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Over the past decade, the research community has been paying particular attention to organic, inorganic and hybrid porous materials, mainly due to the plethora of promising applications offered by such architectures in areas as diverse as (nano)filtration and separation techniques, heterogeneous supported catalysis, template-assisted synthesis of nanomaterials, materials for phonic and thermic isolation as well as patterned nanomaterials for microelectronics and photovoltaics, as previously reported by numerous reviews in the field. This book provides current research on nanopores and nanoporous materials. Chapter One affords a critically selected survey of these elegant approaches toward functional nanoporous polymers and investigates their scope and limitations. Chapter Two focuses on the recent development on the nanoporous Montmorillonite clay and metal nanoparticles stabilisation on the clay by different procedures and their catalytic applications for fine chemicals synthesis. Chapter Three presents an overview of the developments in soft nanoporous organic materials by self-assembly of peptide, polyamide and polyimide moieties. Chapter Four examines nano-drilling processing with transmission electron microscope (TEM).

Maternal nutrition during pregnancy and/or lactation is highly important in the case of fetal programming and epigenetic regulation. Moreover, it is related to the adequate development of the fetus, infant and future adult. Breast milk is the optimal form of infant nutrition for the first six to twelve months of life, providing both short-term and long-term advantages for infants and mothers. Among other benefits, breastfeeding provides the infant with protection from a variety of infections, including recurrent otitis media, gastroenteritis, and respiratory tract infections. Chapter One in this book evaluates the correlation between the nutritional status of breastfeeding women, and the cholesterol concentration in their milk. Chapter Two reviews maternal viral infections that can be transmitted to infants directly through breast milk or other mechanisms associated with breastfeeding. Chapter Three discusses the application of hydrostatic high pressure treatments for improving the quality of banked human milk. Chapter Four analyses scientific works published in periodicals indexed in electronic databases about the importance of a social support network to the donation of human milk through the partnership between Brazilian Human Milk Banks and the Military Firefighters Corps for receivers of human milk, counting from the networks first registered existence in Brazil until the year of 2015, and considering its social effects in the country and perhaps abroad.

Obesity is a multifactorial global epidemic with associated risk factors for an array of vascular, metabolic, psychological and economical consequences. Bariatric surgery has revealed a significant link between gastrointestinal metabolism and obesity that extends to resolution of many metabolic diseases including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease risk. Bariatric surgery offers the most effective results and Roux-en Y gastric bypass (RYGB) is the most commonly performed bariatric surgery worldwide. The effective weight loss achieved by RYGB is thought to be caused by the re-arrangement of the gastrointestinal tract leading malabsorption and restriction of the ingested nutrients, and consequently resulting in alterations in the gut hormone levels. The first chapter of this book briefly summarises the current literature on the changes in the gastrointestinal hormones following RYGB. Chapter Two studies the role of bariatric surgery in the resolution of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Chapter Three discusses how to treat a type 2 diabetes patient post-bariatric surgery. The last chapter discusses the recent findings of the relationship between gastric bypass and four different skin disorders.

Defining creativity comprehensively explains what creativity is from an international diverse standpoint. At the same time, it makes for a concise and inspiring read that brings together everything there is to know about creativity and gifted children. This practical text is based on the newest research, and the described practice enables the reader to understand what creativity means and how we can develop potential in creative gifted children by creating a positive, constructive, and challenging curriculum along with a supportive learning environment for them.

The chapters within this volume comprise selected papers from the 5th Annual Conference of the Asian Studies Irish Association (A.S.I.A.) held at Dublin City University in November 2013. Discussing the conference theme Conflict and Communication: A Changing Asia in a Globalising World, this volume presents multiple perspectives articulated by scholars across disciplines that include translation studies, language studies, literary studies and computer science. Within such disciplinary diversity emerged a unity which converged on language and culture as fundamental points of analysis. This volume covers research topics relating to China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as Asia as a whole in a globalising world. Insights shared by the ten authors each addressing Asia through a different disciplinary lens hope to provide future research impetus for students and established scholars alike within and beyond Asian Studies.

The origin of rural poverty is complex and multidimensional. Some aspects of this origin include culture, climate, gender, markets, and public policy. Similarly, the rural poor population is quite diverse both in the problems they face and the possible solutions to those problems. This book examines nature and characteristics of rural poverty and how it develops, its persistence, and how it has caused destruction to environmental resources. The quest for global stability and peace has placed poverty issues at the centre of deliberation. In the year 2000, the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) directly addressed the problem of poverty and its alleviation. Natural resources degradation is usually understood in terms of over use of scarce non-renewable and potentially renewable resources. It entails damage or destruction of key natural resourcessuch as soils and forestsand the subsequent production of wastes. Low-income rural dwellers have much lower levels of consumption than middle and upper income groups, but occupy much more land per person than middle and upper income groups. Yet, low income groups consume less food and generally have diets that are less energy and land intensive than higher income groups. However, low income populations deplete natural resources for settlements, farming and extraction of resources for many urban dwellers. This book has created the linkages between poverty in rural areas and environmental resources degradation. It draws conclusions from examples from all over the world and emphasises on a case study in rural Ghana. This book is recommended for academicians, rural development professionals, environmentalists and the general public.

