Bücher veröffentlicht von Mdpi AG

The rapid emergence of COVID-19 presented unprecedented challenges to the education sector. COVID-19 caused the full or partial closing of schools and universities, as well as the cancellation of face-to-face activities in most parts of the world. To conduct business as usual, many higher education providers have taken steps towards digital transformation, moving to online or hybrid learning and teaching delivery approaches. This reprint provides timely research on the impact of COVID-19 on education systems, including the lessons learned. It seeks to unite scholars, educators, policymakers and practitioners to collectively and critically identify, investigate and share the best practices that may lead to rethinking and reframing the way we deliver education in the future.

This reprint, named "Landslides in Forests around the World: Causes and Mitigation", covers various topics, such as the impact mechanism of tree roots on landslide stability, landslide deformation monitoring, landslide disaster prevention and control engineering technology, the automatic identification of regional landslides, susceptibility and hazard assessment, and a rainfall-induced mass landslide warning.

Maritime traffic data (e.g., radar data, AIS data, and CCTV data) provide designers, officers on watch, and traffic operators with extensive information about the states of ships at present and in history, representing a treasure trove for behavior analysis. Additionally, navigation rules and regulations (i.e., knowledge) offer valuable prior knowledge about ship manners at sea. Combining multisource heterogeneous big data and artificial intelligence techniques inspires innovative and important means for the development of MASS. This reprint collects twelve contributions published in "Data-/Knowledge-Driven Behavior Analysis of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships" Special Issue during 2021-2022, aiming to provide new views on data-/knowledge-driven analytical tools for maritime autonomous surface ships, including data-driven behavior modeling, knowledge-driven behavior modeling, multisource heterogeneous traffic data fusion, risk analysis and management of MASS, etc.

The main difficulty of radiotherapy is to destroy cancer cells without depletion of healthy tissue. Stem cells and cancers are tightly interrelated. On one hand, radiosensitivity/radioressistance of cancer stem cells affects the radiocurability of tumors. On the other hand, radiosensitivity is responsible for the stem cell depletion of organs at risk exposed to irradiation. Efficient solide cancer destruction is limited by the preservation of organ homeostasis. For this reason, targeted irradiation is an effective cancer therapy, but damage inflicted to normal tissues surrounding the tumor may cause severe complications. The consequences of stem cell depletion of healthy tissue irradiated are acute and chronic radiation diseases. Research on the radiosensitivity of cancer stem cells and adult stem cells associated with tissue regeneration medicine will bring forth the solution for optimal radiocurability associated with long-term patients' quality of life.

Selected studies focussing on various aspects of the evaluation of marine larval settlement on both natural and artificial surfaces, including those on pro-fouling and anti-fouling systems, have been collected for advancing our understanding of larvae-surface interactions. Biofouling is a large problem worldwide since it often causes severe damage to submerged structures, but it also leads to the formation of a well-structured community on natural hard substrata characterised by ecological succession and can be considered an important source of biodiversity. Therefore, the influence of a substratum's physico-chemical interactions on the settlement of various organisms of the macrofouling community represents an essential factor in choosing an appropriate artificial surface for application in a variety of coastal marine ecosystems. This reprint will certainly be greatly beneficial with respect to addressing the challenges of future innovative eco-engineering designs, yielding the best solutions for industrial biofouling protection and coastal ecosystem preservation.

Organogels, hydrogels, and ionic gels have been investigated both in a theoretical and experimental manner. The research performed was focused on their synthesis and applications in high-performance chemistry and its important branches. All mentioned gels were characterized from structural and supramolecular points of view by FTIR, NMR, X-ray diffraction, and POM. The keywords proposed in this reprint were as follows: organogels, hydrogels, ionic gels, chitosan, and fractal analysis. These terms were extremely pertinent to this research piece, hereby presented. As a result, all reference themes, as well as those associated with them, were touched upon in this reprint. We mention that the articles in this selection focused on one or more of the topics listed above.

