Böcker utgivna av Mdpi AG

The long-term productivity of forest ecosystems depends on the cycling of nutrients. The effect of carbon dioxide fertilization on forest productivity may ultimately be limited by the rate of nutrient cycling. Contemporary and future disturbances such as climatic warming, N-deposition, deforestation, short rotation sylviculture, fire (both wild and controlled), and the invasion of exotic species all place strains on the integrity of ecosystem nutrient cycling. Global differences in climate, soils, and species make it difficult to extrapolate even a single important study worldwide. Despite advances in the understanding of nutrient cycling and carbon production in forests, many questions remain. The chapters in this volume reflect many contemporary research priorities. The thirteen studies in this volume are arranged in the following subject groups: ΓÇó N and P resorption from foliage worldwide, along chronosequences and along elevation gradients; ΓÇó Litter production and decomposition; ΓÇó N and P stoichiometry as affected by N deposition, geographic gradients, species changes, and ecosystem restoration; ΓÇó Effects of N and P addition on understory biomass, litter, and soil; ΓÇó Effects of burning on soil nutrients; ΓÇó Effects of N addition on soil fauna.

Acoustic emission (AE) techniques have successfully been used for assuring the structural integrity of large rocket motorcases since 1963, and their uses have expanded to ever larger structures, especially as structural health monitoring (SHM) of large structures has become the most urgent task for engineering communities around the world. The needs for advanced AE monitoring methods are felt keenly by those dealing with aging infrastructures. Many publications have appeared covering various aspects of AE techniques, but documentation of actual applications of AE techniques has been mostly limited to reports of successful results without technical details that allow objective evaluation of the results. There are some exceptions in the literature. In this Special Issue of the Acoustics section of Applied Sciences, we seek contributions covering these exceptions cited here. Here, we seek contributions describing case histories of AE applications to large structures that have achieved the goals of SHM by providing adequate technical information supporting the success stories. Types of structures can include aerospace and geological structures, bridges, buildings, factories, maritime facilities, off-shore structures, etc. Experiences with AE monitoring methods designed and proven for large stru

Digital agriculture is gaining traction among scientists implementing different new and emerging sensor technologies to monitor complex soil-plant-atmosphere interactions in an accurate, cost-effective and user-friendly manner. This book presents some of the latest advances in this emerging area of research. The diversity of applications in which digital agriculture can make an important difference in day-to-day farming decision making makes this discipline an important focus of research internationally.

This volume is an exploration of the varied and sometimes unrecognized ways in which music-especially in ritual contexts-can serve as both a spiritual conduit as well as a theological source. With topics ranging from a Congolese choir in Ireland to the Orthodox chant in Georgia, from postmodern reflections on new Passion compositions to reflections on the sacramentality of Black gospel music, this volume offers a rich plumbing of very diverse yet well researched musical traditions-case studies from around the globe-for their spiritual and theological contributions.

In the current context of the electronic governance of society, both administrations and citizens are demanding the greater participation of all the actors involved in the decision-making process relative to the governance of society. This book presents collective works published in the recent Special Issue (SI) entitled "Optimization for Decision Making II". These works give an appropriate response to the new challenges raised, the decision-making process can be done by applying different methods and tools, as well as using different objectives. In real-life problems, the formulation of decision-making problems and the application of optimization techniques to support decisions are particularly complex and a wide range of optimization techniques and methodologies are used to minimize risks, improve quality in making decisions or, in general, to solve problems. In addition, a sensitivity or robustness analysis should be done to validate/analyze the influence of uncertainty regarding decision-making. This book brings together a collection of inter-/multi-disciplinary works applied to the optimization of decision making in a coherent manner.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the most common neurological disorders in young adults. The etiology of MS is not known, but it is generally accepted that it is autoimmune in nature. Our knowledge of the pathogenesis of MS has increased tremendously in the past decade through clinical studies and the use of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a model that has been widely used for MS research. Major advances in the field, such as understanding the roles of pathogenic Th17 cells, myeloid cells, and B cells in MS/EAE, as well as cytokine and chemokine signaling that controls neuroinflammation, have led to the development of potential and clinically approved disease-modifying agents (DMAs). There are many aspects related to the initiation, relapse and remission, and progression of MS that are yet to be elucidated. For instance, what are the genetic and environmental risk factors that promote the initiation of MS, and how do these factors impact the immune system? What factors drive the progression of MS, and what are the roles of peripheral immune cells in disease progression? How do the CNS-infiltrated immune cells interact with the CNS-resident glial cells when the disease progresses? What is the role of microbiome in MS? Can we develop animal models that better represent subcategories of MS? Understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms that govern the pathogenesis of MS will help to develop novel and more specific therapeutic strategies that will ultimately improve clinical outcomes of the treatments. This Special Issue of Cells has published original research articles, a retrospective clinical report, and review articles that investigate the cellular and molecular basis of MS.

