broad variety of economic research topics, this Ebook series should prove to be of considerable interest to a wide spectrum of academic, agricultural and applied economic researchers and scientists, as well as to industry specialists and government policy makers.

Stay informed about recent trends and groundbreaking research driving innovation in the AI-IoT landscape. AI, a simulated form of natural intelligence within machines, has revolutionized various industries, simplifying daily tasks for end-users. This book serves as a handy reference, offering insights into the latest research and applications where AI and IoT intersect. The book includes 12 edited chapters that provide a comprehensive exploration of the synergies between AI and IoT. The contributors attempt to address engineering opportunities and challenges in different fields. Key Topics: AI and IoT in Smart Farming: Explore how these technologies enhance crop yield and sustainability, revolutionizing agricultural practices. AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things): Understand the amalgamation of AI and IoT and its applications, particularly focusing on smart cities and agriculture. Smart Healthcare and Predictive Disease Analysis: Uncover the crucial role of AI and IoT in early disease prediction and improving healthcare outcomes. Applications of AI in Various Sectors: Explore how AI contributes to sustainable development, sentiment analysis, education, autonomous vehicles, fashion, virtual trial rooms, and more. Each chapter has structured sections with summaries and reference lists, making it an invaluable resource for researchers, professionals, and enthusiasts keen on understanding the potential and impact of these technologies in today's rapidly evolving world.

Universities are viewed by many as institutions that should impart quality education to enrolled students and foster a learning environment, which, in turn, would benefit the accumulation of knowledge worldwide. Enhancing university education is at the top of most governmental agendas. In this knowledge-driven economy, every nation wants to have the world's top-ranked universities. Every parent wants to send their child to a top university. And most people want to have a good university degree that gives them good prospects for landing a respectable job.

But universities are currently in turmoil: mass redundancies and department closures have become routine. Once revered as ivory towers of learning, today’s universities are forced to regard their students as consumers and customers. Many universities are now torn between labor market forces and increasing public expectations and accountability. University administration departments struggle with declining funding and increased cost scrutiny. Challenged on multiple fronts, universities are faced with conflicting agendas. They are expected to develop world-class reputations in research (an academic agenda) while teaching increasing numbers of students (a commercial agenda). They are required to be engines of economic development while maintaining comprehensive scholarly profiles. Numerous reports and headlines predict the demise of universities, emphasizing that the current educational and business model is not viable.

Reshaping Universities for Survival in the 21st Century: New Opportunities and Paradigms suggests possible paths which universities might take to survive in the future by providing a compelling account of the landscape of today’s universities and the challenges they face. Readers will learn about the current crises which universities face followed by an explanation of the ideologies and paradigms that have shaped the current academic landscape. New trends and concepts in university education are also explained, such as academic capitalism and MOOCs. Written in clear, easy-to-understand language, it is a must-read for anyone who studies, works or is interested in the higher education sector, including university and government leaders and educational policy makers.

This book aims at developing the capacity to apply poststructuralism in a setting where other discourses are dominant. It focuses on working both with students categorized as 'emotionally/behaviourally disordered' and their teachers in the context of a special education school. This unique work comes to understandings, using poststructuralist theory, about what it means to be positioned in the world as emotionally/behaviourally disordered.

Using these understandings it then looks at developing strategies for working with students and staff to enable them to become people who can begin to understand the multiple and contradictory discourses shaping them and shaping the social world they inhabit, such that they begin to develop strategies to undo their marginal positioning.

`Ricin Toxin’ brings together a collection of in depth and cutting edge reviews that focus on the current understanding of ricin toxins. This e-book provides a historical background, innovations in detection, identification and medical countermeasures against this biothreat, and the toxin’s previous use as an anti-cancer agent.

This e-book answers various important questions such as detection of ricin in food or soil, making of humanized antibody against the toxin, novel approaches for the creation of a safe vaccine to protect first responders, exploitation of toxin`s ability to bind and penetrate cells for medical benefits, aftereffects of administering antibody against ricin to a first responder and their exposure to the toxin, neutralization of different ricin from different castor plant cultivars. Aside from learning key concepts that may be overlooked while scanning literature, the reader will benefit from gems of information scattered throughout the book.

The book comprises of five different parts. The first part covers the background of ricin from pharaohs to bioterrorists and beyond.

