"Fundamentals of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine" provides a complete overview of the state of the art in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Tissue engineering has grown tremendously during the past decade. Advances in genetic medicine and stem cell technology have significantly improved the potential to influence cell and tissue performance, and have recently expanded the field towards regenerative medicine. In recent years a number of approaches have been used routinely in daily clinical practice, others have been introduced in clinical studies, and multitudes are in the preclinical testing phase. Because of these developments, there is a need to provide comprehensive and detailed information for researchers and clinicians on this rapidly expanding field. This book offers, in a single volume, the prerequisites of a comprehensive understanding of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The book is conceptualized according to a didactic approach (general aspects: social, economic, and ethical considerations; basic biological aspects of regenerative medicine: stem cell medicine, biomolecules, genetic engineering; classic methods of tissue engineering: cell, tissue, organ culture; biotechnological issues: scaffolds; bioreactors, laboratory work; and an extended medical discipline oriented approach: review of clinical use in the various medical specialties). The content of the book, written in 68 chapters by the world’s leading research and clinical specialists in their discipline, represents therefore the recent intellect, experience, and state of this bio-medical field.

This book highlights the recent advances of thermodynamics and biophysics in drug delivery nanosystems and in biomedical nanodevices. The up-to-date book provides an in-depth knowledge of bio-inspired nanotechnological systems for pharmaceutical applications. Biophysics and thermodynamics, supported by mathematics, are the locomotive by which the drug transportation and the targeting processes will be achieved under the light of the modern pharmacotherapy. They are considered as scientific tools that promote the understanding of physicochemical and thermotropic functionality and behavior of artificial cell membranes and structures like nanoparticulate systems. Therefore, this book focusses on new aspects of biophysics and thermodynamics as important elements for evaluating biomedical nanosystems, and it correlates their physicochemical, biophysical and thermodynamical behaviour with those of a living organism. In 2018, Prof. Demetzos was honored with an award by the Order of Sciences of the Academy of Athens for his scientific contribution in Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology.

Over 3 million U.S. military personnel were sent to Southeast Asia to fight in the Vietnam War. Since the end of the Vietnam War, veterans have reported numerous health effects. Herbicides used in Vietnam, in particular Agent Orange have been associated with a variety of cancers and other long term health problems from Parkinson's disease and type 2 diabetes to heart disease. Prior to 1997 laws safeguarded all service men and women deployed to Vietnam including members of the Blue Navy. Since then, the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) has established that Vietnam veterans are automatically eligible for disability benefits should they develop any disease associated with Agent Orange exposure, however, veterans who served on deep sea vessels in Vietnam are not included. These "Blue Water Navy" veterans must prove they were exposed to Agent Orange before they can claim benefits. At the request of the VA, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) examined whether Blue Water Navy veterans had similar exposures to Agent Orange as other Vietnam veterans. Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans and Agent Orange Exposure comprehensively examines whether Vietnam veterans in the Blue Water Navy experienced exposures to herbicides and their contaminants by reviewing historical reports, relevant legislation, key personnel insights, and chemical analysis to resolve current debate on this issue.

Since the 1980s there has been a renewed interest in attempts to introduce a sense of history into economic literature. In this text, the authors argue that it is not possible to explain a state of the world without first analyzing the processes that lead to that state.