Bücher veröffentlicht von Mdpi AG

Due to innovation in technology, a new type of patient has been created, the e-patient, characterized by the use of electronic communication tools and commitment to participate in their own care. The extent to which the world of digital health has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic has been widely recognized. Remote medicine has become part of the new normal for patients and clinicians, introducing innovative care delivery models that are likely to endure even if the pendulum swings back to some degree in a post-COVID age. The development of digital applications and remote communication technologies for patients with multiple sclerosis has increased rapidly in recent years. For patients, eHealth apps have been shown to improve outcomes and increase access to care, disease information, and support. For HCPs, eHealth technology may facilitate the assessment of clinical disability, analysis of lab and imaging data, and remote monitoring of patient symptoms, adverse events, and outcomes. It may allow time optimization and more timely intervention than is possible with scheduled face-to-face visits. The way we measure the impact of MS on daily life has remained relatively unchanged for decades, and is heavily reliant on clinic visits that may only occur once or twice each year.These benefits are important because multiple sclerosis requires ongoing monitoring, assessment, and management.The aim of this Special Issue is to cover the state of knowledge and expertise in the field of eHealth technology applied to multiple sclerosis, from clinical evaluation to patient education.

In impulse-based manufacturing technologies, the energy required to form, join or cut components acts on the workpiece in a very short time and suddenly accelerates workpiece areas to very high velocities. The correspondingly high strain rates, together with inertia effects, affect the behavior of many materials, resulting in technological benefits such as improved formability, reduced localizing and springback, extended possibilities to produce high-quality multi material joints and burr-free cutting. This Special Issue of JMMP presents the current research findings, which focus on exploiting the full potential of these processes by providing a deeper understanding of the technology and the material behavior and detailed knowledge about the sophisticated process and equipment design. The range of processes that are considered covers electromagnetic forming, electrohydraulic forming, adiabatic cutting, forming by vaporizing foil actuators and other impulse-based manufacturing technologies. Papers show significant improvements in the aforementioned processes with regard to:ΓÇó   Processes analysis;ΓÇó   Measurement technique;ΓÇó   Technology development;ΓÇó   Materials and modelling;ΓÇó   Tools and equipment;ΓÇó   Industrial implementation.

Society has recently demonstrated a high level of awareness and responsibility concerning environmental issues. The interest in bioactive compounds extracted from natural sources has increased due to their potential application as active ingredients in several industries, particularly the cosmetic, food, and pharmaceutical industries. Plants are rich sources of phenolic compounds that have been widely studied due to their health-promoting properties, namely antioxidant, anti-carcinogenic, and anti-inflammatory activities, among others. Extraction is usually the limiting analytical step in the yield of bioactive compounds. From a green point of view, many extraction techniques have been employed as potential candidates to replace conventional methods, such as ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE), pressurized liquid extraction (PLE), microwave-assisted extraction (MAE), supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), pulsed electric field extraction, and enzyme-assisted extraction. In this Special Issue, we focus our attention on the chemical characterization of plant extracts and their bioactive composition, focusing also on in-vitro cell assays and molecular tools. The issue comprises original research articles, as well as a review, on topics such as phenolic profile, radical scavenging capacity, in vitro cell assays, comet assay, and antimicrobial capacity. We close this Special Issue with a review paper that focuses on the pharmacological activities of quercetin, one of the principal polyphenols. With this, we aim to provide a contemporary overview of the advantages of bioactive compounds extracted from plants.

As editors of this book our aim was to collect new data from experienced authors in order to further advance the knowledge on the protective effects of polyphenols'' intake, e.g., when included in the human diet, to modulate cellular functions and pathways associated with neurodegenerative diseases.Fruits and vegetables are the richest source of polyphenols in the regular human diet. Most of these molecules possess high antioxidant capacity, as well as several other important activities that can affect human health, among which anti-inflammatory properties and the potential ability to modulate different cell-signalling pathways seem to be the most important. Neurodegenerative diseases are among the main causes of death worldwide and, in most of them like Alzheimer''s or Parkinson''s, neurodegeneration occurs long before the onset of first symptoms, where a large population of brain neurons are already lost. Besides neurons, glial cells like astrocytes and microglia, are involved in oxidative and neuroinflammatory pathological pathways, making them interesting targets for neuroprotective strategies. Polyphenols are promising candidates for those strategies, either as prophylactic substances or as therapeutic molecules.In this book, several research papers and two reviews explore the chemical properties of naturally occurring polyphenols and some new possibilities for the therapeutical and/or prophylactic roles of these molecules on neurodegeneration and neurodegenerative diseases.

