Böcker utgivna av Mdpi AG

The present book contains the articles published in the Special Issue "Differential Equation Models in Applied Mathematics: Theoretical and Numerical Challenges" of the MDPI journal Mathematics. The Special Issue aimed to highlight old and new challenges in the formulation, solution, understanding, and interpretation of models of differential equations (DEs) in different real world applications. The technical topics covered in the seven articles published in this book include: asymptotic properties of high order nonlinear DEs, analysis of backward bifurcation, and stability analysis of fractional-order differential systems. Models oriented to real applications consider the chemotactic between cell species, the mechanism of on-off intermittency in food chain models, and the occurrence of hysteresis in marketing. Numerical aspects deal with the preservation of mass and positivity and the efficient solution of Boundary Value Problems (BVPs) for optimal control problems. I hope that this collection will be useful for those working in the area of modelling real-word applications through differential equations and those who care about an accurate numerical approximation of their solutions. The reading is also addressed to those willing to become familiar with differential equations which, due to their predictive abilities, represent the main mathematical tool for applying scenario analysis to our changing world.

Previous and current resource use models have led to high levels of pollution, environmental degradation, and depletion of natural resources. The waste policy has a long history and has traditionally focused on more environmentally sustainable waste management. To be efficient in terms of resource use, the principles of the circular economy should change this trend, transforming the economy into a sustainable economy. The new waste regulations introduce new waste management objectives in terms of waste prevention, reuse, recycling, and storage by addressing new processes.

Despite tremendous advances in our understanding of marine mammals over the past several decades, numerous unanswered questions remain. These include fundamental questions in every biological discipline as well as other areas of science, including basic and applied chemistry and physics. Current studies of marine mammals reflect major improvements in technology as well as equally large changes in the ocean environment. Contributions for this Special Issue were invited in all areas of marine mammal research, especially those focusing on one (or both) of two themes: changing technological advances and changes in ocean habitats affecting marine mammals (including but not limited to changes in climate/temperature; ocean acidification; noise, plastic, or chemical pollution; vessel traffic and ship strikes; pathogenic viruses and microbes; trophic and salinity changes; fisheries impacts; habitat destruction; and related topics). The five articles published in this Special Issue focus on diverse areas of marine mammal research and health, including ecology, conservation, population biology and management, behavior, habitat and distribution, genetics, evolution, physiology, anatomy, acoustics, effects of noise and pollution, and new technologies.

Inventions have led to the technological advances of mankind. There are inventions of all kinds, some of which have lasted hundreds of years or even longer. Low-cost technologies are expected to be easy to build, have little or no energy consumption, and be easy to maintain and operate. The use of sustainable technologies is essential in order to move towards a greater global coverage of technology, and therefore to improve human quality of life. Low-cost products always respond to a specific need, even if no in-depth analysis of the situation or possible solutions has been carried out. It is a consensus in all industrialized countries that patents have a decisive influence on the organization of the economy, as they are a key element in promoting technological innovation. Patents must aim to promote the technological development of countries, starting from their industrial situations.

Chronic liver diseases develop from a wide range of causes, including hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, alcoholic-related liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and autoimmune liver diseases. Recent advances in molecular and cellular techniques have succeeded in providing new aspects in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic liver diseases. This book includes the state-of-the-art researches on chronic liver diseases.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is known as the hepatic manifestation of the metabolic syndrome, and while most patients develop simple steatosis, up to one-third can develop nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). NASH is a chronic inflammatory condition of the liver that can further progress to fibrosis and cirrhosis, which may eventually lead to liver failure and death. While we have increased our mechanistic knowledge regarding the pathogenesis of NASH within the last decade, treatment options are still limited and liver biopsies have remained the gold standard for diagnosis. To achieve major clinical breakthroughs for NASH patients, it is not sufficient to use a single animal model, since each model has specific limitations. Furthermore, we should rely more on alternative models such as organ-on-a-chip, which will enable us to explore unknown aspects of disease pathogenesis much faster and serve as clinically relevant surrogates for murine models. Another important direction for the improvement of patient health is to pay more attention to extrahepatic, organ-specific and systemic effects, which are associated with NASH. The articles in this Special Issue include an up-to-date overview of the rapidly developing technologies, novel targets for intervention and insights in the field in NASH. Additionally, these articles describe the major challenges in the field, strategies to overcome them and suggestions for future directions. To improve patient''s outcome, clinicians, as well as scientists with biomedical, nutrition, physics and mathematics backgrounds, should join forces. Although challenges remain, the future of the field seems promising as these novel technologies and developments are expected to lead to progress in NASH.

