Bücher veröffentlicht von Mdpi AG

Energy transformation significantly redefines the business models of enterprises in the energy sector, putting difficult decisions before them in terms of both strategy and operationalization. This shift aligns with climate protection policies, Industry 4.0 principles, and advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, and IoT. The technological revolution is set to significantly alter lifestyles and business operations in energy production, supply, and distribution. This revolution demands that managers equip their companies and staff for upcoming challenges, emphasizing customer relations, networking, eco-development, and energy efficiency. In addition, companies from the energy sector are particularly susceptible to macroeconomic and environmental factors, such as government regulations, fluctuations in demand, price pressure on commodity exchanges, and measures to prevent global warming and engage in the creation of renewable energy. Furthermore, the situation related to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has forced many companies to rethink their actions. However, some recorded a significant slowdown in technology implementation and research and development. We do not know whether the long-term effect will influence the energy paradigm. This work aims to create new theoretical and empirical works on changes to energy sector management, including new business models and the use of Industry 4.0 technology, and their impact on organizations, digitization, companies' energy self-sufficiency, and investments supporting the so-called green economy.

Polyphenols are natural phytochemicals recognized as one of the largest and most widespread classes of plant constituents occurring throughout the plant kingdom. Over the years, polyphenols have attracted the attention of the scientific community due to their potential health-promoting effects. Owing to their several interesting properties, polyphenols have aroused considerable interest, shedding light on their chemistry, reactivity, biological properties and their beneficial effects on both plants and humans. As a result of these investigations, a huge number of research works have been reported on polyphenols. However, despite the voluminous literature studying polyphenols and their impact on human health, there are still many issues waiting to be explored in order to explain and elucidate the positive effects of polyphenols on human health. This Special Issue was intended to gather up-to-date knowledge related to the cutting-edge research in the broad scientific area of polyphenols, providing an opportunity to show the latest advances in the exploration of polyphenols and their health beneficial effects. The special issue was a great success with more than 50 published manuscripts covering various aspects related to polyphenols and their role in human health. We are confident that this Special Issue will be of great interest to the scientific community, and will contribute to the improvement of knowledge regarding the area of polyphenols, leading to a better understanding of their role in human health.

The pursuit of industrial process improvement has been a continuous task in modern manufacturing and production. The confluence of automation and robotics has not only revolutionized manufacturing processes but has also redefined the benchmarks of efficiency, precision, and adaptability in various industries. This reprint, "Industrial Process Improvement by Automation and Robotics", is a comprehensive collection of research papers, each chapter delving into distinct facets of the integration of automation and robotics to enhance industrial processes across diverse applications. The compilation of fourteen chapters covers a broad spectrum of topics, addressing the latest technological advancements and innovative methodologies employed in industrial automation.The primary aim of this reprint is to serve as a compendium for researchers, engineers, industrial practitioners, and academicians actively involved or interested in the domains of automation, robotics, and industrial process improvement. The multidisciplinary approach of these chapters caters to a diverse audience seeking in-depth knowledge, innovative strategies, and insightful perspectives in this evolving field.

Sensors used to diagnose, monitor or treat diseases in the medical domain are known as medical sensors. There are several types of medical sensors that can be utilized for various applications, such as temperature probes, force sensors, pressure sensors, oximeters, electrocardiogram sensors that measure the electrical activity of the heart, heart rate sensors, electroencephalogram sensors that measure the electrical activity of the brain, electromyogram sensors that record electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles, and respiration rate sensors that count how many times the chest rises in a minute. The output of these sensors used to be interpreted by humans, which was time consuming and tedious; however, such interpretations became easy with advances in artificial intelligence (AI) techniques and the integration of the sensor outputs into computer-aided diagnostic (CAD) systems. This reprint presents some of the state-of-the-art AI approaches that are used to diagnose different diseases and disorders based on the data collected from different medical sensors. The ultimate goal is to develop comprehensive and automated computer-aided diagnosis by focusing on the different machine learning algorithms that can be used for this purpose as well as novel applications in the medical field.

Understanding the impact of the hepatocyte growth factor receptor (MET) during cancer development, cancer growth, and cancer treatment is crucial to further improve biomarker development and cancer treatment options for patients' benefit. This reprint gives a snapshot of the current understanding of MET in lung and gastric cancer, describes promising new therapeutics, and emphasizes some of the challenges associated with their use.