Exceptional loads on buildings and structures may have different causes, including high-strain dynamic effects due to natural hazards, man-made attacks, and accidents, as well as extreme operational conditions (severe temperature variations, humidity, etc.). All of these aspects can be critical for specific structural typologies and/or materials that are particularly sensitive to external conditions. In this regard, dedicated and refined methods are required for their design, analysis, and maintenance under the expected lifetime. There are major challenges related to the structural typology and material properties with respect to the key features of the imposed design load. Further issues can be derived from the need for risk mitigation or retrofit of existing structures as well as from the optimal and safe design of innovative materials/systems. Finally, in some cases, no appropriate design recommendations are available and, thus, experimental investigations can have a key role within the overall process. In this Special Issue, original research studies, review papers, and experimental and/or numerical investigations are presented for the structural performance assessment of buildings and structures under various extreme conditions that are of interest for design.

This book is the printed edition of the Special Issue published in Materials. The book provides an overview of current international research activities in the field of friction and wear management through the laser processing of periodic surface micro- and nanostructures for technical and medical applications. Contributions of renowned scientists from academia and industry provide a bridge between the fields of tribology and laser material processing in order to foster current knowledge and present new ideas for future applications and new technologies.

We are pleased to present "Optical Trapping and Manipulation: From Fundamentals to Applications", a Special Issue of Micromachines dedicated to the latest research in optical trapping. In recognition of the broad impact of optical manipulation techniques across disciplines, this Special Issue collected contributions related to all aspects of optical trapping and manipulation. Both theoretical and experimental studies were welcome, and applications of optical manipulation methods in fields including (but not limited to) single molecule biophysics, cell biology, nanotechnology, atmospheric chemistry, and fundamental optics were particularly welcome in order to showcase the breadth of the current research. The Special Issue accepted diverse forms of contributions, including research papers, short communications, methods, and review articles representing the state-of-the-art in optical trapping.

There is talk of an upcoming antibiotic armageddon, with untreatable post-operative infections, and similarly untreatable complications after chemotherapy. Indeed, the now famous "O''Neill Report" (https://amr-review.org/) suggests that, by 2050, more people might die from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections than from cancer. While we are still learning all the subtle drivers of antibiotic resistance, it seems increasingly clear that we need to take a "one health" approach, curtailing the use of antibiotics in both human and veterinary medicine. However, there are no new classes of antibiotics on our horizon. Maybe something that has been around "forever" can come to our rescue-bacteriophages! Nevertheless, it is also necessary to do things differently, and use these new antimicrobials appropriately. Therefore, an in-depth study of bacteriophage biology and case-by-case applications might be required. Whilst by no means comprehensive, this book does cover some of the many topics related to bacteriophages as antimicrobials, including their use in human therapy and aquaculture. It also explores the potential use of phage endolysins as substitutes of antibiotics in two sectors where there is an urgent need-human therapy and the agro-food industry. Last but not least, there is an excellent perspective article on phage therapy implementation.

The vast majority of real-world problems can be expressed as an optimisation task by formulating an objective function, also known as cost or fitness function. The most logical methods to optimise such a function when (1) an analytical expression is not available, (2) mathematical hypotheses do not hold, and (3) the dimensionality of the problem or stringent real-time requirements make it infeasible to find an exact solution mathematically are from the field of Evolutionary Computation (EC) and Swarm Intelligence (SI). The latter are broad and still growing subjects in Computer Science in the study of metaheuristic approaches, i.e., those approaches which do not make any assumptions about the problem function, inspired from natural phenomena such as, in the first place, the evolution process and the collaborative behaviours of groups of animals and communities, respectively. This book contains recent advances in the EC and SI fields, covering most themes currently receiving a great deal of attention such as benchmarking and tunning of optimisation algorithms, their algorithm design process, and their application to solve challenging real-world problems to face large-scale domains.

