The aim of this book is to provide the reader with the latest advanced research results on, and an improved understanding of, various aspects of the processing and characterization of materials.

This collection focuses solely on the topic of electrophoretic deposition (EPD) and its application as a processing technique for the fabrication of both traditional and new materials.

Advances in the welfare of humans tends to be directly related to advances in the science and technology of advanced materials. Hybrid materials make up just one such class of materials, and they are unique in the sense that they exhibit properties that cannot be achieved by using conventional materials design and - at the same time - cannot be predicted by using conventional extrapolations: such as a simple weighted average of the constituents’ properties.

The process by which organisms in Nature create minerals is known as biomineralization - a process that involves complex interactions between inorganic ions, crystals and organic molecules; resulting in a controlled nucleation and growth of minerals from aqueous solutions. During the last few decades, biomineralization has been intensively studied, due to its involvement in a wide range of biological events; starting with the formation of bones, teeth, cartilage, shells, coral (so-called physiological mineralization) and encompassing pathological mineralization, i.e. the formation of kidney stones, dental calculi, osteoporosis, arteriosclerosis, osteogenesis imperfecta, etc. During the same period, biomineralization has become a hot topic for world-wide research throughout the world, due to the growing expectations of a good quality and duration of life by the ever-increasing population of the aged. Young people, in particular, also make increasing demands on the quality and the appearance of the existing implants available on the market. The general goals of research and manufacture are now to create and improve implants for various applications in the human body, as well as to prevent diseases leading to the formation of minerals such as hydroxyapatite (implicated, for example, in osteogenesis, kidney stones, dental calculi, arteriosclerosis – all problems which mainly affect women).

The Industrial Revolution showed that the development and improvement of new materials and functions could bring about social change, and benefit human society. However, one can be forgiven for feeling that more recent materials research, particularly in the domain of metals, has focused only upon individual elemental characteristics and narrow specialty fields, and that the original vision of materials research has thus been lost.

This collection comprises invited and contributed papers which were presented at the Advanced Structural Materials Symposium held in Cancún, México during the Annual Conference of the Mexican Academy of Materials Science.

The literature on fracture accumulated over the past few decades is abundant. It would be too overwhelmingly difficult to name every original contribution to the field by different individuals. Yet, a quick glance through even very limited part of the vast fracture literature in the past thirty or forty years or so, one is bound to come across one name - Yiu-Wing Mai, whose work covers fracture mechanics modeling on various toughening mechanisms, microstructure and property relations, processing and testing of polymers, ceramics, metals and their respective composites, and in recent years on nano- and bio- materials.

This collection offers materials researchers and end-users a wealth of new knowledge encompassing the whole spectrum of ecology, eco-materials, nano-materials, bio-materials, recycling, environmental protection and materials related to energy conversion.

This important work is a compilation of the papers presented at the 18th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Ceramics in Medicine (ISCM) held on December 8–12, 2005 in Kyoto, Japan. Bioceramics 18 is a report of the latest progress made in the study of bioceramics and their applications in medicine; especially the repair of bone defects. The ever-increasing impact of bioceramics is reflected within the pages of this book.

Fracture, Fatigue and Strength are some of the most important properties of engineering materials.