Nova Science Publishers
Salmonella infections; new research.
These seven chapters represent a grab bag of research on salmonella from an international group of researchers. They discuss features and mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance in salmonella, salmonella infection in reptiles and amphibians, biochemical characterization of salmonella effector AvrA as a protease in inflammation, novel approaches to diagnosing salmonellosis, phenotypic and molecular characterization of S. enterica serovar typhimurium human isolates in Slovakia, and multiple-drug resistance salmonella as a challenge for epidemiological investigations. The editor's credentials are not given and the selection criteria or rationale are not described. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Schizoaffective disorders; international perspective on understanding, intervention and rehabilitation.
This book sheds light on recent research into the diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of people with schizoaffective disorders. The first chapter outlines a historical, international perspective on the controversies related to definitions and theoretical underpinnings of schizoaffective disorder. Later chapters describe recent work in resilience and recovery, managing suicide risk in pregnant schizoaffective women, and neuropsychological deficits in schizoaffective disorder. Other topics include ego functioning and cognition in people with the disorder, the connections between boredom and hallucination-proneness, and a comparative study of clinical, neuropsychological, and molecular-genetic aspects of schizoaffective psychosis and schizophrenia. Yip is affiliated with the Department of Applied Social Science at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Contributors are from Asia, Russia, the US, and Europe. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Smoking and lung cancer.
This volume contains ten research and review studies loosely unified by the topic of smoking and lung cancer. Topics include smoking and prognosis of surgically resected non-small cell lung cancer, smoking-induced lung destruction and its association with recurrence and death from early-stage lung cancer, alpha-1-antitrypsin and neutrophil elastase in lung cancer development, trends of lung cancer in Serbia, interpretation principles and ethical considerations in lung cancer screening, genetic susceptibility to second-hand smoke, passive smoking as a conditioner of food habits and nutritional status, women and lung cancer, and smoking and radon related lung cancers. The editors' credentials are not provided. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Social phobia; etiology, diagnosis, and treatment.
Editor Axelby (no affiliations given) has collected these research papers on the etiology, diagnosis and treatment of social phobias for students and practitioners who need to keep informed about the latest advances. Expert contributors note that social anxiety disorders are common yet under-diagnosed, and they cover such topics as the relationship between depression and impulsivity, behavioral inhibitions, the impact of alcohol on social phobia and the biological basis of shyness. Expert commentaries are also included that discuss the links between social phobia and schizophrenia and anxiety disorders that are secondary to other medical conditions. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Starch science and technology; proceedings.
Fourteen papers presented at the June 2007 convention examine starch biochemistry and genetics, the molecular structure of starch granules, chemical modifications of starches, and processing of starches and starch-based raw materials. A two-year Ukrainian study establishes the effects of endospermic mutations on starch and amylase deposition in developing corn seeds. Other topics include factors affecting the enzymatic digestibility of potato starches, the physiochemical properties of oat starch extracted by different methods, gelatinization of starches in aqueous plant gum solutions, and fast detection of biochemical oxygen demand in wastewater. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Stem cells.
Taupin (neuroscience, National U. of Singapore) has written this textbook for fellow scientists and students on the recent advances in stem cell research and includes several published articles that represent the latest in regenerative medicine. The author describes the role of stem cells in regenerative therapy before discussing the latest research in adult neurogenesis, stem cell engineering, BrdU immunohistochemistry and HuCNS-SC stem cells. The author also provides a concluding section that acknowledges the road ahead for stem cell research, and how further research needs to be completed before neural stem cells can fulfill their promise in cellular therapy. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Stem cell transplantation, tissue engineering and cancer applications.
Scientists in various biomedical disciplines review the literature on research into using stem cells to engineer tissue. In the long anchor study, Terje Forslund, who is not further identified, looks at the impact on the kidney of stem cell transplantation to treat leukemia. Topics of shorter — 20-25 pages — papers include regenerative therapy of the retina, olfactory neuroblastoma, and central nervous system lymphoma. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Stereochemistry research trends.
The field of stereochemistry encompasses methods for determining and describing chemical relationships and molecular reactivity. With a total of seven chapters, this book collects recent work in the field. Chapter topics include stereoselective methods towards the synthesis of iminosugars, stereochemical studies in insect chemistry, and stereochemistry of aflastatin A and blasticidin B. Other subjects covered include synthesis and electronic properties of assemblies of diastereomers of nickel II complexes with tetracyanometalates, synthesis of functionalized pyrazoles, stereochemical aspects of interaction between some monosaccharides and l-alpha-amino acids in aqueous solutions, and challenges in carbohydrate chemistry. Information on the editors is not given. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Substance abuse; new research.
A distinction is made between substance abuse and substance dependence, the former involving social as well as individual health consequences, in the brief introduction to nine contributed chapters. International experts in the field discuss research and case studies of the epidemiology, neurochemistry, and clinical manifestations of drug and alcohol abuse; drug abuse and interventions in relation to high-risk populations: those with AIDS, childhood sexual abuse, the homeless, older adults, and suicidal schizophrenics; and the role of parents in monitoring youth drug abuse behaviors. Some of the illustrations are in color, e.g., of the deleterious effects of cocaine on dental health. Information is not provided on the editors' credentials. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Superconducting intercalated graphite.
Emery, Hérold and Lagrange (no affiliations listed) report on the research conducted on the superconductivity of intercalated graphite compounds since this phenomenon was discovered in 2005. The authors provide an introduction to these carbon-based materials including host structures, anistropy, crystalline and electronic structures, bonds and varieties before reviewing the literature on donor-type, binary and ternary compounds. This information will be of primary interest to chemical researchers and engineers who wish to know more about charge transfers and critical temperatures for ytterbium, calcium and other components of graphite compounds. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Support water-management decision-making under climate change conditions.
