Bentham Science Publishers

In the year 2000, approximately one million people died from suicide: a "global" mortality rate of 16 per 100,000, or one death every 40 seconds.

In the last 45 years suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide. Suicide is now among the three leading causes of death among those aged 15-44 years (both sexes); these figures do not include suicide attempts up to 20 times more frequent than completed suicide. Suicide worldwide is estimated to represent 1.8% of the total global burden of disease in1998, and 2.4% in countries with market and former socialist economies in 2020. Although traditionally suicide rates have been highest among the male elderly, rates among young people have been increasing to such an extent that they are now the group at highest risk in a third of countries, in both developed and developing countries. Mental disorders (particularly depression and substance abuse) are associated with more than 90% of all cases of suicide; however, suicide results from many complex sociocultural factors and is more likely to occur particularly during periods of socioeconomic, family and individual crisis situations (e.g., loss of a loved one, employment, honour).

The economic costs associated with completed and attempted suicide are estimated to be in the billions of dollars. One million lives lost each year are more than those lost from wars and murder annually in the world. It is three times the catastrophic loss of life in the tsunami disaster in Asia in 2005. Every day of the year, the number of suicides is equivalent to the number of lives lost in the attack on the World Trade Center Twin Towers on 9/11 in 2001.

Everyone should be aware of the warning signs for suicide: Someone threatening to hurt or kill him/herself, or taking of wanting to hurt or kill him/herself; someone looking for ways to kill him/herself by seeking access to firearms, available pills, or other means; someone talking or writing about death, dying or suicide, when these actions are out of the ordinary for the person. Also, high risk of suicide is generally associated with hopelessness; rage, uncontrolled anger, seeking revenge; acting reckless or engaging in risky activities, seemingly without thinking; feeling trapped – like there’s no way out; increased alcohol or drug use; withdrawing from friends, family and society, anxiety, agitation, unable to sleep or sleeping all the time; dramatic mood changes; no reason for living; no sense of purpose in life.

Table 1: Understanding and helping the suicidal individual should be a task for all.

Suicide Myths

How to Help the Suicidal Person

Warning Sights of Suicide

Myth: Suicidal people just want to die.

Fact: Most of the time, suicidal people are torn between wanting to die and wanting to live. Most suicidal individuals don’t want death; they just want to stoop the great psychological or emotional pain they are experiencing

-Listen; -Accept the person’s feelings as they are; -Do not be afraid to talk about suicide directly -Ask them if they developed a plan of suicide;

-Expressing suicidal feelings or bringing up the topic of suicide; -Giving away prized possessions settling affairs, making out a will; -Signs of depression: loss of pleasure, sad mood, alterations in sleeping/eating patterns, feelings of hopelessness;

Myth: People who commit suicide do not warn others.

Fact: Eight out of every 10 people who kill themselves give definite clues to their intentions. They leave numerous clues and warnings to others, although clues may be non-verbal of difficult to detect.

-Remove lethal means for suicide from person's home -Remind the person that depressed feelings do change with time; -Point out when death is chosen, it is irreversible;

-Change of behavior (poor work or school performance) -Risk-taking behaviors -Increased use of alcohol or drugs -Social isolation -Developing a specific plan for suicide

Myth: People who talk about suicide are only trying to get attention. They won’t really do it.

Fact: Few commit suicide without first letting someone know how they feel. Those who are considering suicide give clues and warnings as a cry for help. Over 70% who do threaten to commit suicide either make an attempt or complete the act.

-Express your concern for the person; -Develop a plan for help with the person; -Seek outside emergency intervention at a hospital, mental health clinic or call a suicide prevention center

Myth: Don’t mention suicide to someone who’s showing signs of depression. It will plant the idea in their minds and they will act on it.

Fact: Many depressed people have already considered suicide as an option. Discussing it openly helps the suicidal person sort through the problems and generally provides a sense of relief and understanding.

Suicide is preventable. Most suicidal individuals desperately want to live; they are just unable to see alternatives to their problems. Most suicidal individuals give definite warnings of their suicidal intentions, but others are either unaware of the significance of these warnings or do not know how to respond to them. Talking about suicide does not cause someone to be suicidal; on the contrary the individual feel relief and has the opportunity to experience an empathic contact.

Suicide profoundly affects individuals, families, workplaces, neighbourhoods and societies. The economic costs associated with suicide and self-inflicted injuries are estimated to be in the billions of dollars. Surviving family members not only suffer the trauma of losing a loved one to suicide, and may themselves be at higher risk for suicide and emotional problems.

