Bücher veröffentlicht von Mdpi AG

This Special Issue brings together original research papers, in all areas of mathematics, that are concerned with inequalities or the role of inequalities. The research results presented in this Special Issue are related to improvements in classical inequalities, highlighting their applications and promoting an exchange of ideas between mathematicians from many parts of the world dedicated to the theory of inequalities.

The main focus of this thematic collection is on the antimicrobial activity of essential oils and their combinations with conventional antimicrobial drugs, including the eradication of the existing biofilms, the explanation of the mechanisms underlying antimicrobial activity, and the preparation of stable formulations with essential oils, which boost their antimicrobial activity and provide greater stability. These issues are addressed in four research papers and three reviews, which present novel advances in the development and application of essential oils as antimicrobial agents via combinatorial and nano-based approaches.

Histopathological studies of aquatic animals refer to the microscopic examination of tissues and organs in order to detect deviations from the expected microscopic or macroscopic structure. Information obtained from the study of histomorphological lesions in aquatic animals can be a useful addition when determining the general state of health of aquatic animals, especially if chronic stressors and/or pathogens are present. Compared to mammals, postmortem autolysis progresses very rapidly in most aquatic organisms. This fact makes histopathological examination quite complex and demanding, not only in a histotechnical sense. A prerequisite for a successful study is the baseline knowledge of physiological processes and histological architecture of the studied species. Therefore, the aim of this Special Issue is to contribute to the current state of knowledge on the histopathology of aquatic animals and to provide a professional and encyclopedic tool for biologists and veterinarians.

Many researchers around the world have demonstrated that the expression of miRNAs is dysregulated in different tumors. Such dysregulation is caused by multiple mechanisms, and exposure to different carcinogens causes dysregulated epigenetic changes and defects in the miRNA biogenesis machinery. Cancer cells with abnormal miRNA expression evolve the capability to sustain proliferative signaling, evade growth suppressors, resist cell death, activate invasion and metastasis, and induce angiogenesis. Genome-wide profiling demonstrates that miRNA expression signatures are associated with tumor type, tumor grade and clinical outcomes, so miRNAs could be potential candidates for diagnostic biomarkers, prognostic biomarkers, therapeutic targets and preventive screening programs. Although miRNAs have multiple targets, their function in tumorigenesis is due to their regulation of a few specific targets. After the first detection of altered miRNA in leukemia, microRNAs have been demonstrated to be constantly altered in all cancer. More recently, microRNA has been shown to be altered by exposure to environmental carcinogens, thus driving the whole process of carcinogenesis. Our aim is to provide a rigorous peer review and publish cutting-edge research on the role of microRNA in cancer prevention therapy to educate and inspire the scientific community worldwide.

This addresses current advances and challenges in fisheries and aquaculture science. Exposure of larval fish to elevated temperatures during embryological development may induce craniofacial and morphological alterations, which are suggested possible impacts of global warming. Molecular markers shed new light on the ontogenetic migration of stream fishes. Fast growth rates, early age at maturity, moderate fecundity, and diverse diet explain the potential for introduced fishes to dominate fish communities in their native and introduced range. Taking videos of marine benthic habitats supports low-impact, real-time monitoring of species occurrence. Among heavily fished species, almost half had outdated demographic assessments that would benefit from the integration of data from fisheries sources and improved collaboration among fishery stakeholders and managers. The continued growth of aquaculture will depend upon developing feeds that improve the growth, oxidative status, and immune response of fed cultured organisms. New aquaculture feedstuffs might be derived from plants or microbes, and new additives would include ghrelins and dietary symbiotics. The effects of these constituents on survival, growth, gut histomorphology, immune response were assessed for cultured freshwater and marine species. The results provide suggestions for advances in aquafeeds for the species studied and for cultured fishes more generally. The scientific advances realized with the use of new tools provide the basis for addressing global challenges to fisheries, aquaculture and for ongoing scientific research.

Children's bone growth is continuous, and remodelling is always extensive. Growth proceeds from a vulnerable part of the bone, the growth plate. In remodelling, old bone tissue is gradually replaced by new tissue. Many bone disorders arise from the changes that occur in a growing child's musculoskeletal system, and these disorders can positively or negatively impact bone development. Other bone disorders may be inherited or occur in childhood for unknown reasons. Bone disorders in children can result from factors that affect people of all ages, including injury, infection (osteomyelitis), cancer, and metabolic diseases. Causes of bone disorders can involve the gradual misalignment of bones and stress on growth plates during growth. Congenital deformities such as clubfoot or developmental dysplasia of the hip can lead to important alterations of bone development, causing severe dysfunction. Certain rare connective tissue disorders can also affect the bones, such as Marfan syndrome, osteogenesis imperfecta, and osteochondrodysplasias. Many specialists are involved in the management of bone development disorders in children and adolescents, such as neurosurgeons, plastic surgeons, general surgeons, ORL surgeons, maxillofacial surgeons, orthopaedics, radiologists, and pediatric intensive care physicians. The aim of this Special Issue is to present the latest research on the etiology, physiopathology, diagnosis and screening, management, and rehabilitation related to bone development and disease in infants, focusing on congenital, developmental, post-traumatic, and post-infective disorders.