Positron emission tomography (PET) and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) are in vivo molecular imaging methods which are widely used in nuclear medicine for diagnosis and treatment follow-up of many major diseases. These methods use target-specific molecules as probes, which are labeled with radionuclides of short half-lives that are synthesized prior to the imaging studies. These probes are called radiopharmaceuticals. The use of PET and SPECT for brain imaging is of special significance since the brain controls all the body''s functions by processing information from the whole body and the outside world. It is the source of thoughts, intelligence, memory, speech, creativity, emotion, sensory functions, motion control, and other important body functions. Protected by the skull and the blood-brain barrier, the brain is somehow a privileged organ with regard to nutrient supply, immune response, and accessibility for diagnostic and therapeutic measures. Invasive procedures are rather limited for the latter purposes. Therefore, noninvasive imaging with PET and SPECT has gained high importance for a great variety of brain diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases, motor dysfunctions, stroke, epilepsy, psychiatric diseases, and brain tumors. This Special Issue focuses on radiolabeled molecules that are used for these purposes, with special emphasis on neurodegenerative diseases and brain tumors.

In recent years, several projects and studies have been launched towards the development and use of new methodologies, in order to assess, monitor, and support clean forms of energy. Accurate estimation of the available energy potential is of primary importance, but is not always easy to achieve. The present Special Issue on ''Renewable Energy Resource Assessment and Forecasting'' aims to provide a holistic approach to the above issues, by presenting multidisciplinary methodologies and tools that are able to support research projects and meet today''s technical, socio-economic, and decision-making needs. In particular, research papers, reviews, and case studies on the following subjects are presented: wind, wave and solar energy; biofuels; resource assessment of combined renewable energy forms; numerical models for renewable energy forecasting; integrated forecasted systems; energy for buildings; sustainable development; resource analysis tools and statistical models; extreme value analysis and forecasting for renewable energy resources.

This special issue provides a collection of 15 papers with modern theories and applications for circular economy, engineering projects, entrepreneurship models, and investor decisions. After the commencing review on Occupational Health and Safety Management-Systems Standards, follow papers which can be classified into four categories which cover the overall scope of special issue. The first category includes papers regarding the micro-level of circular economy. This means case studies in firm-level which implement different techniques to achieve sustainable development and circular economy goals. The findings reveal interesting achievements which are associated with cultural characteristics of the countries these case studies have been conducted. The second category of papers refers to the meso-level of circular economy where firms cooperate with each other by exchanging byproducts and organizing common operational procedures and routines to address environmental problems. The findings suggest assessment information technology tools to support industrial symbiosis among European firms. The next body of literature encompasses macro-level where circular economy techniques are implemented at a country level. Findings suggest methodologies for implementing and tracking circular economy in cities. Finally, a number of papers are included that focus on advanced engineering techniques. These techniques are useful tools for achieving circular economy and sustainability.

Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by fungi. They cause deleterious effects on humans, animals, and plants. More than one hundred mycotoxins are known which contaminate food and feed raw materials. Fungal infection and mycotoxin contamination can occur directly in fields (pre-harvest stage), during storage, or during industrial processing (post-harvest stage). Given the proven toxicity of mycotoxins and their widespread distribution, it is necessary to prevent their occurrence in food and feed. To limit mycotoxin contamination, several techniques can be adopted at the pre-harvest or post-harvest stages. These techniques can reduce mycotoxin concentration through fungal growth reduction or mechanisms leading to mycotoxin degradation or mycotoxin detoxification (i.e., reduction of the toxicity). Until very recently, fungicides were favored to limit mycotoxin contamination by reducing fungal growth. Nonetheless, the sanitary and environmental impacts of these products and their effects on food quality encourage the development of alternative strategies based on biocontrol agents (BCAs) or natural compounds. Moreover, in some cases, fungal growth reduction can stimulate mycotoxin production. The focus of this Special Issue of Toxins is to gather the most recent advances related to reducing mycotoxin contamination in food and feed using BCAs and natural compounds. In this context, two main types of approaches can be proposed: Preventive methods that could be applied in the field, during storage, or during industrial processing and curative methods that detoxify contaminated matrices by eliminating the produced mycotoxin.

