The experimental molecular archeology analysis using ancestral proteins
\\n\\n
More than half of the publishers listed alongside IntechOpen (18 out of 30) are Social Science and Humanities publishers. IntechOpen is an exception to this as a leader in not only Open Access content but Open Access content across all scientific disciplines, including Physical Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Health Sciences, Life Science, and Social Sciences and Humanities.
\\n\\nOur breakdown of titles published demonstrates this with 47% PET, 31% HS, 18% LS, and 4% SSH books published.
\\n\\n“Even though ItechOpen has shown the potential of sci-tech books using an OA approach,” other publishers “have shown little interest in OA books.”
\\n\\nAdditionally, each book published by IntechOpen contains original content and research findings.
\\n\\nWe are honored to be among such prestigious publishers and we hope to continue to spearhead that growth in our quest to promote Open Access as a true pioneer in OA book publishing.
\\n\\n\\n\\n
\\n"}]',published:!0,mainMedia:null},components:[{type:"htmlEditorComponent",content:'
Simba Information has released its Open Access Book Publishing 2020 - 2024 report and has again identified IntechOpen as the world’s largest Open Access book publisher by title count.
\n\nSimba Information is a leading provider for market intelligence and forecasts in the media and publishing industry. The report, published every year, provides an overview and financial outlook for the global professional e-book publishing market.
\n\nIntechOpen, De Gruyter, and Frontiers are the largest OA book publishers by title count, with IntechOpen coming in at first place with 5,101 OA books published, a good 1,782 titles ahead of the nearest competitor.
\n\nSince the first Open Access Book Publishing report published in 2016, IntechOpen has held the top stop each year.
\n\n\n\nMore than half of the publishers listed alongside IntechOpen (18 out of 30) are Social Science and Humanities publishers. IntechOpen is an exception to this as a leader in not only Open Access content but Open Access content across all scientific disciplines, including Physical Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Health Sciences, Life Science, and Social Sciences and Humanities.
\n\nOur breakdown of titles published demonstrates this with 47% PET, 31% HS, 18% LS, and 4% SSH books published.
\n\n“Even though ItechOpen has shown the potential of sci-tech books using an OA approach,” other publishers “have shown little interest in OA books.”
\n\nAdditionally, each book published by IntechOpen contains original content and research findings.
\n\nWe are honored to be among such prestigious publishers and we hope to continue to spearhead that growth in our quest to promote Open Access as a true pioneer in OA book publishing.
\n\n\n\n
\n'}],latestNews:[{slug:"stanford-university-identifies-top-2-scientists-over-1-000-are-intechopen-authors-and-editors-20210122",title:"Stanford University Identifies Top 2% Scientists, Over 1,000 are IntechOpen Authors and Editors"},{slug:"intechopen-authors-included-in-the-highly-cited-researchers-list-for-2020-20210121",title:"IntechOpen Authors Included in the Highly Cited Researchers List for 2020"},{slug:"intechopen-maintains-position-as-the-world-s-largest-oa-book-publisher-20201218",title:"IntechOpen Maintains Position as the World’s Largest OA Book Publisher"},{slug:"all-intechopen-books-available-on-perlego-20201215",title:"All IntechOpen Books Available on Perlego"},{slug:"oiv-awards-recognizes-intechopen-s-editors-20201127",title:"OIV Awards Recognizes IntechOpen's Editors"},{slug:"intechopen-joins-crossref-s-initiative-for-open-abstracts-i4oa-to-boost-the-discovery-of-research-20201005",title:"IntechOpen joins Crossref's Initiative for Open Abstracts (I4OA) to Boost the Discovery of Research"},{slug:"intechopen-hits-milestone-5-000-open-access-books-published-20200908",title:"IntechOpen hits milestone: 5,000 Open Access books published!"},{slug:"intechopen-books-hosted-on-the-mathworks-book-program-20200819",title:"IntechOpen Books Hosted on the MathWorks Book Program"}]},book:{item:{type:"book",id:"7518",leadTitle:null,fullTitle:"Medicinal Chemistry",title:"Medicinal Chemistry",subtitle:null,reviewType:"peer-reviewed",abstract:"The area covered by this book undoubtedly includes a multidisciplinary approach. It combines and uses the wide range of methods and knowledge from a variety of disciplines in chemistry, pharmacology, and biology to synthesize new or extracted natural substances and their characterization, in terms of bioefficiency in different systems, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics. Importance is placed on revealing the interactions and effects on organisms. The process is long term, ranging from synthesis to potential testing of substances in animal studies, followed by monitoring effects on patients. The purpose is to define molecular targets of the highest efficacy of the prepared drugs, minimizing the undesirable effects. The content of this book is conceived with these intentions.",isbn:"978-1-78985-174-8",printIsbn:"978-1-78985-173-1",pdfIsbn:"978-1-83962-077-5",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.76494",price:119,priceEur:129,priceUsd:155,slug:"medicinal-chemistry",numberOfPages:168,isOpenForSubmission:!1,isInWos:null,hash:"944740b06e48079bae2b7dd7b28940a1",bookSignature:"Janka Vašková and Ladislav Vaško",publishedDate:"March 13th 2019",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7518.jpg",numberOfDownloads:7969,numberOfWosCitations:0,numberOfCrossrefCitations:4,numberOfDimensionsCitations:9,hasAltmetrics:1,numberOfTotalCitations:13,isAvailableForWebshopOrdering:!0,dateEndFirstStepPublish:"March 21st 2018",dateEndSecondStepPublish:"April 11th 2018",dateEndThirdStepPublish:"June 10th 2018",dateEndFourthStepPublish:"August 29th 2018",dateEndFifthStepPublish:"October 28th 2018",currentStepOfPublishingProcess:5,indexedIn:"1,2,3,4,5,6",editedByType:"Edited by",kuFlag:!1,editors:[{id:"140747",title:"Associate Prof.",name:"Janka",middleName:null,surname:"Vašková",slug:"janka-vaskova",fullName:"Janka Vašková",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/140747/images/system/140747.jpeg",biography:"Janka Vašková, assoc. prof. Dr. PhD is working as research scientist at the Department of Medical and Clinical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. She studied at the University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik (1993-1998) with specialisation in Anthropology. She began with internal doctoral studies completed by dissertation thesis in Anthropology in 2003 (PhD.). She was appointed associated professor in Anthropology in 2016, and received scientific qualification level senior researcher in Clinical Biochemistry. She is the author of 2 monographs, 4 textbooks and more than 280 original scientific and conference papers. Currently deals with detection of pro- and antioxidant properties of natural and synthetic substances, their effect on the antioxidant status of the organism, as well as assessment of treatment success and patient prognosis by detecting the changes in selected antioxidant markers.",institutionString:"Pavol Jozef Safarik University in Kosice",position:null,outsideEditionCount:0,totalCites:0,totalAuthoredChapters:"3",totalChapterViews:"0",totalEditedBooks:"1",institution:{name:"University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"Slovakia"}}}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,coeditorOne:{id:"207199",title:"Prof.",name:"Ladislav",middleName:null,surname:"Vaško",slug:"ladislav-vasko",fullName:"Ladislav Vaško",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/207199/images/7406_n.jpg",biography:"Ladislav Vaško, assoc. prof. DVM., PhD is working as associate professor at the Department of Medical and Clinical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. Since graduation at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Košice in 1974, he had been working on the Clinic of Internal Diseases. He completed doctoral studies by dissertation thesis in 1979. From 1980 to 2008 he taught chemistry at the Department of Biochemistry and Toxicology. In 1989, the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic appointed him associated professor in Biochemistry, in 2006 habilitated to associate professor in Physiology and Morphology. Since March 2008 he has been working at the Faculty of Medicine in Košice. He is the author of 3 monographs, 9 textbooks, and more than 400 scientific and conference papers. Currently deals with the effects of humic acids on organisms with simultaneous intake of toxic substances.",institutionString:null,position:null,outsideEditionCount:0,totalCites:0,totalAuthoredChapters:"2",totalChapterViews:"0",totalEditedBooks:"0",institution:null},coeditorTwo:null,coeditorThree:null,coeditorFour:null,coeditorFive:null,topics:[{id:"1190",title:"Pharmaceutical Chemistry",slug:"pharmaceutical-chemistry"}],chapters:[{id:"64761",title:"Introductory Chapter: Unregulated Mitochondrial Production of Reactive Oxygen Species in Testing the Biological Activity of Compounds",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.82514",slug:"introductory-chapter-unregulated-mitochondrial-production-of-reactive-oxygen-species-in-testing-the-",totalDownloads:453,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:1,signatures:"Janka Vašková and Ladislav Vaško",downloadPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-download/64761",previewPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-preview/64761",authors:[{id:"140747",title:"Associate Prof.",name:"Janka",surname:"Vašková",slug:"janka-vaskova",fullName:"Janka Vašková"},{id:"207199",title:"Prof.",name:"Ladislav",surname:"Vaško",slug:"ladislav-vasko",fullName:"Ladislav Vaško"}],corrections:null},{id:"64453",title:"Determination of In Vitro Cytotoxicity and Anti-Angiogenesis for a Bioactive Compound from Aspergillus terreus FC36AY1 Isolated from Aegle marmelos around Western Ghats, India",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.81046",slug:"determination-of-in-vitro-cytotoxicity-and-anti-angiogenesis-for-a-bioactive-compound-from-aspergill",totalDownloads:777,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:1,signatures:"Vellingiri Manon Mani, Arockiam Jeyasundar Parimala Gnana\nSoundari and Selvam Tamilarasi",downloadPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-download/64453",previewPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-preview/64453",authors:[{id:"250724",title:"Dr.",name:"Parimala Gnana Soundari",surname:"A",slug:"parimala-gnana-soundari-a",fullName:"Parimala Gnana Soundari A"},{id:"258274",title:"Dr.",name:"Manon Mani",surname:"Vellingiri",slug:"manon-mani-vellingiri",fullName:"Manon Mani Vellingiri"},{id:"268822",title:"Ms.",name:"Tamilarasi",surname:"S",slug:"tamilarasi-s",fullName:"Tamilarasi S"}],corrections:null},{id:"62012",title:"The Apoptotic Effects of Methylparaben and Ultraviolet B Light on M624 Human Melanoma Cells",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.78575",slug:"the-apoptotic-effects-of-methylparaben-and-ultraviolet-b-light-on-m624-human-melanoma-cells",totalDownloads:398,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:0,signatures:"Rebekah S. Wood, Rebecca S. Greenstein, Isabella M. Hildebrandt\nand Kimberly S. George Parsons",downloadPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-download/62012",previewPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-preview/62012",authors:[{id:"210771",title:"Dr.",name:"Kimberly Suzanne",surname:"George Parsons",slug:"kimberly-suzanne-george-parsons",fullName:"Kimberly Suzanne George Parsons"},{id:"210773",title:"Ms.",name:"Rebekah",surname:"Wood",slug:"rebekah-wood",fullName:"Rebekah Wood"},{id:"210774",title:"Ms.",name:"Rebecca",surname:"Greenstein",slug:"rebecca-greenstein",fullName:"Rebecca Greenstein"},{id:"210775",title:"Ms.",name:"Isabella",surname:"Hildebrandt",slug:"isabella-hildebrandt",fullName:"Isabella Hildebrandt"}],corrections:null},{id:"62647",title:"Indomethacin from Anti-Inflammatory to Anticancer Agent",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.79677",slug:"indomethacin-from-anti-inflammatory-to-anticancer-agent",totalDownloads:778,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:0,signatures:"Shaymaa Emam Kassab",downloadPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-download/62647",previewPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-preview/62647",authors:[{id:"251335",title:"Dr.",name:"Shaymaa",surname:"Kassab",slug:"shaymaa-kassab",fullName:"Shaymaa Kassab"}],corrections:null},{id:"63768",title:"1,4-Benzodiazepines and New Derivatives: Description, Analysis, and Organic Synthesis",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.79879",slug:"1-4-benzodiazepines-and-new-derivatives-description-analysis-and-organic-synthesis",totalDownloads:3152,totalCrossrefCites:2,totalDimensionsCites:3,signatures:"Elisabet Batlle, Enric Lizano, Miquel Viñas and Maria Dolors Pujol",downloadPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-download/63768",previewPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-preview/63768",authors:[{id:"252409",title:"Prof.",name:"Maria Dolors",surname:"Pujol",slug:"maria-dolors-pujol",fullName:"Maria Dolors Pujol"},{id:"262535",title:"Dr.",name:"Elisabet",surname:"Batlle",slug:"elisabet-batlle",fullName:"Elisabet Batlle"},{id:"262756",title:"Mr.",name:"Enric",surname:"Lizano",slug:"enric-lizano",fullName:"Enric Lizano"},{id:"274188",title:"Dr.",name:"Miquel",surname:"Viñas",slug:"miquel-vinas",fullName:"Miquel Viñas"}],corrections:null},{id:"63789",title:"Clinical Pharmacokinetics of Clavulanic Acid, a Novel β- Lactamase Isolated from Streptomyces clavuligerus and Its Variability",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.79409",slug:"clinical-pharmacokinetics-of-clavulanic-acid-a-novel-lactamase-isolated-from-streptomyces-clavuliger",totalDownloads:502,totalCrossrefCites:1,totalDimensionsCites:1,signatures:"Anab Fatima, Mohammad Jiyad Shaikh, Hina Zahid, Ishart Younus,\nSheikh Abdul Khaliq and Farah Khalid",downloadPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-download/63789",previewPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-preview/63789",authors:[{id:"225358",title:"Dr.",name:"Muhammad Jiyad",surname:"Shaikh",slug:"muhammad-jiyad-shaikh",fullName:"Muhammad Jiyad Shaikh"},{id:"231412",title:"Dr.",name:"Anab",surname:"Fatima",slug:"anab-fatima",fullName:"Anab Fatima"},{id:"243371",title:"Dr.",name:"Hina",surname:"Zahid",slug:"hina-zahid",fullName:"Hina Zahid"},{id:"243372",title:"Dr.",name:"Ishart",surname:"Younus",slug:"ishart-younus",fullName:"Ishart Younus"},{id:"243373",title:"Dr.",name:"Sheikh Abdul",surname:"Khaliq",slug:"sheikh-abdul-khaliq",fullName:"Sheikh Abdul Khaliq"},{id:"243374",title:"Dr.",name:"Farah",surname:"Khalid",slug:"farah-khalid",fullName:"Farah Khalid"}],corrections:null},{id:"63353",title:"New Antituberculosis Drug FS-1",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.80795",slug:"new-antituberculosis-drug-fs-1",totalDownloads:907,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:2,signatures:"Rinat Islamov, Bahkytzhan Kerimzhanova and Alexander Ilin",downloadPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-download/63353",previewPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-preview/63353",authors:[{id:"109493",title:"Dr.",name:"Rinat",surname:"Islamov",slug:"rinat-islamov",fullName:"Rinat Islamov"},{id:"136527",title:"Dr.",name:"Alexander",surname:"Ilin",slug:"alexander-ilin",fullName:"Alexander Ilin"},{id:"261645",title:"Prof.",name:"Bahyitzhan",surname:"Kerimzhanova",slug:"bahyitzhan-kerimzhanova",fullName:"Bahyitzhan Kerimzhanova"}],corrections:null},{id:"62975",title:"Clinical Relevance of Medicinal Plants and Foods of Vegetal Origin on the Activity of Cytochrome P450",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.79971",slug:"clinical-relevance-of-medicinal-plants-and-foods-of-vegetal-origin-on-the-activity-of-cytochrome-p45",totalDownloads:556,totalCrossrefCites:1,totalDimensionsCites:1,signatures:"Xóchitl S. Ramírez-Gómez, Sandra N. Jiménez-García, Vicente\nBeltrán Campos, Esmeralda Rodríguez Miranda, Gabriel Herrera\nPérez and Rafael Vargas-Bernal",downloadPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-download/62975",previewPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-preview/62975",authors:[{id:"141347",title:"Dr.",name:"Sandra Neli",surname:"Jimenez Garcia",slug:"sandra-neli-jimenez-garcia",fullName:"Sandra Neli Jimenez Garcia"},{id:"152334",title:"Dr.",name:"Gabriel",surname:"Herrera-Pérez",slug:"gabriel-herrera-perez",fullName:"Gabriel Herrera-Pérez"},{id:"152335",title:"Dr.",name:"Esmeralda",surname:"Rodríguez-Miranda",slug:"esmeralda-rodriguez-miranda",fullName:"Esmeralda Rodríguez-Miranda"},{id:"182114",title:"Dr.",name:"Rafael",surname:"Vargas-Bernal",slug:"rafael-vargas-bernal",fullName:"Rafael Vargas-Bernal"},{id:"212575",title:"Dr.",name:"Xochitl Sofia",surname:"Ramirez Gomez",slug:"xochitl-sofia-ramirez-gomez",fullName:"Xochitl Sofia Ramirez Gomez"},{id:"255064",title:"Dr.",name:"Vicente",surname:"Beltran Campos",slug:"vicente-beltran-campos",fullName:"Vicente Beltran Campos"}],corrections:null},{id:"63990",title:"The Pragmatic Strategy to Detect Endocrine-Disrupting Activity of Xenobiotics in Food",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.81030",slug:"the-pragmatic-strategy-to-detect-endocrine-disrupting-activity-of-xenobiotics-in-food",totalDownloads:460,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:0,signatures:"Shui-Yuan Lu, Pinpin Lin, Wei-Ren Tsai and Chen-Yi Weng",downloadPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-download/63990",previewPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-preview/63990",authors:[{id:"245140",title:"Ph.D.",name:"Shui-Yuan",surname:"Lu",slug:"shui-yuan-lu",fullName:"Shui-Yuan Lu"},{id:"257857",title:"Dr.",name:"Wei-Ren",surname:"Tsai",slug:"wei-ren-tsai",fullName:"Wei-Ren Tsai"},{id:"270116",title:"Dr.",name:"Pinpin",surname:"Lin",slug:"pinpin-lin",fullName:"Pinpin Lin"},{id:"270118",title:"MSc.",name:"Chen-Yi",surname:"Weng",slug:"chen-yi-weng",fullName:"Chen-Yi Weng"}],corrections:null}],productType:{id:"1",title:"Edited Volume",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},relatedBooks:[{type:"book",id:"2047",title:"Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Design",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"191e63c53e40a7ac445bb9b51c9dc6d3",slug:"medicinal-chemistry-and-drug-design",bookSignature:"Deniz Ekinci",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/2047.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"13652",title:"Associate Prof.",name:"Deniz",surname:"Ekinci",slug:"deniz-ekinci",fullName:"Deniz Ekinci"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"2993",title:"Chiral Capillary Electrophoresis in Current Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"a9a627d1ed86912dd2fadd6b815cb113",slug:"chiral-capillary-electrophoresis-in-current-pharmaceutical-and-biomedical-analysis",bookSignature:"Peter Mikus",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/2993.jpg",editedByType:"Authored by",editors:[{id:"45273",title:"Dr.",name:"Peter",surname:"Mikuš",slug:"peter-mikus",fullName:"Peter Mikuš"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"3",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Authored by"}},{type:"book",id:"1591",title:"Infrared Spectroscopy",subtitle:"Materials Science, Engineering and Technology",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"99b4b7b71a8caeb693ed762b40b017f4",slug:"infrared-spectroscopy-materials-science-engineering-and-technology",bookSignature:"Theophile Theophanides",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/1591.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"37194",title:"Dr.",name:"Theophanides",surname:"Theophile",slug:"theophanides-theophile",fullName:"Theophanides Theophile"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"3092",title:"Anopheles mosquitoes",subtitle:"New insights into malaria vectors",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"c9e622485316d5e296288bf24d2b0d64",slug:"anopheles-mosquitoes-new-insights-into-malaria-vectors",bookSignature:"Sylvie Manguin",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/3092.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"50017",title:"Prof.",name:"Sylvie",surname:"Manguin",slug:"sylvie-manguin",fullName:"Sylvie Manguin"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"3161",title:"Frontiers in Guided Wave Optics and Optoelectronics",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"deb44e9c99f82bbce1083abea743146c",slug:"frontiers-in-guided-wave-optics-and-optoelectronics",bookSignature:"Bishnu Pal",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/3161.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"4782",title:"Prof.",name:"Bishnu",surname:"Pal",slug:"bishnu-pal",fullName:"Bishnu Pal"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"72",title:"Ionic Liquids",subtitle:"Theory, Properties, New Approaches",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"d94ffa3cfa10505e3b1d676d46fcd3f5",slug:"ionic-liquids-theory-properties-new-approaches",bookSignature:"Alexander Kokorin",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/72.