Suastegui (Agrarian Technial Institute of Castilla and Leon) describes programs for connecting water use and crop growth simulation tools with local farmers who can use the predictions to manage irrigation water. AGRIDEMA is the primary program discussed, and a pilot assessment of managing sugar beet irrigation in the Spanish northern plateau is presented. The haphazard grammar will require concerted dedication from the reader. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Texturization and light trapping in silicon solar cells.
Written for researchers and engineers who deal with silicon photovoltaics, this study illustrates the texturing methods used to enhance the performance of solar cell surfaces. Gangopadhya, Dutta and Saha (no affiliations given) explain how texturing in silicon solar cells increase performance in short circuit current, open circuit voltage and overall efficiency. The models for texturization are described by the authors, including advanced methods such as multi-crystalline etching in solar cell fabrication. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Theoretical analysis of high fuel utilizing solid oxide fuel cells.
The highest fuel utilizations are sought in order to increase system efficiency, explains Nehter (mechanical engineering, Hamburg U. of Applied Sciences, Germany), and so proposes a configuration consisting of an anode gas condenser to increase the fuel utilization from the typical 85% to 94-97% at a constant total cell area and higher efficiency. He says that such a system could be applied to stationary carbon dioxide sequestration, and with methane as fuel, the carbon dioxide could be separated with a minimum demand of energy and the highest fuel utilizing the fuel cell's gas turbine cycle. He provides analytical and numerical solutions of the current distribution, and discusses nickel oxide formation at the anode, and the high-fuel-utilizing solid oxide fuel cell. Reader will need to wade through his less-than-fluent English. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Therapeutic potential of differentiation in cancer and normal stem cells.
The 11 chapters collected here compare cancer cells to embryonic stem cells and to adult tissue stem cells and review the current status of research in cancer stem cells. Topics include: molecular control of embryonic stem cell renewal, normal and cancer stem cell niches, therapeutic potential of mesenchymal stem cell differentiation, and cancer differentiating agents in stem cell-based therapy, among others. Characteristic of this publisher, significant errors in translation and mechanics appear throughout, and the preface is an awkward amalgamation of the articles' abstracts. Credentials for the contributors are not provided. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Topics in extreme values.
Ahsanullah (management sciences, Rider U.) and Kirmani (mathematics, U. of Northern Iowa) have edited this collection of research articles on extreme values to focus on new developments in this mathematical discipline rather than mirror the information in existing textbooks. After a very brief explanation of extreme value distributions, contributors cover such topics as characterizations of discrete distributions based on record values, extreme value analysis and incomplete data and non-parametric inference for bivariate extreme-value copulas. Due to the deliberate lack of information on the theory and applications of extreme values, this volume should be used by students and practitioners who already understand the fundamentals of this discipline. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Topics in prevalent diseases; a minority's perspective.
Despite the lack of universal consensus on the definition of 'minorities,' Chavez-Tapia and Uribe (gastroenterolgy, Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Mexico City, Mexico) introduce a volume that addresses inequities in health services, research, and clinical trials for under-represented racial/ethnic minorities, the poor, and women. In 18 chapters, international contributors discuss gaps in world-wide health care, e.g., in diagnosing and treating various cancers, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, cardiovascular and other diseases prevalent in minority populations; risk factors associated with exposure to second-hand smoke, and traffic accidents; disparities in biological markers for disease; and ways to promote culturally sensitive health information. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Transgenic plants; new research.
The nine chapters in this collection present studies on improving plant transformation, detecting transgene copy number with PCR, and assessing the impact of Bt- resistant pests on Bt crops. Other papers survey genetically modified ornamental plants, techniques for removing marker genes from transgenic plants, progress in lignin biosynthesis, and the biosynthesis and remodulation of cell wall polysaccharides. No peer review process is noted and no editor credentials are cited. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Trends in nursing research.
This volume compiles 10 research articles under the broad heading of nursing. The studies concern the meaning of nurse-patient intimacy in oncology care, using approaches from feminism and phenomenology; patient expectations of nurses and spiritual care; immunization rates in racially and ethnically diverse youth populations; evidence-based practice; nursing education in Spain; the impact of physician and nurse disruptive behaviors; and the importance of knowledge about diet and health. Some chapters do not deal directly with nursing; they consider chronic pain and the psychological well-being of cardiac surgery patients, and were perhaps included because they were written by individuals in nursing. Chapter authors work in nursing, cardiology, health sciences, and other fields around the world. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Trends in polymer research.
This survey of trends in polymer research reflects the tremendous industrial growth that has occurred in the last few years due to applications in biomedical devices, high-tech ceramics, textile and industrial fibers, optical devices and innovative composite materials. Editors Zaikov, Jimenez and Monakov (no affiliations listed) include research on such topics as novel carriers for controlled drug delivery systems, the mechanical properties of starch-based nano-biocomposites and the synergetic model of glass transition for polymeric materials. Due to the highly technical nature of the content, these articles are aimed primarily at fellow researchers and engineers in the field. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Uses of industrial minerals, rocks, and freshwater.
A mineral economist recently retired from the Indian Bureau of Mines lists and briefly explains the principal uses of 49 minerals, as well as dimension stone and crushed stone. The minerals are organized alphabetically, starting with asbestos. Some chapters, such as the one on celestite and strontianite, are only two pages long, listing their seven uses. Other longer chapters, such as the one on clay, first review the mineral’s history, properties, and classification. The final short chapter on groundwater and surface freshwater seems out of place. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
