The Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB) 2014 is an international, multidisciplinary conference for the presentation and discussion of current research in the theory and application of computational methods in problems of biological significance. Presentations are rigorously peer reviewed and are published in an archival proceedings volume. PSB 2014 will be held from January 3 - 7, 2014 in Kohala Coast, Hawaii. Tutorials and workshops will be offered prior to the start of the conference.PSB 2014 will bring together top researchers from the US, the Asian Pacific nations, and around the world to exchange research results and address open issues in all aspects of computational biology. It is a forum for the presentation of work in databases, algorithms, interfaces, visualization, modeling, and other computational methods, as applied to biological problems, with emphasis on applications in data-rich areas of molecular biology.The PSB has been designed to be responsive to the need for critical mass in sub-disciplines within biocomputing. For that reason, it is the only meeting whose sessions are defined dynamically each year in response to specific proposals. PSB sessions are organized by leaders of research in biocomputing's “hot topics.” In this way, the meeting provides an early forum for serious examination of emerging methods and approaches in this rapidly changing field.

The interest in ‘biomarkers’ seen across a spectrum of biomedical disciplines reflects the rise of molecular biology and genetics. A host of ‘omics’ disciplines in addition to genomics, marked by multidimensional data and complex analyses, and enabled by bioinformatics, have pushed the trajectory of biomarker development even further. They have also made more tractable the complex mappings of genotypes to phenotypes – genome-to-phenome mapping – to which the concept of a biomarker is central. Genomic investigations of the brain are beginning to reveal spectacular associations between genes and neural systems. Neural and cognitive phenomics are considered a necessary complement to genomics of the brain. Other major omics developments such as connectomics, the comprehensive mapping of neurons and neural networks, are heralding brain maps of unprecedented detail. Such developments are defining a new era of brain science. And in this new research environment, neural systems and cognitive operations are pressed for new kinds of definitions – that facilitate brain-behavioral alignment in an omics operating environment. This volume explores the topic of markers framed around the constructs of cognitive and neural systems. ‘Neurophenotype’ is a term adopted to describe a neural or cognitive marker that can be scientifically described within an associative framework – and while the genome-to-phenome framework is the most recognized of these, epigenetics and non-gene-regulated neural dynamics also suggest other frameworks. In either case, the term neurophenotype defines operational constructs of brain-behavioral domains that serve the integration of these domains with neuroscientific and omics models of the brain. The topic is critically important to psychiatry and neuropsychology: Neurophenotypes offer a ‘format’ and a ‘language’ by which psychiatry and neuropsychology can be in step with the brain sciences. They also bring a new challenge to the clinical neurosciences in terms of construct validation and refinement. Topics covered in the volume include: Brain and cognition in the omics era Phenomics, connectomics, and Research Domain Criteria Circuit-based neurophenotypes, and complications posed by non-gene regulated factors The legacy of the endophenotype concept – its utility and limitations Various potential neurophenotypes of relevance to clinical neuroscience, including Response Inhibition, Fear Conditioning and Extinction, Error Processing, Reward Dependence and Reward Deficiency, Face Perception, and Language Phenotypes Dynamic (electrophysiological) and computational neurophenotypes The challenge of a cultural shift for psychiatry and neuropsychology The volume may be especially relevant to researchers and clinical practitioners in psychiatry and neuropsychology and to cognitive neuroscientists interested in the intersection of neuroscience with genomics, phenomics and other omics disciplines.

The Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB) 2013 is an international, multidisciplinary conference for the presentation and discussion of current research in the theory and application of computational methods in problems of biological significance. Presentations are rigorously peer reviewed and are published in an archival proceedings volume. PSB 2013 will be held on January 3 OCo 7, 2013 in Kohala Coast, Hawaii. Tutorials and workshops will be offered prior to the start of the conference.PSB 2013 will bring together top researchers from the US, the Asian Pacific nations, and around the world to exchange research results and address open issues in all aspects of computational biology. It is a forum for the presentation of work in databases, algorithms, interfaces, visualization, modeling, and other computational methods, as applied to biological problems, with emphasis on applications in data-rich areas of molecular biology.The PSB has been designed to be responsive to the need for critical mass in sub-disciplines within biocomputing. For that reason, it is the only meeting whose sessions are defined dynamically each year in response to specific proposals. PSB sessions are organized by leaders of research in biocomputing's OC hot topics.OCO In this way, the meeting provides an early forum for serious examination of emerging methods and approaches in this rapidly changing field."

The first book in the classic vigilante action series from a “writer who spawned a genre” (The New York Times). Overseas, Mack Bolan was dubbed “Sgt. Mercy” for the compassion he showed the innocent. On the home front, they’re calling him the Executioner for what he’s doing to the guilty. In the jungles of Southeast Asia, American sniper Mack Bolan honed his skills. After twelve years, with ninety-five confirmed hits, he returns home to Massachusetts. But it’s not to reunite with his family, it’s to bury them—victims in a mass murder/suicide. Even though Bolan’s own father pulled the trigger, he knows the old man was no killer. He was driven to madness by Mafia thugs who have turned his idyllic hometown into a new kind of war zone. Duty calls . . . Introducing an action hero “who would make Jack Reacher think twice,” this is the first book in the iconic series of vigilante justice that has become a publishing phenomenon (Empireonline.com). With more than two hundred million Executioner books sold since its debut, the series continues to stimulate. Gerry Conway, cocreator of Marvel Comics’ The Punisher, credits the Executioner as “my inspiration . . . that’s what gave me the idea for the lone, slightly psychotic avenger.” The series is also now in development as a major motion picture. War Against the Mafia is the 1st book in the Executioner series, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

“This shocking expose of the CIA operation aimed at destroying the Vietcong infrastructure thoroughly conveys the hideousness of the Vietnam War” (Publishers Weekly). In the darkest days of the Vietnam War, America’s Central Intelligence Agency secretly initiated a sweeping program of kidnap, torture, and assassination devised to destabilize the infrastructure of the National Liberation Front (NLF) of South Vietnam, commonly known as the “Viet Cong.” The victims of the Phoenix Program were Vietnamese civilians, male and female, suspected of harboring information about the enemy—though many on the blacklist were targeted by corrupt South Vietnamese security personnel looking to extort money or remove a rival. Between 1965 and 1972, more than eighty thousand noncombatants were “neutralized,” as men and women alike were subjected to extended imprisonment without trial, horrific torture, brutal rape, and in many cases execution, all under the watchful eyes of US government agencies. Based on extensive research and in-depth interviews with former participants and observers, Douglas Valentine’s startling exposé blows the lid off of what was possibly the bloodiest and most inhumane covert operation in the CIA’s history. The ebook edition includes “The Phoenix Has Landed,” a new introduction that addresses the “Phoenix-style network” that constitutes America’s internal security apparatus today. Residents on American soil are routinely targeted under the guise of protecting us from terrorism—which is why, more than ever, people need to understand what Phoenix is all about.

Acclaimed for its encyclopedic coverage, this is the only handbook that synthesizes current knowledge and clinical practices in the fields of both eating disorders and obesity. Like the prior editions, the significantly revised third edition features more than 100 concise, focused chapters with lists of key readings in place of extended references. All aspects of eating disorders and obesity are addressed by foremost clinical researchers: classification, causes, consequences, risk factors, and pathophysiology, as well as prevention, treatment, assessment, and diagnosis. ÿ New to This Edition *Reflects 15 years of important advances in both fields, including state-of-the-art intervention approaches and a growing focus on how the brain regulates eating behavior. *Dozens of entirely new chapters. *New topics: epigenetics, body weight and neurocognitive function, stress and emotion regulation, the gut microbiome, surgical devices for obesity, food labeling and marketing, and more. *Expanded coverage of prevention and policy.