Bücher veröffentlicht von Mdpi AG

Nanocomposites have the potential for novel material properties that significantly exceed the capabilities of their individual constituent phases, thereby enabling the exploration of gaps in material property charts. In this book, we aim to provide an overview of the current state of the art, enabling the investigation of novel structural and functional material properties through better understanding and implementation of nanocomposite design. The covered properties of interest encompass the whole material usage span, starting from the structural modifications of nanocomposites by employing different synthesis routes, to assessing their microstructure-dependent mechanical properties such as strength, ductility, and high-temperature stability. Furthermore, we address the functional characteristics of nanocomposites, such as soft magnetic properties or thermoelectricity, as well as tailored property adjustment through design strategies (bioinspired design, chemical sensitivity, bio sensing). Thus, the included contributions detail methods for the synthesis, characterization, modeling, and in-depth understanding of the mechanisms governing the outstanding properties of this fascinating material class.

Dietary patterns are evolving, and we are increasingly aware of the contribution of food and food systems to community and planetary health. To be responsive to these changes and to promote dietary patterns that enhance the health and wellbeing of populations and protect against climate change, nutrition professionals and researchers need to monitor evolving dietary patterns and trial comprehensive, multiaction solutions. Countries are pushing back on corporate and climate change disruptions to food systems and are looking for ways to strengthen community involvement in food systems, so that healthy and environmentally friendly food choices are easier to make. To achieve this, policymakers need access to the latest evidence on evolving dietary patterns and on effective solutions, and this Special Issue on Progress in Community Nutrition: Dietary Patterns and Planetary Health provides some of this evidence.

In the urological sphere, the number of tumor malignancies caused by cancer is continuously growing in Western countries. Although this is mainly due to the contemporary increase in the life expectancy of people in these geographic areas, many other factors are also contributing to this growth. Urological cancer is a complex and varied disease which affects different organs and mainly affects the male population. In fact, in most statistics, kidney, prostate, and bladder cancer are regularly included in the top-ten list of the most frequent neoplasms in males. The female population, however, has also been increasingly affected by renal and bladder cancer in the last decade. From these facts, it is clear that urological cancer is a problem of major concern in developed societies. This Topic Issue of Cancers intends to shed some light on the complexity of this field and will consider all useful and appropriate contributions from scientists and clinicians in order to improve urological cancer knowledge for patients' benefit.

The use of telemedicine and mobile devices is growing, and sensors might aid in creating creative solutions. Developing these solutions is crucial for monitoring senior citizens, lifestyles, and medical procedures. This Special Issue's goal is to bring together academics and professionals in healthcare and medicine interested in using information and communication technologies (ICT) to serve people with special needs. The development of assistive technology for various users to follow sports and other activities is strongly tied to this study area. Data protection is crucial, and the development of these solutions for medical uses should be verified. The security and privacy of the information may be tied to other recognized research projects for their acceptability. ICT research has considerably improved quality of life and has fully assimilated all citizens into society through medical rehabilitation and assistive technology. The technologies and research fields that influence medical informatics include databases, networking, graphical user interfaces, data mining, machine learning, intelligent decision support systems, and specialized programming languages. Because mobile devices are commonly used for several everyday chores and are equipped with sensors that monitor various physical and physiological indicators, it is crucial to encourage the development of m-Health and e-Health solutions for healthcare practitioners. In this area, several solutions are now being developed. In addition, they can collaborate with emerging technologies for social assistance while enhancing life quality.

Functional inorganic materials are an indispensable part of innovative technologies that are essential to the development of many fields of industry. The use of new materials, nanostructures, or multicomponent composites with specific chemical or physical properties promotes technological progress in electronics, optoelectronics, catalysis, biomedicine, and many other areas that are concerned with many aspects of human life. Due to the broad and diverse range of potential applications of functional inorganic materials, the development of superior synthesis pathways, their reliable characterization, and a deep understanding of the structure-property relationships in materials are rightfully considered to be fundamentally important scientific issues. Only synergetic efforts of scientists dealing with the synthesis, functionalization and characterization of materials will lead to the development of future technologies.

The ever-growing information and communications within society require us to continuously update our knowledge. For this reason, higher education must provide students and lecturers with the opportunity to implement new learning approaches in the classroom. In this sense, teaching is adapting to a fast-changing world, and achieving a high-quality standard for our educational systems will ensure that the education standard appropriately adapts to both the current times and to new teaching-learning processes. This topic captures the attention of different socio-educational actors in order to achieve an education style that develops individuals and provides them with the necessary strategies to assist their learning throughout their lifetime.

The prostate is the largest accessory gland of the male reproductive tract. Together with seminal vesicles and bulbourethral glands, the prostate is responsible for the production of an alkaline fluid that forms part of the seminal fluid. The prostates of men over 40 years of age are commonly affected by several pathologies, such as benign prostate hyperplasia and cancer.Prostate cancer is one of the most frequently occurring cancers among men population worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in the year 2018, prostate cancer affected approximately 1.28 million men and was responsible for the death of 358,989 of them. Prostate cancer development is associated with several risk factors, such as older age, black ethnicity, a family history of disease, an increased body mass index and obesity. In this way, the risk of prostate cancer development may be reduced through the consumption of a healthy diet full of fruits and vegetables, practice of physical exercise and maintenance of a healthy weight.Despite several approaches being available for prostate cancer treatment, the number of prostate cancer deaths is continuously increasing, which emphasizes the need to search for new methods for precocious diagnosis and more effective treatment. Animal models, including rodents, have greatly contributed to the study of biopathology and the prevention and treatment of prostate cancer.This Special Issue presents original research works, case reports and reviews concerning the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of prostate cancer, highlighting new advances in this field.

Electron collision physics covers a broad range of processes in atoms and molecules. Understanding these processes can be achieved via experimental and theoretical investigations that support and challenge each other. The last few decades have been witness to tremendous progress in both the computational and experimental techniques applied to study and model electron-driven processes. Access to modern supercomputer facilities has allowed for the computational modelling of collision processes involving complex atoms and molecules; in turn, this allows for a sophisticated modelling and the diagnostic assessment of various plasmas. Applications of electron collision physics range from fusion, precision measurement and attoclocks to radiation damage and biomedical research. This volume collates diverse applications of collision physics, highlighting the importance and power of theoretical and computational techniques while also presenting new experiments which disclose exciting new developments in collision processes.

Kinetic theory stems from statistical mechanics established at the mesoscopic scale. The numerical methods established on kinetic theory perform unique and important roles in almost all studies of fluid dynamics. This book reports the recent advances in this vibrant community. The development of kinetic theory-related numerical schemes and their applications to fluid dynamics problems are the main focus.

This reprint aims to provide an update on the biomedical imaging technologies that can be used for cardiovascular diseases, including Doppler echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography. Cardiovascular disease imaging assessment includes anatomy, hemodynamics, and tissue biomarkers, which aid the stratification of patient risk and therapy. In addition, this Special Issue includes articles that discuss the recent integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning, in order to support novel approaches to personalized image-based diagnosis.

Our era is characterized by two major phenomena. On the one hand, we are confronted by climate and environmental crises constituted by, among others, changing weather patterns, loss of biodiversity and natural wildlife, and ecosystem degradation. On the other hand, we are experiencing an ongoing technological evolution culminating in the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). The popular notion of "AI for Sustainability" constitutes an attempt to connect these two phenomena in a beneficial way by using AI to alleviate climate and environmental worries. AI is increasingly being used in the analysis, mitigation, and prevention of the climate and environmental crises and their effects. Much less attention has been paid to the idea of the "Sustainability of AI", which focusses on the materiality of AI technologies themselves. Indeed, what are the hidden costs of AI? Although we use AI in combatting the climate and environmental crises, does it not have its own contributions to these crises? And, if so, how do we account for these contributions? The Special Issue "Towards the Sustainability of AI; Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Investigate the Hidden Costs of AI" is the first attempt to address the topic of "Sustainable AI" from a multi-disciplinary perspective. The authors that contributed to this issue come from diverse fields such as philosophy, ethics, sociology, law, and engineering. The included papers represent the first steps in understanding what it means to tackle the climate and environmental crises with AI while refraining from aggravating these crises.