Model-informed precision dosing (MIPD) is an advanced quantitative approach focusing on individualized treatment optimization. MIPD integrates mathematical models of drugs and diseases combined with individual patient characteristics (e.g., genotype, anthropometric factors, and organ function). MIPD has been highlighted as a useful tool for drug dosage selection in both the drug development process and clinical practice and it is a rapidly growing discipline that is supported by the main drug regulatory agencies. Despite the potential benefits of this methodology toward personalized medicine, its application is still limited. The Special Issue presented here includes several PKPD and PBPK models focused on improving the current state of art regarding the PK behaviour of different drugs with the aim of improving the efficacy/safety balance of these treatments and their clinical outcome; the Special Issue is intended to be of particular interest for clinical pharmacologists, pharmacometricians, and specific clinicians who routinely use the considered drugs.

This book focuses on advanced research topics on human lactation, such as breastfeeding experiences, milk composition and production, COVID-19 and human milk, food allergens in human milk, the human milk microbiome, and the impacts of human milk on infant growth and development. The symposium proceedings aim to add diversity, passion, and innovation to lactation research and have a positive impact on mothers, infants, and communities worldwide, showcasing integrative mother/infant-centered research.

In view of the general trend that the development of the global energy industry is oriented toward green, low-carbon, and efficient utilization, scientific research teams in various fields dominated by the coal industry have conducted much research on coal and coal-like materials by borrowing the technologies and concepts of modern materials science and rock mass mechanics, hoping to explore new directions for the high value-added utilization of structural coal resources and the development of new coal-like materials. On behalf of Materials, we invited you to contribute an original research article to a Special Issue on the microstructure, characterization, and mechanical properties of coal and coal-like materials. This Special Issue aimed to showcase the latest scientific and technological achievements and cutting-edge test technologies in the study of coal and coal-like materials, with exploration of their structural change characteristics and mechanical properties under various influencing factors. Hot topics to be covered include: Analysis of mechanical properties of coal and coal-like materials;Multiscale characterization of coal and coal-like materials;Development and utilization of coal resources with high added value;Void structure and seepage characteristics of coal and coal-like materials;Establishment of constitutive relationships.

This Special Issue published one editorial, eight articles and four reviews from approximately one hundred authors. It aimed to provide cutting-edge research on pre-clinical development and the clinical translation of radiopharmaceuticals within the molecular imaging community. The Special Issue covered radioligand development, existing radiotracer optimization, imaging agent evaluation in animal models, the clinical production of radiopharmaceuticals, and investigative research on the use of molecular imaging probes in human subjects. We appreciate all the authors' significant contributions to this Special Issue and hope the readers will enjoy the content.

Air pollution and the changing climate are some of the greatest threats to the health and functioning of forest ecosystems, strongly jeopardizing their ecological and economic functions as well as services. The impact of increasing temperatures and extreme weather events (droughts, storms, temperature and precipitation extremes) on the vitality of forest trees is often difficult to separate from the impact of pollution, such as nitrogen deposition and tropospheric ozone, as they can exhibit synergistic effects. The use of indicators is elementary in modern forest ecophysiological research, as they help us to disentangle complex interactions between trees and various stress-inducing factors as well as better estimate the level of damage to trees and forest ecosystems.Eleven papers are included in this Special Issue, with wide-ranging topics from various disciplines but centered around tree responses to environmental stress. The task of this Special Issue is twofold: one, to remind us that a better understanding of the physiological processes influencing tree vitality under the changing climate and air pollution pressures requires considerable research efforts and constant advancements in research methods and approaches; two, to highlight the fact that the environmental pressures instigating the use of tree stress response indicators are more present than ever, and will likely continue to affect tree vitality in the foreseeable future.

The delicate balance of resource intensity and efficiency of a solution for a very complex problem raises the issue of how these aspects constitute a symmetrical or asymmetrical system. Computational Intelligence (CI) offers a plethora of efficient tools for the potential and rather good quality solution of highly complex, often mathematically intractable problems. This "toolbox" is one of the best examples for the study of the above mentioned issue, namely, how to find the best balance, how to establish a symmetry of weights or costs in a particular field, for a particular problem. This special issue presents a number of interesting novel applications of CI for the tackling of a wide variety of difficult problems. The Introduction gives a short insight into the symmetry and asymmetry aspect of the topic.

