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This open access book offers a timely and comprehensive review of the field of neurotronics. Gathering cutting-edge contributions from neuroscientists, biologists, psychologists, as well as physicists, microelectronics engineers and information scientists, it gives extensive information on fundamental information pathways in selected nervous systems. It also highlights their relevance as building blocks for novel computing architectures, such as bio-inspired electronic devices, neuromorphic architectures, memristive devices, adaptive sensors and emergent, pulsed-coupled oscillatory networks. All in all, this book offers a unique bridge between fundamental research in neuroscience, neural information processing, nonlinear dynamics, and self-organization, and advanced practical applications concerning the fabrication of hardware-oriented computing.

The monograph comprehensively presents the research on the prototype of the biomimetic Multi-Spiked Connecting Scaffold (MSC-Scaffold) for cementless fixation of the components of a new generation of resurfacing arthroplasty (RA) endoprostheses. This research, carried out by a bioengineering-surgical team from three Polish universities, includes bioengineering design, rapid prototyping, manufacturing in selective laser melting, functionalization, surface modification, numerical studies, experimental in vitro studies, and pilot surgical experiments in an animal model. Features: Presents the prototype of the multi-spiked connecting scaffold for a new generation of resurfacing endoprostheses of the knee and the hip Explains this prototype scaffold as the first worldwide design of the biomimetic fixation of components of diarthrodial joints resurfacing endoprostheses Insights into the entire process of bioengineering design and research on this novel way of resurfacing endoprostheses fixation Reviews main results of the scaffold prototyping and SLM manufacturing, structural and osteoconductive functionalization, and surface modification Reports experimental and numerical investigations of mechanical behavior of the scaffold-bone system, cell culture studies, and pilot surgical experiments in animal models This book is aimed at professionals and graduate students in biomedical engineering, biomaterials engineering, and bone & joint surgery. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

This open access book provides a unique and state-of-the-art view on DNA nanotechnology with an eye toward future developments. Intended as a tribute to Nadrian C. Seeman, who founded the field of DNA nanotechnology, the content is an exciting mixture of technical and non-technical material, reviews, tutorials, perspectives, new findings, and open questions. The book aims to inspire current researchers to sit back and think about the big picture, while also enticing new researchers to enter the field. Most of all, the book captures voices from a unique moment in time: 40 years after the publication of the first paper that envisioned DNA nanotechnology. From this vantage point, what are the untold stories, the unspoken concerns, the underlying fundamental issues, the overlooked opportunities, and the unifying grand challenges? What will help us see more clearly, see more creatively, or see farther? What is transpiring right now that could pave the way for the future? To address these questions, leading researchers have contributed 22 chapters, grouped into five sections: perspectives, chemistry and physics, structures, biochemical circuits, and spatial systems. This book will be an important reference point in the field of DNA nanotechnology, both for established researchers looking to take stock of the field and its future, and for newcomers such as graduate students and researchers in other fields who are beginning to appreciate the power and applicability of its methods.

Dieses Open-Access-Buch dokumentiert die Entwicklung des personenzentrierten Bedarfserfassungsinstrumentes „IBUT-CMA“ auf Grundlage der ICF. Ziel war es, die Bedarfe praxisnah zu erfassen, eine direkte, leistungsgerechte, monetäre Abbildung der Hilfen zu erreichen, die Mitwirkungsmöglichkeit und Teilhabe der Betroffenen am Erfassungsprozess zu verbessern und eine klare Kommunikationsstruktur zwischen Kostenträger und Leistungserbringer zu schaffen. Weitere neben dem Instrument vorgestellte Ergebnisse sind: die Definition des Begriffes „Teilhabe“ als dynamisches Modell, die Darstellung der Kausalkette der Bedarfserfassung sowie die Formulierung von Merkmalen arbeitsähnlicher Tätigkeiten. Mit dem Modell der Beeinträchtigung und Förderung der Teilhabe für CMA (MBFT) wird u.a. verdeutlicht, wie tagesstrukturierende Maßnahmen und die Rahmenbedingungen besonderer Wohnformen die personenzentrierte Teilhabe unterstützen können.

