Bentham Science Publishers

This handbook is a concise yet complete guide to fundamental engineering requirements and quality characteristics that users, developers, and marketers of mobile applications should be aware of. It provides detailed definitions and descriptions of eight key software application features that are integral to the overall design and user experience goals, and which may often overlap with certain functionalities. The book explains the essential aspects of these features clearly to novice developers. Readers will also learn about how to optimize the listed features to tailor their applications to the needs of their users.

Key Features:

- Presents detailed information about eight different features which guide mobile application development: capability, reliability, usability, charisma, security, performance, mobility and compatibility

- Reader-friendly, structured layout of each chapter including relevant illustrations and clear language, designed for quick learning

- Focus on both software function and user perception of applications on mobile devices

- Includes a handy appendix with information about mobile learning projects and related work packages

Handbook of Mobile Application Development: A Guide to Selecting the Right Engineering and Quality Features is the ideal learning tool for novice software developers, computer science students, IT enthusiasts and marketers who want to design or develop mobile apps for an optimal user experience.

Hazardous Waste Management and Health Risks presents a systematic overview of evaluating solid and hazardous waste management practices. The book introduces readers to the basic principles of hazardous waste management and progresses into related topics that allow managers to assess environmental quality. These topics include heavy metal pollution, reproductive biomarkers as signals of environmental pressure and health risks, and environmental contamination in an international perspective. With an emphasis on sustainable development throughout the text, a zero-waste strategy as an alternative way to manage hazardous waste is suggested in a dedicated chapter.

This reference book is intended as an introductory guide for managers taking waste management training courses and students involved in degree courses related to environmental engineering and management.

In a global environment of rapid increases in health expenditures, health policies in Australia and in many other countries are currently undergoing major reforms. To contain future cost increases, accurate tools able to identify and rank ‘best value for money’ health investments are essential.

In Australia non-communicable chronic diseases – e.g. diabetes, heart disease, cancer, arthritis and mental disorders – affect the majority of the elderly, account for 70% of health expenditures, and cause poor health, deteriorating quality of life and premature death. This book focuses on how to identify ‘best value for money’ health investments within the context of on-going and future health reforms, and on quantifying the major benefits that would flow from such investments in terms of longer and better lives. This book will be of interest to general readers, social and economic researchers, and students interested in health care in ageing populations.

Heat Stress In Food Grain Crops: Plant Breeding and Omics Research is a timely compilation of advanced research on heat stress affecting crop yield, plant growth & development of common food grain and cereal crops. Chapters in the book cover several aspects of crop science including the identification of potential gene donors for heat tolerance, physiological mechanisms of adaptation to heat stress, the use of conventional and modern tools of breeding for imparting tolerance against terminal temperature stress and precise mapping of heat tolerant QTLs through biparental and genome wide association mapping. The use of genomics and phenomics methods is focused on through chapters dedicated to important crops such as groundnut, pearl millet, maize, chickpea, mungbean and wheat. Authors of the respective chapters explain the importance of harnessing a diverse crop genepool for sustaining crop production under conditions of increasing heat stress. Readers will be able to understand the relevance of functional genomics in elucidating candidate genes and their regulatory functions contributing to heat tolerance

Some time ago, Schiano raised the question "To B or not to B", which means "To Biopsy or not to Biopsy" the liver for the evaluation of chronic hepatopathies. For a long period, liver biopsy (LB) was considered the "gold standard" for the evaluation of liver morphology. A major disadvantage of LB is its invasiveness: the risk of post-biopsy discomfort for patients and sometimes, for serious complications; also the lack of sensitivity to detect fibrosis, due to its heterogeneity; and the inability to obtain good quality fragments, adequate for pathological examination. In these conditions, the question is whether LB can be regarded as the "gold standard" for staging and grading chronic hepatitis in daily activity.

But what alternative can we propose for the evaluation of liver fibrosis at this moment? The answer is: non-invasive methods and the ultrasound elastographic ones presented in this volume.

Transient Elastography (FibroScan, Echosens) is a recognized method in many countries. Published papers and meta-analyses showed the value of this method for the diagnosis of liver cirrhosis (AUROC - 94%); for staging chronic HCV hepatitis (a cut-off value of 7.5 kPa differentiates F0–1 from F2–4 with 67% sensitivity, 87% specificity, 86% positive predictive value (PPV) and 68% negative predictive value (NPV), with a diagnostic accuracy of 76%; but also in HBV chronic infection, NASH, PBC, PBS).

Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) Elastography (Siemens S2000) is another elastographic methods with promising results (a meta-analysis showed that the mean diagnostic accuracy of ARFI expressed as AUROC was 0.88 for the diagnosis of significant fibrosis (F≥2), 0.91 for the diagnosis of severe fibrosis (F≥3), and 0.93 for the diagnosis of liver cirrhosis. In the subgroup of patients who underwent both ARFI and TE, the diagnostic accuracy of ARFI was comparable to TE for the diagnosis of significant and severe fibrosis, with a trend to be inferior for the diagnosis of cirrhosis. The future of liver fibrosis evaluation points towards non-invasive methods, decreasing dramatically the number of liver biopsies.

Studies have been published regarding the value of Real Time Elastography, performed for the first time with Hitachi systems (EUB-8500 and EUB-900), which uses an extended combined autocorrelation method to produce a real-time elasticity image by using a freehand approach to compress the tissues with the ultrasound transducer. The relative tissues’ elasticity is calculated and displayed as a color overlay on the conventional B-mode image. HiRT-E could be a promising method for the evaluation of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatopathies, but new methods of color code interpretation are needed to improve the accuracy, as well as a reference acquisition methodology.