Psychological distress has become a very relevant and highly debated topic as a result of the increasing volume of information available. In fact, in the last decades, more and more research has been conducted in order to provide unique knowledge and shed new light on this important and sensible malady. In a complex and variegated panorama of scientific research, this book is intended to clarify the most significant questions and to deepen the greater contents about psychological distress, analysing its various aspects and focusing attentively on them. Different facets will be addressed in order to accomplish this goal. Among them, personality characteristics that lead to vulnerability, psychological distress, and psychological patterns of acute stress response will be discussed in two different chapters in order to define the subject in a more general way. On the other hand, the remaining chapters will treat more specific issues considered pivotal in several areas of psychological distress. In particular, the aspects concerning psychological distress in sport athletes, cancer patients, posttraumatic stress disorder cases, adolescents, cardiac diseases and autistic children and their siblings will be expertly discussed. Furthermore, this entire book is dedicated to investigate the issues relative to coping styles and strategies, distress assessment, and therapies or interventions able to improve the quality of life while also minimising risk factors.

China has achieved spectacular growth in the past forty years, and its economic structure has experienced great transformation. The country has also gradually opened up to foreign trade and direct foreign investment, transforming itself from a virtually completely closed economy into a major trading nation, and the largest developing-country destination for foreign direct investment in the world. However, since this reform, China has become a superpower in energy consumption. It has also become a big producer of pollution emissions. It has been widely argued that Chinas rapid processes of industrial development and opening up were relying too heavily on increasing inputs of environmental resources. Unsustainable environmental practices posed serious threats to Chinas natural environment. A growing concern China now faces is that the current pattern of economic development may not be sustainable, because it tends to lead to irreversible depletion of natural resources and deterioration of the ecological environment. The relationship between regional growth, sustainability in development, and the natural environment in China is thus an interesting and important issue that deserves further in-depth studies. Environmental practices play an important role in shaping Chinas regional growth, interregional inequality, and its future development strategies. Sustainability in growth and development from an environmental point of view exerts strong influences on the continuous restructuring and upgrading of the Chinese economy. The analyses in the present book delve into issues related to regional growth, interregional inequality, and the prospect of sustainable development in China from an environmental perspective. This book provides the reader with related facts, thoughts, models, and empirical results as well as discussions that shed light on those issues.

Access to higher education in South Africa poses a number of challenges. First, South Africa is said to be one of the most unequal societies in the world, with an estimated Gini coefficient that ranges between 0.63 and 0.69 (Human Sciences Research Council, 2014; Statistics South Africa, 2014). The wealth gap between the countrys rich and the poorest of the poor is both growing and getting worse. Second, UNISA is an open distance learning (ODL) institution that seeks to intervene and manage the above challenges by offering access to higher education opportunities to millions of South Africans, the majority of whom are descendants of sections of society that were denied opportunities to access higher education by a myriad of institutionalised apartheid policies and legislation which were racist and discriminative. With these concerns in mind, the author compiled Open Distance Learning (ODL) Through the Philosophy of Ubuntu, which is a sequel to the authors previous publication, Open Distance Learning (ODL) in South Africa (Nova Publishers: New Nork, 2015); it explores the potential for the philosophy of Ubuntu to meaningfully shape UNISAs ability to deliver its ODL mode of teaching and learning. The philosophy of Ubuntu, which is also known as humaneness and/or human dignity, is an African worldview or normative concept that encapsulates moral values and principles such as kindness, generosity, compassion, benevolence, respect for persons, care and concern for others, as well as human dignity. The book draws on the philosophy of Ubuntu as a guiding conceptual framework to explore ways in which UNISAs vision of an African university in the service of humanity might be meaningfully driven and realised. This collection of fourteen chapters that constitute the book grapples with a wide range of critical questions such as: How might embracing the philosophy of Ubuntu impact UNISAs ability to meaningfully deliver a humane, open distance education to its students in South Africa, on the African continent, and on a global scale? How, for instance, would grounding UNISAs curricular offerings in the philosophy of Ubuntu turn the university into a uniquely African ODL institution? How would embracing the values and principles of Ubuntu shape UNISAs inclusive focus, research and innovative conceptual framework and impertaives, ODL teaching and learning, assessment and quality assurance, communication and public relations profile, among others? Finally, Open Distance Learning (ODL) Through the Philosophy of Ubuntu explores the plausibility of a radical change of mindset from business as usual to business unusual by re-imagining and recasting UNISAs ODL mission through the values and principles of the philosophy of Ubuntu. The book is the second offering of the planned trilogy of books on ODL in Southern Africa. The final volume, Assuring Institutional Quality in Open Distance Learning (ODL) in the Developing Contexts will complete this thought process on ODL.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) and hypoxia (low-oxygen conditions) in the marine waters and freshwaters of the United States negatively impact resources across thousands of miles of the Nations coastal and inland waters. Their prevalence and duration encompass scientifically complex and economically damaging aquatic issues. This book assesses threats posed by HABs and hypoxia and provides a comprehensive research plan and action strategy outlining Federal agencies roles and responsibilities for evaluating and managing them.