In recent years, we have been witnessing the exponential proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT), networks of physical devices, vehicles, appliances and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators and connectivity that enables these objects to connect and exchange data. Enabling the introduction of highly efficient IoT, wireless sensing and network technologies will reduce the need for traditional processes that are currently be carried out manually, thus freeing up the precious resources of dwindling working staff, to do more meaningful and human-centered work.This reprint aims to bring together innovative developments in areas related to IoT, wireless sensing and networking. The aspects covered include software-defined network (SDN)-based IoT networks, artificial intelligence (AI) for IoT, industrial IoT, smart sensors, optimization of energy efficiency for IoT, and wireless sensor networks, IoT applications for agriculture, smart cities, healthcare, localization and environment monitoring.

Novel Anticancer Strategies reviews important findings and updates within the cancer therapy field, of great interest to those in academic research studying the development and validation of novel anticancer approaches. The Editor invited preeminent specialists to contribute to original and review articles devoted to key areas of major progress and expectations. Key features: Nanoparticle-based drug delivery in cancer therapy; Extracellular vesicles for anticancer drug delivery; Peptide-based drug conjugates; Cancer stem cells as a valuable target to eradicate tumor relapse; Spheroids in preclinical model for cancer research; and cancer immunotherapy.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the character of academic conferences has changed. Formerly, conferences required the physical presence of their members and audiences. However, travel restrictions due to the pandemic caused a shift in the traditional conference format, thus resulting in the rise of online conferences after 2020. In 2021 and 2022, the journal "Diversity" similarly organized online conferences. The well-attended online conference in March of 2021 attracted a wide range of speakers on biodiversity, ecology and evolution, as well as on 17 publications from this Special Issue.The publications cover several timely aspects of biodiversity, such as the importance of invasive species, the ecology of urbanization, the effects of drought on wildlife in Southern Africa, the results of human activities on insect, mammal, bird, reptile and amphibia populations, and the genetic diversity of animal breeds, microbiomes and planktonic organisms. Additionally, taxonomic and biosystematic topics are also covered in several SI publications.

This reprint contains 12 high-quality original research and reviews papers by 62 authors from 10 countries on 3 continents: Asia (China, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia), Europe (Austria, Czech Republic, Portugal, Romania, and Ukraine), and Africa (South Africa). These papers were published in a Special Issue, "Recent Developments in Eco-Friendly Wood-Based Composites II", of the journal Polymers. These papers provide examples of the most recent developments in eco-friendly wood-based composites.

Optic neuropathies are conditions in which there is damage to the optic nerve (ON) caused by a variety of causes, including glaucoma, inflammation, gene abnormalities, ischemia, trauma, and toxicity. ON damage triggers a process of axon degeneration, inflammatory cytokine upregulation, breakdown of the blood-optic nerve barrier, and, eventually, the induction of apoptosis of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), resulting in optic atrophy. To date, there is no effective treatment for most optic neuropathies; however, because the damage initially is axogenic, there may exist a window of therapeutic opportunity before the death of RGCs. Thus, the search for effective treatments for various optic neuropathies before there is permanent damage to prevent or limit visual dysfunction and the development of methods to stimulate axon and/or RGC regeneration to restore vision after damage has occurred is pivotal.This reprint collected 19 articles published in this Special Issue of IJMS which covers the molecular mechanisms to protect RGCs and/or axonal damage, translational research, gene therapy, regenerative medicine, and neuroprotection for glaucoma.

This Special Issue contains an editorial and ten papers on a range of fundamental and applied topics within the area of spider ecology and behaviour with one paper on biological control, seven papers on fundamental topics within the broad areas of ecology and behaviour, and two papers focusing on novel methodologies for studying spider behaviour.