This open access book presents outstanding doctoral dissertations in Information Technology from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Information Technology has always been highly interdisciplinary, as many aspects have to be considered in IT systems. The doctoral studies program in IT at Politecnico di Milano emphasizes this interdisciplinary nature, which is becoming more and more important in recent technological advances, in collaborative projects, and in the education of young researchers. Accordingly, the focus of advanced research is on pursuing a rigorous approach to specific research topics starting from a broad background in various areas of Information Technology, especially Computer Science and Engineering, Electronics, Systems and Control, and Telecommunications. Each year, more than 50 PhDs graduate from the program. This book gathers the outcomes of the best theses defended in 2021-22 and selected for the IT PhD Award. Each of the authors provides a chapter summarizing his/her findings, including an introduction, description of methods, main achievements and future work on the topic. Hence, the book provides a cutting-edge overview of the latest research trends in Information Technology at Politecnico di Milano, presented in an easy-to-read format that will also appeal to non-specialists.

"Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is defined as a multidisciplinary process that uses explicit methods to determine the value of a health technology at different points in its lifecycle. The purpose is to inform decision-making in order to promote an equitable, efficient, and high-quality health system. The definition reflects that facts and values are intertwined in HTA. This means that HTA should be considered as a type of policy analysis, wherein the assessment of safety, clinical and cost implications of health technologies, as well as their wider ethical, legal, social, organizational, environmental and other implications is conducted from the view that these aspects are closely interrelated, and wherein stakeholders are involved in a more productive way throughout the process of HTA. Acknowledging this holds the potential of conducting assessments of health technologies in a way that supports deliberative democratic decision making. In the 2018-2021 EU Erasmus+ strategic partnerships project “VALues In Doing Assessments ofhealthcare TEchnologies” (VALIDATE), a consortium of seven academic and HTA organizations have developed an approach to HTA that allows for the integration of empirical analysis and normative inquiry. The VALIDATE handbook: an approach on the integration of values in doing assessments of health technologies offers the reader an opportunity to get acquainted with the theoretical considerations and apprehend the associated practical and organizational implications of this approach. It offers those interested in HTA to integrate empirical analysis and normative inquiry in a transparent way."

This open access volume compiles student reports from the 2021 Simula Summer School in Computational Physiology. Interested readers will find herein a number of modern approaches to modeling excitable tissue. This should provide a framework for tools available to model subcellular and tissue-level physiology across scales and scientific questions. In June through August of 2021, Simula held the seventh annual Summer School in Computational Physiology in collaboration with the University of Oslo (UiO) and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). The course focuses on modeling excitable tissues, with a special interest in cardiac physiology and neuroscience. The majority of the school consists of group research projects conducted by Masters and PhD students from around the world, and advised by scientists at Simula, UiO and UCSD. Each group then produced a report that addreses a specific problem of importance in physiology and presents a succinct summary of the findings. Reports may not necessarily represent new scientific results; rather, they can reproduce or supplement earlier computational studies or experimental findings. Reports from eight of the summer projects are included as separate chapters. The fields represented include cardiac geometry definition (Chapter 1), electrophysiology and pharmacology (Chapters 2–5), fluid mechanics in blood vessels (Chapter 6), cardiac calcium handling and mechanics (Chapter 7), and machine learning in cardiac electrophysiology (Chapter 8).

This open access book presents thirteen outstanding doctoral dissertations in Information Technology from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Information Technology has always been highly interdisciplinary, as many aspects have to be considered in IT systems. The doctoral studies program in IT at Politecnico di Milano emphasizes this interdisciplinary nature, which is becoming more and more important in recent technological advances, in collaborative projects, and in the education of young researchers. Accordingly, the focus of advanced research is on pursuing a rigorous approach to specific research topics starting from a broad background in various areas of Information Technology, especially Computer Science and Engineering, Electronics, Systems and Control, and Telecommunications. Each year, more than 50 PhDs graduate from the program. This book gathers the outcomes of the thirteen best theses defended in 2020-21 and selected for the IT PhD Award. Each of the authors provides a chapter summarizing his/her findings, including an introduction, description of methods, main achievements and future work on the topic. Hence, the book provides a cutting-edge overview of the latest research trends in Information Technology at Politecnico di Milano, presented in an easy-to-read format that will also appeal to non-specialists.

