This important new book provides innovative material, including peer-reviewed chapters and survey articles on new applied research and development, in the scientifically important field of QSAR in medicinal chemistry. QSAR is a growing field because available computing power is continuously increasing, QSAR's potential is enormous, limited only by the quantity and quality of the available experimental input, which are also continuously improving. The number of possible structures for the design of new organic compounds is difficult to imagine, and QSAR helps to predict their activities even before synthesis. The book provides a wealth of valuable information and: * Presents an overview of recent developments in QSAR methodologies along with a brief history of QSAR * Covers the available web resource tools and in silico techniques used in virtual screening and drug discovery processes, compiling an extensive review of web resources in the following categories: databases related to chemical compounds, drug targets, and ADME/toxicity prediction; molecular modeling and drug designing; virtual screening; pharmacophore generation; molecular descriptor calculation software; software for quantum mechanics; ligand binding affinities (docking); and software related to ADME/toxicity prediction * Reviews the rm2 as a more stringent measure for the assessment of model predictivity compared to traditional validation metrics, being specifically important since validation is a crucial step in any QSAR study * Presents linear model improvement techniques that take into account the conformation flexibility of the modeled molecules * Summarizes the building processes of four different pharmacophore models: common-feature, 3D-QSAR, protein-, and protein-ligand complexes * Shows the role of different conceptual density functional theory based chemical reactivity descriptors, such as hardness, electrophilicity, net electrophilicity, and philicity in the design of different QSAR/QSPR/QSTR models * Reviews the use of chemometrics in PPAR research highlighting its substantial contribution in identifying essential structural characteristics and understanding the mechanism of action * Presents the structures and QSARs of antimicrobial and immunosuppressive cyclopeptides, discussing the balance of antimicrobial and haemolytic activities for designing new antimicrobial cyclic peptides * Shows the relationship between DFT global descriptors and experimental toxicity of a selected group of polychlorinated biphenyls, exploring the efficacy of three DFT descriptors * Reviews the applications of Quantitative Structure-Relative Sweetness Relationships (QSRSR), showing that the last decade was marked by an increase in the number of studies regarding QSAR applications for both understanding the sweetness mechanism and synthesizing novel sweetener compounds for the food additive industry The wide coverage makes this book an excellent reference for those in chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine as well as for research centers, governmental organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and health and environmental control organizations.

This book focuses on the recent trends in micro- and nano-structured polymer systems, particularly natural polymers, biopolymers, biomaterials, and their composites, blends, and IPNs. This valuable volume covers the occurrence, synthesis, isolation, production, properties and applications, modification, as well as the relevant analysis techniques to reveal the structures and properties of polymer systems. Biobased polymer blends and composites occupy a unique position in the dynamic world of new biomaterials. The growing need for lubricious coatings and surfaces in medical devices-an outcome of the move from invasive to noninvasive medicines and procedures-is playing a major role in the advancement of biomaterials technology. Natural polymers have attained their cutting-edge technology through various platforms, and this book presents a multitude of information about them. Topics include biopolymer-synthetic systems, nanomaterial-polymer structures, multi-characterization techniques, polymer blends and composites, polymer gels and polyelectrolytes, and many other interesting aspects of interests to researchers. This book will be valuable to scientists, physicians, pharmacists, engineers, and other specialists in a variety of disciplines, both academic and industrial.

With contributions from experts from both the industry and academia, this book presents the latest developments in the identified areas. In addition, a thorough and updated coverage of the traditional aspects of heterogeneous catalysis such as preparation, characterization and use in well-established technologies such as nitration, ammoxidation and hydrofluorination is included. This book incorporates appropriate case studies, explanatory notes, and schematics for more clarity and better understanding.

Knowledge of thermodynamics is a necessary tool for describing and understanding the physical behavior of new polymers and polymer blends, for instance, compatibility of components, rheological properties, morphological features, and mechanical properties. This book summarizes in a fairly comprehensive manner the recent technical research accomplishments in the area of thermodynamics, characterizations, and applications of polymer blends. In the first chapter, an overview of thermodynamic behaviors of non-equilibrium polymers is discussed. In the consecutive chapters, different properties of polymer blends are discussed, including surface tension, transition, crystallization, morphology, and flow behaviors. Miscibility and molecular characterizations of polymer blends are also covered in this book. Applications to various systems are reviewed, and both experimental concerns and references are supplied. In this time when science has such a strong tendency for diversification, this book demonstrates the relevance of one's own activities with neighboring branches of activities. This book is unique in that the mathematics of the physics of polymers are minimized in order not to discourage the interest of a junior or senior undergraduate or new graduate student by an unnecessarily rigorous approach. However, book aims to widen the readers' general knowledge with a better understanding of the physics of polymers. Applications to various systems are reviewed, and both experimental concerns and references are supplied.

