Trends in Spatial Analysis and Modelling

This book summarizes current knowledge and outlines directions for the future on how to improve the art of diagnosing colorectal cancer with emphasis on timeliness, one of the most vital issues in cancer management. Using a comprehensive, multi-discliplinary approach, it provides an overview of decisive factors in timely diagnosis of colorectal cancer from symptom scores and symptom awareness to technical aspects.  

The book starts by discussing early diagnosis from the perspective of patients, including the importance of awareness in the general population as well as psychological aspects. It then goes on to discuss issues of importance to clinicians, such as fast tracking, laboratory testing, improving technical skills and optimizing endoscopy services. By focusing on one specific but common form of cancer the content translates and can be used by professionals working on different cancer types.

This book provides clinicians, clinical researchers and policymakers with a comprehensive overview of the field of timeliness in diagnosing colorectal cancer. By addressing the challenges posed in the management of symptomatic patients it informs and educates the experts and could help improve diagnosis.

Martin Behnisch received his diploma and doctoral degrees at the Department of Architecture, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. He also received a degree in Wood Processing Technologies (University of Cooperative Education, Dresden, Germany) and a master's degree in Geographical Information Science (University of Salzburg, Austria) with distinction. He worked in Switzerland as a post-doctoral researcher (2007-2011) at the Institute of Historic Building Research (ETH Zurich). He is currently a senior scientist at the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development. His research interests are in spatial analysis and modeling, urban data mining, spatial monitoring, land use science as well as building stock research. He has published numerous refereed articles in international journals, scientific books and conference proceedings in his discipline.

Dr. Gotthard Meinel is specialist in the field of monitoring of land use development. His research interests are indicator development, automated spatial analysis of large datasets and visualization technologies. Since 1992 he has been acting as a project leader in the field of informatics, GIS and remote sensing at Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER). Since 2009 he has been head of the research area 'Monitoring of settlement and open space development' at IOER in Dresden. He received an M.S. in Information Technology in 1981 and a Ph.D. degree in Image Processing at Dresden University of Technology in 1987. Later he was a postdoctoral researcher in biomathematics and technical mathematics. He has published more than 100 research articles in international journals and refereed conference proceedings.