This open access book establishes a dialog among the medical and intelligent system domains for igniting transition toward a sustainable and cost-effective healthcare. The Person-Centered Care (PCC) positions a person in the center of a healthcare system, instead of defining a patient as a set of diagnoses and treatment episodes. The PCC-based conceptual background triggers enhanced application of Artificial Intelligence, as it dissolves the limits of processing traditional medical data records, clinical tests and surveys. Enhanced knowledge for diagnosing, treatment and rehabilitation is captured and utilized by inclusion of data sources characterizing personal lifestyle, and health literacy, and it involves insights derived from smart ambience and wearables data, community networks, and the caregivers’ feedback. The book discusses intelligent systems and their applications for healthcare data analysis, decision making and process design tasks. The measurement systems and efficiency evaluation models analyze ability of intelligent healthcare system to monitor person health and improving quality of life.

In dem vorliegenden Open-Access-Buch identifizieren Studierende und Lehrende interprofessionell Entwicklungen und Problemfelder der Assistiven Technologien. Diese halten zunehmend Einzug ins Leben versorgungsbedürftiger, häufig älterer Menschen. Nach einigen Jahren der Entwicklung kann konstatiert werden, dass der Transfer von Entwicklung zur Anwendung im Alltag infolge unterschiedlicher Perspektiven und Zielsetzungen nur unzureichend stattfindet. Die Beitragsautoren bieten kreative Lösungsansätze, die zu einer nachhaltigen Umsetzung führen sollen.​​ Dies ist ein Open-Access-Buch.

Synthetic biology is a field of biotechnology that is rapidly growing in various applications, such as in medicine, environmental sustainability, and energy production. However these technologies also have unforeseen risks and applications to humans and the environment. This open access book presents discussions on risks and mitigation strategies for these technologies including biosecurity, or the potential of synthetic biology technologies and processes to be deliberately misused for nefarious purposes. The book presents strategies to prevent, mitigate, and recover from ‘dual-use concern’ biosecurity challenges that may be raised by individuals, rogue states, or non-state actors. Several key topics are explored including opportunities to develop more coherent and scalable approaches to govern biosecurity from a laboratory perspective up to the international scale and strategies to prevent potential health and environmental hazards posed by deliberate misuse of synthetic biology without stifling innovation. The book brings together the expertise of top scholars in synthetic biology and biotechnology risk assessment, management, and communication to discuss potential biosecurity governing strategies and offer perspectives for collaboration in oversight and future regulatory guidance.

This open access book gathers authoritative contributions concerning multiscale problems in biomechanics, geomechanics, materials science and tribology. It is written in memory of Sergey Grigorievich Psakhie to feature various aspects of his multifaceted research interests, ranging from theoretical physics, computer modeling of materials and material characterization at the atomic scale, to applications in space industry, medicine and geotectonics, and including organizational, psychological and philosophical aspects of scientific research and teaching as well. This book covers new advances relating to orthopedic implants, concerning the physiological, tribological and materials aspects of their behavior; medical and geological applications of permeable fluid-saturated materials; earthquake dynamics together with aspects relating to their managed and gentle release; lubrication, wear and material transfer in natural and artificial joints; material research in manufacturing processes; hard-soft matter interaction, including adhesive and capillary effects; using nanostructures for influencing living cells and for cancer treatment; manufacturing of surfaces with desired properties; self-organization of hierarchical structures during plastic deformation and thermal treatment; mechanics of composites and coatings; and many more. Covering established knowledge as well as new models and methods, this book provides readers with a comprehensive overview of the field, yet also with extensive details on each single topic.

​This open access book describes modern applications of computational human modeling in an effort to advance neurology, cancer treatment, and radio-frequency studies including regulatory, safety, and wireless communication fields. Readers working on any application that may expose human subjects to electromagnetic radiation will benefit from this book’s coverage of the latest models and techniques available to assess a given technology’s safety and efficacy in a timely and efficient manner. Describes computational human body phantom construction and application; Explains new practices in computational human body modeling for electromagnetic safety and exposure evaluations; Includes a survey of modern applications for which computational human phantoms are critical.