Active B-type stars are defined by their characteristic emission formed in a dense environment. Among them are the classical Be stars, which are surrounded by ionized gaseous disks, and B[e] stars, whose disks are so dense that even molecules and dust can form within them. The variability of active B-type stars seen on various time and spatial scales is often connected to the formation and dissipation of these disks. Although the possible roles of radiation, rotation, pulsation, and binarity in pulling material off the stars have been explored in detail in the past few decades, the relevant physical processes involved in the formation of sustainable disks and their dynamical evolution are still unclear and a matter of debate.This Special Issue intends to provide a comprehensive update on the state of knowledge in the field of active B-type stars. It combines reviews and selected contributions on recent groundbreaking advancements in the comprehension of these peculiar objects from both a theoretical and an observational perspective. These new insights form the basis for exploring complex physical phenomena to verify the different scenarios proposed for the evolution and variability of stars and their circumstellar environment of the diverse classes of active B-type stars.

Active flow control (AFC) utilizes local active perturbations to induce changes in global flow behavior that result in aero/hydrodynamic performance improvement. It has been a vibrant research area with potential applications in a wide range of engineering fields. This Special Issue is a collection of 11 excellent research papers published in Actuators, showcasing and discussing new advances in both fundamental and applied AFC technologies.

Optimum nutrition in pregnancy is important for the health and wellbeing of the mother and the developing child. Nutrition at this time influences the physiological development and metabolism of the foetus and has the potential to determine the future health and disease risk of the offspring. The nutritional status during pregnancy also influences the mother's breast milk, her nutritional status for future pregnancies, and impacts on the burden of chronic disease worldwide. Determining optimal nutrition for different stages of pregnancy and measuring nutrient intake is challenging. Across the world and within communities, different dietary patterns have been identified and linked to health outcomes. Dietary patterns, rather than individual food constituents and nutrients, may have a greater influence on health. This Special Issue brought together global research on dietary patterns and nutrient intakes during pregnancy to further our understanding of the influence of diet on maternal and foetal/infant outcomes.

Nature has represented and still represents a great pool of biologically active compounds and, at the same time, is a source of inspiration. In the first phase, the researchers turned their attention to the new compounds isolated from plants and their characterization in terms of their beneficial effects on human health. Recently, however, there have been extensive studies on the synthesis of compounds analogous to plant-derived compounds in order to prevent or treat diseases such as diabetes, obesity, chronic liver diseases, respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and so on. One of the mechanisms involved in the beneficial effect on human health is represented by plant-derived compounds' anti-inflammatory effects.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to show progress regarding current research and literature on the theme of "Current Trends in Tourism under COVID-19 and Future Implications for Sustainability". In particular, this Special Issue of the peer-reviewed international journal Sustainability aspires to expand the discussion and scientific debate on a range of viewpoints, trends, approaches, cases, impacts, challenges, models, and/or frameworks relating to tourism in the time of COVID-19, as well as the possibility of implementing the principles of sustainable tourism development in the post-pandemic period. Restarting the frozen tourism economy is an opportunity to build healthy relations between various groups of tourism stakeholders, including entrepreneurs and tourists. "New tourism" also requires legal and organizational solutions in order to balance the economic relations between global and local market actors in terms of consumer protection, as well as prevent the phenomenon of overtourism. The digitization of tourism services in the areas of marketing and sales should be one of the priorities addressed by entrepreneurs and DMOs. In the literature, as well as in the media and the scientific community, the impact of the pandemic on tourism has been the most commonly discussed topic over the last two years. This Special Issue aims to explore further sustainable tourism practices.

This reprint explores the fascinating world of nuclear physics, focusing on the shell model, which is one the most important concepts for understanding atomic nuclei structure. Within this model, the complexity of the nuclear many-body system is drastically reduced by considering a limited number of nucleons moving in a reduced model space and interacting via effective forces that account for the missing degrees of freedom. Since its birth about 70 years ago, this model has been successfully applied to investigating the rich structure of atomic nuclei, with important implications in astrophysics and physics beyond the standard model. In recent years, experimental tools allow the exploration of regions of the nuclide chart towards the drip lines; this has led to the discovery of new and unexpected phenomena, whose interpretation has required large computation efforts and the development of more efficient codes and has also probed the reliability and robustness of the shell model in describing the behavior of nuclei far from the valley of stability. Substantial progress has also been achieved in deriving effective shell-model interactions from the force between free protons and neutrons, as well as in developing advanced techniques to include the effects of the continuum. This reprint provides an overview of the shell model's status and future developments. It illustrates its versatility and power in understanding the structure of nuclei, including processes related to other branches of physics.

