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During recent years, the use of advanced data analysis methods has increased in clinical and epidemiological research. This book emphasizes the practical aspects of new data analysis methods, and provides insight into new challenges in biostatistics, epidemiology, health sciences, dentistry, and clinical medicine. This book provides a readable text, giving advice on the reporting of new data analytical methods and data presentation. The book consists of 13 articles. Each article is self-contained and may be read independently according to the needs of the reader. The book is essential reading for postgraduate students as well as researchers from medicine and other sciences where statistical data analysis plays a central role.

Refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pumps (RACHP) have an important impact on the final energy uses of many sectors of modern society, such as residential, commercial, industrial, transport, and automotive.          Moreover, RACHP also have an important environmental impact due to the working fluids that deplete the stratospheric ozone layer, which are being phased out according to the Montreal Protocol (1989).                     Last, but not least, high global working potential (GWP), working fluids (directly), and energy consumption (indirectly) are responsible for a non-negligible quota of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere, thus impacting climate change.

Fluid interfaces are promising candidates for confining different types of materials, e.g., polymers, surfactants, colloids, and even small molecules, to be used in designing new functional materials with reduced dimensionality. The development of such materials requires a deepening of the physicochemical bases underlying the formation of layers at fluid interfaces as well as on the characterization of their structures and properties. This is of particular importance because the constraints associated with the assembly of materials at the interface lead to the emergence of equilibrium and features of dynamics in the interfacial systems, which are far removed from those conventionally found in traditional materials. This Special Issue is devoted to studies on the fundamental and applied aspects of fluid interfaces, and attempts to provide a comprehensive perspective on the current status of the research field.

Complexity is a ubiquitous phenomenon in physiology that allows living systems to adapt to external perturbations. Fractal structures, self-organization, nonlinearity, interactions at different scales, and interconnections among systems through anatomical and functional networks, may originate complexity. Biomedical signals from physiological systems may carry information about the system complexity useful to identify physiological states, monitor health, and predict pathological events. Therefore, complexity analysis of biomedical signals is a rapidly evolving field aimed at extracting information on the physiological systems. This book consists of 16 contributions from authors with a strong scientific background in biomedical signals analysis. It includes reviews on the state-of-the-art of complexity studies in specific medical applications, new methods to improve complexity quantifiers, and novel complexity analyses in physiological or clinical scenarios. It presents a wide spectrum of methods investigating the entropic properties, multifractal structure, self-organized criticality, and information dynamics of biomedical signals touching upon three physiological areas: the cardiovascular system, the central nervous system, the heart-brain interactions. The book is aimed at experienced researchers in signal analysis and presents the latest trends in the complexity methods in physiology and medicine with the hope of inspiring future works advancing this fascinating area of research.

Milk processing is one of the most ancient food technologies, dating back to around 6000 B.C. A huge number of milk products have been developed worldwide, representing a spectacular example of biodiversity and a priceless cultural heritage. After millennia of unanimous appreciation as a pillar of human nutrition, a series of questions about the desirability of their wide consumption have been raised. In the light of the growing threat deriving mostly from the spread of veganism and health consciousness, improving milk prcoessing safety and dairy nutritional characteristics, as well as deepening their functional characteristics, are of a primary exigency. This Special Issue contains several articles focusing on this hot topic, all of which add knowledge to the field and supply interesting ideas for developing new products and processes.

With a mean worldwide prevalence of 13%, chronic kidney disease imposes a massive health burden on our society. In addition to reduced kidney function, patients with chronic kidney disease increasingly suffer from cardiovascular diseases affecting the heart and vasculature. Cardiovascular diseases account for around half of the deaths of patients with advanced chronic kidney disease. However, therapeutic options are highly insufficient. The pathological mechanisms that underlie increased cardiovascular risk in patients with chronic kidney disease remain largely unknown. This Special Issue provides insights into comorbidities in CKD patients, mainly focused on increased cardiovascular risk, and summarizes current knowledge of underlying pathophysiological mechanisms.

