Special Issue for selected papers from Bioelectrics 2013--10th International Symposium on Bioelectrics: co-organized by COST TD1104 "EP4Bio2Med".

The 10th International Symposium on Bioelectrics, September, 16–19, 2013, in Karlsruhe, Germany (http://www.bioelectrics2013. org/), is the basis for this special edition. This issue is the distillation of 51 oral and 36 poster presentations as well as topics of interest to the 102 worldwide Symposium attendees. This annual Symposium is supported by the (http://ww2.odu.edu/engr/bioelectrics/consortium. html) International Bioelectrics Consortium, IBC, to serve as a platform for information exchange among themember institutions and guest institutions working in the area of interaction of pulsed electric fields and plasmawith biological matter and on the field of enabling pulsed power technology. Submissions also reflect a symposium special session focused on the impact of pulsed electric field exposition on the cell's cytoskeleton. Symposium organizers are particularly appreciative of the European Union COST TD1104 Action “EP4BioMed”. That financial and organization support allowed the inclusion of additional symposium participants within the European electroporation community. This issue begins with a useful mini-review of nanosecond electric pulse applications to set the background knowledge base for that symposium. The first group of papers emphasizes electric field impact of atmospheric plasma as the medium of energy transfer. Research on the membrane damage of Escherichia coli, optimization of plasma parameters to facilitate DNA delivery, and the inactivation of microorganism by the application of an air flow assisted shielded sliding plasma is presented. The use of nanosecond range pulses is also being employed as a research tool. Topics presented include the use of dielectric spectroscopy to study the nanosecond pulsed electric field induced charges on pig blood dielectric properties, conductivity of cellular membranes at supra-physiological voltages, ion transport in cells exposed to nanosecond pulses, pulsed field impact on proteins, and image processing of membrane voltages using pulsed laser illumination. The next grouping reflects the interest and focus of COST TD1104 working group 4 members. These environmental applications and biomass processing manuscripts discuss the control of predators in industrial scale microalgae cultures, the economic and effectiveness