The aim of the reprint was to provide readers with updated research findings on the psychological and psychiatric consequences of the pandemic. The wide scope of the reprint reflects the complexity of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health. The focus of the studies ranges from the psychological consequences of social distancing and the closure of schools to the neurological consequences of the viral infection, and from the stressful impact of an increased workload on frontline health workers to the unmet needs of special populations such as pregnant women, veterans and patients with neurodevelopmental disorders. Thanks to its richness in content and worldwide perspectives (contributors were from Canada, Croatia, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Spain, and the USA), the reprint is a valuable source of information to researchers and clinicians interested in the mental health implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This reprint "The November 23rd, 1980 Irpinia-Lucania, Southern Italy Earthquake: Insights and Reviews 40 Years Later" presents a collection of 13 scientific contributions proposed by 44 researchers with different expertise and multidisciplinary approach highlighting the most important aspects of the Irpinia-Lucania earthquake (Ms 6.9, Io X MCS) from a seismological and geological point of view, without neglecting the reconstruction of cultural heritage, the resilience of the population, and the socioeconomic development of the internal areas of the Southern Apennines after the earthquake. The 1980 earthquake struck Irpinia-Lucania region (Southern Italy) and it is remembered in Italy not only for being the strongest earthquake recorded in the last 100 years causing devastation of entire regions and severe loss of human life, but also for the destruction of the cultural heritage in the epicentral area. This volume, far from being exhaustive, nevertheless wants to be an important point of reference for the new generations of researchers who will have both a historical and multidisciplinary approach to the knowledge of this earthquake.

Steroids are essential hormones that regulate biological processes across their lifespan. Steroid hormone production and action must be tightly controlled otherwise there can be detrimental effects on physiological function leading to disease. This reprint contains original and review articles by experts at the cutting edge of their fields published in a Special Issue on the "Molecular mechanisms of steroid hormone biosynthesis and action" of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. The topics include: 1) Steroid hormone biosynthesis, including substrate availability, mechanism of steroidogenic enzyme action, and the impact of mutations; 2) Molecular and cellular regulation of steroidogenesis, including steroidogenic cell response to hormone stimulation, signaling pathways, kinases, transcription factors, and gene expression; 3) Molecular mechanisms of endocrine disruptor action on steroidogenic cells; and 4) New tools and approaches to detect and study steroid hormones.

Consumer interest in plant-based diets has been rapidly increasing in the past decade. Non-dairy and non-meat alternatives have gone mainstream. New products are appearing in the marketplace continually. The marketplace has been driven recently by millennials and flexitarians. Food companies have focused on providing nutritious food products that satisfy the demand for alternative items that look and taste like their animal counterparts. The marketplace wants products that improve human and planetary health worldwide. Questions have arisen as to how nutritionally sound and healthy are these products. How sustainable are these plant-based diets? How significantly do they alter traditional dietary patterns? What impact do they have on food security? Do these plant-based meat and dairy alternatives help lessen environmental degradation? Are the new products considered ultra-processed foods? What are the barriers and motivations that drive people to switch to a plant-based diet? Will plant-based diets help in the goal to greatly diminish malnutrition and over-nutrition (leading to obesity) around the world? These questions challenge scientists to provide meaningful answers through their ongoing research. Some of these issues are discussed in this reprint, based upon the latest research.

This reprint is focused on the exploitation of natural nanoparticles for cancer diagnosis and treatment.It compiles articles related to exosomes and protein nanocages, but also presents the use of some organic natural compounds in cancer treatment, which have been extensively studied as agents for cancer treatment since their biological nature guarantees a better safety, biocompatibility, and biodegradability profile in comparison to synthetic nanoparticles and drugs. These features are strongly appealing in order to face cancer, where the development of tumor-targeted specific devices and the use of natural compounds could be useful in improving patient compliance.

"Microbial Biopolymers: Trends in Synthesis, Modification and Applications" is a comprehensive reprint that explores the latest research and innovations in the field of biopolymers. The reprint covers the production and functionalization of two key types of microbial biopolymers: polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) and exopolysaccharides (EPSs). With contributions from leading experts in the field, the reprint provides a thorough overview of the production processes, chemical and physical properties, and applications of these biopolymers. The reprint is an essential resource for researchers, engineers, and industry professionals interested in developing sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives to conventional plastics and materials.

Electronics nanotechnology represents a multidisciplinary field with a very broad range of applications used to address different challenges. This reprint, through eleven original research articles, aims to acknowledge recent developments related to the fabrication and applications of nanomaterials: synthesis, characterization, and device fabrication.