This issue of ECS Transactions contains 24 refereed manuscripts from the 46 papers presented over three days at the International Symposium on Pits and Pores IV: New Materials and Applications held in Las Vegas, NV as part of the 218th Meeting of the Electrochemical Society, October 10-15, 2010. The Symposium was held in memory of Ulrich Gösele, one of the founders and a key scientist in the field of porous semiconductors who recently passed away. These proceedings are anticipated to be beneficial not only for the tailored preparation of porous materials for various applications but also as a source of insights with respect to the origin and nature of localized dissolution processes in metals and semiconductors.

Addressing the hydraulic structure of mangrove trees to gain knowledge about the way they successfully respond to the unique environmental demands of intertidal areas, this study explores the challenging field of ecological wood anatomy and the quest to discover how trees adapt their cellular make-up for survival under ambient and site-specific conditions. Divided into three parts, this accessible reference highlights the structure of the wood and the formation and implications of the wood’s hydraulic architecture and discusses the unpredictable growth patterns of mangrove trees.

Guidelines for Open Pit Slope Design is a comprehensive account of the open pit slope design process. Created as an outcome of the Large Open Pit (LOP) project, an international research and technology transfer project on rock slope stability in open pit mines, this book provides an up-to-date compendium of knowledge of the slope design processes that should be followed and the tools that are available to aid slope design practitioners. This book links innovative mining geomechanics research into the strength of closely jointed rock masses with the most recent advances in numerical modelling, creating more effective ways for predicting rock slope stability and reliability in open pit mines. It sets out the key elements of slope design, the required levels of effort and the acceptance criteria that are needed to satisfy best practice with respect to pit slope investigation, design, implementation and performance monitoring. Guidelines for Open Pit Slope Design comprises 14 chapters that directly follow the life of mine sequence from project commencement through to closure. It includes: information on gathering all of the field data that is required to create a 3D model of the geotechnical conditions at a mine site; how data is collated and used to design the walls of the open pit; how the design is implemented; up-to-date procedures for wall control and performance assessment, including limits blasting, scaling, slope support and slope monitoring; and how formal risk management procedures can be applied to each stage of the process. This book will assist in meeting stakeholder requirements for pit slopes that are stable, in regards to safety, ore recovery and financial return, for the required life of the mine.

CREEP, SHRINKAGE AND DURABILITY MECHANICS OF CONCRETE AND CONCRETE STRUCTURES contains the keynote lectures, technical reports and contributed papers presented at the Eighth International Conference on Creep, Shrinkage and Durability of Concrete and Concrete Structures (CONCREEP8, Ise-shima, Japan, 30 September - 2 October 2008). The topics covered