oa Editorial

Dear authors, readers, reviewers, and enthusiastic supporters, It has been over two years since I took over this position as the Editor-in-Chief of this journal in 2009, I would like to thank you for your continued devotion, focus, and support to the journal. With many years of advanced research experience throughout my career in both academy and industry, I find that patents play an essential role in creating a sustainable advantage on strategic and economical impacts for knowledge-based businesses. It appears in the news quite often that one company files lawsuits against the competitor for patent infringement issue and requests payment and compensation because people know the transformation benefit of a valuable patent. Innovations and the protection of innovations are of vital importance especially in technology-dominant industry. Creating patents when you have good idea or knowing the status of latest patent development in relevant topic become routine for most of the researchers, engineers, even for the managers and investors. The journal, Recent Patents on Engineering, is what those people looking for. The journal timely publishes review and research articles, and guest edited topical issues on latest patents in the field of engineering. The accepted papers have passed strict peer review by at least three anonymous reviewers. A selection of important and recent patents themselves on engineering is also included in the journal. We have attracted more than 100 experts around the world joining our team as editorial advisory members to cover all areas in the field of engineering with the best expertise. In this issue, seven papers will be published. The first paper entitled “Functional Food: Product Development and Health Benefits” is written by Flora Cozzolino et al. This paper includes information on the common products rich in nutraceutic components; and also explains the importance of probiotic and prebiotic foods and finally focuses on recent patents dealing with functional formulations for specific human diseases. The second paper entitled “Methods and Apparatuses for Advanced Drinking Water Treatment” is written by Guoliang Zhang et al. This paper analyzes recent researches and developments of advanced drinking water treatment, and seeks to offer a scientific and technical overview of dramatic trend and useful information to researchers who work in this field. The third paper entitled “Safety Assessment of an On Board Inert Gas Generating System” is written by Okafor Ekene Gabriel et al. This paper presents the safety assessment of an OBIGGS using genetic algorithm. The fourth paper is titled “Utilization of Carbon Nanotubes as a Support Material in Metal-Based Catalyst Systems: Applications in Catalysis” written by Rohaya Husny Pahmy et al. This paper focuses on the applications of CNTs combined with various metal-based particles in the field of catalysis. The effects of the incorporation of CNTs into catalyst systems are discussed in terms of the catalytic activity, reaction selectivity and reaction pathway. The remarkable properties of CNTs that fulfil the requirements of support catalysts are also discussed. Patents relevant to the topic have been discussed. The fifth paper entitled “History, Principle and Techniques for Waveform Optimization in External Defibrillations” written by Changlin Yina et al. This paper reviewed the history, principle and recent techniques on waveform optimization techniques related to external defibrillation. The patents presented demonstrate the decreased energy requirement, increased efficacy, and self-adjusting optimal waveforms based on the patient parameter measurements. The sixth paper titled “A Wireless Utility Meter System: Design and Implementation” is written by Muhammad Al Farabi, et al. The authors review their patent about the utilization of a wireless utility meter system for application of utility meter specifically. The last paper entitled “Radar Cross Section Identification of Air Targets using the Cosine Transform and Neural Networks” is written by Mustafa Emre Aydemir et al. This paper presents an innovative approach to the problem of aircraft identification from its radar cross section. In this study, patents relevant to the topic have also been discussed. I'd like to thank all the authors for their valuable contributions and all reviewers for their timely and constructive feedback on the submitted papers. We look forward to your continuously strong support and participation.