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Over the past decade it has been increasingly recognized that medical errors constitute an important determinant of patient safety, quality of care, and clinical outcomes. Such errors are both directly and indirectly responsible for unnecessary and potentially preventable morbidity and/or mortality across our healthcare institutions. The spectrum of contributing variables or "root causes" - ranging from minor errors that escalate, poor teamwork and/or communication, and lapses in appropriate protocols and processes (just to name a few) - is both extensive and heterogeneous. Moreover, effective solutions are few, and many have only recently been described. As our healthcare systems mature and their focus on patient safety solidifies, a growing body of research and experiences emerges to help provide an organized framework for continuous process improvement. Such a paradigm - based on best practices and evidence-based medical principles- sets the stage for hardwiring "the right things to do" into our institutional patient care matrix. Based on the tremendous interest in the first two volumes of The Vignettes in Patient Safety series, this third volume follows a similar model of case-based learning. Our goal is to share clinically relevant, practical knowledge that approximates experiences that busy practicing clinicians can relate to. Then, by using evidence-based approaches to present contemporary literature and potential contributing factors and solutions to various commonly encountered clinical patient safety scenarios, we hope to give our readers the tools to help prevent similar occurrences in the future. In outlining some of the best practices and structured experiences, and highlighting the scope of the problem, the authors and editors can hopefully lend some insights into how we can make healthcare experiences for our patients safer.

Over the last few years, we have witnessed increasing efforts dedicated to the scientific investigation and characteristics of trace elements. Especially in the field of human and animal nutrition, trace elements display a considerably attractive issue for research because they play an essential role in the nutrition of both animals and humans. Aquatic environments contaminated with trace elements are an emerging research area due to the toxicity, abundance, and environmental persistence of trace elements. Accumulation of heavy metals as a class of trace elements in various environments, and the subsequent transition of these elements into the food and feed chain, severely affects human health. The determination of type and concentration of trace elements is regarded as the first and most important step to follow the mechanisms controlling the dispersal and accumulation of trace elements. Element speciation in different media (water, soil, food, plants, coal, biological matter, food, and fodder) is pivotal to assess an element's toxicity, bioavailability, environmental mobility, and biogeochemical performance. Recently, new analytical techniques have been developed, which greatly simplified the quantitation of many trace elements and considerably extended their detection range. In this context, the development of reproducible and accurate techniques for trace element analysis in different media using spectroscopic instrumentation is continuously updated.

This book contains 11 chapters of significant and updated materials on what we know and what we lack and need in better understanding of Trypanosoma cruzi - a parasite that never dies - and the consequences of Chagas disease as one of the most important neglected parasitic diseases threatening the global health and wellbeing. This book is intended to increase the readers' enthusiasm to explore the four sections of the contents: Section 1 begins with biochemistry, pathophysiology, histo-immunological study, and findings to assist in the diagnosis; Section 2 further investigates the role of vector in propagation of the parasite, the intensity on epidemiology, and the severity on clinical aspects, which help us to be well perceived on the course of disease; Section 3 is seeking beyond modern medicine and what lays in the nature that helps fight against this parasite; and the last section, Section 4, deals with the impacts of public health problem and the control strategies on Chagas disease.

Antennas and radio propagation are continuously and rapidly evolving and new challenges arise every day. As a result of these rapid changes the need for up-to-date texts that address this growing field from an interdisciplinary perspective persists. This book, organized into nine chapters, presents new antenna designs and materials that will be used in the future, due to the trend for higher frequencies, as well as a bird's eye view of some aspects related to radio propagation channel modeling. The book covers the theory but also the practical aspects of technology implementation in a way that is suitable for undergraduate and graduate-level students, as well as researchers and professional engineers.

We are entering the era of big data, and machine learning can be used to analyze this deluge of data automatically. Machine learning has been used to solve many interesting and often difficult real-world problems, and the biometrics is one of the leading applications of machine learning. This book introduces some new techniques on biometrics and machine learning, and new proposals of using machine learning techniques for biometrics as well. This book consists of two parts: "Biometrics" and "Machine Learning for Biometrics." Parts I and II contain four and three chapters, respectively. The book is reviewed by editors: Prof. Jucheng Yang, Prof. Dong Sun Park, Prof. Sook Yoon, Dr. Yarui Chen, and Dr. Chuanlei Zhang.

