Application areas examples diagnosis

In the chemical engineering domain, neural nets have been applied to a variety of problems. Examples include diagnosis (66,67), process modeling (68,69), process control (70,71), and data interpretation (72,73). Industrial application areas include distillation column operation (74), fluidized-bed combustion (75), petroleum refining (76), and composites manufacture (77). 

The surface of any material governs its interactions with the environment. Knowledge over and control of these interaction is especially important when a material is in contact with the biosystem, for example, when applied as transplant, in tissue engineering, in cell cultures, and in blood contact, as weU as in biosensors in medicinal diagnosis, fluids analysis, environmental moititoring, and many other areas. Whereas, on the one hand, the bulk properties of the material are essential for its successful application, for example, as a catheter or a heart valve, special attention has to be paid to render to the surface suitable biocompatible or bioactive properties, no matter of the chemical composition of the bulk material. This is usually achieved by any surface modification process by low molar mass or polymeric compounds. An essential feature of such a modification procedure is the need for a permanent and bioresistant surface finish [87]. 

The lab-on-a-chip field is an area in quick development, and many studies have been developed for different applications. The common goal is reflected in overcoming the limitations presented by such devices, preserving their advantages, which consequently enables the development of new microdevices with improved functionality, autonomy, point of care, and performance (Cardoso and Minas, 2011). Particularly, for diagnosis applications, three examples of different applications will be referred to below. 

An interesting area, which involves chiral liquid crystal properties, is that of temperature sensors, used, for example, in the diagnosis of skin cancer, as well as in peripheral blood circulation problems. Another application in the medical field is represented by nematic elastomer films or fibers of liquid crystalline polymers with mesogene in the side chain, that can be used in the manufacture of muscle prosthesis [28]. To optimize their performance for different applications, the current knowledge on the relationship between the structure and properties of liquid crystals should be extended. In addition to further development of liquid crystals and their applications, the liquid crystal theories represent a sound basis for other areas of interest. For example, liquid crystals can be used as model compounds for the study of molecular interactions and of their effects on self-organization in supramolecular chemistry. 

Materials based on (or modified with) smart polymers, for example polymer-grafted surfaces, may revolutionize certain areas of biotechnology and medicine since the ensuing ability for self-recovery, self-adjustment or control, self-diagnosis, stand-by capability for detecting nonlinear onset, but also the ability to be externally tuned could be exploited in various ways. Table 6.1 summarizes a selection of possible applications of such materials in the life sciences. 

While this article presents and concentrates on examples of the common and routine use of mass spectrometry in the diagnosis of metabolic disease, many other applications are important in the identification and quantitation of metabolites in other areas of clinical medicine. 

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