Health and wellness are among the core segments of quickly-changing consumer goods, with ever-increasing health consciousness among consumers around the globe. Functional foods and beverages, formulated from natural ingredients with targeted physiological functions, are at the heart of research and development in the food industry. The application of modern biotechnology methods in the food and agricultural industry is expected to alleviate hunger today and help avoid mass starvation in the future. Modern food biotechnology has in recent years been transforming existing methods of food production and preparation far beyond the traditional scope. Currently, at the global level, food biotechnological research has focused on traditional process optimization (starter culture development, enzymology, fermentation), food safety and quality, nutritional quality improvement, functional foods, and food preservation (improving shelf life). The fermentation of substrates considered for human consumption has been applied for centuries as a process that enhances shelf life, sensory properties, and nutritional value. Special emphasis has also been given to newly growing concepts, such as functional foods and probiotics. The application of biotechnology in the food sciences has led to an increase in food production and has enhanced the quality and safety of food.

Mitochondria, organelles surrounded by a double membrane and with their own small genome, are the cells' energy centers. Besides the production of ATP through cellular respiration, mitochondria play a pivotal role in other aspects of the life and death of a cell: heat production, programmed cell death, the regulation of metabolic activity, immunity, and calcium homeostasis. A number of diseases are associated with mitochondrial dysfunction, including cardiovascular, neurological, inflammatory, and metabolic disorders as well as cancer. Mitochondria therefore represent an important therapy target, and it is not surprising that a number of different treatment strategies have emerged. Approaches targeting mitochondria can be split into two opposite categories: drugs that restore mitochondrial function and drugs that trigger mitochondria-mediated cell death. Targeted drug delivery to achieve the selective accumulation of drug molecules in mitochondria is complex and involves methods such as direct drug modification or encapsulation into nanocarriers.

This book is a compilation of original research articles that apply a variety of techniques to identify and evaluate water resource management policies. These papers cover a wide range of topics and methodologies applied across the world, from a local to a continental scope. They illustrate open challenges in water resource management, such as the quantitative assessment of policy impacts, trade-off analyses, understanding the water-energy-food-environment nexus, collaborative model development, stakeholder engagement, formalizing social interactions, or improving the theoretical understanding of complex adaptive systems. Therefore, this book is a representation of research areas that have emerged from the origins of water resource systems analysis, seeking to improve the way in which water policy is formulated and implemented.

Nowadays, the impressive progress of commercially available computers allows us to solve complicated mathematical problems in many scientific and technical fields. This revolution has reinvigorated all aspects of chemical engineering science. More sophisticated approaches to catalysis, kinetics, reactor design, and simulation have been developed thanks to the powerful calculation methods that have recently become available. It is well known that many chemical reactions are of great interest for industrial processes and must be conducted on a large scale in order to obtain needed information in thermodynamics, kinetics, and transport phenomena related to mass, energy, and momentum. For a reliable industrial-scale reactor design, all of this information must be employed in appropriate equations and mathematical models that allow for accurate and reliable simulations for scaling up purposes. The aim of this proposed Special Issue was to collect worldwide contributions from experts in the field of industrial reactor design based on kinetic and mass transfer studies. The following areas/sections were covered by the call for original papers: Kinetic studies on complex reaction schemes (multiphase systems); Kinetics and mass transfer in multifunctional reactors; Reactions in mass transfer-dominated regimes (fluid-solid and intraparticle diffusive limitations); Kinetic and mass transfer modeling using alternative approaches (ex. stochastic modeling); Simulations in pilot plants and industrial-sized reactors and scale-up studies based on kinetic studies (lab-to-plant approach).

The major aims of this book, "Watershed Water Environment and Hydrology under the Influence of Anthropogenic and Natural Processes", are to focus on innovative/new ideas on the watershed water environment from different perspectives across the field; distinguish the evolution of watershed water ecological and environmental quality; clarify the biogeochemical cycling of elements or pollutants; identify and quantify the sources of pollutants; and assess the ecological risk and human health risk of pollutants in the water environment at different watershed scales. In particular, eight peer-reviewed articles were collected, mainly reporting the hydrochemistry-based watershed weathering processes and their environmental implications, trace elements and their risks, and the nutrients cycle in river-reservoir systems. Overall, these papers contribute to several aspects of the watershed water environment and are valuable for river water resource protection and management.