The article entitled "Selected Aspects of Evaluating Knowledge Management Quality in Contemporary Enterprises" broadens the understanding of knowledge management and estimates select aspects of knowledge management quality evaluations in modern enterprises from theoretical and practical perspectives. The seventh article aims to present the results of pilot studies on the four largest Information Communication Technology (ICT) companies'' involvement in promoting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through social media. Studies examine which communication strategy is used by companies in social media. The primary purpose of the eighth article is to present the relationship between trust and knowledge sharing, taking into account the importance of this issue in the efficiency of doing business. The results showed that trust is vital in sharing knowledge and essential in achieving a high-performance efficiency level. The ninth article presents the impact of social media on consumer choices in tourism and tourist products'' specificity. The study''s main purpose was to indicate the most commonly used social media in selecting a tourist destination and implementing Generation Y''s journey. The 10th article aims to identify the most critical purposes of using social media by responding to women''s attitudes according to age and their respective countries'' economic development. The research was done through an online survey in 2017-2018, followed by an analysis of eight countries'' results. The article entitled "Integrated Question-Answering System for Natural Disaster Domains Based on Social Media Messages Posted at the Time of Disaster" presents the framework of a question-answering system that was developed using a Twitter dataset containing more than 9 million tweets compiled during the Osaka North Earthquake that occurred on 18 June 2018. The authors also study the structure of the questions posed and develop methods for classifying them into particular categories to find answers from the dataset using an ontology, word similarity, keyword frequency, and natural language processing. The book provides a theoretical and practical background related to trust, knowledge management, and communication in the era of social media. The editor believes that the collection of articles can be relevant to professionals, researchers, and students'' needs. The authors try to diagnose the situation and show the new challenges and future directions in this area.

Sustainability is a fairly old concept, born in the 18th century in the field of forestry, within a mono-functionality perspective. The concept has considerably evolved in the last few years towards a multi-functionality context, with applications reported in practically all areas of economic interest. On the other hand, modern sustainability is a complex problem, for two reasons: a) The multiplicity of functions of a very different nature involved in the process and b) The manner in which different segments of the society or stakeholders perceive the relative importance of these functions. For the above reasons, a realistic approach for dealing with the sustainability issue requires taking into consideration multiple criteria of different nature (economic, environmental and social), and in many cases within a participatory decision making framework. This book presents a collection of papers, dealing with different theoretical and applied issues of sustainability, with the help of a modern multi-criteria decision-making theory, with a single as well as several stakeholders involved in the decision-making process. Hopefully, this material will encourage academics and practitioners to alter their research in this hot and vital topic. After all, the sustainable management of the environment and its embedded resources is one of the most important, if not the major challenge of the 21st century.

The early days of tourism development had a naïve vision of tourism''s impacts on society in terms of economic, social, and environmental benefits. Time has passed, and we have learnt lessons regarding the success and failure of tourism development. Mass tourism development has pros and cons and is not necessarily the optimal development model. Alternative development strategies should be contemplated. This Special Issue deals with different topics concerning optimal tourism development. Destination management requires further understanding of different issues, such as carrying capacity, income-based optimal supply size, identification and development of optimal market niches, and adaptation or environmental protection strategies. Tourism planning is concerned with the role of economies of agglomeration, i.e., the advantages of spatial clusters vs scattered development. Additionally, support for and investment in innovation, accessibility, and mobility are relevant nowadays. From the stakeholders'' perspective, it is relevant to discuss ways of cooperating and sources of conflicts among different sectors and actors, governance and incentives for sustainable tourism practices, and equity and economic distribution of benefits. Finally, the development of methodological tools for the assessment of optimal tourism development is necessary for policy making, in particular the development of methods that are capable of integrating economic, environmental, and social criteria.