The second part covers the discovery of recent technologies which are very helpful for the detection of ricin in different matrices, followed by the detection of ricin in the sorption of soils, minerals,textiles, and food; soil inflatration and dust transport. The third part covers the ricin and castor plant cultivars. It also discusses the antibody therapies such as Polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies and the extraction of ricin toxin from several cultivars of the Castor Plant (Ricinus communis).

The fourth part of this e-book discusses different medical countermeasures which are very effective in enhancing the progress in the development of vaccines against ricin intoxication. This part also describes different methods employed for the improvement of anti-ricin antibodies.

The last part of this book describes the replacement and different applications of the toxin. All chapters are written by paramount experts in ricin research.

`Ricin Toxin’ is an essential reading to all medical students, biochemists and professionals involved in the field of toxicology.

Robotics and Automation in Industry 4.0 explores the transformative role of robotics, automation, and emerging technologies in the modern industrial landscape. The book is divided into four comprehensive sections, each focusing on key areas of Industry 4.0. These are: 1) Robotics: Applications and Advancements, 2) Renewable Energy Applications, 3), FinTech, and 4) Multidisciplinary approaches. It compiles 13 chapters offering insights into the latest advancements and provides practical guidance for navigating the evolving industrial landscape.

The book provides an updated panorama of the functional relevance of molecular chaperones in the proper folding of client factors, protein-protein interactions, the regulation of key biological functions, the development of ligand-based structural complexes and the consequent pharmacological or biotechnological applications of these processes. The involvement of molecular chaperones in several processes ranging from regulation of transcription factors and protein-protein interactions in bacteria to proteostasis, signaling pathways and cancer are also addressed. The book is an essential consulting tool for researchers, working professionals in academia or industry, and students of all levels who wish to obtain the most relevant and updated information currently available about protein folding and chaperones.

Consumers have been increasingly involved in the innovation process in the last few decades, a major driving force of business success. This involvement is critically important for innovation, particularly in product development.

However, consumers frequently cannot articulate exactly what they need, want, or like if they are asked directly. It is very difficult for consumers to articulate their needs and desires. Therefore, researchers have to use other means to understand their motivations. There are many arguments suggesting that focus groups cannot create a reliable direction for new product development (NPD) or message optimization. A solution for this problem lies in a systematic, structured and disciplined experimentation with consumers - presenting them with a set of experimentally-designed products or concepts and soliciting their preferences. It is much easier for consumers to choose a preferred option from a set of concepts. New technologies make it easier than ever to conduct complex experiments quickly and inexpensively. The expanded use of experimentation provides an opportunity to take innovation to a new level.

Rule Developing Experimentation (RDE) is an increasingly popular, structured, consumer-based experimentation methodology. RDE works with prototypes, either physical prototypes, prototypes created out of language (concepts), or prototypes created out of visual stimuli (design and packaging). In business, RDE is used both to understand existing products, product categories and packages, as well as to create next generation offerings in the process of new product development (NPD).

Rule Developing Experimentation: A Systematic Approach to Understand & Engineer the Consumer Mind explains RDE concepts, beginning from its origins, to novel consumer research techniques and covers applications relevant to a real market context. Readers are also introduced to the concept of Mind Genomics® - a more holistic approach to gaining insight into the consumer mind.

Silver Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Functionalization and Applications presents detailed information about the range of methods of synthesizing silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The book systematically delves into the subject with an introductory chapter before moving to chemical synthesis of AGnPs and fabrication methods which help in assigning functional properties for useful nanomaterials. Basic and advanced synthetic methods like surface functionalization and bioconjugation are covered. Additionally, the book informs about impactful applications of AGNPs across a range of industries. Through this book, readers will be able to understand the importance of silver nanoparticles as a futuristic material in scientific investigations and gain a comprehensive understanding of the operational strategies revolving around their surface modification and conjugation.

Key Features:

-Covers the basics of silver nanoparticle (AGNP) synthesis

-Focuses on green methods of AGNPs

- Covers information about surface modification and functionalization of AGNPs with different molecules (including biomolecules)

-Covers a range of applications of AGNPs

-Includes advanced applications of AGNPs in next-generation antibiotics

Silver Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Functionalization and Applications a handy reference for scholars in advanced chemical engineering, materials science and pharmacology programs as well as anyone who wants to know all about silver nanoparticles.

