UV inactivation doses measured at 253.7 nm for various microbial groups [9].
\r\n\t
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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"}],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"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}}]},chapter:{item:{type:"chapter",id:"59827",title:"Ultraviolet Light Applications in Dairy Processing",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.74291",slug:"ultraviolet-light-applications-in-dairy-processing",body:'Dairy products create good growth conditions for a variety of microorganisms because they are rich in many kinds of nutrients including carbohydrates (especially lactose), lipids, proteins, essential amino acids, enzymes, vitamins and minerals. Therefore, producing safe dairy products are more challenging compared to producing many other foods.
Thermal processing is the most common decontamination method to ensure food safety and to prolong shelf life by eliminating the spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms and enzymes. In recent years, use of non-thermal technologies is increasing as an alternative to the thermal processing in food industry. Ultraviolet (UV) light, which is a non-thermal technology, has recently attracted a lot attention to improvement of food safety. Compared to thermal processing, this promising technology can provide consumers with minimally processed, microbiologically safe and fresh-like products with minor effects on the nutritional and sensory properties of the product. On the other hand, this technology must not replace hygiene, good manufacturing or agricultural practice.
UV light application can also be introduced as an alternative to the use of chemicals in food industry. Besides, the use of UV light does not generate chemical residues. Additionally, it offers some technological advantages especially in developing countries in a small-scale production due to its low maintenance cost, low installation cost and low operational cost with minimal energy use. The operation and cleaning of the treatment is quite easy. In spite of its many advantages, its low penetration power restricts the area of use in food industry. Furthermore, its inactivation efficiency may be reduced or prevented because of physical features of food. At high doses, it can create negative effects on quality and some vitamins. In order to obtain effective results, applications should be made considering these situations.
UV irradiation of milk was first used in the mid-1900s for the purpose of vitamin D enrichment [1]. Efficacy of UV light treatment has been studied in recent years and more and more research has also been carried out to evaluate the potential applications of UV light as a non-thermal alternative to thermal processing of milk. On the other hand, due to the confirmed success and convenience of thermal processing, potential processing alternatives for milk are still limited. The use of UV light must not only be considered for microbial inactivation but also for the development of novel dairy products. The UV-treated pasteurized cow’s milk was authorized as a novel food in market by European Commission. It is reported that the treatment of the pasteurized milk with UV radiation results in an increase in the vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) concentrations by conversion of 7-dehydrocholesterol to vitamin D3 [2].
Contamination of dairy products with microorganisms may occur at several stages of production, originating from a variety of sources during production. Although heat treatment is applied for inactivation of foodborne pathogens, dairy products especially cheese can be contaminated with undesirable microorganisms. After pasteurization process, handling of the curd, equipment, processing lines, packaging or storage rooms can result in cross-contamination with a variety of microorganisms. Even if good manufacturing practices are applied, surface applications of antimicrobial agents before packaging are commonly used to prevent spoilage and extend storage life for some dairy products. Instead of chemical preservatives, additional solution is needed to control the growth of microorganisms just before or after packaging of dairy products. Surface application of UV light after production can offer an attractive alternative method to eliminate or control the growth of post-processing contamination. Other promising uses of UV light are the disinfection of air and water used in dairy plant, and surface decontamination of food contact surfaces and packaging materials.
A lot of research is mainly focused on the application of UV light to reduce microorganisms in milk, and relatively little research focuses on the decontamination of the surfaces of solid dairy products. There is lack of information about the relation of quality and safety of dairy products. Thus, the application of UV light for various dairy products needs to be investigated in terms of both quality and safety in order to increase the use and reliability of UV light in industry. There is also need for research on various applications of UV light on dairy plant.
In this chapter, UV technology is explained in terms of its principles, inactivation mechanisms, and available UV light sources and reactors are reviewed. Then, the effects of UV light on the inactivation of microorganisms and changes in the chemical and nutritional aspects of various dairy products are discussed.
UV light includes the wavelengths from 100 to 400 nm on the electromagnetic spectrum. UV light can be subdivided into four regions according to their wavelength: UV-A (315–400 nm), UV-B (280–315 nm), UV-C (200–280 nm) and vacuum UV (100–200 nm). UV-C light has the most effective germicidal effect on microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa, fungi and algae [3, 4]. UV-C radiation in the range of 250–260 nm has the highest germicidal effect and ultraviolet energy at a wavelength of 253.7 nm shows the maximum effect, at which the absorption of DNA is stronger [3].
In principle, the photochemical reactions of biomolecules of microorganism primarily result in germicidal effect leading to inhibition of microbial growth or to inactivation of the cell. Germicidal effect of UV light on microorganisms occurs because of cross-linking between the bases of adjacent pyrimidine dimers in the same DNA strand [5]. This situation leads to inhibition of transcription and replication of nucleic acids, which is called clonogenic death [6, 7]. In some conditions, the metabolism can repair the DNA damage by photoreactivation or darkreactivation depending on the microorganism. Nevertheless, at high UV doses, the repair cannot be possible because of the wider damage [8].
The UV light efficacy depends on several factors related to UV equipment, UV sources, operating and measuring conditions, target microorganisms and material or food to be exposed in food industry, which are summarized as:
UV light source and UV dose
UV sensitivity of microorganisms
The composition of target
Physical properties of target (turbidity, opaque, color, etc.)
Surface properties of target (roughness, dirt, etc.)
The germicidal effects of UV radiation primarily depend on the UV dose (J/m2) which refers to the UV irradiance or UV intensity flux and is defined as the function of the intensity and time of exposure. The UV intensity (W/m2) is the total radiation from the specified area. In most cases, as the exposure time and intensity of UV light increase and the distance from light source to target decreases, inhibition rate of cells increases. In addition, whether the sample is located directly under lamp or not affects the inhibition ratio of microorganisms for a group of samples.
The UV light sensitivity of the target microorganism is an important parameter for the selection of the UV light dose. Microorganisms have different structures due to their many characteristics. The necessary energy can vary for a certain species of microorganism according to strain, growth medium and stage of the culture. Therefore, different doses are needed for inactivation of various microorganisms. UV doses as D values required for reducing populations of various microbial groups are reported by Koutchma [9] in Table 1. Besides the sensitivity of microorganism its contamination level also affects the decontamination degree. In fact, in our research on decontamination of mold on the yoghurt surface, the population of mold affected the decontamination level of mold. This can be attributed to overlapping of microorganisms which prevents UV light from reaching the population at the lower layer.
Microbial group | |
---|---|
Enteral bacteria | 2–8 |
Cocci and micrococci | 1.5–20 |
Spore formers | 4–30 |
Enteric viruses | 5–30 |
Yeast | 2.3–8 |
Fungi | 30–300 |
Protozoa | 60–120 |
Algae | 300–600 |
UV inactivation doses measured at 253.7 nm for various microbial groups [9].
The D value is a measure of the resistance of a microorganism. It is given as the dose needed for an exponential decay of the target microorganism.
In dairy industry, one of the most important problems for dairy industry is biofilm formation which occurs with colonization of microorganisms on the surface. These biofilms block the light transmission, act as a protective barrier for microorganisms against the light and reduce the efficacy of UV treatment [10, 11].
Physical, compositional and surface properties such as thickness, viscosity, density, optical properties, color differences, dirtiness, roughness etc. can change the process efficiency. UV light has a restricted penetrability. Transparent fluids such as water are effectively disinfected by UV light, whereas opaque fluids such as milk are affected less due to poor penetration depth of light, and microorganisms cannot be affected directly [11, 12]. The composition of target is also important for the efficacy of UV light. Dissolved solids, suspended particles, organic solutes, macromolecules especially proteins and fat globules in food have shadowing effect on target microorganisms and limit the penetration and efficacy of light [11, 12, 13] Treatment efficacy also depends on the characteristics of surface exposed to light and application to smooth surfaces is more effective than rough surfaces. The dirtiness and roughness can cause to form shadows and prevents direct access of light to the microorganism. Viscosity and density determine the effectiveness of the transfer and flow model of the liquid in the system, while optical properties affect the UV light transmittance [9]. Light transmission of food and packaging material in UV application to the surface of unpacked and packaged food is a critical factor for decontamination. Higher absorbsion of light is obtained in dark foods, causing decrease of available energy for microbial inactivation [11].
Choosing the right UV source can increase the efficiency of microbial inactivation by increasing UV light penetration. The first and natural source of UV light is the Sun. The Sun emits radiation across a wide range of wavelengths. Other UV light sources are lamps. Many alternative UV light sources have been developed, such as low pressure mercury (LPM), medium pressure mercury (MPM), low pressure high output mercury lamp-amalgam type, mercury free amalgam lamps, pulsed-light (PL) and excimer lamps. LPM lamps are commonly used in food applications [14].
Mercury lamps have been the sources of radiation in most UV-based disinfection systems. The low and medium pressure mercury UV lamp sources are reliable sources for disinfection applications which are beneficial for their performance, and low cost. They are based on the vapor pressure of mercury while the lamps are operating. LPM lamps are designed to deliver a continuous monochromatic light at 254 nm. MPM lamps emit germicidal polychromatic light between 200 and 300 nm [9]. A breakthrough for economic UVC generation is the discovery of low pressure amalgam lamps [15]. This technology has recently been developed and incorporated into disinfection applications. The mercury emissions from lamps to the environment have encouraged the investigation of mercury-free lamps [9]. Xenon lamps are used in the Pulsed light UV technology. These lamps emit flashes in a short period of time. They have a broad spectrum of radiation between 180 and 1100 nm. Another UV light source is excimer lamps, which can emit pulsed light at 248 nm. It is possible to emit light in desired wavelength by using various gases such as He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe in the excimer lamps. The excimer lamps can be operated even at very low surface temperatures [7].
UV light applications are carried out with different equipment for solids or liquids: UV reactor designs for liquids according to flow types and UV cabinet designs for solids. It is necessary to increase the absorbed energy to the maximum level by developing the design of UV light device with appropriate lamp and size in order to achieve the desired effect.
Reactors are devices used for UV light application to liquids. UV reactor contains UV lamps inside. Each UV lamp is in a separate protective quartz tube to prevent the direct contact with liquid. The liquid flowing through the UV reactor is exposed to UV rays emitted from lamps. Thus, the microorganisms in the liquid become ineffective. In the selection of UV reactors, the physical, chemical and microbiological properties of the liquid to be disinfected and the amount of the liquid passing through are the most important parameters. In this context, the UV light dose should be determined according to the nature of the fluid and the target microorganism. In addition, to increase the efficiency of disinfection, parameters such as sediment and turbidity in liquid should be removed with sensitive filters.
The flow pattern of liquid in the UV reactor has also significant effect on total UV dose due to the differences in the position and residence times of the microorganisms in certain regions of the irradiated field [9]. The inactivation of microorganisms increases using turbulent flow in continuous flow UV reactors [16, 17].
The first reactor design is a thin film UV reactor. Thin-film reactors are characterized by laminar flow with a parabolic velocity profile [16]. Another reactor having laminar flow is laminar Taylor-Couette UV reactor. In both reactors, the two cylinders in the system are intertwined. While the system is running, the gap between the cylinders is filled with liquid product. In the thin film reactor, the UV lamps are placed in the inner cylinder, whereas in laminar Taylor-Couette UV reactor the lamps are placed on the outer cylinder and the inner cylinder turns around by creating whirlpools [18, 19]. The second design approach is turbulent flow reactors. They increase the turbulence within the reactor in order to make the liquid close to UV light source. In another approach, the UV reactor called Dean flow reactor includes a coiled Teflon tube with UV lamps and reflectors placed both inside and outside the tube, which are used to promote additional turbulence and to create a secondary swirling flow, also known as “Dean effect” [9].
UV cabinets are devices developed for UV light applications on the surface of solids. The number and position of lamps in the UV cabinet are the most critical factors for the disinfection of entire food surfaces. The UV processing units for solid food was well schematized by Manzocco and Nicoli [11]. If one side of the solid food is exposed to UV light, the food is placed on a support. For the exposure to the top and bottom sides, the food can be placed on a film or turned upside down during treatment. If all the surfaces of the solid food are exposed to the UV light at the same time, it is needed to increase the number of lamps and place the food on a film. For example, in dairy industry, only upper surface of the yoghurt in package is enough to be treated by UV light while all surfaces are exposed for many cheeses. If there is no food support, the product flows near the lamps coated with waterproof quartz tubes in a vessel containing water.
It is also possible to design a tunnel with a dynamic system moving with the food. In this type of cabinet system or tunnel, the food material is conveyed through UV tunnel and taken from the other end. The width and height of the tunnel are designed according to expectations of user. UV application time is adjusted by conveyor speed. Such tunnels provide convenience for industrial use. They are added to the desired point of production line and their use in the system is practical.
Pulsed UV light is a modified and improved version of the UV-C light. Pulsed UV light is an application using devices containing ultraviolet lamps that emit ultraviolet light at high power at regular intervals. It is applied in a very short time (1 μs–0.1 s) in the range of 200–1100 nm [7]. In this technology, combined effect of photochemical, photothermal and photophysical conditions occurs and microorganisms become ineffective [20].
Clean and fresh air is necessary for food processing area. UV technology can be used for preventing the spread of airborne diseases by inhibition of airborne pathogenic microorganisms in the field of production, packaging, cooling, storage and ripening. For this purpose, low pressure mercury vapor lamps are successfully used as UV light sources. The efficiency of this process depends on the volume of the area and the power of the UV lamp.
UV-C light has been used to disinfect water for several years and has become a successful process that eliminates several types of microorganisms. UV-C technology is a good alternative to chlorine disinfection. In dairy industry, it is possible to use the UV systems for the disinfection of drinking water, process water, waste water and brine.
