The papers included in this issue of ECS Transactions were originally presented in the symposium ¿Impedance Techniques: Diagnostics and Sensing Applications¿, held during the 216th meeting of The Electrochemical Society, in Vienna, Austria from October 4 to 9, 2009. Since its inception in 2003, the main objective of this symposium has been bringing together leading experts with a variety of different experimental and theoretical skills working in areas of electrochemical impedance technology and analytical systems.

Recent progress in the synthesis of nanomaterials and our fundamental understanding of their properties has led to significant advances in nanomaterial-based gas, chemical and biological sensors. Leading experts around the world highlight the latest findings on a wide range of nanomaterials including nanoparticles, quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, molecularly imprinted nanostructures or plastibodies, nanometals, DNA-based structures, smart nanomaterials, nanoprobes, magnetic nanomaterials, organic molecules like phthalocyanines and porphyrins, and the most amazing novel nanomaterial, called graphene. Various sensing techniques such as nanoscaled electrochemical detection, functional nanomaterial-amplified optical assays, colorimetry, fluorescence and electrochemiluminescence, as well as biomedical diagnosis applications, e.g. for cancer and bone disease, are thoroughly reviewed and explained in detail. This volume will provide an invaluable source of information for scientists working in the field of nanomaterial-based technology as well as for advanced students in analytical chemistry, biochemistry, electrochemistry, material science, micro- and nanotechnology.

This book includes basics of impedance spectroscopy technology, substrate compatibility issues, integration capabilities, and several applications in the detection of different analytes. It helps explore the importance of this technique in biological detection, related micro/nanofabricated platforms and respective integration, biological synthesis schemes to carry out the detection, associated challenges, and related future directions. The various qualitative/quantitative findings of several modules are summarized in the form of the detailed descriptions, schematics, and tables. Features: Serves as a single source for exploring underlying fundamental principles and the various biological applications through impedance spectroscopy. Includes chapters based on nonbiological applications of impedance spectroscopy and IoT-enabled impedance spectroscopy-based methods for detection. Discusses derivations, substrates, applications, and several integrations. Describes micro/nanofabrication of impedance-based biological sensors. Reviews updated integrations like digital manufacturing and IoT. This book is aimed at researchers and graduate students in material science, impedance spectroscopy, and biosensing.

Recent advances in information and communication technologies, embedded systems and sensor networks have generated significant research activity in the development of so-called cyber-physical systems. An example of a large network of cyber-physical systems is a smart city with intelligent infrastructures for supporting the environment, energy and water distribution, transportation, telecommunication, health care, home automation, and so on. From a systems point of view, safety, reliability and fault tolerance become key challenges in designing cyber-physical systems. One of the major issues is detecting and correcting faults in the sensors that form a critical part of these networks and systems. For example, if two sensors should provide similar information, how do you know which one is at fault should their readings suddenly greatly differ? Sensor Fault Diagnosis addresses all the issues in sensor fault detection and isolation. It provides a clear tutorial on the challenges and models that can be used to address them. It describes, in detail, the requirements for modeling the systems, designing the architecture, detecting faults, isolating those faults, and presents learning techniques for enhancing performance. This monograph will appeal to all researchers and students working on large sensor networks and systems.

In the United States, hospitals annually report over 5 million cases of infectious-disease-related illnesses: clinical microbiology laboratories in these hospitals are engaged in detecting and identifying the pathogenic microorganisms in clinical specimens collected from these patients with suspected infections. Clearly, the timely and accurate detection/identification of these microbial pathogens is critical for patient treatment decisions and outcomes for millions of patients each year. Despite an appreciation that the outcome of an infectious-disease-related illness is directly related to the time required to detect and identify a microbial pathogen, clinical microbiology laboratories in the United States as well as worldwide have long been hampered by traditional culture-based assays, which may require prolonged incubation time for slowly growing microorganisms such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Moreover, traditional culture-based assays often require multiple steps with additional time needed for discernment of species and/or detection of antimicrobial resistance. Finally, these traditional, slow multistep culture-based assays are labor-intensive and required skilled clinical microbiologists at the bench. Over the past several decades, advanced molecular techniques in diagnostic microbiology quietly have been revolutionizing the practice of clinical microbiology in the hospital setting. Indeed, molecular diagnostic testing in general and nucleic-acid-based amplification methods in particular have been heralded as diagnostic tools for the new millennium. There is no question that the development of rapid molecular techniques for nucleic acid amplification/characterization combined with automation and user-friendly software has greatly broadened the diagnostic capabilities of the clinical microbiology laboratory. These technical advances in molecular microbiology over the first decade of the 21st Century have profoundly influenced the physical structure of clinical microbiology laboratories as well as their staffing patterns, workflow, and turnaround time. These molecular microbiology advances have also resulted in the need for a revised and updated second edition of Advanced Techniques in Diagnostic Microbiology. This second edition again provides an updated and comprehensive description of the ongoing evolution of molecular methods for the diagnosis of infectious diseases. In addition, many new chapters have been added, including a chapter on the clinical interpretation and relevance of advanced technique results. The second edition, like the first edition, includes both a “techniques” section describing the latest molecular techniques and an “applications” section describing how these advanced molecular techniques are being used in the clinical setting. Finally, the second edition, like the first edition, utilizes a diverse team of authors who have compiled chapters that provide the reader with comprehensive and useable information on advanced molecular microbiology techniques.

This volume comprises papers presented at the 2nd International Conference on Advanced Nondestructive Evaluation (ANDE 2007) held in Busan, Korea, on October 17-19, 2007. Many of the excellent papers included in this book show the current state of nondestructive technologies, which are experiencing rapid progress with the integration of emerging technologies in various fields. As such, this volume provides an avenue for both specialists and scholars to share their ideas and the results of their findings in the field of nondestructive evaluation.

Voltammetry for Sensing Applications familiarizes readers with recent advancements in the field of electrochemical analysis. The book features 16 chapters which cover many applications of voltammetric analysis such as drug testing and analysis, sensors for point-of-care devices, sensors for diverse analysis, advanced energy storage devices, clinical sample analysis, sensors for the detection of heavy metals, nanomaterials, disease detection, immune sensors, food sample analysis, and anti-inflammatory and anticancer drug detection. Many of the current methods of voltammetry offer increased stability, repeatability, high performance, cost-effectiveness, time-saving, sensitivity, and the chapters also cover appropriate applications for the sensing tools and methodologies which are imperative in electrochemical, environment, biological, medicinal, and food safety analysis. This informative reference serves as a timely and comprehensive update on voltammetry and sensing materials for chemistry scholars and industrial chemists alike.