All aspects of our lives, industry, health, travel and leisure, are utterly reliant on rubber materials, yet typically this notion rarely occurs to us. Increasingly, greater demands are made on elastomeric compounds and we seek elevated performance in terms of improved physical and chemical properties. In particular, we have come to expect rubber components (tyres, vibration isolators, seals etc) to exhibit exceptional wear and fatigue resistance, often at elevated temperatures. Unsurprisingly then, the emphasis in characterising isochoric materials has shifted significantly away from understanding and modelling hyperelastic material behaviour, to a position where we can confi dently design and manufacture rubber components having the functionality and resilience to meet the dynamic loading and harsh environmental conditions that are prevalent today. In consequence, state-of-the-art technology in terms of dynamic response and fatigue resistance are strongly represented here along with numerous insights into advanced elastomers used in novel applications. This development is not at the expense of research devoted to current test procedures and the constitutive equations and algorithms that underpin finite element methods. As a result, Constitutive Models for Rubber VII is not only essential reading for undergraduates, postgraduates, academics and researchers working in the discipline, but also for all those designers and engineers involved in the improvement of machines and devices by introducing new and novel elastomers possessing elevated properties.

This book gathers 30 papers presented at the 21st PCBBE, which was hosted by the University of Zielona Góra, Poland, and offered a valuable forum for exchanging ideas and presenting the latest developments in all areas of biomedical engineering. Biocybernetics and biomedical engineering are currently considered one of the most promising ways to improve health care and, consequently, the quality of life. Innovative technical solutions can better meet physicians’ needs and stimulate the development of medical diagnostics and therapy. We are currently witnessing a profound change in the role of medicine, which is becoming ubiquitous in everyday life thanks to technological advances. Further, the development of civilization manifests itself in efforts to unlock the secrets of the human body, and to mimic biological systems in engineering. The biannual Polish Conference on Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering (PCBBE) has been held for nearly four decades and has attracted scientists and professionals in the fields of engineering, medicine, physics, and computer science. Gathering the outcomes of this conference, the book introduces the reader to recent developments and achievements in biocybernetics and biomedical engineering.

Through the use of activity labs and logs, 'Concepts of Physical Fitness' provides readers with the self-management skills necessary to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

Six years ago, in June 1977, the first international conference on chaos in classical dynamical systems took place here in Como. For the first time, physicists, mathematicians, biologists, chemists, economists, and others got together to discuss the relevance of the recent progress in nonlinear classical dynamics for their own research field. Immediately after, pUblication of "Nonlinear Science Abstracts" started, which, in turn, led to the Physica D Journal and to a rapid increase of the research activity in the whole area with the creation of numerous "Nonlinear Centers" around the world. During these years great progress has been made in understanding the qualitative behavior of classical dynamical systems and now we can appreciate the beautiful complexity and variety of their motion. Meanwhile, an increasing number of scientists began to wonder whether and how such beautiful structures would persist in quantum motion. Indeed, mainly integrable systems have been previously con sidered by Quantum Mechanics and therefore the problem is open how to describe the qualitative behavior of systems whose classical limit is non-integrable. The present meeting was organized in view of the fact that scientists working in different fields - mathematicians, theoretical physicists, solid state physicists, nuclear physicists, chemists and others - had common problems. Moreover, we felt that it was necessary to clarify some fundamental questions concerning the logical basis for the discussion including the very definition of chaos in Quantum Mechanics.

The brainstem reticular formation is the archaic core of ascending and descending pathways connecting the brain with spinal cord. After the pioneer description of the activating role of the ascending reticular activating system by Moruzzi and Magoun in 1949, an increasing number of studies have contributed to disclose the multifaceted roles of this brain area. In fact, the brainstem reticular formation sub-serves a variety of brain activities such as the modulation of the sleep-waking cycle, the level of arousal and attention, the drive for novelty seeking behaviors and mood. Meanwhile, descending pathways play a key role in posture modulation, extrapyramidal movements, and autonomic functions such as breathing and blood pressure. Moreover, both descending and ascending fibers of the reticular formation are critical in gating the sensory inputs and play a critical role in pain modulation and gaze control. All these activities are impaired when a damage affects critical nuclei of the reticular formation. Remarkably, in neurodegenerative diseases involving reticular nuclei, the rich collaterals interconnecting reticular isodendritic neurons represent a gateway for disease spreading placing the role of the reticular nuclei as a pivot in a variety of brain disorders. The present Research Topic is an updated collection of recent studies, which contribute to define the systematic anatomy of the reticular formation, its physiological and pharmacological features, as well as its involvement in neurodegenerative disorders and neuroprotection.