Aquatic ecosystems and the water they hold have attracted people over the centuries. With the technological development and increasing needs of human society, the attitude to water and aquatic ecosystems has changed. Consequently, biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems has declined dramatically and it is still decreasing. Anthropogenic exploitation of these ecosystems and alterations of their hydrology has largely influenced hydrology-shaped plant communities.This Special Issue, "Hydrology-Shaped Plant Communities: Diversity and Ecological Function" brings new outcomes about the interactions between hydrological factors and wide spectrum of plant communities. In ecosystems, where human activities directly or indirectly affected the hydrological factors, dependent plant communities have also changed or even disappeared. These plant communities have multiple ecological functions, and one of the most important are the maintenance of water quality and enhancement of local and regional diversity of other biotic communities like diatoms, invertebrates or fish. Thus, detailed knowledge and suitable management of hydrology-shaped plant communities is a prerequisite for their unconstrained ecological functions and high diversity of aquatic ecosystems in the widest sense. The Special Issue consists of ten peer-reviewed papers on plant communities in a variety of ecosystems - from the small kettle-holes in the lowlands of northern Germany to the river Danube - the largest river within the European Union, and from different wetland types in Central Europe to the Donggting Lake - fourth largest lake in China.

This book brings together a diverse range of international scholars to highlight recent developments in research on collaborative learning. The emphasis is on research that has a strong evidence base for the work that is presented and includes empirical studies, best evidence synthesis of the relevant research, case studies, and theoretical reports. It also highlights how different technologies have been used to facilitate group interaction, dialogue, and learning. There is much to be gained by sharing and learning about what happens in different disciplines and contexts and how different collaborative pedagogies can be implemented when needed to promote understanding and learning. This book will have strong appeal to pre-service and experienced teachers and researchers who are interested in how different collaborative pedagogies can be embedded in course curricula to promote student engagement and learning.

The aim of this book is to highlight up to date exploited technologies and approaches in terms of antenna designs and requirements. In this regard, this book targets a broad range of subjects, including the microstrip antenna and the dipole and printed monopole antenna. The varieties of antenna designs, along with several different approaches to improve their overall performance, have given this book a great value, in which makes this book is deemed as a good reference for practicing engineers and under/postgraduate students working in this field. The key technology trends in antenna design as part of the mobile communication evolution have mainly focused on multiband, wideband, and MIMO antennas, and all have been clearly presented, studied and implemented within this book. The forthcoming 5G systems consider a truly mobile multimedia platform that constitutes a converged networking arena that not only includes legacy heterogeneous mobile networks but advanced radio interfaces and the possibility to operate at mm wave frequencies to capitalize on the large swathes of available bandwidth. This provides the impetus for a new breed of antenna design that, in principle, should be multimode in nature, energy efficient, and, above all, able to operate at the mm wave band, placing new design drivers on the antenna design. Thus, this book proposes to investigate advanced 5G antennas for heterogeneous applications that can operate in the range of 5G spectrums and to meet the essential requirements of 5G systems such as low latency, large bandwidth, and high gains and efficiencies.

There are several types of training methods aiming to develop sports performance and improve health indicators. Fundamentally, training methods are the result of manipulating different training variables, and the possibility of combining these variables is vast. Therefore, the search to study the effect of these constraints on sports and health, considering specific contexts and taking into account the magnitude of inter-individual responses, will afford a better understanding of the training interventions.At the same time, over the years, numerous innovations and technological advances have been introduced to assist the development of athletes'' performance and monitor individual lifestyles. These advances have changed how training may be conducted, controlled, and evaluated. For example, in sport settings, using technology to collect many and continuous data of athletes'' activity in their natural environments appears as an innovative and promising step. In health, an enormous diversity of training methods supporting healthy lifestyles and innovative approaches is arising, especially from higher-quality information gathered through technological development.Papers addressing these topics are included in this book, especially those combining a high academic standard with a practical focus on providing knowledge on how training methods improve sports performance and health across people''s lifespans. New evidence urges us to track the progress and effects of training methods.

