Books published by Nova Science Publishers Inc

Since the invention of the ruby laser in the late 20th century, scientists and physicists have been keen on identifying its usage to cure and treat various dermatological and cosmetic skin conditions. Continuous work and experiments have led to the improvement of the various laser systems which are now able to treat many imperfections of the skin and certain skin ailments, along with scarring that might result from an injury or disease. Aesthetic Laser Therapy: Principles, Medical Applications, and Long-Term Effectiveness brings forth a wealth of information regarding the history of development of laser technology and how its uses have also been developed through trial and error. Aesthetic Laser Therapy: Principles, Medical Applications, and Long-Term Effectiveness familiarizes the reader with the various techniques that have been developed over time. These include ablative and non-ablative skin resurfacing and fractional and non-fractional methods. An abundance of relative figures and charts help the reader in comprehending the theoretical information as well. Each chapter of the book has been carefully designed and elaborates upon the different skin conditions that can be treated with each of the methods, what the outcomes might be, what precautions must be observed and information regarding careful patient selection. You will also find a chapter that has been specifically designed to familiarize the reader with the necessary safety procedures that are necessary to carry out laser procedures. Laser treatment methods are commonly preferred for permanent hair removal, tattoo removal, skin pigmentation disorders and of course to decrease or diminish the signs of photoaging. The physiology and treatment of each of these conditions is discussed. Liposuction is another field of cosmetic surgery that has benefitted by the invention of lasers. With laser treatment methods, the downtime has been reduced with improving results. A review of traditional suction assisted liposuction and liposuction with the use of energy devices is discussed. As the demand laser treatment grows, so does the number of laser treatment providers. Aesthetic Laser Therapy: Principles, Medical Applications, and Long-Term Effectiveness ology is valuable in providing the necessary information to develop a complete understanding regarding the anatomy of the skin, the science behind the laser technology and how both of these interact with each other.

The Federal Government administers a wide array of programs on behalf of the American people: financial aid to assist with college attendance, social insurance programs and tax incentives to promote retirement security, health insurance programs to ensure access to healthcare and financial protection for families, disclosure requirements to help people obtain safer mortgages, and others. But Americans are best served by these programs only if the programs are easy to participate in and present options and information clearly. When programs are designed without these considerations in mind, Americans can incur costs that go beyond lost time and frustration. Research from behavioral science demonstrates that seemingly small barriers to engagement -- such as hard-to- understand information, burdensome applications, or poorly presented choices -- can prevent programs from working effectively for the very people they are intended to serve. In 2014, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) established the Social and Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST) to ensure that our best understanding of behavior -- how people engage with, participate in, and respond to policies and programsis integrated into the policymaking process. This book examines the social and behavioral sciences used in the advancement of policy.

Genetically engineered (GE) foods, sometimes referred to as genetically modified foods (GMO foods), are foods that are derived from scientific methods used to introduce new traits or characteristics to an organism. This book discusses the legislation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and genetically modified (GM) plants and foods in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, England and Wales, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Russian Federation, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, and the United States. The European Union and International Protocols are also examined. This book summarises enacted laws on the cultivation and sale of GMOs, as well as public opinion on GM products. A selected bibliography is included. Furthermore, the book examines legal issues with federal labeling of GMOs.

Depository institutions experienced cyberattacks in recent years that are estimated to have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. Depository institution regulators (the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and NCUA) oversee information security at these institutions and Treasury coordinates protection of the financial sector. The objectives of this book include examining how regulators oversee institutions'' efforts to mitigate cyber threats; and sources of and efforts by agencies to share cyber threat information. This book also assesses the effectiveness of the corporation''s controls in protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of its financial systems and information.