Mental pain is the basic ingredient of suicide. Edwin Shneidman calls such pain "psychache" [1], meaning an ache in the psyche. Shneidman suggested that the key questions to ask a suicidal person are ‘Where do you hurt?’ and ‘How may I help you?’. If the function of suicide is to put a stop to an unbearable flow of painful consciousness, then it follows that the clinician’s main task is to mollify that pain. Shneidman (1) also pointed out that the main sources of psychological pain, such as shame, guilt, rage, loneliness, hopelessness and so forth, stem from frustrated or thwarted psychological needs. These psychological needs include the need for achievement, for affiliation, for autonomy, for counteraction, for exhibition, for nurturance, for order and for understanding. Shneidman [2], who is considered the father of suicidology, has proposed the following definition of suicide: ‘Currently in the Western world, suicide is a conscious act of self-induced annihilation, best understood as a multidimensional malaise in a needful individual who defines an issue for which the suicide is perceived as the best solution’. Shneidman has also suggested that ‘that suicide is best understood not so much as a movement toward death as it is a movement away from something and that something is always the same: intolerable emotion, unendurable pain, or unacceptable anguish.

Strategies involving restriction of access to common methods of suicide have proved to be effective in reducing suicide rates; however, there is a need to adopt multi-sectoral approaches involving other levels of intervention and activities, such as crisis centers. There is compelling evidence indicating that adequate prevention and treatment of depression, alcohol and substance abuse can reduce suicide rates. School-based interventions involving crisis management, self-esteem enhancement and the development of coping skills and healthy decision making have been demonstrated to reduce the risk of suicide among the youth. Worldwide, the prevention of suicide has not been adequately addressed due to basically a lack of awareness of suicide as a major problem and the taboo in many societies to discuss openly about it. In fact, only a few countries have included prevention of suicide among their priorities.

Reliability of suicide certification and reporting is an issue in great need of improvement. It is clear that suicide prevention requires intervention also from outside the health sector and calls for an innovative, comprehensive multi-sectoral approach, including both health and non-health sectors, e.g., education, labour, police, justice, religion, law, politics, the media.

Emulsions (simple, mixed or multiple) are essentially pure substances, aqueous or organic binary solutions. The have a wide range of uses, including industrial cooling and heat transfer processes. This monograph gives a brief overview of supercooling, crystallization and melting processes within emulsions. Differential scanning calorimetrey (DSC) coupled with RX is the main technique used to demonstrate these processes. Temperature readings in this work have been defined taking into account known nucleation laws. These results have been used to show mass transfers occurring within mixed emulsions (solid ripening) or multiple emulsions (composition ripening), gas hydrate formation due to a chemical reaction between water and a diffuse specific compound, these phenomena being described by diffusive models. Other aspects of heat transfer process covered in this book include the latent energy released at crystallizations or absorbed at the melting (which alters the temperature field through emulsions), the kinetics of phase transformations and self-regulation of temperature in nodules containing phase changing materials. This monograph is intended for advanced chemistry graduates as well as industrial and chemical engineers working with cooling and heat transfer systems.

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a technique applied in multidisciplinary research. Its use has tremendously grown in the last 40 years owing to improved nanofabrication, biomolecules extraction and sensitive signal acquisition techniques.

This book focuses on the underlying principles of SERS by emphasizing on basic concepts and background information about the subject. Chapters explain the physics of Raman spectroscopy while also indicating its relevance to designing protocols and methodologies for biosensing and imaging. The book gives updated and recent details on colloids and nanostructures, their fabrication, surface engineering and immobilization methods, all in context to SERS based biosensing.

Key Features:

- Covers basic knowledge and new research about surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)

- Provides a complete framework on SERS based biosensing with concise chapters

- Focuses on different active molecules critical to SERS and associated developed nanoassemblies

- Presents information about ongoing research on SERS imaging applications

- Highlights bottlenecks of SERS technique in biosensing

- Includes references for further reading

This book serves as a reference book for researchers and academicians and will also provide a reasonable understanding on the topic of SERS to newcomers irrespective of their background in a simple manner. The book is of interest to all readers within the scientific community involved with Raman spectroscopy, including chemists, physicists, biologists, material scientists as well as biomedical engineers.