In this Special Issue we gathered ten exemplary papers, each delineating advancements within the spheres of machine learning and deep neural networks. Commencing with a thorough exploration by Figueira and Vaz, readers are introduced to the nuances of synthetic data generation and evaluation, followed closely by Silva and Pedroso's systematic approach to leveraging deep reinforcement learning within the intricate realm of delivery logistics. Kamran et al. contribute an astute methodology for camouflage object segmentation, whereas Pinheiro and collaborators offer a crafted semi-supervised strategy for predicting EGFR mutations via CT images. Subsequent contributions, such as Lee and Yoo's framework for portrait emotion recognition and Balakrishnan et al.'s analytical exploration of transformer models for Twitter disaster detection, further exemplify the depth of research contained herein. Later chapters cover a broad spectrum of themes: Li, Branco, and Zhang investigate house price prediction; Aziz and his team delve into the geo-spatial analysis of hate speech; Nazari, Branco, and Jourdan introduce innovations in GAN training methodologies; and Xie and Lin present CNN models meticulously tailored for ectopic beat classification. In its entirety, this Special Issue represents progressive strides in machine learning and deep neural networks made by distinguished scholars. It offers readers an insightful overview of both the current state-of-the-art methodologies and the burgeoning innovations within this exciting field.

In modern society, the applications of new functional materials are diverse and countless. Intermetallics, namely, compounds formed by two or more metallic elements, are among the various novel and significant materials developments. Intermetallics have received considerable attention owing to their potential for various applications, such as permanent magnets, magneto-optical recording media, hydrogen storage and magnetocaloric materials, turbine blades, and in microelectronics. With a favorable combination of high strength, low density, and good corrosion resistance, intermetallics are specifically suited for applications at high temperatures and in adverse environments. They can also display desirable magnetic, superconducting, and chemical properties due to their strong internal order and mixed metallic and covalent or ionic bonding, respectively. This Special Issue "Intermetallic Compound (Volume II)" is launched to serve as a unique multidisciplinary forum covering broad aspects of the science, technology, and application of intermetallic compounds. Potential topics include but are not limited to: Synthesis of intermetallic compounds; Characteristics of structural properties; Type of intermetallic compounds; Unique properties; Applications.

This Special Issue includes 12 articles, consisting of original research, narrative reviews, systematic reviews, and an editorial regarding the roles of dietary and lifestyle factors in the prevention and mangement of noncommunicable diseases. Studies in this Special Issue cover a range of topics including dietary patterns and diseases risk and prevention, the association of lifestyle factors and disease risk, the role of vitamin D and solar radiation in health and pregnancy, and urbanization in modifying risk of adverse health outcomes for various noncommunicable diseases.

The second volume of the Special Issue entitled "Antimicrobial Prescribing and Stewardship" consists of manuscripts, including original research articles, review articles, and opinion papers regarding antimicrobial stewardship-related topics, including disease-based/organism-based antimicrobial stewardship; the influence of antimicrobial utilization changes on antimicrobial resistance; the impact of antimicrobial stewardship on quality performance measures and patient outcomes; novel antimicrobial stewardship education and training approaches or interventions aimed toward the public and/or healthcare workers; behavioral change approaches to antimicrobial stewardship; collaborative practice agreements in antimicrobial stewardship; antimicrobial stewardship in special populations (e.g., pediatrics, geriatrics, emergency medicine, hematology/oncology); tackling AMR through antimicrobial stewardship in low- and middle-income countries; antimicrobial stewardship for animal health; antimicrobial stewardship in alternative settings (e.g., community practice, long-term care, resource-limited settings, small and rural hospitals); antimicrobial use and stewardship in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic; and global collaborations to tackle AMR through antimicrobial stewardship.

This Special Issue of Life, entitled "Plants as a Promising Biofactory for Bioactive Compounds," showcases the latest research that explores the utilization of plant biofactories for the production of compounds with multiple biological effects, including antioxidant, antitumor, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anti-Alzheimer, antihemolytic, neuroprotective, and pesticide activities.

The Special Issue titled "Recent Advances in Long-Acting Drug Delivery and Formulations" encompasses versatile and innovative research domains of oral, ocular, brain, and topical delivery systems and chemical approaches (e.g., prodrugs), highlighting the progress made in identifying excipients (e.g., basic amino acids to ameliorate gastric side effects of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)), polymers, and molecular targets to achieve more effective sustained release systems and safer medicine. In this Special Issue, 78 authors have contributed, with eleven original research articles spanning five continents (Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, and Australasia) providing important insights into the pharmaceutical sciences.