Additive manufacturing (AM) or, more commonly, 3D printing is one of the fundamental elements of Industry 4.0. and the fourth industrial revolution. It has shown its potential example in the medical, automotive, aerospace, and spare part sectors. Personal manufacturing, complex and optimized parts, short series manufacturing and local on-demand manufacturing are some of the current benefits. Businesses based on AM have experienced double-digit growth in recent years. Accordingly, we have witnessed considerable efforts in developing processes and materials in terms of speed, costs, and availability. These open up new applications and business case possibilities all the time, which were not previously in existence. Most research has focused on material and AM process development or effort to utilize existing materials and processes for industrial applications. However, improving the understanding and simulation of materials and AM process and understanding the effect of different steps in the AM workflow can increase the performance even more. The best way of benefit of AM is to understand all the steps related to that-from the design and simulation to additive manufacturing and post-processing ending the actual application.The objective of this Special Issue was to provide a forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange their latest achievements and identify critical issues and challenges for future investigations on "Modeling, Simulation and Data Processing for Additive Manufacturing". The Special Issue consists of 10 original full-length articles on the topic.

Requests for regional soil moisture observations are increasing to parameterize complex hydrological models, to assess the impact of land-use changes, and to develop climate adaption strategies in the agricultural sector. Spatial land-use patterns have an impact on the soil water balance and groundwater recharge. Soil moisture is therefore a key parameter for the long-term monitoring and development of sustainable land-management and landscape design strategies that mitigate regional water scarcity and droughts. For example, the spatial organization of hedges or tree rows related to open land and wind direction avoids soil erosion, limits local evaporation, and increases local soil water storage.Since the early 1980s, satellite missions have been designed to monitor proxies for soil moisture, mainly at the national and global scale, with a relatively coarse pixel resolution and low accuracy. The local effects of weather and climate are very dynamic in space and time. Thus, a strong need exists for more accurate, regional-scale remote sensing products for soil moisture. The transfer of existing, proof-of-concept algorithms to region-specific monitoring frameworks is urgent. This Special Issue provides an overview of current developments on remote sensing-based soil moisture observations that are applicable at a regional scale. The compendium of research papers demonstrates the benefits of concurrently utilizing multi-source remote sensing data and in situ measurements through:-          Using additional data and site-specific knowledge; -          Combining empirical and physical approaches;-          Developing concepts to deal with mixed pixels.

This Special Issue covers different aspects of the nano/microencapsulation of drugs, including papers describing the design, preparation, and characterization of nano- and micro-carrier-based drug delivery systems and the latest developments in key fields. Eight articles regarding this topic were selected for this Special Issue, demonstrating the potential of this development strategy for drug delivery in a wide range of applications (from cancer treatment to wound healing, as well as cardiovascular or ocular diseases). Prestigious experts in these fields have participated in this Special Issue, sharing their research and contributions with authors affiliated with different Universities and other renowned and well-respected institutions.

This issue of Viruses is a living memorial dedicated to Professor Stefan Kunz, who passed away too early in life, at 54. During his scientific career, Stefan made major contributions to the field of virology. He made seminal contributions to our understanding of how mammarenaviruses gain access to and are trafficked within their target cells. This issue of Viruses contains a collection of articles by leading researchers in different areas of virus-host cell interactions and who crossed pathways with Stefan. The topics covered in the issue include novel insights on mammeranavirus cell entry, host innate and adaptive immune responses to infection, recent developments on therapeutics against human pathogenic arenaviruses, as well as mammarenavirus ecology and molecular pathogenesis. The collection of articles is also a reflection of Stefan''s enthusiasm for exploring new ideas and his very collegial attitude reflected by his many collaborations, including the colleagues who have contributed sections to this memorial issue.

The dual role of complement in both cancer development and treatment has been investigated extensively and is characterized by a substantial literature that documents the conditions in which complement can either enhance tumor growth or promote the killing of malignant cells. Indeed, there are now numerous examples of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that have either been approved by the FDA or that are under active investigation that make use of complement when eliminating cancer cells. Although the direct in vitro killing of mAb-opsonized cancer cell lines by complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) can be readily demonstrated, there are considerable challenges related to the translation of these findings to the clinic, and numerous strategies have been employed to maximize mAb-mediated CDC in cancer treatment. These approaches include the redesign of mAb dosing schedules; engineering the Fc regions of the mAbs to enhance complement activation; treatment with cocktails of mAbs that bind to several different sites on the targeted cells and thus that potentially synergize CDC promotion; and neutralizing the complement control proteins on malignant cells to weaken their defenses against complement. Target sites on malignant cells that have been successfully exploited for mAb-induced CDC include CD20, CD37, CD38, CD52, and Epidermal Growth Factor Receptors. MAbs specific to complement components have served as powerful analytical reagents to investigate the detailed mechanisms of CDC, and they have been employed to document complement activation by cancer cells and to examine the role of complement proteins (in particular C1q and fragments of C3 and C5) in supporting tumor growth. The use of polyclonal and mAb reagents has revealed a role for the intracellular complement system in cancer biology and strategies that focus on the interaction of complement with the tumor microenvironment, and examining the impact of the complotype on the response to immunotherapy in cancer should lead to additional mAb-based therapies. Along these lines, there is now increasing evidence that strategies that make use of mAbs or other agents to modulate the action of C3a/C5a or their respective receptors may also find use in cancer immunotherapy.

