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Pomegranates are increasingly distributed and consumed worldwide both as fresh fruit or processed products, like juices and food supplements. The present commercial success of this fruit and its purported health benefits are associated with an impressive increase of scientific research published on the pomegranate. The huge amount of new data produced every year by the scientific community necessitates a periodic review of the results. The aim of this book is to provide an update of the results in pomegranate research. Each chapter is conceived as an in-depth, state-of-the art compilation on the main topics regarding pomegranates. This is to ensure the status of a reference manual for all the scientists approaching different aspects of pomegranate research and to the industrial sector in order to improve/develop the pomegranate chain. The choice of an edited collection originates from the need to have different specializations and a multi-disciplinary approach to describe all the different topics related to pomegranates, spanning from botany, chemistry, and nutrition to technology and medical research. Topics discussed in this book include pomegranate biodiversity and phytochemical composition of pomegranate pulp, peels, seeds and oil; polyphenols antioxidant activity, bioavailability and metabolism by gut microbiota; current evidence supporting the benefits of pomegranate products in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease and cancer; allergies to pomegranate; pomegranate processing and recovery of waste from pomegranate juice production for their possible re-use as a source of nutraceuticals.

College affordability is an issue that has received considerable attention from federal policy makers in recent years as concerns have arisen that a college education may be out of reach for an increasing number of students and families. While there is little disagreement that escalating college prices pose a problem, there is not a consensus about the precise causes for these increases. Among the possible explanations for price increases, one that has surfaced with some frequency in recent years is the notion that the availability of or increases in federal student aid may help to fuel price increases, as institutions seek to capture additional aid rather than stabilize or lower prices. This hypothesized relationship has received a good deal of attention and raised some concerns about the efficacy of federal student aid policies that aim to enhance access and affordability. This book has been undertaken in response to numerous congressional requests to explain what is actually known about the relationship between student aid and prices. In this book, this task is approached first through analysis of trends in prices, examining different measures and concepts of price. This is followed by a brief examination of trends in student aid, and an examination of many of the competing explanations for why prices are increasing. Finally, the book explores what is known about the possible causal relationship between student aid and price increases, principally through a survey of primary studies that attempt to isolate the effects of student aid on college prices.

Federal advisory committeeswhich may also be labeled as commissions, councils, or task forcesare established to assist the executive branch in deliberating and, in some cases, helping to solve complex or divisive issues. Congress, the President, or an agency head may establish a federal advisory committee to render independent advice or provide policy recommendations. In 1972, Congress enacted the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA; 5 U.S.C. Appendix Federal Advisory Committee Act; 86 Stat. 770, as amended), prompted by the perception that some advisory committees were duplicative, inefficient, and lacked adequate oversight. FACA mandates certain structural and operational requirements, including formal reporting and oversight procedures. Additionally, FACA requires committee meetings be open to the public, unless they meet certain requirements. Also, FACA committee records are to be accessible to the public. Pursuant to statute, the General Services Administration (GSA) maintains and administers management guidelines for federal advisory committees. This book offers a history of FACA, examines its current requirements, and provides data on federal advisory committees operations and costs.

The chapters in this volume present the latest developments in medicine and biology. Chapter One summarizes the recent knowledge on the effects of carnitine on hyperammonemia in patients with liver cirrhosis and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Chapter Two discusses the role of Acyl/free carnitine ratio on uremic cardiomyopathy in chronic hemodialysis patients. Chapter Three investigates the possible application of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) during milk fermentation in relation to ACE-I inhibitory peptides. Chapter Four focuses on black tea and the effect of the addition of milk on the antioxidant activity of black tea. Chapter Five clarifies the current status of aortic valve stenosis therapy and defines its main advantages and problems related to the current option of treatment to better understand how to deal with patients at intermediate risk for conventional surgery. Chapter Six reviews clinical signs, diagnosis and topical therapy of dermatophyte infections. Chapter Seven focuses on species, subtypes, differences in pathogeny and clinical manifestations, and mathematical methods for DNA sequence analysis of human cryptosporidiosis. Chapter Eight reviews global health security for the control of emerging infectious disease outbreaks.