Measurements in present experiments have dramatically advanced our understanding of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays. The suppression of the flux at the highest energies is now confirmed without any doubt, and strong limits have been placed on the photon and neutrino components. There are indications for a small, large-scale anisotropy both below and above the energy of the angle and for a correlation on smaller angular scales at E > 5.5*1019 eV. Around 3*1018 eV, there is a distinct change of slope with energy, and the shower-to-shower variance decreases. Interpreted with the leading LHC-tuned shower models, this implies a gradual shift to a heavier composition, and a number of fundamentally different astrophysical model scenarios have been developed to describe this evolution.

Fossil fuels still need to meet the growing demand of global economic development, yet they are often considered as one of the main sources of the CO2 release in the atmosphere. CO2, which is the primary greenhouse gas (GHG), is periodically exchanged among the land surface, ocean, and atmosphere where various creatures absorb and produce it daily. However, the balanced processes of producing and consuming the CO2 by nature are unfortunately faced by the anthropogenic release of CO2. Decreasing the emissions of these greenhouse gases is becoming more urgent. Therefore, carbon sequestration and storage (CSS) of CO2, its utilization in oil recovery, as well as its conversion into fuels and chemicals emerge as active options and potential strategies to mitigate CO2 emissions and climate change, energy crises, and challenges in the storage of energy.

The most effective method of producing nanofibres is the technology of producing in the electrostatic field, which does not require the use of complicated procedures and equipment. Electrospinning allows to produce 1D nanostructures on an industrial scale in a relatively easy and quick way. The method of electrospinning shares the most features with classical technologies in obtaining synthetic fibres that enable forming and generating a stream of previously dissolved or melted polymer and its coaxial stretching, combined with the transition of the polymer from a liquid state to a solid state. In view of the large application possibilities of electrospun fibres, electrospinning is enjoying a dynamically growing interest of scientists, which can be proven by the increasing trend of scientific publications.

This book is dedicated to the reuse of waste and residues from the agricultural sector. Plant residues, as well as animal manure and residues from animal breeding, contain useful elements that can be processed for production of fertilizers, compost for soil recultivation, and biofuels. The emerging energy and resources crisis calls for development of sustainable reuse of waste and residues. This book contains eight chapters divided into four sections. The first section contains the introductory chapter from the editor. The second section is related to the preparation of fertilizers and compost for soil amelioration from agricultural residues and waste water. The third section considers the use of agricultural waste for solid biofuels and biogas. The fourth section discusses sustainability and risk assessment related to the use of agricultural waste and residues.

As with most dynamic activities that are based on social and cultural contexts and rely on interactions, education is a complex and often ambiguous endeavor. Despite this complexity, scholars and educators are often required to find ways of defining and explaining what "good" teaching is and to incorporate these conclusions into teacher education. This book contains eight scholarly articles from various countries around the world and offers unique and up-to-date perspectives on relevant practices and pedagogies for teachers' professional education and development. In this international book, it is argued that there is a significant inspiration and enrichment to be gained by investigating the policies and practices of teacher education systems from all over the world.

Electrophoresis is a widely used method in the field of life sciences, having multiple practical applications in physical, chemical, biochemical, and molecular biology domains. This book contains 8 chapters depicting various applications of this technique in biochemistry, molecular biology, and physical chemistry. This book presents the link between the exposed method and its applications in a very explicit manner and offers a wide range of practical examples. The book provides not only a vision of actual methods but also their necessary further improvements and suggested developments. Therefore, a particular attention was given to the described techniques as true guidelines in the fields where electrophoresis is recommended, being useful for not only the scientists but also the laboratory clinicians.

