Books published by Nova Science Publishers Inc

Psoriasis is a common, non-infectious, chronic inflammatory skin disease characterised by distinctive erythematous plaques that multiply and scale over with silvery patches. Psoriasis can affect any cutaneous site and is frequently found on the extensor skin surface of elbows and knees, scalp and sacral regions. Psoriasis is also associated with systemic conditions, including psoriatic arthritis, Crohns disease and lymphoma. This book discusses the epidemiology, diagnosis and management strategies of psoriasis. Chapter One provides an overview of the challenging medical condition. Chapter Two discusses the possible factors raised by literature as main contributors to sleep disturbances and its correlation to psoriasis. Chapter Three gives an overview of the current results where blood plasma thermal changes have been detected by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) technique on psoriatic patients with different clinical stages, and monitored patients with no symptoms to patients with serious symptoms. Chapter Four discusses psoriasis treatment that targets the IL-23/Th17 axis. Chapter Five reviews natural health products for managing psoriasis.

This book outlays the possible influence of some important aspects of human migration and social mobility on the biological characters of human populations, including their health and well-being. It contains ten contributions from different researchers working in this area of research. The first chapter, written by Budnik and Henneberg, demonstrates the effect of social class and mobility on morphological characters of body size like height and body mass index (BMI) in a historical population of Poland. In Chapter Two, Chakraborty et al. shows that the migration of disadvantaged people to an adverse environment in an early period of growth and development may increase health risk in adulthood compared to those after completion of major physical growth period, or even compared to those who are born into that adverse environment. Chapter Three (by J. R. Ghosh) reveals the influence of educational and occupational positions on clinical hypertension among adult males from the eastern part of India. In the fourth chapter of this volume, S. Ghosh et al. attempts to find out the relationship between the socio-economic status of family and growth on height and weight demographics in school children aged 5-12 from Kolkata, India. Godina et al. in Chapter Five delineates the differences in various anthropometrical measurements in children and adolescents aged 7 to 17 years across different types of schools, representing different social strata in Moscow. Chapter Six by Kaczmarek discusses the implications of rural to urban migration and its impact on womens health status in Poland. The next chapter by Krzyżanowska and C G Nicholas Mascie-Taylor discusses the impact of regional migration and social mobility on variation in adult height, weight and Body Mass Index, which is evidenced from a British cohort study. In Chapter Eight, Gomula and Koziel highlight from a study in Poland the effect of social mobility of fathers on maturity, measured by the age at menarche in their daughters. In the next chapter, Missoni and arac review dietary and lifestyle characteristics in the Eastern Adriatic Islands of Croatia in the backdrop of recent economic transition, urbanisation and migration. The tenth chapter contributed by Singh and Kirchengast compares demographic health related characteristics and reproductive behaviours between Punjabi women residing in Punjab and in Vienna, Austria. This book will be useful for researchers dealing with biological implications of human mobility. It may be of particular interest to human biologists, biological anthropologists, epidemiologists, demographers, economists and other researchers dealing with biological implications of human mobility.

Financial regulatory policies are of interest to Congress because firms, consumers, and governments fund many of their activities through banks and securities markets. Furthermore, financial instability can damage the broader economy. Financial regulation is intended to protect borrowers and investors that participate in financial markets and mitigate financial instability. This book provides an overview of the regulatory policies of the agencies that oversee banking and securities markets and explains which agencies are responsible for which institutions, activities, and markets. Some agencies regulate particular types of institutions for risky behavior or conflicts of interest, some agencies promulgate rules for certain financial transactions no matter what kind of institution engages in them, and other agencies enforce existing rules for some institutions, but not for others. These regulatory activities are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Over the last few decades, cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has been introduced as a choice treatment for heart failure (HF) patients, refractory to maximal drug therapy and left bundle branch block. Advanced heart failure is related to cardiac fibrosis, hypertrophy and apoptosis, and CRT in 30% of patients is not able to ameliorate cardiac performance and mechanical efficiency. This clear loss of effect (CRT failure) is frustrating and leaves HF patients in a steady and/or advanced, uncontrolled worsening state of clinical symptoms and NYHA class. Several hypotheses have been conducted to explain this loss of effect: investigating epigenetic (microRNAs activation pattern), echocardiography (mechanical cardiac dyssynchrony assessment), arrhythmias (atrial fibrillating patients), left ventricle lead positioning (target wall and vessel) and pacing modalities (bipolar vs multipolar), and epicardial approaches (cardiac surgery) to reach the target ventricular wall. The selection criteria, the implant technique and CRT monitoring are relevant aspects of the CRT world in all its complexity. The necessity to follow and characterize CRT recipients (responders vs non responders), and the routine follow up with recent advancements in technology (telemonitoring) may be an instrument to improve CRT response entity and clinical outcomes. The creation of a social platform (social networks) may represent a necessary and evolutionary step to share individual experiences and to exchange ideas about CRT recipients and experienced operators. The opportunity to improve CRT responders percentage may represent a gold standard and an attractive prospective in failing heart patients CRT recipients. In this book, we have investigated these aspects, hoping to provide to the reader the right reading tools in the CRT world. Our message remains: To help people suffering from cardiovascular diseases and to live better with their disease.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the United States is expected to be the fourth largest producer and exporter of peanuts in the world in 2015. In addition to its prominent role in international markets, U.S. peanut production and marketing is an important activity in several states located in the southeastern and southwestern United States. The U.S. sugar program is singular among major agricultural commodity programs in that it combines a floor price guarantee with a supply management structure that encompasses both domestic production for human use and sugar imports. The sugar program provides a price guarantee to the processors of sugarcane and sugar beets, and by extension, to the producers of both crops. This book provides a review of the background, policies and provisions on federal programs for both peanuts and sugar.

