Water is an indispensable resource for our society. Essential to sustaining life and economic prosperity, water is also the basic component for manufacturing almost everything to keep society alive, including energy, food, clothing, cars, and electronics, among many other examples. It is, thus, an integral part of our lives beyond simply quenching our thirst. In addition, our future economy and security highly depend upon the availability of clean water. Yet given its critical importance, there is a limited supply of renewable freshwater across the globe and there is no substitute. Global population and economic growth, urbanization, and climate change further exacerbate the increasing stress on freshwater supplies. As such, society urgently needs to find the scientific and engineering solutions to more efficiently manage our precious water resources. The volumes of this multi-volume reference cover the latest scientific advancements and solutions in managing and treating this crucial resource.Related Link(s)

"Water is an indispensable resource for our society. Essential to sustaining life and economic prosperity, water is also the basic component for manufacturing almost everything to keep society alive, including energy, food, clothing, cars, and electronics, among many other examples. It is, thus, an integral part of our lives beyond simply quenching our thirst. In addition, our future economy and security highly depend upon the availability of clean water. Yet given its critical importance, there is a limited supply of renewable freshwater across the globe and there is no substitute. Global population and economic growth, urbanization, and climate change further exacerbate the increasing stress on freshwater supplies. As such, society urgently needs to find the scientific and engineering solutions to more efficiently manage our precious water resources. The volumes of this multi-volume reference cover the latest scientific advancements and solutions in managing and treating this crucial resource"--

Volume 1:Biofabrication aims to produce artificially manufactured tissues and organs, potentially revolutionizing conventional paradigm of clinical practice in treating diseases and extending the life span and quality of human beings. In this volume, we invite notable experts in the field of biofabrication and biomanufacturing to summarize recent rapid progress in this field from multifaceted aspects covering biofabrication techniques and building materials such as scaffold and living cells. Specifically, a focus is placed on a variety of techniques derived from 3D bioprinting and bioassembly strategies, such as acoustic assembly and electrofabrication. Moreover, principles and strategies for choosing hydrogels and polymers for biofabrication are also heavily discussed. Overall, this book creates a good opportunity for undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as bioengineers and medical researchers who wish to gain a fundamental understanding of current status and future trends in biofabrication and biomanufacturing.Volume 2:Infertility has become a significant psychosocial burden affecting the lives of couples who cannot reproduce naturally. Advanced reproductive technologies (ARTs) are being developed to treat infertility. This handbook explores significant development of ARTs for fertility testing, selection of sperm, oocyte and embryo, reproductive monitors, automation in embryology, and fertility preservation. This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the myriad of emerging technologies and systems that are being utilized or will be utilized in near future in reproductive clinics. Overall this book creates a good opportunity for undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as scientists and medical researchers who wish to gain fundamental understanding of current status and future trends in fertility and reproductive medicine.Volume 3:Healthcare industry has a notable paradigm transition from centralized care to the point-of-care (POC). During this metamorphosis, a number of new technologies and strategies have been adapted to the current practice, addressing the existing challenges in the fields of medicine and biology. All the efforts aim to improve the clinical management and the effectiveness and quality of care. In particular, diagnostics has pivotal roles in guiding clinical management for the most effective treatment to control and cure the disease. In contrast to the existing diagnostic strategies employing bulky-sized tools, expensive infrastructure, laborious protocols, and lengthy processing steps, the contribution of biosensors to current healthcare system, especially to diagnostics, is paramount. The unprecedented and admirable characteristics of biosensing strategies have expanded our knowledge on medicine and biology by harmonizing materials science, chemistry, physics, and engineering. We believe that biosensors applied to disease diagnostics will not only garner more attention in clinical research to decipher disease biology and mechanism, and also, stimulate innovative perspectives in artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT) synergistically, thereby their more facile adaptation to daily-use. Overall this book creates a good opportunity for undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as scientists and medical researchers who wish to gain fundamental understanding of current status and future trends in diagnostic technologies.

The dynamism in modern Asia, especially with the current revival in Japan, stands in sharp contrast to the situation in Europe. An in-depth understanding of what is happening in contemporary Asia is key to grasping opportunities that this dynamism creates for all. This multi-volume reference work consists of three up-to-date and comprehensive volumes on Asia and the world economy. It covers the most important aspects of the world economy as they pertain to Asia in the increasingly accelerating globalization process and is a must-have for anyone keen to understand Asia and the contemporary world.The three-volume set covers the climate change challenges and solutions from the Asian perspectives, focusing on both domestic arrangements and trade-based options, and discusses scenario analyses for future climate regimes; the sustainability of growth in the Indian economy determined by analyzing the role of economic, technological and environmental factors and lastly, the growth experiences and prospects of India and China.

The central theme, which threads through the entire book, concerns computational modeling methods for water. Modeling results for pure liquid water, water near ions, water at interfaces, water in biological microsystems, and water under other types of perturbations such as laser fields are described. Connections are made throughout the book with statistical mechanical theoretical methods on the one hand and with experimental data on the other. The book is expected to be useful not only for theorists and computer analysts interested in the physical, chemical, biological and geophysical aspects of water, but also for experimentalists in these fields.

The World Scientific Reference of Hybrid Materials is a set of 3 volumes, which covers the fascinating area of materials science at the intersection between purely polymeric, organic or inorganic materials. The rapidly developing research on hybrid materials is largely driven by the steadily increasing need of multifunctional materials in various branches of technology. However, much of the research is also driven by the curiosity of the researchers and the long lasting wish to merge the most beneficial properties of the various materials into one. The flexibility of polymers could, for example, be merged with the electronic conductivity of metals or the mechanical resistance of ceramics, which will be of great value for the industries.This reference covers the areas of synthesis of such hybrid materials, which take benefit from each of the consisting ingredients, and overviews some of the emerging applications based on the materials. Much of the current research is still in its infancy, but hybrid materials are already now considered to be the key enabler for important future developments, for example flexible electronics. With this perspective, this reference aims at giving the general public an overview over the topics of relevance in this field, but also attracting new researchers to this intriguing scientific area.

Nanomaterials have become a key component for energy-related applications. Their design principle, synthesis and applications are well discussed in various scientific and engineering books, but a gap remains in discussions regarding the application of cutting-edge X-ray techniques to these materials. This volume provides insights from the latest development of X-ray techniques to investigate nanomaterials in specific energy fields, bridging the gap between X-ray analytical scientists and material researchers.We aim to provide researchers with a tool to choose suitable X-ray techniques, carry them out with the right procedure, and analyze the data to give the best reliable results. The approach is microscopic and specific. Among the applications emphasized by the chapters in this book are x-ray techniques in heterogeneous catalysis, electrocatalysis for fuel cells, photocatalysis for water splitting and carbon dioxide reduction, organic photovoltaics, and other energy-related applications.