In recent years, superalloys have been widespread usage in aerospace gas turbine engine parts. The main reason of it is that these materials have high yield, ultimate tensile strength, and very good corrosion/oxidation resistance, and they combine these good properties with an excellent creep resistance at elevated temperatures. In spite of their outstanding properties, superalloys can lose their mechanical strength because of wear, tear, and crack formation when they are exposed to high-service temperatures and heavy working conditions. Moreover, corrosion is another important issue for superalloys because the materials of gas turbine engine parts are exposed to harsh engine environments, which consist of many pollutants and hot gases. Therefore, special attention must be given to the corrosion behavior of superalloys. This book provides information on the interaction between the microstructure of alloys and their mechanical properties and also the position of superalloys in the manufacturing industry. Topics cover the minimization of the formation of microsegregation and detrimental phases in the GTA welding of superalloys, oxidation kinetics of nickel-based superalloys used in the manufacture of rings for aircraft engines, a review of the work done over the last two decades to understand the hot corrosion behavior of superalloys used in advanced coal-based power plants, ultrasonic-assisted machining of Inconel 718, dry high-speed turning of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy, and laser welding in dentistry. The book "Superalloys for Industry Applications" consists of contributions by scientists and engineers who are experienced in the production, design, and analysis of materials from all around the world. We hope that this book will be an irreplaceable source of study for manufacturing, degradation mechanisms, and reliability of superalloys.

Carbon fibres are lightweight, chemically stable materials with high mechanical strength, and have state-of-the-art applications in aerospace, marine, construction and automotive sectors. The demand for carbon fibre?based components is expected to grow dramatically with expanding opportunities for lightweight metals and composites. Although this field has achieved a high level of maturity, nanoscale developments in carbon fibres have seen dramatic improvements in the functions of conventional biomaterials and composites. This book reveals several new developments in the field to enhance characteristics of carbon fibres and their composites, novel applications for tissue engineering, biological scaffoldings and implants, recycling and reuse of end-of-life CFRP and manufacturing waste and other issues of concern in the field of carbon fibres.

This edited volume aims to discuss the most contemporary state of the determinants of the firm value. This book presents theoretical works as well as empirical studies that contrast the arguments offered by the leading, ground-breaking theories on the firm value. What variables determine the firm value? Are these determinants controllable or uncontrollable by the managers of the companies? Is the impact of corporate governance systems on the firm value symmetrical between different institutional contexts? Do the financial reports affect the value of the firm? What role does corporate social responsibility play as a determinant of the firm value? These and other questions are analyzed and scrutinized step by step throughout this book.

The book Vegetables - Importance of Quality Vegetables to Human Health provides useful and interesting information on the nutritional qualities of different vegetables and their roles in disease prevention. Quality vegetable production through hydroponic cultivation techniques is also included. The first few chapters discuss the importance of quality vegetables to human diet and health, and noncommunicable disease prevention. Nutritional qualities and bioactive compounds in freshly grown vegetables through hydroponics and soilless cultures are discussed in the middle part of the book. The final chapter describes methods of sea vegetable utilization in food formulation. This book mainly focuses on the nutritional quality of vegetables and disease prevention, their production methods, preparation, and cooking methods, making it a complete and useful resource to readers.

The current book entitled Heterojunctions and Nanostructures is divided into two sections. In Section 1, the chapters are related to topological insulators where their theoretical aspects, their current experiments, and their applications are presented. A few presented topics are, among others, the topological phases of matter, band topology of insulators and also of Weyl semimetals, transport properties of 3D topological insulator quantum wires and the influence of disorder, transport properties of quasi-1D (and 2D) topological surface states, quantum coherence, and topological insulator thin-film Hall bar device. In Section 2, the chapters are related to light devices such as laser diodes and their fabrication techniques. This section includes, among others, topics such as semiconductor quantum nanowire laser diodes, solutions of Schrodinger equation in nanostructures, numerical methods, light-to-electricity conversion devices, photoexcited carrier transportation process in quantum wells and quantum dots, growth mode and characterization of heterostructure of large lattice mismatch, and photoionization cross section.

Wastewater treatment and sludge disposal are important for protecting receiving rivers, lakes, and other water bodies, and vital for human health. Since excessive discharge may cause eutrophication and deterioration of aquatic systems, the US EPA and other national agencies have set guidelines for wastewater discharge standards. Conventional technologies are well developed and widely applied worldwide for wastewater treatment; however, new ideas and new technologies are gaining additional interest for the sake of water and energy reuse. While water is essential in arid regions, wastewater reuse and recycling have been playing an important role in human life. Although there are no universal standards for industrial and agriculture reuse, balancing wastewater treatment and public health protection presents challenges and opportunities.