In food industry, the use of UV light for decontamination of packaging material is becoming widespread. The number of microorganisms on the surfaces of packaging materials such as boxes, cartons, foils, films, wrappings, containers, bottles, caps, closures and lids can be reduced or eliminated by applying the appropriate UV light doses. The packages can be treated with UV light before filling or closing the lid or the packaged food can be exposed to UV-C light. The effectiveness of UV treatment is better on smooth surfaces. On the other hand, the UV light cannot reach every spot because of shadowing on irregular surfaces.
Plastic materials such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyvinylchloride (PVC), polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) are increasingly being used as packaging materials for dairy products. These materials have many advantages such as availability, low cost, transparency, thermal adhesiveness and being a good barrier against oxygen, carbon dioxide, anhydrite and aromatic compounds [21]. Due to different constructions, thicknesses and various properties of these packages, their UV-C permeability is different. When the packaged food is UV treated, this permeability becomes more important. The UV permeability of PP/PP (50 μm), bone guard bags (BG) (25 μm), polyamide/polyethylene (PA/PP) (40 μm) and oriented polypropylene (OPP) (40 μm) were reported as 64, 67, 8 and 83%, respectively, by Manzocco and Nicoli [11]. However, there was no UV-C permeability of OPP/PE, PET/PE, Polyester and oriented polypropylene/cast polypropylene (OPP/CPP).
The cross-contamination of microorganisms from equipment to the products is an important issue in dairy technology. UV light can be used to provide disinfection of surfaces of conveyor and other equipment used in preparation, production and, storage areas. For an effective inhibition, microorganisms must be exposed to UV light directly. There should be no obstruction between the UV source and the surface to be sterilized. The success of this application also depends on the cleanliness of the material surfaces because dirt would absorb the radiation and hence protect the bacteria. Therefore, it is possible to say that UV light must be applied after cleaning processes of the dairy equipment.
Raw milk from healthy cows contains relatively few bacteria, but can be contaminated easily during handling and/or storage from a variety of sources (persons, containers, machines, pipelines etc.). Milk is also suitable for the growth of many pathogenic microorganisms carrying potential risk of transferring diseases from animals to humans. The storage conditions of milk before further processing influence the microbial population. To limit the bacterial population in the raw milk, applying effective cooling and good hygiene practices are essential. Heat application is traditionally used to kill the pathogenic bacteria and reduce the others, and extend the shelf life of milk. The success and convenience of heat treatment is proved for milk. Thus, the alternative technologies to heat treatment cannot be integrated into dairy industry easily despite studies in this field.
In literature, the results of the application of UV light technology as an alternative to thermal processing are contradictory. Some authors reported that UV light can be used effectively for the reduction of certain bacterial pathogens in milk. Cilliers et al. [22] showed the similar level of microbial efficacy obtained in milk processed with pasteurization (high temperature short time), UV light and their combination. Similarly, Crook et al. [23] investigated the effect of UV-C light on the inactivation of seven milkborne pathogens such as
UV light efficacy on the reduction of total number of microorganisms is also proved in different studies [29, 30, 31]. Reinemann et al. [29] reported that UV treatment to raw cow’s milk achieved more than 3 log reduction in total numbers of bacteria. The highest reduction was found for coliform bacteria followed by pyschrotrophs, thermodurics and spore formers. Microbial counts of UV treated milk (continuous turbulent flow system, 880 and 1760 J/L doses) were lower compared to those of control milk [30]. UV-C treatment of raw cow milk was capable of reducing total viable count by 2.3 log [31]. UV light treatment in milk can be used as a method to reduce the number of psychrotrophic bacteria to prolong the storage period of cooled raw milk [9, 22, 26, 32]. In contrast, Altic et al. [33] and Donaghy et al. [34] concluded that the UV light technology cannot be an alternative to current pasteurization process for milk. The authors found less than 1 log reduction in
UV radiation may be used for an alternative to pasteurization of cheese whey, valuable liquid dairy product, if the lamp fouling problem is solved [35]. In their study, for destruction of microbial population of 5.95 × 106 cells/ml in cheese whey, more than 3.3, 2.1 and 0.8 h residence times were needed in the first, second and third UV reactors, respectively. However, fouling was seen as a major problem when the temperature of cheese whey increased. As a solution to the fouling problem, coil reactor series were recommended instead of conventional reactor by Singh and Ghaly [36].
Table 2 summarizes the microbial inactivation and technical characteristics of UV light system used for milk that were reported in the studies cited above.
Type of UV reactor | UV treatment | Test microorganisms | Results/achieved inactivation | Studies | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bovine milk-full cream | Surepure40 turbulent flow commercial system | Aerobic plate count Coliform bacteria Aerobic mesophilic spores Anaerobic mesophilic spores Aerobic thermophilic spores Anaerobic thermophilic spores | Similar level of microbial efficacy with high temperature short time heat treatment | [22] | |
Milk | Thin-film turbulent flow-through pilot system | Potential as a non-thermal method to reduce microorganisms | [23] | ||
Goat milk | CiderSure 3500 apparatus | Suggested for the reduction of | [24] | ||
Bovine milk | Custom-made | Mesophilic aerobics Coliform bacteria Yeasts/Molds | A major effect on total coliforms, | [25] | |
Raw milk | Pulsed light sterilization system | A potential method for inactivation of | [26] | ||
Full fat raw milk and skimmed milk | Coiled tube | Higher resistance of Higher inactivation efficiencies of both bacteria in skimmed milk than full fat raw milk | [27] | ||
Bovine milk | — | Higher inactivation efficiency and lower reactivation ratio at 254 nm than 222 and 282 nm | [28] | ||
Raw cow milk | Pure UV system | Total viable count, Psychrotrophics Coliform bacteria Thermodurics | Suggested for reducing of bacteria not susceptible to thermal treatment and psychrotrophic in refrigerated milk stored for prolonged periods | [29] | |
Cow’s Milk | Continuous turbulent flow | Aerobic plate count Aerobic sporeformers Coliform bacteria | Lower counts in UV-treated milk | [30] | |
Raw cow milk | Continuous flow coiled tube | Total viable count | 2.3 log reduction | [31] | |
Whole and semiskim milk | Laboratory-scale | Not an alternative to current pasteurization | [33] | ||
UHT milk | Pilot-scale | Not an alternative to current pasteurization | [34] | ||
Cheese whey | Tubular-type | Total viable count | May be used on-line sterilization of whey if the proper reactor gap size and the appropriate residence time are used | [35] | |
Sterile whole milk | Pilot-scale UV light continuous flow-through unit | Significant reduction for all bacterial species tested except | [37] |
Efficacy of UV light application for liquid dairy products.
Surface of dairy products such as cheese, yoghurt, etc. is the primary location for microbial access and quality depletion during processing and storage period. Most of the chemical, oxidative, microbial and enzymatic reactions take place on the surface of the dairy product and cause undesirable changes that may reduce shelf life of the product. To prolong shelf life and reduce microbial growth and oxidative degradation of dairy products, some types of preservatives are used according to legislation limits. However, a negative public reaction is growing over the addition of chemical preservatives to foods. Although UV light application is limited for liquid dairy products because of the confirmed success of heat treatment, it is very promising for the surface applications of dairy products instead of using chemicals.
Light exposure of solid foods affects only a thin surface layer of the product, while a minimum light dose can reach its internal part [11]. Due to low penetration depth, UV light is suitable for inactivation of surface microorganisms to ensure product safety and extend shelf life with minor effects on chemical and nutritional values in dairy products. However, limited data are available on the effects of UV light on the surface decontamination, quality and organoleptic properties of dairy products.
In the surface applications of UV light, all targeted surfaces of the food must be exposed to UV light. For this purpose, flat products can be turned to allow exposure of both sides or placed on a supporting net or a film. Additional lamps can also be placed on the product sides [11].
One of the most common problems in cheese technology is molding on the surface. Application of UV light on cheese surface just before packaging can be a good solution to prevent mold growth. Lacivita et al. [38] reported 1–2 log reduction on
After packaging of cheese, application of UV-C would be a good safety method to inactivate hazardous microorganisms on cheese surfaces. For this application, the transmission of UV light through plastic film packaging and the thickness of packaging film are important parameters for eliminating or controlling growth of foodborne pathogens on the surfaces. Ha et al. [21] applied UV-C light for inactivation of food-borne pathogens on sliced cheese packaged with different types and thicknesses of plastic films. The authors’ results showed that adjusted 0.07 mm thick PP or PE film packaging in conjunction with UV-C radiation can be effectively used for controlling foodborne pathogens including
There has been really limited research carried on the surface decontamination of other dairy products with UV-light. Similar to cheese, post-processing contamination of the mold on set type yoghurt shortens its shelf life. That is why, the surface of set-type yoghurt samples contaminated naturally were exposed to UV light at different doses in a batch UV light cabinet to inactivate the mold at Ege University by chapter authors Koca and Saatli [42]. They indicated that UV light can be promising for mold inactivation of surface set-type of yoghurt and that higher doses of UV light increased oxidation levels slightly in yoghurt. Studies about the surface application of UV light to dairy products are summarized in Table 3.
Dairy product | UV treatment | Test microorganisms | Results/achieved inactivation | Studies |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sliced cheddar cheese | 5 UV-C lamps | Suggested use of PP or PE films in conjunction with UV-C radiation for controlling foodborne pathogens | [21] | |
Fiordilatte cheese | Enterobacteriaceae | About 1–2 log reduction without changes in color, texture and surface appearance | [38] | |
Kashar cheese | Molds | Promising for surface mold reduction of pasta-filata cheese, but off-flavor at high doses | [39] | |
White American cheese | Pulsed Light Sterilization System | Suggested use of pulsed UV light for inactivation of | [40] | |
Cheddar, process cheese | Bench top pulsed light unit 1.02 to 12.29 J/cm2 | Suggested application for PL for decontamination of the cheese surface through UV-transparent packaging and without packaging | [41] | |
Set-type yoghurt | Batch UV light cabinet | Molds | Promising for surface mold reduction of yoghurt, but increased oxidation levels and off-flavor at high doses | [42] |
Effects of surface application of UV light on different dairy products.
Milk is rich in protein, unsaturated fatty acids, metal ions, oxidases and other pro-oxidants that induce oxidative changes for lipids or protein in raw milk [43]. Dairy products are known as light sensitive products and light may decrease the nutritional value, the content of unsaturated fatty acids and vitamins especially riboflavin and α-tocopherol of the product [44, 45]. Figuring out the suitable UV doses which reduce the microbial growth enough without causing any sensorial defects is challenging. Consumer acceptance of UV treated dairy product will ultimately determine the acceptability of UV technology as an alternative or adjunct to commercial thermal treatment.
Limited research has been carried out on the effects of UV treatment on a biochemical and chemical perspective of dairy products. Some authors concluded that chemical composition of milk is not significantly affected by UV light application [43, 46]. Similarly, Cilliers et al. [22] concluded that UV light application to bovine milk did not affect most of the macro and micro-components, but reduced the cholesterol level compared to pasteurized milk. UV light application produced no change in raw milk with regard to the composition, free fatty acid profile, oxidation, or protein profile [46]. Another study showed that UV treatment to raw milk increased pH and reduced lightness, but did not change soluble solids content [43].
Lipid oxidation is known to be dependent on light exposure. In general, as the UV light dose increases, the oxidation degree and accordingly off-flavor increase in dairy products. In relation to oxidative changes of milk with UV light, increase in UV dose resulted in an increase in TBARs and acid degree values of the goat milk samples [47]. Similarly, higher values of malondialdehyde and other reactive substances in UV-treated raw cow milk were reported as an indication of oxidative degradation by Bandla et al. [31]. In contrast, Hu et al. [43] found no change in the values of TBARs of UV-C treated raw milk (11.8 W/m2 dose), but an increase in its protein oxidation.
The nutritional value and sensory attributes of dairy products may change with the light exposure depending on the oxidation of lipids and protein and light sensitivity. Jung et al. [48] reported ‘sunlight’ flavor, which is characterized by a burnt and oxidized odor in milk after 2 or 3 days of UV application. Oxidized flavor in milk perceived as off-flavor results from oxidation of unsaturated fatty acid residues in milk lipids and phospholipids. The photodegradation of proteins also results in off-flavors and organoleptic changes in milk [14].
UV-C treatment has the potential to accelerate the formation of the volatile compounds in milk. In fact, Hu et al. [49] found an increase in the variety and content of volatile compounds of cow milk by the application of UV light (at 254 nm, 11.8 W/m2). Nevertheless, no major differences were observed in terms of aroma-active compounds of milk following the UV treatment, but some new volatiles were generated [25]. In another study, no difference was found between the odor of untreated and UV treated cow milk but after 1 day of storage the UV-C treated sample had a significantly different smell from that of untreated milk [31]. The flavor defects in cow milk were clearly differentiated by panelists [30]. Cilliers et al. [22] noted the ‘tallowy’ flavor descriptor for the UV treated milk. In another study, odor of UV treated milk was described by panelists as manure, stinky, barnyard, and goaty [47].