Schizophrenia is a common disease characterized by psychotic symptoms (e.g., delusion, hallucinations, blunted affect) and disturbances of cognitive function (e.g., memory, abstraction, attention). If not treated properly, patients may experience serious consequences in terms of social function. Much endeavor in several disciplines of medical science has been made to overcome the paucity of effective treatments for unmet needs, including cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia.This Book, contributed by experts from various regions of the globe, provides up-to-date information to facilitate the development of personal therapeutics for this enigmatic illness.

Today, food animal production systems demand high energy, land, chemicals, and water-all of which are increasingly becoming scarce. Thus, change and innovation are required in many animal production systems to meet the present and future demands for animal products sustainably. Over the last four decades, inexpensive grain, energy, and protein have enabled the economic development of intensive meat, eggs, and milk production systems based on feeding grains and other ingredients sourced from far-off places. The poultry and pig intensive production systems have become highly capital intensive, and they have resulted in many environmental challenges.Food animal feed, nutrition, and welfare are the foundation of successful animal systems. They directly or indirectly affect the entire animal production sector, associated services, public goods, and services, including animal productivity, health and welfare, product quality and safety, land use and land-use change, and greenhouse gas emissions. The sustainability of food animal nutrition and welfare is crucial in developing animal production across production systems. The sustainable increase in animal productivity, which is key to meeting the large current and future demands for animal origin products, cannot be achieved without sustainable animal nutrition and welfare.

Sustainable agricultural practices are needed to provide food security for a growing global population. Food production is usually associated with high nutrient inputs in the form of mineral fertilizers. Since the beginning of agriculture, such practices have led to soil degradation and the release of environmental contaminants. In this Special Issue, we will focus on innovations in organic and inorganic fertilizer production. We welcome studies concerning new approaches for smart fertilizer development, including bioformulations with mineral particles, nanomaterials, and plant growth promoting microorganisms. We especially encourage authors taking advantage of ecological interactions to improve plant nutrient-use efficiency. Moreover, we would like to include contributions that focus on organic amendments to increase or propitiate the terrestrial C sequestration and stabilization, in order to contribute to mitigating climate change at the same time increasing food security by soil fertility, thus making win-win-win scenarios. Such techniques may concern, but are not limited to, innovative organic waste recycling procedures and new applications of mycorrhizae, rhizobioms, or free living soil bacteria and fungi.

The FinTech/InsurTech-based business models are gradually maturing and disrupting the offering and management of financial services (banking, financial and insurance) on the global stage. However, understanding of the risk landscape of the FinTech and InsurTech business models remains at an early stage due to the diverse nature of their activities and the rapid development of the field. Although FinTech and InsurTech offer the opportunity to accelerate economic growth and expand financial affordability/inclusion in all countries, they pose new risks to financial stability and integrity.This book contains five articles that offer a discussion of state-of-the-art developments or introduce new theoretical or practical advances in the identification, measurement and management of the risks arising from the FinTech/InsurTech-based business models.

Spinoza''s Theological-Political Treatise first appeared, anonymously, in 1670. After the publication of the Opera Posthuma (1677), few scholars took the trouble to take the work seriously. In his famous History of Philosophy, Hegel only devoted a few lines to the work, caustically describing it as a mere predecessor of contemporary Biblical criticism. In the early 20th century, Gebhardt deemed it a pamphlet written as an intervention in the political-ecclesiastical controversies of the Republican Era of Johan de Witt, which ended with violent death by the Hague mob. In the 21st century, Verbeek outlined its inconsistencies and named it ''badly organized and-let us admit it-without a clear and recognizable focus''. Notwithstanding this benign neglect, in the past five decades the TTP has finally emerged from the shadow of the Ethics. In the wake of the growing interest in the political philosophy of Spinoza in France and Italy and the study of the historical significance of Radical Enlightenment by Jonathan Israel, recent studies of the TTP have focused on the context of the Dutch Republic, but also explored the work''s broader philosophical relevance. This commemorative Special Issue offers a style guide of the various recent approaches to the TTP, placing the work in its historical context, exploring its Medieval and Early Modern sources, assessing its philosophical (in)coherence, and, finally, its critical relevance in a globalized world, in Brazil, Iran, and in times of enduring authoritarianism and fake news.

