Bücher veröffentlicht von Mdpi AG

This edition includes sixteen publications covering various applications in the field of ceramic coatings. This Issue features ceramic coatings developed through plasma spraying, magnetron sputtering, and plasma-electrolytic oxidation. It is appropriate for graduate students, scientists, and engineers interested in corrosion and wear-resistant high-temperature coatings for industrial applications.

This Special Issue presents computational techniques used to examine the social, spatial, and functional characteristics of buildings and cities. Focused on two renowned computational methods in architectural and urban analytics-Shape Grammar and Space Syntax-this reprint demystifies the 'grammar', 'syntax', and 'style' of space and form. These properties are used to understand the fabric of built environments, and their underlying tendencies, social patterns, and potentials.With these articles, this Special Issue serves as a compass for architects, urban planners, researchers, and students navigating architectural and urban designs. Each contribution emphasizes the fundamental principles of design analysis or generation, offering insights into a range of topics, such as historic architecture, spatial genotypes and configurations, agent-based modelling, and urban landmarks. The readers of this volume will improve their understanding of the planning and optimization of built environments, as well as the creation of future cities.

The term fertilizer use efficiency (FUE) is not new. However, in recent years, improving the FUE has become particularly significant. This is due to growing demographic pressure, limited natural resources, climate change, and challenges related to environmental protection. This Special Issue of Plants contains papers that describe the current status of the knowledge and outlook of FUE improvement. The two review articles included provide an opportunity to become acquainted with the factors influencing FUE and contemporary trends in the development of fertilization strategies and technologies aimed at maximizing the value of this indicator. Of note, the concept of effective fertilization is presented and defined as the soil fertility clock (SFC). The 19 original articles included in this reprint present the results of research on the following: optimal N dose determination, balanced N fertilization, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), foliar fertilization, improving the effectiveness of phosphorus use, and the possibility of improving FUE through the application of innovative fertilizers. Thanks to all the articles, this Special Issue enriches our knowledge in terms of the assessment methods of FUE in plant production. Moreover, it indicates new possibilities, perspectives, and directions for the development of scientific research within this field in the coming future.

Acousto-optic technologies have increasingly attracted the attention of scientists and engineers. Acousto-optic interactions have become the flexible basis of compact and robust devices for the analysis of the intensity, spectrum, polarization, and other properties of light. In this book, modern trends of acousto-optical spectral technologies, including the fundamentals and optimization of existing techniques, are highlighted and discussed. This reprint provides a forum for reports on technical developments that allow the spectral analysis of various objects to take place. The goal of this reprint is to provide readers with an overview of the hot topics and the state of the art regarding the applications of acousto-optic techniques, including new materials and structures, theoretical and experimental studies of light diffraction by ultrasonic waves, spectroscopy, and spectral imaging.

Over the years, digestive endoscopy has gone through a revolution. With different technological improvements, its diagnostic role is indeed becoming more and more sophisticated and is even moving closer to pathological evaluation. Above all, its therapeutic purpose is to date the first line of treatment for several gastrointestinal diseases. Importantly, the role of digestive endoscopy is also crossing over the mere concept of the GI tract and digestive diseases and will probably find a place in a more holistic concept of health.In this Special Issue, several emerging techniques are addressed, highlighting how endoscopy is emerging as a minimally invasive treatment procedure for several gastrointestinal diseases and post-surgical complications. However, crucial to this is the safety of all endoscopic processes, starting from endoscopic suites to the management of intra- and post-procedural complications.

The reprint, titled "Sustainable Biopolymer-Based Composites: Processing, Characterization, and Application", is composed of 32 scientific works of scholars that contributed their own expertise passion, and science to expand the boundaries of knowledge by addressing new challenges. The topic of new biopolymer-based composite materials is addressed from several aspects, from the development to characterization and application, in several fields of scientific interest.

This Special Issue includes 14 papers by authors from Italy, USA, Egypt, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, Czech Republic, China, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Greece, dealing with several topics. The spatial distribution of soil organic carbon is useful for improving crop productivity and assessing the effect of agronomic management on crops and soil. Two interpolation methods and remotely sensed images were used in two papers. Other papers dealed with the use of zeolite-rich tuff in olive growing to reduce mineral fertilization, tested the effectiveness of green manure crops in providing nutrients and supplementing traditional fertilizers, and proposed composted sewage sludge as a source of micronutrients for crops. Since soil-borne diseases worsen the fertility, other authors studied the bacteria in the rhizosphere of saffron. Mapping and modeling soil suitability and capability under intensive land use in drylands with multivariate analysis was the topic of another paper, as was the evaluation of forest patches for preserving water regulation in tropical landscapes. Other findings regard agricultural conservation practices that reinforced the small water cycle and the comparison of deep-rooted vegetal covers for stabilizing slopes or repairing shallow landslides. Moreover, industrial solid waste can be a liming material to reduce soil acidification, increase crop productivity or amend soil; low-peat mixtures are able to provide C sequestration, climate regulation, and functional diversity services, while low-intensity management of high mountains can preserve seed-rich habitats for farmland avifauna.

