This second edition is completely revised and improved and contains eight new chapters and six new appendixes. In addition to the theoretical background on light propagation through diffusive media, this update also provides new didactical material, including: A comprehensive statistical approach to the photon penetration depth in diffusive media. An introduction to anomalous transport. An anisotropic transport approach within the framework of diffusion theory. An introduction to the invariance properties of radiative transfer in non-absorbing media. A heuristic explanation of ballistic photon propagation. An expanded description of core Monte Carlo simulation methods. A series of new analytical solutions of the diffusion equation for new geometries. Some original solutions in the time domain of the diffusion equation in the presence of Raman and fluorescence interactions. New MATLAB (R) codes of the presented solutions. A revised and enlarged set of numerical Monte Carlo results for verification of the presented solutions. An augmented bibliography covering the field of tissue optics. Although the theoretical and computational tools provided in this book have their primary use in the field of biomedical optics, there are many other applications in which they can be used, including, for example, analysis of agricultural products, study of forest canopies or clouds, and quality control of industrial food, plastic materials, or pharmaceutical products, among many others.

The importance of bone marrow transplantation for patients who do not have a matched sibling donor cannot be overestimated. This subject has always been in the public domain, accentuated by dramatic appeals, from time to time, to search for matched volunteer donors in the public at large. Unfortunately, the availability of such donors is limited, due to the remarkable genetic diversity of humans. Thus, although registries of such volunteers now include more than seven million individuals, we still face the problem of finding a matched donor for about 30% of patients in need. To address this burning issue, extensive clinical and basic research is performed in leading institutes around the world. This book presents updated accounts of the different aspects of this research. The scope of the book is very wide, including strategies to overcome graft vs. host (GVH) disease and graft rejection, cell therapy to prevent leukemia relapse, and a range of modalities to improve immune reconstitution after transplantation. In addition, new approaches to induce immune tolerance towards organ transplants by means of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is extensively reviewed.