This special issue on the genetics of Alzheimer''s disease was edited by Drs. Laura Ibanez and Justin Miller in 2021. It contains 10 original articles and reviews that help readers understand specific genetic contributions to Alzheimer''s disease and how genetics will play a role in future Alzheimer''s disease research.

Due to innovation in technology, a new type of patient has been created, the e-patient, characterized by the use of electronic communication tools and commitment to participate in their own care. The extent to which the world of digital health has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic has been widely recognized. Remote medicine has become part of the new normal for patients and clinicians, introducing innovative care delivery models that are likely to endure even if the pendulum swings back to some degree in a post-COVID age. The development of digital applications and remote communication technologies for patients with multiple sclerosis has increased rapidly in recent years. For patients, eHealth apps have been shown to improve outcomes and increase access to care, disease information, and support. For HCPs, eHealth technology may facilitate the assessment of clinical disability, analysis of lab and imaging data, and remote monitoring of patient symptoms, adverse events, and outcomes. It may allow time optimization and more timely intervention than is possible with scheduled face-to-face visits. The way we measure the impact of MS on daily life has remained relatively unchanged for decades, and is heavily reliant on clinic visits that may only occur once or twice each year.These benefits are important because multiple sclerosis requires ongoing monitoring, assessment, and management.The aim of this Special Issue is to cover the state of knowledge and expertise in the field of eHealth technology applied to multiple sclerosis, from clinical evaluation to patient education.

In impulse-based manufacturing technologies, the energy required to form, join or cut components acts on the workpiece in a very short time and suddenly accelerates workpiece areas to very high velocities. The correspondingly high strain rates, together with inertia effects, affect the behavior of many materials, resulting in technological benefits such as improved formability, reduced localizing and springback, extended possibilities to produce high-quality multi material joints and burr-free cutting. This Special Issue of JMMP presents the current research findings, which focus on exploiting the full potential of these processes by providing a deeper understanding of the technology and the material behavior and detailed knowledge about the sophisticated process and equipment design. The range of processes that are considered covers electromagnetic forming, electrohydraulic forming, adiabatic cutting, forming by vaporizing foil actuators and other impulse-based manufacturing technologies. Papers show significant improvements in the aforementioned processes with regard to:ΓÇó   Processes analysis;ΓÇó   Measurement technique;ΓÇó   Technology development;ΓÇó   Materials and modelling;ΓÇó   Tools and equipment;ΓÇó   Industrial implementation.

Society has recently demonstrated a high level of awareness and responsibility concerning environmental issues. The interest in bioactive compounds extracted from natural sources has increased due to their potential application as active ingredients in several industries, particularly the cosmetic, food, and pharmaceutical industries. Plants are rich sources of phenolic compounds that have been widely studied due to their health-promoting properties, namely antioxidant, anti-carcinogenic, and anti-inflammatory activities, among others. Extraction is usually the limiting analytical step in the yield of bioactive compounds. From a green point of view, many extraction techniques have been employed as potential candidates to replace conventional methods, such as ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE), pressurized liquid extraction (PLE), microwave-assisted extraction (MAE), supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), pulsed electric field extraction, and enzyme-assisted extraction. In this Special Issue, we focus our attention on the chemical characterization of plant extracts and their bioactive composition, focusing also on in-vitro cell assays and molecular tools. The issue comprises original research articles, as well as a review, on topics such as phenolic profile, radical scavenging capacity, in vitro cell assays, comet assay, and antimicrobial capacity. We close this Special Issue with a review paper that focuses on the pharmacological activities of quercetin, one of the principal polyphenols. With this, we aim to provide a contemporary overview of the advantages of bioactive compounds extracted from plants.