Various classes of natural and synthetic molecules that can be classified as biomaterials find application in all fields of dentistry. Biomaterials should be biocompatible to minimise toxicity and bioactivity to ensure or simulate biological effects. They are used, for instance, to enhance antibacterial activity and improve the healing process. Calcium silicates, for illustration, are biomaterials used in endodontics that have proven their excellent biological, physico-chemical, and mechanical properties. However, some of these are considered too soluble, and this is almost completely due to their hardness when used as endodontic sealers, making endodontic retreatment very difficult. Despite manufacturers' best efforts, it is sometimes difficult to marry bioactivity, biocompatibility, and clinical benefits in a biomaterial; therefore, in this content, the work of researchers is invaluable.

The prevalence rates of risk factors for premature mortality and early non-communicable diseases are growing due to the increasing prevalence of poor nutrition habits, increasing levels of stress, and sedentary lifestyles. The life course epidemiology offers an integrative approach which guides research on health, human development, and ageing. The translation of this life course approach to women's health is indispensable. It comprises the investigation of risk factors across the life that influence the timing of menarche, fertility, pregnancy outcomes, gynaecological disorders, and age at menopause. It also recognises the important influence of reproductive health on later non-communicable disease risks. The continuity of reproductive health and the relationship between different biomarkers and risk factors are taken into account in this integrative approach. Within women's life courses, lifestyle plays an essential role, ranging from young age to pregnancy, menopause, and healthy aging. The underlying mechanisms and the effect sizes between nutrition and many diseases are only partly known due to the often multifactorial disease processes. The link between lifestyle and the growing rates of different diseases (e.g., cervical, ovarian carcinoma, breast cancer, cardiovascular diseases, or diabetes mellitus) needs to be investigated further. New scientific approaches are being used to try to relate individual biomarkers to dietary patterns and changes in the microbiome in order to make risk potentials visible earlier. The collection of scientific contributions on nutrition and women's health is presented here.

This Reprint provides the most relevant and state-of-the-art research in the field, including the use of novel gelation agents, the characterization of the structure and rheological properties of food gels, and the application of food gels in novel food products.

The primary aim of this yearbook is to provide a comprehensive overview of the latest developments and breakthroughs in these fields. Our purpose is not only to showcase groundbreaking research and innovative practices but also to foster a deeper understanding of the complexities of the human brain and nervous system. This compilation serves as both a reflection of the current state of knowledge and a beacon guiding future explorations.

This reprint describes the fate of pollutants transported to the sea from the mainland and how they accumulate in the marine environment and organisms. This will contribute to increasing the knowledge on the dangers of pollutants that reach the marine environment and their fate once they enter the marine food chain. We also hope to improve knowledge on the effects of the pollutant load on the sea during all the seasons, due to the contribution of rivers, rainfall, etc., and the relative influence on marine organisms.

The 15th International Conference "Intelligent Systems - 2022" (INTELS'22) was held on 14-16 December 2023 at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. It is a biennial event with a thirty-year history. INTELS'22 focused on the areas of intelligent systems and artificial intelligence, their theoretical aspects, and their application to sustainable development. Most of the papers are devoted to research and development of control systems in robotics. Both classical methods and modern methods based on machine learning are used to solve complex control problems.

There are about 30,000 plant species that are considered edible, but at present, very few of them are crops grown or cultivated on a commercially significant scale. On the other hand, there are several plants or their parts (leaves, shoots, fruits, seeds, hypogeal organs, and flowers) that are collected in the wild and consumed as raw or cooked food. Ethnobotany may offer a source of inspiration for agriculture, as wild edible species have the potential to lead food systems to be healthier, more sustainable, and resilient to climate change. Good tolerance to several abiotic and biotic stresses, as well as high nutritional value and excellent nutraceutical properties, are common traits of wild plants, making them promising candidates as new crops. Novel approaches for the outdoor/indoor cultivation of wild or underutilized species are needed to provide new opportunities for growers to produce new food categories, which would be particularly appealing to modern consumers. Cultivating wild species is also a way to preserve ethnobotanical heritage and promote genetic diversity. Furthermore, the cultivation of food plants normally gathered in the wild could reduce the health-related risks associated with pollution and biological contamination.