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"19816",title:"Prof.",name:"Alexander",surname:"Kokorin",slug:"alexander-kokorin",fullName:"Alexander Kokorin"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"1373",title:"Ionic Liquids",subtitle:"Applications and Perspectives",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"5e9ae5ae9167cde4b344e499a792c41c",slug:"ionic-liquids-applications-and-perspectives",bookSignature:"Alexander Kokorin",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/1373.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"19816",title:"Prof.",name:"Alexander",surname:"Kokorin",slug:"alexander-kokorin",fullName:"Alexander Kokorin"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"57",title:"Physics and Applications of Graphene",subtitle:"Experiments",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"0e6622a71cf4f02f45bfdd5691e1189a",slug:"physics-and-applications-of-graphene-experiments",bookSignature:"Sergey Mikhailov",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/57.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"16042",title:"Dr.",name:"Sergey",surname:"Mikhailov",slug:"sergey-mikhailov",fullName:"Sergey Mikhailov"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"371",title:"Abiotic Stress in Plants",subtitle:"Mechanisms and Adaptations",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"588466f487e307619849d72389178a74",slug:"abiotic-stress-in-plants-mechanisms-and-adaptations",bookSignature:"Arun Shanker and B. Venkateswarlu",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/371.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"58592",title:"Dr.",name:"Arun",surname:"Shanker",slug:"arun-shanker",fullName:"Arun Shanker"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"878",title:"Phytochemicals",subtitle:"A Global Perspective of Their Role in Nutrition and Health",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ec77671f63975ef2d16192897deb6835",slug:"phytochemicals-a-global-perspective-of-their-role-in-nutrition-and-health",bookSignature:"Venketeshwer Rao",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/878.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"82663",title:"Dr.",name:"Venketeshwer",surname:"Rao",slug:"venketeshwer-rao",fullName:"Venketeshwer Rao"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}}],ofsBooks:[]},correction:{item:{id:"59773",slug:"corrigendum-to-systematic-study-of-ethylene-vinyl-acetate-eva-in-the-manufacturing-of-protector-devi",title:"Corrigendum to: Systematic Study of Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate (EVA) in the Manufacturing of Protector Devices for the Orofacial System",doi:null,correctionPDFUrl:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/59773.pdf",downloadPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-download/59773",previewPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-preview/59773",totalDownloads:null,totalCrossrefCites:null,bibtexUrl:"/chapter/bibtex/59773",risUrl:"/chapter/ris/59773",chapter:{id:"56614",slug:"systematic-study-of-ethylene-vinyl-acetate-eva-in-the-manufacturing-of-protector-devices-for-the-oro",signatures:"Reinaldo Brito e Dias, Neide Pena Coto, Gilmar Ferreira Batalha and\nLarissa Driemeier",dateSubmitted:"January 25th 2017",dateReviewed:"May 31st 2017",datePrePublished:null,datePublished:"February 14th 2018",book:{id:"5951",title:"Biomaterials in Regenerative Medicine",subtitle:null,fullTitle:"Biomaterials in Regenerative Medicine",slug:"biomaterials-in-regenerative-medicine",publishedDate:"February 14th 2018",bookSignature:"Leszek A. Dobrzański",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/5951.jpg",licenceType:"CC BY 3.0",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"15880",title:"Prof.",name:"Leszek A.",middleName:null,surname:"Dobrzański",slug:"leszek-a.-dobrzanski",fullName:"Leszek A. Dobrzański"}],productType:{id:"1",title:"Edited Volume",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},authors:[{id:"204968",title:"Dr.",name:"Neide",middleName:null,surname:"Pena Coto",fullName:"Neide Pena Coto",slug:"neide-pena-coto",email:"neidecoto@gmail.com",position:null,institution:null}]}},chapter:{id:"56614",slug:"systematic-study-of-ethylene-vinyl-acetate-eva-in-the-manufacturing-of-protector-devices-for-the-oro",signatures:"Reinaldo Brito e Dias, Neide Pena Coto, Gilmar Ferreira Batalha and\nLarissa Driemeier",dateSubmitted:"January 25th 2017",dateReviewed:"May 31st 2017",datePrePublished:null,datePublished:"February 14th 2018",book:{id:"5951",title:"Biomaterials in Regenerative Medicine",subtitle:null,fullTitle:"Biomaterials in Regenerative Medicine",slug:"biomaterials-in-regenerative-medicine",publishedDate:"February 14th 2018",bookSignature:"Leszek A. Dobrzański",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/5951.jpg",licenceType:"CC BY 3.0",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"15880",title:"Prof.",name:"Leszek A.",middleName:null,surname:"Dobrzański",slug:"leszek-a.-dobrzanski",fullName:"Leszek A. Dobrzański"}],productType:{id:"1",title:"Edited Volume",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},authors:[{id:"204968",title:"Dr.",name:"Neide",middleName:null,surname:"Pena Coto",fullName:"Neide Pena Coto",slug:"neide-pena-coto",email:"neidecoto@gmail.com",position:null,institution:null}]},book:{id:"5951",title:"Biomaterials in Regenerative Medicine",subtitle:null,fullTitle:"Biomaterials in Regenerative Medicine",slug:"biomaterials-in-regenerative-medicine",publishedDate:"February 14th 2018",bookSignature:"Leszek A. Dobrzański",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/5951.jpg",licenceType:"CC BY 3.0",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"15880",title:"Prof.",name:"Leszek A.",middleName:null,surname:"Dobrzański",slug:"leszek-a.-dobrzanski",fullName:"Leszek A. Dobrzański"}],productType:{id:"1",title:"Edited Volume",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}}},ofsBook:{item:{type:"book",id:"10848",leadTitle:null,title:"Tribology",subtitle:null,reviewType:"peer-reviewed",abstract:"This book will be a self-contained collection of scholarly papers targeting an audience of practicing researchers, academics, PhD students and other scientists. The contents of the book will be written by multiple authors and edited by experts in the field.",isbn:null,printIsbn:null,pdfIsbn:null,doi:null,price:0,priceEur:0,priceUsd:0,slug:null,numberOfPages:0,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"316ca42e0526e3c775e16b929cc702f9",bookSignature:"",publishedDate:null,coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10848.jpg",keywords:null,numberOfDownloads:null,numberOfWosCitations:0,numberOfCrossrefCitations:null,numberOfDimensionsCitations:null,numberOfTotalCitations:null,isAvailableForWebshopOrdering:!0,dateEndFirstStepPublish:"November 25th 2020",dateEndSecondStepPublish:"December 16th 2020",dateEndThirdStepPublish:"February 14th 2021",dateEndFourthStepPublish:"May 5th 2021",dateEndFifthStepPublish:"July 4th 2021",remainingDaysToSecondStep:"2 months",secondStepPassed:!0,currentStepOfPublishingProcess:1,editedByType:null,kuFlag:!1,biosketch:null,coeditorOneBiosketch:null,coeditorTwoBiosketch:null,coeditorThreeBiosketch:null,coeditorFourBiosketch:null,coeditorFiveBiosketch:null,editors:null,coeditorOne:null,coeditorTwo:null,coeditorThree:null,coeditorFour:null,coeditorFive:null,topics:[{id:"14",title:"Materials Science",slug:"materials-science"}],chapters:null,productType:{id:"1",title:"Edited Volume",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"},personalPublishingAssistant:null},relatedBooks:[{type:"book",id:"6188",title:"Solidification",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"0405c42586170a1def7a4b011c5f2b60",slug:"solidification",bookSignature:"Alicia Esther Ares",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/6188.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"91095",title:"Dr.",name:"Alicia Esther",surname:"Ares",slug:"alicia-esther-ares",fullName:"Alicia Esther Ares"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"6802",title:"Graphene Oxide",subtitle:"Applications and Opportunities",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"075b313e11be74c55a1f66be5dd56b40",slug:"graphene-oxide-applications-and-opportunities",bookSignature:"Ganesh Kamble",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/6802.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"236420",title:"Dr.",name:"Ganesh Shamrao",surname:"Kamble",slug:"ganesh-shamrao-kamble",fullName:"Ganesh Shamrao Kamble"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"6517",title:"Emerging Solar Energy Materials",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"186936bb201bb186fb04b095aa39d9b8",slug:"emerging-solar-energy-materials",bookSignature:"Sadia Ameen, M. Shaheer Akhtar and Hyung-Shik Shin",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/6517.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"52613",title:"Dr.",name:"Sadia",surname:"Ameen",slug:"sadia-ameen",fullName:"Sadia Ameen"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"6320",title:"Advances in Glass Science and Technology",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"6d0a32a0cf9806bccd04101a8b6e1b95",slug:"advances-in-glass-science-and-technology",bookSignature:"Vincenzo M. Sglavo",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/6320.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"17426",title:"Prof.",name:"Vincenzo Maria",surname:"Sglavo",slug:"vincenzo-maria-sglavo",fullName:"Vincenzo Maria Sglavo"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10049",title:"Advanced Functional Materials",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"58745a56d54c143e4de8433f3d6eb62e",slug:"advanced-functional-materials",bookSignature:"Nevin Tasaltin, Paul Sunday Nnamchi and Safaa Saud",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10049.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"94825",title:"Associate Prof.",name:"Nevin",surname:"Tasaltin",slug:"nevin-tasaltin",fullName:"Nevin Tasaltin"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"7666",title:"Synthesis Methods and Crystallization",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"cd26687924373b72a27a0f69e7849486",slug:"synthesis-methods-and-crystallization",bookSignature:"Riadh Marzouki",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7666.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"300527",title:"Dr.",name:"Riadh",surname:"Marzouki",slug:"riadh-marzouki",fullName:"Riadh Marzouki"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"8812",title:"Contemporary Topics about Phosphorus in Biology and Materials",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"86c427901f631db034a54b22dd765d6a",slug:"contemporary-topics-about-phosphorus-in-biology-and-materials",bookSignature:"David G. Churchill, Maja Dutour Sikirić, Božana Čolović and Helga Füredi Milhofer",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8812.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"219335",title:"Dr.",name:"David",surname:"Churchill",slug:"david-churchill",fullName:"David Churchill"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"7960",title:"Assorted Dimensional Reconfigurable Materials",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"bc49969c3a4e2fc8f65d4722cc4d95a5",slug:"assorted-dimensional-reconfigurable-materials",bookSignature:"Rajendra Sukhjadeorao Dongre and Dilip Rankrishna Peshwe",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7960.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"188286",title:"Associate Prof.",name:"Rajendra",surname:"Dongre",slug:"rajendra-dongre",fullName:"Rajendra Dongre"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"7676",title:"Zeolites",subtitle:"New Challenges",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"4dc664fa55f94b38c13af542041fc3cc",slug:"zeolites-new-challenges",bookSignature:"Karmen Margeta and Anamarija Farkaš",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7676.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"216140",title:"Dr.",name:"Karmen",surname:"Margeta",slug:"karmen-margeta",fullName:"Karmen Margeta"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9321",title:"Advances in Microporous and Mesoporous Materials",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"d5b349cbde0b129c20f31dc02b94d33b",slug:"advances-in-microporous-and-mesoporous-materials",bookSignature:"Rafael Huirache Acuña",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9321.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"181660",title:"Dr.",name:"Rafael",surname:"Huirache Acuña",slug:"rafael-huirache-acuna",fullName:"Rafael Huirache Acuña"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}}]},chapter:{item:{type:"chapter",id:"44011",title:"Experimental Molecular Archeology: Reconstruction of Ancestral Mutants and Evolutionary History of Proteins as a New Approach in Protein Engineering",doi:"10.5772/56255",slug:"experimental-molecular-archeology-reconstruction-of-ancestral-mutants-and-evolutionary-history-of-pr",body:'\n
The diversity of life on Earth is the result of perpetual evolutionary processes beginning at life’s origins; evolution is the fundamental development strategy of life. Today, studies of gene and protein sequences, including various genome-sequencing projects, provide insight into these evolutionary processes and events. However, the sequence data obtained is restricted to extant genes and proteins, with the exception of the rare fossil genome samples [1, 2], for example Neanderthal [3], archaic hominin in Siberia [4, 5], and ancient elephants such as mastodon and mammoth [6]. The fossil record, and genome sequences derived from it, has the potential to elucidate ancient, extinct forms of life, acting as missing links to fill evolutionary gaps; however, the sequenced fossil genome is very limited, mainly due to the condition of samples and the challenges of preparing them. Discovering the forms of ancient organisms is one of the major purposes of paleontology, and is valuable in understanding of current life forms as these will be a reflection of their evolutionary history. However, the reconstruction of a living organism from fossils, which would be the ultimate paleontological methodology, is far beyond the currently available technologies, although there has recently been a report of the production of an artificial bacterial cell, using a chemically synthesized genome [7].
\nMeanwhile, for genes or the proteins they encode, it is already feasible to reconstruct their ancestral forms using phylogenetic trees constructed from sequence data; these techniques may well provide clues to the evolutionary history of certain extant genes and proteins with respect to their ancestors. Although phylogenetic analyses alone, or in combination with protein structure simulations, are useful to analyze structure-function relationships and evolutionary history [8], resurrected ancient recombinant proteins have the potential to provide more direct observations. Production of ancestral or ancient proteins can be achieved comparably easily due to developments in molecular biology and protein engineering techniques, which allow nucleotide or amino acid sequences to be synthesized. Ancestral proteins can be tested in the laboratory using biochemical or biophysical methods, for their activity, stability, specificity, and even three-dimensional structure. Thus, ancestral sequence reconstruction (ASR) has proved a useful experimental tool for studying the diverse structure and function of proteins [9]. To date, such ‘experimental molecular archeology’ using ASR has been applied to several enzymes [10-24], including photo-reactive proteins [25-37], nuclear receptor and transmembrane proteins [38-48], lectins [49-52], viral proteins [53, 54], elongation factor [55-57], paralbmin [58], in addition to a number of peptides [59,60] (Table 1).
\nIn early studies, ASR experiments using the technique of molecular phylogeny were based on basic site-directed mutagenesis and used to investigate the functional evolution of proteins, including the convergent evolution of lysozyme in ruminant stomach environments and the adaptation of enzymes to alkaline conditions [10-12]. However, if ancestral sequences have been determined, the most straightforward method is to reconstruct the full-length ancestral protein in the laboratory. No fundamental differences exist between ancestor reconstruction and standard site-directed mutagenesis, other than the number of amino acids residues requiring mutation, which, in the case of ancestor reconstruction, might be spread over the entire sequence. At present, ASR can be achieved using commercially available de novo synthetic genes. Thus, ‘experimental molecular archeology’ by ancestral protein reconstruction using a combination of the technical developments in biochemistry, molecular biology, and bioinformatics can be exploited in both molecular evolutionary biology and protein engineering. In this chapter, we will provide an overview the experimental molecular archeology technique of ASR, and the case of ancestral fish galectins will be discussed in detail, based on our recent studies.
\nThe experimental molecular archeology analysis using ancestral proteins
ML: Maximum likelihood/bayesian, MP: Maximum Parsimony
The first studies exploiting the idea of ancestral protein reconstruction used site-direct mutagenesis, in which a small number of amino acids were substituted to produce the anticipated ancestral status. These studies include the reconstruction of a ribonuclease (RNase) of an extinct bovid ruminant [10, 11], and the lysozymes from a game-bird using ancestral lysozyme reconstructions predicted by the MP (Maximum Parsimony) method [12]. Benner and colleagues reconstructed RNase of an extinct bovid ruminant [10], by predicting four sequences of ancestral RNases from five closely related bovids including ox, swamp buffalo, river buffalo, nilgai, and the primitive artiodactyl using the MP method [61, 62]. The ancestor closest to the extant ox protein was selected from the four probable ancestors as the target of the experiment as it contained a mutation of amino acid residue 35, located close to Lys41, which is known to be important for catalysis. Three ancestral mutants of the ox RNase (A19S, L35M, and A19S/L35M) were examined for their kinetic properties and the thermal stabilities against tryptic digestion. However, no significant difference was found between the ancestral mutants and the modern ox RNase. The results suggested that these amino acid substitutions were evolutionarily neutral, although this conclusion is limited to the extent of the examined properties [11].
\nMalcolm et al. succeeded in identifying a non-neutral evolutionary pathway of game-bird lysozymes using ancestral lysozyme reconstructions predicted by the MP method [12]. Seven mutations in game-bird lysozyme proteins included combinations of residues Thr40, Ile55, and Ser91, which were anticipated to be Ser40, Val55 and Thr91, respectively, in ancestral molecules. The mutants were synthesized as possible intermediates in the evolutionary pathway of bird lysozyme and comparative molecular properties and crystal structures of these revealed that the thermostabilities of the proteins were correlated with the bulkiness of their side chains. The T40S mutant increased its thermostability by more than 3°C, allowing the conclusion that this mutation was non-neutral effect of natural selection.
\nYamagishi and colleagues used ancestral protein reconstruction [14-16] to obtain direct evidence for the hypothesis that the common ancestor of all organisms was hyper-thermophilic [63]. Because the catalytic activities of 3-isopropylmalate dehydrogenase (IPMDH) and isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH) are similar to one another and their three-dimensional structures conserved, these proteins are diverged from an ancient common ancestor [64], of which sequence was inferred from a phylogenetic tree constructed from IPMDH and ICDH sequences from various species, including the thermophile (Thermus thermophilus) and the extreme thermophile (Sulfolobus sp. strain 7). Five of the seven ancestral mutants, in which substituted amino acids were located close to the substrate and cofactor-binding sites, demonstrated higher thermostability than wild type IPMDH from Sulfolobus sp. strain 7. These findings were taken to support the hypothesis of a hyperthermophile common ancestor. Moreover, the successful thermostabilization of ICDH [17] and Glycyl-tRNA synthetase [22] by ASR has been reported. Thus, the incorporation of ancestral residues into a modern protein can be used not only to test evolutionary hypotheses, but also as a powerful protein engineering technique for protein thermostabilization.
\nRecently, Whittington and Moerland reported that ASR analysis of parvalbumins (PVs) was able to identify the set of substitutions most likely to have caused a significant shift in PV function during the evolution of Antarctic notothenioids in the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean [58]. The results suggest that the current thermal phenotype of Antarctic PVs can be recapitulated by only two amino acid substitutions, namely, K8N and K26N.