Plants have been the sources of important pharmaceuticals, flavoring agents, and agrochemicals. The antimalarial drugs artemisinin and quinine; the anticancer drugs taxol, etoposide, and vinca alkaloids; the sugar-free sweetening agents stevioside and rebaudiosides; and antifeedant azadiractin are good examples of important plant-based drugs, food additives, and agrochemicals currently on the market. Despite these and many other successes, there are significant challenges to discovering and developing commercially important natural products from plants, such as procuring plant materials in large quantities, separating active constituents from complex mixtures, and undesirable qualities, such as low solubility or poor chemical or metabolic stability of active constituents. Dr. James D. McChesney has contributed immensely to overcoming the inherent challenges associated with discovering and developing products modeled from plant-based natural product leads. His research on artemisinin, taxol, galanthamine, podophyllotoxin, and stevia sweet glycosides exemplifies the magnitude of these contributions. His extensive work on the structural modification of taxol led to the discovery and development of the anticancer agent TPI 287, a third-generation taxane analog that is currently undergoing clinical trials. Dr. McChesney has had a long, distinguished teaching and research career, has authored more than 225 research publications, and holds more than 60 patents. He is a past president and Fellow of the American Society of Pharmacognosy and a Fellow of the AAAS. He has mentored many graduate students, post-docs, and junior faculty members who hold prominent positions in natural products research establishments in the US and worldwide.We wish to dedicate this Special Issue Book Version to celebrate the eightieth birthday of Dr. McChesney, a prolific thinker with abundant inventiveness in the field of natural product chemistry and pharmacognosy.

"ME/CFS: Causes, Clinical Features and Diagnosis" addresses the early stages of ME/CFS and underlying predisposing factors. It considers the plight of the individual patient, and also the impact of the illness on society as a whole, which is considerable, in terms of both costs and social disruption. Patients and their families and carers frequently experience discrimination and difficulties accessing care. This volume will be of particular interest to those undertaking scientific research and those providing clinical care for ME/CFS patients, as well as to social policy analysts, policy makers and governments, and specialists in social research and medical education. There is a major focus on shortcomings in terms of medical education, resulting in considerable gaps in knowledge and understanding of the condition among many doctors. International comparisons indicate that these problems are encountered in many countries. This is particularly topical at a time when Long Covid-19 has moved post-viral syndromes to the forefront of the political agenda, and confronted society with new challenges in this area on a hitherto unprecedented scale. The volume addresses the many points of similarity between Long Covid-19 and ME/CFS. Mitigation of the illness is also addressed, through espousal of a more patient-centred approach to care, and through consideration of the scope for prevention. Sixty-nine authors from seventeen European countries, and from Canada and the USA have contributed to this volume, which is a truly international collaboration.

This book proposes a list of contributions in the field of control of power electronics converters for different topologies: DC-DC, DC-AC and AC-DC. It particularly focuses on the use of different advanced control techniques with the aim of improving the performances, flexibility and efficiency in the context of several operation conditions. Sliding mode control, fuzzy logic based control, dead time compensation and optimal linear control are among the techniques developed in the special issue. Simulation and experimental results are provided by the authors to validate the proposed control strategies.

The future food systems will have to provide food and nutrition security while facing unprecedented sustainability challenges: this underlines the need for a transition to more sustainable food systems. Taking into account these premises and considering the complexity of food systems, this book aims to present original research articles, reviews, and commentaries concerning the following:Advancements in food and beverage;Dietary supplements, nutraceuticals, and functional food;Food allergy and public health;Food and nutritional toxicology;Food biotechnology and food processing;Food microbiology and food safety;Food packaging;Food safety and food inspection;Food security and environmental impacts;Food waste management;Nutrition and metabolism;Sustainable food systems and agro-ecological food production.

This book is a collection of manuscripts on breast reconstruction, the topic of a Special Issue of Medicina Journal. The book begins with a review of the literature on the most recent reconstructive strategies using biological dermal matrices and moves toward the management of pain and infections. Some aspects of regenerative surgery are also clarified and an analysis focuses on social disparities in access to breast reconstruction. The final part of this book is dedicated to nipple-areola reconstruction, the last surgical step of breast reconstruction.

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed our lifestyle when, on 30 January 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. Since then, many governments have introduced unprecedented containment measures, hoping to slow the spread of the virus. International research suggests that both the pandemic and the related protective measures, such as lockdown, curfews, and social distancing, are having a profound impact on the mental health of the population. Among the most commonly observed psychological effects, there are high levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic symptoms, along with boredom and frustration. At the same time, the behavioral response of the population is of paramount importance to successfully contain the outbreak, creating a vicious circle in which the psychological distress impacts the willingness to comply with the protective measures, which, in turn, if prolonged, could exacerbate the population''s distress. This book includes: i) original studies on the worldwide psychological and behavioral impact of COVID-19 on targeted individuals (e.g., parents, social workers, patients affected by physical and mental disorders); ii) studies exploring the effect of COVID-19 using advanced statistical and methodological techniques (e.g., machine learning technologies); iii) research on practical applications that could help identify persons at risk, mitigate the negative effects of this situation, and offer insights to policymakers to manage the pandemic are also highly welcomed.