The growth of personalised medicine and patient partnerships in biomedical research are reshaping both the emotional and material intersections between human patients and animal research. Through tracing the creative work of patients, publics, scientists, clinicians, artists, film-makers, and campaigning groups this chapter explores how ‘patient voices’ are being rearticulated and represented around animal research. The figure of ‘the patient’ has been a powerful actor in arguments around animal research, mostly ‘spoken for’ by formal organisations, especially in publicity material making ethical justifications for the need and funding of medical research. Here, patient voices make corporeal needs legible, gather expectations and resources, and provide the horizon for embodying future hopes. However, the accessibility of digital media, alongside local institutional experiments in openness, is creating alternative spaces for voicing patient interfaces with animal research. On research establishment websites, and elsewhere, patients’ perspectives are emerging in short films, taking up positions as narrators, tour guides, and commentators, inviting the public to follow them into these previously inaccessible spaces. The embodied experience of patients, sometimes severely affected by the current absences in biomedical research, are used to authorise their presence in these places, and allow them to ask questions of animal researchers. The films are powerful and emotional vehicles for voicing patient experiences and opening up animal research. They also refigure the affective responsibilities around animal research, resituating a public debate around ethics within the body of the patient. The future expectations personified in the abstract figure of the patient, are rendered turbulent in the ambiguous corporeal encounter between human and animals undergoing similar experiences of suffering.

This book presents cutting-edge papers and perspectives on the transport of oxygen to tissues by scientists in a multitude of disciplines such as biochemistry, engineering, mathematics, medicine, physics, physiology, veterinary and complementary medicine. The book is composed of the following 6 parts: Brain Oxygenation and Function, Tumor Oxygenation and Metabolism, Muscle Oxygenation and Sports Medicine, Cell Metabolism and Tissue Oxygenation, Methodology of O2 Measurements, and Special Topics. The articles in this book have been presented at the 46th annual meeting of the International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue (ISOTT 2018) held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, from July 1 to July 5, 2018. Academics, clinical and industry researchers, engineers, as well as graduate students who are interested in oxygen transport to tissue will find this book a great reference and a useful learning resource. The chapters "Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Measured Cerebral Blood Flow from Spontaneous Oxygenation Changes in Neonatal Brain Injury", "Developing a Model to Simulate the Effect of Hypothermia on Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism" and "Broadband NIRS Cerebral Evaluation of the Hemodynamic and Oxidative State of Cytochrome-c-Oxidase Responses to +Gz Acceleration in Healthy Volunteers" are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com

This chapter adopts a historical perspective to explore how material infrastructures have structured human–animal relationships within the biomedical “animal house,” c.1945 to the present. It argues material infrastructures serve to structure the multiple values that have informed and shaped human–animal relations within the experimental biomedical sciences. By exploring how multispecies sociocultural relations performatively shape and are shaped by the physical infrastructures that make up lived relations and shared labor in the animal house and laboratory, the chapter charts how “multispecies relations” form a dynamic, situated and emergent “moral economy” wherein the moral economy cannot be separated from factors that would properly be associated with a political economy of animal-dependent experimental science.

The first book dedicated to the potential applications and unique properties of bacterial cellulose (BC), this seminal work covers the basic science, technology, and economic impact of this bulk chemical as well as the companies and patents that are driving the field. It reviews the biosynthesis and properties of BC, including genetics and characterization; discusses the advancing technology as it relates to product development, bioreactors, and production; and analyzes the economic impact of BC on a diverse range of industry applications, including materials and biomaterials, biological and polymer sciences, and electromechanical engineering.

Written for senior-level and first year graduate students in biomedical signal and image processing, this book describes fundamental signal and image processing techniques that are used to process biomedical information. The book also discusses application of these techniques in the processing of some of the main biomedical signals and images, such as EEG, ECG, MRI, and CT. New features of this edition include the technical updating of each chapter along with the addition of many more examples, the majority of which are MATLAB based.

Written to cover often overlooked areas in the field of bioMEMS, this volume bridges topics related to biomolecules and complex biological entities with those directly related to the design, fabrication, and characterization of the devices. Unlike other references, this text aids with the fundamental physicochemical understanding of biological processes relevant to the performance of various biosensing devices. Accessible to seniors and graduate students enrolled in engineering programs, the book includes problems in each chapter as well as case studies to provide real-life examples.

