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The elapsing time from producer to consumer has significantly increased as a result of food marketing and trade globalization. Consequently, maintaining quality along the food value chain is becoming a significant challenge. Postharvest losses are considered a major component of food loss and waste in the supply chain from farmers to consumers, due to improper handling, storage, transport, preservation techniques and spoilage. Postharvest science aims to extend the shelf life of fresh and perishable commodities, and to reduce heavy losses, thereby contributing to food security. While significant progresses have been made in postharvest preservation and shelf-life extension, the continuous development of emerging technologies have changed our vision on postharvest science. Furthermore, recent advancements in molecular engineering of horticultural crops for quality improvement; the development of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics have led to a better understanding of the physiology and the biochemistry of the senescence processes, resulting in better preservation and improved production of fresh crops. This two-volume work focuses on innovative technologies that extend and preserve shelf life of fruits and vegetables. Volume 1 offers a review on the state of the art modern technologies in the postharvest filed. The accompanying Volume 2 explores advanced and novel technologies after harvest, particularly the application of nanotechnologies to packaging materials.

This book provides a review of innovative and novel biotechnological techniques that can be implemented to assess, analyze, and mitigate harmful pollutants and wastes that result from agricultural and industrial operations. It helps to meet the much-needed demand for improvement of low-cost technologies that tackle pollution problems scientifically for the safeguard of the environment, focusing on bioremediation solutions that also create useful and renewable forms of energy.The biotechnological interventions discussed in the volume include approaches involving genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and fluxomics. In addition, biological agents such as microalgae, bacteria, fungi, and bacteriophage, which can also prove to be helpful in the elimination of wastes, are explored. Topics in Environmental Biotechnology: Sustainable Remediation of Contamination in Different Environs include the associated consequences and hazards from agricultural and industrial waste and a variety of bioremediation measures, including the use of bioaugmentation, biosensors, challenges of biofuel production, and more.The book is directed to researchers, scientists, industrialists, farmers, agricultural waste management authorities, as well as to faculty and students, and aims to help implement these novel technologies for environmental stability.

Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of biotechnology, this book covers the role of targeted delivery of polymeric nanodrugs to cancer cells, microbial detoxifying enzymes in bioremediation and bacterial plasmids in antimicrobial resistance. It addresses modern trends such as pharmacogenomics, evaluation of gene expression, recombinant proteins from methylotrophic yeast, identification of novel fermentation inhibitors of bioethanol production, and polyhydroxyalkanoate based biomaterials. The book highlights the practical utility of biotechnology and bioinformatics for bioenergy, production of high value biochemicals, modeling molecular interactions, drug discovery, and personalized medicine.

BRIAN H. DAVISON Oak Ridge National Laboratory MARK FINKELSTEIN National Renewable Energy Laboratory CHARLES E. WYMAN Oak Ridge National Laboratory The Eighteenth Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemi­ cals continues to provide a forum for the presentation of research results and the exchange of ideas on advances in biotechnology for the produc­ tion of fuels and chemicals. Although the emphasis is on utilization of renewable resources, the scope of the Symposium is broader than this and includes bioconversion of fossil fuels and syngas and the new area of conversions in nonaqueous environments; these areas were discussed in Session 5 and in a Special Topic Discussion Group at the Symposium. In addition, recent developments in bioremediation were well represented in Session 6 and in the poster session. The Symposium involved both the development of new biological agents (such as enzymes or microbes) to carry out targeted conversions as well as bioprocess development. The first area covered improvements in enzymes as well as fundamental insights into substrate-enzyme inter­ actions and photosynthesis. The latter area focused on converting one material into another using biological agents through combinations of chemical engineering, biological sciences, and fermentation technology. This area also refers to an overall processing involving at least one bio­ logically catalyzed step in combination with other physical and/ or chemi­ cal processing operations. Agricultural crops, such as corn and corn fiber as well as woody biomass and lignocellulosic wastes, are emphasized for process feedstocks and their pretreatment investigated.

153 posters. While plant biotechnology for enzyme production and designer biomass merged as'hot topics'throughout the Symposium, the preface for each session is included in the introductions. Special topic discussions were led on'Brazilian Bioethanol Progress'by Gisella Zanin, State University of Maringa, Brazil, and on'Nontradi­ tional Bioprocessing'by Gene Petersen, National Renewable Energy Labo­ ratory, Golden, CO. A tour of the Colorado Bioprocessing Center, a'state of the art'con­ tract research facility at Colorado State University highlighted the process development and scale-up activities ongoing with several industrial clients. The 1999 Charles D. Scott Award for Distinguished Contributions in the field of Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals was presented to Dr. Charles E. Wyman, Dartmouth College professor, Thayer School of Engineering, Hanover, New Hampshire. This award is named in honor of Dr. Charles D. Scott, the founder of this Symposium and its chair for the first ten years.