Modern industry, driven by the recent environmental policies, faces an urgent need for the production of lighter and more environmentally-friendly components. High-strength low-alloy steels are key materials in this challenging scenario because they provide a balanced combination of properties, such as strength, toughness, formability, weldability, and corrosion resistance. These features make them ideal for a myriad of engineering applications which experience complex loading conditions and aggressive media, such as aeronautical and automotive components, railway parts, offshore structures, oil and gas pipelines, power transmission towers, and construction machinery, among others. The goal of this book is to foster the dissemination of the latest research devoted to high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels from different perspectives.

Optimal performance of the electric machine/drive system is mandatory to improve the energy consumption and reliability. To achieve this goal, mathematical models of the electric machine/drive system are necessary. Hence, this motivated the editors to instigate the Special Issue "Mathematical Approaches to Modeling, Optimally Designing, and Controlling Electric Machine", aiming to collect novel publications that push the state-of-the art towards optimal performance for the electric machine/drive system. Seventeen papers have been published in this Special Issue. The published papers focus on several aspects of the electric machine/drive system with respect to the mathematical modelling. Novel optimization methods, control approaches, and comparative analysis for electric drive system based on various electric machines were discussed in the published papers.

The anthropogenic loading of phosphorus (P) to water bodies continues to increase worldwide, in many cases leading to increased eutrophication and harmful algal blooms. Determining the sources of P and the biogeochemical processes responsible for this increase is often difficult because of the complexity of the inputs and pathways, which vary both in spatial and temporal scales. In order to effectively develop strategies to improve water quality, it is essential to develop a comprehensive understanding of the relationship of P pools with biological uptake and cycling under varied soil and water conditions. In this ebook, eight chapters cover the various aspects of basic-applied research on mineral-P interaction and how these reactions impact P mobilization, bioavailability, transfer, and speciation of P in different soil matrices using advanced analytical methods. Some of these methods include the application of XANES and field-based research related to stream bank legacy nutrients; natural and anthropogenic eutrophication and its relationship to climate change; and the evaluation of the impact of P due to (i) grazing systems, (ii) weathering and vegetation, and iii) soil and manure management practices. In addition, two review chapters take a holistic approach to cover an expansive area of P transformation processes along the cropland-riparian-stream continuum and the assessment of legacy P. Together, these contributions improve our current understanding of the reactions and processes that impact P concentration, speciation, cycling, loss, and transfer from agroecosystems.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer suggests that the burden of women''s cancers including breast, ovarian, and womb will rise by 50% over the next 20 years. It is essential for us to improve early diagnosis and prevention of these cancers in our health systems. The last decade has seen significant strides in our ability to understand and predict a woman''s risk of these cancers and offer personalized medicine approaches for risk management. There have been improvements in identifying individuals at increased risk, as well as implementing and evaluating strategies for screening and prevention. In this special collection, we bring together 16 articles from leading scientists and researchers. These capture some of the important advances observed in estimating cancer risk, providing genetic testing, offering risk management to those at increased risk, as well as screening and prevention of breast, ovarian, and womb cancers in women. This makes an important contribution to the rapidly advancing knowledge base across the area of personalized medicine and precision prevention of ovarian, endometrial, and breast cancers.

Metals are necessary to maintaining living standards in modern society, due to their countless applications in transportation, building and construction, household appliances, electronic devices, etc. Therefore, humans'' generation and consumption of metals is considerable, and demand is projected to skyrocket continuously as technology advances. Unfortunately, easily exploitable ore deposits have been depleted, which forces mining industries to develop complex ore deposits with low-grade and fine grain sizes to meet the high forecasted demand for metals. In general, metals can be extracted from ores in two ways; either by the concentration of valuable minerals via flotation followed by smelting, or by direct extraction of metals from ores via leaching followed by purification and recovery processes. The first stages in each scenario, flotation and leaching are, therefore, of crucial importance to ensuring the continued supply of metals. This book is a compilation of a Special Issue of Metals, entitled "Advances in Selective Flotation and Leaching Process in Metallurgy", where 12 papers contributed by experts in the area were published. Papers published in this Special Issue cover a wide range of topics, including flotation, microencapsulation, agglomeration, leaching, solvent extraction, electrowinning, precipitation, and cementation. All the papers are of high scientific value and will be of great interest to the readers of Metals.