It has been estimated that some 60% of today''s world population is multilingual. Living in a multilingual world makes language learning essential and the foreign language teaching profession even more valued to guarantee communication in a wide spectrum of languages, thus promoting mobility around the world and ensuring the continuity of the translation industry. This book provides current research and examines new developments in foreign language learning. The first chapter presents illustrations of the latest trends and practices in language learning, demonstrating that technology-enhanced language learning enables innovative foreign language delivery and empowers learners to acquire the chosen language in a more independent yet effective way. Chapter two describes the results of an experiment in building an online platform for learning foreign languages that allows people to teach their native language without being professional instructors. Chapter three studies secondary EFL learners'' extracurricular L2 contact and their self-beliefs concerning oral narrative competencies. Chapter four examines how a learner who learns Japanese as a foreign language (FL) at an Australian university develops a positive FL self-concept to overcome her anxiety about speaking the FL during the transition period from secondary school to university and then to a Japanese study abroad. Chapter five argues that the under-resourcefulness'' of an ELT context is misguided, as it is derived from the conception of what is believed to be standard'' and not on the concept of adequacy and sufficiency; and hopes to demonstrate that the under-resourced'' conception of contexts is the result of the inapplicability of Centre-driven methodologies in contexts that are only different and not actually under-resourced per se. Chapter six studies the implementation of the CLIL approach in a foreign language project. The final chapter systematically and critically reviews a variety of factors which influence lexical inferencing strategy use and incidental vocabulary acquisition among foreign language (FL) learners. It concludes with some directions for researchers to consider in the future research.

Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) consists of few mechanobullous diseases of the skin and the mucous membranes, which clinically present with blisters, erosions, scarring and milia formation at the sites of minor trauma. Hereditary forms of EB are observed at birth or early childhood and are related to genetic defects leading to absence or insufficient expression of certain antigen determinants in the region of the basement membrane zone (BMZ). In contrast, the acquired forms of EB appear in adults and the development of the disease is related to autoimmunity towards the same antigen structures. This book examines the prevalence, clinical manifestations and management of EB. The first chapter of the book examines epidermolysis bullosa acquisita. Chapter two studies immunofluorescence mapping for the diagnosis of inherited EB. Chapter three discusses nutrition for children and adolescents with EB. Chapter four provides an overview of wound healing and skin care in inherited EB. The final chapter reviews the main therapies currently under development for recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB) and focuses on recent advances in approaches combining gene therapy and tissue engineering for treating RDEB.

Have you ever wondered why some people are more tolerant and accepting to difference than others? This book is ground-breaking in its scope. Guarding Tolerance is the first comprehensive publication about tolerance of human diversity which explores historical, philosophical (including the controversial relationship between freedom of speech and tolerance) and psychological aspects of tolerance as well as educational implications informed by theory and research. Rivka Witenberg suggests a new direction in research and theory, and proposes an alternative way of viewing tolerance as a concept in its own right better placed within the moral domain and not simply the opposite of prejudice. When tolerance is placed within the moral domain pertaining to equality, justice, respect and avoiding harm to others, it should be viewed as positive in nature rather than simply forbearance or "putting up with". She argues that to be tolerant is a fundamental human quality as central to human existence as love, justice, empathy and fairness, and that tolerance is instinctive. While tolerance and intolerance do coexist, intolerance is not innate. Understanding more about the nature of tolerance to human diversity in today''s increasingly diverse and complex world could not be more important for harmonious, cooperative intergroup living. Witenberg reflects on the origin of tolerance and its deep historical roots, exemplified by the "Golden Rule". Analysis of philosophical theories and her psychological research about tolerance to human diversity will further expand our understanding of this important matter. This book is bringing a new outlook on the questions about what tolerance is, how it is conceptualised and its practical implications. It is written in approachable language which allows everybody to understand this important topic. Moving away from the idea that tolerance is simply "putting up with" and the antithesis to prejudice, this is a major interdisciplinary work that alters our understanding of tolerance to human diversity. This book is unique in its approach and subject matter, and should be of value to educators and policy makers, but also to anyone interested in understanding this important issue.

