Biomechanics of the Gastrointestinal Tract is an up-to-date book for researchers on the study of the mechanical properties and the motor system of the gastrointestinal tract. A well-illustrated book, it provides a comprehensive overview to relevant tissue geometry, morphology and biomechanical theory. Separate chapters cover smooth muscle and nerve function including the application to animal and human studies of motility, symptoms and pain, determination of the true resting state, history-dependent properties, and tissue remodelling in disease. Several methods and diagnostic applications such as determination of in vivo length-tension diagrams and multimodal pain testing are completely new but will undoubtedly be used by many in the future. New non-invasive imaging techniques based on ultrasound, MR- and CT-scanning in combination with balloon distension are emerging as the techniques for future in vivo studies.

SARS was the ?rst new plague of the twenty-?rst century. Within months, it spread worldwide from its “birthplace” in Guangdong Province, China, affecting over 8,000 people in 25 countries and territories across ?ve continents. SARS exposed the vulnerability of our modern globalised world to the spread of a new emerging infection. SARS (or a similar new emerging disease) could neither have spread so rapidly nor had such a great global impact even 50 years ago, and arguably, it was itself a product of our global inter-connectedness. Increasing af?uence and a demand for wild-game as exotic food led to the development of large trade of live animal and game animal markets where many species of wild and domestic animals were co-housed, providing the ideal opportunities for inter-species tra- mission of viruses and other microbes. Once such a virus jumped species and attacked humans, the increased human mobility allowed the virus the opportunity for rapid spread. An infected patient from Guangdong who stayed for one day at a hotel in Hong Kong led to the transmission of the disease to 16 other guests who travelled on to seed outbreaks of the disease in Toronto, Singapore, and Vietnam, as well as within Hong Kong itself. The virus exploited the practices used in modern intensive care of patients with severe respiratory disease and the weakness in infection control practices within our health care systems to cause outbreaks within hospitals, further amplifying the spread of the disease. Health-care itself has become a two-edged sword.

Interorganizational cooperation between partners, markets, and business leaders is an important facet of business and maintaining organizational competitiveness. Understanding how to effectively collaborate with partners in other organizations is an important skill for the success of all parties. Information Acquisitions and Sharing through Inter-Organizational Collaboration: Impacts of Business Performance in China discusses the effectiveness and impact of trust, e-business diffusion, and organizational processes on business performance in cooperative scenarios. Incorporating data from over 500 organizations in China’s manufacturing sector, this book is an essential reference for business leaders, CEOs, senior managers, and all other members of organizations seeking to better collaborate with their partners.

Extremal Optimization: Fundamentals, Algorithms, and Applications introduces state-of-the-art extremal optimization (EO) and modified EO (MEO) solutions from fundamentals, methodologies, and algorithms to applications based on numerous classic publications and the authors’ recent original research results. It promotes the movement of EO from academic study to practical applications. The book covers four aspects, beginning with a general review of real-world optimization problems and popular solutions with a focus on computational complexity, such as "NP-hard" and the "phase transitions" occurring on the search landscape. Next, it introduces computational extremal dynamics and its applications in EO from principles, mechanisms, and algorithms to the experiments on some benchmark problems such as TSP, spin glass, Max-SAT (maximum satisfiability), and graph partition. It then presents studies on the fundamental features of search dynamics and mechanisms in EO with a focus on self-organized optimization, evolutionary probability distribution, and structure features (e.g., backbones), which are based on the authors’ recent research results. Finally, it discusses applications of EO and MEO in multiobjective optimization, systems modeling, intelligent control, and production scheduling. The authors present the advanced features of EO in solving NP-hard problems through problem formulation, algorithms, and simulation studies on popular benchmarks and industrial applications. They also focus on the development of MEO and its applications. This book can be used as a reference for graduate students, research developers, and practical engineers who work on developing optimization solutions for those complex systems with hardness that cannot be solved with mathematical optimization or other computational intelligence, such as evolutionary computations.

Vols. for 1963- include as pt. 2 of the Jan. issue: Medical subject headings.

Issues in General Science and Scientific Theory and Method: 2012 Edition is a ScholarlyEditions™ eBook that delivers timely, authoritative, and comprehensive information about General Science. The editors have built Issues in General Science and Scientific Theory and Method: 2012 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about General Science in this eBook to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Issues in General Science and Scientific Theory and Method: 2012 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.

Advances in Fertilization in Vitro Research and Application / 2012 Edition is a ScholarlyBrief™ that delivers timely, authoritative, comprehensive, and specialized information about Fertilization in Vitro in a concise format. The editors have built Advances in Fertilization in Vitro Research and Application / 2012 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about Fertilization in Vitro in this eBook to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Advances in Fertilization in Vitro Research and Application / 2012 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.

Complete proceedings of the 5th International Conference on IS Management and Evaluation - Shaanxi, China Published by Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited