Bücher veröffentlicht von Mdpi AG

Polymer science represents a domain of great interest due to the possible applications of polymers in areas that range from the most common to those that are high-tech. To achieve this, synthesis and characterization techniques, as well as the correlation of the chemical structure and morphology with their properties, is critical. From the perspective of synthesis, there are two strategies for obtaining polymers: step-growth (polyaddition, polycondensation, and reversible-deactivation radical polymerization) and chain polymerization (radical polymerization, coordinative polymerization, and cationic and anionic polymerization).The advancement of polymer applications continues to lead to the expansion of the synthesis and characterization techniques that can be facilitated by novel, smart, multifunctional polymers. There is a correlation between structure, composition, morphology, and properties of applications that leads to substantial benefits for specific applications.This Special Issue will establish a collection of articles and reviews that follow the latest developments in polymer synthesis, their characterization techniques, and the correlation between structure and properties.

This reprint explores the complex relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth. The reprint contains 14 papers covering a wide range of topics related to energy use efficiency in various countries and economic sectors. The articles include studies on adopting renewable energy sources, the impact of battery electric vehicles on greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union, the influence of philanthropy on eco-efficiency, and the impact of energy efficiency regulations on energy poverty. This reprint also includes studies on the race to zero emissions in MINT economies, the competitiveness of the cultural industry and its impact on Chinese economic growth, and the impact of education levels on the energy-growth-environment nexus. This reprint serves as a call to action for all stakeholders to contribute to the global energy transition by identifying and analyzing the effects of renewable energy consumption on economic growth. It inspires policymakers, researchers, and practitioners to embrace sustainable energy practices and support the development of measures that foster green growth. Therefore, this reprint provides important insights into energy use efficiency theories, methods, and diverse applications, making it a valuable resource for anyone interested in the future of energy and its impact on the global economy.

Near-Infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) has become one of the most attractive and used technique for analysis as it allows a fast and simultaneous qualitative and quantitative characterization of a wide variety of food samples. NIR spectroscopy is essential in various other fields, e.g., pharmaceuticals, petrochemical, textiles, cosmetics, medical applications, and chemicals such as polymers. The high level of interest in NIR spectroscopy among scientific and professional sectors demonstrates its relevance. We feel that the Special Issue's scope has facilitated the interchange of ideas and thereby aided in expanding the new development in this field of knowledge. Furthermore, we aimed to provide the readership with a comprehensive summary of present state-of-the-art NIR spectroscopy, current development trends, and future possibilities. We also believe that by doing so, we will be able to provide an accceptable opportunity for all contributors to make their results and methodologies more visible, as well as to highlight their recent achievements in their respective fields which have been made possible by the use of NIR spectroscopy. The Special Issue had a resoundingly enthusiastic response, with several submissions from academics and professional spectroscopists, resulting in the collection of 13 papers, including 1 exhaustive review paper. The articles submitted well represent the variety of the application field. These articles cover a wide range of topics related to NIR spectroscopy in a broad sense. The majority of the papers concentrate on applied qualitative and quantitative analysis in a variety of fields.

This book features the latest reviews and cutting-edge research articles on bio-based and natural polymers. It clearly demonstrates the increased interest in this field and will inspire researchers to further develop this field and thus contribute to more sustainable future societies.

This reprint offers a comprehensive and updated overview of the current state-of-the-art techniques in the management of various neurological disorders. These disorders include neurodegenerative diseases, neurovascular disorders, and neuro-oncological diseases. The reprint also presents the latest advances and innovations in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of these complex conditions, emphasizing the role of cutting-edge technologies, such as neurobiology, neuroimaging, neuroinformatics, neuropharmacology, and neurosurgery. This reprint is a useful resource for researchers, clinicians, students, and anyone interested in the current challenges and perspectives of neurological disorders.

This Special Issue of Geosciences focuses on the application of the cosmogenic nuclides (3He, 10Be, 14C, 21Ne, 26Al and 36Cl) in diverse disciplines in the field of earth sciences, as well as on improvements in sampling, analytical sample preparation and analytical techniques. After the past three decades, and nearly 70 years after the first application, cosmogenic nuclides have become an amazingly versatile tool for Earth scientists to disentangle the unsolved pieces of Earth's history during the Quaternary. Today, Earth scientists apply cosmogenic nuclides to establish the timing of Quaternary ice volume fluctuations, and volcanic and palaeoseismic events, to gauge surface and/or rock uplift and denudation rates and to reconstruct terrace chronologies, as well as to determine the rates and styles of local and large-scale erosion, soil development and landscape evolution.

This Special Issue features a collection of state-of-the art articles on the intonational patterns of different types of bilinguals (e.g., second language learners; heritage speakers; simultaneous bilinguals), with a particular focus on understudied language pairings and encompassing a wide variety of languages (e.g. Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, German, English, French, Inuktitut, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, and Spanish). The papers in this Special Issue address a number of questions that have so far remained unanswered: Can we determine a hierarchy of difficulty or transferability? How does prosody interact with other components of the grammar, such as morphology or syntax, in a contact situation? Which aspects are more prone to bidirectional interference? Which changes in intonation make speakers sound foreign in their second (or first) language? The papers in this Special Issue offer answers to these questions and open up multiple avenues for future research. We hope that this Special Issue will inspire future studies on intonation and bilingualism.

This reprint focuses on the recent progress on fractal and fractional methods in characterizing the physical and mechanical behaviors of geomaterials. Special attention is given to the fractal laws for contact networks/pore structures in soft and granular soils, numerical and theoretical aspects of fractional mechanics for geomaterial with local/nonlocal deformation, anomalous diffusion and conduction phenomena, among others.

Grateful thanks are given to Dr. Fouad El Monsouri and coworkers for contributing Chapter 1, which deals with ground water contamination with nitrate. Thanks are due to Dr. Arcadius Martininen Agassin Ahogle and coworkers for contributing Chapter 2, dealing with the assessment of soil organic carbon. Grateful thanks are provided to Dr. Puttapati Sampath Kumar and coworkers for contributing Chapter 3, dealing with the exploitation of eucalyptus leaves for electrode fabrication in supercapacitors. Indebtedness is due to Dr. Almaz S Jalilov and coworkers for contributing Chapter 4, dealing with the production of activated carbon from petroleum waste (vacuum residue). Thanks are due to Dr. Yongdan Li and coworkers for contributing Chapter 5, dealing with the use of exhausted olive pomace for the production of fuel for direct carbon fuel cells (DCFC). Grateful thanks are due to Dr. Roberta Mota-Panizio and coworkers for Chapter 6, dealing with the development of a concept for the production of essential oils and biomethane from biomass waste. Thanks are due to Dr. Vitali Nitsenko and coworkers for contributing Chapter 7, dealing with the modelling studies on the yield of biogas from organic mass. Thanks are due to Dr Imane Moulefera and coworkers for contributing Chapter 8, dealing with the adsorption of atenolol. Grateful indebtedness is due to Dr. Denis Mirohnichenko and coworkers for contributing Chapter 9, dealing with the development of bioedegradable polymer gels. Finally, indebtedness is due to Dr. Steven C Peterson and coworkers for contributing Chapter 10, dealing with the production of porous and polar biochar for composite applications.

This reprint is a collection of papers published in a Special Issue that collected the recent advances within and investigations of the research fields of manufacturing and the characterisations or modelling of materials. The variety and quality of all these papers are addressed to both academic and industrial researchers who are looking for new information that can contribute to the advancement of future research in these highly challenging fields.

With the continuous advancement of coastal, offshore, and deep-sea engineering construction (e.g. marine oil, gas, and mineral resource development, offshore wind power projects), associated studies on marine geological environments and hazards have also advanced in parallel. This book "Advances in Marine Engineering: Geological Environment and Hazards" is formed by a Special Issue (SI) that was organized by Prof. Xiaolei Liu from the Ocean University of China, Prof. Thorsten Stoesser from the University College London, and Dr. Xingsen Guo from the University College London to document research advances in the topics of marine engineering, including marine geological environments, marine geological hazards, marine engineering geology, marine hydrodynamics, marine fluid mechanics, and marine geotechnical engineering. The high-quality papers collected in this book involve many classic and innovative methodologies in this research field, including but not limited to analytical and statistical analyses, numerical simulations, laboratory testing, and marine surveys. The book represents the state-of-the-art in the latest research concepts, advanced methods, and data that will contribute greatly to the development of the field of marine geological environments and hazards.

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, and the disease now affects nearly every country and region. Nearly 18 months later, COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, continues to present significant challenges to health systems, public health, and the economy of countries across both hemispheres. The morbidity and mortality of the infection caused by SARS-CoV-2 has been significant, and various waves of disease outbreaks initially overwhelmed hospitals and clinics in many countries and continue to do so. This influences everyone, and public health countermeasures have been dramatic in terms of their impact on employment, social systems, and mental health.This Special Issue collection follows on from the Special Issue "COVID-19: Current Challenges and Future Perspectives" and provides an avenue for authors from various disciplines to provide feedback on the response to and our future global preparedness for COVID-19, as well as to disseminate critical information about SARS-CoV-2 and the associated COVID-19 pandemic.

This reprint gathers 16 contributions (13 research articles and 3 reviews) covering different areas of analytical chemistry. Many of these contributions deal with the development and application in real matrices of chromatographic methods interfaced with mass spectrometry, but also spectroscopic, electrochemical, and separation methods are also proposed.

The jubilee 10th MATBUD'2023 Conference on 'Building Materials Engineering and Innovative Sustainable Materials' was organized within the framework of the Welcome to Poland project financed by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA): "MATBUD'2023-Developing international scientific cooperation in the field of building materials engineering" BPI_WTP_2021_1_00002.The scientific committee worked under the chairmanship of Prof. Lech Czarnecki (Honorary Chairman) and Prof. Izabela Hager (Chairwoman; the project coordinator). The conference was hosted at Cracow University of Technology, Poland, and welcomed participants from 45 research units worldwide.The organizing committee would like to express great gratitude to all the authors, members of the scientific committee, reviewers, and participants for their valuable contributions to the conference.

This book collected a set of papers where our section Editorial Board Members discuss key topics that typify the very best insightful and influential original articles or reviews in the "Communications" field. We expect these papers to be widely read and highly influential within the field.

This reprint captures the latest advances in Electromyography (EMG) sensor development, EMG sensor applications, and EMG signal conditioning using theoretical and experimental approaches. This report is timely, as EMG sensors and signals have applications in many domains. This reprint provides a snapshot of several exciting EMG sensor and signal applications: swallowing, motion detection and prostheses control, muscle synergies, robotic exoskeleton, driver's behaviour, signal conditioning, and muscle assessment.

This Special Issue contains 28 papers covering a wide range of topics related to plant genomics and genetics. The papers utilize a variety of genomic tools and techniques to explore topics such as identification of quantitative trait loci associated with flax seed yield and oil quality, mucilage and hull content in flax seeds, and genomic prediction for pasmo resistance in flax. Other papers focus on the identification and characterization of specific genes, such as the EXO70 gene family in wheat and related species, hydroxycinnamoyl transferase in tea plants, and the WRKY transcription factor GmWRKY12 in soybeans. Several papers examine gene expression and regulation in response to abiotic stress, such as drought and salt tolerance in moso bamboo, and the response to chilling in bell peppers. Other topics include genetic diversity analysis of crested wheatgrass, genome-wide analysis of chitin-binding protein gene family in peppers, and genome-wide bioinformatics analysis of MAPK gene family in kiwifruit. Overall, this Special Issue provides a comprehensive view of the current state of plant genomics research, showcasing the diversity of approaches and tools being used to better understand and improve crop plants.

This book is a compilation of more than 20 scientific publications, both original research papers and review papers, assembled for the Special Issue of Molecules journal, Aquaphotomics; this Special Issue explores water molecular systems in nature, and is the first of its kind organized on this topic. Now available in a book format, this publication presents cutting-edge research work performed in the area of a young, but rapidly evolving scientific discipline, Aquaphotomics. The book includes topics that range from basic water science, material hydration, the water-material interaction and biocompatibility, novel scientific theories about the role of water in cell biology, the possibilities of using Aquaphotomics for monitoring food quality, estimating shelf-life, diagnosing stress in plants, determining diseases in animals and the outcomes of therapies in medicine. The book also provides the reader with an opportunity to improve their knowledge in the areas of spectral preprocessing, multivariate analysis and chemometrics, with focus on Aquaphotomics approach. For any reader already working in the field of Aquaphotomics, this will be a highly advantageous publication, in order to ascertain the latest research trends and discoveries; for novices, it offers a window into an exciting new world that is brimming with possibilities.