Cancer has been a patient-specific and difficult-to-treat disease for decades, resulting in more deaths since 1900 than all other diseases except cardiovascular diseases. As societies around the world continue to shift towards an aging population, the social and economic burden created by cancer will only rise in the coming decades, necessitating continued improvement in our cancer therapies. Remarkably, in the late 1800s, bone surgeon William Coley serendipitously discovered that bacteria could be administered to patients as an effective (and sometimes toxic) form of cancer therapy known as "Coley''s Toxins". His discoveries unknowingly led to two fields of cancer therapy that have been in development for decades and are now leading to significant improvements in therapy for cancer patients: immune-based and toxin-based therapies for cancer. Articles included here discuss the discoveries that emerged from Coley''s Toxins that enable us to harness the immune system and microbial toxins to combat cancers, as oncology shifts from a field dominated by chemotherapy for most of the 20th century to biologic therapies that will dominate the 21st century.

There is pressing evidence of phenomena, linked to meteorology and climate, which are modifying their temporal occurrence and which have a very evident impact on the safety and health of populations residing in cities. The urban problem at the beginning of the second set of twenty years of the new century requires a complete rethinking of the way of aggregation of man who, today, represents a large part of the world population due to increasingly accelerated urbanization processes over time. The human being has become a citizen, and within the city limits, he tries to develop his life expectancy by seizing opportunities from this. This search for well-being, understood as a complete state of man, at once physiological and psychological and social, can be thwarted by an urban structure that is not functionally capable of providing answers. The climate problem exacerbates this problem by strongly stressing the contradictions of living. Science, technology, and politics are today able to give answers if applied wisely in a joint effort, in a unit of language. This book proposes several solutions that can be implemented today, ranging from a full understanding of phenomena to adaptation policies for solving problems. The most pressing invitation is addressed precisely to politics to make cities more resilient and safe.

Molecular oxygen deficiency leads to altered cellular metabolism and can dramatically reduce crop productivity. Nearly all crops are negatively affected by a lack of oxygen (hypoxia) due to adverse environmental conditions such as excessive rain and soil waterlogging. Extensive efforts to fully understand how plants sense oxygen deficiency and their ability to respond using different strategies are crucial to increase hypoxia tolerance. Progress in our understanding has been significant in recent years. This topic certainly deserves more attention from the academic community; therefore, we have compiled a series of articles reflecting the advancements made thus far.

This Special Issue addresses relations between tourism activities, smart specialization strategies, and sustainable development at different territorial levels, including the local, regional, national, and international. Framed by appropriate conceptual frameworks to define the contemporary dynamics of innovation in tourism, case studies supported by advanced quantitative methods and developed in rural and urban areas of Asia, Europe, and Africa are presented and discussed. The concept of smart specialization inspires the formulation of regional innovation policies and strategies, emphasizing the importance of endogenous resources and existing territorial capabilities. By exploring the diversity and variety of each economy to develop inter-sectoral relations, this approach aims at promoting the creation of spillover effects of innovation processes supported by adequate key enabling technologies, potentially leading to the sustainable development of places, regions, and countries. As an activity that mobilizes contributions from different economic sectors, tourism may play a central role in such strategies. As described and discussed in this Special Issue, aspects related to the creative sectors of economies, information and communication technologies, traditional products and lifestyles, food production, or diverse cultural values can be mobilized to generate innovative and sustainable solutions for tourism development.

Continuous cost reduction of photovoltaic (PV) systems and the rise of power auctions resulted in the establishment of PV power not only as a green energy source but also as a cost-effective solution to the electricity generation market. Various commercial solutions for grid-connected PV systems are available at any power level, ranging from multi-megawatt utility-scale solar farms to sub-kilowatt residential PV installations. Compared to utility-scale systems, the feasibility of small-scale residential PV installations is still limited by existing technologies that have not yet properly address issues like operation in weak grids, opaque and partial shading, etc. New market drivers such as warranty improvement to match the PV module lifespan, operation voltage range extension for application flexibility, and embedded energy storage for load shifting have again put small-scale PV systems in the spotlight. This Special Issue collects the latest developments in the field of power electronic converter topologies, control, design, and optimization for better energy yield, power conversion efficiency, reliability, and longer lifetime of the small-scale PV systems. This Special Issue will serve as a reference and update for academics, researchers, and practicing engineers to inspire new research and developments that pave the way for next-generation PV systems for residential and small commercial applications.

Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) is one of the most successful polymers used for producing therapeutic devices, such as drug carriers (DC). PLGA is one of the few polymers that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved for human administration due to its biocompatibility and biodegradability. In recent years, DC produced with PLGA has gained enormous attention for its versatility in transporting different type of drugs, e.g., hydrophilic or hydrophobic small molecules, or macromolecules with a controlled drug release without modifying the physiochemical properties of the drugs. These drug delivery systems have the possibility/potential to modify their surface properties with functional groups, peptides, or other coatings to improve the interactions with biological materials. Furthermore, they present the possibility to be conjugated with specific target molecules to reach specific tissues or cells. They are also used for different therapeutic applications, such as in vaccinations, cancer treatment, neurological disorder treatment, and as anti-inflammatory agents. This book aims to focus on the recent progress of PLGA as a drug carrier and their new pharmaceutical applications.

Short-term load forecasting (STLF) plays a key role in the formulation of economic, reliable, and secure operating strategies (planning, scheduling, maintenance, and control processes, among others) for a power system and will be significant in the future. However, there is still much to do in these research areas. The deployment of enabling technologies (e.g., smart meters) has made high-granularity data available for many customer segments and to approach many issues, for instance, to make forecasting tasks feasible at several demand aggregation levels. The first challenge is the improvement of STLF models and their performance at new aggregation levels. Moreover, the mix of renewables in the power system, and the necessity to include more flexibility through demand response initiatives have introduced greater uncertainties, which means new challenges for STLF in a more dynamic power system in the 2030-50 horizon. Many techniques have been proposed and applied for STLF, including traditional statistical models and AI techniques. Besides, distribution planning needs, as well as grid modernization, have initiated the development of hierarchical load forecasting. Analogously, the need to face new sources of uncertainty in the power system is giving more importance to probabilistic load forecasting. This Special Issue deals with both fundamental research and practical application research on STLF methodologies to face the challenges of a more distributed and customer-centered power system.

Steels and their heat treatment are still very important in modern industry because most industrial components are made from these materials. The proper choice of steel grades along with their suitable processing makes it possible to reduce the weight of the components, which is closely related to energy and fuel savings. This has decisive importance in branches such as the automotive, transport, consumer industries. A great number of novel heat- and surface-treatment techniques have been developed over the past three decades. These techniques involve, for example, vacuum treatment, sub-zero treatment, laser/electron beam surface hardening and alloying, low-pressure carburizing and nitriding, and physical vapour deposition. This Special Issue contains a collection of original research articles on not only advanced heat-treatment techniques-carburizing and sub-zero treatments-but also on the microstructure-property relationships in different ferrous alloys.

This Special Issue collects ten articles related to the broadly understood physical properties of intermetallic compounds. Differential thermal analysis was carried out, and the temperatures of thermal effects that arise during the reduction of neodymium from a technological salt mixture of KCl-NaCl-CaCl2-NdF3 with a magnesium-zinc alloy were established. For sol-gel products of stoichiometric MgTiO3, accurate thermal expansion coefficients were measured. The effect of various nanoparticles, such as GaF3, ZnF2, Zn(BF4)2 and Ga2O3 additions, on the activity of CsF-RbF-AlF3 flux and mechanical behavior of Al/Steel brazed joints is presented. The effect of Bi substitution on the structural and magnetic properties of Nd1-xBixMnO3 is investigated. Characteristics of hard magnetic materials based on Nd2Fe14B and Ce2Fe14B intermetallic compounds are presented. A special algorithm is presented to support vector regression for estimating the maximum magnetic entropy change of doped manganite-based compounds. We have received information about the mechanical properties of the reactively synthesized porous Ti3SiC2 compound with different apertures. Furthermore, we have presented the experimental results of Zn-doped Al-rich for fast on-board hydrogen production.

