Intech

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has probably been the most important disease to emerge in the 21st century. This viral zoonotic disease has been a significant cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, but with a higher impact in low- and middle-income countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Up to December 4, 2022, more than 645,195,564 cases had been reported globally, with 6,640,845 deaths, and more than 13,054,668,703 doses of a vaccine had been given. Research has been of the utmost importance in the COVID-19 crisis: a great deal of knowledge was gathered between December 2019 and December 2022. Appropriate evidence-based management and the development of safe and effective vaccines have been key to controlling the virus. This book presents a selection of the last two years’ learning from research and clinical practice concerning SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19.

Biomass is a key resource for meeting the energy and material demands of mankind in the future. As a result, businesses and technologies are developing around biomass processing and its applications. Transformation of Biomass: Theory to Practice explores the modern applications of biomass and bio-based residues for the generation of energy, heat and chemical products. The first chapter presents readers with a broad overview of biomass and its composition, conversion routes and products. The following chapters deal with specific technologies, including anaerobic digestion, pyrolysis and gasification, as well as hydrothermal and supercritical conversion. Each chapter details current practises, recent developments, business case models and comprehensive analysis of the problems associated with each approach, and how to optimize them. Topics covered include: Anaerobic digestion Reactor design Pyrolysis Catalysis in biomass transformation Engines for combined heat and power Influence of feedstocks on performance and products Bio-hydrogen from biomass Analysis of bio-oils Numerical simulation and formal kinetic parameters evaluation Business case development This textbook will provide students, researchers and industry professionals with a practical and accessible guide to the essential skills required to advance in the field of bioenergy.

Soybean is the most important oilseed and livestock feed crop in the world. These dual uses are attributed to the crop's high protein content (nearly 40% of seed weight) and oil content (approximately 20%); characteristics that are not rivaled by any other agronomic crop. Across the 10-year period from 2001 to 2010, world soybean production increased from 168 to 258 million metric tons (54% increase). Against the backdrop of soybean's striking ascendancy is increased research interest in the crop throughout the world. Information in this book presents a comprehensive view of research efforts in genetics, plant physiology, agronomy, agricultural economics, and nitrogen relationships that will benefit soybean stakeholders and scientists throughout the world. We hope you enjoy the book.

The book is a new edition of stereo vision book series of INTECH Open Access Publisher and it presents diverse range of ideas and applications highlighting current research/technology trends and advances in the field of stereo vision. The topics covered in this book include fundamental theoretical aspects of robust stereo correspondence estimation, novel and robust algorithms, hardware implementation for fast execution and applications in wide range of disciplines. Particularly interesting approaches include neuromorphic engineering, probabilistic analysis and anisotropic reaction diffusion addressing the problem of stereo correspondence and the applications in mobile robotics for autonomous terrain mapping and navigation. SterCentre for Intelligent Systems Research (CISR), Institute of Technology, Research and Innovation (ITRI),eo algorithm with anisotropic reaction-diffusion systems utilizing biologically motivated reaction-diffusion systems with anisotropic diffusion coefficients makes it an interesting addition to the book.

Biomedical Engineering is an exciting and emerging interdisciplinary field that combines engineering with life sciences. The relevance of this area can be perceived in our everyday lives every time we go to hospital, receive medical treatment or even when we buy health products such as an automatic blood pressure monitor device. Over the past years we have experienced a great technological development in health care and this is due to the joint work of engineers, mathematicians, physicians, computer scientists and many other professionals. This book introduces a collection of papers organized into three sections that provide state of the art examples of practical applications in Biomedical Engineering in the area of Biomedical Signal Processing and Modelling, Biomaterials and Prosthetic Devices, and Biomedical Image Processing.

Contemporary developments in the book publishing industry are changing the system as we know it. Changes in established understandings of authorship and readership are leading to new business models in line with the postulates of Web 2.0. Socially networked authorship, book production and reading are among the social and discursive practices starting to define this emerging system. Websites offering socially networked, collaborative and shared reading are increasingly important. Social Reading maps socially networked reading within the larger framework of a changing conception of books and reading. This book is structured into chapters covering topics in: social reading and a new conception of the book; an evaluation of social reading platforms; an analysis of social reading applications; the personalization of system contents; reading in the Cloud and the development of new business models; and Open Access e-books. Discusses social reading as an emerging tendency involving authors, readers, librarians, publishers, and other industry professionals Describes how the way we read is changing Presents ways in which the major players in the digital content industry are developing specific applications to foster socially networked reading