\nThese studies were performed by introducing a limited number of mutations into extant proteins, or by carefully selecting ancestors that were separated from an extant protein by only few substitutions. However, such ancestral reconstruction by site-directed mutagenesis appears to be incomplete, as the possibility that sites remaining in a non-ancestral state may significantly affect the molecular property of interest, cannot be ruled out. Although it is difficult and expensive to introduce many mutations into sites widely distributed over gene sequences by site-directed mutagenesis, de novo gene synthesis is now available, allowing preparation of ancestral proteins. Therefore, the majority of recent ASR studies have been conducted using full-length or partial ancestral sequence reconstruction, including substitution of corresponding sites in target proteins.
\nHow can we determine the sequences of ancestral proteins or genes? In most cases, since the ancestral genes do not currently exist, the ancestral sequences need to be estimated and reconstructed mainly in silico (using a computer). Ancestral sequences are calculated using computational methods originally developed for molecular phylogeny construction. Some of these methods, such as maximum parsimony (MP) and maximum likelihood (ML), have an integral procedure of ancestral sequence inference at each node of the phylogenetic tree under construction [65, 66]. The MP method assumes that a phylogenetic tree with minimum substitutions is the most likely. This method assigns a possible nucleotide/amino acid for each site at every node of a phylogenetic tree to evaluate the minimum substitution number. Because of this assumption of parsimony, the MP method tends to underestimate the number of substitutions if a branch is relatively long. The method is also fragile if the evolutionary rate varies among branches.
\nBy contrast, the ML method, which does not require this assumption, is currently more widely used. This method evaluates the posterior probability of a nucleotide/amino acid residue at each node of a phylogenetic tree, based on empirical Bayesian statistics, using the provided sequences and a substitution probability matrix as inputs (observations). Therefore, results can be significantly affected by the choice of input sequences and the choice of substitution probability matrix; the probability of a reconstructed sequence at a node might be low when the node is connected to the provided sequences through longer and/or more intervening branches. The ML method is popular in the field, largely owing to the presence of the excellent software package PAML [67]. Several other software applications have been also developed for this purpose, such as FastML [68], ANSESCON [69], and GASP [70]. With the exception of GASP which partly employs the MP method to enable ancestral state prediction at gapped sites in a sequence alignment, these applications are based on the ML method. In many cases, ancestral sequences cannot be unambiguously determined, and several amino acids might be assigned to a residue site with almost equal probabilities. To avoid false conclusions as a result of such ambiguity, the accuracy of reconstructed ancestral sequence is critical for such studies. However, it is often difficult to obtain a complete, highly accurate sequence, as molecular evolution is believed to be a highly stochastic process and there is no guarantee that ancestral sequences can be identified without errors. Even if each residue of a protein made up of 100 residues, is identified with posterior probability of 0.99 (ie. 99% are expected to be correct), the probability that the sequence as a whole is accurate is only ~0.37 (i.e., 0.99100). In many actual cases, site probabilities are likely to be much lower. This is a major problem in ancestor reconstruction studies, and considerable efforts have been made to avoid incorrect conclusions due to imperfect reconstruction.
\nWilliams et al reported the assessment of the accuracy of ancestral protein reconstruction by MP, ML and Bayesian inference (BI) methods [71]. Their results indicated that MP and ML methods, which reconstruct "best guess" amino acids at each position, overestimate thermostability, while the BI method, which sometimes chooses less-probable residues from the posterior probability distribution, does not. ML and MP tend to eliminate variants at a position that are slightly detrimental to structural stability, simply because such detrimental variants are less frequent. Thus, Williams et al caution that ancestral reconstruction studies require greater care to come to credible conclusions regarding functional evolution [71]. Thornton and colleagues also examined simulation-based experiments, under both simplified and empirically derived conditions, to compare the accuracy of ASR carried out using ML and Bayesian approaches [72]. They showed that incorporating phylogenetic uncertainty by integrating over topologies very rarely changes the inferred ancestral state and does not improve the accuracy of the reconstructed ancestral sequence, suggesting that ML can produce accurate ASRs, even in the face of phylogenetic uncertainty, and using Bayesian integration to incorporate the uncertainty is neither necessary nor beneficial [72].
\nIn the case for experimental molecular archeology using ASR, the effects of equally probable residues at unreliable sites have been tested by site-directed mutagenesis to confirm directly that molecular properties are not largely affected by these. Indeed, in the case of ancestral congerin genes, the single mutant Con-anc’-N28K, in which the suspicious site was replaced with the alternate suggested amino acid was reconstructed in addition to the ancestral congerin (Con-anc’, the last common ancestor of ConI and ConII) inferred from the phylogeny of extant galectins using the ML method based on DNA sequences [51]. Nucleotide sequences were retrieved from the DDBJ database [73] , and the ancestral sequence were inferred using the PAML program [67]. The alignment of amino acid sequences of the extant galectins was first prepared using the XCED program [74], and an alignment of the corresponding nucleotide sequences was made in accordance with the amino acid sequence alignment. Tree topology was based on the amino acid sequences of extant proteins using the neighbor-joining (NJ) method. PAML was applied to the phylogeny and alignment to infer the ancestral sequences. The F1X4 matrix was used as the codon substitution model with the universal codon table. The free dN/dS ratio with M8 (beta & omega) model was adapted [75]. The reproduction rate of each Con-anc’ amino acid residue was also calculated from the reconstructed sequences, with the exclusion of one extant gene in each case, in order to identify highly unstable sites depending on the choice of extant genes. The results indicated that the average reproduction rate over the sequence was 0.98. The average site posterior probability in the sequence of Con-anc’ was 0.81. Seventy-two of 135 sites (53%) had a posterior probability > 0.9. By contrast, 11 sites were found to have posterior probabilities < 0.5. Only one residue, Asn28 of Con-anc’, was reproduced with a distinguishably low rate of 0.286, with a suggested alternative amino acid of Lys. Therefore, the single mutant Con-anc’-N28K was also reconstructed. Several reconstruction tests demonstrated that the ancestral sequence had constantly converged into that of Con-anc’, and the expected shift by adding a newly found extent sequence was reduced to 1.4% (s.d. 3.2%).
\nIn the case of alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh) ancestral mutants reported by Thomson et al., the posterior probability of the sequence predicted by the ML method was found to be low at three sites. Amino acid residues 168, 211 and 236 of Adh had two (Met and Arg), three (Lys, Arg and Thr), and two (Asp and Asn) equally probable candidates as the ancestral residues, respectively. Therefore, all possible combinations (2 x 3 x 2 = 12) of the candidates at the ambiguous sites were reproduced, and their kinetic properties assessed [13]. The results confirmed with consistency among the alternative mutants that acetaldehyde metabolism was the original function of Adh, that ancestral yeast could not consume ethanol, and that the function of ethanol metabolism was most likely acquired in the linage of the Adh2 locus after gene duplication.
\nConger eel galectins, termed Congerins I and II (Con I and Con II), function as biodefense molecules in the skin mucus and frontier organs including the epidermal club cells of the skin, wall of the oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, and gills [76-79]. Con I and Con II are prototype galectins, composed of subunits containing 135 and 136 amino acids, respectively, and display 48% amino acid sequence identity [80]. While both Con I and Con II form 2-fold symmetric homodimers with 5- and 6-stranded β-sheets (termed a jellyroll motif), they have different stabilities and carbohydrate-binding specificities, although they do have the conserved carbohydrate recognition domain (CRD) common to other galectins [81-84]. Previous studies of Con I and Con II, based on molecular evolutionary and X-ray crystallography analyses, revealed that these proteins have evolved via accelerated substitutions under natural selection pressure [74-85].
\nTo understand the rapid adaptive differentiation of congerins, experimental molecular archaeology analysis, using the reconstructed ancestral congerins, Con-anc and Con-anc’, and their mutants has been conducted [49-51]. Since the ancestral sequences of congerin, Con-anc and Con-anc’, were estimated from different phylogenetic trees, which were constructed from the varying numbers of extant genes available (eight for Con-anc, and sixteen for Con-anc’) (Fig. 1A), the ancestral sequence Con-anc’ showed a 27% discrepancy from the previously inferred sequence of Con-anc (Fig. 1B). Furthermore, as described in the ‘Methods for Ancestral Sequence Prediction’ section, the reproduction rate of each Con-anc’ amino acid residue was examined for the reconstructed sequences, with one extant gene excluded for each estimation, in order to identify highly unstable sites. The result indicated that the average reproduction rate over the sequences were 0.98, and only one residue, Asn28 of Con-anc’, was reproduced with a distinguishably low rate of 0.286, prompting verification of the results by the construction of a single mutant Con-anc’-N28K. The revised ancestral congerins, Con-anc’ or Con-anc’-N28K, were attached to the nodes of extant proteins with zero distance in the phylogeny constructed from amino acid sequences, indicating that the sequence was appropriate for that of an ancestor (Fig. 1A). On the other hand, the previously inferred Con-anc was attached midway on the ConI branch. Therefore, Con-anc’ or Con-anc’-N28K are likely to be closer to the true common ancestor of ConI and ConII than Con-anc. The structures and molecular properties of congerins, as discussed below, also supported this conclusion.
\nAlthough Con-anc is an ancestral mutant located midway on the ConI branch and shares a higher sequence similarity with ConI (76%) than with ConII (61%), it showed unique carbohydrate-binding activity and properties, and more closely resembled ConII than ConI, in terms of thermostability and carbohydrate recognition specificity, with the exception of carbohydrates containing α2, 3-sialyl galactose, for example GM3 and GD1a. The ancestral congerins, Con-anc’ and Con-anc’-N28K, demonstrated similar carbohydrate binding activity and specificities to those of Con-anc [51]. These analyses of Con-anc suggested a functional evolutionary process for ConI, where it evolved from the ancestral congerin to increase its structural stability and sugar-binding activity. In the case of the ancestral congerin, Con-anc, the candidate amino acid residues responsible for the higher structural stability and carbohydrate-binding activity of Con I were reduced to only 31 amino acid residues, from a total of 71 with apparent differences between Con I and Con II. These were mainly located in the N- and C-terminal and loop regions of the molecule, including the CRD [49, 50]. To identify the residues responsible for the properties of Con I, we next performed molecular evolution tracing analysis, by constructing pseudo-ancestral Con-anc proteins focused on the N-terminal, C-terminal, and some loop regions (loops 3, 5 and 6) [50].
\nAmino Acid Sequences and Structures of Ancestral Congerins
This is a protein engineering approach where a proportion of amino acid residues of an extant protein are substituted with those of an ancestor, to construct pseudo-ancestors, in order to reveal the residues determining functional differences between extant and ancestral proteins. These molecular evolutional approaches using pseudo-ancestors bridged from Con-anc to ConI successfully elucidated the regions of the protein relevant to the two adaptive features of ConI, thermostability and higher carbohydrate-binding activity [49]. Experimental molecular archeology analysis, using the reconstructed ancestral congerins, also revealed the process of ConII evolution, another extant galectin. ConII has evolved to enhance affinity for α2, 3-sialyl galactose, which is specifically present in pathogenic marine bacteria. The selection pressure to which Con II reacted was hypothesized to be a shift in carbohydrate affinity. The observed difference in α2, 3-sialyl galactose affinities between Con-anc and Con II support this hypothesis.
\nThe crystal structures of ancestral full-length proteins, Con-anc’, Con-anc’-N28K and Con-anc, have been solved at 1.5, 1.6, and 2.0 Å resolutions, respectively [51]. Their three-dimensional (3D) structures clearly demonstrate that Con-anc’ or Con-anc’-N28K are appropriate ancestors of extant congerins (Fig. 2). A notable difference between the structures of ConI and ConII is the swapping of S1 strands at the dimer interface, which is unique to ConI among known galectins, and should contribute to its higher stability [81]. The dimer interface of ancestral Con-anc’ and Con-anc’-N28K resembled that of ConII, but lacking the strand-swap. This protein-fold is the prototype for dimeric galectins, and the congerin ancestor is expected to have ConII-like conformation. Conversely, Con-anc did display a strand-swapped structure, indicating it was more likely to be an intermediate from the ancestor to ConI, consistent with the results of phylogeny construction (Fig. 2). The differences in carbohydrate interactions between Con-anc’ and the extant congerins were observed mainly at the A-face of galactose [51]. These modifications might be relevant to the observed differentiation of carbohydrate specificities between ConI and ConII; ConI prefers α1,4-fucosylated N-acetyl glucosamine, while ConII is adapted to bind α2,3-sialyl galactose-containing carbohydrates [49, 50]. Furthermore, structural or functional parameters, such as cytotoxic activity, thermostability of hemagglutination activity, urea and heat denaturation of the structures, and carbohydrate binding activities of the ancestral and extant congerins, were compared as a function of the evolutionary distances from Con-anc’ or ConI [51]. Some of these molecular properties were found to be enhanced in both lineages of congerin, which was observed as a correlation with the evolutionary distance from Con-anc’. The dimer interface essential for these proteins to evoke divalent cross-linking activity was enhanced in both lineages as the number of interface H-bonds and dimer interface area increased in ConI and ConII. However, the lactose interface area and the number of lactose H-bonds showed a low correlation with Ka for carbohydrates, implying that simply enhancing carbohydrate interaction was not likely to be a major selection pressure, and obtaining specificity was more significant for the function of congerins.
\nTaken together, the first full-length ancestral structures of congerin revealed that the duplicated genes have been differentiating under natural selection pressures for strengthening of the dimer structure and enhancement of the cytotoxic activity. However, the two genes did not react equally to selection pressure, with ConI reacting through protein-fold evolution to enhance its stability. The modification of the dimer interface in the ConII lineage was rather moderate.
\n\n Structures of ConI, ConII, Con-anc and Con-anc’. Con-anc\', Con-anc, ConII, and ConI dimers are shown from top to bottom along their molecular phylogeny. The numbers on each branch are the numbers of substitutions. The β strands relevant to the strand-swap at the dimer interface are labeled for S1-S2, and S1′-S2′. Each protein is associated with a close-up of its dimer interface.
Ancestral mutant analysis has been performed to explore the thermal adaptation of proteins. Benner and colleagues reconstructed the ancestral elongation factor-Tu (EF-Tu) predicted using ML methodology, in order to infer the physical environment surrounding ancient organisms [55]. Because EFs play a crucial role in protein synthesis in cells, the thermostability of EFs shows a strong correlation with the optimal growth temperature of their host organisms. For example, the melting temperatures (T\n\n m) of EFs from Escherichia coli and Thermus thermophilus (HB8) are 42.8°C and 76.7°C, respectively, and the optimal growth temperatures of their respective hosts are approximately 40°C and 74°C, respectively [86]. Thus, EFs are suitable for use in assessment of the ambient temperature at the time of ancient life. To predict the ancestral sequences of EFs, amino acid sequences of fifty EF-Tu proteins from various bacterial lineages were used to construct two kinds of molecular phylogenetic trees; one using the evolutionary distances calculated using the EF-Tu sequences and the second from distances calculated using ribosomal RNA sequences [87]. Both resulting ancestors had temperature profiles similar to that of the thermophilic EF of modern Thermus aquaticus, supporting the hypothesis that the common ancestor of all organisms is a hyperthermophile. Inclusion of additional microbial species into the analysis, and reconstruction of the ancestral EFs at various depths (evolutionary distance from present time) in the phylogeny using the ML method [56, 57], demonstrated that ancestral EFs positioned closer to the root of the phylogenetic tree tended to have significantly higher thermostabilities.
\nYamagishi and coworkers reported several ancestral proteins, including two metabolic enzymes; 3-isopropylmalate and dehydrogenase (IPMDH), which is involved in leucine biosynthesis, and isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH) involved in the TCA cycle. Ancestral amino acids were introduced into extant IPMDH sequences of the hyperthermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus tokodaii, the extremely thermophilic bacterium Thermus thermophilus, and the hyperthermophilic archaeon Caldococcus noboribetus [14-18].
\nMore recently, Hobbs et al reported the reconstruction of several common Precambrian ancestors of the core metabolic enzyme LeuB, 3-isopropylmalate dehydrogenase, estimated from various Bacillus species, in addition to the 3D structure of the last common ancestor at 2.9 Å resolution [19]. Their data indicated that the last common ancestor of LeuB was thermophilic, suggesting that the origin of thermophily in the Bucillus genus was ancient. Evolutionary tracing analysis through the ancestors of LeuB also indicated that thermophily was not exclusively a primitive trait, and it could be readily gained as well as lost in evolutionary history [19].
\nOverall, these studies demonstrate that ancestral enzymes retained enzymatic activity and acquired enhanced thermostability over respective extant enzymes, and that introduction of ancestral state amino acids into modern proteins frequently thermostabilizes them. This indicates that ancestral protein reconstruction can provide empirical access to the evolution of ancient phenotypes, and is useful as a strategy for thermostabilization protein engineering.
\nThornton and colleagues have reported seminal work using ancestral protein reconstructions of the nuclear receptors for steroid hormones to investigate evolution of their ligand specificities [38-47, 88, 89]. Vertebrates have six homologous nuclear receptors for steroid hormones; the estrogen receptors alpha and beta (ERα and ERβ), androgen receptor (AR), progesterone receptor (PR), glucocorticoid receptor (GR), and mineralocorticoid receptor (MR). As it is thought that these proteins evolved from a common ancestor through a series of gene duplications [65], the reconstruction of their ancestral proteins is a useful tool for investigation of their evolution of ligand-specificity. Although GR and MR are close relatives, GR is activated only by the stress hormone cortisol in most vertebrates, while MR is activated by both aldosterone and cortisol [90, 91]. The amino acid substitutions responsible for the specificity of GR toward cortisol were identified by reconstruction studies of the common ancestor of GRs and MRs using ML methodology [38-47]. Thornton and colleagues also reconstructed the ancestral corticoid receptor (AncCR), which corresponded to the protein predicted to be formed at the duplication event between GR and MR genes. Functional analysis showed that AncCR could be activated by both aldosterone and cortisol, suggesting that GR of vertebrates had lost aldosterone specificity during the evolutionary process. Furthermore, site-direct mutagenesis and X-ray crystallographic studies of AncCR revealed that amino acid substitutions at S106P and L111Q were key for the specificity shift of GR [38, 39]. AncCR is the first complete domain ancestor (ligand-binding domain only), for which 3D structure was determined. Ancestral mutant analysis of the NR5 nuclear orphan receptors, including steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1) and liver receptor homolog 1 (LRH-1) was also reported [41]. The structure-function relationships of the SF-1/LRH-1 subfamily and their evolutionary ligand-binding shift, where the characteristic phospholipid binding ability of the SF-1/LRH-1 subfamily was subsequently reduced and lost in the lineage leading to the rodent LRH-1, due to specific amino acid replacements, were elucidated [41].