This book is a collection of Special Issue articles that aim to discern a people-centered pathway to solving land-based challenges in the context of land administration. It consists of 13 positively evaluated research articles. Each of the articles contributes to the large mosaic of knowledge on land methods (or tools) that are relevant to resolving land challenges that women and youths face. The book highlights 13 critical lessons on "Land, Women, Youths, and Land Tools or Methods."

The challenges faced by the atmospheric research community today are vast, complex, and multi-faceted. The book Urban Atmospheric Aerosols: Sources, Analysis, and Effects highlights important aspects concerning the chemical and optical properties, size distribution, sources, and potential health effects of fine urban air particles (PM2.5). The physical and chemical characterization of PM2.5, its source assignment, and the assessment of the magnitude and distribution of its emissions are crucial for establishing effective fine air particle regulations and assessing the associated risks to human health. This book brings together eight papers covering the main topics of the field and will be of interest to researchers who are interested in air quality in outdoor and indoor environments, air particle toxicity, and atmospheric chemistry, as well as global climate modelers.

Albedo is a known and documented phenomenon, defined as the reflectivity of a surface, i.e., the ratio of reflected light energy to incident light energy. It is a dimensionless quantity, used in particular in agro-forestry, urban environment, cryosphere and geology. It is an Essential Climate Variable (ECV), deemed extremely meaningful to compute the earth heat balance. The albedo of natural surfaces varies largely, especially in the visible, with the lowest values found for water bodies and dense vegetation canopies and the highest values for desert and snow. It also changes with the angular distribution and spectral composition of the incident radiation and with the surface moisture. Satellite observations allow consistent measuring of the surface albedo at continental scale over a short period of time. Long-term series of surface albedo are good indicators of climate change, especially over glaciers and polar caps. On the other hand, the albedo of bare soil provides a good diagnostic of their degradation. The reliability of satellite albedo is verified against ground-based radiometers and UAV, which also serves to calibrate the instruments embarked on space-borne observing systems and check the quality of the atmospheric correction.

This book highlights the design of an educational module for an innovative intensive program. The theme is very relevant in the contemporary approach to teaching activities. In fact, thanks to the didactic design, it is possible to obtain a strong relationship between teachers and learners, as required by the Bologna Process. It also allows a stronger definition of learning outcomes.After a general excursus on the subject, the manuscript refers to a recent experience carried out in the Aeolian Island for the Erasmus + Programme, called VVITA. In it, an international group of students and teachers spent a period in the Aeolian Islands, to focus on the features of local vernacular architecture. The attention has been addressed to the Aeolian House, which is a wonderful example of ante litteram sustainable architecture. On the island of Filicudi, one of the most beautiful of the archipelago, it has preserved its characteristics intact.The book is completed by teachers'' lectures and students'' final reports.

This book collects selected high-quality papers published in 2018-2020 to inaugurate the "Natural Hazards" Section of the Geosciences journal. The topics encompass: trends in publications at international level in the field of natural hazards research; the role of Big Data in natural disaster management; assessment of seismic risk through the understanding and quantification of its different components; climatic/hydro-meteorological hazards; and finally, the scientific analysis and disaster forensics of recent natural hazard events. The target audience includes not only specialists, but also graduate students who wish to approach the challenging, but also fascinating

This Special Issue book focuses on the theory and practice of search engine optimization (SEO). It is intended for anyone who publishes content online and it includes five peer-reviewed papers from various researchers. More specifically, the book includes theoretical and case study contributions which review and synthesize important aspects, including, but not limited to, the following themes: theory of SEO, different types of SEO, SEO criteria evaluation, search engine algorithms, social media and SEO, and SEO applications in various industries, as well as SEO on media websites. The book aims to give a better understanding of the importance of SEO in the current state of the Internet and online information search. Even though SEO is widely used by marketing practitioners, there is a relatively small amount of academic research that systematically attempts to capture this phenomenon and its impact across different industries. Thus, this collection of studies offers useful insights, as well as a valuable resource that intends to open the door for future SEO-related research.

