Bücher veröffentlicht von Mdpi AG

This book originates from the ISPRS/CIPA Workshop “3D-ARCH 2017 – 3D Virtual Reconstruction and Visualization of Complex Architectures”, which was held in March 2017 in Nafplio, Greece. The main workshop’s scope was to bring together scientists, developers and advanced users in 3D surveying and data processing and to encourage cooperation and practice sharing in the various fields where 3D technologies are nowadays used. The workshop focused primarily on multi-source and multi-sensors approaches, low-cost sensors and open-source algorithms for terrestrial 3D modelling, automation in data registration, image matching and 3D reconstruction, point cloud analysis, 4D modelling, BIM/HBIM and procedural modelling, accuracy requirement and assessment in 3D reconstructions, 3D applications in terrestrial and underwater environments, Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) applied to the visualization and conservation of complex architectures and heritage. The most exciting and innovative papers presented at the workshop were selected to be extended and included in this cornerstone collection.

Thermochemical conversion processes convert biomass into gaseous, liquid and solid products named, syngas, bio-oil and char, respectively. Syngas and bio-oil are considered as alternative biofuels to fossil fuels and wide investigations are implemented currently on their production, purification, modification, and applications. Biomass chars have receiving an increasing attention since they lead to carbon sequestration, reduction of the amount of carbon rejected into the atmosphere and represent an friendly carbon source for numerous applications. In particular, biomass chars could be an efficient materials for energy production, syngas production and upgrading, water and air pollutants removal, soil amendment, fuel cells and supercapacitors development, and gas storage. Improving the knowledge of biomass chars elaboration techniques such as pyrolysis, gasification and hydrothermal carbonization is essential to determine the optimal production strategies for their economic viability. Furthermore, the characterization of the physicochemical, textural, structural and surface chemistry properties of the derived chars guide the selection of the suitable recovery processes in order to maximize their utility and therefore the benefits for the environment as well as for industries and agriculture. 

Medicine is undergoing a sector-wide transformation thanks to the advances in computing and networking technologies. Healthcare is changing from reactive and hospital-centered to preventive and personalized, from disease focused to well-being centered. In essence, the healthcare systems, as well as fundamental medicine research, are becoming smarter. We anticipate significant improvements in areas ranging from molecular genomics and proteomics to decision support for healthcare professionals through big data analytics, to support behavior changes through technology-enabled self-management, and social and motivational support. Furthermore, with smart technologies, healthcare delivery could also be made more efficient, higher quality, and lower cost. In this special issue, we received a total 45 submissions and accepted 19 outstanding papers that roughly span across several interesting topics on smart healthcare, including public health, health information technology (Health IT), and smart medicine. 

This book aims to provide an overview of developments in the heel prick screening programme in the Netherlands in which similarities with the situation elsewhere in the world, where relevant, will be mentioned. In the Netherlands, the preparations for the national screening programme started in 1964. The formal launch of the programme was on September 1, 1974. In 2014, therefore this programme had existed 40 years. The book is structured as follows. Chapter 1 describes how the programme began with one disease and over the years has continued to expand to currently covering 19 disorders. Chapter 2 focuses on the organisation of the screening programme and the agencies that have been involved over the years. Chapter 3 is intended to provide a global view of the programme in its current form. Chapter 4 describes how neonatal screening programmes elsewhere in the world developed and outline their main differences with the Dutch programme. Finally, Chapter 5 contains the summary and conclusions. This chosen structure leads to some aspects being mentioned more than once. The book is intended for a broad audience that is interested in policy making on heel prick screening; hence, scientific depth is limited. Where possible and useful, references to the scientific literature have been included but completeness has not been pursued. The main sources were the archives of the National Steering Committees for Phenylketonuria and Congenital Hypothyroidism (LBCs), supplemented with interviews with the persons listed in Annex 1 and, if available, their personal archives.

This Special Issue cooperates with the 5th Asian Symposium on Emulsion Polymerization and Functional Polymeric Microspheres (ASEPFPM 2015) (http://asepfpm5.csp.escience.cn). Polymeric microspheres are basic materials for recent progress in environmental science, architecture, biomedicine, electronics, food, cosmetics, etc. While much progress has been made over the past few decades, there are still big challenges for the preparation of functional particles and the verification of preparation mechanisms; there is much room for growth in our ability to provide for high performance in these areas. The general theme of this symposium is to discuss recent advances in both fundamentals and applications, as well as to promote science and industrialization translation. 

Frontiers in Sustainability (FinS) is an edited book series by MDPI. It serves as a transdisciplinary and multistakeholder platform for regional and global sustainability issues. Here, we understand transdisciplinarity as a collaboration between researchers from different disciplines to conceptualize, study, and derive solutions to sustainability-relevant problems that may be relevant to stakeholder practices and outcomes beyond academia. FinS promotes debates within and between academic disciplines, especially the natural sciences, engineering and technology, and the social sciences, and it seeks to publish academically relevant exchanges between academia, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, politics, and business.