Vitamin A, carotenes, vitamin B12, vitamin D, folic acid, vitamin K, riboflavin (vitamin B2) tocopherols (vitamin E), tryptophan, and unsaturated fatty acid residues in oils, solid fats, and phospholipids are well known as light sensitive nutrients [50]. The first research was carried out the increase in Vitamin D in milk. European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluded that the treatment of the pasteurized milk with UV radiation results in an increase in Vitamin D. The effects of UV light on vitamins A, B2, C, and E in cow and goat milk were assessed by Guneser and Karagul Yüceer [51]. UV light sensitivities of vitamins for the milk samples were found as C > E > A > B2. Authors concluded that UV light application reduces the vitamin content and their reduction levels depend on the initial amount of vitamins and the number of passes through the system. In contrast to most research, Cappozzo et al. [46] found that UV light, HTST and UHT processing of raw milk caused to decrease in vitamin D content to undetectable levels. UV light treatment reduced the content of vitamin A from 24.5 at 1045 J/L to 14.9% at 2090 J/L, but HTST and UHT processes resulted in a large reduction (96.8 and 100%, respectively). In bovine milk, vitamin B12 and riboflavin were not reduced by UV application in contrast to thermal treatment [22].
Protein oxidation in dairy systems has an important effect on protein properties and functionalities. UV light can cause the degradation or modification of proteins that lead to changes in solubility, sensitivity to heat, mechanical properties, and digestion by proteases [14]. In fact, Semagoto et al. [52] found changes in the solubility and color of milk protein concentrate. UV induced photo-oxidation decreased the solubility and contributed to the discoloration of milk protein concentrate during storage. Furthermore, exposure to UV irradiation resulted in denaturation of whey proteins but this denaturation degree is low when compared to UHT or HTST [53].
Application of UV light to raw milk used in the production of dairy products may also influence the quality of product. Some changes in rheological properties of yoghurt from UV treated milk were generated by UV treatment [25]. In this research, higher viscosity and lower syneresis were found in the sample made from UV-treated milk compared to that of heat treated milk due to the effects of UV light on the molecular properties of proteins in milk sample. It is noted that UV treatment to raw milk limits the inactivation of native enzymes and the denaturation of whey proteins and the defects in products related to high initial bacterial counts, and shortens the ripening period of cheese. In contrast, Cilliers et al. [22] found no significant differences in the enzyme activity, α-amino acid contents and protein profiles of UV treated and pasteurized milk.
There are few data on the quality changes for surface application of UV light on dairy products such as cheese and yoghurt. Cheese treated with pulsed light at moderate (30 s at 8 cm) and extreme (40 s at 5 cm) conditions had higher values of TBARs compared to mild (5 s at 13 cm) treated and untreated samples, and the changes in color and chemical quality of cheeses were not significantly different after mild treatments. Additionally, when compared with packaged samples, unpackaged samples had slightly higher malondialdehyde values [40]. The application of UV light to surface of Kashar cheese slightly increased redness and yellowness values as the dosage of UV light increased, but these slight changes were not perceptible by the panelists [39]. However, they found that exposure of higher doses (9.630 kJ/m2) of UV-C light led to photo-oxidation and accordingly caused flavor defects. In the other study, UV light application in batch UV cabinet to set-type yoghurt surface did not cause any significant changes with respect to hardness and color parameters [42]. On the other hand, the off-flavor was detected by panelists for the yoghurt samples treated at high dosages of UV light.
The Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services (US FDA) approved the use of UV radiation for controlling surface microorganisms of food or food product, sterilization of water used in production and reduction of human pathogens and other microorganisms in juice products under specific conditions defined by Code 21CFR179.39 [54]. These conditions are limited to the use of low pressure mercury lamps emitting 90% of the emission at a wavelength of 253.7 nm. If the pulsed UV is considered, in code 21CFR179.41, US FDA [55] approves the use of pulsed UV light for the surface microorganism control at doses not exceeding 12 J/cm2 using xenon flashlamps, which are designed to emit broadband radiation consisting of wavelengths covering the range of 200–1100 nm, and operated no longer than 2 milliseconds for pulse duration. In addition, the minimum treatment required to obtain intended technical effect is used for food.
In European Union, UV light is accepted as irradiation [14]. The use of irradiation is limited but authorized in many European countries. According to European Commission, treating food with ionizing radiation may be authorized if there is reasonable technological need, it poses no health hazard and benefits consumers, and if it does not replace hygiene, health or good manufacturing or agricultural practice. Irradiated food or ingredients must be labeled. The UV-treated of pasteurized cow’s milk was authorized as novel food in market by EC because of the increase in vitamin D. It needs to be designated as “UV- treated milk” and also “contains vitamin D produced by UV-treatment” [2].
This work was supported by Ege University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit. Project Number: 18-MUH-008.
E-detailing (electronic visits, e-visits) is the generalized term to describe the use of digital technology for promotional activities for pharmaceutical products, mainly via the Internet. This approach is more commonly used in the United States but is slowly making its way into Europe.
A literature search was conducted in several databases (Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Scopus). A narrative review was undertaken from the published literature on original studies, and systematic reviews published from 2000 to 2019 were included to provide insights into the use of e-detailing. The search was limited to the English language. The data were revised and summarized into a full body review that describes e-detailing as a marketing tool and its implementation in the pharmaceutical industry.
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the largest and dynamic economic sectors. IQVIA indicates that the global spending on medicines will grow to nearly $1.5 trillion by 2023 at a 3–6% compound annual growth rate over the next 5 years—a notable slowdown from the 6.3% seen over the past 5 years. The patent cliff and the aggressive approaches of the generic companies determine a huge competition on the pharmaceutical market as generic usage in the unprotected market is expected to exceed the health ministry target of 80% a year early in 2020 [1].
Generally, the pharmaceutical industry is strictly regulated. Promotional activities are under strict legislation. These activities are burdened with ethical consideration and public attention. In the case of pharmaceutical products, the aim of promoting is to inform consumers and healthcare professionals about new treatments available via either direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertisement or in the form of outreach to healthcare professionals by sales representatives who provide to the former up-to-date and accurate information about new chemical entities [2].
The development of new medicinal products, their manufacturing, authorization, and subsequent use (post-marketing surveillance) are closely inspected and controlled. The basic requirements a medical product must meet are in terms of quality, effectiveness, and safety. While quality and effectiveness can be proven in the preclinical phase of development, before marketing authorization, safety data can also be collected after a product’s release to market. Furthermore, the development of a new, innovative medicinal product can be an expensive and long process (between 10 and 15 years). There is a need for more investments in research and development (R&D), often accounting for over 20% of yearly revenues. Because of that, all new medicinal products are insured and covered by a patent which allows innovative companies to recover the funds used for R&D and invest into the development of new molecules. The so-called innovative products do not have an analog in the current market and are being developed by R&D companies. If a patent expires, any company has the opportunity to produce its own generic product. Significant specifications of the industry include taking into consideration patient rights and other ethical norms, for example, animal rights and environmental impact.
Generic products are sold at a considerably lower price, because companies do not have to invest additionally into development, research, and patents. The tendency to remove patents and the decrease in amounts of new medicinal products to reach the market create a very competitive environment at all levels of the pharmaceuticals market.
Increased competitiveness in the traditionally large markets (the United States, Europe, and Japan), as well as the pressure coming from generic producers, forces the big multinational pharmaceutical companies to intensively strengthen their efforts to penetrate and position themselves in the underdeveloped markets. This market expansion is mainly focused on the growing markets in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union countries, China, and Latin America. Another approach to address competition is through acquisition and/or merger of former competitor companies [1, 3].
Marketing efforts within the pharmaceutical industry differ depending on the relevant recipient; they are not aimed at the product (medicine) user—the patient—but at the medical professional prescribing therapy. The main marketing approach is using sales representatives who meet with medical professionals and present their products’ advantages and discuss what types of patients can benefit from the specific medicine. Such meetings, often referred to as “visits,” are regulated and scheduled, so that individual sales reps visit multiple doctors per workday.
One characteristic of pharmaceutical marketing is that, in most cases, it is not directed to the end user of the product—the patients. Exceptions are over-the-counter (OTC) products sold without a prescription. In these cases, marketing campaigns are “Direct to Consumer.” Pharmaceutical marketing is directed to medical professionals who prescribe medication and have to convince patients that it is the suitable treatment for them. Then patients purchase medication from pharmacies and are responsible for the adherence.
The main aspects of pharmaceutical marketing are the following: (a) stricter regulation of the industry than standard consumer markets where the level of regulation can only be compared to a handful of other sectors (e.g., airline companies), (b) the need for larger investments in R&D which often account for over 20% of the revenue, (c) protection of patients’ rights, and (d) a variety of ethical factors, as animal rights, environmental protection, and others. The main differences between the pharmaceutical and consumer markets are presented in Table 1 [3].
Pharmaceutical market | Consumer market | |
---|---|---|
The consumer makes the decision | False | True |
The consumer pays directly the product | False | True |
Brand loyalty | High | Low |
Ethical regulations | High | Low |
Level of government regulation | High | Low |
Manufacturer’s responsibility | High | Low |
Degree of R&D complexity | High | Low |
Human studies necessity | Yes | No |
R&D price | High | Low |
Comparison between the pharmaceutical and consumer markets [3].
The direct consumers of pharmaceutical marketing are health specialists. They seek out medical knowledge, administer databases with their patients’ medical history records, and to some extent abide by the “price-value” principle. Pharmaceutical companies, which promote products from different therapeutic areas, are usually in contact with numerous health specialists. One of the most important criteria when categorizing those customers is their professional rank, specialty, or professional title. An example for division of medical professionals is general practitioners (GPs), medical specialists (e.g., cardiologists, rheumatologists, endocrinologists), and academic lecturers (associate professors and professors). On the other hand, medical specialists can be divided into specialists involved in outpatient care (ambulatory) and in hospital (inpatient) care. This distinction determines the relevant patient group doctors work with and subsequently their potential for every company. A doctor’s professional rank is defined by a hierarchy, which can be observed on all markets (Figure 1) [3].
Pyramid of influence of health specialists—Opinion leaders (OL) [
On the top are the “opinion leaders” (OL), usually university professors or chairpersons of medical associations. Those are the medical professionals who dictate the trends in a specific therapeutic area. They have earned peer respect due to their experience and extensive practice closely connected to using the newest medical products and treatment methods. In terms of influence, OL are followed by managers of clinics or heads of departments, who lead teams of multiple medical doctors. In some cases, the clinics’ managers can be the ones to choose the treatment of a specific condition available in their clinic or department. Medical specialists are the next hierarchical level. Their expertise and long-standing experience in their specialty make them valuable consultants in the specific therapeutic area. Next come general practitioners who are not specialized in a particular area and provide care to patients with various health conditions. Usually, they would refer more complicated patient cases to the respective medical specialist.
The pyramid of influence describes the flow of knowledge and influence from opinion leaders all the way to general practitioners (GP). The same flow must be followed by pharmaceutical marketers when introducing a new product to market. In other words, early approval from key industry opinion leaders can be used to cascade influence and share knowledge, aiming to show the advantages of new products down the pyramid. Opinion leaders are often introduced to new products early on during clinical testing processes, making this stage a major responsibility for medical marketing managers.
The decision to prescribe a specific product is a process which attracts the attention of marketers, psychologists, etc. Determining the steps that define decision-making in prescribing a medicine, as well as the factors influencing the decision-making process, can contribute to successful marketing efforts to promote pharmaceutical products to medical professionals. The decision-making process in prescribing medicines starts with choosing a medicinal product from a therapeutic area that is most suitable for the respective health condition, followed by selecting a specific commercial brand out of the whole range of available products in the same area. The steps of both processes are the following: (a) defining the problem, (b) informed search for a suitable treatment, (c) assessing existing alternatives, (d) actual decision-making to prescribe a product, and (e) assessing results from the chosen treatment [3].
The primary promotional channel for pharmaceutical companies to reach medical specialists is in the form of meetings between them and sales representatives, or “visits.” During such meetings, the sales representative discusses with doctors the advantages of their company’s products and aims to identify suitable patients whom the products can be prescribed to. This process is the biggest expense for pharmaceutical companies [4]. In the United States, the cost of visits accounts for somewhere between 45 and 70% of the marketing budget. In the period in between 2009 and 2010, American companies spent about 28 billion dollars for promoting medicines to doctors, some 15.3 billion having been allocated to visits. That makes up for over 54% of the overall promotional budget. In Europe the percentage is much higher, as direct marketing to patients is not allowed (except for OTC products); subsequently, this item does not even exist within the European companies’ marketing budgets. In Europe’s five largest markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom), the overall promotion expense in 2009–2010 exceeded 18.5 billion dollars, with 11.8 billion (or about 60%) in costs for visits of health specialists [5]. The reason behind this is simple—the approach works. It generates sales for pharmaceutical companies and is beneficial for medical professionals—they receive useful information about new products, which increases their medical competence. If doctors did not receive extra benefits, their access to sales reps would have been curtailed a long time ago. However, the number of pharmaceutical sales representatives rises continuously in recent years, which leads to a decrease in the quality of visits. Considering this, it is very important to be focused and deliver what is exactly needed by the doctors, and the pharmaceutical companies are looking for new approaches to presenting their products. Still individual sales visits continue to have the most important impact on medical doctors’ confidence in pharmaceutical brands, and when deployed well, the combination of digital and physical channels creates flexibility in the promotion effort that can be modeled to meet sales goals with the appropriate resources. At present, healthcare professionals (HCP) do not have sufficient time to see pharmaceutical sales reps, but when they do see them, they expect more educational information from representatives than ever before. Pressured, pharmaceutical companies search for new approaches to introducing their products [6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11].
Campaigns employing digital channels can be more effective than traditional field force promotions. They can offer the opportunity to stand out from competitors through more frequent interactions with target physicians, presenting more varied content, and by leveraging other services (e.g., meet the expert), deploying interactive content and services, exploiting the full potential of new technologies (e.g., tablets), systematic real-time user feedback, and analysis through CRM tools and potential unlimited direct communication between the field force and physicians. In addition to increasing share of voice with current customers, digital marketing solutions can also be used to extend target coverage to other physicians involved in the diagnostic therapeutic path (secondary targets), as well as to other relevant stakeholders [7].