This reprint is a comprehensive compilation of both new discoveries and methods related to nature hydrate and deep-water hydrocarbon. This reprint contains the advanced methods used in natural gas hydrate and deep-water hydrocarbon exploration. Its scope ranges from the East China Sea to the South China Sea and the Southeastern India Ocean. The reprint particularly focuses on the many innovative technical developments that have emerged in this field, and explores the various ways we may achieve renewable energy integration.The reprint provides a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who are interested in the challenges and opportunities associated with natural gas hydrate and deep-water hydrocarbon exploration.

In human social development, the consumption of fossil energy, especially coal, has promoted economic prosperity, cultural exchanges, and social progress. With shallow coal resources exhausted, coal mining engineering has entered deep areas. The coal geology environment of the deep area differs from that of the shallow. With mining depth increasing, all the stress of buried rock stratum and surrounding rock and gas pressure of coal seam increase gradually. In addition, geological structures, such as complex faults, big folds, and thick-hard roofs, will increase the risk of coal mining. Once the dynamic disaster occurs, it will induce miner casualties and property losses. So, it is urgent to identify mine hazards, such as coal and gas outbursts, rock bursts, gas explosions, and coal fires, and research their formation mechanism, occurrence, and development process. Furthermore, prevention and control methods should be proposed to reduce mine disasters. Only in this way can we promote the safe, green, and efficient development of coal mining. This Topical Collection, titled "Mine Hazards Identification, Prevention, and Control," aims to allow global researchers to conduct a broader scientific and technological discussion on such advances to improve the prevention and control level of disasters encountered during underground coal mining. The discussion topics include, but are not limited to, the basic experiments, modeling, numerical simulation, and field tests of aforementioned disasters.

Aluminum alloys and aluminum matrix composite materials have become the first choice to replace steel materials due to their high specific strength. The penetration rate of light alloys in new energy vehicles, the aerospace industry, and the rapid rail transit industry is increasing quickly. The reduction in energy consumption resulting from structural weight reduction is the key element for sustainable development. For example, every 100 kg reduction in car mass can save 0.6 L of fuel per 100 kilometers and reduce the emission of 800-900 g of carbon dioxide. For every 10% reduction in the weight of new energy vehicles, their range can be increased by 5.5% (for every 10 kg reduction in the weight of pure electric vehicles, their range can be increased by 2.5 km). The comprehensive proportion of aluminum alloys in automobiles will reach about 26% by 2040. The vigorous development of the automotive manufacturing industry has provided a huge application scenario for aluminum alloy profiles, aluminum alloy castings, and forgings. In addition, the use of aluminum in aerospace and high-speed rail is even more widely recognized. This Special Issue summarizes research on and the application of aluminum alloys of typical composition, including AlZnMgCu, AlCu, AlMn, and even Ti-aluminum alloys.

Fault detection and state estimation are essential tasks for ensuring the reliability, safety and performance of automatic control systems. They play a critical role in detecting and isolating faults quickly and accurately, enabling timely corrective action and preventing system failures. The field of fault detection and state estimation has seen significant advances in recent years, driven by the integration of advanced methodologies with cutting-edge technologies, in particular artificial intelligence and deep learning. These techniques have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in fault diagnosis, state estimation and fault-tolerant control, especially in complex multi-sensor systems.This Special Issue highlights and discusses the design and application of fault detection algorithms, the design and application of state estimation methods, the design and application of machine learning algorithms, the analysis of automatic control system characteristics, and the design and application of intelligent control systems. Nevertheless, many challenges remain and require attention, including scalability, computational efficiency, online implementation, fault isolation, fault recovery and fault-tolerant control. Additional research efforts are therefore essential to advance both the theory and practice of this critical task.

To ensure global food and nutrition security, there is a need for a sustainable year-round supply of nutritious food systems such as fruits and vegetables. Over the years, there has been a surge in fruit and vegetable consumption due to their composition of health-promoting biomarkers such as vitamins, minerals, fiber, and bioactive polyphenols. However, producing fruits and vegetables with the valuable contents of these health-promoting biomarkers is dependent on various factors, such as growing degree days, genetic pool, and management practices. Thereby, the goal of this Special Issue (Fruits and Vegetables Production) of the MDPI journal Plants was to provide up-to-date knowledge on traditional and emerging novel technologies applicable in sustainable production of high-value fruits and vegetables at various stages of their field and greenhouse production chains. In summary, this reprint is produced from the Special Issue that reported 12 peer-reviewed manuscripts, with foci on: (1) crop response to different elicitors and (2) green non-destructive technologies for efficient profiling of biomarkers, quality parameters, and cultivar evaluation. Thus, this reprint bridges the gaps among stakeholders (i.e., researchers, policymakers, and industry) for efficient production of consumer-centric crops with high productivity, appreciable nutritional value, and post-harvest resilience.