\nReconstruction of visual pigment proteins, including rhodopsin and green fluorescent protein (GFP)-like proteins, has been also conducted. Chang et al reconstructed an ancestral archosaur rhodopsin from thirty vertebrate species using the ML method and three different models; nucleotide-, amino acid-, and codon-based [25]. An ancestral protein can be reconstructed with each of these models and the inferred archosaur rhodopsin had the same amino acid sequences for all three, except for three amino acid sites (positions 213, 217, and 218), and all reconstructed ancestral proteins had four variants at the ambiguous sites (single mutants T213I, T217A, V218I, and the triple mutant of these) showed similar optical properties, with an apparent absorption maximum at 508–509 nm, slightly red-shifted from that of modern vertebrates (482–507 nm). These data indicated that the alternative ancestral amino acids predicted by the different likelihood models showed similar functional characteristics. Dim-light and color vision in vertebrates are controlled by five visual pigments (RH1, RH2, SWS1, SWS2, and M/LWS), each consisting of a protein moiety (opsin) and a covalently bound 11-cis-retinal (or 11-cis-3, 4-dehydroretinal) [91], with characteristic sensitivity to specific wavelengths of maximal absorptions (λmax) from 360 nm (UV) to 560 nm (red). How do the visual pigments achieve sensitivity to various wavelengths? Despite extensive mutagenesis analyses of visual pigments, the molecular mechanisms that modulate the variable λmax values observed in nature were not well understood until ancestral protein reconstruction analysis was applied to the question [92]. Yokoyama and colleagues successfully identified the molecular mechanism of the spectral tuning of visual pigments by generating 15 currently known pigment types using engineered ancestral pigments of SWS1, RH1, and red- and green-sensitive (M/LWS) pigments [26-28]. Kawamura and colleagues reported the reconstruction of ancestral mutants of four green visual pigments from zebrafish, namely, RH2-1, RH2-2, RH2-3 and RH2-4, with λmax values of 467, 476, 488, and 505 nm, respectively [29]. The ancestral pigments showed that spectral shifts occurred toward the shorter wavelength in evolutionary lineages [29]. Furthermore, Yokoyama and colleagues demonstrated the molecular basis (structural elements) of the adaptation of rhodopsin for the dim-light (deep-sea) vision by ancestral reconstruction experiments using 11 ancestral pigments estimated by rhodopsin sequences of migratory fish from both the surface and deep ocean [30-32].
\nThe great star coral Montastrea cavernosa has several green fluorescent protein (GFP)-like proteins, classified into four paralogous groups based on their emission spectra: cyan (emission maximum, 480–495 nm), short wavelength green (500–510 nm), long wavelength green (515–525 nm), and red (575–585 nm) [93]. Matz and colleagues reconstructed the ancestral fluorescent proteins corresponding to the root of each color group, and the common ancestor of the groups using the ML method [33-37]. The analyses of the fluorescence spectra using the ancestral proteins depicted the evolutionary process of the coral GFP-like proteins, in which the peak wavelength has shifted from green to red. Furthermore, they identified the amino acid substitutions responsible for the generation of recent cyan and red fluorescence proteins through site-direct mutagenesis studies of the ancestral green fluorescent protein as a template [35]. Thus, the engineering of ancestral molecules at various evolutionary stages, to recapitulate the changes in their phenotypes over time, is an effective way to explore the molecular evolution and adaptation mechanisms of proteins, although the experimental demonstration of adaptive events at the molecular level is particularly challenging.
\nExperimental molecular archaeology using ASR is a new and potentially useful method not only for the study of molecular evolution, but also as a protein engineering technique. This method can provide us with experimental information about ancient genes and proteins, which cannot be obtained from fossil records or by simply constructing molecular phylogeny. However, as discussed above, ancestral sequences can have some issues with ambiguity, depending on the choice of evaluation method, evolutionary model, and sequences. Although inference methods such as MP, ML and BI can lead to errors in predicted ancestral sequences, resulting in potentially misleading estimates of the properties of the ancestral protein, experimental molecular archaeology using ASR could be a more reliable method as all possible ancestral mutants, in which ambiguous amino acid sites are replaced by equally probable candidates individually or in combination, are reproducible and the biological and physicochemical properties and 3D structures of the molecules can be assessed. Indeed, when ancestral congerins were reconstructed based on insufficient sequence information lacking recently determined fish galectin genes, the ancestral Con-anc protein was shown to have a strand-swapped structure resembling ConI, indicating that Con-anc was more likely to be an intermediate mutant of the ancestor to ConI, and that the revised Con-anc’ or Con-anc’-N28K are more appropriate ancestors. Thus, the accuracy of ASR can be assessed by analysis of protein activities, stabilities, specificities, and even 3D structures in the laboratory using biochemical or biophysical methods.
\nExperimental molecular archaeology using ASR can be applied to more complex biological systems, such as heterologous subunit interactions and their evolution in molecular machines [48], host-viral interactions and their co-evolution [54, 94, 95], and proteome/structural proteome level analyses [96]. Furthermore, recent studies have indicated that ASR is applicable to not only to proteins, but also to nucleotides including ancestral rRNA [97] and transposons [95]. To understand the molecular strategies of evolution in nature and the structure-function relationships of proteins and nucleotides, it is important to learn more from ‘nature’ itself, and from its prodigious works and histories; proteins/nucleotides and their molecular evolution.
\nThe world’s human population increases by approximately 240,000 people every day: it is expected to reach 8 billion by 2025 and approximately 9.6 billion by 2050. Cultivated land is at a near-maximum, yet estimates predict that food production must be increased by 70% for worldwide peace to persist circa 2050 [1]. Thus, producing sufficient food to meet the ever-growing demand for this rising population is an exceptional challenge to humanity. To succeed at this vital objective, we must build more efficient—yet sustainable—food production devices, farms, and infrastructures. To accomplish that objective, the precision farming concept—a set of methods and techniques to accurately manage variations in the field to increase crop productivity, business profitability, and ecosystem sustainability—has provided some remarkable solutions.
Figure 1 summarizes the cycle of precision agriculture and distinguishes the activities based on analysis and planning (right) from those that rely on providing motion (left). The solutions for activities illustrated in Figure 1 right are being based on information and communication technologies (ICT), whereas the activities on the left rely on tractors, essential devices in current agriculture, that are being automated and robotized and will be also critical in future agriculture (smart farms).
UGVs in the cycle of precision agriculture.
The activities indicated in Figure 1 left can be applied autonomously in an isolated manner, i.e., a fertilization-spreading task, can be performed autonomously if the appropriate implement tank has been filled with fertilizer and attached to a fueled autonomous tractor (UGV); the same concept is applicable to planting and spraying. In addition, harvesting systems must offload the yield every time their collectors are full. However, tasks such as refilling, refueling/recharging, implement attachment, and crop offloading are currently primarily performed manually. The question that arises is: would it be possible to automate all these activities? And if so, would it be possible to combine these activities with other already automated farm management activities to configure a fully automated system resembling the paradigm of the fully automated factory? Then, the combination becomes a fully automated farm in which humans are relegated to mere supervisors. Furthermore, exploiting this parallelism, can we push new developments for farms to mimic the smart factory model? This is the smart farm concept that represents a step forward from the automated farm into a fully connected and flexible system capable of (i) optimizing system performances across a wider network, (ii) learning from new conditions in real- or quasi-real time, (iii) adapting the system to new conditions, and (iv) executing complete production processes in an autonomous way [2]. A smart farm should rely on autonomous decision-making to (i) ensure asset efficiency, (ii) obtain better product quality, (iii) reduce costs, (iv) improve product safety and environmental sustainability, (v) reduce delivery time to consumers, and (vi) increase market share and profitability and stabilize the labor force.
Achieving the smart farm is a long-term mission that will demand design modifications and further improvements on systems and components of very dissimilar natures that are currently being used in agriculture. Some of these systems are outdoor autonomous vehicles or (more accurately) UGVs, which are essential in future agriculture for moving sensors and implementing to cover crop fields accurately and guarantee accurate perception and actuation (soil preparation, crop treatments, harvest, etc.). Thus, this chapter is devoted to bringing forward the features that UGVs should offer to achieve the smart farm concept. Solutions are focused on incorporating the new paradigms defined for smart factories while providing full mobility of the UGVs. These two activities will enable the definition of UGV requirements for smart farm applications.
To this end, the next section addresses the needs of UGVs in smart farms. Then, two main approaches to configure solutions for UGVs in agricultural tasks are described: the automation of conventional vehicles and specifically designed mobile platforms. Their advantages and shortcomings regarding their working features are highlighted. This material enables the definition of other operating characteristics of UGVs to meet the smart farm requirements. Finally, the last section presents some conclusions.
Ground mobile robots, equipped with advanced technologies for positioning and orientation, navigation, planning, and sensing, have already demonstrated their advantages in outdoor applications in industries such as mining [3], farming, and forestry [4, 5]. The commercial availability of GNSS has provided easy ways to configure autonomous vehicles or navigation systems to assist drivers in outdoor environments, especially in agriculture, where many highly accurate vehicle steering systems have become available [6, 7]. These systems aid operators in the precise guidance of tractors using LIDAR (light/laser detection and ranging) or GNSS technology but do not endow a vehicle or tool with any level of autonomy. Nevertheless, other critical technologies must also be incorporated to configure UGVs, such as the safety systems responsible for detecting obstacles in the robots’ path and safeguarding humans and animals in the robots’ surroundings as well as preventing collisions with obstacles or other robots. Finally, robot communications with operators and external servers (cloud technologies) through wireless communications that include the use of cyber-physical systems (CPSs) [8] and Internet of things (IoT) [9] techniques will be essential to incorporate decision-making systems based on big data analysis. Such integration will enable the expansion of decision processes into fields such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. Smart factories are based on the strongly intertwined concepts of CPS, IoT, big data, and cloud computing, and UGVs for smart farms should be based on the same principles to minimize the traditional delays in applying the same technologies to industry and agriculture.
The technology required to deploy more robotic systems into agriculture is available today, as are the clear economic and environmental benefits of doing so. For example, the global market for mobile robots, in which agricultural robots are a part, is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of over 15% from 2017 to 2025, according to recent forecast reports [10]. Nevertheless, manufacturers of agricultural machinery seem to be reluctant to commercialize fully robotic systems, although they have not missed the marketing potential of showing concepts [11, 12]. In any event, according to the Standing Committee on Agricultural Research [13], further efforts should be made by both researchers and private companies to invent new solutions.
Most of the robotics and automation systems that will be used in precision agriculture—including systems for fertilizing, planting, spraying, scouting, and harvesting (Figure 1)—will require the coordination of detection devices, agricultural implements, farm managing systems, and UGVs. Thus, several research groups and companies have been working on such systems. Specifically, two trends can be identified in the development of UGVs: the automation of conventional agricultural vehicles (tractors) and the development of specifically designed mobile platforms. The following sections discuss these two types of vehicles.
The tractor has been the central vehicle for executing most of the work required in a crop field. Equipped with the proper accessories, this machine can till, plant, fertilize, spray, haul, mow, and even harvest. Their adaptability to dissimilar tasks makes tractors a prime target for automation, which would enable productivity increases, improve safety, and reduce operational costs. Figure 2 shows an example of the technologies and equipment for automating agricultural tractors.
An example of agricultural tractor automation‑distribution of sensorial and actuation systems for transforming an agricultural tractor into a UGV (Gonzalez-de-Santos et al., 2017).
Numerous worldwide approaches to automating diverse types of tractors have been researched and developed since 1995 when the first GNSS was made available to the international civilian community of users, which opened the door for GPS-guided agricultural vehicles (auto-steering) and controlled-traffic farming.
The first evaluations of GPS systems for vehicle guidance in agriculture were also published in 1995 [14] demonstrating its potential and encouraging many research groups around the world to automate diverse types of tractors. The earliest attempts were made at Stanford University in 1996, where an automatic control system for an agricultural tractor was developed and tested on a large farm [15]. The system used a location system with four GPS antennas. Around the same time, researchers at the University of Illinois, USA, developed a guidance system for an autonomous tractor based on sensor fusion that included machine vision, real-time kinematics GPS (RTK-GPS), and a geometric direction sensor (GDS). The fusion integration methodology was based on an extended Kalman filter (EKF) and a two-dimensional probability-density-function statistical method. This system achieved a lateral average error of approximately 0.084 m at approximately 2.3 m s−1 [16].
A few years later, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, USA, developed some projects that made significant contributions. The Demeter project was conceived as a next-generation self-propelled hay harvester for agricultural operations, and it became the most representative example of such activity [17]. The positional data was fused from a differential GPS, a wheel encoder (dead reckoning), and gyroscopic system sensors. The project resulted in a system that allowed an expert harvesting operator to harvest a field once, thus programming the field. Subsequently, an operator with lesser skill could “playback” the programmed field at a later date. The semi-autonomous agricultural spraying project, developed by the same research group, was devoted to making pesticide spraying significantly cheaper, safer, and more environmentally friendly [18]. This system enabled a remote operator to oversee the nighttime operation of up to four spraying vehicles. Another example is research conducted at the University of Florida, USA, [19], in which two individual autonomous guidance systems for use in a citrus grove were developed and tested along curved paths at a speed of approximately 3.1 m s−1. One system, based on machine vision, achieved an average guidance error of approximately 0.028 m. The other system, based on LIDAR guidance, achieved an average error of approximately 0.025 m.
Similar activities started in Europe in the 2000s. One example is the work performed at LASMEA-CEMAGREF, France, in 2001, which evaluated the possibilities of achieving recording-path tracking using a carrier phase differential GPS (CP-DGPS), as the only sensor. The vehicle heading was derived according to a Kalman state reconstructor and a nonlinear velocity independent control law was designed that relied on chained systems properties [20].
A relevant example of integrating UGVs with automated tools is the work conducted at the University of Aarhus and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark [21]. The system comprised an autonomous ground vehicle and a side shifting arrangement affixed to a weeding implement. Both the vehicle and the implement were equipped with RTK-GPS; thus, the two subsystems provided their own positions, allowing the vehicle to follow predefined GPS paths and enabling the implement to act on each individual plant, whose positions were automatically obtained during seeding.
Lately, some similar automations of agricultural tractors have been conducted using more modern equipment [22, 23], and some tractor manufacturers have already presented noncommercial autonomous tractors [11, 12]. This tendency to automate existing tractors has been applied to other types of lightweight vehicles for specific tasks in orchards such as tree pruning and training, blossom and fruit thinning, fruit harvesting, mowing, spraying, and sensing [24]. Table 1 summarizes the UGVs based on commercial vehicles for agricultural tasks.
Institution | Year | Description |
---|---|---|
Stanford University (USA) [15] | 1996 | Automatic large-farm tractor using 4 GPS antennas |
University of Illinois (USA) [16] | 1998 | A guidance system using a sensor based on machine vision, an RTK-GPS, and a GDS |
Carnegie Mellon University (USA)—Demeter project [17] | 1999 | A self-propelled hay harvester for agricultural operations |
Carnegie Mellon University (USA)—Autonomous Agricultural Spraying project [18] | 2002 | A ground-based vehicles for pesticide spraying |
LASMEA-CEMAGREF (France) [20] | 2001 | This study investigated the possibility of achieving vehicle guiding using a CP-DGPS as the only sensor |
University of Florida (USA) [19] | 2006 | An autonomous guidance system for citrus groves based on machine vision and LADAR |
University of Aarhus and the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) [21] | 2008 | An automatic intra-row weed control system connected to an unmanned tractor |
RHEA consortium (EU) [22] | 2014 | A fleet (3 units) of tractors that cooperated and collaborated in physical/chemical weed control and pesticide applications for trees |
Carnegie Mellon University (USA) [24] | 2015 | Self-driving orchard vehicles for orchard tasks |
University of Leuven (Belgium) [23] | 2015 | Tractor guidance using model predictive control for yaw dynamics |
UGVs based on commercial vehicles.
Nevertheless, UGVs suitable for agriculture remain far from commercialization, although many intermediate results have been incorporated into agricultural equipment—from harvesting to precise herbicide application. Essentially, these systems are installed on tractors owned by farmers and generally consist of a computer (the controller), a device for steering control, a localization system (mostly based on RTK-GPS), and a safety system (mostly based on LIDAR). Many of these systems are compatible only with advanced tractors that feature ISOBUS control technology [25], through which controllers connected to the ISOBUS can access other subsystems of the tractor (throttle, brakes, auxiliary valves, power takeoff, linkage, lights, etc.). Examples of these commercial systems are AutoDrive [26] and X-PERT [27].
An important shortcoming of these solutions is their lack of intelligence in solving problems, especially when obstacles are detected because they are not equipped with technology suitable for characterizing and identifying the obstacle type. This information is essential when defining any behavior other than simply stopping and waiting for the situation to be resolved. Another limitation of this approach is that the conventional configuration of a standard tractor driven by an operator is designed to maximize the productivity per hour; thus, the general architecture of the system (tractor plus equipment) is only roughly optimized.
The second approach to the configuration of mobile robots for agriculture is the development of autonomous ground vehicles with specific morphologies, where researchers develop ground mobile platforms inspired more by robotic principles than by tractor technologies. These platforms can be classified based on their locomotion system. Ground robots can be based on wheels, tracks, or legs. Although legged robots have high ground adaptability (that enables the vehicles to work on irregular and sloped terrain) and intrinsic omnidirectionality (which minimizes the headlands and, thus, maximizes croplands) and offer soil protection (discrete points in contact with the ground that minimize ground damage and ground compaction, an important issue in agriculture), they are uncommon in agriculture; however, legged robots provide extraordinary features when combined with wheels that can configure a disruptive locomotion system for smart farms. Such a structure (which consists of legs with wheels as feet) is known as a wheel-legged robot. The following sections present the characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of these specifically designed types of robots.
The structure of a wheeled mobile platform depends on the following features:
Number of wheels: Three nonaligned wheels are the minimum to ensure platform static stability. However, most field robots are based on four wheels, an approach that increases the static and dynamic stability margins [28].
Wheel orientation type: An ordinary wheel can be installed on a platform in different ways that strongly determine the platform characteristics. Several wheel types can be considered:
Fixed wheel: This wheel is connected to the platform in such a way that the plane of the wheel is perpendicular to the platform and its angle (orientation) cannot change.
Orienting wheel: The wheel plane can change its orientation angle using an orientation actuator.
Castor wheel: The wheel can rotate freely around an offset steering joint. Thus, its orientation can change freely.
Wheel power type: Depending on whether wheels are powered, they can also be classified as follows:
Passive wheel: The wheel rotates freely around its shaft and does not provide power.
Active wheel: An actuator rotates the wheel to provide power.
Wheel arrangement: Different combinations of wheel types produce mobile platforms with substantially different steering schemes and characteristics.
Coordinated steering scheme: Two fixed active wheels at the rear of the platform coupled with two passive orienting wheels at the front of the platform are the most common wheel arrangement for vehicles. To maintain all wheels in a pure rolling condition during a turn, the wheels need to follow curved paths with different radii originating from a common center [29]. A special steering mechanism, the Ackermann steering system, which consists of a 4-bar trapezoidal mechanism (Figure 3a), can mechanically manage the angles of the two steering wheels. This system is used in all the vehicles presented in Table 2. It features medium mechanical complexity and medium control complexity. One advantage of this system is that a single actuator can steer both wheels. However, independent steering requires at least three actuators for steering and power (Figure 3b).
Skid steering scheme: Perhaps the simplest structure for a mobile robot consists of four fixed, active wheels, one on each corner of the mobile platform. Skid steering is accomplished by producing a differential thrust between the left and right sides of the vehicle, causing a heading change (Figure 3c). The two wheels on one side can be powered independently or by a single actuator. Thus, the motion of the wheels in the same direction produces backward/forward platform motion; and the motion of the wheels on one side in the opposite direction to the motion of wheels on the other side produces platform rotation.