Biomaterials engineering is a dynamic and rapidly evolving field that plays a pivotal role in advancing medical technology, improving patient care, and addressing healthcare challenges. Advancements in interdisciplinary fields such as chemistry, physics, material science, nanotechnology, manufacturing technology, and bioengineering have the opportunity to significantly impact patient lives by developing innovative solutions, thereby improving the performance and safety of medical devices and therapies. This Special Issue mainly aims to present the recent development of advanced biomaterials such as gels, ceramics, and glasses for healthcare applications, including hard and soft tissue engineering, medical implants, drug delivery systems, and more. This Special Issue, made up of 4 reviews and 8 original articles, represents the keen and diverse research ensuing toward innovative functionalities and their incorporation with cutting-edge fabrication techniques. It will also focus on the chemistry of biomaterials and their characteristics, such as bioactivity, biocompatibility, and biodegradation, and how their chemical-physical properties (such as porosity, morphology, mechanical strength, etc.) can influence cells and living systems.

This reprint presents a comprehensive exploration of cutting-edge research in various domains, ranging from blockchain integration in agriculture to innovative tools for employees' performance measurement. The topics cover machine learning applications, healthcare information systems and the adoption of digital business solutions. An emphasis is placed on emerging technologies, like IoT, VR and AR, offering insights into the future of information systems and technologies. The interdisciplinary nature of the papers reflects a wide spectrum of applications, including smart home systems, energy microgrids and novel approaches to classification using online reviews.

Pharmaceutics is very pleased to be hosting a Special Issue in honor of Dr. Marie-Hélène Metz-Boutigue, acknowledging her influential scientific contributions to research on Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs). This Special Issue aimed to gather and highlight significant advancements for AMPs as an alternative to antibiotics for increasing resistant strains and recent discoveries for future therapeutic approaches. Since the AMPs are multifunctional peptides with antitumor and immunomodulating effects, original research articles and reviews in these fields were particularly welcomed. Manuscripts regarding antimicrobial biomaterials including AMPs were also of interest.

In modern industries, induction motors are the backbone of numerous applications, powering everything from manufacturing facilities to transportation systems. While they are known for their reliability, unexpected failures can still occur, leading to increased operational costs, facility damage, or service interruptions. "Early Detection and Fault Diagnosis of Induction Motors" is a comprehensive volume that compiles ten innovative journal articles focused on maintaining these machines. The papers explore a variety of techniques that introduce new ideas to the field.

With increasing speed, new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for facial nerve disorders are being published. Many of them have improved decision-making, treatment, and the rehabilitation of patients. Unfortunately, there is often a lack of high-quality studies that prove long-term effects or identify subgroups that are of particular benefit. Even a reliable characterization of patients with facial nerve disabilities is often complicated. Therefore, evidence-based management remains challenging.With this Special Issue on the topic of "Evidence-Based Diagnosis and Management of Facial Nerve Disorders", we have brought together experts from various fields, including speech pathology, plastic surgery, otolaryngology, neurology, and physical therapy, to present the latest developments in relation to facial nerve disorders and to present a great variety of topics to our readership. We can see that the topic of facial nerve palsy offers a vast and dynamic spectrum of developments, and hope that the research presented in this Special Issue shows the importance of a multidisciplinary approach. We hope it will not only enhance our knowledge of this condition, but also ultimately improve patient outcomes and their quality of life to some extent.

In the last three decades, fractional calculus has broken into the field of mathematical analysis, both at the theoretical level and the level of its applications. In essence, the fractional calculus theory is a mathematical analysis tool applied to studying integrals and derivatives of arbitrary order, which unifies and generalizes the classical notions of differentiation and integration. These fractional and derivative integrals, which until a few years ago had been used in purely mathematical contexts, have been revealed as instruments with great potential to model problems in various scientific fields, such as fluid mechanics, viscoelasticity, physics, biology, chemistry, dynamical systems, signal processing, and entropy theory. Since fractional order's differential and integral operators are nonlinear operators, fractional calculus theory provides a tool for modeling physical processes, which in many cases is more useful than classical formulations; this is why applying fractional calculus theory has become a focus of international academic research. This Special Issue, "Applied Mathematics and Fractional Calculus II," has published excellent research studies in the field of applied mathematics and fractional calculus, authored by many well-known mathematicians and scientists from diverse countries worldwide, such as the USA, Ireland, Romania, Bulgaria, Türkiye, China, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, India, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.

Cavitation-Enhanced Drug Delivery and Immunotherapy is a rapidly evolving area that has been buoyed in recent years by the development of methods harnessing the activity of ultrasound-stimulated bubbles, known as cavitation. When properly controlled, cavitation can help overcome physical barriers to drug delivery whilst providing readily measurable information for timely quantitative feedback and treatment guidance. Microbubble-assisted therapies have demonstrated impressive advancements in clinical trials and pre-clinical areas, including applications in neurology, oncology, cardiology and beyond.

