This book was developed with the goal of providing an easily understood text for those users of the scanning electron microscope (SEM) who have little or no background in the area. The SEM is routinely used to study the surface structure and chemistry of a wide range of biological and synthetic materials at the micrometer to nanometer scale. Ease-of-use, typically facile sample preparation, and straightforward image interpretation, combined with high resolution, high depth of field, and the ability to undertake microchemical and crystallographic analysis, has made scanning electron microscopy one of the most powerful and versatile techniques for characterization today. Indeed, the SEM is a vital tool for the characterization of nanostructured materials and the development of nanotechnology. However, its wide use by professionals with diverse technical backgrounds-including life science, materials science, engineering, forensics, mineralogy, etc., and in various sectors of government, industry, and academia-emphasizes the need for an introductory text providing the basics of effective SEM imaging.A Beginners' Guide to Scanning Electron Microscopy explains instrumentation, operation, image interpretation and sample preparation in a wide ranging yet succinct and practical text, treating the essential theory of specimen-beam interaction and image formation in a manner that can be effortlessly comprehended by the novice SEM user. This book provides a concise and accessible introduction to the essentials of SEM includes a large number of illustrations specifically chosen to aid readers' understanding of key concepts highlights recent advances in instrumentation, imaging and sample preparation techniques offers examples drawn from a variety of applications that appeal to professionals from diverse backgrounds.

New York City has the largest medical examiner's office in the United States, and the Brooklyn division is the busiest of the five boroughs. Charles A. Catanese received his Forensic Pathology fellowship training in New York, and then worked full time as a Medical Examiner in the Brooklyn office for more than 10 years. He has personally performed more than 4000 autopsies, including over 400 homicides. Dr. Catanese has worked through several disasters, including TWA Flight 800, AA Flight 587, and more than nine months on the World Trade Center fatalities. He is currently the Chief Medical Examiner of Orange County, New York. Drawing on his wealth of knowledge and experience in solving some of the most difficult cases a forensic examiner could encounter, he assembles hundreds of images from his own work experience to present the Color Atlas of Forensic Medicine and Pathology. Featuring twice the number of images as any other forensic pathology atlas, the book is filled with high-resolution photos that demonstrate postmortem changes of the human body and the different types of patterns produced in deaths caused by: Natural causes Diagnostic or therapeutic procedures Substance abuse Poisoning Child abuse Firearms Blunt instruments Sharp instruments Burns Asphyxia This easy-to-read atlas, created for medical and non-medical personnel, covers basic and advanced forensic concepts that relate to all manners of deaths. The carefully worded, unambiguous text describing each photo and the side-by-side comparisons of similar, yet different, pathologies make this remarkable atlas a powerful teaching tool for all those who must confront and solve the mystery of human demise. A fully searchable DVD version is also available.

Low-lying Pacific island nations are experiencing the frontline of sea-level rises and climate change and are responding creatively and making-sense in their own vernacular terms. Pacific Climate Cultures aims to bring Oceanic philosophies to the frontline of social science theorization. It explores the home-grown ways that 'climate change' becomes absorbed into the combined effects of globalization and into a living nexus of relations amongst human and non-humans, spirits and elements. Contributors to this edited volume explore diverse examples of living climate change-from floods and cyclones, through song and navigation, to new forms of art, community initiatives and cultural appropriations-and demonstrate their international relevance in understanding climate change. A Prelude by His Highness Tui Atua Efi and Afterword by Anne Salmond frame an Introduction by Tony Crook & Peter Rudiak-Gould and nine chapters by contributors including John Connell, Elfriede Hermann & Wolfgang Kempf and Cecilie Rubow. Endorsement from Professor Margaret Jolly, Australian National University: This exciting volume offers innovative insights on climate cultures across Oceania. It critically interrogates Western environmental sciences which fail to fully appreciate Oceanic knowledges and practices. It reveals how climate science can be both 'a weapon of the weak' and 'an act of symbolic violence of the powerful'. A compelling series of studies in the Cook islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea and Samoa suggest not diverse cultural constructions of 'natural facts' but processes of knowledge exchange and at best a respectful reciprocity in confronting present challenges and disturbing future scenarios. 'Home-grown' Pacific discourses and ways of living emphasise the interconnections of all life on earth and in our cosmos; they do not differentiate between the natural and the moral, between environmental and cultural transformations. These studies evoke the creative agency of Oceanic peoples, too often seen as on the vanguard of victimhood in global representations of climate change, and offer distinctive visions for all humanity in these troubling times.

Adopting a novel approach, this book provides a unique "molecular perspective" on plasmonics, concisely presenting the fundamentals and applications in a way suitable for beginners entering this hot field as well as for experienced researchers and practitioners.
It begins by introducing readers to the optical effects that occur at the nanoscale and particularly their modification in the presence of biomolecules, followed by a concise yet thorough overview of the different methods for the actual fabrication of nano-optical materials. Further chapters address the relevant nano-optics, as well as the various approaches to combining nanostructures and biomolecules to achieve certain desired functionalities for applications in the fields of probing, sensing and particle manipulation.
For analytical biologists, physical chemists, materials scientists and medicinal chemists.

Recent improvements in healthcare delivery due to innovative technological advancements have redefined fields of biomedical science now allowing for enhanced information management, resource allocation, and quality assurance. Biocomputation and Biomedical Informatics: Case Studies and Applications provides a compendium of terms, definitions, and explanations of concepts, processes, and acronyms in this significant medical field of study. Featuring chapters authored by leading international experts, this unsurpassed collection provides a defining body of research indispensible to medical libraries, researchers, and institutions worldwide.