Nowadays, huge amounts of chemicals are commercialized, shipped, stored, and converted to ensure the commercial availability of goods of daily use. Different hazards are involved in the use of these chemicals due to their intrinsic physicochemical properties. Several accidents have occurred in the past due to these hazards in chemical and process industries with serious consequences for people, buildings, and the environment.

Safety in Chemical and Process Industries: A Comprehensive Assessment provides basic knowledge on safety procedures and experimental techniques for evaluating risks related to storage, transport, and transformation of hazardous materials. The book is designed for undergraduate and graduate students of Chemical, Materials, and Environmental Engineering, Chemistry, and Environmental Science.

Key features: - Provides a strong foundation on safety management and risk assessment for chemical handling and management

- Tackles the management of contaminated industrial sites - Focuses on the risk assessment to set remediation goals

- Includes information on Health Impact Assessments

- Includes detailed references for advanced readers at PhD or postdoc levels. The book is organized in the following core topics that are part of relevant course modules:

- Fundamentals of thermal explosions and calorimetric techniques (Chapters 1-3)

- Homogeneous and heterogeneous explosions (Chapters 4-7).

- Consequences of fires and heterogeneous explosions (Chapter 8)

- Industrial hygiene and toxicology (Chapter 9)

- Preventive safety measures and protective measures (Chapter 10)

- Risk assessment for industrially contaminated sites (Chapter 11)

- Health impact assessment within environmental impact assessment studies (Chapter 12)

When we look at the quality management issues that have faced, both, in Japan and the rest of the world recently, it is clear that a next-generation quality management practice is required, featuring a rational approach that will motivate people and revitalize organizations. We need to reassess the way quality management is carried out in the manufacturing industry and establish‘ Science Total Quality Management (TQM), new quality management principle, as a next-generation management technology. In this e-book, the author proposes the ‘Science TQM, new quality management principle, aimed at the evolution of manufacturing, and demonstrates its effectiveness. This contemporary principle of Japanese management science - a scientific quality management method – has been the key to success in global production and facilitates globally consistent levels of quality and simultaneous production worldwide.

Specifically, Science TQM consists of several core technologies designed to address specific areas of corporate operations: the ‘Total Marketing System, TMS, for sales, the ‘Total Development System, TDS, for development and design, the ‘Total Production System, TPS, for production technology and manufacturing, and the ‘Total Intelligence Management System, TIS, and ‘Total Job Quality Management System, TJS, for administrative and managerial functions. These systems are then effectively linked through ‘ Science SQC, new quality control principle,, to rationally achieve strategic quality management.

The focus of this book is thus the theory and application of strategic quality management through the application of ‘Science TQM,. The effectiveness of Science TQM is then demonstrated at Toyota Motor Corporation -one of the world, s leading automotive manufacturing companies. The author, a leading ex-general manager of TQM promotion division of Toyota Motor Corporation, shows how to align them to develop competitive quality throughout the business process that covers from the creation of product concept through manufacturing and selling to delivery to clients by actual cases. This is an e-book to be benchmarked by research professionals and practitioners who are interested in developing competitive quality of their business in the prevailing global competition. This e-book is also strongly recommended to senior managers such has top level executives who are not directly involved in so-called quality management practices because quality is the outcome of the dynamics of most activities of the company as well as the kernel of competitiveness.

The essence of TQM is reflected in ‘Total Quality Management,. Science and technology, team work, collaboration with internal as well as external members, training and skill, data and information, knowledge, and organizational alignment are all important ingredients to be combined systematically and strategically. Linking all ingredients for quality in consistent and effective ways is a key to competitiveness.

Readers will find not only quality related practices, but also the linking capacity for executing TQM practices as well as understand the implicit scientific, behavioral and organizational insights necessary to achieve real quality.

Many herbs and spices, in addition to their culinary use for taste, contain chemical compounds which have medicinal uses. For this reason, herbs and spices have been used for treating various ailments since ancient times. Modern scientific methods have enabled researchers to isolate bioactive compounds from herbs and spices and perform chemical analyses, which can be used to develop medicines to treat different diseases. This book series is a compilation of current reviews on studies performed on herbs and spices. Science of Spices and Culinary Herbs is essential reading for medicinal chemists, herbalists and biomedical researchers interested in the science of natural herbs and spices that are common part of regional diets and folk medicine.

