Magneto-sensitive soft materials are new synthetic functional materials that is normally composed of ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic particles (size in a range from several nanometers to hundreds of micrometers), carriers (including water, organic solvent, liquids, gels, polymer and foams), surfactants and necessary additives. Being different from “hard” solid materials, “soft” means magneto-sensitive materials exist in the form of colloidal liquids, gels, and elastomers, such as magnetic fluids (MF), also called ferrofluids, magnetic liquids, magnetorheological fluids (MRF), magnetorheological gels (MRG), magnetorheological elastomers (MRE) and magnetorheological foams (MRFoam), so as to possess fluidity and magnetism simultaneously and can be easily deformed by applying external magnetic field force.

Smart drug delivery at both the micro- and nanoscale is an evolving field with numerous potential applications. It has the potential to revolutionize drug therapy by making treatments more effective, reducing side effects, and improving patient outcomes. This book presents a comprehensive review of the most recent studies on smart micro- and nanomaterials with a focus on their “smart” activity for formation of targeted and responsive drug-delivery carriers. This volume: Introduces readers to the fundamentals of these the micro- and nanoscale materials as well as approaches to smart drug delivery and drug delivery systems. Covers polymers, metals, and composite materials as well as quantum dots and carbon nanotubes. Describes of all possible stimulated systems for drug delivery such as enzyme-responsive, small molecules-responsive, thermo-responsive, pH-responsive, electric field-responsive, magnetic field-responsive, light-responsive, ultrasound-responsive, and reductive environment responsive. Offers a critical perspective on the future scope of smart drug delivery systems. This reference work is written to support researchers in the fields of materials engineering and biotechnology with the goal of improving the diagnosis and treatment of disease and patient quality of life.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Bio-Inspired Computing: Theories and Applications, BIC-TA 2022, held in Wuhan, China, during December 16–18, 2022. The 56 full papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 148 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: evolutionary computation and swarm intelligence; machine learning and deep learning; intelligent control and simulation and molecular computing and nanotechnology.

Externally tunable properties allow for new applications of magnetic hybrid materials containing magnetic micro- and nanoparticles in sensors and actuators in technical and medical applications. By means of easy to generate and control magnetic fields, changes of the internal particle arrangements and the macroscopic properties can be achieved. This monograph delivers the latest insights into multi-scale modelling, experimental characterization, manufacturing and application of those magnetic hybrid materials.

The book focuses on novel interpenetrating polymer network (IPN)/semi-IPN technologies for drug delivery and biomedical applications. The dynamism of the design and development of interpenetrating network polymers is based on their ability to provide free volume for the easy encapsulation of drugs in the three-dimensional network structure obtained by cross-linking two or more polymer networks. Natural polymer-based IPNs can deliver drugs at a controlled rate over an extended period of time, while novel IPNs ensure better mechanical strength and sustained/ controlled drug-delivery properties. This book presents an overview of the use of this technology to fabricate nanomedicine, hydrogels, nanoparticles, and microparticles, thereby unlocking IPN’s potential in the area of drug delivery and biomedical engineering. It also discusses applications of IPN systems in cancer therapy and tissue engineering, and describes the various IPN systems and their wide usage and applications in drug delivery.

Studies of fluid flow and heat transfer in a porous medium have been the subject of continuous interest for the past several decades because of the wide range of applications, such as geothermal systems, drying technologies, production of thermal isolators, control of pollutant spread in groundwater, insulation of buildings, solar power collectors, design of nuclear reactors, and compact heat exchangers, etc. There are several models for simulating porous media such as the Darcy model, Non-Darcy model, and non-equilibrium model. In porous media applications, such as the environmental impact of buried nuclear heat-generating waste, chemical reactors, thermal energy transport/storage systems, the cooling of electronic devices, etc., a temperature discrepancy between the solid matrix and the saturating fluid has been observed and recognized.

In order to develop innovative products, to reduce development costs and the number of prototypes and to accelerate development processes, numerical simulations become more and more attractive. As such, numerical simulations are instrumental in understanding complicated material properties like chemical ageing, crack propagation or the strain- and temperature-induced crystallisation of rubber. Therefore, experimentally validated and physically meaningful constitutive models are indispensable. Elastomers are used for products like tyres, engine and suspension mounts or seals, to name a few. The interest in modelling the quasi-static stress-strain behaviour was dominant in the past decades, but nowadays the interests also include influences of environmental conditions. The latest developments on the material behaviour of elastomers are collected in the present volume. Constitutive Models for Rubber X is a comprehensive compilation of nearly all oral and poster contributions to the European Conference on Constitutive Models for Rubber (Munich, 28-31 August 2017). The 95 highly topical contributions reflect the state of-the-art in material modelling and testing of elastomers. They cover the fields of material testing and processing, filler reinforcement, electromagnetic sensitive elastomers, dynamic properties, constitutive modelling, micromechanics, finite element implementation, stress softening, chemical ageing, fatigue and durability. In the area of rubbery materials and structures, applied research will play an important role also in the coming decades. Constitutive Models for Rubber X is of interest to developers and researchers involved in the rubber processing and CAE software industries, as well as for academics in nearly all disciplines of engineering and material sciences.