Antimicrobial resistance is a global One Health topic that affects us all, whether we are working in human or veterinary medicine. Although antibiotic use in farm animals is decreasing in many countries, other nations are still using these essential medical resources as growth promoters to boost economic gains. As veterinarians responsible for animal welfare, it is vital that we are permitted to treat sick animals effectively, but we must learn to be more prudent in our use of these drugs. It is essential that we, as responsible clinicians, policy makers, and researchers, develop methods of quantifying, monitoring, benchmarking, and reporting antibiotic use in both farm and companion animals, so that antimicrobial stewardship schemes can be implemented and their successes or failures analyzed. This Special Issue includes research on antibiotic use and resistance in a variety of animal species, covering cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, and pets. The relationship between antimicrobial use and resistance in animals is investigated on a global scale, with authors from Austria, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, India, the Netherlands, Peru, Portugal, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom.

The Special Issue "Fiber Optic Sensors in Chemical and Biological Applications" gathers recent original papers. The subjects of the papers cover a broad range of optical fiber chemical sensors and biosensors applied for regulation in bioreactors, to novel concepts of intrinsic optical fiber sensors.

As Editor-in-Chief of the journal Diabetology, I am pleased to announce the Special Issue "Diabetology: Feature Papers 2021" is now published in book format. Diabetology (ISSN 2673-4540) is an international, peer-reviewed scientific open access journal that provides an advanced forum for studies related to epidemiology, etiology, pathophysiology, pathogenesis, management, complications, and prevention of diabetes, including the molecular, biochemical, and physiological aspects of diabetes. In this Special Issue, "Feature Papers", we aim to publish outstanding contributions in the main fields covered by the journal, which will make a great contribution to the community.This book covers the whole spectrum of diabetology from risk screening, risk markers, pathways of disease in type 1 diabetes and insulin treatment, and management of the disease and comorbidities.

Optical fiber communication industry has gained unprecedented opportunities and achieved rapid progress in recent years. However, with the increase of data transmission volume and the enhancement of transmission demand, the optical communication field still needs to be upgraded to better meet the challenges in the future development. Artificial intelligence technology in optical communication and optical network is still in its infancy, but the existing achievements show great application potential. In the future, with the further development of artificial intelligence technology, AI algorithms combining channel characteristics and physical properties will shine in optical communication. This reprint introduces some recent advances in optical fiber communication and optical network, and provides alternative directions for the development of the next generation optical fiber communication technology.

This reprint focuses on experiments, modellings, and simulations of heat transfer and fluid flow. Flowing media comprise single- or two-phase fluids that can be both compressible and incompressible. The reprint presents unique experiments and solutions to problems of scientific and industrial relevance in the transportation of natural resources, technical devices, industrial processes, etc. In the presented works, the formulated physical and mathematical models together with their boundary and initial conditions and numerical computation methods for constitutive equations lead to solutions for selected examples in engineering.

Meat and meat products are an important part of the human diet. Even though non-essential, they provide high amounts of protein, vitamins, and minerals in a concentrated form. However, the consumption of meat and meat products has been associated with an increased risk of health-related problems. Once the harmful components of meat and meat products are elucidated, novel technologies can help in identifying, removing, replacing, and/or minimising their deleterious effects. In addition, meat products can be and are being utilised as carriers of added bioactive compounds due to their processing versatility and high worldwide consumption. New strategies in the field of meat and meat product development are certainly needed in order to overcome not only the health-related problems these products might contribute to, but also from the sustainability and economy perspective. This book compiles ten original studies and two comprehensive reviews that will tackle some of these issues.

Heart failure prevalence continues to rise globally. Regardless of the underlying etiology, heart failure remains a progressive disease, largely irreversible and end-stage heart failure requires transplantation. Book focuses on the challenges and recent advances of diagnosis, treatment and prevention of heart failure with or without associated comorbidities. We hope that readers will appreciate the wide breadth of topics and clinical utility of the articles and reviews included to this book collection.

Animal production (e.g., milk, meat, and eggs) provides valuable protein production for human beings and animals. However, animal production is facing several challenges worldwide such as environmental impacts and animal welfare/health concerns. In animal farming operations, accurate and efficient monitoring of animal information and behavior can help analyze the health and welfare status of animals and identify sick or abnormal individuals at an early stage to reduce economic losses and protect animal welfare. In recent years, there has been growing interest in animal welfare. At present, sensors, big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence are used to improve management efficiency, reduce production costs, and enhance animal welfare. Although these technologies still have challenges and limitations, the application and exploration of these technologies in animal farms will greatly promote the intelligent management of farms. Therefore, this Special Issue will collect original papers with novel contributions based on technologies such as sensors, big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to study animal behavior monitoring and recognition, environmental monitoring, health evaluation, etc., to promote intelligent and accurate animal farm management.