Over 40 years ago, Congress created the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to administer the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) and related amendments. Today, the FEC is responsible for administering disclosure of millions of campaign finance transactions; interpretation and civil enforcement of FECA and agency regulations; and administering the presidential public financing program. This book provides selected information about the FECs history and ongoing issues that are likely to be of interest to Congress for appropriations, legislative, or oversight activities. It also provides Congress with a resource for understanding the FECs enforcement process and context for why enforcement is consequential; discusses deadlocked votes among members of the FEC; discusses current Supreme Court and other case law evaluating the constitutionality of limits on contributions and expenditures; and examines recent developments of the state of campaign finance policy.

Within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), eight agencies are designated components of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS). The PHS agencies are funded primarily with annual discretionary appropriations. They also receive significant amounts of funding from other sources including mandatory funds from the Affordable Care Act (ACA), user fees, and third-party reimbursements (collections). This book discusses funding, and provides an overview of the PHS agencies.

The National Mediation Board (NMB) was established under the Railway Labor Act to facilitate labor relations for railroads and airlines by mediating and arbitrating labor disputes and overseeing union elections. The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 included a provision for United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) to evaluate NMB programs and activities every 2 years. GAOs first report under this provision, issued in December 2013, included seven recommendations for NMB based on assessments of policies and processes in several management and program areas. This book examines the extent to which NMB has implemented recommendations made by GAO in December 2013, and incorporated key procurement practices.

On 16 March 2016, President Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit) to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the unexpected death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February. Judge Garland was appointed to the D.C. Circuit by President Clinton in 1997, and is currently its chief judge, an administrative position that rotates among the active judges on the circuit. Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge Garland served in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he notably oversaw the prosecution of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing case, as well as other cases. It remains to be seen whether or how the Senate might proceed in considering Judge Garlands nomination; however, the nomination remains effective until it is withdrawn or this term of Congress ends, whichever occurs first. This book provides an overview of Judge Garlands jurisprudence and discusses what the impact on the Court might be if he, or a judge of a similar judicial approach, were to be confirmed to succeed Justice Scalia.

Originally from Southeast Asia, the mango tree (Mangifera indica L.) was disseminated in a variety of areas worldwide, especially in tropical countries. Currently, more than 1000 mango varieties are available in the world, being grown in an area of approximately 3.7 million hectares. The mango is a climacteric fruit and is therefore classified as a drupe, featuring an edible, juicy mesocarp. Mango fruit is an important source of dietary fiber, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, micronutrients, vitamins and phytochemicals such as polyphenols, carotenoids, sterols and other secondary metabolites. This book discusses the production of mangoes, as well as its properties, and health benefits of consuming the fruit.

This book provides current research on robotics. The first chapter focuses on robot visual perception for object detection and recognition. Chapter Two discusses recent progress in vision-based robotics. Chapter Three examines portrait vision fusion. Chapter Four presents a preliminary design and experimental results of sex recognition. Chapter Five introduces the significance and application of health monitoring methods, and some of the traditional health monitoring methods are introduced. Chapter Six presents a systematic review of upper arm exoskeletons to find out under what clinical conditions use of such devices may be beneficial, what could be the technical requirements and what user interface must be provided to enhance their acceptability.

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is an essential fatty acid of the omega-3 (n-3) series that has received substantial attention due to its pivotal roles in biological functions including brain and visual development, cognition, inflammatory responses and with decreasing risk or mortality with cardiovascular diseases. This book reviews the properties of DHA, as well as its functions and effects on health. Chapter One reviews the literature on the effects of DHA in bone health with a focus on the growth period. Chapter Two examines recent trends in research leading to the obtaining of bioactive lipids able to deliver DHA with a high bioavailability. Chapter Three discusses DHA''s protective effect on organ function and inflammatory response in burns. Chapter Four considers the effects of dietary DHA on CVD risk factors, and in particular its actions on vascular endothelial cell dysfunction.

This book discusses the synthesis, performance and applications of ceramic materials. Chapter One presents the recycling of biomass ashes in the obtaining of clay bricks for possible use as construction material. Chapter Two summarizes the use of nanostructured ceramics for the control of heat flows. Chapter Three deals with analytical modelling of thermal stresses in a multi-particle-matrix system with isotropic cylindrical particles which are periodically distributed in an isotropic infinite matrix. Chapter Four deals with analytical modelling of thermal stresses which originate during a cooling process of an elastic solid continuum. Chapter Five provides recent information on the use of zirconia in dentistry, its characteristics and indications, with a particular emphasis on surface conditioning methods to promote adhesion of resin-based materials to zirconia.

This current book provides new research on artificial neural networks (ANNs). Topics discussed include the application of ANNs in chemistry and chemical engineering fields; the application of ANNs in the prediction of biodiesel fuel properties from fatty acid constituents; the use of ANNs for solar radiation estimation; the use of in silico methods to design and evaluate skin UV filters; a practical model based on the multilayer perceptron neural network (MLP) approach to predict the milling tool flank wear in a regular cut, as well as entry cut and exit cut, of a milling tool; parameter extraction of small-signal and noise models of microwave transistors based on ANNs; and the application of ANNs to deep-learning and predictive analysis in semantic TCM telemedicine systems.