Independent steering scheme: An independent steering scheme controls each wheel, moving it to the desired orientation angle and rotation speed (Figure 3d). This steering scheme makes wheel coordination and wheel position accuracy more complex but provides some advantages in maneuverability. In addition, this scheme provides crab steering (sideways motion at any angle α; 0 ≤ α ≤ 2π) by aligning all wheels at an angle α with respect to the longitudinal axis of the mobile platform. Finally, the coordination of driving and steering results in more efficient maneuverability and reduces internal power losses caused by actuator fighting. The independent steering scheme requires eight actuators for a four-wheel vehicle.
Steering driving systems: (a) Ackermann steering system; (b) independent steering; (c) skid steering system and (d) independent steering and traction system.
Steering scheme | Characteristics |
---|---|
Coordinated | Advantages:
|
Skid | Advantages:
|
Independent | Advantages:
|
Characteristics of wheeled structures.
Table 2 summarizes the advantages and drawbacks of these schemes. Note that the number of actuators increases the total mass of a robot as well as its mechanical and control complexity (more motors, more drivers, more elaborate coordinating algorithms, etc.).
Some examples of wheeled mobile platforms for agriculture are the conventional tractor using the Ackermann steering system (Figure 2) with two front passive and steerable wheels and two rear fixed and active wheels.
Skid steering platforms can be found in many versions. For example,
Four fixed wheels placed in pairs on both sides of the robot
Two fixed tracks, each one placed longitudinally at each side of the robot,
Two fixed wheels placed at the front of the robot and two castor wheels placed at the rear (Figure 4c), etc.
Pictures of several specifically-designed agricultural platforms. (a) Robot for weed detection, courtesy of T. Bak, Department of Agricultural Engineering, Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences; (b) ladybird, courtesy of J. P. Underwood, Australian Centre for Field Robotics at the University of Sydney [34]; (c) AgBot II, courtesy of O. Bawden, strategic Investment in Farm Robotics, Queensland University of Technology [31].
Regarding the independent steering scheme, the robot developed by Bak and Jakobsen [30] is one of the first representative examples (Figure 4a). This platform was designed specifically for agricultural tasks in wide-row crops and featured good ground clearance (approximately 0.5 m) and 1-m wheel separation. The platform is based on four-identical wheel modules. Each one includes a brushless electric motor that provides direct-drive power, and steering is achieved by a separate motor.
An example of a mobile platform under development that focuses on performing precision agricultural tasks is AgBot II (Figure 4c). This is a platform that follows the skid steering scheme with two front fixed wheels (working in skid or differential mode) and two rear caster wheels. It is intended to work autonomously on both large-scale and horticultural crops, applying fertilizer, detecting and classifying weeds, and killing weeds either mechanically or chemically [31, 32]. Another robot is Robot for Intelligent Perception and Precision Application (RIPPA), which is a light, rugged, and easy-to-operate prototype for the vegetable growing industry. It is used for autonomous high-speed, spot spraying of weeds using a directed micro-dose of liquid when equipped with a variable injection intelligent precision applicator [33]. Another example is Ladybird (Figure 4b), an omnidirectional robot powered with batteries and solar panels that follows the independent steering scheme. The robot includes many sensors (i.e., hyperspectral cameras, thermal and infrared detecting systems, panoramic and stereovision cameras, LIDAR, and GPS) that enable assessing crop properties [34]. One more prototype, very close to commercialization, is Kongskilde Vibro Crop Robotti, which is a self-contained track-based platform that uses the skid steering scheme. It can be equipped with implements for precision seeding and mechanical row crop cleaning units. This robot can work for 2–4 hours at a 2–5 km h−1 rate and is supplied by captured electric energy [35].
These robots are targeted toward fertilizing, seeding, weed control, and gathering information, and they have similar characteristics in terms of weight, load capacity, operational speed, and morphology. Tools, instrumentation equipment, and agricultural implements are connected under the robot, and tasks are performed in the area just below the robot, which optimizes implement weight distribution. These robots have limitations for use on farmland with substantial (medium to high) slopes or gully erosion. Nevertheless, some mobile platforms are already commercially available. Two examples of these vehicles are the fruit robots Cäsar [36] and Greenbot [37].
Cäsar is a remote-controlled special-purpose vehicle that can perform temporarily autonomous operations in orchards and vineyards such as pest management, soil management, fertilization, harvesting, and transport. Similarly, Greenbot is a self-driving machine specially developed for professionals in the agricultural and horticultural sectors who perform regular, repetitious tasks. This vehicle can be used not only for fruit farming, horticulture, and arable farming but also in the urban sector and even at waterfronts or on roadsides.
Despite their current features, the existing robots lack flexibility and terrain adaptability to cope with diverse scenarios, and their safety features are limited. For example:
They focus only on orchard and vineyard activities.
They have ground clearance limitations.
They are unsuitable for rough terrain or slopes.
They must be manually guided to the working area rather than freely and autonomously moving to different working areas around the farm.
They possess no advanced detection systems for weed or soil identification, which limits their use to previously planned tasks related to selective treatment.
They lack dynamic safety systems capable of recognizing or interpreting safety issues; thus, they are incapable of rescheduling or solving problems by themselves.
In addition, existing UGVs for agriculture lack communication mechanisms for providing services through cloud technologies, CPS, and IoT techniques, crucial instruments to integrate decision-making systems based on big data analysis, as is being done in the smart factory concept.
Table 3 summarizes the diverse robotic platforms, and Figure 4 depicts some of these platforms.
Vehicle | Type* | Year | Description |
---|---|---|---|
AgBot II [32] | P | 2014 | A platform that follows the skid steering scheme with two front fixed wheels (working in skid or differential mode) and two rear caster wheels |
Ladybird [34] | P | 2015 | An omnidirectional robot powered with batteries and solar panels that uses the independent steering scheme |
Greenbot [37] | C | 2015 | A self-driving robot for tasks in agriculture and horticulture |
Cäsar [36] | P | 2016 | A remotely controlled platform for temporary, autonomous use in fruit plantations and vineyards |
RIPPA [33] | P | 2016 | A light, rugged, and easy-to-operate prototype for the vegetable growing industry |
Vibro Crop Robotti [35] | C | 2017 | A self-contained track-based platform that uses the skid steering scheme |
Robots designed specifically for agriculture.
P-prototype; C-commercial.
The structure of a wheel-legged mobile platform depends on (i) the number of legs, (ii) the leg type, and (iii) the leg arrangement. The feet consist of 2-DOF steerable powered wheels as illustrated in Figure 5.
Wheel-legged structures. (a) 4-DOF articulated leg; (b) 3-DOF SCARA leg; (c) 2-DOF SCARA leg; (d) 1-DOF leg.
Number of legs: The minimum number of legs required for statically stable walking is four-three legs providing support in the form of a stable tripod while the other leg performs the transference phase [38]. Combining sequences of leg transferences with stable tripods produce a walking motion. A wheel-legged robot requires only three legs for translational motion, which provides additional terrain adaptation.
Leg type: Legs are based on the typical configurations of manipulators; thus, articulated, cylindrical, Cartesian, and pantographic configurations are the types used most often.
Leg arrangement: The normal arrangement for a 2n-legged robot is to distribute n legs uniformly on the longitudinal sides. Four-legged structures present some advantages regarding terrain adaptability, ground clearance, and track width control (crop adaptability) but also have some drawbacks, such as additional mechanical complexity (complex joints designs, including actuators and brakes) and control of redundant actuated systems, which exhibit complex interactions with the environment and make motion control more difficult than that of conventional wheeled platforms. Table 4 illustrates different theoretical wheel-legged structures.
Structure | Characteristics |
---|---|
A 4-DOF articulated leg with a 2-DOF wheeled foot (Figure 5a) | Advantages:
|
A 3-DOF motion-decoupled leg* with a 2-DOF wheeled foot (Figure 5b) | Advantages:
|
A 2-DOF motion-decoupled leg* with a 2-DOF wheeled foot (Figure 5c) | Advantages:
|
A 1-DOF leg with a 2-DOF wheeled foot (Figure 5d) | Advantages:
|
Wheel-legged structures.
Cylindrical, Selective Compliant Articulated Robot Arm (SCARA) or Cartesian.
Figure 6a illustrates the structure scheme of a wheel-legged robot based on the 3-DOF SCARA leg (See Figure 5b) with full terrain adaptability, ground clearance control, crop adaptability, and capability of walking, and Figure 6b shows the structure of a wheel-legged robot exhibiting full terrain adaptability, ground clearance control, and crop adaptability; however, it cannot walk under static stability.
Model of wheel-legs: (a) full terrain-crop adaptability, (b) full terrain and partial crop adaptability.
Another interesting example is the structure of BoniRob [39], a real wheel-legged platform for multipurpose agriculture applications, which consists of four independently steerable powered wheeled legs with the structure illustrated in Figure 5d (1-DOF legs with a 2-DOF wheeled foot). This robot can adjust the distance between its wheel sets, making it adaptable to many agricultural scenarios. The platform can be equipped with common sensorial systems used in robotic agricultural applications, such as LIDAR, inertial sensors, wheel odometry, and GPS. Moreover, the robotic platform can be retrofitted and upgraded with swappable application modules or tools for crop and weed identification, plant breeding applications, and weed control. This robotic platform is completely powered by electricity, which is more environmentally friendly but reduces its operational working time compared to conventional combustion-engine systems. Nevertheless, this robot configuration requires custom-built implements, which prevent the reuse of existing implements and, thus, jeopardize the introduction of this robot to the agricultural market.
In addition to their needed characteristics for infield operations, the robots fulfilling the demands of a smart farm will require the operating requirements summarized in the following paragraphs and Table 5.
Characteristics | Value |
---|---|
Dimensions | Length: ~3.0 m; width: ~1.50 m; height: ~1.00 m |
Weight | 1200–1700 kg |
Payload | 500–1000 kg |
Comments: These characteristics are estimations based on the current medium-sized vehicles reported in this chapter that are capable of carrying agricultural implements. Robots for carrying sensing systems can be truly small (low payloads), but vehicles for treatments need to carry medium to heavy loads (pesticides, fertilizes, etc.). For example, existing sprayers [45] weigh approximately 600–700 kg including 200–300 L of active ingredient. | |
Speed | 3–25 km h−1 |
Comments: Treatment speed is limited by the treatment process that depends on physical laws. However, robots need to move among working fields minimizing moving time; therefore, they must feature a reasonably high top speed. | |
Position accuracy | ±0.02 m |
Comments: The current DGPS accuracy seems to be sufficient for real applications. However, specific real-time localization systems, RTLS, can be used in small areas where GNSS is unavailable (radio frequency identification tags (RFID), ultra-wide band tags (UWB), etc.). These technologies will be essential in smart farms to ensure positioning precision in GNSS occluded areas. | |
Clearance | 0.35–1 m |
Comments: Weed control is performed at an early crop-growth stage; therefore, the minimum ground clearance of the robot must be approximately 0.35 m. A ground clearance of approximately 1 m will facilitate application of treatments at later crop-growth stages. The ideal approach would be to control the ground clearance to optimize the working height of the implements based on the crop. Existing robots cannot control their ground clearance, but some wheel-legged configurations can meet this specification (Figure 5a,b, and c). | |
Track width | 1.50–2.25 m |
Comments: To preserve crops in narrow-row situations, a tramline control is required; however, in wide-row crops, the tramlines must be located in the inter-row spacing. Taking maize as an example, which is planted at an inter-row spacing of approximately 0.75 m in some areas in Europe, a robot track width of 1.50 to 2.25 m is required to enable 2 or 3 rows to pass under the robot’s body. Controlling robot track width is imperative in a smart farm world. This characteristic is exhibited by wheeled-legged robots, which makes them a good candidate for UGVs in smart farms. | |
Energetic autonomy | ~10 h |
Comments: Robots based on combustion engines (e.g., tractors) can operate autonomously for approximately 10 hours, at minimum. The duration of autonomous operation for electrically driven systems should be similar. Some existing prototypes already meet this expectation [31]. In any case, the increasing improvement in battery technology will enlarge the energetic autonomy of future vehicles and robots. |
Prospective characteristics for UGVs in smart farms.
Small size: The idea that using small robots provides many advantages over the use of conventional large vehicles has been widely discussed over the past decade [22, 40]. It is broadly accepted that although several small robots can cost the same as a large machine and accomplish the same amount of work, using small robots allows a multi-robot system to continue a task even if a number of robots fail (re-planning the task). Moreover, the reduced weight of the small robots reduces terrain compaction and allows farmers to acquire robots incrementally.
Flexibility: Agricultural robots must be capable of adapting to many different scenarios (e.g., crops, row types, etc.) and tasks (e.g., plow, sow, fumigate, etc.). Thus, the robots must also be able to accommodate different agricultural implements, which should attach to or connect to (respectively, detach or disconnect from) the robots automatically.
Although conventional tractors are proven and highly reliable machines, they lack some adaptability features. Tractors have normally fixed distances between wheels, which makes them unsuitable for working on crops with different distances between rows. Using mobile platforms capable of controlling the distance between wheels could alleviate this problem, allowing the machines to adapt to different crops under different situations.
Maneuverability: Robots must be capable of performing small radius turns while adapting to different terrain. This last feature requires independent vertical control of wheels with respect to the robot’s body.
A steering system capable of zero-radius turns would be a proper solution, and this feature can be implemented by different structures as discussed in the previous section. Thus, minimization of headlands and wheel distance control can be achieved using either conventional or new articulated structures. Among the conventional structures, the skid steering scheme based on wheels or tracks is capable of zero-radius turns without additional steering mechanism, which helps in minimizing the headlands. However, separating and controlling the distance between contralateral wheels/tracks requires an active system (which already exists for some tracked vehicles used in the building industry).
Mobile platform structures based on coordinated or independent steering schemes can achieve zero-radius turns, but they still lack intrinsic track width control and require additional mechanisms. Another structure is the wheel-legged mechanism. Legged robots exhibit high terrain adaptability on irregular ground, but wheeled robots have speed advantages on smooth terrain; that is, they complement each other. Therefore, the most complete wheel-legged mechanism (Figure 6a) is a leg with three degrees of freedom [38] with an active wheel as a foot, where the wheel is steered and driven separately. This is a disruptive design not verified yet that will provide extraordinary characteristics to robots for smart farm applications. Thus, the wheels drive and steer, while the legs provide track-width control and terrain adaptation, i.e., they control the robot’s body leveling and ground clearance. This is the most capable system regarding ground clearance and body pose control, but it comes at the cost of higher mechanical complexity. Nevertheless, intermediate solutions can be developed to reduce the number of actuators while maintaining appropriate robot characteristics. Table 4 summarizes different wheel-legged theoretical solutions indicating advantages and shortcomings, and Figure 5 shows some sketches of practical solutions.
Resilience: Resilience is the ability to recover from malfunctions or errors. Initializing complex robots is a time-consuming procedure, especially when several robots are collaborating on the same task. Agricultural mobile robots must be resilient enough to ensure profitability. Thus, they must be easily shut down and started up (essential for error recovery); moreover, they must facilitate changing between manual operation mode and autonomous operation mode and vice versa.
Efficiency: UGV should be more efficient than conventional, manned solutions. This can be accomplished by systems that:
Minimize energy consumption by optimizing the robot trajectories during the mission
Drastically reduce the use of herbicides and fertilizers by using intelligent detection systems, tools, and decision-making algorithms
Eliminate the need for a driver and minimize operator risk
Minimize unnecessary crop damage and soil compaction
Friendly human-machine interfaces (HMI): A friendly interface is required to facilitate the introduction of robots into agriculture and to achieve profitability. Intuitive, reliable, comfortable, and safe HMIs are essential for farmers to accept robotic systems. The HMIs should be implementable on devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Communications: Communications in the smart farm must capitalize on CPS and IoT to collect sufficient data to take advantage of the big data techniques and enable communication with the cloud for use via different services (software as a service, platform as a service, and infrastructure as a service) offered by cloud providers [41].
Wireless communications with the operator and/or a central controller for control commands and data exchanges, including images and real-time video, will be required. Wireless communication among robots will also be required for coordination and collaboration.
Standardization of mechanical and electrical/electronic interfaces: Commercial equipment must comply with well-defined standards and homologous procedures before adoption by industry. Subsystems such as LIDAR units, computers, and wireless or Internet communication (4G/5G) devices and GNNS receivers and antennas are already off-the-shelf components, but mobile platforms must also cope with some standards related to agricultural machinery [25, 42].
Safety: Safety systems for agricultural robots must focus on three stages: (i) safety to humans, (ii) safety to crops, and (iii) safety to the robots themselves.
Safety for humans and robots can usually be accomplished through a combination of computer vision, LIDAR, and proximity sensors to infer dangerous situations and halt robot motion, whereas safety to crops is achieved through precise steering that guides the robot to follow the crop rows accurately using the crop position acquired at seeding time or real-time crop-detection systems. Following these three stages, a step forward in safety for agricultural robots would be the integration of a two-level safety system relying on the following:
A low-level safety system that detects short-range obstacles with the purpose of avoiding imminent collisions. This level should be implemented within the robot controller and based on commercial components.
A high-level safety system that detects and discriminates obstacles at an adequate distance to allow the robotic system to make decisions (i.e., re-planning a trajectory). This level should include vision, infrared, and hyperspectral cameras that provide information about the surroundings. Optical flow methods should be applied to detect obstacles in motion and compute their speed and direction to predict potential collisions [43]. Hence, optical sensors should track obstacles and their movements, dynamically compute safe zones, and adjust a robot’s speed and direction of movement according to the given situation.
Regardless of the exact approach, standards on safety machinery must be taken into consideration [42] to ensure that systems will meet regulations and will be able to achieve certification.
Environmentally friendly impact: Both intervention mechanisms (implements) and mobile robots must be environmentally friendly (e.g., use fewer chemicals and cause less soil compaction) while improving the efficiency of the agricultural processes (i.e., reduce chemical costs while equaling or improving production). In addition, current agricultural vehicles use fossil fuels that emit large amounts of pollutants into the air such as carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxide (NOX), carbon monoxide (CO), and hydrocarbon (HC) [44]. Furthermore, fuel can be spilled onto the ground, which is a long-term pollutant. These elements alter the environment and damage the ecosystem. One possible solution—envisaged as the likely future solution—is the use of electric vehicles.
Implements: The use of the conventional three-point hitch to attach implements to tractors should be changed as robots are introduced into agriculture. Instead, implements should be aligned with the robot’s center of gravity to optimize the payload distribution and minimize compaction. Mechanical attachment and electrical connection to the implement should be automated. The definition of these types of interfaces is a pending issue; nevertheless, an intermediate solution allowing the use of both new and conventional attachment devices (three-point hitch) will facilitate the gradual introduction of robotic systems into the agricultural sector. Obviously, developing new robots and adapting existing implements to a new attachment/connection system is the only way to introduce the robots to real applications.
HMI: An HMI for operators to communicate with robots should be implementable on portable equipment (smartphones, tablets, etc.). Operators will use such devices to send commands and receive responses and data. Moreover, an additional device—an emergency button that works using radio signals—must be provided to stop the robots from malfunctioning or unsafe situations. These interfaces must be true user-friendly devices to be operated by farmers rather than by engineers, which is a vital aspect for the introduction of robotics into agriculture, as it is for industry and services.
Autonomy: Two basic types of autonomies will be needed in smart farms: behavioral autonomy and operational autonomy. Behavioral autonomy is primarily associated with autonomous robots and relies on artificial intelligence techniques. It refers to the robot’s ability to deal with uncertainty in its environment to accomplish a mission. Operational autonomy is associated with the tasks the robot has to accomplish autonomously to become a UGV, i.e., the tasks required for the robot to work continuously without human intervention: refueling or recharging (energetic autonomy, see Table 5), herbicide/pesticide refilling, implement attaching, and crop offloading. These tasks, which can be solved using current automatic techniques, are currently being done with human intervention and should be fully automated in the smart farms.