With globalisation on the rise and capitalism expanding, social responsibility, corporate as well as individual social responsibility, plays an important part to save the natural environment and improve the lives of citizens. But how responsibly do corporations and ordinary citizens act in order to meet the demands of our fast-changing world? Authors from different universities contribute their knowledge on this open-access platform to be shared at a global level. This book starts off by contemplating whether the concept of world society could be an ice-breaker for a global shift in sociology (Wittmann); it critically assesses social responsibility of Spanish university students (Ramos), discusses professional social responsibility in engineering (Bielefeldt), looks at conflicts in Kenya's mining industry (Abuya) and evaluates the public healthcare system in Italy (Comite) and the corporate and consumer social responsibility in the Italian food industry (Boccia

This book deals with the microorganism Salmonella. This bacterium is well known for a long time, being involved in systemic (typhus and paratyphus infections) and nonsystemic diseases such as food poisoning. Major and minor Salmonellae are widespread worldwide in developing countries and industrialized areas, respectively. In 2015, about 3576 Salmonella strains have been isolated from human infections in Italy. S. typhimurium and S. enteritidis are the most prevalent serotypes and represent 80% of cases of infections over the last 10 years. The antibiotic susceptibility decrease over the last decades is a big issue in the management of this bacterium, once considered easy to treat. The use of antibiotic combinations in order to overcome the microorganism resistance should be hoped.

This book is designed to provide an overview of the different genotoxicants and their effects on living organisms, including humans. The contributions made by the specialists in this field of research are gratefully acknowledged. We hope that the information presented in this book will meet the expectations and needs of all those interested in the different aspects of the genotoxicity field. The publication of this book is of great importance to those scientists, pharmacologists, physicians and veterinarians, as well as engineers, teachers, graduate students and administrators of environmental programmes, who make use of these investigations to understand both the basic and applied genotoxic aspects of known and new xenobiotics, and to guide them in their future investigations.

Occupational health and safety (OHS) is an important focus of governments and organizations throughout the world because there are over 2.78 million fatal and 374 million nonfatal work-related injuries and illnesses experienced by employees every year. Addressing these requires paying attention to the physical organizational, cultural, and social contexts amidst which work is undertaken. A multidisciplinary approach is also necessary in finding effective solutions. Interestingly, countries and regions address different aspects of OHS depending on what OHS hazards and risks are important to them. This book, based on research from Australia, Belgium, Ghana, Malaysia, Turkey, and Slovakia, examines how a range of OHS hazards are addressed in these contexts. We believe that this is an important first step in addressing an age-old OHS problem through a multiregional collaboration.

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a problem so common and so significant in routine clinical practice that accurate diagnostics are especially important. In particular, complicated UTI is associated with an increased rate of therapy failures, as a result of possible biofilm formation on foreign elements and antibiotic resistance, as well as the increased possibility of an infection recurrence. These are the arguments for the constant search for novel diagnostic tools and techniques. These and many other vital topics regarding UTI complications, management, and treatment, in addition to antibiotic resistance and bacterial virulence traits allowing us to mitigate or avoid antibiotic action, are presented in this book.

Thalassemia is a very common disease first described by pediatrician Thomas Benton Cooley in 1925 who described it in a patient of Italian origin. At that time, it was designated as Cooley's anemia. George Hoyt Whipple, a Nobel prize winner, and W. L. Bradford, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Rochester, coined the term thalassemia in 1936, which in Greek means anemia of the sea (Thalassa means "sea", and emia means "blood"), due to the fact that it is very common in the area of the Mediterranean Sea. This name is actually misleading because it can occur everywhere in the world. Thalassemia is not a single disease; it is rather a group of hereditary disorders of the production of globulin chain of the hemoglobin. Throughout the world, thalassemia affects approximately 4.4 of every 10,000 live births. It represents a major social and emotional impact on the patient and his family and a major burden on health services where the prevalence is high.

The sensory nervous system is of critical importance in our daily lives and contributes to our personal well-being and safety as well as communication with others. However, it is only when disease or injury impair its function that we fully appreciate the relevance of our sensory modalities. During the past decades, research of our senses has seen an ever-growing interest in this exciting field of study. This book provides the reader with an overview of the current state-of-the-art of research of our senses and focuses on the most important evidence-based developments in this area. This book addresses both the physiology and pathophysiology of our sensory nervous system ranging from molecular, cellular, and systems to cognitive and behavioral topics. Individual chapters focus on recent advances in specific areas of sensory systems in different model organisms and humans. All chapters represent recent contributions to the rapidly developing field of sensory science.