As editors of this book our aim was to collect new data from experienced authors in order to further advance the knowledge on the protective effects of polyphenols'' intake, e.g., when included in the human diet, to modulate cellular functions and pathways associated with neurodegenerative diseases.Fruits and vegetables are the richest source of polyphenols in the regular human diet. Most of these molecules possess high antioxidant capacity, as well as several other important activities that can affect human health, among which anti-inflammatory properties and the potential ability to modulate different cell-signalling pathways seem to be the most important. Neurodegenerative diseases are among the main causes of death worldwide and, in most of them like Alzheimer''s or Parkinson''s, neurodegeneration occurs long before the onset of first symptoms, where a large population of brain neurons are already lost. Besides neurons, glial cells like astrocytes and microglia, are involved in oxidative and neuroinflammatory pathological pathways, making them interesting targets for neuroprotective strategies. Polyphenols are promising candidates for those strategies, either as prophylactic substances or as therapeutic molecules.In this book, several research papers and two reviews explore the chemical properties of naturally occurring polyphenols and some new possibilities for the therapeutical and/or prophylactic roles of these molecules on neurodegeneration and neurodegenerative diseases.

Schizophrenia is a common disease characterized by psychotic symptoms (e.g., delusion, hallucinations, blunted affect) and disturbances of cognitive function (e.g., memory, abstraction, attention). If not treated properly, patients may experience serious consequences in terms of social function. Much endeavor in several disciplines of medical science has been made to overcome the paucity of effective treatments for unmet needs, including cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia.This Book, contributed by experts from various regions of the globe, provides up-to-date information to facilitate the development of personal therapeutics for this enigmatic illness.

Today, food animal production systems demand high energy, land, chemicals, and water-all of which are increasingly becoming scarce. Thus, change and innovation are required in many animal production systems to meet the present and future demands for animal products sustainably. Over the last four decades, inexpensive grain, energy, and protein have enabled the economic development of intensive meat, eggs, and milk production systems based on feeding grains and other ingredients sourced from far-off places. The poultry and pig intensive production systems have become highly capital intensive, and they have resulted in many environmental challenges.Food animal feed, nutrition, and welfare are the foundation of successful animal systems. They directly or indirectly affect the entire animal production sector, associated services, public goods, and services, including animal productivity, health and welfare, product quality and safety, land use and land-use change, and greenhouse gas emissions. The sustainability of food animal nutrition and welfare is crucial in developing animal production across production systems. The sustainable increase in animal productivity, which is key to meeting the large current and future demands for animal origin products, cannot be achieved without sustainable animal nutrition and welfare.

Sustainable agricultural practices are needed to provide food security for a growing global population. Food production is usually associated with high nutrient inputs in the form of mineral fertilizers. Since the beginning of agriculture, such practices have led to soil degradation and the release of environmental contaminants. In this Special Issue, we will focus on innovations in organic and inorganic fertilizer production. We welcome studies concerning new approaches for smart fertilizer development, including bioformulations with mineral particles, nanomaterials, and plant growth promoting microorganisms. We especially encourage authors taking advantage of ecological interactions to improve plant nutrient-use efficiency. Moreover, we would like to include contributions that focus on organic amendments to increase or propitiate the terrestrial C sequestration and stabilization, in order to contribute to mitigating climate change at the same time increasing food security by soil fertility, thus making win-win-win scenarios. Such techniques may concern, but are not limited to, innovative organic waste recycling procedures and new applications of mycorrhizae, rhizobioms, or free living soil bacteria and fungi.

The FinTech/InsurTech-based business models are gradually maturing and disrupting the offering and management of financial services (banking, financial and insurance) on the global stage. However, understanding of the risk landscape of the FinTech and InsurTech business models remains at an early stage due to the diverse nature of their activities and the rapid development of the field. Although FinTech and InsurTech offer the opportunity to accelerate economic growth and expand financial affordability/inclusion in all countries, they pose new risks to financial stability and integrity.This book contains five articles that offer a discussion of state-of-the-art developments or introduce new theoretical or practical advances in the identification, measurement and management of the risks arising from the FinTech/InsurTech-based business models.