The second volume of this series features 6 reviews of unique herbs and seeds:

1. Tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.): A Review of its Use as a Spice, a Culinary Herb and Medicinal Applications

2. Piper nigrum (Black pepper): A Flavor for Health

3. Coriander Seeds – Ethno-medicinal, Phytochemical and Pharmacological Profile

4. The Fenugreek Seed: Therapeutic Properties and Applications

5. Biological Activities of Foeniculum vulgare Mill

6. Exploration of Dill Seeds (Anethum graveolens): An Ayurpharmacomic Approach

Many herbs and spices, in addition to their culinary use for taste, contain chemical compounds which have medicinal uses. For this reason, herbs and spices have been used for treating various ailments since ancient times. Modern scientific methods have enabled researchers to isolate bioactive compounds from herbs and spices and perform chemical analyses, which can be used to develop medicines to treat different diseases. This book series is a compilation of current reviews on studies performed on herbs and spices. Science of Spices and Culinary Herbs is essential reading for medicinal chemists, herbalists and biomedical researchers interested in the science of natural herbs and spices that are a common part of regional diets and folk medicine.

The fourth volume of this series features the following reviews:

1. Pharmacological effects of Curcuma longa, focused on anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and immunomodulatory effects

2. Ethnomedicinal uses, Phytochemistry, Pharmacological effects, Pre-clinical and Clinical studies on flaxseed: A spice and culinary herb-based formulations and its constituents

3. Nigella sativa (Prophetic medicine): The Miracle Herb

4. Properties of Mexican oregano (Lippia spp.) essential oils and their use in aquaculture

5. Curry leaf: An insight into its Pharmacological activities, Medicinal profile, and Phytochemistry

Many herbs and spices, in addition to their culinary use for taste, contain chemical compounds which have medicinal uses. For this reason, herbs and spices have been used for treating various ailments since ancient times. Modern scientific methods have enabled researchers to isolate and analyze bioactive compounds from herbs and spices to develop medicines for different diseases. Science of Spices and Culinary Herbs presents current reviews on studies performed on herbs and spices. This book series is an informative resource for medicinal chemists, herbalists and biomedical researchers interested in the science of natural herbs and spices that are a common part of regional diets and folk medicine.

The sixth volume of this series features reviews on medicinal aspects of a selection of herbs and spices, including:

Pimpinella anisum L. (Anise, Aniseed)

Sinapis alba L. (Mustard Seeds)

Cinnamomum verum (Cinnamon)

Tamarindus indica L (Tamarind)

Curcuma longa (Curcumin)

Glycyrrhiza glabra (Licorice).

This text explains the use of compressed air for energy storage and efficient pneumatic applications. Chapters cover the elementary physical and engineering principles related to compressed air, including compression and expansion characteristics, adiabatic, polytropic, and isothermal phenomena, and energy content within a given volume. The author also discusses the advantages and drawbacks of pneumatic technology and presents innovative ways to increase the energy efficiency of pneumatic actuators. A key highlight of the book is the introduction of a method to enhance efficiency by incorporating expansion work alongside constant pressure displacement. The author presents an analysis of various cylinder assemblies where energy efficiency is notably improved compared to conventional pneumatic actuators. The book serves as a primary reference for mechanical engineering students and as a handbook for engineers designing efficient pneumatic devices.

Key Features: Fundamental and advanced information about actuators and their pneumatic applications Focus on energy efficiency testing Systematic chapter order for effective learning progression, with a working example to support comprehension References for further reading Appendices providing additional insights and resources .

This book surveys the major and newly developed techniques for semiconductor strain metrology. Semiconductor strain metrology has emerged in recent years as a topic of great interest to researchers involved in thin film and nanoscale device characterization. This e-book employs a tutorial approach to explain the principles and applications of each technique specifically tailored for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Selected topics include optical, electron beam, ion beam and synchrotron x-ray techniques. Unlike earlier references, this e-book specifically discusses strain metrology as applied to semiconductor devices with both depth and focus.

Frontiers in Myocardia is an eBook series which compiles information about the structure and function of myocardial (the heart muscles) and includes updated reviews on the recent developments in the treatment of associated diseases such as angina, cardiac arrhythmias and myocardial infarction.

Advances in research on clinical sepsis in the last few decades have lead to the use of new concepts and treatment paradigms that have been tested and implemented in the clinical setting of Intensive Care Units around the world. An integrative approach towards understanding the pathophysiology of cardiac dysfunction in septic patients can, therefore, lead to better patient outcomes.