This reprint explores the challenges faced by Europe as it transitions to renewable energy sources to reduce carbon emissions and enhance energy security. With 10 articles covering various countries and sectors, the book delves into issues such as solar and wind energy intermittency, the role of energy policies, and the integration of energy grids and markets. The collection also includes studies on the impact of energy policies on residential energy efficiency, the use of financial incentives for eco-friendly housing, and the benefits of district heating. The reprint aims to provide policymakers, academics, and practitioners with valuable insights into the current state of renewable energy in Europe and the policies and actions that can be taken to achieve a sustainable energy future.

Microporous zeolites and nanoporous materials are important from an academic and industrial research perspective. These inorganic materials have found application as catalysts in several industrial processes in oil refinery, petro-chemical reactions, fine chemicals, speciality, drug discovery and pharmaceutical synthesis, exhaust emission control for stationary and mobile engines and industrial wastewater treatment. The reasons for their versatile applications in several industrial processes are their unique properties of microporous zeolites and nanoporous materials such as uniform pores, channel systems, shape selectivity, resistance to coke formation, thermal and hydrothermal stability. Furthermore, the possibility to tune the amount and strength of Brønsted and Lewis acid sites and their crystal size, as well as the possibility of modification with transition and noble metals, are key to their success as efficient, high selectivity and stable catalysts.

In order to build a promising future, health and sustainability must be interelated. Marine, forestry, agriculture, and food systems are important sources of bioproducts used in health applications. To explore the potential of such sources for the development of natural products capable of biological activities, it is necessary to develop new technologically sustainable strategies. Despite the range of natural compounds already available, there is a need to identify bioactive molecules (e.g., polysaccharides, proteins and peptides, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and polyphenols) from different natural sources with positive health properties, including antihypertensive, antidiabetic, anti-obesity, antimicrobial, anti-atherosclerotic, antioxidant, antithrombotic, immune-modulatory, relaxing, and satiety-inducing effects. The Second Edition of this Special Issue aimed to identify and gather works on the latest varied sources of bioproducts, the biological and functional activities of these bioactive compounds, their mechanisms of action, and the methods used for extraction and purification, without losing our focus on alignment with the concept of green technology.

Semiconductor lasers are carriers of both energy for industry and information for optical communications. The recent progress in research on semiconductor lasers has offered new perspectives regarding both their material growth and structural design. Most of the papers are review papers that briefly overview different types of semiconductors. Some of the papers include the newest research results. We all hope that this Special Issue can shed light on recent advances in the field of semiconductor lasers and their applications so that most of the readers' concerns about semiconductor lasers can be addressed and a conversation can be initiated.

Biosensors, especially non-invasive ones, are an area of extreme importance and fantastic advancements. As nanotechnology continually becomes more and more refined, its applications in a multitude of areas also grow. One area that has seen an explosion of innovations is healthcare. Such biosensors have allowed for the diagnosis, monitoring, and even treatment of a myriad of different disease states. This reprint highlights many of the past, current, and potential future advancements.

In this Special Issue of Toxics entitled, "Chemical and biological threats, hazard potential and countermeasures". In this special issue we would like to pay attention to various aspects of toxicology specifically focused on the chemical and biological threats, which may accidentally or on purpose endanger human health. Besides the characterization of such threats and their biological consequences we will focus on the available and novel experimental countermeasures capable to protect from and/or threat such exposures.

This volume comprises the first collection of papers submitted by the Editorial Board Members (EBMs) of the journal Mathematical and Computational Applications (MCA), as well as outstanding scholars working in the core research fields of MCA. This collection typifies the most insightful and influential original articles regarding key topics in these fields.

This reprint is focuses on distributions and moments and publish papers on the theory and applications of probability and statistics. Papers include original results of symmetric random walks and their characterization, stochastic processes, stochastic integrals, martingales, probability inequalities, statistics parameter estimation, stochastic differential equations, fractional Brownian motions, continuous time random walk models, anomalous diffusion models, Black-Scholes models, Monte Carlo methods, etc. This Special Issue is focused on concepts and techniques and is oriented toward a broad spectrum of applied mathematics and sciences. Focused review articles reviewed the state of the art and identify upcoming challenges and promising solutions for the scientific community.

