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This book reports on advanced biomaterials such as bioceramics, hydrogels, biopolymers, nanomaterials, membranes, and other compatible materials for medical applications. It introduces materials as bioactive coatings that utilize or mimic natural mechanisms and structures important for tissue and organ healing and repair. One section of the book is devoted to bone substitutes and osteogenic biomaterials. It also describes biomaterial-cell-tissue interactions, which are of critical importance for various applications in regenerative medicine, orthopedics, and implant functions. The chapters present fabrication methods and testing of various materials for medical applications. Special emphasis is given to natural patterns, theoretical models, and new insights into material characterization, particularly on fractal natural boundaries and mimicry designs taken from nature and implemented in photonics science and engineering. This multidisciplinary book is written by leading researchers andexperts in their fields, and serves researchers, students, physicians, and engineers.

MACHINE INTELLIGENCE, BIG DATA ANALYTICS, AND IoT IN IMAGE PROCESSING Discusses both theoretical and practical aspects of how to harness advanced technologies to develop practical applications such as drone-based surveillance, smart transportation, healthcare, farming solutions, and robotics used in automation. The concepts of machine intelligence, big data analytics, and the Internet of Things (IoT) continue to improve our lives through various cutting-edge applications such as disease detection in real-time, crop yield prediction, smart parking, and so forth. The transformative effects of these technologies are life-changing because they play an important role in demystifying smart healthcare, plant pathology, and smart city/village planning, design and development. This book presents a cross-disciplinary perspective on the practical applications of machine intelligence, big data analytics, and IoT by compiling cutting-edge research and insights from researchers, academicians, and practitioners worldwide. It identifies and discusses various advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT, image processing, network security, cloud computing, and sensors, to provide effective solutions to the lifestyle challenges faced by humankind. Machine Intelligence, Big Data Analytics, and IoT in Image Processing is a significant addition to the body of knowledge on practical applications emerging from machine intelligence, big data analytics, and IoT. The chapters deal with specific areas of applications of these technologies. This deliberate choice of covering a diversity of fields was to emphasize the applications of these technologies in almost every contemporary aspect of real life to assist working in different sectors by understanding and exploiting the strategic opportunities offered by these technologies. Audience The book will be of interest to a range of researchers and scientists in artificial intelligence who work on practical applications using machine learning, big data analytics, natural language processing, pattern recognition, and IoT by analyzing images. Software developers, industry specialists, and policymakers in medicine, agriculture, smart cities development, transportation, etc. will find this book exceedingly useful.

Hydrogels Based on Natural Polymers presents the latest research on natural polymer-based hydrogels, covering fundamentals, preparation methods, synthetic pathways, advanced properties, major application areas, and novel characterization techniques. The advantages and disadvantages of each natural polymer-based hydrogel are also discussed, enabling preparation tactics for specific properties and applications. Sections cover fundamentals, development, characteristics, structures and properties. Additional chapters cover presentation methods and properties based on natural polymers, including physical and chemical properties, stimuli-responsive properties, self-healing properties, and biological properties. The final section presents major applications areas, including the biomedical field, agriculture, water treatments, and the food industry. This is a highly valuable resource for academic researchers, scientists and advanced students working with hydrogels and natural polymers, as well as across the fields of polymer science, polymer chemistry, plastics engineering, biopolymers and biomaterials. The detailed information will also be of great interest to scientists and R&D professionals, product designers, technicians and engineers across industries. - Provides systematic coverage of all aspects of hydrogels based on natural polymers, including fundamentals, preparation methods, properties and characterization - Offers a balanced assessment of the specific properties and possibilities offered by different natural polymer-based hydrogels, drawing on innovative research - Examines cutting-edge applications across biomedicine, agriculture, water treatments, and the food industry

Energy and climate change are two of the most critical issues nowadays. These two topics are also correlated to each other. Fossil fuels are the main energy supplies that have been used in modern history since the industrial revolution. The impact of CO2 emission has been a major concern for its effect on global warming and other consequences. In addition, fossil fuels are not unlimited. Due to the increasing demands for energy supplies, alternative renewable, sustainable, environmentally friendly energy resources are desirable.Solar energy is an unlimited, clean, and renewable energy source, which can be considered to replace the energy supply of fossil fuel. The silicon solar cell is one of the dominant photovoltaic technologies currently, which converting sunlight directly into electric power with around 20% efficiency. This technique was been widely used in mainstream solar energy applications for decades, though the relatively energy-demanding production process remained with challenges to be resolved.Recently, emerging photovoltaic technologies such as organometal halide hybrid perovskite solar cell has attracted tremendous attention due to their promising power conversion efficiencies (over 22%) and ease of fabrication. Their progress roadmap is unprecedented in photovoltaic history from the material development and efficiency advancement perspective. Beyond the rapid progress achieved in the last few years, it is expected that this novel technology would make an impact on the future solar cell market providing long-term stability and Pb content issues are addressed. These challenges rely on a better understanding of materials and device function principles. The scope of this book is to provide a collection on the recent investigations from fundamental process, materials development to device optimization for perovskite solar cells.

This thesis reports on essential advances in the design, synthesis and biomedical applications of multifunctional Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles (MSNs). It provides several examples of multifunctional MSN-based drug delivery nanosystems and demonstrates successful synergistic cancer therapies combining MSNs and high-intensity focused ultrasound. The book will especially be of interest to researchers and graduate students in the fields of biomaterials, biology, chemistry, medicine and the life sciences who are working to develop new methods and technologies to combat cancer.