Bøger udgivet af IntechOpen

Conventional plant breeding has significantly improved crop yield, disease resistance, and adaptability to the environment; however, it is difficult to cultivate breakthrough new varieties using conventional breeding techniques. As such, new and novel breeding techniques are being developed. This book presents a comprehensive overview of plant breeding. It is organized into four sections on 'Genetic Resources for Plant Breeding¿, 'Breeding Theory and Strategy¿, 'Breeding Practice and Cases¿, and 'The Perspective for Plant Breeding¿.

This book provides an overview of recent progress in renewable energy materials and devices. Various forms of renewable energy, such as solar, water, and wind energy, have garnered significant attention in research domains due to their potential applications. Solar cells have become particularly intriguing for harnessing solar energy, while the distinctive characteristics of wind energy have drawn the focus of numerous researchers. Renewable energy offers several advantages and applications in contrast to conventional energy sources. The book comprehensively addresses recent advancements in diverse aspects of renewable energy, encompassing solar, water, and wind energy resources.

Failure Analysis - Structural Health Monitoring of Structure and Infrastructure Components is a collection of chapters written by academicians, researchers, and practicing engineers from all over the world. The chapters focus on some developments as well as problems in structural health monitoring (SHM) in civil engineering structures and infrastructures. The book covers a variety of multidisciplinary topics, including SHM, risk analysis, seismic analysis, and various modeling and simulation methodologies. This book is an excellent resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students, academics, and researchers across a wide variety of engineering disciplines, as well as for practicing engineers and other professionals in the engineering industry.

Surgery for colorectal disease, especially that involving minimal-access techniques, continues to evolve at a fast pace. This book provides a comprehensive and current overview of some specialist areas in this field. Chapters discuss colorectal cancer, including information on anatomy, investigations, and treatment. Other topics addressed include the pathophysiology and management of benign colorectal disease, fistula-in-ano, and inflammatory bowel disease. This book is an invaluable resource for physicians, surgeons, nurses, and allied healthcare professionals.

This book presents a significant class of materials that has recently drawn increasing interest in applications of active devices and as a critical component in any structure that requires both electrical connectivity and optical transparency. Despite their technological importance and relatively long history of utilization, our understanding of the existing set of transparent conduction oxide (TCO) material is only now receiving the kind of combined fundamental/experimental material research attention that will inevitably lead to new material discoveries and novel applications. Overall, it is clear that transparent conducting films and transparent conductors are a vibrant field that is advancing rapidly across an ever-broadening spectrum of applications. We hope this book will provide a valuable reference for those interested in the topic and stimulate additional development of new TCO materials and their applications.

Over the years, computing has moved from centralized location-based computing to distributed cloud computing. Because of cloud computing¿s security, regulatory, and latency issues, it was necessary to move all computation processes to the edge of the network (edge computing). However, at the edge, traditional computing devices no longer exist on their own. They have been joined by millions of mobile, Internet of Things (IoT), and smart devices, all needing computation. Therefore, edge computing infrastructure is necessary for multiple devices at the edge of the network. This book explores various technologies that make edge computing possible and how to manage computing at the edge and integrate it with existing networks and 5G networks of the future. It investigates the current state-of-the-art infrastructure and architecture and highlights advances and future trends. Security and privacy become a concern when you compute at the edge because the data needs to travel across various network nodes and user devices at the edge. As such, this book also discusses the management of security, privacy, and other network issues.

Drug repurposing (or drug repositioning) is defined as the process of identifying new pharmacological indications of old, existing, investigational, or FDA-approved drugs for use in the treatment of diseases other than the drugs¿ original intended therapeutic use. Drug Repurposing - Advances, Scopes and Opportunities in Drug Discovery delivers up-to-date information on the identification of newer uses, molecular mechanisms, and novel targets of existing drug candidates through the application of various experimental, biophysical, and computational approaches and techniques. Chapters discuss recent advances in drug repurposing strategies that are currently being used in the discovery and development of drugs against difficult-to-treat, rare, and life-threatening diseases, including microbial infections, COVID-19, parasitic diseases, cardiovascular diseases, neurological disorders, and cancer. The book also discusses the modern experimental assays (HTS) and computational techniques including informatics and databases, molecular docking and dynamics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, virtual screening and pharmacophore modeling, proteomics and metabolomics, and network pharmacology and systems biology approaches. Some of the key features of the book are: ¿ Presents the strategies available for the development of drugs by drug repurposing approaches through various experimental and computational techniques for the treatment of difficult-to-treat, rare, and deadly diseases ¿ Summarizes the latest advances in the application of drug repurposing strategies, techniques, and approaches in the discovery and development of drugs ¿ Depicts drug development approaches from existing drug candidates and/or lead molecules through modern experimental assays, biophysical tools, and computational techniques Written by a global team of experts, this book is useful for drug discovery scientists, drug developers, medicinal chemists, phytochemists, pharmacologists, clinicians, biochemists, biomedical scientists, healthcare professionals, researchers, teaching faculty, and students.

Chlamydia infections continue to pose a serious socioeconomic burden globally. Despite advances in diagnostic tests in recent decades, chlamydial infections still cannot be controlled, neither in developed countries nor in developing countries. Chlamydial infections date back to the beginning of recorded human history. Trachoma caused by Chlamydia trachomatis, which progresses to blindness, is mentioned in ancient Chinese inscriptions and Egyptian scrolls. Today, we must better apply our knowledge against this clever and evolving obligate intracellular parasitic microorganism. Chlamydia - Secret Enemy from Past to Present examines chlamydial infections using a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach. It discusses the microbiology, clinical presentation, and current approaches in the diagnosis and treatment management of chlamydial infection from the viewpoint of different clinics as well as includes relevant and recent literature.

Phagocytosis, as an innate immune defense mechanism, is the first process to respond to pathogens. It is also one of the initiating branches of an adaptive immune response. This book provides a comprehensive overview of phagocytosis and related cells in the immune response. It presents the basics of phagocytosis as well as discusses management and therapeutic strategies for infections.

Ever since side effects from bilateral hippocampectomy were identified in Henry Molaison (patient ¿HM¿) during the 1950s, a critical role of the hippocampus has been recognized in the formation of declarative episodic memories. Other cognitive functions have since been proposed, such as a role in navigation, but memory has often been suggested to explain hippocampal involvement. Proving a distinct functional role in cognition is difficult, as memory can be implicated in most cognitive activities. Even when a behavior relies on memory, however, the functionality of the hippocampus extends far beyond, especially evident during activities requiring interactions between cognitive systems. Relational memory is supported by hippocampal connections with widespread regions of the cortex; these interconnections also play a fundamental role in children¿s writing abilities and expertise in musical performance. Besides enhancing individual lives, such activities can play a vital role in sustaining cultural values across generations. Interactions with the environment that do not directly depend on mnemonic activity can affect plasticity in hippocampal connections, modified through natural chemicals, pharmacological drugs, and non-pharmacological behaviors. Navigational properties of the hippocampal system are not limited to memory, containing the same navigational elements as our Global Positional System (GPS). Even cognitive deficits arising from hippocampal lesions in ¿HM¿ were not limited to memory, as they included deficits in understanding cognitive relationships available in visual scenes, novel sentence contexts, and humorous situations. This book shows an expansive role of the hippocampus in cognition that goes beyond its recognized role in generating new episodic memories.