Women and men have probably never been concerned as much by their health as during this COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, lifestyle habits continue to be promoted as allies for daily prevention against diseases. This is valid also for metabolic diseases, among which many affect the liver and are risk factors for aggravating the disease course of COVID-19. In fact, liver diseases are currently a major global health problem. There is a huge range of liver diseases and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic hepatic condition, which in some patients progresses to cirrhosis and liver cancer. Currently, substantial efforts are being made to better understand NAFLD, especially, because there is no U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved pharmacological therapy. To explore this disease, metabolomics is the most recently developed omics technology after genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics. Metabolomics is the large-scale analysis of molecules, known as metabolites that are intermediate or end products of metabolism found within cells, tissues, and biofluids. This technology has a very high potential to identify biomarker candidates for the future development of new therapeutics. The book features articles that address metabolomics technology and its use to document different liver functions and dysfunctions, with a major focus on NAFLD.

Recent and ongoing debates in biology and the philosophy of biology reveal a widespread dissatisfaction with traditional explanatory frameworks. There are also problems with the current definitions or circumscriptions of key concepts such as gene, species, and homology, and even of whole disciplinary fields within the life sciences, e.g. developmental biology. These contrasting views are arguably a symptom of the need to revisit traditional, unchallenged partitions between the specialist disciplines within the life sciences. In the diversity of topics addressed and approaches to move beyond the current disciplinary organization, the five essays in this volume will hopefully stimulate further exploration towards an improved articulation of life sciences.

Micro/nanofluidics-based lab-on-a-chip devices have found extensive applications in the analysis of chemical and biological samples over the past two decades. Electrokinetics is the method of choice in these micro/nano-chips for transporting, manipulating, and sensing various analyte species (e.g., ions, molecules, fluids, and particles). This book aims to highlight the recent developments in the field of micro/nano-chip electrokinetics, ranging from the fundamentals of electrokinetics to the applications of electrokinetics to both chemo- and bio-sample handling.

The demands on innovative materials given by the ever-increasing requirements of contemporary industry require the use of high-performance engineering materials. The properties of materials and alloys are a result of their structures, which can primarily be affected by the preparation/production process. However, the production of materials featuring high levels of the required properties without the necessity to use costly alloying elements or time- and money-demanding heat treatment technologies typically used to enhance the mechanical properties of metallic materials (especially specific strength) still remains a challenge. The introduction of thermomechanical treatment represented a breakthrough in grain refinement, consequently leading to significant improvement of the mechanical properties of metallic materials. Contrary to conventional production technologies, the main advantage of such treatment is the possibility to precisely control structural phenomena that affect the final mechanical and utility properties. Thermomechanical treatment can only decrease the grain size to the scale of microns. However, further research devoted to pushing materials'' performance beyond the limits led to the introduction of severe plastic deformation (SPD) methods providing producers with the ability to acquire ultra-fine-grained and nanoscaled metallic materials with superior mechanical properties. SPD methods can be performed with the help of conventional forming equipment; however, many newly designed processes have also been introduced.

Natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) are pharmaceutically accepted systems not only because they typically offer a serious enhancement of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) solubility, but also due to their non-toxicity. This fortunate conjuncture allows for designing new media for escalation and controlled release of APIs. For example, composition optimisation of a series of NADES comprising choline chloride with multi-hydroxyl compounds was successfully performed for a set of sulphonamide-based drugs. These results confirmed that NADES in general, and the ones based on choline chloride and glycerol particularly, are an attractive alternative to traditional solvents for sulphonamide dissolution. Experiments augmented with in silico modelling can offer deeper insights into the thermodynamic characteristics of these systems and an explanation for the origin of the observed solubility enhancement. Research of this type offers universal resolutions to the problem of low solubility issues for many types of drugs. Of particular interest is that such screening is not restricted to artificial in vitro environments but can be also easily adopted for the study of modelled in vivo situations. One of very important and interesting examples is a new curcumin-NADES formulation preserving its beneficial properties even after dilution with FaSSIF solution, which mimicks intestinal absorption.