This Special Issue addresses recent advances in the research of plant-derived natural products, their mechanisms of action and how they can influence health and disease. Plant-derived natural products have been well known since antiquity due to their beneficial effects on human health, and since then, they have attracted the interest of the scientific community, leading to the identification, isolation and quantification of their compounds and research on their biomedical properties. They have been found to be rich in phytochemicals, such as terpenes and phenolic compounds, with proven antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antitumor and prebiotic properties, and therefore, they have been suggested as potential candidates for the therapeutic management of several chronic diseases. Some of them include inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, arthritis and cancer, in which inflammation, oxidative stress and dysbiosis mechanisms are implicated. Furthermore, given the increased economic burden, the side effects and the low compliance rates of patients who receive standard medical treatments, plant-derived natural products could possibly serve as adjunct therapeutic agents for chronic diseases.

Smart materials and structures are capable of active or passive changes in terms of shapes, properties, and mechanical or electromagnetic responses in reaction to an external stimulus, such as light, temperature, stress, moisture, pH, and electric or magnetic fields. They have attracted increasing interest for their enhanced performance and efficiency over a wide range of industrial applications, especially for aerospace. These require novel engineering approaches and design philosophies in order to integrate the actions of sensors, actuators, and control circuit elements into a single system that can respond adaptively to its surroundings. This reprint has collected cutting-edge research and recent advances in smart materials and structures, including seven original research papers and three review articles, co-authored by 65 scientists and engineers from 18 institutions and 3 industries. The research topics mainly cover advanced materials, applications of smart materials and structures, as well as recent development in sensing techniques. We hope this reprint will contribute to disseminating the latest progress in smart materials and structures, as well as stimulate the interest of its audience to work in this important and vibrant area to promote and benefit the multidisciplinary scientific communities.

With the development of modern society, environmental pollution and energy shortages have become the focus of attention worldwide. Most of the global energy supplies are generated from fossil fuel, which gives rise to environmental pollution and climate change. Photocatalysis technology, which can directly convert solar energy into high value-added fuel and chemical materials or degrade a wide range of organic pollutants into easily degradable intermediates or less toxic small molecular substances, is regarded as one of the most important ways to solve the global energy shortage and environmental pollution problem. This Special Issue focuses on advanced photocatalytic materials, including but not limited to photocatalytic materials for the treatment of indoor air, photocatalytic bacterial inactivation, photocatalytic hydrogen evolution, photocatalytic oxygen evolution, photocatalytic CO2 reduction, photocatalytic hazardous pollutant removal, the photothermal decomposition of pollutants, photoelectrochemical water splitting, etc. This Special Issue provides a platform for scientists to present their original research on "Advanced Photocatalytic Materials for Environmental and Energy Applications".

Agricultural practices, industrial manufacturing, and household consumption are just a few of the activities that contribute to the production of food waste biomass. Modern environmental theories, like the circular economy, are thought to be the impulse behind the implementation of zero-waste policies. The huge percentage of such residual biomass has significant potential to be used as a raw material to produce novel products and specialty feedstock through biorefining procedures, even though the high volume of waste originating from the food industry raises serious concerns regarding both economic and environmental aspects. Given that many plant parts that are rejected during fruit and vegetable processing (e.g., leaves, branches, peels, roots, stems, and seeds) carry a sizable load of phytochemicals, including polyphenols, the recovery of valuable secondary metabolites from waste plant tissues is an appealing prospect in this regard. This specific group of substances exhibits a wide range of chemical compositions with diverse biological characteristics and functions, including antioxidant and antibacterial activities as well as chemoprotective effects against cancer and other degenerative diseases.

This reprint entails descriptions of novel issues and challenges for primary mental healthcare regarding both general and vulnerable populations on a global scale. It is intended for health professionals and all who are interested in mental health care at the primary level.

The research field of data analysis and mining has attracted the interest of both academia and industry in recent years. This reprint contains 17 papers, which cover different topics of the broad research field of data analysis and mining. Each paper presents new data mining algorithms and techniques, as well as applications of data analysis and mining in real-world domains.