The need for economically feasible and multifunctional materials becomes more acute as the natural physical and chemical resources reveal either their limits or reveal the difficulties and increasing costs in storage, transport, and conversion. This reference presents the work from contributors from various fields, of various ages and from different countries, creating a valuable collection of research that will advance the fundamental and innovative techniques of nanosystems and their interactions. The authors cover self-assembly, self-regenerating, storage and directional properties of intelligent materials. It helps readers respond to the challenges in this field.

Nanosturctures, Nanomaterials, and Nanotechnologies to Nanoindustry presents the most important information about new trends in nanochemistry and nanotechnology as well as in nanobiology and nanomedicine. It covers the obtaining and manufacturing of nanostructures, nanomaterial science, investigation of nanostructures and nanomaterials, development of prognostication apparatus when obtaining and investigating nanoproducts, as well as the application of nanoproducts and nanotechnologies in different areas. The book discusses mastering nanotechnologies and semi-industrial and industrial production of nanocomposites and nanomaterials, and provides a practical introduction of nanomaterials and nanotechnologies into different areas, including medicine and agriculture. The contributors include representatives of industrial enterprises and research institutions. The book will be useful for researchers, professors/instructors (for teaching specific courses), students and postgraduates and also for personal re-qualification and for university/college libraries.

A collection of highly selected, peer-reviewed chapters, this book showcases the research of an international roster of scientists. It covers nanomaterials with emphasis on synthesis, characterization, and applications. It also presents emerging developments in nanotechnology in areas as diverse as medicine, energy, electronics, and agriculture. In addition to engineering aspects, the book discusses the physics, chemistry and biotechnology behind the fabrication and device designing.

This book provides an important structural analysis of polymer solutions and melts, using fractal analysis. The book covers the theoretical fundamentals of macromolecules fractal analysis. It then goes on to discuss the fractal physics of polymer solutions and the fractal physics of melts. The intended audience of the book includes specialists in chemistry and physics of polymer synthesis and those in the field of polymers and polymer composites processing.

This book focuses on food, non-food, and industrial packaging applications of polymers, blends, nanostructured materials, macro, micro and nanocomposites, and renewable and biodegradable materials. It details physical, thermal, and barrier properties as well as sustainability, recycling, and regulatory issues. The book emphasizes interdisciplinary research on processing, morphology, structure, and properties as well as applications in packaging of food and industrial products. It is useful for chemists, physicists, materials scientists, food technologists, and engineers.

This book provides innovative chapters on the growth of educational, scientific, and industrial research activities among chemists, biologists, and polymer and chemical engineers and provides a medium for mutual communication between international academia and the industry. It presents significant research and reviews reporting new methodologies and important applications in the fields of industrial chemistry, industrial polymers and biotechnology as well as includes the latest coverage of chemical databases and the development of new computational methods and efficient algorithms for chemical software and polymer engineering.

With coverage of a broad range of key engineering materials, this book provides a single, comprehensive book summarizing all aspects involved in the functional materials production chain. It introduces state-of-the-art technology in key engineering materials, emphasizing the rapidly growing technologies. It takes a unique approach by presenting specific materials, then progresses into a discussion of the ways in which these novel materials and processes are integrated into today's functioning manufacturing industry. The book follows a more quantitative and design-oriented approach than other texts in the market, helping readers gain a better understanding of important concepts. They'll also discover how material properties relate to the process variables in a given process as well as how to perform quantitative engineering analysis of manufacturing processes.

In a unified treatment for the broad subject of materials, this book presents some fascinating phenomena associated with the remarkable performance of polymers and chemical materials. It provides a comprehensive description of the applications and tools for chemical polymeric materials. It also includes the background information necessary for assimilating the current academic literature on complex materials and their applications.

Handbook of Research on Functional Materials: Principles, Capabilities and Limitations covers a broad range of modern materials and provides industry professionals and researchers in polymer science and technology with a single, comprehensive book summarizing all aspects involved in the modern materials production chain. The book focuses on industrially important materials, analytical techniques, and formulation methods, with chapters covering step-growth, radical, and co-polymerization, crosslinking and grafting, reaction engineering, advanced technology applications, including conjugated, dendritic, and nanomaterial polymers and emulsions, and characterization methods, which includes spectroscopy, light scattering, and microscopy. The book introduces current state-of-the-art technology in modern materials with an emphasis on the rapidly growing technologies. It takes a unique approach by presenting specific materials and then progresses into a discussion of the ways in which these materials and processes are integrated into today's functioning manufacturing industry. It follows a more quantitative and design-oriented approach than other texts in the market, helping readers gain a better understanding of important concepts. Readers will also discover how material properties relate to the process variables in a given process as well as how to perform quantitative engineering analysis of manufacturing processes.

Using fractal analysis, irreversible aggregation models, synergetics, and percolation theory, this book describes the main reactions of high-molecular substances. It is the first to give the structural and physical grounds of polymers synthesis and curing based on fractal analysis. It provides a single equation for describing the relationship between the reaction rate constants and the equilibrium constants with the nature of the medium.