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This book provides a broad discussion on recent research advances in gold nanomaterials. Since their use in glass staining during the Gothic and Renaissance period, gold nanomaterials have recently been more extensively studied and used in different fields, including applications in biomedical and energy domains. Although the scope of research in gold nanomaterials is enormous, this book provides for the first time a practical overview that condenses this immense amount of information into a single volume. While there are a number of excellent books on the market covering various types of nanomaterials, there are very few monographs to date that specifically focus on the broad research areas on gold nanomaterials. This book attempts to capture the recent developments in gold nanomaterials research through nine chapters in four broad sections; these sections are divided by the synthesis of gold nanomaterials, biological applications, sensing, and energy applications of gold nanomaterials. Many of the chapters contain introductions to the basic physical and chemical principles of the subject area. The authors hope that this book will serve as a good introduction to people just entering the field, and also for practitioners and experts seeking information in other subfields of gold nanomaterials.

Ideally a resource for clinicians and therapists, this book describes the value of using a psychoanalytic theoretical framework to explore and understand behavioural disturbance in patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). It blends both theoretical and practical treatment considerations in working with BPD, using detailed case study presentations to demonstrate this material. It also provides a description of diagnostic procedures and the importance of recognising the transference relationship with patients diagnosed with this disorder. The psychoanalytic framework of moral masochism by Freud (1924/1961) is used to explore the unconscious function of deliberate self-harm behaviours. Case illustrations are offered to highlight the process by which to understand the patient''s unconscious responses throughout treatment, and to appreciate the patient''s experience of clinical care when a consideration of these unconscious processes is disregarded or not adequately acknowledged. Specific discussion is then offered on appreciating the role of the clinician in the therapeutic alliance in terms of the patient''s prognosis. The role of the transference in the repetition of the patient''s trauma, and therefore the occurrence of recurrent deliberate self-harm episodes during treatment, is then considered in detail.

As the military draws down its forces, many veterans will enter the civilian workforce and may seek educational and training opportunities to further their transition into civilian jobs. Because pursuing a higher education degree may not be the best path for some veterans, the Post-9/11 GI Bill on-the-job training (OJT) and apprenticeship programs provide alternative opportunities. This book examines how selected veterans and employers used the programs and how widely they have been used; to what extent the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and states have taken steps to inform veterans and employers about these programs; what challenges, if any, veterans and employers have faced in using them; and to what extent VA has assessed the performance of its programs.

Sexual assault is a crime that devastates victims and has a far-reaching negative impact for The Department of Defense (DOD) because it undermines DODs core values, degrades mission readiness, and raises financial costs. DOD developed its strategy to prevent sexual assault using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) framework for effective sexual-violence prevention strategies, but DOD does not link activities to desired outcomes or fully identify risk and protective factors. This book addresses the extent to which DOD developed an effective prevention strategy; implemented activities department-wide and at military installations related to the departments effort to prevent sexual assault; and developed performance measures to determine the effectiveness of its efforts to prevent sexual assault in the military.

About 14 percent of the more than 400,000 children in foster care nationwide lived in congregate care at the end of fiscal year 2013, according to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) data. This book examines how selected states have reduced their use of congregate care; and some challenges with reducing congregate care placements, and efforts HHS has taken to help states reduce congregate care.

In August 2007, asset-backed securities (ABS), particularly those backed by subprime mortgages, suddenly became illiquid and fell sharply in value as an unprecedented housing boom turned into a housing bust. Losses on the many ABS held by financial firms depleted their capital. Uncertainty about future losses on illiquid and complex assets led to firms having reduced access to private liquidity, sometimes catastrophically. In September 2008, the financial crisis reached panic proportions, with some large financial firms failing or having the government step in to prevent their failure. Initially, the government approach was largely ad hoc, addressing the problems at individual institutions on a case-by-case basis. The panic in September 2008 convinced policy makers that a system-wide approach was needed, and Congress created the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in October 2008. In addition to TARP, the Treasury, Federal Reserve (Fed) and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) implemented broad lending and guarantee programs. The primary goal of the various interventions was to end the financial panic and restore normalcy to financial markets, rather than to make a profit for taxpayers. This book presents how much the programs ultimately cost (or benefited) the taxpayers based on straightforward cash accounting as reported by the various agencies. This book describes the various actions by the Federal Reserve to stabilise the financial markets and how those actions are likely to affect the federal budget in coming years. The book also presents estimates of the risk-adjusted (or fair-value) subsidies that the Federal Reserve provided to financial institutions through its emergency programs.