A study of epilepsy from an engineering perspective, this volume begins by summarizing the physiology and the fundamental ideas behind the measurement, analysis and modeling of the epileptic brain. It introduces the EEG and provides an explanation of the type of brain activity likely to register in EEG measurements, offering an overview of how these EEG records are and have been analyzed in the past. The book focuses on the problem of seizure detection and surveys the physiologically based dynamic models of brain activity. Finally, it addresses the fundamental question: can seizures be predicted? Based on the authors' extensive research, the book concludes by exploring a range of future possibilities in seizure prediction.

Foreseeing and planning for all of the possibilities and pitfalls involved in bringing a biotechnology innovation from inception to widespread therapeutic use takes strong managerial skills and a solid grounding in biopharmaceutical research and development procedures. Unfortunately there has been a dearth of resources for this aspect of the field.

Because of many misconceptions, the biological drug manufacturing industry does not fully utilize disposable components, despite their wide availability. These misconceptions include concerns for the quality of materials, running costs, scalability, the level of automation possible, and the training of staff needed to include these components in existing bioprocessing systems. Not fully realizing the long-term benefits, many manufacturers are unwilling to discard investments made in fixed equipment and traditional stainless steel systems. Regulatory and environmental concerns, however, will eventually compel manufacturers to adopt disposable systems. Making a strong case for disposables, Disposable Bioprocessing Systems demonstrates the true potential of these systems. Written by a researcher and professor with hands-on experience in designing, establishing, and validating biological manufacturing facilities worldwide, and creating model facilities using maximum disposable technology, this book is the first comprehensive introduction to understanding disposable systems. It gives an overview of the current state of the disposable bioprocessing industry, resolves all controversial issues, and guides readers in choosing disposable components that meet their needs. An important chapter on safety addresses facts and myths about the use of plastics and elastomers—including the issue of leaching—and how to ensure regulatory compliance. Helping readers understand their choices, the book describes the equipment and systems available to prepare the starting materials for the manufacturing of biological drugs—from disposable containers to filters. The author also discusses costs, regulations, and concerns about waste disposal, and shares his predictions for the future of the disposable bioprocessing industry. A practical manual for those interested in the transition to disposable systems, this book will also interest students of bioprocessing. It offers a timely view of disposable bioprocessing technology as a "game changer" that will facilitate developing new drugs and conducting research in the emerging field of stem cells and gene therapy.

Analysis of medical data using engineering tools is a rapidly growing area, both in research and in industry, yet few texts exist that address the problem from an interdisciplinary perspective. Epileptic Seizures and the EEG: Measurement, Models, Detection and Prediction brings together biology and engineering practices and identifies the aspects of the field that are most important to the analysis of epilepsy. Analysis of EEG records The book begins by summarizing the physiology and the fundamental ideas behind the measurement, analysis and modeling of the epileptic brain. It introduces the EEG as a measured signal and explains its use in the study of epilepsy. Next, it provides an explanation of the type of brain activity likely to register in EEG measurements, offering quantitative analysis of the populations of neurons that contribute to both scalp and cortical EEG and discussing the limitations and effects that choices made in the recording process have on the data. The book provides an overview of how these EEG records are and have been analyzed in the past, concentrating on the mathematics relevant to the problem of classification of EEG. The authors use these extracted features to differentiate between or classify inter-seizure, pre-seizure and seizure EEG. The challenge of seizure prediction The book focuses on the problem of seizure detection and surveys the physiologically based dynamic models of brain activity. Finally, the book addresses the fundamental question: can seizures be predicted? Through analysis of epileptic activity spanning from 3 hours to 25 years, it is proposed that seizures may be predictable, but the amount of data required is greater than previously thought. Based on the authors’ extensive research, the book concludes by exploring a range of future possibilities in seizure prediction.