The first volume of this series, Septic Cardiomyopathy: from bench-to-bedside, integrates new and old information about the molecular mechanisms, histopathological and electrophysiological alterations with novel findings for diagnosing treating septic cardiomyopathy. This eBook attempts to bridge the gap between basic and clinical scientists and presents new data on different aspects of cardiac physiology during critical illness in a single volume. Chapters in this volume also cover cardiovascular changes that occur as a consequence of sepsis including metabolic, mitochondrial arrhythmic changes.

This eBook will add significant value to medical students, cardiac physicians and medical scientists engaged in the field of critical care medicine.

This e-book presents several basic methods and results of order theory that are currently used in various branches of mathematics. It presents topics that require a broad explanation in a concise and attractive way. Readers will easily identify problems/techniques/solutions without the frustration of long searches through previous notations, definitions and results. It begins with a sketch of axiomatic set theory and of the theory of categories. The fundamentals of the order relation are presented, including several properties equivalent to the axiom of choice, and culminating with well-ordered sets and transfinite numbers. This e-book also explains: (1) The complete existential theory of the various distinguished elements which a partially ordered set may possess, (2) The proof of the equivalence with the axiom of choice of 14 frequently used properties,(3) The fact that certain properties of ordinals are revealed as being just properties of well-ordered sets, and (4) The presentation of ordinals and cardinals both in axiomatic setting and following von Neumann's construction. Proofs are given in detail along with numerous examples and exercises illustrating the theory and demonstrating applications. Several classes of lattices, closure operators and Galois connections include tools which serve as prerequisites to universal algebra. Other topics include embeddings and topological duality for distributive lattices. The e-book serves both as a textbook for undergraduate and graduate students and as a reference book for mathematicians working in fields different from set theory or algebra, to whom it provides a quick access to basic facts from order theory.

This eBook presents a summary of central aspects of sialobiology (i.e., the study of sialic acid and its relevance to biology). The importance of substitution by the sugar sialic acid and the role played by sialylated structures (eg. glycoproteins, glycolipids, glycoconjugates) in immune recognition, neural cell growth, embryogenesis and disease development including microbial pathogenesis and cancer progression, has become well-established.

Since 1995, the field of sialobiology has expanded greatly as many of the key enzymes involved in sialic acid biosynthesis, as well as the vast majority of sialic acid binding lectins involved in immune recognition, have only been cloned, characterised and structural eluciated after the publication of earlier works on the subject. This e-book also covers these recent developments. Chapters in this e-book have been contributed by eminent sialobiologists. Therefore, a book of this nature is timely and will prove to be a definitive volume with a high impact in this field for glycobiologists and cell biologists.

Face recognition has several applications, including security, such as (authentication and identification of device users and criminal suspects), and in medicine (corrective surgery and diagnosis). Facial recognition programs rely on algorithms that can compare and compute the similarity between two sets of images.

This eBook explains some of the similarity measures used in facial recognition systems in a single volume. Readers will learn about various measures including Minkowski distances, Mahalanobis distances, Hansdorff distances, cosine-based distances, among other methods. The book also summarizes errors that may occur in face recognition methods.

Computer scientists "facing face" and looking to select and test different methods of computing similarities will benefit from this book. The book is also useful tool for students undertaking computer vision courses.

Single and two-phase flows are ubiquitous in most natural process and engineering systems. Examples of systems or process include, packed bed reactors, either single phase or multiphase, absorber and adsorber separation columns, filter beds, plate heat exchangers, flow of viscoelastic fluids in polymer systems, or the enhanced recovery of oil, among others.

In each case the flow plays a central role in determining the system or process behavior and performance. A better understanding of the underlying physical phenomena and the ability to describe the phenomena properly are both crucial to improving design, operation and control processes involving the flow of fluids, ensuring that they will be more efficient and cost effective. Expanding disciplines such as microfluidics and the simulation of complex flow physical systems, such as blood flow in physiological networks, also rely heavily on accurate predictions of fluid flow.

Recent advances either in computational and experimental techniques are improving the existing knowledge of single and multiphase flows in engineering and physical systems of interest. This ebook is a review on the state-of-the-art and recent advances in critical areas of fluid mechanics and transport phenomena with respect to chemical and biomedical engineering applications.