With increasing attention on the reduction of CO2 emissions, the sustainability of construction materials has become one of the most growing issues in concrete science and engineering research fields. New sustainable construction materials, such as alkali-activated materials, calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) cement, and limestone calcined clay cement (LC3), have been suggested and high-performance and/or highly durable construction materials using special admixtures, such as nanomaterials, have been studied to reduce the environmental impact during the life cycle of construction materials.This Special Issue aims to highlight and share recent findings in developing new sustainable cementitious materials, modeling their hydration kinetics, investigating their microstructure, improving the performance and durability of cementitious materials using functional supplementary ingredients, suggesting novel test methods for new construction materials, etc. In this Special Issue are presented the following areas:Sustainable concrete and alternative binders;Hydration kinetics of sustainable cementitious materials;Characterization of sustainable cementitious materials;Re-utilization of industrial by-products for construction materials;High strength and durable cementitious materials;Property enhancement by functional additives;Energy storage through construction materials.

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are a heterogeneous group of complex diseases characterized by neuronal loss and progressive degeneration of different areas of the nervous system. NDs represent a significant health problem worldwide, with an increasing incidence rate. Although the exact pathogenesis of NDs remains unclear, a complex interaction among genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors has been proposed. To date, no effective therapeutics have been developed to slow, halt, or prevent any NDs. Thus, information on the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of NDs is strongly sought after. This Special Issue collected papers discussing advances in the field of NDs.

This volume is a reprint of the Honorary Special Issue dedicated to the 60th birthday of Professor Dr. Kalyanmoy Deb, published in the journal Mathematical and Computational Applications (MCA). Kalyanmoy Deb has been a pioneer and highly impactful and influential proponent of Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimization (EMO) since 1994. He is currently a Koenig Endowed Chair Professor and University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Michigan State University, USA, and holds additional appointments in Mechanical Engineering and in Computer Science and Engineering. Professor Deb's research interests are in evolutionary optimization and its application in multi-objective optimization, modeling, machine learning, and in multi-objective decision making. He has been a visiting professor at various universities across the world, including IITs in India, Aalto University in Finland, the University of Skovde in Sweden, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He was awarded the IEEE Evolutionary Computation Pioneer Award, the Infosys Prize, the TWAS Prize in Engineering Sciences, the CajAstur Mamdani Prize, the Distinguished Alumni Award from IIT Kharagpur, the Edgeworth Pareto Award, the Bhatnagar Prize in Engineering Sciences, and the Bessel Research Award from Germany. He is a fellow of IEEE, ASME, and three Indian science and engineering academies.

This volume collates the main recent developments from studies on quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) worldwide. The most important studies focused on the study of the main agronomic practices, ecophysiological traits, genetics, and post-harvest aspects of quinoa. The result of the most recent pieces of research carried out by scientists from international universities and research centers are included.

Tumor progression is linked to a switch in the balance between positive and negative regulators, and mainly depends on the release by inflammatory or neoplastic cells of specific growth factors. Inflammatory infiltration contributes to tumor progression and metastatic process, and there are many reports of associations between tumor inflammatory infiltration, progression and prognosis. New therapeutic approaches have been developed with the aim to control tumor progression through the targeting of different components of the tumor microenvironment. This reprint will be useful for anyone who wants to learn about cancer: professors and students at universities, scientists at research institutes, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical labs, and lawyers trying to understand the patent literature.

The present reprint contains all of the articles accepted and published in the Special Issue " Advances in Artificial Intelligence and Statistical Techniques with Applications to Health and Education" from the MDPI journal Mathematics. This Special Issue aims to develop more efficient and effective approaches to healthcare and education, leveraging the increasing availability of big data and advancements in artificial intelligence. By sharing new methods, applications, and case studies, this reprint is dedicated to the development of innovative solutions that improve healthcare and education for all. The topics addressed in this Special Issue cover a wide range of areas, including data mining, machine learning, learning analytics, prediction methods, pattern recognition, decision analysis, probabilistic reasoning, fuzzy systems, student or patient modelling, adaptive systems, collaborative systems, recommendation systems, experimental design, and empirical study cases. We hope that this reprint will enable the scientific community in both medicine and education to leverage the techniques from statistics and artificial intelligence to drive significant advances in their respective fields. These approaches hold promise for improving patient outcomes and enhancing the quality of education for students around the world.