This book offers a comprehensive presentation of the concepts, properties, and applications of complex materials. Authors of each chapter use a fundamental approach to define the structure and properties of a wide range of solids on the basis of the local chemical bonding and atomic order present in the material. Emphasizing the physical and chemical origins of different material properties, this important volume focuses on the most technologically important materials being utilized and developed by scientists and engineers.

This book provides innovative chapters covering new methodologies and important applications in the fields of nanoscience and computational chemistry. The book offers scope for academics, researchers, and engineering professionals to present their research and development works that have potential for applications in several disciplines of nano and computational chemistry. Contributions range from new methods to novel applications of existing methods to help readers gain an understanding of the material and/or structural behavior of new and advanced systems. This book is a high quality tool for researchers, providing an overview of the field, explaining the basic underlying theory at a meaningful level, and giving numerous comparisons of different methods.

This book covers the theory of the strength of laminated and reinforced structures made of polymer materials with regard to the changeability of physico-chemical properties is examined. It presents an experimental-theoretical method on the definition of physico-mechanical properties of polymers composite materials and polymerized bundles made of fibers with emphasis on the changes of physico-chemical properties of the materials. With mathematical strictness, the experimental and theoretical studies presented here will aid in the development of reliable methods and new practices of analyzing structures with the influence of chemically aggressive liquids and gases and in the creation of specific production structures that will withstand corrosive environments.

The field of bioscience methodologies in physical chemistry stands at the intersection of the power and generality of classical and quantum physics with the minute molecular complexity of chemistry and biology. This book provides an application of physical principles in explaining and rationalizing chemical and biological phenomena. It does not stick to the classical topics that are conventionally considered as part of physical chemistry; instead it presents principles deciphered from a modern point of view, which is the strength of this book.

This new volume presents leading-edge research in the rapidly changing and evolving field of polymer science as well as on chemical processing. The topics in the book reflect the diversity of research advances in the production and application of modern polymeric materials and related areas, focusing on the preparation, characterization, and applications of polymers. Also covered are various manufacturing techniques. The book will help to fill the gap between theory and practice in industry.

This book presents some fascinating phenomena associated with the remarkable features of high performance polymers and also provides an update on applications of modern polymers. It offers new research on structure-property relationships, synthesis and purification, and potential applications of high performance polymers. The collection of topics in this book reflects the diversity of recent advances in modern polymers with a broad perspective that will be useful for scientists as well as for graduate students and engineers. The book opens with a presentation of classical models, moving on to increasingly more complex quantum mechanical and dynamical theories. Coverage and examples are drawn from modern polymers. Topics include high performance polymers and computer science integration in biochemical, green polymers, molecular nanotechnology, and industrial chemistry.

This new book offers research and updates on the chemical process in liquid and solid phases. The collection of topics in this book reflect the diversity of recent advances in chemical processes with a broad perspective that will be useful to scientists as well as graduate students and engineers. The book will help to fill the gap between theory and practice in industry.

This book provides valuable information on the new class of nanostructures-metal/carbon nanocomposites-and discusses new methods of their synthesis, properties, and applications. It covers computer prognosis, including quantum chemical modeling, for metal/carbon nanocomposites synthesis processing as well as fine dispersed suspensions obtaining processes and material modification processes. Intended for researchers, academics, and post-graduate students, the book will give readers an up-to-date look at this important and valuable new class of nanostructures: metal/carbon nanocomposites.

This book reports on new methodologies and important applications in the field of nanopolymers as well as includes the latest coverage of chemical databases and the development of new computational methods and efficient algorithms for chemical software and chemical engineering. The book provides an overview of the field, explains the basic underlying theory, and gives numerous comparisons of different methods. The new topics covered in this book will be an excellent resource for industries and academic researchers as well.

With chapters by the editors and other experts in the field of polymer science, this book covers a broad selection of important research advances in the field, including updates on enzymatic destruction and photoelectric characteristics, studies on the changes in the polymer molecular mass during hydrolysis and a new type of bioadditive for motor fuel, and an exploration of the interrelation of viscoelastic and electromagnetic properties of densely cross-linked polymers. Also included are chapters that discuss the problems of mechanics of textile performance, new aspects of polymeric nanofibers, a mathematical model of nanofragment cross-linked polymers, and much more.

This title includes a number of Open Access chapters. This book covers a wide scope of biological approaches to such biological phenomena as cell division, motility, collective cell behavior, multicellular structures, morphogenesis, and tumor development. Over the past two decades, biologists have generated large sets of experimental data and discovered a lot of facts that need explanation. This biological boom attracts physicists who believe they can help to develop a theoretical framework in biology and explain complete biological phenomena using basic principles. This is the first book to present recent advances in biophysical studies of the different aspects of cell life. This book presents recent advances in biophysical studies of living cells and gives the impression that a combination of quantitative live cell observations, detailed biochemical and biophysical data, and mathematical modeling are capable to answer many important biological questions and to achieve a more complete understanding of such complex phenomena.