The development of in vivo neuroimaging techniques has yielded an incredible amount of digital information about the brain. Neuroimaging techniques are increasingly being used to study human cognitive processes, create brain-machine interfaces, and also to identify and diagnose certain brain disorders. Currently, neuroscientists and medics actively use different methods for brain scans, including electro- and magnetoencephalography (EEG/MEG), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), electrocorticography (ECoG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Recent advances in signal processing and machine learning for neuroimaging data using various signal processing methods have made impressive progress in solving a number of practical tasks in medicine, healthcare, neuroscience, biomedical engineering, brain-machine interfaces, and cognitive science, to name but a few. This Special Issue aims to provide a forum for academic and industrial communities to present and discuss the latest theoretical and experimental results related to recent advances in neuroimaging data processing in terms of new theories, algorithms, architectures, and applications.

Plant stress could be defined as any unfavorable condition or substance that can affect or block the metabolism, growth or development of a plant. The response of the plant may vary depending on the frequency and intensity of the stressor, as well as the developmental stage of the plant.Plants, throughout their life cycle, are exposed to a large number of conditions or stressors. Abiotic stress is stress caused by non-living agents. Depending on the nature of the causal agent, it can be divided into physical and chemical. Physical (actually, physical-chemical) stresses include water deficits, salinity (in its osmotic component), temperature extremes (heat, cold, freezing), excessive or insufficient irradiation, anaerobiosis caused by waterlogging or flooding, mechanical stress caused by wind or excessive soil compaction and stress induced by wounds or injuries. Chemical stress is caused by salinity (in its ionic or toxic component), by the lack of mineral elements and by environmental pollutants such as sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), chlorofluorocarbon compounds (CFCs), ozone (O3) and metals.The abiotic stresses that most negatively affect growth and production are probably drought, salt stress and temperature stress (high and low temperatures), all of which are associated with climate change.

This reprint focuses on field studies aimed at unraveling the complex networks created by interactions between parasites and hosts in a given ecosystem. Since most transboundary diseases have been propagated from the wilderness to anthropized areas, societies are increasingly concerned about the relevance of wildlife as it pertains to global health. In this respect, research on parasites that may affect the biology and population equilibrium of wildlife is of major interest, especially when a One Health perspective is considered. The studies compiled in the present Special Issue fall within several areas of interest, such as epidemiology, diagnosis, emerging zoonoses, food safety, conservation issues, parasite-host interactions, and the pathology of infections caused by parasites in wild host species.

The second volume of the Special Issue on "Micro-Electro Discharge Machining: Principles, Recent Advancements and Applications" confirms the growing interest in the micro-EDM technology as a suitable and efficient technology for machining novel, multilateral components, with demanding requirements in terms of precision, accuracy, and productivity.This volume consists of 10 original research papers which involve several approaches to micro-EDM and cover the enhancement of the process performance, such as the material removal rate, surface roughness, or machining accuracy, using advanced optimization methods. Some studies also consider several dielectric fluid additives and investigate the processability of new materials. Others investigate the combination of Reverse-micro-EDM with laser beam micromachining or explore new applications for the micro-EDM for fabricating antimicrobial nanosilver colloid.

The volume focuses on the zoomorphic art and design systems of ancient China and Central Asia. It offers a glimpse into convergent and shifting concepts of zoomorphism across political and cultural boundaries, and places special emphasis on nomadic cultural spheres. The papers explore the role of animals in one's creative process and the factors that might have contributed to the formation of a zoomorphic image system across different parts of ancient Central Eurasia. The reprint presents studies that span the disciplinary boundaries of Art History, Archaeology, Socio-Cultural Anthropology, and covers archaeological sites and museum collections from a vast geographical domain, from southern China to Kazakhstan and Siberia.

Polymeric biomaterials represent an essential tool in the biomedical field. Their high biocompatibility and ability to provide adequate regenerative support are fundamental for the development of new therapeutic devices. In particular, biomaterials derived from living organisms can exhibit not only structural roles but also several non-structural functions implicated in cellular growth, migration, and differentiation. Among them, type I collagen, a ubiquitous structural protein present in the mammalian body, plays a dominant role in maintaining the biological and structural integrity of various tissues. In recent years, with the goal of developing multi-functional collagen-based devices able to better promote the functional recovery of damaged tissues, numerous studies have focused on novel techniques and methods for the development and characterization of innovative and advanced high-performance formulations. The ability to control, modify, and tune collagen-based biomaterials performance by optimizing their architecture, besides modifying their chemistry, blending with other materials/therapeutics, or developing stimuli-responsive formulations, is an extremely important knowledge to acquire when specific multi-functionalities are sought.The present Special Issue collected 12 peer-reviewed interdisciplinary contributions on the broad topic of multi-functional collagen-based biomaterials.