Based on the existing agricultural vehicles and robot prototypes, robots to be deployed in smart farms should meet also the characteristics presented in Table 5.
The world population is increasing rapidly, causing a demand for more efficient production processes that must be both safe and respect the ecosystem. Industry has already planned to meet production challenges in the coming decades by defining the concept of the smart factory; the agriculture sector should follow a similar path to design the concept of the smart farm: a system capable of optimizing its performance across a wide network, learning from new conditions in real time and adapting the system to them and executing the complete production process in an autonomous manner. Smart factory and smart farm concepts have many commonalities and include some common solutions, but some specific aspects of smart farms should be studied separately. For example, the design of UGVs for outdoor tasks in agriculture (field robots) presents specific characteristics worthy of explicit efforts.
This chapter focused on reviewing the past and present developments of UGVs for agriculture and anticipated some characteristics that these robots should feature for fulfilling the requirements of smart farms. To this end, this chapter presented and criticized two trends in building UGVs for smart farms based on (i) commercial vehicles and (ii) mobile platforms designed on purpose. The former has been useful for evaluating the advantages of UGV in agriculture, but the latter offers additional benefits such as increased maneuverability, better adaptability to crops, and improved adaptability to the terrain. Clearly, independent-steering and skid-steering systems provide the best maneuverability, but depending on their complexity, wheel-legged structures can provide similar maneuverability and improved adaptability to crops and terrain as well as increased stability on sloped terrain. For example, the 4-DOF articulated wheeled leg (Figure 5a) and the 3-DOF SCARA leg (Figure 5b and 6a) exhibit the best features at the cost of being the most complex. Note that although both structures have the same maneuverability features and adaptability to crops and terrain (ground clearance, body leveling, etc.), the 3-DOF SCARA leg involves one fewer motor per leg, which decreases the price and weight and improves the reliability of the robot. However, the 2-DOF SCARA leg also exhibits useful features regarding maneuverability, adaptability to crops, and adaptability to terrain (ground clearance control and body leveling) while using fewer actuators (Figure 5c and 6b). For agricultural tasks carried out on flat terrain, the 1-DOF leg with a 2-DOF wheeled foot provides sufficient maneuverability and adaptability to crops with very few actuators (leg structure as in Figure 5d).
However, these robots also require some additional features to meet the needs of the smart farm concept, such as the following:
Flexibility to work on very dissimilar scenarios and tasks.
Maneuverability to perform zero-radius turns, crab motion, etc.
Resilience to recover itself from malfunctions.
Efficiency in the minimization of pesticide and energy usage.
Intuitive, reliable, comfortable, and safe HMIs attractive to nonrobotic experts to ease the introduction of robotic systems in agriculture.
Wireless communications to communicate commands and data among the robots, the operator, and external servers for enabling CPSs, IoT, and cloud computing techniques to support services through the Internet.
Safety systems to ensure safe operations to humans, crops, and robots.
Environmental impact by reducing chemicals in the ground and pollutants into the air.
Standards: operational robots have to meet the requirements and specifications of the standards in force for agricultural vehicles.
Implement usage: although specific onboard implements for UGV are appearing, the capability of also using conventional implements will help in the acceptation of new technologies by farmers and, hence, the introduction of new-generation robotic systems.
Autonomy: both behavioral autonomy and operation autonomy. Regarding power supplies, automobiles worldwide will likely be electric vehicles powered by batteries within the next few decades; thus, agricultural vehicles should embrace the same solution.
Regardless of these characteristics, UGVs for smart farms have to fulfill the requirements of multi-robot systems, which is a fast-growing trend [22, 40, 46]. Multi-robot systems based on small-/medium-sized robots can accomplish the same work as a large machine, but with better positioning accuracy, greater fault tolerance, and lighter weights, thus reducing soil compaction and improving safety. Moreover, they can support mission coordination and reconfiguration. These capabilities position small/medium multi-robot systems as prime future candidates for outdoor UGVs in agriculture. Additionally, UGVs for smart farms should exhibit some quantitative physical characteristics founded on past developments and current studies that are summarized in Table 5.
Finally, autonomous robots of any type, working in fleets or alone, are essential for the precision application of herbicides and fertilizers. These activities reduce the use of chemicals generating important benefits: (i) a decrease in the cost of chemical usage, which impacts in the system productivity; (ii) an improvement in safety for operators, who are moved far from the vehicles; (iii) better health for the people around the fields, who are not exposed to the effects of chemical; and (iii) improved quality of foods that will reduce the content of toxic products.
The research leading to these results has received funding from (i) RoboCity2030-DIH-CM Madrid Robotics Digital Innovation Hub (“Robótica aplicada a la mejora de la calidad de vida de los ciudadanos. fase IV”; S2018/NMT-4331), funded by “Programas de Actividades I+D en la Comunidad de Madrid” and cofunded by Structural Funds of the EU; (ii) the Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) under the BMCrop project, Ref. 201750E089; and (iii) the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness under Grant DPI2017-84253-C2-1-R.
As a company committed to the wider dissemination of knowledge, IntechOpen supports the OAI Metadata Harvesting Protocol (OAI-PMH Version 2.0).
',metaTitle:"OAI-PMH",metaDescription:"As a firm believer in the wider dissemination of knowledge, IntechOpen supports the OAI Metadata Harvesting Protocol (OAI-PMH Version 2.0).",metaKeywords:null,canonicalURL:"/page/oai-pmh",contentRaw:'[{"type":"htmlEditorComponent","content":"The OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) is used to govern the collection of metadata descriptions and enables other archives to access our database. The Protocol has been developed by the Open Archives Initiative, based on ensuring interoperability standards in order to ease and promote broader and more efficient dissemination of information within the scientific community.
\\n\\nWe have adopted the Protocol to increase the number of readers of our publications. All our Works are more widely accessible, with resulting benefits for scholars, researchers, students, libraries, universities and other academic institutions. Through this method of exposing metadata, IntechOpen enables citation indexes, scientific search engines, scholarly databases, and scientific literature collections to gather metadata from our repository and make our publications available to a broader academic audience.
\\n\\nAs a Data Provider, metadata for published Chapters and Journal Articles are available via our interface at the base URL:http://www.intechopen.com/oai/?.
\\n\\nREQUESTS
\\n\\nYou can find out more about the Protocol by visiting the Open Archives website. For additional questions please contact us at info@intechopen.com.
\\n\\nDATABASES
\\n\\nDatabases, repositories and search engines that provide services based on metadata harvested using the OAI metadata harvesting protocol include:
\\n\\nBASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine
\\n\\nOne of the world's most powerful search engines, used primarily for academic Open Access web resources.
\\n\\n\\n\\nA search engine for online catalogues of publications from all over the world.
\\n"}]'},components:[{type:"htmlEditorComponent",content:'The OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) is used to govern the collection of metadata descriptions and enables other archives to access our database. The Protocol has been developed by the Open Archives Initiative, based on ensuring interoperability standards in order to ease and promote broader and more efficient dissemination of information within the scientific community.
\n\nWe have adopted the Protocol to increase the number of readers of our publications. All our Works are more widely accessible, with resulting benefits for scholars, researchers, students, libraries, universities and other academic institutions. Through this method of exposing metadata, IntechOpen enables citation indexes, scientific search engines, scholarly databases, and scientific literature collections to gather metadata from our repository and make our publications available to a broader academic audience.
\n\nAs a Data Provider, metadata for published Chapters and Journal Articles are available via our interface at the base URL:http://www.intechopen.com/oai/?.
\n\nREQUESTS
\n\nYou can find out more about the Protocol by visiting the Open Archives website. For additional questions please contact us at info@intechopen.com.
\n\nDATABASES
\n\nDatabases, repositories and search engines that provide services based on metadata harvested using the OAI metadata harvesting protocol include:
\n\nBASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine
\n\nOne of the world's most powerful search engines, used primarily for academic Open Access web resources.
\n\n\n\nA search engine for online catalogues of publications from all over the world.
\n'}]},successStories:{items:[]},authorsAndEditors:{filterParams:{sort:"featured,name"},profiles:[{id:"6700",title:"Dr.",name:"Abbass A.",middleName:null,surname:"Hashim",slug:"abbass-a.-hashim",fullName:"Abbass A. Hashim",position:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/6700/images/1864_n.jpg",biography:"Currently I am carrying out research in several areas of interest, mainly covering work on chemical and bio-sensors, semiconductor thin film device fabrication and characterisation.\nAt the moment I have very strong interest in radiation environmental pollution and bacteriology treatment. The teams of researchers are working very hard to bring novel results in this field. I am also a member of the team in charge for the supervision of Ph.D. students in the fields of development of silicon based planar waveguide sensor devices, study of inelastic electron tunnelling in planar tunnelling nanostructures for sensing applications and development of organotellurium(IV) compounds for semiconductor applications. I am a specialist in data analysis techniques and nanosurface structure. I have served as the editor for many books, been a member of the editorial board in science journals, have published many papers and hold many patents.",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Sheffield Hallam University",country:{name:"United Kingdom"}}},{id:"54525",title:"Prof.",name:"Abdul Latif",middleName:null,surname:"Ahmad",slug:"abdul-latif-ahmad",fullName:"Abdul Latif Ahmad",position:null,profilePictureURL:"//cdnintech.com/web/frontend/www/assets/author.svg",biography:null,institutionString:null,institution:null},{id:"20567",title:"Prof.",name:"Ado",middleName:null,surname:"Jorio",slug:"ado-jorio",fullName:"Ado Jorio",position:null,profilePictureURL:"//cdnintech.com/web/frontend/www/assets/author.svg",biography:null,institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais",country:{name:"Brazil"}}},{id:"47940",title:"Dr.",name:"Alberto",middleName:null,surname:"Mantovani",slug:"alberto-mantovani",fullName:"Alberto Mantovani",position:null,profilePictureURL:"//cdnintech.com/web/frontend/www/assets/author.svg",biography:null,institutionString:null,institution:null},{id:"12392",title:"Mr.",name:"Alex",middleName:null,surname:"Lazinica",slug:"alex-lazinica",fullName:"Alex Lazinica",position:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/12392/images/7282_n.png",biography:"Alex Lazinica is the founder and CEO of IntechOpen. After obtaining a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, he continued his PhD studies in Robotics at the Vienna University of Technology. Here he worked as a robotic researcher with the university's Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Group as well as a guest researcher at various European universities, including the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). During this time he published more than 20 scientific papers, gave presentations, served as a reviewer for major robotic journals and conferences and most importantly he co-founded and built the International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems- world's first Open Access journal in the field of robotics. Starting this journal was a pivotal point in his career, since it was a pathway to founding IntechOpen - Open Access publisher focused on addressing academic researchers needs. Alex is a personification of IntechOpen key values being trusted, open and entrepreneurial. Today his focus is on defining the growth and development strategy for the company.",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"TU Wien",country:{name:"Austria"}}},{id:"19816",title:"Prof.",name:"Alexander",middleName:null,surname:"Kokorin",slug:"alexander-kokorin",fullName:"Alexander Kokorin",position:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/19816/images/1607_n.jpg",biography:"Alexander I. Kokorin: born: 1947, Moscow; DSc., PhD; Principal Research Fellow (Research Professor) of Department of Kinetics and Catalysis, N. Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow.\r\nArea of research interests: physical chemistry of complex-organized molecular and nanosized systems, including polymer-metal complexes; the surface of doped oxide semiconductors. He is an expert in structural, absorptive, catalytic and photocatalytic properties, in structural organization and dynamic features of ionic liquids, in magnetic interactions between paramagnetic centers. The author or co-author of 3 books, over 200 articles and reviews in scientific journals and books. He is an actual member of the International EPR/ESR Society, European Society on Quantum Solar Energy Conversion, Moscow House of Scientists, of the Board of Moscow Physical Society.",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics",country:{name:"Russia"}}},{id:"62389",title:"PhD.",name:"Ali Demir",middleName:null,surname:"Sezer",slug:"ali-demir-sezer",fullName:"Ali Demir Sezer",position:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/62389/images/3413_n.jpg",biography:"Dr. Ali Demir Sezer has a Ph.D. from Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Marmara (Turkey). He is the member of many Pharmaceutical Associations and acts as a reviewer of scientific journals and European projects under different research areas such as: drug delivery systems, nanotechnology and pharmaceutical biotechnology. Dr. Sezer is the author of many scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and poster communications. Focus of his research activity is drug delivery, physico-chemical characterization and biological evaluation of biopolymers micro and nanoparticles as modified drug delivery system, and colloidal drug carriers (liposomes, nanoparticles etc.).",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Marmara University",country:{name:"Turkey"}}},{id:"61051",title:"Prof.",name:"Andrea",middleName:null,surname:"Natale",slug:"andrea-natale",fullName:"Andrea Natale",position:null,profilePictureURL:"//cdnintech.com/web/frontend/www/assets/author.svg",biography:null,institutionString:null,institution:null},{id:"100762",title:"Prof.",name:"Andrea",middleName:null,surname:"Natale",slug:"andrea-natale",fullName:"Andrea Natale",position:null,profilePictureURL:"//cdnintech.com/web/frontend/www/assets/author.svg",biography:null,institutionString:null,institution:{name:"St David's Medical Center",country:{name:"United States of America"}}},{id:"107416",title:"Dr.",name:"Andrea",middleName:null,surname:"Natale",slug:"andrea-natale",fullName:"Andrea Natale",position:null,profilePictureURL:"//cdnintech.com/web/frontend/www/assets/author.svg",biography:null,institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia",country:{name:"United States of America"}}},{id:"64434",title:"Dr.",name:"Angkoon",middleName:null,surname:"Phinyomark",slug:"angkoon-phinyomark",fullName:"Angkoon Phinyomark",position:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/64434/images/2619_n.jpg",biography:"My name is Angkoon Phinyomark. I received a B.Eng. degree in Computer Engineering with First Class Honors in 2008 from Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand, where I received a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering. My research interests are primarily in the area of biomedical signal processing and classification notably EMG (electromyography signal), EOG (electrooculography signal), and EEG (electroencephalography signal), image analysis notably breast cancer analysis and optical coherence tomography, and rehabilitation engineering. I became a student member of IEEE in 2008. During October 2011-March 2012, I had worked at School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex, Colchester, Essex, United Kingdom. In addition, during a B.Eng. I had been a visiting research student at Faculty of Computer Science, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain for three months.\n\nI have published over 40 papers during 5 years in refereed journals, books, and conference proceedings in the areas of electro-physiological signals processing and classification, notably EMG and EOG signals, fractal analysis, wavelet analysis, texture analysis, feature extraction and machine learning algorithms, and assistive and rehabilitative devices. I have several computer programming language certificates, i.e. Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform 1.4 (SCJP), Microsoft Certified Professional Developer, Web Developer (MCPD), Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist, .NET Framework 2.0 Web (MCTS). I am a Reviewer for several refereed journals and international conferences, such as IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Optic Letters, Measurement Science Review, and also a member of the International Advisory Committee for 2012 IEEE Business Engineering and Industrial Applications and 2012 IEEE Symposium on Business, Engineering and Industrial Applications.",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Joseph Fourier University",country:{name:"France"}}},{id:"55578",title:"Dr.",name:"Antonio",middleName:null,surname:"Jurado-Navas",slug:"antonio-jurado-navas",fullName:"Antonio Jurado-Navas",position:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/55578/images/4574_n.png",biography:"Antonio Jurado-Navas received the M.S. degree (2002) and the Ph.D. degree (2009) in Telecommunication Engineering, both from the University of Málaga (Spain). He first worked as a consultant at Vodafone-Spain. From 2004 to 2011, he was a Research Assistant with the Communications Engineering Department at the University of Málaga. In 2011, he became an Assistant Professor in the same department. From 2012 to 2015, he was with Ericsson Spain, where he was working on geo-location\ntools for third generation mobile networks. Since 2015, he is a Marie-Curie fellow at the Denmark Technical University. His current research interests include the areas of mobile communication systems and channel modeling in addition to atmospheric optical communications, adaptive optics and statistics",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"University of Malaga",country:{name:"Spain"}}}],filtersByRegion:[{group:"region",caption:"North America",value:1,count:5766},{group:"region",caption:"Middle and South America",value:2,count:5227},{group:"region",caption:"Africa",value:3,count:1717},{group:"region",caption:"Asia",value:4,count:10366},{group:"region",caption:"Australia and Oceania",value:5,count:897},{group:"region",caption:"Europe",value:6,count:15789}],offset:12,limit:12,total:118187},chapterEmbeded:{data:{}},editorApplication:{success:null,errors:{}},ofsBooks:{filterParams:{topicId:"23"},books:[{type:"book",id:"10656",title:"Intellectual Property",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"135df9b403b125a6458eba971faab3f6",slug:null,bookSignature:"Dr. Sakthivel Lakshmana Prabu and Dr. Suriyaprakash TNK",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10656.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:[{id:"91590",title:"Dr.",name:"Sakthivel",surname:"Lakshmana Prabu",slug:"sakthivel-lakshmana-prabu",fullName:"Sakthivel Lakshmana Prabu"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10658",title:"Multilingualism",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"a6bf171e05831c00f8687891ab1b10b5",slug:null,bookSignature:"Prof. Xiaoming Jiang",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10658.