The following challenges can be pointed out when discussing traditional sales representative—medical doctor visits:
The outcomes are negative tendencies in the sales representatives’ results. During the recent years, in the United States, a decrease in the number of medical sales representatives can be observed—from 105,000 in 2005 to 75,000 in 2012—or a decline of 25% over a 7-year period [5]. Some of the US doctors tend to decline meetings with sales reps more often than ever. The overall accessibility of health specialists has dropped by half (49%) in the period in between 2008 and 2014. This trend can be explained with the reduced amount of time available to doctors, as well as with the increasing number of young specialists who prefer receiving information via digital channels and mobile devices [15]. Although a decrease of costs for sales reps can be observed compared to 2005, sales rep visits remain the strongest marketing tool for introducing new products, especially in Europe [16]. Medical specialists still perceive sales representatives as a valuable source of information. Therefore, it is important for pharmaceutical companies to find new ways to reach their customers [15]. Yet, pharmaceutical companies continue to invest substantially in physician-oriented marketing as it has proven more important and effective [17, 18].
A 2014 study in France concludes that individual sales visits continue to have the most important impact on medical doctors’ confidence in pharmaceutical brands [19].
As stated above, many factors such as the decline in effectiveness of sales reps, the increased costs for traditional visits, business of medical doctors, and the increasing popularity of online resources result in more frequent use of electronic channels to contact health professionals. A need to search for new communication approaches is generated. Ideas for using modern IT to present new medical products are being explored to support the sales representatives’ functions. These integrated approaches are referred to as e-detailing [20].
E-detailing describes the use of IT tools for promotional activities—delivering information for pharmaceutical products to customers (health professionals, medical personnel, and patients). It includes using electronic channels to interact with customers, as well as electronic support for sales reps in their everyday work. Another definition introduces e-detailing as “a new communication channel for promotion of pharmaceutical products, using digital technologies, mainly via the Internet” [6].
Immediately when pharmaceutical companies begin to plan to use IT in their promotional activities, computer companies introduce e-detailing services. The first company to use e-detailing for its services was founded in 1998—Physician Interactive [21].
The process of using an electronic visit includes the following stages: initially, the pharmaceutical company has to choose a provider of e-detailing services, as well as to determine the end users to be reached via this promotional channel. After that, the service provider must arrange for the technical equipment to be set up for the chosen end users of the pharmaceutical company. Thus, the service provider establishes the connection between the company and customers (Figure 2). During this process, both the pharmaceutical companies and end users are regarded as customers of the electronic service provider [20].
Communication route in e-detailing [
Traditionally, most of the information available on the Internet to medical professionals is static and is mostly found on the company’s webpage. This can be useful to medical doctors but only in the sense of one-time visits, as it cannot keep the doctor’s attention for longer. This is the main reason why interest toward this communication channel is not developed. The problem is solved by introducing electronic visits, which allows the use of information technologies within the process of marketing a new medical product. This is believed to be the e-visit’s greatest advantage [20].
A variety of formats of e-detailing exist. They mainly differ in the relationship between medical specialists and the pharmaceutical company’s sales representative. In some cases, there is a direct connection between the customer and the sales rep. This connection can be made in real time, through video calls or chat rooms, or at convenient time (e-mail correspondence). In other cases, customers “communicate” with a program and can themselves choose the content they wish to receive. Alternatively, the information the customer is exposed to is not influenced by his/her behavior. An example for that are Internet websites or news sent via e-mail. The differentiation among the previous three types of interaction is connected to the flexibility of the communication—in the first case, the customer has a larger influence on the flow of information he/she receives [8].
The main communication channels used now—the Internet (accessed through personal computers or mobile devices), interactive digital television, telephone conversations, and personal meetings—are significantly different in their way of communicating, distribution among customers, and ability to present information. A personal computer with access to the Internet as a communication channel allows both synchronistic (chat, video conferences) and asynchronistic (electronic letters) forms of communication. Depending on the available equipment, it could allow forwarding of text, graphics, animations, and videos. On the other hand, using a phone as a communication channel is limited to a synchronistic transmission of sound [8].
In the United States, e-detailing is significantly more developed than in Europe. Data from one of iPhysicianNet campaigns from 2001 shows that sales representatives make 13 video calls per day (compared to the average of 8 with the traditional personal visits). During a video call, they are able to discuss an average of 2.7 products per visit (1.6 per personal visit), where the price of a meeting goes down to $46 (compared to $106) [22]. A research by HyGro Group on the advantages of preparing a script for visits in advance (scripted detailing) shows that using such programs specifically made for products already established on the market results in an increase in prescription rate in the test group from 3.2 to 9.9 percent in 4 months, where group members participated in two e-detailing sessions per month. About 68% of participating medical professionals rated the program superior to traditional meetings. For this type of visits with high-potential customers, researchers calculate a return on investment (ROI) of 480% (and increased prescription rate compared to the costs for development of the program) [14].
A number of researches show that the main reason why medical specialists participate in e-detailing campaigns is the opportunity to receive product information at their convenience [20, 21, 22]. Convenience has many dimensions—the use of and access to an e-visit are easier [14], meetings with sales reps take shorter [23], and making appointments for visits are at times suiting medical doctors, and the overall time-saver aspect is substantial [21]. About 73% of electronic visits are conducted after working hours, where 34% are made during days off and 34% after 5 pm [14].
The main types of e-detailing found in the United States are the following:
In this case, medical doctors communicate with representatives of the pharmaceutical company through computers connected to the Internet, with a camera and microphone. In this way, specialists can receive details about different products, ask questions, or inquire for additional information [8]. This allows the visualization and presentation of the needed information in a quick and convenient way. Furthermore, doctors are able to schedule the meeting at their convenience and be in control of duration. A visit of this sort usually lasts for about 10 minutes [20]. The main provider of this type of services in the United States is iPhysicianNet. They support a video conference platform financed by pharmaceutical companies. Medical professionals are provided with a free computer and connection to the Internet. In return, medical doctors have agreed to participate in at least one video session per month with every one of the pharmaceutical companies supporting the platform. Video visits are, to a great extent, similar to individual meeting between a doctor and sales rep while allowing freedom in the formats of presenting information [8].
Just as in the case above, the real-time communication between the medical sales representative (or a call center) and the medical professional is discussed here, where the pharmaceutical company’s rep has remote access to the doctor’s computer. This allows the sales rep to show the doctor exactly what he/she wants. The doctor and sales rep talk to each other on the phone or through Internet-based telephone lines (IP telephones) and browse Internet-based content simultaneously. The visual connection is missing which renders the method somewhat less personalized than the previous one, hence the more limited use. This type of promotion is used by Novartis in France [8, 20].
In this case, medical specialists have access to Internet-based interactive multimedia programs—a blend of flash-based online presentations and online training for a specific product. As a rule, the duration of a presentation like that is somewhere between 4 and 8 minutes. During these presentations, the doctor has the possibility to ask for additional information, for samples, or to get in touch with the sales representative. This method is considered particularly attractive for pharmaceutical companies for its any-day-any-time access to medical doctors and its fairly low price. It is especially effective when a large customer base has to be reached simultaneously. Some of the prominent users of this approach are Johnson & Johnson, Aventis, Novartis, Amgen, and GlaxoSmithKline [7, 19].
This is a type of scripted detailing based on telephone conversations. Customers receive a product presentation over the phone and can participate in it by using voice commands or by pressing the phone’s buttons (e.g., to ask for samples). This is a less preferred approach, because it does not include the use of visualization for presenting information [7, 19].
These are personalized electronic messages made to suit the customer’s needs that can be used for product presentations, as a separate marketing tool, as well as a part of other marketing strategies. Together with e-detailing, companies use e-mail to invite medical professionals to Internet-based e-detailing programs [8].
The electronic visit is solely based on modern technologies, and because of that a leading factor in the development of this communication channel is the technology. If an organization uses video visits, the requirements include having a computer camera and microphone to establish a connection between the medical sales representative and the doctor. For such channels to be used, the provider companies need to supply to participating doctors the required equipment, as well as educate doctors on how to operate it. A problem with equipment supply can occur in Europe, because in many EU countries, unlike in the United States, the regulations do not allow pharmaceutical companies to purchase equipment for medical doctors [20].
Compensations are another limitation. A study conducted among medical professionals in the United States shows that additional financial incentives can significantly increase participation rates for electronic visits. About 85% of the surveyed medical doctors state that “adequate compensation” would motivate them to spend more time on virtual meetings with sales reps (electronic visits) [24]. Another study shows that 40% of the respondents mainly participated in electronic visits because of the financial compensation they receive [16].
Under the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) Ethical Code on Interaction with Health Care Professionals, compensation for health specialists cannot exceed 100$ [25]. In the United Kingdom, the amount is 6£. The legal limitations for further development of e-visits are significantly stricter in EU, and this could be considered as one of the reasons for the slower implementation of this method in comparison to the United States.
Another factor which could influence the development of e-visits is connected to cultural differences. In some countries, such as Sweden, the traditional medical doctor-sales rep meetings are conducted during lunch time. Physicians are provided with information about new products while eating. E-detailing could face challenges trying to overcome this standard [26].
In an article published in 2003, the potential advantages and disadvantages of e-detailing in Europe are described [8]. Other resources focusing on the benefits are also available online [27, 28].
The absence of travel costs and time spent in waiting for medical doctor, as well as personal expenses, show that introducing products via electronic channels is cheaper. According to a 2001 study, the decrease of expenses with e-detailing in the United States is between 25 and 90% [29].
Medical doctors who have a lower potential for prescribing specific medicine and for whom standard visits prove unfeasible can be reached thanks to the lower prices of electronic channels. The flexibility of these channels as well as the ability to present a large amount of information in various formats makes access to medical doctors, who previously limited their meetings with sales reps, easier [8, 20].
E-detailing is an electronic channel, which allows collecting additional information on medical doctor and their interests and practice. If a particular customer shows interest in a specific product or therapy, this allows the pharmaceutical company to better understand the individual interests than a modality where a prescriber passively receives materials from sales reps. It is to be noted that in Europe, distribution of specialized medical information is limited by various regulations [8].
Up to now, e-detailing is considered more as supplementary to the standard communication methods with health specialists, rather than a replacement. Examples for this supplementary aspect can be receiving information from one channel and using it in another one; medical sales reps have access to content available on the Internet during a visit, and rates of meetings between pharmaceutical companies and medical professionals increased [8].
E-detailing allows medical doctors to choose the time, place, and content of a specific meeting themselves and thus avoids disturbance of their workflow. This makes them more prone to receiving information they are interested in and promotes satisfaction [8, 9]. Medical doctors report that they appreciate the flexibility of e-detailing and use it to arrange meetings outside of their typical working hours [22]. On the other hand, receiving compensation to take part in e-detailing programs is also referred to as an advantage in the United States. It additionally increases loyalty in health specialists, both to the program itself and to the pharmaceutical company [20].
Electronic visits allow the use of various formats of multimedia presentations, which are available to doctors at any place and time [8].
A case study of IQVIA for the European market shows that virtual-only activity improves sales by 65%, as does face-to-face activity alone, while combining face-to-face visits with virtual calls results in more than 95% increase in sales. The time spent on the virtual platform is on average 78% longer than audio-only calls [30].
A pharmaceutical company’s motivation to engage in e-detailing is determined by different factors: among which the increasing use of Internet among medical doctors, the pharmaceutical companies’ wish to provide customers with various alternatives to better understand their medication and increase their customers’ brand loyalty, and fear of falling behind of using new channels and subsequently losing market share [20].
Within the past decade, funds invested into e-detailing programs have sufficiently increased. According to a report by Jupiter Research, companies like Aventis, Novartis, and Pfizer invest heavily in programs using electronic visits. In 2002 these expenses amounted to 1–2% of the company’s overall promotional budget, and in 2009 the expense has increased to 9%. Jupiter Research points out that 56% of pharmaceutical companies invest in e-detailing programs. A study conducted by the same organization aims to show a more in-depth representation of the health specialists’ perception of e-visits. Thirteen questions were sent out via e-mail to over 10,000 professionals. Response rate was 9.61% (961 doctors). About 651 doctors were in primary care and 310 specialists. And 76% respondents say they currently use an e-detailing program and are completely satisfied with it, 12% show interest in such a program, and only 12% are not interested at all [20].
Another study was based on 30-minute interviews with 755 doctors. Results show that 75% of professionals, who were invited to participate in electronic visits, become regular users. In 2002 doctors spend less than 10% of their time receiving pharmaceutical information through e-detailing, and this amount is expected to rise to 66% in 2008 [23].
A number of studies focus on another important indicator for the pharmaceutical industry, namely, the return on investment (ROI). In one particular study Aventis Japan compares the advantages of e-detailing by creating a control and a test group. Participants in the control group receive standard visits, and the test group—both standard and electronic visits. Results show that the test-group doctors prescribe the promoted medicine more often—19–25% compared to the control group. This increases profits for the pharmaceutical company. E-detailing has a profit/price ratio of 3.2:1, which indicates that for every dollar spent, the company receives 3.2 dollars in profit. Traditional visits have a return of 2.5:1, meaning the ROI of e-detailing is 1.3 times higher than traditional visits [31].
Physician Interactive conducted a research aiming to determine whether the e-detailing program they offer leads to an increase in prescribing medication. The research included 5050 health specialists, who participated in the company’s e-detailing program. As part of the program, the duration of interaction between a sales representative and doctor was on average 9.63 minutes and took place over the phone or the Internet. Results show that medical doctors, who participate in the e-detailing program, prescribe the presented product 63% more often than ones that did not take part in the program.
