Bücher veröffentlicht von Mdpi AG

Although scholars of religion acknowledge religion''s deep interconnectedness with race and ethnicity in (and occassionally class), we nonetheless typically study religion as a factor that is independent from other social structures. Likewise, we rarely systematically examine class, race or gender differences between or within religious groups. This journal issue will highlight research that moves beyond these weaknesses by publishing papers that intentionally examine aspects of inequality as they relate to religion. Papers that explore these connections historically or in contemporary times and internationally or locally are all encouraged.

Touch is one of the fundamental media for interpersonal communication. Over recent decades, scientific efforts have been devoted to establishing the significance of touch, particularly affective touch, in the treatment and prevention of mental disorders and clarifying the underlying mechanisms of touch and massage therapy. This book contributes to this rapidly expanding area of research and gives new insights on recent clinical and experimental findings. A strong plea is made by the editors for well-designed clinical studies which require very special methodologies. A broad spectrum of various touch therapies are already available at present. Modern treatment and prevention of mental disorders should go beyond the pharmacological and psychotherapeutic approaches and should make use of the beneficial effects of touch therapies with the additional benefit of a very small risk of adverse outcomes.

This Special Issue (SI), entitled "Applications of Remote Sensing Data in Mapping of Forest Growing Stock and Biomass", resulted from 13 peer-reviewed papers dedicated to Forestry and Biomass mapping, characterization and accounting. The papers'' authors presented improvements in Remote Sensing processing techniques on satellite images, drone-acquired images and LiDAR images, both aerial and terrestrial. Regarding the images'' classification models, all authors presented supervised methods, such as Random Forest, complemented by GIS routines and biophysical variables measured on the field, which were properly georeferenced. The achieved results enable the statement that remote imagery could be successfully used as a data source for regression analysis and formulation and, in this way, used in forestry actions such as canopy structure analysis and mapping, or to estimate biomass. This collection of papers, presented in the form of a book, brings together 13 articles covering various forest issues and issues in forest biomass calculation, constituting an important work manual for those who use mixed GIS and RS techniques.

This book explores the enabling technology in optical fiber communications. It focuses on the state-of-the-art advances from fundamental theories, devices, and subsystems to networking applications as well as future perspectives of optical fiber communications. The topics cover include integrated photonics, fiber optics, fiber and free-space optical communications, and optical networking.

Understanding the patterns of biodiversity and their relationship with environmental gradients is a key issue in ecological research and conservation in forests. Several environmental factors can influence species distributions in these complex ecosystems. It is therefore important to distinguish the effects of natural factors from the anthropogenic ones (e.g., environmental pollution, climate change, and forest management) by adopting reliable models able to predict future scenarios of species distribution. In the last 20 years, the use of statistical tools, such as Species Distribution Models (SDM) or Ecological Niche Models (ENM), allowed researchers to make great strides in the subject, with hundreds of scientific research works in this field. This book collects several research articles where these methodological approaches are the starting point to deepen the knowledge in many timely and emerging topics in forest ecosystems around the world, from Eurasia to America.

In October 2014, the EU leaders agreed upon three key targets for the year 2030: a reduction by at least 40% in greenhouse gas emissions, savings of at least 27% for renewable energy, and improvements by at least 27% in energy efficiency. The increase in computational power combined with advanced modeling and simulation tools makes it possible to derive new technological solutions that can enhance the energy efficiency of systems and that can reduce the ecological footprint. This book compiles 10 novel research works from a Special Issue that was focused on data-driven approaches, machine learning, or artificial intelligence for the modeling, simulation, and optimization of energy systems.

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.

This book presents applications on the ultrasonic wave for material characterization and nondestructive evaluations. It could be of interest to the researchers and students who are studying on the fields of ultrasonic waves.

This book makes the case for why we should care about islands and their sustainability. Islands are hotspots of biocultural diversity and home to 600 million people that depend on one-sixth of the earth''s total area, including the surrounding oceans, for their subsistence. Today, they are at the frontlines of climate change and face an existential crisis. Islands are, however, potential "hubs of innovation" that are uniquely positioned to be leaders in sustainability and climate action. This volume argues that a full-fledged program on "island industrial ecology" is urgently needed, with the aim of offering policy-relevant insights and strategies to sustain small islands in an era of global environmental change. The nine contributions in this volume cover a wide range of applications of socio-metabolic research, from flow accounts to stock analysis and their relationship to services in space and time. They offer insights into how reconfiguring patterns of resource use will allow island governments to build resilience and adapt to the challenges of climate change. 

In higher mammals, including primates and carnivores, the asymmetrical aspects of brain morphology and function have been shown to be species-related, sex-related, and subject to individual diversity, and are associated with cognition, emotion, language, preference of hand/paw use, and numerous other aspects. Disturbance of the brain lateralization is involved in human neurodevelopmental disorders with cognitive impairments, social deficits, and/or specific language impairments. Asymmetric development may be essential to the evolution of the brain in acquiring higher and/or more diverse functions. The purpose of this Special Issue on "Brain Asymmetry in Evolution" is to highlight morphological and functional lateralization of the brain in various species of mammals toward understanding the evolution of the brain.

This book is a compilation of recent studies by recognized experts in the field of epitaxial graphene working towards a deep comprehension of growth mechanisms, property engineering, and device processing. The results of investigations published within this book develop cumulative knowledge on matters related to device-quality epaxial graphene on SiC, bringing this material closer to realistic applications.

Geological Heritage has very diverse elements, both for its intrinsic nature and for its social and scientific significance. These elements have a scientific dimension (stratigraphic, geomorphological, lithological, paleontological, etc.) and a landscape dimension, both with implications for territorial management. In territorial management and planning, it is essential to carry out inventory and cataloging of places of natural and social interest to establish a comprehensive policy. The identification and valuation of the geological and biological heritage, and their interaction in the landscape should favor the conservation and preservation of this natural and historical heritage. Sustainable development implies rational use that prevents the degradation or loss of these unique environments of the natural environment as well as a dissemination and awareness of landscape resources for a better understanding and enjoyment, integrating activities of both environmental education and nature tourism. The diversity of a territory is the result of the complex and continuous interaction of the geological substrate (geotopical) and biological factors that model the existing ecological and evolutionary processes at the level of genes, species, ecosystems, and landscapes and that are expressed in a characteristic representation of organisms adapted to these factors. These vary according to the spatial dimensions and the temporal scales considered, in a wide range, that goes from the geological processes that involve millions of years and vast territories to the casuistic biotic, and anthropic events that can occur in an instant in any territorial sector.

In this Special Issue, we address the state of the art of the systematics of the main annelid groups and the improvements in the diversity they hold, with special emphasis on the latest discoveries in well-studied areas, expeditions to unsurveyed areas or environments, or the use of novel techniques that allow for the improvement of biodiversity knowledge. We are hoping that this Special Issue will provide a platform facilitating a review of current knowledge on the subject, identifying current research problems, as well as indicating directions and research trends for the future.