Over the past decade, interest in plant biostimulants has been on the rise, compelled by the growing interest of researchers, extension specialists, private industries, and farmers in integrating these products in the array of environmentally friendly tools to secure improved crop performance, nutrient efficiency, product quality, and yield stability. Plant biostimulants include diverse organic and inorganic substances, natural compounds, and/or beneficial microorganisms such as humic acids, protein hydrolysates, seaweed and plant extracts, silicon, endophytic fungi like mycorrhizal fungi, and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria belonging to the genera Azospirillum, Azotobacter, and Rhizobium. Other substances (e.g., chitosan and other biopolymers and inorganic compounds) can have biostimulant properties, but their classification within the group of biostimulants is still under consideration. Plant biostimulants are usually applied to high-value crops, mainly greenhouse crops, fruit trees and vines, open-field crops, flowers, and ornamentals to sustainably increase yield and product quality. The global biostimulant market is currently estimated at about $2.0 billion and is expected to reach $3.0 billion by 2021 at an annual growth rate of 13%. A growing interest in plant biostimulants from industries and scientists was demonstrated by the high number of published peer-reviewed articles, conferences, workshops, and symposia in the past ten years. This book compiles several original research articles, technology reports, methods, opinions, perspectives, and invited reviews and mini reviews dissecting the biostimulatory action of these natural compounds and substances and beneficial microorganisms on crops grown under optimal and suboptimal growing conditions (e.g., salinity, drought, nutrient deficiency and toxicity, heavy metal contaminations, waterlogging, and adverse soil pH conditions). Also included are contributions dealing with the effect as well as the molecular and physiological mechanisms of plant biostimulants on nutrient efficiency, product quality, and modulation of the microbial population both quantitatively and qualitatively. In addition, identification and understanding of the optimal method, time, rate of application and phenological stage for improving plant performance and resilience to stress as well as the best combinations of plant species/cultivar × environment × management practices are also reported. We strongly believe that high standard reflected in this compilation on the principles and practices of plant biostimulants will foster knowledge transfer among scientific communities, industries, and agronomists, and will enable a better understanding of the mode of action and application procedures of biostimulants in different cropping systems.

While currently identitarian ideologies and essentialist notions of identity that tend to simplify and reduce life experience to simple factors are globally regaining massive attention, it becomes inevitable to recollect the thorough discussions of identity concepts of the past three decades. It also calls for an ever keener awareness of and capacity to deal with the complexity and diversity of the world we live in. Artists play a major role in the potential reflection and transformation of perceptions and conceptions of the world - musicians, dancers, choreographers, spoken word artists, performance artists, actors, also fine art, installation, media artists or photographers alike. "Performing critical identity" points to performative practices of artists that bring to the fore a critical (self-)awareness and (self-)positioning concerning identification and belonging. Social identities such as gender, sexuality, race, class, dis/ability, age or non/religiosity are closely linked to the historical, social, regional and political dimensions of their formation. From this perspective, identities are hardly one-dimensional but complex and intersectional, and are rather to be thought of as a process of identification and belonging than as a consistent essence.As different, maybe contradictory among themselves, as they are, the performative works of artists such as Lerato Shadi, Liad Hussein Kantorowicz, Nora Chipaumire, Shu Lea Cheang, Zanele Muholi, Ohno Kazuo, Anohni Hegarty, Neo Hülcker, "We're Muslim. Don't Panic" or of theatre collectives such as RambaZamba and Thikwa Theater in Berlin or Theater Hora in Zurich, to name but a very small quite random selection of artists, share a critical approach towards hegemonic norms or stereotyping of identities and their representations, and empower diversity.

The Special Issue "Non-Destructive Testing of Structures" has been proposed to present the recent developments in the field of the diagnostics of structural materials and components in civil and mechanical engineering. The papers highlighted in this editorial concern various aspects of non-invasive diagnostics, including such topics as the condition assessments of civil and mechanical structures and the connections of structural elements, the inspection of cultural heritage monuments, the testing of structural materials, structural health monitoring systems, the integration of non-destructive testing methods, advanced signal processing for the non-destructive testing of structures (NDT), damage detection and damage imaging, as well as modeling and numerical analyses for supporting structural health monitoring (SHM) systems.