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Curcumin is a natural product with polyphenolic structure. It is used in therapeutic remedies alone or in combination with other natural substances. Many researchers are investigating it because of its biological activities such as: anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-protozoal, anti-viral, anti-bacterial and has been found to be effective for treatment of Alzheimer, depression, headaches, fibromyalgia, leprosy, fever, menstrual problems, water retention, worms and kidney problems etc. It is an active ingredient in dietary spice, turmeric. It has reactive functional groups: a diketone moiety and two phenolic groups. Despite its unique biological activities, it suffers from some shortcomings which include: gastrointestinal problems, poor bioavailability due to its poor absorption, short half-life, poor solubility in aqueous solutions, rapid systemic elimination and antithrombotic activity which can interfere with blood clotting. The first chapter of this book reviews the different delivery systems used for incorporation of curcumin and its derivatives, release kinetics and up to date in vivo results. Chapter two discusses curcumin nano and microencapsulation and its implications on clinical uses. Chapter three studies the epigenetic changes induced by curcumin and its congeners and the potential of utilising these changes in the treatment of different diseases. The last two chapters examine the effects of curcumin in human nasal epithelial cells; and differential absorption of curcuminoids between free and liposomed curcumin formulations.

Alternative splicing (AS) is a fundamental mechanism of gene expression regulation that extremely expands the coding potential of genomes and the cellular transcriptomic and proteomic diversity. This dynamic and finely-tuned machinery is particularly widespread in the nervous system and is critical for both neuronal development and functions. Alternative splicing defects, therefore, frequently underlie neurological disorders. In the first chapter of this book, the authors focus on Parkinson''s disease (PD), the second most common neurodegenerative disorder worldwide. They provide a current overview on the impact of alternative splicing in PD by representing the multiple splicing transcripts produced from the major PD-linked genes and their regulation in PD states; review the studies describing global splicing expression changes revealed by whole-genome transcriptomic approaches; and summarise the current knowledge about the alternative splicing modulation in PD through non-coding RNAs (miRNA and lcnRNA) molecules. The following chapter reviews tau alternative splicing in Alzheimer''s disease. Chapter three examines the role of splicing factors in cancer prognosis and treatment. The last chapter studies nonsense-mediated decay and human disease.

The use of Allium sativum (garlic) for medicinal purposes has origin in antiquity and is still included in the traditional medicine of many cultures. Oral tradition and recorded history show that garlic is one of the earliest examples of plants used extensively since the existence of man. Historically, there has been great interest in the role and potential benefits of garlic in the management of diseases and maintenance of health. This book provides research on the chemical constituents, medicinal uses and health benefits of Allium sativum. The first chapter provides a historical perspective and folkloric applications of garlic in ancient cultures, the supposed role and benefits perceived/claimed to have played in health and disease and the substantive validation made so far by modern science. The next chapter provides a comparative review of Allium sativum extract and bioactive constituents. Chapter three reviews recent progresses in facilitating the in situ generated allicin methodology and its possible medicinal applications. Chapter four evaluates the antimicrobial activity, in vitro, of fresh Allium sativum Liliaceae against Staphylococcus aureus (Sa) and Escherichia coli (E. coli). The last chapter''s main objective is the development of a preliminary mechanical system for the culture of garlic.

"Advances in Genetics Research" presents original research results on the leading edge of genetics discovery. Each article has been carefully selected in an attempt to present substantial research results across a broad spectrum. In this continuing series compilation, the authors present and discuss the most recent Y chromosome progress within the main fields of genetics; male infertility associated with TTTY gene family deletions in the Y chromosome; genetic diversity assessment by random amplified polymorphic DNA; the effect of habitat fragmentation on genetic diversity; the use of HeLa cells as a model for studying DNA damage and repair; the molecular genetics of polycythemia vera; recent advances and molecular background of microRNAs in disease; papaya viral diseases; phylogenetics and phylogeography of large neotropical rodents by means of mitochondrial genes; and omics technologies applied to prokaryotes.

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.

Disorders of consciousness (DOC) represent one of the most complex and crucial challenges for neuroscientists. A precise and reliable assessment of the arousal and awareness of consciousness in patients with severe brain damage would allow for a comprehensible classification of DOC. Intensive care has led to an increase in the number of patients who survive after severe acute brain damage. Most comatose patients who survive begin to awaken and recover gradually within 24 weeks. Although some of these individuals gradually experience complete brain function loss which leads to brain death (BD), oftentimes this state is treated as synonymous with the death of the individual. Nonetheless, other individuals progress to "wakeful unawareness", which is defined as a vegetative state (VS). DOC terminology may be useful clinically, but does little to explain the nature of consciousness. While it is not known which portions of the brain are responsible for cognition and consciousness, what little is known points to substantial interconnections among the brainstem, subcortical structures and the neocortex. Thus, the "higher brain" may well exist only as a metaphorical concept and not in reality.

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.

Aims to provide a representation of the evolutionary multi-objective optimisation research area and related trends. This book reports many innovative designs yielded by the application of such optimisation methods. It is divided into two main parts: evolutionary multi-objective optimisation and evolutionary multi-objective designs.

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.

Superconductivity is the ability of certain materials to conduct electrical current with no resistance and extremely low losses.

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.

Contemporary Developmental Policy