This book contributes to the literature on conflict and terrorism through a selection of articles that deal with theoretical, methodological and empirical issues related to the topic. The papers study important problems, are original in their approach and innovative in the techniques used. This will be useful for researchers in the fields of game theory, economics and political sciences.

Except for latitudinal and elevational extremes, lizards range across a vast variety of biotopes worldwide, including environments as disparate as deserts, prairies, temperate woodlands, rainforests, or anthropic habitats. Although most species thrive on the ground, numerous lizards are fossorial, arboreal, and even aquatic, found in either fresh- or seawater. With lizards being ectotherms, accurate thermoregulation and other physiological adaptations are in most cases fundamental for their survival in such a variety of habitats. Moreover, lizard coloration may mediate thermoregulation, reproduction, and social status, among others. Lizards have also evolved some unusual antipredator adaptations, such as tail autotomy. Consequently, the astonishing morphological, ecological, and functional diversity of lizards results from extremely intense selective pressures, oftentimes opposing, many of whose interrelationships have yet to be disentangled. This Special Issue provides the international scientific community with an integrative meeting point to discuss and synthesize the current knowledge on the evolutionary pathways and mechanisms that led to today's lizards.

Energy metabolism at whole-body, cellular, and even organelle, i.e., mitochondrial, levels requires adequate regulation in order to maintain or improve (metabolic) health. In eukaryotic cells, mitochondria are key players in energy (ATP) production via oxidative phosphorylation. Both macro- and micronutrients potentially influence energy metabolism and mitochondrial functioning, either as substrates for (oxidative) catabolism or as essential constituents of enzymes or protein complexes involved in (mitochondrial) energy metabolism. This book contains a valuable collection of empirical preclinical and human studies to assist in the development of understanding and progress this area of research on improving health and, more specifically, metabolic health.

SARS-CoV-2 has infected more than 105 million people worldwide. During this pandemic, researchers and clinicians have been working to understand the molecular mechanisms that underpin viral pathogenesis by studying viral-host interactions. Now, with the global rollout of various COVID-19 vaccines-based on the neutralization of the spike protein using different technologies-viral immunology and cell-based immunity are being investigated. Researchers are also studying how various SARS-CoV-2 genetic mutations will impact the efficacy of these COVID-19 vaccines. At the same time, various antiviral drugs have been identified or repurposed that have potential as anti-SARS-CoV-2 treatments.BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) is the acronym used to associate five major emerging national economies. The BRICS countries are known for their significant influence on regional affairs, including being leaders in scientific and clinical research and innovation. This Special Issue includes researchers from BRICS countries, in particular South Africa, involved in the study of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. Original articles, as well as new perspectives or reviews on the matter, were welcomed. Research in the fields of vaccine studies, pathogenesis, genetic mutations, viral immunology, and antiviral drugs were especially encouraged.

This volume contains a series of papers prepared for presentation at the 14th International Coral Reef Symposium, originally planned for July 2020 in Bremen, Germany, but postponed until 2021 (online) and 2022 (in person) because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It contains a series of papers illustrating the breadth of modern studies on coral reefs and the response of the reef science community to the threats that coral reefs now face, above all from climate change. The first group of papers focus on the biology of a selection of reef organisms, ranging from sea fans to coral dwelling crabs. The next group describe studies of coral communities and ecological interactions in regions as diverse as Florida, Kenya, Colombia, and Norway. Further papers describe investigations into the effects of global warming (in the Maldives and in Timor-Leste) and of other impacts (UV blockers, ocean acidification). The final two papers describe the latest applications of satellite and camera technology to the challenge of mapping and monitoring reefs.

Polymer composite materials have attracted great interest for the development of electrical and electronic engineering and technology, and have been widely applied in electrical power systems, electrical insulation equipment, electrical and electronic devices, etc. Due to the significant expansion in the use of newly developed polymer composite materials, it is necessary to understand and accurately describe the relationship between composite structure and material properties, as only based on thorough laboratory characterization is it possible to estimate the properties for their future commercial applications. This book focuses on polymer composites applied in the field of electrical and electronic equipment, including but not limited to synthesis and preparation of new polymeric materials, structure-properties relationship of polymer composites, evaluation of materials application, simulation and modelling of material performance.