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:[{id:"189844",title:"Prof.",name:"Xiaoming",surname:"Jiang",slug:"xiaoming-jiang",fullName:"Xiaoming Jiang"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10662",title:"Pedagogy",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"c858e1c6fb878d3b895acbacec624576",slug:null,bookSignature:"",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10662.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10913",title:"Indigenous Populations",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"c5e8cd4e3ec004d0479494ca190db4cb",slug:null,bookSignature:"",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10913.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10914",title:"Racism",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"0737383fcc202641f59e4a5df02eb509",slug:null,bookSignature:"",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10914.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}}],filtersByTopic:[{group:"topic",caption:"Agricultural and Biological Sciences",value:5,count:14},{group:"topic",caption:"Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology",value:6,count:3},{group:"topic",caption:"Business, Management and Economics",value:7,count:1},{group:"topic",caption:"Chemistry",value:8,count:6},{group:"topic",caption:"Computer and Information Science",value:9,count:6},{group:"topic",caption:"Earth and Planetary Sciences",value:10,count:7},{group:"topic",caption:"Engineering",value:11,count:15},{group:"topic",caption:"Environmental Sciences",value:12,count:2},{group:"topic",caption:"Immunology and Microbiology",value:13,count:3},{group:"topic",caption:"Materials Science",value:14,count:5},{group:"topic",caption:"Mathematics",value:15,count:1},{group:"topic",caption:"Medicine",value:16,count:24},{group:"topic",caption:"Neuroscience",value:18,count:1},{group:"topic",caption:"Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science",value:19,count:2},{group:"topic",caption:"Physics",value:20,count:2},{group:"topic",caption:"Psychology",value:21,count:4},{group:"topic",caption:"Social Sciences",value:23,count:2},{group:"topic",caption:"Technology",value:24,count:1},{group:"topic",caption:"Veterinary Medicine and Science",value:25,count:1}],offset:12,limit:12,total:5},popularBooks:{featuredBooks:[{type:"book",id:"9385",title:"Renewable Energy",subtitle:"Technologies and Applications",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"a6b446d19166f17f313008e6c056f3d8",slug:"renewable-energy-technologies-and-applications",bookSignature:"Tolga Taner, Archana Tiwari and Taha Selim Ustun",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9385.jpg",editors:[{id:"197240",title:"Associate Prof.",name:"Tolga",middleName:null,surname:"Taner",slug:"tolga-taner",fullName:"Tolga Taner"}],equalEditorOne:{id:"186791",title:"Dr.",name:"Archana",middleName:null,surname:"Tiwari",slug:"archana-tiwari",fullName:"Archana Tiwari",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/186791/images/system/186791.jpg",biography:"Dr. Archana Tiwari is Associate Professor at Amity University, India. Her research interests include renewable sources of energy from microalgae and further utilizing the residual biomass for the generation of value-added products, bioremediation through microalgae and microbial consortium, antioxidative enzymes and stress, and nutraceuticals from microalgae. She has been working on algal biotechnology for the last two decades. She has published her research in many international journals and has authored many books and chapters with renowned publishing houses. She has also delivered talks as an invited speaker at many national and international conferences. Dr. Tiwari is the recipient of several awards including Researcher of the Year and Distinguished Scientist.",institutionString:"Amity University",position:null,outsideEditionCount:0,totalCites:0,totalAuthoredChapters:"3",totalChapterViews:"0",totalEditedBooks:"1",institution:{name:"Amity University",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"India"}}},equalEditorTwo:{id:"197609",title:"Prof.",name:"Taha Selim",middleName:null,surname:"Ustun",slug:"taha-selim-ustun",fullName:"Taha Selim Ustun",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/197609/images/system/197609.jpeg",biography:"Dr. Taha Selim Ustun received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. He is a researcher with the Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute, AIST (FREA), where he leads the Smart Grid Cybersecurity Laboratory. Prior to that, he was a faculty member with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. His current research interests include power systems protection, communication in power networks, distributed generation, microgrids, electric vehicle integration, and cybersecurity in smart grids. He serves on the editorial boards of IEEE Access, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, Energies, Electronics, Electricity, World Electric Vehicle and Information journals. Dr. Ustun is a member of the IEEE 2004 and 2800, IEC Renewable Energy Management WG 8, and IEC TC 57 WG17. He has been invited to run specialist courses in Africa, India, and China. He has delivered talks for the Qatar Foundation, the World Energy Council, the Waterloo Global Science Initiative, and the European Union Energy Initiative (EUEI). His research has attracted funding from prestigious programs in Japan, Australia, the European Union, and North America.",institutionString:"Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute, AIST (FREA)",position:null,outsideEditionCount:0,totalCites:0,totalAuthoredChapters:"1",totalChapterViews:"0",totalEditedBooks:"0",institution:{name:"National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"Japan"}}},equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"8985",title:"Natural Resources Management and Biological Sciences",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"5c2e219a6c021a40b5a20c041dea88c4",slug:"natural-resources-management-and-biological-sciences",bookSignature:"Edward R. Rhodes and Humood Naser",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8985.jpg",editors:[{id:"280886",title:"Prof.",name:"Edward R",middleName:null,surname:"Rhodes",slug:"edward-r-rhodes",fullName:"Edward R Rhodes"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9027",title:"Human Blood Group Systems and Haemoglobinopathies",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"d00d8e40b11cfb2547d1122866531c7e",slug:"human-blood-group-systems-and-haemoglobinopathies",bookSignature:"Osaro Erhabor and Anjana Munshi",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9027.jpg",editors:[{id:"35140",title:null,name:"Osaro",middleName:null,surname:"Erhabor",slug:"osaro-erhabor",fullName:"Osaro Erhabor"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"7841",title:"New Insights Into Metabolic Syndrome",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ef5accfac9772b9e2c9eff884f085510",slug:"new-insights-into-metabolic-syndrome",bookSignature:"Akikazu Takada",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7841.jpg",editors:[{id:"248459",title:"Dr.",name:"Akikazu",middleName:null,surname:"Takada",slug:"akikazu-takada",fullName:"Akikazu Takada"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"8558",title:"Aerodynamics",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"db7263fc198dfb539073ba0260a7f1aa",slug:"aerodynamics",bookSignature:"Mofid Gorji-Bandpy and Aly-Mousaad Aly",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8558.jpg",editors:[{id:"35542",title:"Prof.",name:"Mofid",middleName:null,surname:"Gorji-Bandpy",slug:"mofid-gorji-bandpy",fullName:"Mofid Gorji-Bandpy"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9668",title:"Chemistry and Biochemistry of Winemaking, Wine Stabilization and Aging",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"c5484276a314628acf21ec1bdc3a86b9",slug:"chemistry-and-biochemistry-of-winemaking-wine-stabilization-and-aging",bookSignature:"Fernanda Cosme, Fernando M. Nunes and Luís Filipe-Ribeiro",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9668.jpg",editors:[{id:"186819",title:"Prof.",name:"Fernanda",middleName:null,surname:"Cosme",slug:"fernanda-cosme",fullName:"Fernanda Cosme"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"7847",title:"Medical Toxicology",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"db9b65bea093de17a0855a1b27046247",slug:"medical-toxicology",bookSignature:"Pınar Erkekoglu and Tomohisa Ogawa",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7847.jpg",editors:[{id:"109978",title:"Prof.",name:"Pınar",middleName:null,surname:"Erkekoglu",slug:"pinar-erkekoglu",fullName:"Pınar Erkekoglu"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"8620",title:"Mining Techniques",subtitle:"Past, Present and Future",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"b65658f81d14e9e57e49377869d3a575",slug:"mining-techniques-past-present-and-future",bookSignature:"Abhay Soni",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8620.jpg",editors:[{id:"271093",title:"Dr.",name:"Abhay",middleName:null,surname:"Soni",slug:"abhay-soni",fullName:"Abhay Soni"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9660",title:"Inland Waters",subtitle:"Dynamics and Ecology",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"975c26819ceb11a926793bc2adc62bd6",slug:"inland-waters-dynamics-and-ecology",bookSignature:"Adam Devlin, Jiayi Pan and Mohammad Manjur Shah",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9660.jpg",editors:[{id:"280757",title:"Dr.",name:"Adam",middleName:"Thomas",surname:"Devlin",slug:"adam-devlin",fullName:"Adam Devlin"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9122",title:"Cosmetic Surgery",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"207026ca4a4125e17038e770d00ee152",slug:"cosmetic-surgery",bookSignature:"Yueh-Bih Tang",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9122.jpg",editors:[{id:"202122",title:"Prof.",name:"Yueh-Bih",middleName:null,surname:"Tang",slug:"yueh-bih-tang",fullName:"Yueh-Bih Tang"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9043",title:"Parenting",subtitle:"Studies by an Ecocultural and Transactional Perspective",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"6d21066c7438e459e4c6fb13217a5c8c",slug:"parenting-studies-by-an-ecocultural-and-transactional-perspective",bookSignature:"Loredana Benedetto and Massimo Ingrassia",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9043.jpg",editors:[{id:"193200",title:"Prof.",name:"Loredana",middleName:null,surname:"Benedetto",slug:"loredana-benedetto",fullName:"Loredana Benedetto"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9731",title:"Oxidoreductase",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"852e6f862c85fc3adecdbaf822e64e6e",slug:"oxidoreductase",bookSignature:"Mahmoud Ahmed Mansour",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9731.jpg",editors:[{id:"224662",title:"Prof.",name:"Mahmoud Ahmed",middleName:null,surname:"Mansour",slug:"mahmoud-ahmed-mansour",fullName:"Mahmoud Ahmed Mansour"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}}],offset:12,limit:12,total:5227},hotBookTopics:{hotBooks:[],offset:0,limit:12,total:null},publish:{},publishingProposal:{success:null,errors:{}},books:{featuredBooks:[{type:"book",id:"9385",title:"Renewable Energy",subtitle:"Technologies and Applications",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"a6b446d19166f17f313008e6c056f3d8",slug:"renewable-energy-technologies-and-applications",bookSignature:"Tolga Taner, Archana Tiwari and Taha Selim Ustun",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9385.jpg",editors:[{id:"197240",title:"Associate Prof.",name:"Tolga",middleName:null,surname:"Taner",slug:"tolga-taner",fullName:"Tolga Taner"}],equalEditorOne:{id:"186791",title:"Dr.",name:"Archana",middleName:null,surname:"Tiwari",slug:"archana-tiwari",fullName:"Archana Tiwari",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/186791/images/system/186791.jpg",biography:"Dr. Archana Tiwari is Associate Professor at Amity University, India. Her research interests include renewable sources of energy from microalgae and further utilizing the residual biomass for the generation of value-added products, bioremediation through microalgae and microbial consortium, antioxidative enzymes and stress, and nutraceuticals from microalgae. She has been working on algal biotechnology for the last two decades. She has published her research in many international journals and has authored many books and chapters with renowned publishing houses. She has also delivered talks as an invited speaker at many national and international conferences. Dr. Tiwari is the recipient of several awards including Researcher of the Year and Distinguished Scientist.",institutionString:"Amity University",position:null,outsideEditionCount:0,totalCites:0,totalAuthoredChapters:"3",totalChapterViews:"0",totalEditedBooks:"1",institution:{name:"Amity University",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"India"}}},equalEditorTwo:{id:"197609",title:"Prof.",name:"Taha Selim",middleName:null,surname:"Ustun",slug:"taha-selim-ustun",fullName:"Taha Selim Ustun",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/197609/images/system/197609.jpeg",biography:"Dr. Taha Selim Ustun received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. He is a researcher with the Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute, AIST (FREA), where he leads the Smart Grid Cybersecurity Laboratory. Prior to that, he was a faculty member with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. His current research interests include power systems protection, communication in power networks, distributed generation, microgrids, electric vehicle integration, and cybersecurity in smart grids. He serves on the editorial boards of IEEE Access, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, Energies, Electronics, Electricity, World Electric Vehicle and Information journals. Dr. Ustun is a member of the IEEE 2004 and 2800, IEC Renewable Energy Management WG 8, and IEC TC 57 WG17. He has been invited to run specialist courses in Africa, India, and China. He has delivered talks for the Qatar Foundation, the World Energy Council, the Waterloo Global Science Initiative, and the European Union Energy Initiative (EUEI). His research has attracted funding from prestigious programs in Japan, Australia, the European Union, and North America.",institutionString:"Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute, AIST (FREA)",position:null,outsideEditionCount:0,totalCites:0,totalAuthoredChapters:"1",totalChapterViews:"0",totalEditedBooks:"0",institution:{name:"National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"Japan"}}},equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"8985",title:"Natural Resources Management and Biological Sciences",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"5c2e219a6c021a40b5a20c041dea88c4",slug:"natural-resources-management-and-biological-sciences",bookSignature:"Edward R. Rhodes and Humood Naser",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8985.jpg",editors:[{id:"280886",title:"Prof.",name:"Edward R",middleName:null,surname:"Rhodes",slug:"edward-r-rhodes",fullName:"Edward R Rhodes"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9027",title:"Human Blood Group Systems and Haemoglobinopathies",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"d00d8e40b11cfb2547d1122866531c7e",slug:"human-blood-group-systems-and-haemoglobinopathies",bookSignature:"Osaro Erhabor and Anjana Munshi",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9027.jpg",editors:[{id:"35140",title:null,name:"Osaro",middleName:null,surname:"Erhabor",slug:"osaro-erhabor",fullName:"Osaro Erhabor"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"7841",title:"New Insights Into Metabolic Syndrome",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ef5accfac9772b9e2c9eff884f085510",slug:"new-insights-into-metabolic-syndrome",bookSignature:"Akikazu Takada",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7841.jpg",editors:[{id:"248459",title:"Dr.",name:"Akikazu",middleName:null,surname:"Takada",slug:"akikazu-takada",fullName:"Akikazu Takada"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"8558",title:"Aerodynamics",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"db7263fc198dfb539073ba0260a7f1aa",slug:"aerodynamics",bookSignature:"Mofid Gorji-Bandpy and Aly-Mousaad Aly",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8558.jpg",editors:[{id:"35542",title:"Prof.",name:"Mofid",middleName:null,surname:"Gorji-Bandpy",slug:"mofid-gorji-bandpy",fullName:"Mofid Gorji-Bandpy"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9668",title:"Chemistry and Biochemistry of Winemaking, Wine Stabilization and Aging",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"c5484276a314628acf21ec1bdc3a86b9",slug:"chemistry-and-biochemistry-of-winemaking-wine-stabilization-and-aging",bookSignature:"Fernanda Cosme, Fernando M. Nunes and Luís Filipe-Ribeiro",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9668.jpg",editors:[{id:"186819",title:"Prof.",name:"Fernanda",middleName:null,surname:"Cosme",slug:"fernanda-cosme",fullName:"Fernanda Cosme"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"7847",title:"Medical Toxicology",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"db9b65bea093de17a0855a1b27046247",slug:"medical-toxicology",bookSignature:"Pınar Erkekoglu and Tomohisa Ogawa",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7847.jpg",editors:[{id:"109978",title:"Prof.",name:"Pınar",middleName:null,surname:"Erkekoglu",slug:"pinar-erkekoglu",fullName:"Pınar Erkekoglu"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"8620",title:"Mining Techniques",subtitle:"Past, Present and Future",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"b65658f81d14e9e57e49377869d3a575",slug:"mining-techniques-past-present-and-future",bookSignature:"Abhay Soni",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8620.jpg",editors:[{id:"271093",title:"Dr.",name:"Abhay",middleName:null,surname:"Soni",slug:"abhay-soni",fullName:"Abhay Soni"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9660",title:"Inland Waters",subtitle:"Dynamics and Ecology",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"975c26819ceb11a926793bc2adc62bd6",slug:"inland-waters-dynamics-and-ecology",bookSignature:"Adam Devlin, Jiayi Pan and Mohammad Manjur Shah",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9660.jpg",editors:[{id:"280757",title:"Dr.",name:"Adam",middleName:"Thomas",surname:"Devlin",slug:"adam-devlin",fullName:"Adam Devlin"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}},{type:"book",id:"9122",title:"Cosmetic Surgery",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"207026ca4a4125e17038e770d00ee152",slug:"cosmetic-surgery",bookSignature:"Yueh-Bih Tang",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9122.jpg",editors:[{id:"202122",title:"Prof.",name:"Yueh-Bih",middleName:null,surname:"Tang",slug:"yueh-bih-tang",fullName:"Yueh-Bih Tang"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}}],latestBooks:[{type:"book",id:"9550",title:"Entrepreneurship",subtitle:"Contemporary Issues",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"9b4ac1ee5b743abf6f88495452b1e5e7",slug:"entrepreneurship-contemporary-issues",bookSignature:"Mladen Turuk",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9550.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"319755",title:"Prof.",name:"Mladen",middleName:null,surname:"Turuk",slug:"mladen-turuk",fullName:"Mladen Turuk"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10065",title:"Wavelet Theory",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"d8868e332169597ba2182d9b004d60de",slug:"wavelet-theory",bookSignature:"Somayeh Mohammady",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10065.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"109280",title:"Dr.",name:"Somayeh",middleName:null,surname:"Mohammady",slug:"somayeh-mohammady",fullName:"Somayeh Mohammady"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9313",title:"Clay Science and Technology",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"6fa7e70396ff10620e032bb6cfa6fb72",slug:"clay-science-and-technology",bookSignature:"Gustavo Morari Do Nascimento",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9313.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"7153",title:"Prof.",name:"Gustavo",middleName:null,surname:"Morari Do Nascimento",slug:"gustavo-morari-do-nascimento",fullName:"Gustavo Morari Do Nascimento"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9888",title:"Nuclear Power Plants",subtitle:"The Processes from the Cradle to the Grave",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"c2c8773e586f62155ab8221ebb72a849",slug:"nuclear-power-plants-the-processes-from-the-cradle-to-the-grave",bookSignature:"Nasser Awwad",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9888.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"145209",title:"Prof.",name:"Nasser",middleName:"S",surname:"Awwad",slug:"nasser-awwad",fullName:"Nasser Awwad"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"8098",title:"Resources of Water",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"d251652996624d932ef7b8ed62cf7cfc",slug:"resources-of-water",bookSignature:"Prathna Thanjavur Chandrasekaran, Muhammad Salik Javaid, Aftab Sadiq",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8098.