Introduction and Scope-During the last few decades, an enormous effort has been made to understand corrosion phenomena and their mechanisms, and to elucidate the causes that dramatically influence the service lifetime of metal materials. The performance of metal materials in aggressive environments is critical for a sustainable society. The failure of the material in service impacts the economy, the environment, health, and society. In this regard, corrosion-based economic losses due to maintenance, repair, and the replacement of existing structures and infrastructure account for up to 4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in well developed countries. One of the biggest issues in corrosion engineering is estimating service lifetime. Corrosion prediction has become very difficult, as there is no direct correlation with service lifetime and experimental lab results, usually as a result of discrepancies between accelerated testing and real corrosion processes. It is of major interest to forecast the impact of corrosion-based losses on society and the global economy, since existing structures and infrastructure are becoming old, and crucial decisions now need to be made to replace them. On the other hand, environmental protocols seek to reduce greenhouse effects. Therefore, low emission policies, in force, establish regulations for the next generation of materials and technologies. Advanced technologies and emergent materials will enable us to get through the next century. Great advances are currently in progress for the development of corrosion-resistant metal materials for different sectors, such as energy, transport, construction, and health. This Special Issue on the corrosion and protection of metals is focused on current trends in corrosion science, engineering, and technology, ranging from fundamental to applied research, thus covering subjects related to corrosion mechanisms and modelling, protection and inhibition processes, and mitigation strategies.
The aggregates used in construction are the natural resource consumed the most in the world after air and water. Due to overexploitation, all environmental laws reward the use of recycled materials to guarantee the reduction of consumption of natural aggregates. The use of reclaimed aggregates, reused aggregates, and recycled aggregates increases sustainability in construction activities. Today, they are strategic materials in the manufacturing of green concrete and mortars and as road construction eco-efficient materials. In addition, the use of recycled aggregates from industrial or mining byproducts presents great potential in construction activities as recycled aggregates and/or supplementary cementitious materials. This Special Issue is open to new experiences in construction materials and/or works made with recycled aggregates.
The introduction of metal AM processes in such industrial sectors as the aerospace, automotive, defense, jewelry, medical and tool-making fields, has led to a significant reduction in waste material and in the lead times of the components, innovative designs with higher strength, lower weight, and fewer potential failure points from joining features. This Special Issue on "Additive Manufacturing (AM) of Metallic Alloys" contains a mixture of review articles and original contributions on some problems that limit the wider uptake and exploitation of metals in AM.
Nitro chemistry plays an important role in organic synthesis to construct new frameworks. This is due to the diverse properties of the nitro group. The strong electron-withdrawing ability of the nitro group reduces the electron density of the scaffold, facilitating reactions with nucleophiles or electron transfer. In addition, the -hydrogen of the nitro group is highly acidic, giving a stable anion, which facilitates reactions with both electrophilic and nucleophilic reagents. In addition, the nitro group also serves as a good leaving group, which facilitates transformation to a wide variety of functional groups. Despite the substantial contributions of many researchers, nitro chemistry is still an exciting and challenging research area. This book brings together recent original research and review articles contributed by an international team of leading experts and pioneers in organic synthesis using nitro groups. It is sure to provide useful information and promising insights for researchers.
There has been much speculation about a possible antibiotic Armageddon; this would be the result of having untreatable post-operative infections, and similarly untreatable complications after chemotherapy. The now famous "O''Neill Report" (https://amr-review.org/) suggests that more people could die from resistant bacterial infections by 2050 than from cancer. We are still learning about all the subtle drivers of antibiotic resistance, and realizing that we need a single "whole of health" co-ordinated policy. We ingest what we sometimes feed to animals. There do not seem to be any new classes of antibiotics on our horizon. Perhaps something that has been around "forever" will come to our rescue-bacteriophages! Nevertheless, we have to do things differently, use antibiotics appropriately, for the correct indication, for the correct duration and with the correct dose, and with that, practice good antibiotic stewardship. Whilst by no means comprehensive, this book does cover some of the many topics of antibiotic stewardship. It also addresses some of the older antibiotics, some new combinations, and even some new agents. Last, and by no means least, there are two excellent articles on bacteriophages.
Neurocomparative music and language research has seen major advances over the past two decades. The goal of this Special Issue on "Advances in the Neurocognition of Music and Language" was to showcase the multiple neural analogies between musical and linguistic information processing, their entwined organization in human perception and cognition, and to infer the applicability of the combined knowledge in pedagogy and therapy. Here, we summarize the main insights provided by the contributions and integrate them into current frameworks of rhythm processing, neuronal entrainment, predictive coding, and cognitive control.