With the aging of the population, the incidence rate and number of elderly nervous system diseases have increased sharply. This event has brought huge problems to society. Despite significant efforts being made to explore new treatment options and drugs, the results have been limited. The reason may be due to people's incomplete understanding of the pathogenesis of these age-related diseases. Iron is the most abundant trace element in the human body and is essential for normal life activities. Previous studies have shown that brain iron levels increase with age. The abnormal increase in brain iron levels is closely related to age-related neurological diseases. The disruption of the redox balance may be an important mechanism for the occurrence of neurological diseases caused by brain iron abnormalities. This Special Issue mainly highlights and discusses the latest research progress related to the regulation of brain iron metabolism, redox balance, and the pathogenesis of neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), cerebral ischemia, cancer and maintenance of cellular stemness. The molecular mechanisms of iron-misregulation-induced redox imbalance in disease pathogenesis were analyzed. On this basis, further discussions were conducted on potential therapeutic targets for regulating iron metabolism to achieve effective intervention in elderly neurological diseases.

This Special Issue is dedicated to the synthesis, characterization, and application of functionalized or doped matrices (e.g., hydrogels, aerogels, or sol-gels) for environmental purposes such as the sensing or removal of different toxic analytes. The chemical functional groups or doping materials, such as noble metal nanostructures, quantum dots, and carbon nanotubes, play several roles, donating further features to the host matrix such as particular optical, mechanical, or electrical properties and interacting with the surrounding environment. In addition, the employment of hosting matrices increases handling and portability and opens new horizons for in situ environmental applications.

Thanks to the breast cancer research of recent decades, effective methods and strategies have been established, allowing the mortality rates of breast cancer patients to decrease more and more. However, we still face many challenges. The role of certain biomarkers or mutations is still not clear for treatment and surveillance. Novel drugs are often associated with a different spectrum of adverse events than that seen for conventional therapies, accordingly having an impact on patients' compliance behaviors. In breast cancer surgery, in some cases, the question remains whether to escalate or deescalate. Additionally, with regard to diagnostics, in a digitalized world, home-based tools and therapy monitoring options are of high importance, especially under the tough conditions and supply problems seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.This Special Issue gathers original research articles and reviews demonstrating therapeutic challenges, current research strategies, and novel diagnostics in breast cancer.

This Special Issue presents an extract from the reality of smart agriculture, where the combination of modern technologies, innovative solutions, and sustainable approaches to food production classifies this part of science as highly interdisciplinary, multifaceted, and technologically advanced. The need to increase productivity, optimize natural resources, and minimize environmental impact requires new approaches. In this context, smart agriculture is emerging as a solution that combines technology, data, and science to achieve sustainable, efficient, and innovative food production. This Special Issue introduces the field of smart farming, which encompasses a range of advanced technologies. The use of these tools allows for the monitoring and optimization of crop conditions, precise fertilization, the minimization of water and energy usage, and the improvement of crop quality and quantity. In addition, plant monitoring systems are described, which, by means of sensors and data analysis, provide farmers with valuable information about plant health, soil moisture, temperature, and other factors affecting crop growth. A significant part of this monograph deals with the automation of agricultural processes, where robots and machines undertake tasks with high precision and accuracy, contributing to the farmer's efficiency. This Special Issue aims not only to provide an understanding of smart agriculture but to also inspire the reader to think about the future of agriculture and the ways in which modern food production methods can be improved.

Embark on an intellectual exploration by addressing the intricate connections between education and the defining challenges of our era in this captivating collection. "Creativity, Intelligence, and Collaboration in 21st Century Education" delves into the demands of our dynamic world, intertwining various perspectives from psychology, creativity studies, and educational sciences. Uncover the significance of 20th-century skills, explore the transformative impact of digital technology, and examine the intersection of creativity and artificial intelligence, among other lively issues that shape the educational landscape. From STEM education to the creative process of master's students, this volume serves as a guiding beacon for researchers, educators, policymakers, and inquisitive minds interested in the evolving trends and fresh perspectives in education. Challenge assumptions, envision a landscape where creativity and collaboration flourish, and emerge with a profound understanding of the future of education.

This Special Issue comprises 17 research articles and 2 review articles, covering studies on both individual and composite polymer modifications. Topics include high-content polymer-modified bitumen, epoxy resin adhesives, SBS-modified bitumen, PE-modified bitumen, crumb-rubber-modified bitumen, and biopolymeric capsules and bitumen rejuvenators.