Another study, conducted by iPhysicianNet, aims to measure the effectiveness of e-detailing programs. An increase of 58% in the volume of prescriptions has been observed. Further results demonstrate that electronic visits allow for 13 conversations daily, compared to 8 with standard visits. The duration of a visit is 9 minutes on average, compared to 3 with standard visits. With e-detailing, 2.7 products per conversation can be discussed, compared to 1.6 with standard visits, where expenses decreased by 18 K dollars per year.
Overall, results from these studies show that e-detailing is well received among health professionals and has a positive effect on pharmaceutical companies [20].
Using electronic channels to promote medicinal products can burden the marketing budget with additional expenses, at least in the short term. At the same time, there are factors which can cause doubts about the effectiveness of these promotional channels on the market [8].
The experience until now shows that e-detailing cannot fully replace traditional meetings of sales representatives with health specialists, at least not in the foreseeable future. Neither specialists nor medical sales reps want to cease face-to-face meetings; therefore, e-detailing campaigns are conducted in parallel with traditional visits. Because of that, e-detailing will not lead to a decrease in the pharmaceutical companies’ promotion expenses [8].
Up to now, the providers of e-detailing platforms are concentrated in North America. The active penetration of these communication channels in Europe is additionally complicated by the heterogeneity of the European markets, compared to the US one. Language and cultural differences among the European countries and regions lower the potential to reach any economies of scale [29].
Legal requirements and codes of conduct for pharmaceutical companies lower the opportunities for compensating medical doctors for the use of e-detailing. The payment and support models for medical doctors used in the United States cannot be replicated in EU. European companies face the challenge of finding other ways to encourage medical doctors to use these communication channels. There are also differences in the area of personal data protection: it is hard for European companies to collect and process some personal data, and in some cases, this can only be done with the participating persons’ explicit consent [8].
The team of medical sales reps has an important role in every pharmaceutical company. The fear of losing one’s job or of unwanted changes in work practices can lead to resistance to the decision to develop standard visits and can hamper the development of new projects [8].
More and more health professionals have access to the Internet and use it to search for medical information. Nevertheless, information provided by pharmaceutical companies is still not regarded as trustworthy. Medical doctors rank pharmaceutical companies’ web pages low on their list of pages they visit and believe they are not useful. They often refer to their colleagues’ opinion, medical literature, and publications as more independent and having bigger influence when receiving information [8].
Additional research is needed to explore the connection between e-detailing and pharmacovigilance. Do doctors participating in such programs receive a better understanding of the mechanism of therapeutic action of a specific medicine and its side effects, compared to standard visits? It is a responsibility of every pharmaceutical company to select information to be presented to medical doctors and to make sure it is clear and correct [20].
The more complicated communication formats, like video conferences or telephone conversations and co-browsing, require effort from the parties engaged, to get acquainted with and accustomed to the technological environment, as well as with the opportunities it offer [32]. This leads to barriers at the customers’ end which pharmaceutical companies have to overcome, e.g., through providing additional training for medical doctors [8].
Another limitation, which could arise while using e-detailing, is the physical inability to leave samples during the visit. This could be easily resolved by providing medical doctors with the opportunity to order samples immediately after the end of an electronic visit [20].
Table 2 shows a comparison between traditional visits and e-detailing.
It is interesting to discuss at which stage of the product life cycle it is most effective to use e-detailing. At different stages of the product life cycle, the reasons behind a medical doctor’s decision to prescribe a product differ. At the beginning and at the end of the product life cycle, the decision is made preferably on an emotional basis, and in the middle, it based on facts or on a rational basis (Figure 3). This leads to pharmaceutical companies’ resorting to different approaches. Intuitively, many pharmaceutical companies choose to use e-detailing at the end of a medicine’s product life cycle, as an effective way to revive a slowly dying business.
Marketing objectives and factors influencing a health specialist when prescribing a product, depending on its product life cycle [
However, this might not be the most suitable moment for using electronic promotion. Effectiveness can be defined by using the rate on which the medical doctor’s decision to use a certain product is influenced by emotion, based on brand perception or sales rep attitude, or rational, based on facts. Before launching a product to market or immediately after its introduction, there is not much available information on it. A medical professional would base his/her opinion on the trust he/she has in a brand or a sales rep, previous experience, etc. All of these are emotional factors. Over time, when a product is used more often, new studies are made, experience with the product increases, and medical doctors begin to make decisions more on the basis of facts or rationally. When moving into the maturity stage of a product and new, supposedly better medicines enter the market, the medical doctor would continue to prescribe the same product, because he/she believes in it, is used to it, has a good relationship with the company reps, etc. At this stage the medical doctor switches back to taking decisions on an emotional basis. This is the reason why at this stage replacing face-to-face communication with e-detailing can prove a mistake.
IT-based promoting should work best when a large amount of information about a specific product can be provided, so that facts can be presented through using different types of charts, 3D models, animations, etc. The best stage of the product’s life cycle could be the stage immediately after launching a product to market, when the company wants to establish the key messages and support them with facts and information [9].
In 2010 Fadi Alkhateeb published a book on the factors influencing the rate of adoption of e-detailing among physicians [16]. A survey was sent out to 2000 randomly selected health specialist in Iowa, USA. The study explores the influence of innovative characteristics, communication channels, specifications of the specialists, and the social environment on the rate of adoption of e-detailing among medical doctors. The percentage of respondents using e-visits in the sample is 21. This study repetitively shows that e-detailing is perceived well as a supplement to traditional meetings with sales reps. It turns out that even medical doctors who meet with a sales specialist more often are willing to use e-detailing more often—80% of those who use e-detailing meet with four or more medical reps monthly (this is a relatively high rate of meetings for the American market). This also shows that pharmaceutical companies use e-detailing as a support tool to traditional visits, rather than as their replacement. Results also show that the framework for determining adoption rates described by Rogers (Figure 4) explains the attitudes of health specialists toward e-detailing.
Perceiving innovation [
Better understanding of the advantages of the electronic visit (effectiveness, convenience, use, and work compatibility) on the part of medical doctors increases their proneness to use this communication channel. On the other hand, the study shows that complicatedness when using e-detailing does not have a particular influence on adoption rates. A possible explanation is the fact that pharmaceutical companies and service providers make a great effort in developing easy to use, user-friendly programs and train professionals to work with them. Another factor with a positive influence on e-detailing adoption rates is positive peer experience. Specialists who positively rate the e-detailing approach help the decision-making process of others.
Another aspect researched in the study is the connection between the adoption rates of e-detailing and access limitations to medical doctors. Data shows that medical professionals who have limited access to meetings with sales reps have a lower adoption rate of e-detailing than the ones who are able to meet with medical sales reps on a regular basis. Authors explain the correlation with the fact that medical doctors who practice in inpatient settings where access for sales reps is limited rely on alternative sources of information.
A result of this study is also the connection found between the years of experience of a medical professional and the adoption rates of e-detailing. The longer the work experience, the stronger the negative effect on adoption rates of e-detailing. This shows that more inexperienced doctors are more inclined to participate in such method of communication, than ones with longer experience (at least 20 years). Younger health specialists are more willing to experiment with new technologies and use new communication channels, as opposed to older ones, who prefer more traditional approaches.
An interesting finding of the study is that practitioners in primary care (ambulatory) are more prone to use e-detailing than specialists. The underlying reason can be that primary care practitioners prescribe a larger variety of medication than specialists. Because of that, primary care practitioners need information on a wide range of medicines and are willing to receive information from multiple channels.
The study shows that men are more inclined to use e-detailing than women. Incorporating some sort of a “gift” as incentive has a positive effect on the adoption rate of e-detailing. The amount of prescriptions issued by health professionals turns out to be a significant factor in using e-detailing—medical doctors who issue fewer prescriptions are less willing to adopt the approach, than those who issue 100 prescriptions per week. The size of a health specialist’s practice also greatly influences e-detailing uptake—individual practitioners are more willing to use e-detailing than ones who operate within a group practice [16].
The author of the study points out that the collected data is valid for the state of Iowa and does not claim that the same relations will necessarily be observed with medical professionals elsewhere in the United States or globally. Nonetheless, the study presents robust guidelines as to the possible factors that influence the rate of adoption of e-detailing.
Our review based on detailed literature search describes e-detailing as a marketing tool and analyzes its potential for implementation in the pharmaceutical industry. Based on our research, we can make the following statements about this method:
E-detailing tends to supplement traditional meetings between sales reps and health professionals rather than replace them altogether. The main advantage of e-visits is not so much to decrease marketing expenses, as to increase the influence over customers. If pharmaceutical companies want to use these advantages, they have to be sure that valuable information about the customers is being received and this information can be used in all other communication channels.
It is important to define an adequate communication mix when presenting different products. In the earlier phases of the life cycle of a pharmaceutical product, e-detailing can seem rather to attract medical doctors, engage their interest, and satisfy the need for information about a new product. Understandably, customer preferences and their willingness to adopt new technologies are of crucial importance to the success of any new communication mix.
Although product information is an important factor, its reception will not likely to be a sufficient motivator for a medical doctor to use e-detailing. Because of that, pharmaceutical companies will have to consider other incentives to convince specialists to use the new communication channels. This is also a major problem when discussing development of more projects like that in Europe.
The electronic visits have the potential of decreasing marketing expenses, increasing access to medical doctors, and preserving at the same time many of the advantages of standard face-to-face meetings. It is a revolutionary method for promoting pharmaceutical products which increases both the quality and the variety of promotional activities of pharmaceutical companies. It proves its benefits for medical doctors and pharmaceutical companies alike. The approach is a major time-saver for the former while ensuring higher ROI for the latter. E-detailing is not a substitute for standard visits but allows medical sales reps to be more effective instead. Therefore, it should be regarded as a supplement to the standard company marketing mix to complement and strengthen the approaches currently in use.