Spinoza''s Theological-Political Treatise first appeared, anonymously, in 1670. After the publication of the Opera Posthuma (1677), few scholars took the trouble to take the work seriously. In his famous History of Philosophy, Hegel only devoted a few lines to the work, caustically describing it as a mere predecessor of contemporary Biblical criticism. In the early 20th century, Gebhardt deemed it a pamphlet written as an intervention in the political-ecclesiastical controversies of the Republican Era of Johan de Witt, which ended with violent death by the Hague mob. In the 21st century, Verbeek outlined its inconsistencies and named it ''badly organized and-let us admit it-without a clear and recognizable focus''. Notwithstanding this benign neglect, in the past five decades the TTP has finally emerged from the shadow of the Ethics. In the wake of the growing interest in the political philosophy of Spinoza in France and Italy and the study of the historical significance of Radical Enlightenment by Jonathan Israel, recent studies of the TTP have focused on the context of the Dutch Republic, but also explored the work''s broader philosophical relevance. This commemorative Special Issue offers a style guide of the various recent approaches to the TTP, placing the work in its historical context, exploring its Medieval and Early Modern sources, assessing its philosophical (in)coherence, and, finally, its critical relevance in a globalized world, in Brazil, Iran, and in times of enduring authoritarianism and fake news.

Plants have been the sources of important pharmaceuticals, flavoring agents, and agrochemicals. The antimalarial drugs artemisinin and quinine; the anticancer drugs taxol, etoposide, and vinca alkaloids; the sugar-free sweetening agents stevioside and rebaudiosides; and antifeedant azadiractin are good examples of important plant-based drugs, food additives, and agrochemicals currently on the market. Despite these and many other successes, there are significant challenges to discovering and developing commercially important natural products from plants, such as procuring plant materials in large quantities, separating active constituents from complex mixtures, and undesirable qualities, such as low solubility or poor chemical or metabolic stability of active constituents. Dr. James D. McChesney has contributed immensely to overcoming the inherent challenges associated with discovering and developing products modeled from plant-based natural product leads. His research on artemisinin, taxol, galanthamine, podophyllotoxin, and stevia sweet glycosides exemplifies the magnitude of these contributions. His extensive work on the structural modification of taxol led to the discovery and development of the anticancer agent TPI 287, a third-generation taxane analog that is currently undergoing clinical trials. Dr. McChesney has had a long, distinguished teaching and research career, has authored more than 225 research publications, and holds more than 60 patents. He is a past president and Fellow of the American Society of Pharmacognosy and a Fellow of the AAAS. He has mentored many graduate students, post-docs, and junior faculty members who hold prominent positions in natural products research establishments in the US and worldwide.We wish to dedicate this Special Issue Book Version to celebrate the eightieth birthday of Dr. McChesney, a prolific thinker with abundant inventiveness in the field of natural product chemistry and pharmacognosy.

"ME/CFS: Causes, Clinical Features and Diagnosis" addresses the early stages of ME/CFS and underlying predisposing factors. It considers the plight of the individual patient, and also the impact of the illness on society as a whole, which is considerable, in terms of both costs and social disruption. Patients and their families and carers frequently experience discrimination and difficulties accessing care. This volume will be of particular interest to those undertaking scientific research and those providing clinical care for ME/CFS patients, as well as to social policy analysts, policy makers and governments, and specialists in social research and medical education. There is a major focus on shortcomings in terms of medical education, resulting in considerable gaps in knowledge and understanding of the condition among many doctors. International comparisons indicate that these problems are encountered in many countries. This is particularly topical at a time when Long Covid-19 has moved post-viral syndromes to the forefront of the political agenda, and confronted society with new challenges in this area on a hitherto unprecedented scale. The volume addresses the many points of similarity between Long Covid-19 and ME/CFS. Mitigation of the illness is also addressed, through espousal of a more patient-centred approach to care, and through consideration of the scope for prevention. Sixty-nine authors from seventeen European countries, and from Canada and the USA have contributed to this volume, which is a truly international collaboration.

This book proposes a list of contributions in the field of control of power electronics converters for different topologies: DC-DC, DC-AC and AC-DC. It particularly focuses on the use of different advanced control techniques with the aim of improving the performances, flexibility and efficiency in the context of several operation conditions. Sliding mode control, fuzzy logic based control, dead time compensation and optimal linear control are among the techniques developed in the special issue. Simulation and experimental results are provided by the authors to validate the proposed control strategies.

The future food systems will have to provide food and nutrition security while facing unprecedented sustainability challenges: this underlines the need for a transition to more sustainable food systems. Taking into account these premises and considering the complexity of food systems, this book aims to present original research articles, reviews, and commentaries concerning the following:Advancements in food and beverage;Dietary supplements, nutraceuticals, and functional food;Food allergy and public health;Food and nutritional toxicology;Food biotechnology and food processing;Food microbiology and food safety;Food packaging;Food safety and food inspection;Food security and environmental impacts;Food waste management;Nutrition and metabolism;Sustainable food systems and agro-ecological food production.

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.