We invite you to read the Special Issue on The Financial Industry 4.0. It is a collection of 13 articles published in a Special Issue of International Journal of Financial Studies (MDPI) in 2020-2022. The main emphasis of this book is on The Financial Industry 4.0 to provide insightful understanding about the benefits as well as the challenges that financial institutions are facing under the Industry 4.0 era.The articles in this special issue discussed the potential of blockchain technology, the impact of fintech on financial inclusion in developing countries, the role of fintech in the insurance industry, and so on. It highlights the benefits of fintech, such as improved efficiency, accuracy, and customer experience, but also notes the challenges and risks involved, such as data privacy and security concerns. Collaboration between financial institutions, regulators, and technology firms is seen as necessary to promote innovation and ensure the stability and security of the financial system while addressing the challenges and risks associated with fintech.

This volume collects the recent progress in cellulose-based hydrogels, including gels prepared from natural cellulose and its derivatives, cellulose graft co-polymers, and composite gels based on cellulose, covering key aspects of cellulose-based hydrogels, including design, characterization, as well as application-focused research.

The book focuses on the latest research in cybersecurity and data science. Digital transformation turns data into the new oil, so the increasing availability of big data, structured and unstructured datasets, raises new challenges in cybersecurity, efficient data processing and knowledge extraction. The field of cybersecurity and data science fuels the data-driven economy. Innovations in this field require strong foundations in mathematics, statistics, machine learning and information security. The unprecedented increase in the availability of data in many fields of science and technology (e.g., genomic data, data from industrial environments, network traffic, streaming media, sensory data of smart cities, and social network data) ask for new methods and solutions for data processing, information extraction and decision support. This stimulates the development of new methods of data analysis, including those adapted to the analysis of new data structures and the growing volume of data. The papers included in this book discuss various topics ranging from cyberattacks, steganography, anomaly detection, evaluation of the attacker skills, modelling of the threats, and wireless security evaluation, as well as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning. Given this diversity of topics the book represents a valuable reference for researchers in cybersecurity security and data science.

This book, guest edited by Anne-Marie Caminade, gives an impressionist overview of the current state of the art about "Personalized and Precision Medicine". Twenty contributions illustrate the diversity of the topic, including new approaches about cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, infectious diseases, lungs obstruction, skeletal diseases, intestinal microbiomes, new tools such as ultra-high-frequency ultrasound or non-oncological radiotherapy, and a new class of drugs (dendrimers). This book is an illustration of the present and future impact of Personalized and Precision Medicine on all the therapeutic domains.

This reprint focuses on artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) all over the world, as well as its impact on the economy, environment, and health, providing sustainable solutions to severe ASGM problems. This book presents a total of 20 published articles of regions including Southeast Asia, South America, and South Africa, as well as a general overview of ASGM issues. Studies included in this book posit that (1) ASGM activity is still widely practiced as an alternative livelihood in rural areas in many countries around the world, using toxic elements such as Hg and cyanide due to a lack of legal enforcement on the ASGM sector; (2) ASGM has a negative impact on environmental ecosystems, causes occupational health problems for miners, and causes chronic health disorders in both ASGM communities and those living far from ASGM areas. However, some studies propose that specific potential bioindicators could be used to monitor the environment and health of those living in ASGM communities, providing sustainable solutions to severe ASGM problems.

The Apennine orogenic system is a natural laboratory for multidisciplinary and integrated studies. The evolution of the Apennines is framed by the fragmentation of Pangea and the development of the Tyrrhenian Basin. Thus, the Apennines have carried this memory from the Permian and Triassic-Early Jurassic rifting, to the Oligocene-Miocene collision, and finally to the Miocene-Present, during which extension and compression have progressively migrated eastwards. Magmatism, hydrothermalism, and sedimentation in the Apennines have accordingly evolved in time and space.In this Special Issue, multidisciplinary and integrated studies have been published improving our knowledge of the Apennines and discussing:(a) the development of deformation and metamorphism in different tectonic environments, from the rifting stage to the subduction, exhumation, and late-orogenic stages; (b) the Meso-Cenozoic tectono-stratigraphic evolution of sedimentary basins, and their role in the Apennine orogeny; (c) the thermochronological evolution of sedimentary units and the dating of deformation episodes through geochemical techniques; (d) the magmatism and its connection to geodynamic evolution, from the mountain chain to the Tyrrhenian Basin; (e) recent tectonics, as reconstructed through seismological and paleo-seismological studies; and (f) the crustal structure, as derived by geophysical methods and their interpretation.