This book is an account of criticism and controversy surrounding modern medicine. Chapter One provides an overview of the contents. Chapter Four explains the contribution of the concept of paradigm'' to the analysis provided. The argument is that, for all its fine accomplishments in medicine, the science has also damaged the art. This view is an echo of views expressed by eminent physicians early in the last Century, including William Osler and Francis Peabody. Concrete evidence of an ailing doctor-patient relationship is manifest in the form of some serious clinical problems. These include patient dissatisfaction, failure to take prescribed medication, failure of a doctor''s reassurance of normality to allay anxiety, resort to alternative medicine, use of patient advocates and defection'' to alternative medicine. These we see as, not only damaging to treatment and health outcome, and very expensive, but indicators of a basic lack of trust. To compound the problem, the clinical process is essentially hermeneutic; an interpretive exercise. Hence it cannot be studied without interview and qualitative data analysis. Such methods are also indispensable for the understanding of the doctor''s management decisions, particularly the social context. The science of medicine is well served by biomedical research and education which has recently been reinforced by the rise of clinical epidemiology and evidence-based medicine. Of great concern is that the skills of sociology and the humanities have been spurned, even denigrated as journalistic'' or unscientific''. Not only has this prevented physicians from fully understanding the patient''s medical views and social predicament, but has robbed us of the humanistic'' research methods needed to research the problems. These problems cannot be explained simply as side-effects of the impact of science. Rather there are much deeper currents. In Thomas Kuhn''s terms, medicine shifted paradigm from superstition to rationality in Ancient Greece, and again to scientific modern medicine at the time of the French Revolution. Medicine, it seems, is on the cusp of a further paradigm shift to a postmodern paradigm. The goal is that this brings the necessary balance between the already revitalised science and the ancient art of medicine. To achieve this, the establishment of centres for the study of clinical practice'' to train reflective physicians'', who will lead clinical practice research'', with multidisciplinary studies of the process of clinical care is needed. This will mean applying research methods of empirical science, clinical epidemiology, biostatistics and evidence-based medicine, already in progress and, in cooperation with relevant academics hosted by the centre, interview techniques involving qualitative analysis or any other appropriate methods. An important function is to act as a catalyst to inject social science and humanities into the current modern medical curriculum.

We study the solitons and nonlinear waves of phonon-polaritons and plasmon-polaritons with the frequencies in the terahertz and optical ranges in nonlinear media, and investigate the polariton spectrum in nonlinear dielectric media with the third order Kerr-type nonlinearity. We study the dependence of numbers of polariton spectrum branches on the intensity of the electromagnetic field, and demonstrate that the appearance of the new branches located in the polariton spectrum gap are caused by the dispersion of the third order dielectric susceptibility at the intensive electromagnetic field in the medium. The modulation instability of the new spectrum branch waves leads to the appearance of the spatial solitons or cnoidal (non-linear) waves. These scalar and vector phonon-polariton spatial solitons and cnoidal waves appear in the boundless dielectric medium. The polariton gets the mass that depends on the efficiency of the interaction of the electromagnetic field and medium. We investigate the linearly and circularly polarised nonlinear polariton waves in the self-focusing and self-defocusing media. The spatial soliton or cnoidal wave corresponds to one or several flat fluxes of the polaritons for the linearly polarised wave. The right or left circularly polarised polariton scalar wave corresponds to several polariton fluxes in the form of a filament bundle. In addition, we examine the instability of the linearly and circularly polarised polariton wave in the nonlinear dielectric medium. We consider the nonlinear models of generation of the surface plasmon-polaritons (SPPs) at the boundary of a nonmagnetic dielectric medium and a nonmagnetic metal. We show how the three-dimensional incident wave transforms to the fluxes of the SPPs at the first and second harmonics in the TM-mode. These "slow" and "fast" fluxes of the SPPs are formed at the first and second harmonics when their interaction is weak. The incoming SPP pulse transforms to the bright and dark solitons at the strong harmonic interaction. We consider the generation of the SPP pulses at the first and second harmonics of the carrier wave at the boundary of a uniaxial crystal and a non-magnetic metal. The SPP pulses at the first and second harmonics can arise in the form of the bright and dark solitons, or as the cnoidal waves, in accordance with the synchronism of velocity of the SPP pulses. We study the variation of the interaction efficiency and the changes of forms of the SPP pulses due to the exact or non-exact synchronism of their velocities, and show that the selection of crystal and metal pairs allows us to change the forms of the SPP pulses. We show how to use the non-linear waves and pulses for designing the optical devices such as the optical converter, controllable filter and all-optical logic gates.

What other document means so much to so many and yet is known to so few? This title guides the reader from the origins of the constitution to its present-day status. It includes explanations, history and interpretation.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 (PL 104-191) continues to generate numerous questions. What kinds of policies does it cover? Does it help people who are currently uninsured? Does it help people with pre-existing medical conditions? How does it affect health insurance premiums? How do its requirements interact with the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) continuation coverage? Answers to those questions are provided, as well as descriptions of each of the major section of HIPAA.