Fundamental societal changes resulted from the necessity of people to get organized in mining, transporting, processing, and circulating the heavy metals and their follow-up products, which in consequence resulted in a differentiation of society into diversified professions and even societal strata. Heavy metals are highly demanded technological materials, which drive welfare and progress of the human society, and often play essential metabolic roles. However, their eminent toxicity challenges the field of chemistry, physics, engineering, cleaner production, electronics, metabolomics, botany, biotechnology, and microbiology in an interdisciplinary and cross-sectorial manner. Today, all these scientific disciplines are called to dedicate their efforts in a synergistic way to avoid exposure of heavy metals into the eco- and biosphere, to reliably monitor and quantify heavy metal contamination, and to foster the development of novel strategies to remediate damage caused by heavy metals.

Molecular docking has always been and will be on the forefront of developments in the eminent field of drug design and medicinal chemistry. At the early days, drug discovery was based on blackboard drawings and expert intuition. However, as times move on, the amount of available information and overall knowledge base that needs to be analyzed cannot be processed manually. This, coupled by the rapid growth in computational infrastructure and processing power, has allowed for the efficient use of molecular docking tools and algorithms to be considered in the greater field of drug discovery. In the postgenomic era, molecular docking has become the key player for the screening of hundreds of thousands of compounds against a repertoire of pharmacological targets.

Nature-inspired algorithms have a great popularity in the current scientific community, being the focused scope of many research contributions in the literature year by year. The rationale behind the acquired momentum by this broad family of methods lies on their outstanding performance evinced in hundreds of research fields and problem instances. This book gravitates on the development of nature-inspired methods and their application to stochastic, dynamic and robust optimization. Topics covered by this book include the design and development of evolutionary algorithms, bio-inspired metaheuristics, or memetic methods, with empirical, innovative findings when used in different subfields of mathematical optimization, such as stochastic, dynamic, multimodal and robust optimization, as well as noisy optimization and dynamic and constraint satisfaction problems.

Fusarium species are ubiquitous environmental fungi and can cause severe invasive infections in plants. They are crop pathogens, and consumption of such infected crops can cause diseases in humans and animals. Furthermore, they act as spoilage organisms in stored products, such as wheat, sorghum, rice, and corn (maize). Fusarium species are mycotoxin producers and contaminate food and grains. Therefore, their eradication and management have economic importance as they can cause enormous economic and agricultural production losses. Despite the fact that the genus Fusarium Link (1809) has been known for over 200 years, new scientific information is being revealed by rapid advancements and breakthrough findings of interdisciplinary studies. This book presents an introductory overview of an update to the scientific knowledge about Fusarium. It discusses various aspects of Fusarium, such as its genetic diversity, root rot incidence and severity, genetic resistance, molecular markers, mycotoxins, diseases caused by Fusarium, and their management and the biological control of these phytopathogens. Furthermore, it also elaborates upon new plant secondary metabolites that are effective against Fusarium and the molecular interaction between Fusarium and the plant.

Titanium dioxide is currently being used in many industrial products. It provides unique photocatalytic properties for water splitting and purification, bacterial inactivation, and organics degradation. It has also been widely used as the photoanode for dye-sensitized solar cells and coatings for self-cleaning surfaces, biomedical implants, and nanomedicine. This book covers various aspects of titanium dioxide nanomaterials including their unique one-dimensional, two-dimensional, mesoporous, and hierarchical nanostructures and their synthetic methods such as sol-gel, hydrothermal, anodic oxidation, and electrophoretic deposition, as well as its key applications in environmental and energy sectors. Through these 24 chapters written by experts from the international scientific community, readers will have access to a comprehensive overview of the recent research and development findings on the titanium dioxide nanomaterials.

There are many different types of cancer. Some are very common; others are rare. Having some similar features, each cancer has its own characteristics and symptoms, which vary according to the type of cancer and where it is in the body. The treatment selected may be influenced by the patient's age, concurrent health problems, life expectancy, characteristics of the individual's cancer, the patient's goals of treatment, and the bias of the treating physician. In preparing this book, we have considered and reflected on the concept of the recent advances in cancer management and therapy as well as molecular applications in cancer therapy. The readers can find detailed information about the treatment and management of specific cancers in these book chapters.