Thank you for reaching for this book. It is a summary of the research presented at the 6th International Conference on Renewable Energy Sources (ICORES19), which took place in Krynica, Poland, in June 2019. This event is the most recognizable scientific meeting connected to RES in Poland. From the very beginning, this conference has been a unique occasion for gathering Polish and international researchers'' perspectives on renewable energy sources and balancing them against governmental policy considerations. Accordingly, the conference has also offered panels to discuss best practices and solutions with local entrepreneurs and federal government bodies. The meeting attracts not only scientists but also industry representatives, as well as local and federal government personnel. We are open to new and fresh ideas concerning renewable energy, which is why so many scientists from Central and Eastern Europe visit Krynica to discuss the "Green Future" of this region. In 2019, the conference was organized by the University of Agriculture in Krakow, in cooperation with the AGH University of Science and Technology (Krakow), the State Agrarian and Engineering University in Podilya, the University of ┼╜ilina, the International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (CIGR) and the Polish Society of Agricultural Engineering. Honorary auspices were made by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland, the rector of the University of Agriculture in Krakow, the rector of the AGH University of Science and Technology and the rector of the State Agrarian and Engineering University in Podilya.

The Special Issue of Separations, "Development of Alternative Green Sample Preparation Techniques", provides an overview on recent trends in green sample preparation. This Special Issue of Separations collates 11 impressive contributions that describe the state-of-the-art in the development of green extraction technologies, from green materials for microextraction to the development of new sampling devices geometries for enhanced extraction efficiency and analysis throughput.

This highly informative and carefully presented book covers the most recent advances as well as comprehensive reviews addressing novel and state-of-the-art topics from active researchers in innovative advanced materials and hybrid materials, concerning not only their synthesis, preparation, and characterization but especially focusing on the applications of such materials with outstanding performance.

This book presents the results of the successful Sensors Special Issue on Intelligent Vehicles that received submissions between March 2019 and May 2020. The Guest Editors of this Special Issue are Dr. David Fernández-Llorca, Dr. Ignacio Parra-Alonso, Dr. Iván García-Daza and Dr. Noelia Parra-Alonso, all from the Computer Engineering Department at the University of Alcalá (Madrid, Spain). A total of 32 manuscripts were finally accepted between 2019 and 2020, presented by top researchers from all over the world. The reader will find a well-representative set of current research and developments related to sensors and sensing for intelligent vehicles. The topics of the published manuscripts can be grouped into seven main categories: (1) assistance systems and automatic vehicle operation, (2) vehicle positioning and localization, (3) fault diagnosis and fail-x systems, (4) perception and scene understanding, (5) smart regenerative braking systems for electric vehicles, (6) driver behavior modeling and (7) intelligent sensing. We, the Guest Editors, hope that the readers will find this book to contain interesting papers for their research, papers that they will enjoy reading as much as we have enjoyed organizing this Special Issue

The cancer stem cell (CSC) paradigm represents one of the most prominent breakthroughs of the last decades in tumor biology. CSCs are that subpopulation within a tumor that can survive conventional therapies and as a consequence are able to fuel tumor recurrence. Nevertheless, the biological characteristics of CSCs and even their existence, remain the main topic among tumor biologists debates. The difficulty in achieving a better definition of CSC biology may actually be explained by the plasticity of such a cell subpopulation. Indeed, the emerging view is that CSCs represent a dynamic "state" of tumor cells that can acquire stemness-related properties under specific circumstances, rather than referring to a well-defined group of cells. Regardless of their origin, it is clear that designing novel antitumor treatments based on the eradication of CSCs will only be possible upon unraveling the biological mechanisms that underlie their pathogenic role in tumor progression and therapy resistance. The Special Issue on "New aspects of cancer stem cell biology: implications for innovative therapies" aims at highlighting recent insights into CSC features that can make them an attractive target for novel therapeutic strategies.

For a long time, the tight junction (TJ) was known to form and regulate the paracellular barrier between epithelia and endothelial cell sheets. Starting shortly after the discovery of the proteins forming the TJ-mainly the two families of claudins and TAMPs-several other functions have been discovered, a striking one being the surprising finding that some claudins form paracellular channels for small ions and/or water. This Special Issue includes 43 articles covering numerous dedicated topics including pathogens affecting the TJ barrier, TJ regulation via immune cells, the TJ as a therapeutic target, TJ and cell polarity, function and regulation by proteins of the tricellular TJ, TJ as a regulator of cellular processes, organ- and tissue-specific functions, TJ as sensors and reacting to environmental conditions, and last but not least, TJ proteins and cancer.