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Saleh and Amal I. Hassan",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/11120.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",publishedDate:"June 23rd 2022",editors:[{id:"144691",title:"Prof.",name:"Hosam M.",middleName:null,surname:"Saleh",slug:"hosam-m.-saleh",fullName:"Hosam M. Saleh"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"10696",title:"Applications of Calorimetry",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"8c87f7e2199db33b5dd7181f56973a97",slug:"applications-of-calorimetry",bookSignature:"José Luis Rivera Armenta and Cynthia Graciela Flores Hernández",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10696.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",publishedDate:"June 23rd 2022",editors:[{id:"107855",title:"Dr.",name:"Jose Luis",middleName:null,surname:"Rivera Armenta",slug:"jose-luis-rivera-armenta",fullName:"Jose Luis Rivera Armenta"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}}]},subject:{topic:{id:"373",title:"Plant Ecology",slug:"plant-ecology",parent:{id:"41",title:"Plant Biology",slug:"agricultural-and-biological-sciences-plant-biology"},numberOfBooks:4,numberOfSeries:0,numberOfAuthorsAndEditors:126,numberOfWosCitations:211,numberOfCrossrefCitations:143,numberOfDimensionsCitations:325,videoUrl:null,fallbackUrl:null,description:null},booksByTopicFilter:{topicId:"373",sort:"-publishedDate",limit:12,offset:0},booksByTopicCollection:[{type:"book",id:"10777",title:"Plant Reproductive Ecology",subtitle:"Recent Advances",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"3fbf391f2093649bcf3bd674f7e32189",slug:"plant-reproductive-ecology-recent-advances",bookSignature:"Anjana Rustagi and Bharti Chaudhry",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10777.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"352604",title:null,name:"Anjana",middleName:null,surname:"Rustagi",slug:"anjana-rustagi",fullName:"Anjana Rustagi"}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"6308",title:"Cassava",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"da8363274dca1c87f27e55966728f14a",slug:"cassava",bookSignature:"Viduranga Waisundara",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/6308.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"194281",title:"Dr.",name:"Viduranga Y.",middleName:null,surname:"Waisundara",slug:"viduranga-y.-waisundara",fullName:"Viduranga Y. 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Issa, Mohamed Hemida Abd-Alla and Takuji Ohyama",authors:[{id:"169170",title:"Dr.",name:"Ahmed",middleName:null,surname:"Abdel-Salam Issa",slug:"ahmed-abdel-salam-issa",fullName:"Ahmed Abdel-Salam Issa"}]},{id:"45747",doi:"10.5772/56997",title:"Impact of Harsh Environmental Conditions on Nodule Formation and Dinitrogen Fixation of Legumes",slug:"impact-of-harsh-environmental-conditions-on-nodule-formation-and-dinitrogen-fixation-of-legumes",totalDownloads:4085,totalCrossrefCites:11,totalDimensionsCites:30,abstract:null,book:{id:"3806",slug:"advances-in-biology-and-ecology-of-nitrogen-fixation",title:"Advances in Biology and Ecology of Nitrogen Fixation",fullTitle:"Advances in Biology and Ecology of Nitrogen Fixation"},signatures:"Mohamed Hemida Abd-Alla, Ahmed A. Issa and Takuji Ohyama",authors:[{id:"169170",title:"Dr.",name:"Ahmed",middleName:null,surname:"Abdel-Salam Issa",slug:"ahmed-abdel-salam-issa",fullName:"Ahmed Abdel-Salam Issa"},{id:"30061",title:"Prof.",name:"Takuji",middleName:null,surname:"Ohyama",slug:"takuji-ohyama",fullName:"Takuji Ohyama"},{id:"169172",title:"Dr.",name:"Mohamed",middleName:null,surname:"Hemida Abd-Alla",slug:"mohamed-hemida-abd-alla",fullName:"Mohamed Hemida Abd-Alla"}]},{id:"46070",doi:"10.5772/57532",title:"Nitrogen Fixation Outside and Inside Plant Tissues",slug:"nitrogen-fixation-outside-and-inside-plant-tissues",totalDownloads:4406,totalCrossrefCites:13,totalDimensionsCites:26,abstract:null,book:{id:"3806",slug:"advances-in-biology-and-ecology-of-nitrogen-fixation",title:"Advances in Biology and Ecology of Nitrogen Fixation",fullTitle:"Advances in Biology and Ecology of Nitrogen Fixation"},signatures:"C.P. Chanway, R. Anand and H. Yang",authors:[{id:"170155",title:"Dr.",name:"Chris",middleName:null,surname:"Chanway",slug:"chris-chanway",fullName:"Chris Chanway"},{id:"170596",title:"Dr.",name:"Richa",middleName:null,surname:"Anand",slug:"richa-anand",fullName:"Richa Anand"},{id:"170597",title:"Mr.",name:"Henry",middleName:null,surname:"Yang",slug:"henry-yang",fullName:"Henry Yang"}]},{id:"33929",doi:"10.5772/33479",title:"Magnaporthe oryzae Genetic Diversity and Its Outcomes on the Search for Durable Resistance",slug:"magnaporthe-oryzae-genetic-diversity-and-its-outcomes-on-the-search-for-durable-resistance",totalDownloads:3620,totalCrossrefCites:3,totalDimensionsCites:19,abstract:null,book:{id:"2251",slug:"the-molecular-basis-of-plant-genetic-diversity",title:"The Molecular Basis of Plant Genetic Diversity",fullTitle:"The Molecular Basis of Plant Genetic Diversity"},signatures:"Klaus Konrad Scheuermann, Juliana Vieira Raimondi, Rubens Marschalek, Alexander de Andrade and Ester Wickert",authors:[{id:"95754",title:"Dr.",name:"Ester",middleName:null,surname:"Wickert",slug:"ester-wickert",fullName:"Ester Wickert"},{id:"137579",title:"Dr.",name:"Klaus",middleName:null,surname:"Konrad Scheuermann",slug:"klaus-konrad-scheuermann",fullName:"Klaus Konrad Scheuermann"},{id:"137581",title:"MSc.",name:"Juliana",middleName:null,surname:"Vieira Raimondi",slug:"juliana-vieira-raimondi",fullName:"Juliana Vieira Raimondi"},{id:"137584",title:"Dr.",name:"Alexander",middleName:null,surname:"De Andrade",slug:"alexander-de-andrade",fullName:"Alexander De Andrade"},{id:"137585",title:"Dr.",name:"Rubens",middleName:null,surname:"Marschalek",slug:"rubens-marschalek",fullName:"Rubens Marschalek"}]},{id:"46073",doi:"10.5772/56991",title:"Systemic Regulation of Root Nodule Formation",slug:"systemic-regulation-of-root-nodule-formation",totalDownloads:2648,totalCrossrefCites:7,totalDimensionsCites:15,abstract:null,book:{id:"3806",slug:"advances-in-biology-and-ecology-of-nitrogen-fixation",title:"Advances in Biology and Ecology of Nitrogen Fixation",fullTitle:"Advances in Biology and Ecology of Nitrogen Fixation"},signatures:"Takashi Soyano and Masayoshi Kawaguchi",authors:[{id:"169168",title:"Dr.",name:"Masayoshi",middleName:null,surname:"Kawaguchi",slug:"masayoshi-kawaguchi",fullName:"Masayoshi Kawaguchi"}]}],mostDownloadedChaptersLast30Days:[{id:"57031",title:"Ecophysiology and Production Principles of Cassava (Manihot species) in Southeastern Nigeria",slug:"ecophysiology-and-production-principles-of-cassava-manihot-species-in-southeastern-nigeria",totalDownloads:2109,totalCrossrefCites:3,totalDimensionsCites:6,abstract:"Cassava (Manihot species) is a crop of the humid tropics that belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae. Cultivated forms belong to the species “Manihot esculenta Crantz” and “Manihot utilissima Pohl.” Africa produces about 50–80 million tonnes of cassava annually; this translates into an average of more than 300 calories per day for more than 200 million people. Cassava can grow on relatively marginal soils and erratic rainfall conditions in southeastern, Nigeria. It quickly adapts and integrates into the traditional farming system, is easy to cultivate and process and it is available all year round acting as a buffer against crop failure. These characteristics make this root crop a necessary component of the farming system in many areas of Africa south of the Sahara. Some of the principal recommended cultivated varieties in Nigeria include; TME 419, TMS 90257, TMS 91934, TMS 81/00110, TMS 82/00661, TMS 30001, TMS 30555, TMS 30572 and local cultivars—Nwugo, Nwaiwa, Ekpe and Okotorowa that are popular in southeastern Nigeria. Cassava is expected to play increased role in Africa’s struggle to attain food and nutrition security through increased production and utilization. This paper examines the ecophysiology, production principles, pest and disease management, uses and constraint hampering cassava production in southeast Nigeria.",book:{id:"6308",slug:"cassava",title:"Cassava",fullTitle:"Cassava"},signatures:"Martin A.N. Anikwe and Ejike E. Ikenganyia",authors:[{id:"28328",title:"Prof.",name:"Martin",middleName:null,surname:"Anikwe",slug:"martin-anikwe",fullName:"Martin Anikwe"},{id:"220543",title:"MSc.",name:"Ejike",middleName:null,surname:"Ikenganyia",slug:"ejike-ikenganyia",fullName:"Ejike Ikenganyia"}]},{id:"57918",title:"Review of Various Harvesting Options for Cassava",slug:"review-of-various-harvesting-options-for-cassava",totalDownloads:3215,totalCrossrefCites:1,totalDimensionsCites:1,abstract:"Harvesting plays a critical role in the cassava production value chain. A review of some existing cassava harvesting options is necessary to facilitate the proper adaption and uptake of improved harvesting methods applicable to farmers from different parts of the globe. In terms of capacity, manual, semi-manual and fully mechanised harvesting options respectively require about 22–51 man-hha-1, 16-45 man-hha-1 and 1–4 man-hha-1. An added advantage with mechanised options is that the field is left ploughed after harvesting with savings on fuel, time and cost. Mechanised harvesters work best on ridged fields with minimal trash or weeds and relatively dry soils (12–16% d.b. moisture content). Earlier attempts at mechanised harvesting have been affected by constraints such as soil characteristics, nature and size of tubers, depth and width of cluster and bond between tubers and the soil, leading to high tuber damage. Though less research attention is given to cassava harvesting mechanisation, that aspect of the global cassava transformation agenda has always been the problem. There is still room for improvement in the provision of appropriate harvesting options for cassava worldwide and a more concerted effort from both the government and private sector is vital.",book:{id:"6308",slug:"cassava",title:"Cassava",fullTitle:"Cassava"},signatures:"Shadrack Kwadwo Amponsah, Ahmad Addo and Byju\nGangadharan",authors:[{id:"203117",title:"Dr.",name:"Shadrack",middleName:"Kwadwo",surname:"Amponsah",slug:"shadrack-amponsah",fullName:"Shadrack Amponsah"},{id:"220625",title:"Prof.",name:"Ahmad",middleName:null,surname:"Addo",slug:"ahmad-addo",fullName:"Ahmad Addo"},{id:"220626",title:"Dr.",name:"Gangadharan",middleName:null,surname:"Byju",slug:"gangadharan-byju",fullName:"Gangadharan Byju"}]},{id:"45885",title:"Nitrogen Fixation in Sugarcane",slug:"nitrogen-fixation-in-sugarcane",totalDownloads:4125,totalCrossrefCites:6,totalDimensionsCites:11,abstract:null,book:{id:"3806",slug:"advances-in-biology-and-ecology-of-nitrogen-fixation",title:"Advances in Biology and Ecology of Nitrogen Fixation",fullTitle:"Advances in Biology and Ecology of Nitrogen Fixation"},signatures:"Takuji Ohyama, Atsushi Momose, Norikuni Ohtake, Kuni Sueyoshi,\nTakashi Sato, Yasuhiro Nakanishi, Constancio A. Asis Jr., Soraya\nRuamsungsri and Shotaro Ando",authors:[{id:"30061",title:"Prof.",name:"Takuji",middleName:null,surname:"Ohyama",slug:"takuji-ohyama",fullName:"Takuji Ohyama"}]},{id:"56558",title:"Introductory Chapter: Cassava as a Staple Food",slug:"introductory-chapter-cassava-as-a-staple-food",totalDownloads:2091,totalCrossrefCites:7,totalDimensionsCites:7,abstract:null,book:{id:"6308",slug:"cassava",title:"Cassava",fullTitle:"Cassava"},signatures:"Viduranga Y. Waisundara",authors:[{id:"194281",title:"Dr.",name:"Viduranga Y.",middleName:null,surname:"Waisundara",slug:"viduranga-y.-waisundara",fullName:"Viduranga Y. Waisundara"}]},{id:"46074",title:"Effects of Rhizobium Inoculation on Nitrogen Fixation and Growth of Leguminous Green Manure Crop Hairy Vetch (Vicia villosa Roth)",slug:"effects-of-rhizobium-inoculation-on-nitrogen-fixation-and-growth-of-leguminous-green-manure-crop-hai",totalDownloads:3162,totalCrossrefCites:1,totalDimensionsCites:2,abstract:null,book:{id:"3806",slug:"advances-in-biology-and-ecology-of-nitrogen-fixation",title:"Advances in Biology and Ecology of Nitrogen Fixation",fullTitle:"Advances in Biology and Ecology of Nitrogen Fixation"},signatures:"Takashi Sato",authors:[{id:"41434",title:"Dr.",name:"Takashi",middleName:null,surname:"Sato",slug:"takashi-sato",fullName:"Takashi Sato"}]}],onlineFirstChaptersFilter:{topicId:"373",limit:6,offset:0},onlineFirstChaptersCollection:[{id:"81798",title:"Protein Metabolism in Plants to Survive against Abiotic Stress",slug:"protein-metabolism-in-plants-to-survive-against-abiotic-stress",totalDownloads:29,totalDimensionsCites:0,doi:"10.5772/intechopen.102995",abstract:"Plants are frequently subjected to several abiotic environmental stresses under natural conditions causing profound impacts on agricultural yield and quality. Plants can themselves develop a wide variety of efficient mechanisms to respond environmental challenges. Tolerance and acclimation of plants are always related to significant changes in protein, cellular localization, posttranscription, and posttranslational modifications. Protein response pathways as well as pathways unique to a given stress condition shared by plants under different stressed environment are discussed in this chapter. The various signaling of protein such as fluctuation, overexpression, and silencing of the protein gene are observed to be modulated in drought-tolerant plants. Similarly, gene expression, RNA processing, and metabolic process take place to cope with drought conditions. For adaption in water-submerged conditions, plants undergo reactive oxygen species (ROS), cell wall modification, proteolysis, and post-recovery protein metabolism. Heat shock protein and protein and lipid contents vary and play pivotal role in resisting low and high temperatures. In a nutshell, this paper provides an overview of several modification, synthesis, degradation, and metabolism of protein in plants to cope with and revive again to normal growing conditions against abiotic stress, emphasizing drought, submerged, extreme cold, and heat temperatures.",book:{id:"10905",title:"Plant Defense Mechanisms",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10905.jpg"},signatures:"Bharti Thapa and Abhisek Shrestha"},{id:"80923",title:"Salt Stress Tolerance in Rice and Wheat: Physiological and Molecular Mechanism",slug:"salt-stress-tolerance-in-rice-and-wheat-physiological-and-molecular-mechanism",totalDownloads:70,totalDimensionsCites:0,doi:"10.5772/intechopen.101529",abstract:"Salinity is a major obstacle to global grain crop production, especially rice and wheat. The identification and improvement of salt-tolerant rice and wheat depending upon the genetic diversity and salt stress response could be a promising solution to deal with soil salinity and the increasing food demands. Plant responses to salt stress occur at the organismic, cellular, and molecular levels and the salt stress tolerance in those crop plant involving (1) regulation of ionic homeostasis, (2) maintenance of osmotic potential, (3) ROS scavenging and antioxidant enzymes activity, and (4) plant hormonal regulation. In this chapter, we summarize the recent research progress on these four aspects of plant morpho-physiological and molecular response, with particular attention to ionic, osmolytic, enzymatic, hormonal and gene expression regulation in rice and wheat plants. Moreover, epigenetic diversity could emerge as novel of phenotypic variations to enhance plant adaptation to an adverse environmental conditions and develop stable stress-resilient crops. The information summarized here will be useful for accelerating the breeding of salt-tolerant rice. This information may help in studies to reveal the mechanism of plant salt tolerance, screen high efficiency and quality salt tolerance in crops.",book:{id:"10905",title:"Plant Defense Mechanisms",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10905.jpg"},signatures:"Mohammad Hasanuzzaman"},{id:"80091",title:"Molecular Defense Mechanisms in Plants to Tolerate Toxic Action of Heavy Metal Environmental Pollution",slug:"molecular-defense-mechanisms-in-plants-to-tolerate-toxic-action-of-heavy-metal-environmental-polluti",totalDownloads:26,totalDimensionsCites:0,doi:"10.5772/intechopen.102330",abstract:"Toxic action of heavy metals on plants growing in contaminated soils intensified the research on detoxification and sequestering mechanisms existing in plants to understand and manipulate defense mechanisms that confer tolerance against metal ions. Increased