Bridging The Gap Before And After Birth Methods And Technologies To Explore The Functional Neural Development In Humans

Bridging the Gap Before and After Birth: Methods and Technologies to Explore the Functional Neural Development in Humans

Infant brain damage is a serious condition that affects millions of babies each year. The period from late gestation to the first year of life is the most critical one for the development of central and autonomous nervous systems. Medical conditions such as preterm birth may compromise brain function and the end result usually is that the baby may experience long-term neurological problems related to a wide range of psychological, physical and functional complications, with consequent life-long burdens for the individuals and their families, and a high socio-economic impact for the health care system and the whole of society. During the last years, several techniques have been employed to monitor the brain functional development in utero and after birth. As well, various analytical methods have been used to understand the functional maturation of the brain and the autonomous nervous system. However, in spite of the rapid improvement of diagnostic methods and procedures, there is still a widely recognized, severe shortage of clinically viable means for the high quality monitoring of the brain function in early life with a direct relevance to acute neurological illness and future neurocognitive outcomes. The studies collected in this e-book document the most recent advancements in monitoring systems, analytical methods and clinical diagnostic procedures that contribute to increase our knowledge of the functional development of the human brain and autonomous nervous system during pregnancy and after birth, with the ultimate goal of reducing fetal impairment and improving healthcare in the neonatal and infant period.

High-Throughput Screening Methods in Toxicity Testing

Explores the benefits and limitations of the latest high-throughput screening methods With its expert coverage of high-throughput in vitro screening methods for toxicity testing, this book makes it possible for researchers to accelerate and streamline the evaluation and risk assessment of chemicals and drugs for toxicity. Moreover, it enables them to comply with the latest standards set forth by the U.S. National Research Council's "Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and Strategy" and the E.U.'s REACH legislation. Readers will discover a variety of state-of-the-science, high-throughput screening methods presented by a group of leading authorities in toxicology and toxicity testing. High-Throughput Screening Methods in Toxicity Testing is divided into five parts: General aspects, including predicting the toxicity potential of chemicals and drugs via high-throughput bioactivity profiling Assessing different cytotoxicity endpoints Assessing DNA damage and carcinogenesis Assessing reproductive toxicity, cardiotoxicity, and haematotoxicity Assessing drug metabolism and receptor-related toxicity Each chapter describes method principles and includes detailed information about data generation, data analysis, and applications in risk assessment. The authors not only enumerate the advantages of each high-throughput method over comparable conventional methods, but also point out the high-throughput method's limitations and potential pitfalls. In addition, the authors describe current research efforts to make high-throughput toxicity screening even more cost effective and streamlined. Throughout the book, readers will find plenty of figures and illustrations to help them understand and perform the latest high-throughput toxicity screening methods. This book is ideal for toxicologists and other researchers who need to implement high-throughput screening methods for toxicity testing in their laboratories as well as for researchers who need to evaluate the data generated by these methods.

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