This book examines the most up-to-date research in the agricultural field. The first chapter discusses strategies for the management and mitigation of herbicide-resistant weeds. Chapter Two revises the available information about the diversity and plant growth promotion abilities of bacterial endophytes isolated from legume nodules and from roots of different plants, focusing on their interest for crop biofertilization. Chapter Three presents process-related technological information for the synthesis and purification of bioactive peptides from soybean and their functional properties. Chapter Four focuses on the nutritional value of wheat germ-supplemented foods, for humans and animals alike, with a specific emphasis on the protein and essential amino acid content of these foods and its related health benefits. Chapter Five provides an overview of the importance of fatty acids (FA), fructans, lipids and lipopolysaccharides in determining some grain and malt composition. Chapter Six gives insights into the production and commercialization of transgenic wheat. Chapter Seven reviews the modification of barley by binary acrylic monomers and its applications.

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.

Gallstone disease is one of the most prevalent digestive diseases, resulting in a considerable amount of financial and social burden in the USA. Approximately 20 million Americans have gallstones. Because gallstone disease is a common clinical problem, basic and clinical studies on this disease continue to advance at a rapid pace, and a book focusing on basic science, current diagnosis and management of gallstones will greatly help practicing gastroenterologists, gastroenterological endoscopists, physicians and surgeons to understand the etiology of this disease and the availability of effective medical therapies. In this book, recognised medical experts discuss recent advances in the epidemiology, pathophysiology, pathogenesis, genetics and diagnosis, as well as endoscopic, medical and surgical therapies of gallstone disease. This compilation on gallstone disease was written by fifty authors from eight countries (Canada, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the USA). There are thirty chapters in this book. Chapters One and Two discuss the epidemiology and natural history of cholesterol and pigment gallstone disease. Chapters Three through Six summarise recent progress in the pathogenesis of gallstone disease from a physical-chemical and pathophysiological perspective. Chapter Seven elucidates the roles of the immune system and the microbiome on the pathogenesis of cholesterol gallstones. Chapters Eight and Nine review the roles of nuclear receptors and the enterohepatic circulation of bile acids in cholesterol gallstone diseases. Chapters Ten through Twelve discuss the discovery of Lith genes and more fundamental knowledge concerning the genetic determinants and the molecular mechanisms underlying the critical role of Lith genes in gallstone formation in mice and humans. Chapter Thirteen discusses gallstones in pregnancy and explains why gallstone prevalence is higher in women than in men. Chapters Fourteen through Eighteen discuss the effects of diet, insulin resistance, obesity, diabetes, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease on the formation of cholesterol gallstones. Chapter Nineteen provides diagnostic flow charts for biliary lithiasis. In Chapter Twenty, important non-invasive imaging findings of common gallbladder pathology are reviewed, and current strategies for the optimal use of imaging in the evaluation of patients with suspected gallbladder disease is discussed. Chapter Twenty-One evaluates current pharmacological therapy in cholesterol gallstones. Chapter Twenty-Two describes laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Chapters Twenty-Three through Twenty-Six discuss surgical treatment and endoscopic management of common bile duct stones and hepatolithiasis. Chapter Twenty-Seven reviews recent progress on the endoscopic treatment of bile duct stones with endoscopic papillary large balloon dilation. Chapter Twenty-Eight addresses surgical treatment of gallstones and their complications. Chapter Twenty-Nine discusses treatment of intrahepatic duct stones from a Western perspective. Chapter Thirty describes the history and incidence rate of Mirizzi syndrome, and summarises recent progress in its classification, diagnosis, and management. The articles in this book provide a state-of-the-art review of the current knowledge on the lithogenesis and the management of gallstone disease, as well as promote future epidemiological investigation, basic and translational research, and clinical studies on this prevalent biliary disorder worldwide.

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.

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) play an important role in vital biological processes such as metabolic and signaling pathways, cell cycle control, and DNA replication and transcription. This book discusses types, methods for detection and the analysis of PPIs. Chapter One describes two key nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods for the investigation of protein-protein interactions, chemical shift perturbation, and residual dipolar coupling, with practical tips on the preparation of samples, NMR measurement, and analysis. Chapter Two describes the basic principles and provides a practical description of the recent technological developments in solution NMR spectroscopy for examining protein-protein interactions. Chapter Three focuses on identifying PPIs via many learning methods based on protein sequence information. Chapter Four examines the thermodynamics of PPIs by isothermal titration calorimetry. Chapter Five describes the general microscopic features of amyloid fibril structures and then discusses the macroscopic properties of protein aggregate with conformations such as packing, hydration, and enthalpy using thermodynamic variables in combination with densitometry and isothermal titration calorimetry. Chapter Six reviews the special case of protein self-association as a modulator of protein function.

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.