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"167917",title:"Dr.",name:"Prathna",middleName:null,surname:"Thanjavur Chandrasekaran",slug:"prathna-thanjavur-chandrasekaran",fullName:"Prathna Thanjavur Chandrasekaran"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9644",title:"Glaciers and the Polar Environment",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"e8cfdc161794e3753ced54e6ff30873b",slug:"glaciers-and-the-polar-environment",bookSignature:"Masaki Kanao, Danilo Godone and Niccolò Dematteis",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9644.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"51959",title:"Dr.",name:"Masaki",middleName:null,surname:"Kanao",slug:"masaki-kanao",fullName:"Masaki Kanao"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10432",title:"Casting Processes and Modelling of Metallic Materials",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"2c5c9df938666bf5d1797727db203a6d",slug:"casting-processes-and-modelling-of-metallic-materials",bookSignature:"Zakaria Abdallah and Nada Aldoumani",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10432.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"201670",title:"Dr.",name:"Zak",middleName:null,surname:"Abdallah",slug:"zak-abdallah",fullName:"Zak Abdallah"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9671",title:"Macrophages",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"03b00fdc5f24b71d1ecdfd75076bfde6",slug:"macrophages",bookSignature:"Hridayesh Prakash",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9671.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"287184",title:"Dr.",name:"Hridayesh",middleName:null,surname:"Prakash",slug:"hridayesh-prakash",fullName:"Hridayesh Prakash"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"8415",title:"Extremophilic Microbes and Metabolites",subtitle:"Diversity, Bioprospecting and Biotechnological Applications",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"93e0321bc93b89ff73730157738f8f97",slug:"extremophilic-microbes-and-metabolites-diversity-bioprospecting-and-biotechnological-applications",bookSignature:"Afef Najjari, Ameur Cherif, Haïtham Sghaier and Hadda Imene Ouzari",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8415.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"196823",title:"Dr.",name:"Afef",middleName:null,surname:"Najjari",slug:"afef-najjari",fullName:"Afef Najjari"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9731",title:"Oxidoreductase",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"852e6f862c85fc3adecdbaf822e64e6e",slug:"oxidoreductase",bookSignature:"Mahmoud Ahmed Mansour",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9731.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"224662",title:"Prof.",name:"Mahmoud Ahmed",middleName:null,surname:"Mansour",slug:"mahmoud-ahmed-mansour",fullName:"Mahmoud Ahmed Mansour"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}}]},subject:{topic:{id:"104",title:"Geology and Geophysics",slug:"geology-and-geophysics",parent:{title:"Earth and Planetary Sciences",slug:"earth-and-planetary-sciences"},numberOfBooks:62,numberOfAuthorsAndEditors:1325,numberOfWosCitations:1289,numberOfCrossrefCitations:854,numberOfDimensionsCitations:1942,videoUrl:null,fallbackUrl:null,description:null},booksByTopicFilter:{topicSlug:"geology-and-geophysics",sort:"-publishedDate",limit:12,offset:0},booksByTopicCollection:[{type:"book",id:"8620",title:"Mining Techniques",subtitle:"Past, Present and Future",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"b65658f81d14e9e57e49377869d3a575",slug:"mining-techniques-past-present-and-future",bookSignature:"Abhay Soni",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8620.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"271093",title:"Dr.",name:"Abhay",middleName:null,surname:"Soni",slug:"abhay-soni",fullName:"Abhay Soni"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"7747",title:"Isotopes Applications in Earth Sciences",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"a529383ebff555e89d4e3d39c7cf20f2",slug:"isotopes-applications-in-earth-sciences",bookSignature:"Rehab O. Abdel Rahman",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7747.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"92718",title:"Prof.",name:"Rehab",middleName:"O.",surname:"Abdel Rahman",slug:"rehab-abdel-rahman",fullName:"Rehab Abdel Rahman"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"9247",title:"Mineralogy",subtitle:"Significance and Applications",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"5149699e666cbb61c220646173769f18",slug:"mineralogy-significance-and-applications",bookSignature:"Ali Ismail Al-Juboury",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/9247.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"58570",title:"Prof.",name:"Ali",middleName:"Ismail",surname:"Al-Juboury",slug:"ali-al-juboury",fullName:"Ali Al-Juboury"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"7677",title:"Forecasting Volcanic Eruptions",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"5afd431dd1f4f5081355b017fd17f237",slug:"forecasting-volcanic-eruptions",bookSignature:"Angelo Paone and Sung-Hyo Yun",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7677.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"182871",title:"Prof.",name:"Angelo",middleName:null,surname:"Paone",slug:"angelo-paone",fullName:"Angelo Paone"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"8223",title:"Processing and Analysis of Hyperspectral Data",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"02b920d9c266e28152227280ff18ebbe",slug:"processing-and-analysis-of-hyperspectral-data",bookSignature:"Jie Chen, Yingying Song and Hengchao Li",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8223.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"218017",title:"Dr.",name:"Jie",middleName:null,surname:"Chen",slug:"jie-chen",fullName:"Jie Chen"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"8257",title:"Seismic Waves",subtitle:"Probing Earth System",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"6a7acf0b6350ff87cc629283bfe248f8",slug:"seismic-waves-probing-earth-system",bookSignature:"Masaki Kanao and Genti Toyokuni",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8257.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"51959",title:"Dr.",name:"Masaki",middleName:null,surname:"Kanao",slug:"masaki-kanao",fullName:"Masaki Kanao"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"7315",title:"Minerals",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"f0d5c2a9a5f37e6effcb8486c661d217",slug:"minerals",bookSignature:"Khalid S. Essa",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7315.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"102766",title:"Prof.",name:"Khalid S.",middleName:null,surname:"Essa",slug:"khalid-s.-essa",fullName:"Khalid S. Essa"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"8361",title:"Applied Geophysics with Case Studies on Environmental, Exploration and Engineering Geophysics",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"788c034eec48a4e2f1f6a2f1788d3346",slug:"applied-geophysics-with-case-studies-on-environmental-exploration-and-engineering-geophysics",bookSignature:"Ali Ismet Kanlı",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/8361.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"243975",title:"Dr.",name:"Ali Ismet",middleName:null,surname:"Kanlı",slug:"ali-ismet-kanli",fullName:"Ali Ismet Kanlı"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"7392",title:"New Insights into the Stratigraphic Setting of Paleozoic to Miocene Deposits",subtitle:"Case Studies from the Persian Gulf, Peninsular Malaysia and South-Eastern Pyrenees",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"594f4fbefe32dfe2375e4153b30235aa",slug:"new-insights-into-the-stratigraphic-setting-of-paleozoic-to-miocene-deposits-case-studies-from-the-persian-gulf-peninsular-malaysia-and-south-eastern-pyrenees",bookSignature:"Gemma Aiello",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7392.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"100661",title:"Dr.",name:"Gemma",middleName:null,surname:"Aiello",slug:"gemma-aiello",fullName:"Gemma Aiello"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"7578",title:"Satellite Information Classification and Interpretation",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"008b174b5e2cc7ff0f68f953c54dba36",slug:"satellite-information-classification-and-interpretation",bookSignature:"Rustam B. Rustamov",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7578.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"59174",title:"Dr.",name:"Rustam B.",middleName:null,surname:"Rustamov",slug:"rustam-b.-rustamov",fullName:"Rustam B. Rustamov"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"7214",title:"Turbulence and Related Phenomena",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"8117272a7c6e0aff9f446b6c43a92b12",slug:"turbulence-and-related-phenomena",bookSignature:"Régis Barillé",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7214.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"198019",title:"Prof.",name:"Regis",middleName:null,surname:"Barille",slug:"regis-barille",fullName:"Regis Barille"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"7504",title:"Renewable Geothermal Energy Explorations",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"d47d551b0fcf11a4328c8a38f2499844",slug:"renewable-geothermal-energy-explorations",bookSignature:"Basel I. Ismail",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7504.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"62122",title:"Dr.",name:"Basel",middleName:"I.",surname:"Ismail",slug:"basel-ismail",fullName:"Basel Ismail"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}}],booksByTopicTotal:62,mostCitedChapters:[{id:"37859",doi:"10.5772/50009",title:"Plate Tectonic Evolution of the Southern Margin of Laurussia in the Paleozoic",slug:"plate-tectonic-evolution-of-the-southern-margin-of-laurussia-in-the-paleozoic",totalDownloads:4820,totalCrossrefCites:12,totalDimensionsCites:40,book:{slug:"tectonics-recent-advances",title:"Tectonics",fullTitle:"Tectonics - Recent Advances"},signatures:"Jan Golonka and Aleksandra Gawęda",authors:[{id:"16567",title:"Dr.",name:"Jan",middleName:null,surname:"Golonka",slug:"jan-golonka",fullName:"Jan Golonka"}]},{id:"17663",doi:"10.5772/24120",title:"Relationships between Lithospheric Flexure, Thrust Tectonics and Stratigraphic Sequences in Foreland Setting: the Southern Apennines Foreland Basin System, Italy",slug:"relationships-between-lithospheric-flexure-thrust-tectonics-and-stratigraphic-sequences-in-foreland-",totalDownloads:3313,totalCrossrefCites:9,totalDimensionsCites:39,book:{slug:"new-frontiers-in-tectonic-research-at-the-midst-of-plate-convergence",title:"New Frontiers in Tectonic Research",fullTitle:"New Frontiers in Tectonic Research - At the Midst of Plate Convergence"},signatures:"Salvatore Critelli, Francesco Muto,\nVincenzo Tripodi and Francesco Perri",authors:[{id:"55590",title:"Prof.",name:"Salvatore",middleName:null,surname:"Critelli",slug:"salvatore-critelli",fullName:"Salvatore Critelli"},{id:"55592",title:"Prof.",name:"Francesco",middleName:null,surname:"Muto",slug:"francesco-muto",fullName:"Francesco Muto"},{id:"55593",title:"Prof.",name:"Vincenzo",middleName:null,surname:"Tripodi",slug:"vincenzo-tripodi",fullName:"Vincenzo Tripodi"},{id:"85117",title:"Dr.",name:"Francesco",middleName:null,surname:"Perri",slug:"francesco-perri",fullName:"Francesco Perri"}]},{id:"17670",doi:"10.5772/20299",title:"The Qatar–South Fars Arch Development (Arabian Platform, Persian Gulf): Insights from Seismic Interpretation and Analogue Modelling",slug:"the-qatar-south-fars-arch-development-arabian-platform-persian-gulf-insights-from-seismic-interpreta",totalDownloads:6975,totalCrossrefCites:13,totalDimensionsCites:30,book:{slug:"new-frontiers-in-tectonic-research-at-the-midst-of-plate-convergence",title:"New Frontiers in Tectonic Research",fullTitle:"New Frontiers in Tectonic Research - At the Midst of Plate Convergence"},signatures:"C.R. Perotti, S. Carruba, M. Rinaldi, G. Bertozzi, L. Feltre and M. Rahimi",authors:[{id:"38310",title:"Dr.",name:"Stefano",middleName:null,surname:"Carruba",slug:"stefano-carruba",fullName:"Stefano Carruba"},{id:"42459",title:"Prof.",name:"Cesare",middleName:null,surname:"Perotti",slug:"cesare-perotti",fullName:"Cesare Perotti"},{id:"42460",title:"Dr.",name:"Marco",middleName:null,surname:"Rinaldi",slug:"marco-rinaldi",fullName:"Marco Rinaldi"},{id:"42465",title:"Dr.",name:"Giuseppe",middleName:null,surname:"Bertozzi",slug:"giuseppe-bertozzi",fullName:"Giuseppe Bertozzi"},{id:"42466",title:"Dr.",name:"Luca",middleName:null,surname:"Feltre",slug:"luca-feltre",fullName:"Luca Feltre"},{id:"42467",title:"Dr.",name:"Mashallah",middleName:null,surname:"Rahimi",slug:"mashallah-rahimi",fullName:"Mashallah Rahimi"}]}],mostDownloadedChaptersLast30Days:[{id:"70027",title:"The Somma-Vesuvius Activity with a Focus to the AD 79 Eruption: Hazard and Risk",slug:"the-somma-vesuvius-activity-with-a-focus-to-the-ad-79-eruption-hazard-and-risk",totalDownloads:429,totalCrossrefCites:1,totalDimensionsCites:1,book:{slug:"forecasting-volcanic-eruptions",title:"Forecasting Volcanic Eruptions",fullTitle:"Forecasting Volcanic Eruptions"},signatures:"Angelo Paone",authors:[{id:"182871",title:"Prof.",name:"Angelo",middleName:null,surname:"Paone",slug:"angelo-paone",fullName:"Angelo Paone"}]},{id:"59160",title:"Remote Sensing in Land Applications by Using GNSS-Reflectometry",slug:"remote-sensing-in-land-applications-by-using-gnss-reflectometry",totalDownloads:810,totalCrossrefCites:3,totalDimensionsCites:3,book:{slug:"recent-advances-and-applications-in-remote-sensing",title:"Recent Advances and Applications in Remote Sensing",fullTitle:"Recent Advances and Applications in Remote Sensing"},signatures:"Yan Jia and Yuekun Pei",authors:[{id:"210019",title:"Dr.",name:"Yan",middleName:null,surname:"Jia",slug:"yan-jia",fullName:"Yan Jia"},{id:"217368",title:"Dr.",name:"Yuekun",middleName:null,surname:"Pei",slug:"yuekun-pei",fullName:"Yuekun Pei"}]},{id:"57238",title:"Microgravity and Its Applications in Geosciences",slug:"microgravity-and-its-applications-in-geosciences",totalDownloads:1305,totalCrossrefCites:3,totalDimensionsCites:4,book:{slug:"gravity-geoscience-applications-industrial-technology-and-quantum-aspect",title:"Gravity",fullTitle:"Gravity - Geoscience Applications, Industrial Technology and Quantum Aspect"},signatures:"Hakim Saibi",authors:[{id:"155975",title:"Dr.",name:"Hakim",middleName:null,surname:"Saibi",slug:"hakim-saibi",fullName:"Hakim Saibi"}]},{id:"64027",title:"Stages of a Integrated Geothermal Project",slug:"stages-of-a-integrated-geothermal-project",totalDownloads:2143,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:0,book:{slug:"renewable-geothermal-energy-explorations",title:"Renewable Geothermal Energy Explorations",fullTitle:"Renewable Geothermal Energy Explorations"},signatures:"Alfonso Aragón-Aguilar, Georgina Izquierdo-Montalvo,\nDaniel Octavio Aragón-Gaspar and Denise N. Barreto-Rivera",authors:[{id:"258358",title:"Dr.",name:"Alfonso",middleName:null,surname:"Aragón-Aguilar",slug:"alfonso-aragon-aguilar",fullName:"Alfonso Aragón-Aguilar"}]},{id:"63059",title:"Generation, Evolution, and Characterization of Turbulence Coherent Structures",slug:"generation-evolution-and-characterization-of-turbulence-coherent-structures",totalDownloads:1639,totalCrossrefCites:1,totalDimensionsCites:2,book:{slug:"turbulence-and-related-phenomena",title:"Turbulence and Related Phenomena",fullTitle:"Turbulence and Related Phenomena"},signatures:"Zambri Harun and Eslam Reda Lotfy",authors:[{id:"243152",title:"Dr.",name:"Zambri",middleName:null,surname:"Harun",slug:"zambri-harun",fullName:"Zambri Harun"},{id:"252195",title:"Dr.",name:"Eslam",middleName:null,surname:"Reda",slug:"eslam-reda",fullName:"Eslam Reda"}]},{id:"37864",title:"Role of the NE-SW Hercynian Master Fault Systems and Associated Lineaments on the Structuring and Evolution of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Basins of the Alpine Margin, Northern Tunisia",slug:"role-of-the-ne-sw-hercynian-master-fault-systems-and-associated-lineaments-on-the-structuring-and-ev",totalDownloads:6482,totalCrossrefCites:13,totalDimensionsCites:21,book:{slug:"tectonics-recent-advances",title:"Tectonics",fullTitle:"Tectonics - Recent Advances"},signatures:"Fetheddine Melki, Taher Zouaghi, Mohamed Ben Chelbi, Mourad Bédir and Fouad Zargouni",authors:[{id:"39860",title:"Dr.",name:"Taher",middleName:null,surname:"Zouaghi",slug:"taher-zouaghi",fullName:"Taher Zouaghi"},{id:"147368",title:"Dr.",name:"Fetheddine",middleName:null,surname:"Melki",slug:"fetheddine-melki",fullName:"Fetheddine Melki"}]},{id:"17670",title:"The Qatar–South Fars Arch Development (Arabian Platform, Persian Gulf): Insights from Seismic Interpretation and Analogue Modelling",slug:"the-qatar-south-fars-arch-development-arabian-platform-persian-gulf-insights-from-seismic-interpreta",totalDownloads:6981,totalCrossrefCites:13,totalDimensionsCites:30,book:{slug:"new-frontiers-in-tectonic-research-at-the-midst-of-plate-convergence",title:"New Frontiers in Tectonic Research",fullTitle:"New Frontiers in Tectonic Research - At the Midst of Plate Convergence"},signatures:"C.R. Perotti, S. Carruba, M. Rinaldi, G. Bertozzi, L. Feltre and M. Rahimi",authors:[{id:"38310",title:"Dr.",name:"Stefano",middleName:null,surname:"Carruba",slug:"stefano-carruba",fullName:"Stefano Carruba"},{id:"42459",title:"Prof.",name:"Cesare",middleName:null,surname:"Perotti",slug:"cesare-perotti",fullName:"Cesare Perotti"},{id:"42460",title:"Dr.",name:"Marco",middleName:null,surname:"Rinaldi",slug:"marco-rinaldi",fullName:"Marco Rinaldi"},{id:"42465",title:"Dr.",name:"Giuseppe",middleName:null,surname:"Bertozzi",slug:"giuseppe-bertozzi",fullName:"Giuseppe Bertozzi"},{id:"42466",title:"Dr.",name:"Luca",middleName:null,surname:"Feltre",slug:"luca-feltre",fullName:"Luca Feltre"},{id:"42467",title:"Dr.",name:"Mashallah",middleName:null,surname:"Rahimi",slug:"mashallah-rahimi",fullName:"Mashallah Rahimi"}]},{id:"64562",title:"Electrical Resistivity Tomography: A Subsurface-Imaging Technique",slug:"electrical-resistivity-tomography-a-subsurface-imaging-technique",totalDownloads:1817,totalCrossrefCites:3,totalDimensionsCites:4,book:{slug:"applied-geophysics-with-case-studies-on-environmental-exploration-and-engineering-geophysics",title:"Applied Geophysics with Case Studies on Environmental, Exploration and Engineering Geophysics",fullTitle:"Applied Geophysics with Case Studies on Environmental, Exploration and Engineering Geophysics"},signatures:"Bing Zhou",authors:null},{id:"37852",title:"Seismic Paleo-Geomorphic System of the Extensional Province of the Niger Delta: An Example of the Okari Field",slug:"seismic-paleo-geomorphic-system-of-the-extensional-province-of-the-niger-delta-an-example-of-the-oka",totalDownloads:6605,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:2,book:{slug:"tectonics-recent-advances",title:"Tectonics",fullTitle:"Tectonics - Recent Advances"},signatures:"Muslim B. Aminu and Moses O. Olorunniwo",authors:[{id:"140283",title:"Dr.",name:"Muslim",middleName:"B",surname:"Aminu",slug:"muslim-aminu",fullName:"Muslim Aminu"},{id:"143802",title:"Prof.",name:"Moses",middleName:null,surname:"Olorunniwo",slug:"moses-olorunniwo",fullName:"Moses Olorunniwo"}]},{id:"60592",title:"Applications of Remote Sensing in Geoscience",slug:"applications-of-remote-sensing-in-geoscience",totalDownloads:2290,totalCrossrefCites:2,totalDimensionsCites:4,book:{slug:"recent-advances-and-applications-in-remote-sensing",title:"Recent Advances and Applications in Remote Sensing",fullTitle:"Recent Advances and Applications in Remote Sensing"},signatures:"Hakim Saibi, Mohand Bersi, Mohamed Bodruddoza Mia, Nureddin\nMohamed Saadi, Khalid Mohamed Saleh Al Bloushi and Robert W.\nAvakian",authors:[{id:"155975",title:"Dr.",name:"Hakim",middleName:null,surname:"Saibi",slug:"hakim-saibi",fullName:"Hakim Saibi"},{id:"205896",title:"Dr.",name:"Nouredine",middleName:null,surname:"Saadi",slug:"nouredine-saadi",fullName:"Nouredine Saadi"},{id:"205897",title:"Dr.",name:"Mohand",middleName:null,surname:"Bersi",slug:"mohand-bersi",fullName:"Mohand Bersi"},{id:"217413",title:"Dr.",name:"M. Bodruddoza",middleName:null,surname:"Mia",slug:"m.-bodruddoza-mia",fullName:"M. Bodruddoza Mia"},{id:"218110",title:"Dr.",name:"Khalid Mohamed Saleh",middleName:null,surname:"Al Bloushi",slug:"khalid-mohamed-saleh-al-bloushi",fullName:"Khalid Mohamed Saleh Al Bloushi"}]}],onlineFirstChaptersFilter:{topicSlug:"geology-and-geophysics",limit:3,offset:0},onlineFirstChaptersCollection:[],onlineFirstChaptersTotal:0},preDownload:{success:null,errors:{}},aboutIntechopen:{},privacyPolicy:{},peerReviewing:{},howOpenAccessPublishingWithIntechopenWorks:{},sponsorshipBooks:{sponsorshipBooks:[{type:"book",id:"10176",title:"Microgrids and Local Energy Systems",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"c32b4a5351a88f263074b0d0ca813a9c",slug:null,bookSignature:"Prof. Nick Jenkins",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10176.jpg",editedByType:null,editors:[{id:"55219",title:"Prof.",name:"Nick",middleName:null,surname:"Jenkins",slug:"nick-jenkins",fullName:"Nick Jenkins"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter"}}],offset:8,limit:8,total:1},route:{name:"profile.detail",path:"/profiles/105385/katharina-noebauer",hash:"",query:{},params:{id:"105385",slug:"katharina-noebauer"},fullPath:"/profiles/105385/katharina-noebauer",meta:{},from:{name:null,path:"/",hash:"",query:{},params:{},fullPath:"/",meta:{}}}},function(){var e;(e=document.currentScript||document.scripts[document.scripts.length-1]).parentNode.removeChild(e)}()