biosynthesis of plant biomolecules to confer tolerance during toxic action of heavy metals is an intrinsic ability of plants. Induced formation of low-molecular weight amino acids, peptides or proteines as chelators such as proline (Pro), glutathione (GSH), phytochelatins (PCs) or metallothioneins (MTs) under heavy metal stress enhances metal binding and detoxification capability of plants. In addition, proline and GSH related enzymes such as GSH reductase, GSH peroxidases and glutathione S-transferases are also key components of the antioxidant defense system in the cells to scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS). Protective action of oxidized fatty acids oxylipins at toxic levels of heavy metals is considered to activate detoxification processes as signaling molecules.",book:{id:"10905",title:"Plant Defense Mechanisms",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10905.jpg"},signatures:"Istvan Jablonkai"},{id:"80723",title:"Intra-Annual Variation in Leaf Anatomical Traits of an Overwintering Shrub of High Elevations of Himalaya",slug:"intra-annual-variation-in-leaf-anatomical-traits-of-an-overwintering-shrub-of-high-elevations-of-him",totalDownloads:34,totalDimensionsCites:0,doi:"10.5772/intechopen.102016",abstract:"Trait variability in response to seasonal variations can be hypothesised as an advantageous strategy for overwintering shrubs. This hypothesis was tested by elucidating patterns of trait variation in an evergreen alpine shrub, Rhododendron anthopogon D. Don. The study site was established at Rohtang (3990 m a.s.l.) in western Himalaya. Its leaves were sampled at 10 time points spanning a period of 1 year (beginning from 22-August-2017 to 14-August-2018) for estimating anatomical traits using light and scanning electron microscopy. The data were analysed using one-way analysis of variance, and the trait-temperature relationships were analysed using linear regression. The results indicated a lower variability in the anatomical traits. A few traits (e.g. cuticle thickness and epidermal scales) were found to be significantly correlated with temperature (p < 0.05). Our analysis revealed increase in cuticle thickness and a decrease in epidermal scales (size) during low-temperature conditions. The lesser variability found in anatomical traits of overwintering shrub could be explained as ‘evolutionary gained adaptive traits’.",book:{id:"10905",title:"Plant Defense Mechanisms",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10905.jpg"},signatures:"Nikita Rathore, Dinesh Thakur, Nang Elennie Hopak and Amit Chawla"},{id:"80587",title:"Morpho-Anatomical Adaptation against Salinity",slug:"morpho-anatomical-adaptation-against-salinity",totalDownloads:73,totalDimensionsCites:0,doi:"10.5772/intechopen.101681",abstract:"Plants tolerant of NaCl, implement several adjustments to acclimate to salt stress, such as biochemical, physiological, and morphological modifications. Besides, plants also adjust to saline circumstances by altering their anatomical structure of roots, leaves, and morphological modifications. The leaf and roots are among the essential plant organs and are involved in the transport of water and minerals used for photosynthesis. From a plant physiology perspective, water use efficiency in the quantity of CO2 fixed in photosynthesis compared to the leaf anatomy. In this review, we provide a comparative account of the morphology of the leaf and root under normal and salt stress circumstances. There is little information on the ultrastructure changes elicited in response to salt stress. The analysis expands our knowledge of how salt may impact the leaves and root anatomy.",book:{id:"10905",title:"Plant Defense Mechanisms",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10905.jpg"},signatures:"Smita Srivastava"},{id:"80201",title:"Nutrients Deficit and Water Stress in Plants: New Concept Solutions Using Olive Solid Waste",slug:"nutrients-deficit-and-water-stress-in-plants-new-concept-solutions-using-olive-solid-waste",totalDownloads:81,totalDimensionsCites:0,doi:"10.5772/intechopen.101523",abstract:"Great efforts were deployed by researchers to mobilize water resources while is becoming rarer and to control with efficiency the water besides nutrient needs for the plant. Autonomous water and nutritional anti-stress device for plants (AWANASD) based on the recovery of rainwater patented by Medhioub et al. fits into this general framework. Scientific efforts were also dedicated to preserve the environment and minimize energy consumption through using agricultural waste materials in different fields. This chapter provides a new concept based on the use of the olive solid waste in AWANASD as water storage and nutrient elements for plants giving rise to the new system called AWANASD-OSW.",book:{id:"10905",title:"Plant Defense Mechanisms",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10905.jpg"},signatures:"Samir Medhioub, Slah Bouraoui, Ali Ellouze and Hassen Sabeur"}],onlineFirstChaptersTotal:9},preDownload:{success:null,errors:{}},subscriptionForm:{success:null,errors:{}},aboutIntechopen:{},privacyPolicy:{},peerReviewing:{},howOpenAccessPublishingWithIntechopenWorks:{},sponsorshipBooks:{sponsorshipBooks:[],offset:8,limit:8,total:0},allSeries:{pteSeriesList:[{id:"14",title:"Artificial Intelligence",numberOfPublishedBooks:9,numberOfPublishedChapters:89,numberOfOpenTopics:6,numberOfUpcomingTopics:0,issn:"2633-1403",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.79920",isOpenForSubmission:!0},{id:"7",title:"Biomedical Engineering",numberOfPublishedBooks:12,numberOfPublishedChapters:104,numberOfOpenTopics:3,numberOfUpcomingTopics:0,issn:"2631-5343",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.71985",isOpenForSubmission:!0}],lsSeriesList:[{id:"11",title:"Biochemistry",numberOfPublishedBooks:31,numberOfPublishedChapters:314,numberOfOpenTopics:4,numberOfUpcomingTopics:0,issn:"2632-0983",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.72877",isOpenForSubmission:!0},{id:"25",title:"Environmental Sciences",numberOfPublishedBooks:1,numberOfPublishedChapters:11,numberOfOpenTopics:4,numberOfUpcomingTopics:0,issn:"2754-6713",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.100362",isOpenForSubmission:!0},{id:"10",title:"Physiology",numberOfPublishedBooks:11,numberOfPublishedChapters:141,numberOfOpenTopics:4,numberOfUpcomingTopics:0,issn:"2631-8261",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.72796",isOpenForSubmission:!0}],hsSeriesList:[{id:"3",title:"Dentistry",numberOfPublishedBooks:8,numberOfPublishedChapters:129,numberOfOpenTopics:2,numberOfUpcomingTopics:0,issn:"2631-6218",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.71199",isOpenForSubmission:!0},{id:"6",title:"Infectious Diseases",numberOfPublishedBooks:13,numberOfPublishedChapters:113,numberOfOpenTopics:3,numberOfUpcomingTopics:1,issn:"2631-6188",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.71852",isOpenForSubmission:!0},{id:"13",title:"Veterinary Medicine and Science",numberOfPublishedBooks:11,numberOfPublishedChapters:105,numberOfOpenTopics:3,numberOfUpcomingTopics:0,issn:"2632-0517",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.73681",isOpenForSubmission:!0}],sshSeriesList:[{id:"22",title:"Business, Management and Economics",numberOfPublishedBooks:1,numberOfPublishedChapters:18,numberOfOpenTopics:2,numberOfUpcomingTopics:1,issn:"2753-894X",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.100359",isOpenForSubmission:!0},{id:"23",title:"Education and Human Development",numberOfPublishedBooks:0,numberOfPublishedChapters:5,numberOfOpenTopics:1,numberOfUpcomingTopics:1,issn:null,doi:"10.5772/intechopen.100360",isOpenForSubmission:!0},{id:"24",title:"Sustainable Development",numberOfPublishedBooks:0,numberOfPublishedChapters:14,numberOfOpenTopics:5,numberOfUpcomingTopics:0,issn:null,doi:"10.5772/intechopen.100361",isOpenForSubmission:!0}],testimonialsList:[{id:"6",text:"It is great to work with the IntechOpen to produce a worthwhile collection of research that also becomes a great educational resource and guide for future research endeavors.",author:{id:"259298",name:"Edward",surname:"Narayan",institutionString:null,profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/259298/images/system/259298.jpeg",slug:"edward-narayan",institution:{id:"3",name:"University of Queensland",country:{id:null,name:"Australia"}}}},{id:"13",text:"The collaboration with and support of the technical staff of IntechOpen is fantastic. The whole process of submitting an article and editing of the submitted article goes extremely smooth and fast, the number of reads and downloads of chapters is high, and the contributions are also frequently cited.",author:{id:"55578",name:"Antonio",surname:"Jurado-Navas",institutionString:null,profilePictureURL:"https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/intech-files/0030O00002bRisIQAS/Profile_Picture_1626166543950",slug:"antonio-jurado-navas",institution:{id:"720",name:"University of Malaga",country:{id:null,name:"Spain"}}}}]},series:{item:{id:"14",title:"Artificial Intelligence",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.79920",issn:"2633-1403",scope:"Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly developing multidisciplinary research area that aims to solve increasingly complex problems. In today's highly integrated world, AI promises to become a robust and powerful means for obtaining solutions to previously unsolvable problems. This Series is intended for researchers and students alike interested in this fascinating field and its many applications.",coverUrl:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/series/covers/14.jpg",latestPublicationDate:"June 11th, 2022",hasOnlineFirst:!0,numberOfPublishedBooks:9,editor:{id:"218714",title:"Prof.",name:"Andries",middleName:null,surname:"Engelbrecht",slug:"andries-engelbrecht",fullName:"Andries Engelbrecht",profilePictureURL:"https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/intech-files/0030O00002bRNR8QAO/Profile_Picture_1622640468300",biography:"Andries Engelbrecht received the Masters and PhD degrees in Computer Science from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, in 1994 and 1999 respectively. He is currently appointed as the Voigt Chair in Data Science in the Department of Industrial Engineering, with a joint appointment as Professor in the Computer Science Division, Stellenbosch University. Prior to his appointment at Stellenbosch University, he has been at the University of Pretoria, Department of Computer Science (1998-2018), where he was appointed as South Africa Research Chair in Artifical Intelligence (2007-2018), the head of the Department of Computer Science (2008-2017), and Director of the Institute for Big Data and Data Science (2017-2018). In addition to a number of research articles, he has written two books, Computational Intelligence: An Introduction and Fundamentals of Computational Swarm Intelligence.",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Stellenbosch University",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"South Africa"}}},editorTwo:null,editorThree:null},subseries:{paginationCount:6,paginationItems:[{id:"22",title:"Applied Intelligence",coverUrl:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/series_topics/covers/22.jpg",isOpenForSubmission:!0,editor:{id:"27170",title:"Prof.",name:"Carlos",middleName:"M.",surname:"Travieso-Gonzalez",slug:"carlos-travieso-gonzalez",fullName:"Carlos Travieso-Gonzalez",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/27170/images/system/27170.jpeg",biography:"Carlos M. Travieso-González received his MSc degree in Telecommunication Engineering at Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), Spain in 1997, and his Ph.D. degree in 2002 at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC-Spain). He is a full professor of signal processing and pattern recognition and is head of the Signals and Communications Department at ULPGC, teaching from 2001 on subjects on signal processing and learning theory. His research lines are biometrics, biomedical signals and images, data mining, classification system, signal and image processing, machine learning, and environmental intelligence. He has researched in 52 international and Spanish research projects, some of them as head researcher. He is co-author of 4 books, co-editor of 27 proceedings books, guest editor for 8 JCR-ISI international journals, and up to 24 book chapters. He has over 450 papers published in international journals and conferences (81 of them indexed on JCR – ISI - Web of Science). He has published seven patents in the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office. He has been a supervisor on 8 Ph.D. theses (11 more are under supervision), and 130 master theses. He is the founder of The IEEE IWOBI conference series and the president of its Steering Committee, as well as the founder of both the InnoEducaTIC and APPIS conference series. He is an evaluator of project proposals for the European Union (H2020), Medical Research Council (MRC, UK), Spanish Government (ANECA, Spain), Research National Agency (ANR, France), DAAD (Germany), Argentinian Government, and the Colombian Institutions. He has been a reviewer in different indexed international journals (<70) and conferences (<250) since 2001. He has been a member of the IASTED Technical Committee on Image Processing from 2007 and a member of the IASTED Technical Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems from 2011. \n\nHe has held the general chair position for the following: ACM-APPIS (2020, 2021), IEEE-IWOBI (2019, 2020 and 2020), A PPIS (2018, 2019), IEEE-IWOBI (2014, 2015, 2017, 2018), InnoEducaTIC (2014, 2017), IEEE-INES (2013), NoLISP (2011), JRBP (2012), and IEEE-ICCST (2005)\n\nHe is an associate editor of the Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience Journal (Hindawi – Q2 JCR-ISI). He was vice dean from 2004 to 2010 in the Higher Technical School of Telecommunication Engineers at ULPGC and the vice dean of Graduate and Postgraduate Studies from March 2013 to November 2017. He won the “Catedra Telefonica” Awards in Modality of Knowledge Transfer, 2017, 2018, and 2019 editions, and awards in Modality of COVID Research in 2020.