The food processing industries produce millions of tons of losses and waste during processing, which are becoming a grave economic, environmental, and nutritional problem. Fruit, vegetable, and food industrial solid waste include leaves, peels, pomace, skins, rinds pulp, stems, seeds, twigs, and spoiled fruits and vegetables, among other waste released in food production, which can be formed during cleaning, processing, cooking, and/or packaging. These wastes are characterized by being an important source of bioactive compounds, such as phenolic compounds, dietary fibers, polysaccharides, vitamins, carotenoids, pigments, and oils, among others. These bioactive compounds are closely associated with beneficial effects on human health. These by-products can be exploited in different industries: in food industries for the development of functional ingredients and/or new foods or natural additives; in pharmaceutical industries for medicinal, healthcare, or cosmetic products; in agricultural industries as fertilizers or animal feed; and in chemical industries, among others. The reutilization of these by-products will ensure the sustainable development of food industries and reduce their environmental impact, which will contribute to the fight against environmental problems, leading to potential mitigation of climatic change. Therefore, the determination of bioactive compound composition in agricultural and food waste and the production of extracts containing these compounds is the first step towards its reutilization.

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and still represents one of the global health threats to mankind. The World Health Organization estimated more than 10 million new cases and reported more than 1.5 million deaths in 2019, thus ranking TB among the main causes of death due to a single pathogen. Standard anti-TB therapy includes four first-line antibiotics that should be administered for at least six months. However, in the case of multi- and extensively drug-resistant TB, second-line medications must be used and these frequently cause severe side effects resulting in poor compliance. Developing new anti-TB drug candidates is therefore of outmost importance. In this Special Issue dedicated to Tuberculosis Drug Discovery and Development, we present the main and latest achievements in the fields of drug and target discovery, host-directed therapy, anti-virulence drugs, and describe the development of two advanced compounds: macozinone and delpazolid. In addition, this Special Issue provides an historical perspective focused on Carlo Forlanini, the inventor of pneumothorax for TB treatment, and includes an overview of the state-of-the-art technologies which are being exploited nowadays in TB drug development. Finally, a summary of TB vaccines that are either approved or undergoing clinical trials concludes the Special Issue.

The convergence of big data and geospatial computing has brought forth challenges and opportunities to Geographic Information Science with regard to geospatial data management, processing, analysis, modeling, and visualization. This book highlights recent advancements in integrating new computing approaches, spatial methods, and data management strategies to tackle geospatial big data challenges and meanwhile demonstrates opportunities for using big data for geospatial applications. Crucial to the advancements highlighted in this book is the integration of computational thinking and spatial thinking and the transformation of abstract ideas and models to concrete data structures and algorithms.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are new platforms that have been increasingly used in the last few years for forestry applications that benefit from the added value of flexibility, low cost, reliability, autonomy, and capability of timely provision of high-resolution data. The main adopted image-based technologies are RGB, multispectral, and thermal infrared. LiDAR sensors are becoming commonly used to improve the estimation of relevant plant traits. In comparison with other permanent ecosystems, forests are particularly affected by climatic changes due to the longevity of the trees, and the primary objective is the conservation and protection of forests. Nevertheless, forestry and agriculture involve the cultivation of renewable raw materials, with the difference that forestry is less tied to economic aspects and this is reflected by the delay in using new monitoring technologies. The main forestry applications are aimed toward inventory of resources, map diseases, species classification, fire monitoring, and spatial gap estimation. This Special Issue focuses on new technologies (UAV and sensors) and innovative data elaboration methodologies (object recognition and machine vision) for applications in forestry.

For a long time, the tight junction (TJ) was known to form and regulate the paracellular barrier between epithelia and endothelial cell sheets. Starting shortly after the discovery of the proteins forming the TJ-mainly the two families of claudins and TAMPs-several other functions have been discovered, a striking one being the surprising finding that some claudins form paracellular channels for small ions and/or water. This Special Issue includes 43 articles covering numerous dedicated topics including pathogens affecting the TJ barrier, TJ regulation via immune cells, the TJ as a therapeutic target, TJ and cell polarity, function and regulation by proteins of the tricellular TJ, TJ as a regulator of cellular processes, organ- and tissue-specific functions, TJ as sensors and reacting to environmental conditions, and last but not least, TJ proteins and cancer.

Coatings here provides a selection of 10 papers, published in 2019, from researchers and institutions based in various countries around the world (nine European, one American, and one Asian), allowing us to appreciate the variety and significance of ongoing research in the wide field of protective and functional coatings.