The ability of non-equilibrium plasmas to modify surfaces has been known for many years. And a promising way to perform surface modifications without altering the bulk properties is plasma polymerization since this technique is versatile and can be applied to a wide range of materials. Plasma polymer films usually show good biocompatibility when compared to classical biomaterials. The possible biomedical use of plasma polymers motivates the study of their behavior during storage and in aqueous environment. Therefore, it is of major importance to understand the change of properties of these plasma polymers over time and when in contact with certain fluids. Recently, plasma polymer gradients (surfaces that display a change in at least one physicochemical property over distance) have attracted significant attention from the biomedical filed where the interaction of cells with a material surface is of major interest. This chapter discusses biomaterial functionalization via plasma polymerization focusing on their use in the biomedical field as well as their aging and stability behaviors. Plasma polymer gradients as valuable tools to investigate cell-surface interactions will also be reviewed.

The repair of peripheral nerve traumatic lesions still represents a major cause of permanent motor and sensory impairment. In case of substance loss, a nerve guide should be used to bridge the proximal with the distal stump of the severed nerve. The effectiveness of hollow nerve guides is limited by the delay of axonal growth due to the absence of a regeneration substrate inside the conduit. To fasten up nerve regeneration, nerve guides should thus be enriched by a luminal filler. In this study, we investigated, in a 12-mm rat sciatic nerve defect experimental model, the effectiveness of chitosan-based conduits of different acetylation filled either with a hyaluronic acid gel (NVR gel) or with a magnetic fibrin hydrogel, in comparison with traditional autografts. Results showed that all types of artificial nerve conduits led to functional recovery not significantly different from autografts. By contrast, morphological and morphometrical analyses showed that the best results among nerve guides were found in medium degree of acetylation (DAII: ∼5%) chitosan conduits enriched with the NVR gel.

Tissue engineering has offered wide technologies for developing functional biomaterials substitutes for repair and regeneration of damaged tissue and organs. Biomimetic materials with their inherent nature to mimic natural materials are possible through the recent advances in the fabrication technology. With the help of porous or dense implants made with biodegradable materials, it is possible to incorporate different vital growth factors, genes, drugs, stem cells and proteins. In this review, we presented various fabrication methodologies of biomimetic and bioactive scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. An overview of the nanocomposites of biomaterials is presented. Further an example of one of the hybrid nanocomposite material is given for additive manufacturing.

Biomedical engineering

Bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) is an emerging nanomaterial with unique properties produced by several species of ubiquitous fermentation bacteria, most importantly Gluconacetobacter xylinus, previously known as Acetobacter xylinum. BNC has been used for a variety of commercial applications including textiles, cosmetics, and food products, and it has a high potential for medical applications. Bacterial NanoCellulose: A Sophisticated Multifunctional Material provides the state of the art of scientific knowledge about the mechanism of cellulose production by bacteria along with pointing out challenges in expansion of BNC production in large scale. It provides the latest update on BNC structure and its modification, as well as comprehensive information about current and future applications of BNC. This seminal work covers the basic science, technology, and economic impact of this bulk chemical as well as the companies and patents that are driving the field. It reviews the biosynthesis and properties of BNC.

First published in 2005, Biomedical Signal and Image Processing received wide and welcome reception from universities and industry research institutions alike, offering detailed, yet accessible information at the reference, upper undergraduate, and first year graduate level. Retaining all of the quality and precision of the first edition, Biomedical Signal and Image Processing, Second Edition offers a number of revisions and improvements to provide the most up-to-date reference available on the fundamental signal and image processing techniques that are used to process biomedical information. Addressing the application of standard and novel processing techniques to some of today’s principle biomedical signals and images over three sections, the book begins with an introduction to digital signal and image processing, including Fourier transform, image filtering, edge detection, and wavelet transform. The second section investigates specifically biomedical signals, such as ECG, EEG, and EMG, while the third focuses on imaging using CT, X-Ray, MRI, ultrasound, positron, and other biomedical imaging techniques. Updated and expanded, Biomedical Signal and Image Processing, Second Edition offers numerous additional, predominantly MATLAB, examples to all chapters to illustrate the concepts described in the text and ensure a complete understanding of the material. The author takes great care to clarify ambiguities in some mathematical equations and to further explain and justify the more complex signal and image processing concepts to offer a complete and understandable approach to complicated concepts.