In honor of Wojciech Zurek's 70th birthday, this Special Issue is dedicated to recent advances in our understanding the emergence of classical reality, and pays tribute to Zurek's seminal contributions to our understanding of the Universe. To this end, "Quantum Darwinism and Friends" collects articles that make sense of the apparent chasm between quantum weirdness and classical perception, and provides a snapshot of this fundamental, exciting, and vivid field of theoretical physics.

Dysregulation of Wnt signaling is known to be associated with various cancers. As such, identification of novel Wnt pathway targets in cancer and better characterization of already-known targets present exciting, emerging opportunities for cancer treatment. In this Special Issue, we feature papers which discuss the role of Wnt signaling and associated targets in cancer metabolism, tumor immune response, and tumor microenvironment. Papers discussing a range of Wnt-mediated cancers, including those of the colon, liver, pancreas, synovium, bladder, etc., are included.

Greenhouse cultivation provides an artificially controlled environment for the year-round production of vegetables, and has played an increasingly important role in agriculture production systems in recent decades. Recent works have shown that improving greenhouse conditions can promote the growth of vegetables and enhance the uptake of nutrients, leading to better vegetable quality. Meanwhile, greenhouse conditions not only directly influence soil nutrient cycling processes and properties, but also indirectly affect them by regulating vegetable root growth and plant-soil interactions. This Special Issue features twelve original research articles that deal with the effects of novel greenhouse practices and strategies on the yield and quality of horticulture crops, as well as greenhouse soil properties. Among these publications, three studied the effects of fertilizers, including organic and macro- and micro-nutrient fertilizers, on the growth and nutrient uptake of vegetables. Two articles described the effects of water and nutrient supply using irrigation or hydroponic supplying systems on the yield and quality of vegetables. Four articles investigated the effects of environmental conditions (mainly light and temperature) on the growth and quality of vegetables. In terms of degenerated greenhouse soil, three articles showed how reductive soil disinfestation decreased soil salinity, improved soil quality, and inactivated soil-borne pathogens.

The motivation for the present book is to provide an overview of novel applications of AI methods to industrial control systems by means of selected best practices in highlighting how such methodologies can be used to improve the production systems self-learning capacities, their overall performance, the related process and product quality, the optimal use of resources and the industrial systems safety, and resilience to varying boundary conditions and production requests.By means of its seven scientific contributions, the present book illustrates the increasing added value of the introduction of AI methods for improving the performance of control solutions with reference to different control and automation problems in different industrial applications and sectors, ranging from single manipulators or small unmanned ground vehicles up to complex manufacturing. Additionally, the role of AI to improve the performance of relevant engineering methodologies and digital instruments, such as cyberphysical systems, digital twins, and human-robot collaboration, are also effectively addressed in the included contributions.

Sex and gender can affect the incidence, prevalence, symptoms, course and response to drug therapy in many illnesses, with sex (the biological side) and gender (the social¿cultural one) being variously interconnected. During the two days of the meeting "Gender Differences in Diabetic Disease" held in Olbia, Italy, on 4 and 5 December 2020, we discussed the various medical, social, ethnic, psychological and anthropological aspects of gender differences to build as broad a picture as possible of how these differences are present and evident in diabetic disease. Type 2 diabetes is the perfect example to justify gender medicine. During the meeting, we also tried to identify the still-unclear points that deserve further studies.This book describes several aspects of gender medicine that are related to diabetes. Physiopathology, drug treatment, sexual and psychological aspects, diabetes complication, migration, burden of working with a chronic disease and aspects related to COVID-19 infection are explored in a gender differentiation way. The authors are from different fields: medical doctors, biologist, psychologist, nurse, pharmacist, anthropologist and so on.