With recent developments in the polymer, ceramic, sensor, and fuel cell technology, a range of novel materials have been manufactured for advanced, compact, and electronic industry. Polymers, silicon, energy materials have received much attention in recent years.'Advanced Functional Materials'gives the most recent research results on polymer, fine ceramics, sensor, and green fuel cells. The content of this book, mainly based on the authors'recent research results, covers a broad spectrum including: the advanced inorganic-organic-hybrid polymeric materials, high functional sensor, and microbial fuel cells. The book is suitable for the researchers working in the areas of polymer, nanotechnology, ceramic engineering, engineering thermoplastic, energy and power engineering, chemical engineering and materials, etc. Hee-Gweon Woo is a professor at the Department of Chemistry, Chonnam National University, the Republic of Korea. Hong Li is a professor at the Institute of Polymer Chemistry, Nankai University, China.

Published since 1959, Advances in Applied Microbiology continues to be one of the most widely read and authoritative review sources in microbiology. The series contains comprehensive reviews of the most current research in applied microbiology. Recent areas covered include bacterial diversity in the human gut, protozoan grazing of freshwater biofilms, metals in yeast fermentation processes and the interpretation of host-pathogen dialogue through microarrays. Eclectic volumes are supplemented by thematic volumes on various topics, including Archaea and sick building syndrome. Impact factor for 2007: 1.821. - Contributions from leading authorities and industry experts - Informs and updates on all the latest developments in the field - Reference and guide for scientists and specialists involved in advancements in applied microbiology

The first comprehensive general resource on state-of-the-art protocell research, describing current approaches to making new forms of life from scratch in the laboratory. Protocells offers a comprehensive resource on current attempts to create simple forms of life from scratch in the laboratory. These minimal versions of cells, known as protocells, are entities with lifelike properties created from nonliving materials, and the book provides in-depth investigations of processes at the interface between nonliving and living matter. Chapters by experts in the field put this state-of-the-art research in the context of theory, laboratory work, and computer simulations on the components and properties of protocells. The book also provides perspectives on research in related areas and such broader societal issues as commercial applications and ethical considerations. The book covers all major scientific approaches to creating minimal life, both in the laboratory and in simulation. It emphasizes the bottom-up view of physicists, chemists, and material scientists but also includes the molecular biologists'top-down approach and the origin-of-life perspective. The capacity to engineer living technology could have an enormous socioeconomic impact and could bring both good and ill. Protocells promises to be the essential reference for research on bottom-up assembly of life and living technology for years to come. It is written to be both resource and inspiration for scientists working in this exciting and important field and a definitive text for the interested layman.

Sol-gel processing is a soft-chemistry method to obtain functional materials at low temperatures. This route can be used to produce very sophisticated nanomaterials and to tailor the materials to very specific applications. Adsorption and detection of pollutants, water purification and soil remediation represent challenging fields of application that can be exploited by sol-gel materials. In this volume several contributions from invited speakers and participants at the NATO advanced research workshop on'Sol-gel approaches to materials for pollution control, water purification and soil remediation', which has been held in Kiev, Ukraine on October 2007, are reported. The book offers a wide and updated overview of the most advanced sol-gel methods for materials processing and at the same time presents several case studies concerning possible solutions for environmental issues. General articles on sol-gel from the invited speakers and focused research articles allow getting inside sol-gel applications on this very important field.

Springer Handbook of Enzymes provides data on enzymes sufficiently well characterized. It offers concise and complete descriptions of some 5,000 enzymes and their application areas. Data sheets are arranged in their EC-Number sequence and the volumes themselves are arranged according to enzyme classes. This new, second edition reflects considerable progress in enzymology: many enzymes are newly classified or reclassified. Each entry is correlated with references and one or more source organisms. New datafields are created: application and engineering (for the properties of enzymes where the sequence has been changed). The total amount of material contained in the Handbook has more than doubled so that the complete second edition consists of 39 volumes as well as a Synonym Index. In addition, starting in 2009, all newly classified enzymes are treated in Supplement Volumes. Springer Handbook of Enzymes is an ideal source of information for researchers in biochemistry, biotechnology, organic and analytical chemistry, and food sciences, as well as for medicinal applications.