\n\nPublic References:\nResearcher ID http://www.researcherid.com/rid/N-5967-2014\nORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4621-2768 \nScopus Author ID https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=6602376272\nScholar Google https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=G1ks9nIAAAAJ&hl=en \nResearchGate https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carlos_Travieso",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"Spain"}}},editorTwo:null,editorThree:null},{id:"23",title:"Computational Neuroscience",coverUrl:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/series_topics/covers/23.jpg",isOpenForSubmission:!0,editor:{id:"14004",title:"Dr.",name:"Magnus",middleName:null,surname:"Johnsson",slug:"magnus-johnsson",fullName:"Magnus Johnsson",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/14004/images/system/14004.png",biography:"Dr Magnus Johnsson is a cross-disciplinary scientist, lecturer, scientific editor and AI/machine learning consultant from Sweden. \n\nHe is currently at Malmö University in Sweden, but also held positions at Lund University in Sweden and at Moscow Engineering Physics Institute. \nHe holds editorial positions at several international scientific journals and has served as a scientific editor for books and special journal issues. \nHis research interests are wide and include, but are not limited to, autonomous systems, computer modeling, artificial neural networks, artificial intelligence, cognitive neuroscience, cognitive robotics, cognitive architectures, cognitive aids and the philosophy of mind. \n\nDr. Johnsson has experience from working in the industry and he has a keen interest in the application of neural networks and artificial intelligence to fields like industry, finance, and medicine. \n\nWeb page: www.magnusjohnsson.se",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"Malmö University",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"Sweden"}}},editorTwo:null,editorThree:null},{id:"24",title:"Computer Vision",coverUrl:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/series_topics/covers/24.jpg",isOpenForSubmission:!0,editor:{id:"294154",title:"Prof.",name:"George",middleName:null,surname:"Papakostas",slug:"george-papakostas",fullName:"George Papakostas",profilePictureURL:"https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/intech-files/0030O00002hYaGbQAK/Profile_Picture_1624519712088",biography:"George A. Papakostas has received a diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1999 and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2002 and 2007, respectively, from the Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH), Greece. Dr. Papakostas serves as a Tenured Full Professor at the Department of Computer Science, International Hellenic University, Greece. Dr. Papakostas has 10 years of experience in large-scale systems design as a senior software engineer and technical manager, and 20 years of research experience in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Currently, he is the Head of the “Visual Computing” division of HUman-MAchines INteraction Laboratory (HUMAIN-Lab) and the Director of the MPhil program “Advanced Technologies in Informatics and Computers” hosted by the Department of Computer Science, International Hellenic University. He has (co)authored more than 150 publications in indexed journals, international conferences and book chapters, 1 book (in Greek), 3 edited books, and 5 journal special issues. His publications have more than 2100 citations with h-index 27 (GoogleScholar). His research interests include computer/machine vision, machine learning, pattern recognition, computational intelligence. \nDr. Papakostas served as a reviewer in numerous journals, as a program\ncommittee member in international conferences and he is a member of the IAENG, MIR Labs, EUCogIII, INSTICC and the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE).",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"International Hellenic University",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"Greece"}}},editorTwo:null,editorThree:null},{id:"25",title:"Evolutionary Computation",coverUrl:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/series_topics/covers/25.jpg",isOpenForSubmission:!0,editor:{id:"136112",title:"Dr.",name:"Sebastian",middleName:null,surname:"Ventura Soto",slug:"sebastian-ventura-soto",fullName:"Sebastian Ventura Soto",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/136112/images/system/136112.png",biography:"Sebastian Ventura is a Spanish researcher, a full professor with the Department of Computer Science and Numerical Analysis, University of Córdoba. Dr Ventura also holds the positions of Affiliated Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, USA) and Distinguished Adjunct Professor at King Abdulaziz University (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia). Additionally, he is deputy director of the Andalusian Research Institute in Data Science and Computational Intelligence (DaSCI) and heads the Knowledge Discovery and Intelligent Systems Research Laboratory. He has published more than ten books and over 300 articles in journals and scientific conferences. Currently, his work has received over 18,000 citations according to Google Scholar, including more than 2200 citations in 2020. In the last five years, he has published more than 60 papers in international journals indexed in the JCR (around 70% of them belonging to first quartile journals) and he has edited some Springer books “Supervised Descriptive Pattern Mining” (2018), “Multiple Instance Learning - Foundations and Algorithms” (2016), and “Pattern Mining with Evolutionary Algorithms” (2016). He has also been involved in more than 20 research projects supported by the Spanish and Andalusian governments and the European Union. He currently belongs to the editorial board of PeerJ Computer Science, Information Fusion and Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence journals, being also associate editor of Applied Computational Intelligence and Soft Computing and IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics. Finally, he is editor-in-chief of Progress in Artificial Intelligence. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE Computer, the IEEE Computational Intelligence, and the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Societies, and the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). Finally, his main research interests include data science, computational intelligence, and their applications.",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"University of Córdoba",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"Spain"}}},editorTwo:null,editorThree:null},{id:"26",title:"Machine Learning and Data Mining",coverUrl:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/series_topics/covers/26.jpg",isOpenForSubmission:!0,editor:{id:"24555",title:"Dr.",name:"Marco Antonio",middleName:null,surname:"Aceves Fernandez",slug:"marco-antonio-aceves-fernandez",fullName:"Marco Antonio Aceves Fernandez",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/24555/images/system/24555.jpg",biography:"Dr. Marco Antonio Aceves Fernandez obtained his B.Sc. (Eng.) in Telematics from the Universidad de Colima, Mexico. He obtained both his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Liverpool, England, in the field of Intelligent Systems. He is a full professor at the Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro, Mexico, and a member of the National System of Researchers (SNI) since 2009. Dr. Aceves Fernandez has published more than 80 research papers as well as a number of book chapters and congress papers. He has contributed in more than 20 funded research projects, both academic and industrial, in the area of artificial intelligence, ranging from environmental, biomedical, automotive, aviation, consumer, and robotics to other applications. He is also a honorary president at the National Association of Embedded Systems (AMESE), a senior member of the IEEE, and a board member of many institutions. His research interests include intelligent and embedded systems.",institutionString:"Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro",institution:{name:"Autonomous University of Queretaro",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"Mexico"}}},editorTwo:null,editorThree:null},{id:"27",title:"Multi-Agent Systems",coverUrl:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/series_topics/covers/27.jpg",isOpenForSubmission:!0,editor:{id:"148497",title:"Dr.",name:"Mehmet",middleName:"Emin",surname:"Aydin",slug:"mehmet-aydin",fullName:"Mehmet Aydin",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/148497/images/system/148497.jpg",biography:"Dr. Mehmet Emin Aydin is a Senior Lecturer with the Department of Computer Science and Creative Technology, the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK. His research interests include swarm intelligence, parallel and distributed metaheuristics, machine learning, intelligent agents and multi-agent systems, resource planning, scheduling and optimization, combinatorial optimization. Dr. Aydin is currently a Fellow of Higher Education Academy, UK, a member of EPSRC College, a senior member of IEEE and a senior member of ACM. In addition to being a member of advisory committees of many international conferences, he is an Editorial Board Member of various peer-reviewed international journals. He has served as guest editor for a number of special issues of peer-reviewed international journals.",institutionString:null,institution:{name:"University of the West of England",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"United Kingdom"}}},editorTwo:null,editorThree:null}]},overviewPageOFChapters:{paginationCount:19,paginationItems:[{id:"82196",title:"Multi-Features Assisted Age Invariant Face Recognition and Retrieval Using CNN with Scale Invariant Heat Kernel Signature",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.104944",signatures:"Kamarajugadda Kishore Kumar and Movva Pavani",slug:"multi-features-assisted-age-invariant-face-recognition-and-retrieval-using-cnn-with-scale-invariant-",totalDownloads:6,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:0,authors:null,book:{title:"Pattern Recognition - New Insights",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/11442.jpg",subseries:{id:"26",title:"Machine Learning and Data Mining"}}},{id:"82063",title:"Evaluating Similarities and Differences between Machine Learning and Traditional Statistical Modeling in Healthcare Analytics",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.105116",signatures:"Michele Bennett, Ewa J. Kleczyk, Karin Hayes and Rajesh Mehta",slug:"evaluating-similarities-and-differences-between-machine-learning-and-traditional-statistical-modelin",totalDownloads:6,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:0,authors:null,book:{title:"Machine Learning and Data Mining - Annual Volume 2022",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/11422.jpg",subseries:{id:"26",title:"Machine Learning and Data Mining"}}},{id:"81791",title:"Self-Supervised Contrastive Representation Learning in Computer Vision",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.104785",signatures:"Yalin Bastanlar and Semih Orhan",slug:"self-supervised-contrastive-representation-learning-in-computer-vision",totalDownloads:24,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:0,authors:null,book:{title:"Pattern Recognition - New Insights",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/11442.jpg",subseries:{id:"26",title:"Machine Learning and Data Mining"}}},{id:"79345",title:"Application of Jump Diffusion Models in Insurance Claim Estimation",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.99853",signatures:"Leonard Mushunje, Chiedza Elvina Mashiri, Edina Chandiwana and Maxwell Mashasha",slug:"application-of-jump-diffusion-models-in-insurance-claim-estimation-1",totalDownloads:8,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:0,authors:null,book:{title:"Data Clustering",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10820.jpg",subseries:{id:"26",title:"Machine Learning and Data Mining"}}}]},overviewPagePublishedBooks:{paginationCount:9,paginationItems:[{type:"book",id:"7723",title:"Artificial Intelligence",subtitle:"Applications in Medicine and Biology",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7723.jpg",slug:"artificial-intelligence-applications-in-medicine-and-biology",publishedDate:"July 31st 2019",editedByType:"Edited by",bookSignature:"Marco Antonio Aceves-Fernandez",hash:"a3852659e727f95c98c740ed98146011",volumeInSeries:1,fullTitle:"Artificial Intelligence - Applications in Medicine and Biology",editors:[{id:"24555",title:"Dr.",name:"Marco Antonio",middleName:null,surname:"Aceves Fernandez",slug:"marco-antonio-aceves-fernandez",fullName:"Marco Antonio Aceves Fernandez",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/24555/images/system/24555.jpg",biography:"Dr. Marco Antonio Aceves Fernandez obtained his B.Sc. (Eng.) in Telematics from the Universidad de Colima, Mexico. He obtained both his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Liverpool, England, in the field of Intelligent Systems. He is a full professor at the Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro, Mexico, and a member of the National System of Researchers (SNI) since 2009. Dr. Aceves Fernandez has published more than 80 research papers as well as a number of book chapters and congress papers. He has contributed in more than 20 funded research projects, both academic and industrial, in the area of artificial intelligence, ranging from environmental, biomedical, automotive, aviation, consumer, and robotics to other applications. He is also a honorary president at the National Association of Embedded Systems (AMESE), a senior member of the IEEE, and a board member of many institutions. His research interests include intelligent and embedded systems.",institutionString:"Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro",institution:{name:"Autonomous University of Queretaro",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"Mexico"}}}]},{type:"book",id:"7726",title:"Swarm Intelligence",subtitle:"Recent Advances, New Perspectives and Applications",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7726.jpg",slug:"swarm-intelligence-recent-advances-new-perspectives-and-applications",publishedDate:"December 4th 2019",editedByType:"Edited by",bookSignature:"Javier Del Ser, Esther Villar and Eneko Osaba",hash:"e7ea7e74ce7a7a8e5359629e07c68d31",volumeInSeries:2,fullTitle:"Swarm Intelligence - Recent Advances, New Perspectives and Applications",editors:[{id:"49813",title:"Dr.",name:"Javier",middleName:null,surname:"Del Ser",slug:"javier-del-ser",fullName:"Javier Del Ser",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/49813/images/system/49813.png",biography:"Prof. Dr. Javier Del Ser received his first PhD in Telecommunication Engineering (Cum Laude) from the University of Navarra, Spain, in 2006, and a second PhD in Computational Intelligence (Summa Cum Laude) from the University of Alcala, Spain, in 2013. He is currently a principal researcher in data analytics and optimisation at TECNALIA (Spain), a visiting fellow at the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM) and a part-time lecturer at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). His research interests gravitate on the use of descriptive, prescriptive and predictive algorithms for data mining and optimization in a diverse range of application fields such as Energy, Transport, Telecommunications, Health and Industry, among others. In these fields he has published more than 240 articles, co-supervised 8 Ph.D. theses, edited 6 books, coauthored 7 patents and participated/led more than 40 research projects. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, and a recipient of the Biscay Talent prize for his academic career.",institutionString:"Tecnalia Research & Innovation",institution:null}]},{type:"book",id:"7656",title:"Fuzzy Logic",subtitle:null,coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/7656.jpg",slug:"fuzzy-logic",publishedDate:"February 5th 2020",editedByType:"Edited by",bookSignature:"Constantin Volosencu",hash:"54f092d4ffe0abf5e4172a80025019bc",volumeInSeries:3,fullTitle:"Fuzzy Logic",editors:[{id:"1063",title:"Prof.",name:"Constantin",middleName:null,surname:"Volosencu",slug:"constantin-volosencu",fullName:"Constantin Volosencu",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/1063/images/system/1063.png",biography:"Prof. Dr. Constantin Voloşencu graduated as an engineer from\nPolitehnica University of Timișoara, Romania, where he also\nobtained a doctorate degree. He is currently a full professor in\nthe Department of Automation and Applied Informatics at the\nsame university. Dr. Voloşencu is the author of ten books, seven\nbook chapters, and more than 160 papers published in journals\nand conference proceedings. He has also edited twelve books and\nhas twenty-seven patents to his name. He is a manager of research grants, editor in\nchief and member of international journal editorial boards, a former plenary speaker, a member of scientific committees, and chair at international conferences. His\nresearch is in the fields of control systems, control of electric drives, fuzzy control\nsystems, neural network applications, fault detection and diagnosis, sensor network\napplications, monitoring of distributed parameter systems, and power ultrasound\napplications. 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\r\n\tThe environment is subject to severe anthropic effects. Among them are those associated with pollution, resource extraction and overexploitation, loss of biodiversity, soil degradation, disorderly land occupation and planning, and many others. These anthropic effects could potentially be caused by any inadequate management of the environment. However, ecosystems have a resilience that makes them react to disturbances which mitigate the negative effects. It is critical to understand how ecosystems, natural and anthropized, including urban environments, respond to actions that have a negative influence and how they are managed. It is also important to establish when the limits marked by the resilience and the breaking point are achieved and when no return is possible. The main focus for the chapters is to cover the subjects such as understanding how the environment resilience works, the mechanisms involved, and how to manage them in order to improve our interactions with the environment and promote the use of adequate management practices such as those outlined in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
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