Violence between couples is one of the most common forms of abuse. The consequences that this phenomenon has on the victims, but also on the aggressors, are serious enough to justify the multiple investigations focused on the topic. In the literature, a strong heterogeneity of variables has been linked to this phenomenon (previous history of abuse, sexism, normalization of violence, culture, etc.) in different ways. In the same way, considering violence within the LGTBI+ community, the reviewed literature concludes that intimate partner violence does not entail forms of abuse specifically linked to these couples, since aggressions are manifested in hetero- and homosexual couples regardless of their sexual orientation. This heterogeneity of variables linked with the phenomenon can be assumed to have a positive impact on the prevention of abuse; however, to date, the actions taken have not been sufficient. There is thus a need to adopt a broader approach that includes not only all the social agents involved but also how the world and society are constantly evolving, changing how violence and abuse are perpetrated and interpreted.In view of the above, this reprint presents ten valuable investigations carried out by researchers of international prestige focused on different contexts, social agents, and the way victims are affected by the variables linked to the phenomenon, indicating how they interact and modify the way teens see romantic relationships and violence.

The Hsp90 chaperone complex is responsible for the activation and maturation of a vast array of signaling proteins. Recently, there has been a leap in our understanding of the Hsp90 structure and molecular mechanisms involved in such regulation. This has opened a doorway to the underlying mechanisms of disease processes and how we may intervene in such mechanisms to improve prognosis. The focus of this Special Issue is on the recent structural and biochemical advances of Hsp90 that provide insights into the mechanistic activation of Hsp90 on client proteins. It will also include discussions on Hsp90 and its co-chaperones, and their potential as therapeutic targets against human diseases.

Modern medical imaging systems provide information about the patient's health condition. Their precision, resolution and sensitivity are increasing, and new possibilities of differentiating the condition of tissue are constantly appearing. These advances are also taking place in musculoskeletal imaging. Increasingly accurate imaging in various modalities allows us to discover new relationships between the image and the diagnosis. It is therefore important to use all this information to best serve the patient. That is why research related to the analysis of medical images is so important, because it allows us to indicate what is invisible to the naked eye or to quantify what has so far been measured by humans or subject to discretionary assessment. This collection includes 25 works related to the analysis of images created during diagnostics of the musculoskeletal system using various modalities-from X-ray and fluoroscopy to conventional or spectral computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound, elastography, PET/CT and systems for analyzing patient mechanics. Research was carried out related to the detection of various conditions, parameterization of clinical and population phenomena, and detection of image-clinical condition relationships. Despite the current popularity of machine learning techniques, the collection is dominated by classic engineering methods related to image processing. Several works use textural analysis, which has not been appreciated so far, which is particularly related to the imaging of the structure, especially of bones.

This reprint delves into the latest advancements in aquaculture techniques emerging from China. It provides a comprehensive update on the research and technological developments in various aspects of aquaculture, including biotechnology, ecotechnology, feeding technology, and environmental technology. The reprint covers a wide range of topics, such as the use of biotechnology to identify and characterize genes that enhance resistance to bacterial infection and environmental stress. It also explores feeding technology that improves immunity and stress resistance in aquatic organisms. Additionally, the reprint discusses the detection of the impact of thermal stress on marine fish immunity, the manipulation of light color to enhance algal growth, and the utilization of integrated multi-trophic systems to boost production. With a focus on marine fish, shrimp, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, and algae, this reprint showcases groundbreaking research that paves the way for future advancements in aquaculture. These innovative technologies are expected to have far-reaching implications for other species in the field of aquaculture.

Forests are inherently linked to water resources and water-related ecosystem services. Therefore, an integrated forest-water management system is urgently required to ensure a balanced supply of hydrological and other ecosystem services from forests to meet the fast-increasing societal demands for them. This means that water aspects must be integrated into traditional forest management focusing mainly on timber production, and based on the knowledge and the latest scientific results of forest ecohydrology. Unfortunately, there are a lot of gaps in our knowledge of forest ecohydrology. This reprint presents relevant new results from scientific research on forest ecohydrology, related to the drought tolerance mechanism, hydrological properties of soil and litter layers, variation in solar radiation within stands, snowpack isotopic composition in open and forested areas, canopy transpiration and response to the main influencing factors, and the water balance components of typical forests at different regions with various climates. This knowledge can contribute to the theoretical development of forest ecohydrology and the innovative practice of integrated forest-water management to enhance the balanced supply of hydrological and other ecosystem services from forests.