The field of parallel computing dates back to the mid-fifties, where research labs started the development of so-called supercomputers with the aim to significantly increase the performance, mainly the number of (floating point) operations a machine is able to perform per unit of time. Since then, significant advances in hardware and software technology have brought the field to a point where the long-time challenge of tera-flop computing was reached in 1998. While increases in performance are still a driving factor in parallel and distributed processing, there are many other challenges to be addressed in the field. Enabled by growth of the Internet, the majority of desktop computers nowadays can be seen as part of a huge distributed system, the World Wide Web. Advances in wireless networks extend the scope to a variety of mobile devices (including notebooks, PDAs, or mobile phones). Information is therefore distributed by nature, users require immediate access to information sources, to computing power, and to communication facilities. While performance in the sense defined above is still an important criterion in such kind of systems, other issues, including correctness, reliability, security, ease of use, ubiquitous access, intelligent services, etc. must be considered already in the development process itself. This extended notion of performance covering all those aspects is called "quality of parallel and distributed programs and systems". In order to examine and guarantee quality of parallel and distributed programs and systems special models, metrics and tools are necessary. The six papers selected for this volume tackle various aspects of these problems.

Long the focus of popular interest, as witnessed by the plethora of spy-thriller movies and books, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an enigma to most people. With its primary focus the gathering of international intelligence information and the safeguarding of US national security, the CIA has taken on considerable importance in recent months. The agency has had to face down numerous questions in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks, such as whether any clues of the crimes were missed and if regulations hindered co-operation with other national agencies like the FBI. Congress and the White House have been considering ways to change and streamline the CIA''s operations amidst a series of hearings and debates. Along with the issue of 9/11, the CIA faces periodic criticism for its ambiguous covert actions in foreign incidents. Despite these issues, the CIA remains an important tool in America''s security apparatus, indispensable to the intelligence infrastructure. Although secrecy is a necessity for an organisation predicated on covert operations and national security, it remains important for the public to have some understanding of the organisation''s history, mission, and practices. In order to shed some light on the CIA, this book provides a thorough and well-prepared overview of America''s premier spy agency. Topics addressed include CIA history, organisation, practices, and specific operations. Following this analysis is a carefully selected bibliography of current literature dedicated to the study of the CIA. Further access is finally provided with author, title, and subject indexes. Given the public fascination with the CIA, and especially the recent events and international climate, understanding intelligence operations has never been more important and the resource of this book never more needed.

Presents original research results on the leading edge of psychology. Each chapter has been carefully selected in an attempt to present substantial advances across a broad spectrum.

Martin Luther only meant for his 95 Theses to spark debate and hopefully a few changes in the Catholic Church. Instead, they changed the face of world history, sparking decades of violent religious conflict and war amongst the nations and peoples of Europe. Luther was a Catholic cleric whose chief problem with the Church was the practice of selling indulgences. Church leaders, though, would not sanction debate with him and excommunicated Luther. His cause was then championed by varied European royals who saw the chance to break from the Catholic Church and take control of valuable land. As the Protestants separated from the Catholic Church, they also split from each other into denominations like Lutheran, Anglican, and Calvinist. All of this was more than Luther sought or likely even wanted. But the Reformation remains a seminal moment in Western, indeed world, history and Martin Luther is its father. This book presents an overview of Martin Luther''s life and his impact on Christianity and the face of the world. Following that is a list of carefully selected citations of literature about Luther and the religious change he spawned. Easy access is finally provided via author, title, and subject indexes.

Defining the ''exergy'' of a system as a system-environment combination that measures the amount of work obtainable from the system, the authors examine exergy components in equilibrium and non-equilibrium states. The elaborated concepts are then used to examine energy recovery and savings in industrial plants. Finally, elements of exergy efficiency and economic utility are explored.

Constitutes the proceedings of the 2nd Symposium of the Technical Committee Measurement of Electrical Quantities - TC4 on Industrial Measurement of Electrical & Electronic Components & Equipment held in Warsaw, Poland, May 26-28 1987.