This monograph offers the reader an integrated point-of-view about the inflammatory response related to injury, infections and tumors. This integration is based on the hypothesis that the multiple pathophysiological mechanisms making up inflammation represent the re-expression of ontogenic mechanisms during early embryo development as well as the recapitulation of ancestral phylogenetic mechanisms. The relevance of the anti-inflammatory treatments is also highlighted with respect to polytraumatic patients, advances in stem cell research, embryology and the wound healing mechanism.

Readers of this book will have the chance of gaining a unique perspective about of the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in the multiple inflammatory conditions. This integrative concept about inflammation can be applied in biological investigation, as well as in clinical research and translational medicine.

Sustainability Studies: Environmental and Energy Management is a collection of reviews on topics on sustainability with the objective of informing the reader about the environmental impact of industrialization and the ways technology can be implemented to sustain it.

The book presents 11 chapters that focus on the environmental issues, waste management methods, and green chemistry for environmental-friendly production and construction. 2 chapters bring attention to important concepts that are central to sustainability, namely, environmental justice and climate change. The editors have ensured an adequate balance of theoretical concepts and practical information to give readers a broad overview of environmental sustainability. Each chapter is structured into easy-to-read sections that are suitable for readers who are learning about sustainability as part of their educational curriculum.

Sustainability Studies: Environmental and Energy Management is a primer on sustainability and environmental management for students and academics in environmental science, and engineering courses.

Sustainable Agriculture Applications Using Large Language Models examines how AI-powered tools can enhance decision-making, resource optimization, and knowledge dissemination across diverse agricultural contexts.

Spanning topics from crop management and pest control to water conservation and market analysis, the book features a multidisciplinary approach including real-world applications and case studies. It highlights how LLMs can support sustainable practices by analyzing agricultural data, improving communication with farmers, and enabling predictive insights. Special attention is given to ethical considerations and the responsible deployment of AI tools in rural and technologically evolving regions.

Key Features:

Demonstrates how LLMs support sustainable agriculture practices

Showcases AI-driven approaches in crop, pest, and water management

Presents real-world applications and case studies across regions

Explores ethical considerations and responsible AI deployment in agriculture

Analyzes LLM integration in agricultural education, communication, and policy

Sustainable Utilization of Fungi in Agriculture and Industry covers current knowledge about of different fungal microorganisms, including economically important filamentous fungi and yeasts. 22 chapters summarize recent information about scientific investigations and the application of fungi in the production of industrial enzymes, organic acids (citric acid, lactic acid, etc.), biofuel (ethanol, H2 gas) and bioactive compounds for sustainable processes in agriculture, bioremediation, industries and therapeutics.

Each chapter gives an updated and detailed account of knowledge on fungal microbes and their sustainable utilization in agriculture, white biotechnology, and other valuable industrial applications. Contributions are made by academic and professional experts in mycology and industrial biotechnology, presenting a broad perspective of the field in a simple, yet engaging style.

Sustainable Utilization of Fungi in Agriculture and Industry is an informative reference for general readers, trainees, interested in sustainability measures in agriculture and industry. It also serves as reading materials for scholars, students and teachers involved in botany, microbiology, biotechnology and life sciences courses.

This textbook provides a brief review of pediatric medicine practice. This book covers the diseases and disorders commonly seen in routine practice. The chapters cover pediatric disorders such as obesity, gastroesophageal reflux, asthma, bronchiolitis, pneumonia, allergy, sinusitis, diabetes, thyroid disorder, epistaxis, otitis media, hearing loss, laryngomalacia, obstructive sleep apnea, central sleep apnea, laryngomalacia, stridor, tonsillitis, haemophilia, autism, and anxiety.

Key features of this textbook include:

- Reader friendly format which explains etiology, pathophysiology, and disease management

- 21 chapters covering common pediatric disorders encountered by medical professionals

- Contributions by several experts in pediatric subspecialties

This textbook is a suitable reference for medical students, interns, residents, and specialists including pediatricians, family medicine practitioners, otolaryngologists as well as subspecialists such as pediatric cardiologists, pulmonologists, endocrinologists, otolaryngologists and allergists.

The interactions between carbohydrates and proteins have been extensively explored in a wide range of physiological and pathological processes over several decades. The recent emergence of glycomics has strengthened this interest and notably contributed to spectacular progress in understanding how carbohydrates mediate and regulate complex biological events. Synthesis and Biological Applications of Glycoconjugates gives a summary of contemporary findings in glycoconjugate research. Readers will be updated on major achievements in chemical methods and biological applications employed in modern glycomics. The Ebook should be of interest to a broad community of students and professional researchers in both academia and industry.