ShearWave™ Elastography, the new "kid on the block", produces an image where true local tissue elasticity is displayed in a color map in "real time". Elasticity is displayed using a color coded image superimposed on a B-mode image. Stiffer tissues are coded in red and softer tissues in blue, with an image resolution of approximately 1mm. The true elasticity is assessed based on Shear wave propagation speed into the tissue. It is a very new method and only small studies were presented at international meetings.

Thus, having the alternative of noninvasive elastographic methods for the evaluation of liver fibrosis (maybe together with serum tests such as FibroMax) and knowing the low real life yield of liver biopsy (and the risk of complications), we can safely conclude that, for daily medical activity, liver biopsy can be avoided in the vast majority of cases.

This ebook presents an interesting set of chapters on the subject and is of good value to hepatologists interested in non invasive diagnostic methods for liver diseases.

The burden of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection on the public health care system continues to remain significant despite the remarkable progress made in HCV therapeutics in the recent past. There are now almost a dozen oral interferon-free direct-acting antivirals available for the treatment of hepatitis C virus infection. Despite advances in the treatment of HCV, therapeutic gaps remain that are yet to be fully explored. Researchers and scientists still strive to understand virus-host interactions to map the disease's progression along with extrahepatic manifestations and virus invasion strategies impacting the host's immune system. This book briefly discusses the biology of HCV infection, virus-host interactions, molecular epidemiology of the infection, and the full spectrum of immune responses to hepatitis C. It also provides in-depth information about HCV, clinical diagnostics, and therapeutic knowledge to all stakeholders involved in HCV screening, diagnosis, treatment, and management.

Topics covered in the chapters include 1) HCV-host interactions leading to asymptomatic acute infection, 2) the progression of acute HCV infection to chronic disease and subsequent extrahepatic comorbidities, 3) Innate and adaptive immune responses in HCV infections, 4) Consensus-based Approaches for Hepatitis C Screening and Diagnosis, 5) advances in hepatitis C therapy and global management of HCV, and 6) the outcomes of Oral Interferon-free Direct-acting Antivirals as Combination Therapies to Cure Hepatitis C.

This book is a valuable addition to undergraduate and postgraduate hepatology students and physicians, clinicians, hepatologists, and health care officials involved in HCV clinical diagnosis and therapeutics.

Herbal Medicine for Autoimmune Diseases addresses the immune system's role in autoimmune conditions and introduces evidence-based herbal therapies for diseases like lupus, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and more. Chapters highlight innovative approaches such as phyto-nanotechnology for enhanced drug delivery and the therapeutic benefits of berry fruits. Readers will gain insights into bioactive compounds, their efficacy in clinical settings, and the integration of traditional wisdom with contemporary research. Ideal for students, researchers, and pharmaceutical professionals, this book bridges the gap between ancient remedies and cutting-edge healthcare solutions, offering a valuable resource for understanding and managing autoimmune disorders.

Key Features:

- Detailed exploration of herbal treatments for specific autoimmune diseases.

- Integration of phyto-nanotechnology for advanced drug delivery systems.

- Evidence-based insights supported by preclinical and clinical research.

- Practical implications for academia, pharmaceutical research, and clinical practice.

Famous Planet Earth Caves presents information about geologically important caves or rock shelters in different kinds of rock formations all over the world. Each volume of this series is a focused monograph on a single cave. The series covers many disciplines that can be applied to study a cave: geology (cave genesis, sedimentology, speleothems), hydrogeology (speleothems for climate reconstructions, aquifer reconstructions), paleontology (cave bear or carnivore dens), archaeology (Palaeolithic to Medieval camp or burial sites) and modern biology. Each volume is beautifully illustrated and written in a simple manner that will be of interest to general readers, speleologists and natural scientists, alike.

This volume gives details of Hermann’s Cave in Rübeland near Wernigerode, Germany. It is one of the largest show caves in Germany and Europe. The cave gives us information about the region in the Ice Age dating back to 350.000 years (which implies its significance in the Late Pleistocene epoch). The cave is within a beautiful granite (Brocken Peak) and limestone rock and valley cut landscape. The volume presents information about the Late Pleistocene fauna discovered within the cave and other archaeological findings. Specifically, the volume gives details about the small and large cave bear species within the cave, their ecological relationship to the region (including interactions with steppe lions and Cromagnon humans), and their survival in taiga forest mountain areas of central Europe. This volume continues the premise of the book series on bringing information about fossils and archaeological records of well-known caves to light and will give readers an interesting peek into Hermann’s Cave by bringing some of its Ice Age stories to life.

This volume presents an implicitly implemented large eddy simulation (ILES) by using the fifth order bandwidth-optimized WENO scheme. The chosen method is applied to make comprehensive studies on ramp flows with and without control at Mach 2.5 and Re=5760. Flow control in the form of microramp vortex generators (MVG) is applied. The results show that a MVG can distinctly reduce the separation zone at the ramp corner and lower the boundary layer shape factor under simulated conditions. A series of new findings about the MVG-ramp flow are obtained, including structures relevant to surface pressure, three-dimensional structures of the re-compression shock waves, a complete surface separation pattern, momentum deficit and a new secondary vortex system.

A new mechanism of shock-boundary layer interaction control by MVG associated with a series of vortex rings is also presented. Vortex rings strongly interact with air flow and play an important role in the separation zone reduction. Additionally, readers will learn about the governing equation, boundary condition, high quality grid generation, high order shock capturing scheme and DNS inflow condition in detail. This volume will, therefore, serve as a useful reference for aerospace researchers using LES methods to study shock boundary layer interaction and supersonic flow control.