The Mediterranean basin is the main area both for the cultivation of durum wheat and for the consumption of derived food products such as pasta, couscous, and bulgur. The ongoing climate changes and new consumer preferences make the selection of genetic materials suitable for the present scenarios particularly difficult. This Special Issue Book covers several aspects of the genetic improvement of durum wheat, collected in seven chapters including two review papers focused on milestones in durum wheat breeding programs across the countries of the Mediterranean basin and sub-Saharan Africa. Water deficit and heat stress occurring during the reproductive stage of wheat have a detrimental effect on yield and grain quality of durum wheat. The papers included in this Special Issue propose selection strategies for traits associated with yield and grain quality (e.g., root architecture, carbon isotope composition of grain, and gluten quality) under natural or artificial environmental conditions of drought, heat, and nutrient stress. This Special Issue presents new breeding opportunities for selecting modern varieties adapted to climate change and expanding durum wheat production.
This special issue brings together cutting edge research and insightful commentary on the currentl state of the Cancer Nanomedicine field.
This Special Issue "Consumer Preferences and Acceptance of Meat Products" demonstrates that the value of different palatability traits has evolved over time. Moreover, consumer acceptance and preference are not solely determined by the inputs of the meat itself, but can also be influenced by various demographic factors. In addition, consumers'' views of meat products vary regionally and by species.
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease leading to joint inflammation and destruction. Treatment of RA includes the use of conventional (cs), biologic (b) disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), and oral or intraarticular (IA) glucocorticoids (GCs). All different classes of drugs have shown to halt disease progression in clinical studies. In real life, a physician has more options than just adding or switching to a new ts/bDMARD if any kind of DMARDs has failed. They can modify or optimize the therapy with concomitant csDMARDs, and oral or IA-GC can be added to the treatment regimen. The EULAR states that therapeutic adjustment including the "optimization of csDMARDs dose or route of administration or intra-articular injections of GCs" is recommended. Thus, a new therapeutic agent can be embedded in a whole strategy with parallel optimization of the csDMARD and GC treatment. The idea of treating to target (T2T) for the treatment of RA patients has been around since the late 1990s. Many clinical studies (Ticora, BsSt, Camera) have demonstrated the superiority of a T2T approach. When I talk to physicians, I understand that most of them only rarely inject joints with GC. Therefore, I would like to create an issue on the T2T approach in reality including primary data, reviews, and real-life data demonstrating the general opinion and execution of T2T in treating RA.
This book summarizes the importance of peptide-membrane interactions, mostly aiming at developing new therapeutic approaches. The experimental and computational methodologies used to investigate such interactions reveal the evolution of existing biophysical methodologies, shedding some light on potential applications of peptides, as well as on the improvement of their design. Understanding the determinants for peptide-membrane interactions may also improve the knowledge of membrane functions such as the membrane transport, fusion, and signaling processes, contributing to the development of new agents for highly relevant applications ranging from disease treatment to food technology.
This book presents contributions from scientists who are directly involved in the potential of marine enzymes as useful tools in biocatalysis; the results of enzymatic bioprospecting in gross marine environments are acknowledged, including two review articles on general enzymatic processes and microalgal enzymes. In addition, studies on structural characterizations, biological functions and aspects related to the complexity of marine enzyme-based bioprocesses are discussed. Prominent conclusions by many scientists in the field of marine biotechnology emphasize that, due to marine biological diversity and the specificity of biological marine metabolisms, the study of biocatalysts on a global scale from this environment is just starting, and possesses huge potential for the development of applications with industrial benefits.
Plants are continuously exposed to different environmental stress conditions that have a huge impact on agriculture worldwide, consequently leading to massive economic losses. These adverse conditions alter the metabolism of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS and RNS). High concentrations of these reactive species-that exceed the capacity of antioxidant defense enzymes-disturb redox homeostasis, which can trigger damage to such macromolecules as membrane lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids, ultimately resulting in nitro-oxidative stress and plant cell death. Significant progress has been made to understand how plants persist in these stressful environments which could be vital to improving plant crop yield. This Special Issue "Oxidative Stress in Plants" includes both original research articles and detailed reviews that aim to better understand the nitro-oxidative stress networks in higher plants, and the addressed topics provide updated and new knowledge about ROS and RNS metabolism in plant responses to abiotic stress as well as the modulation of antioxidant systems in the control of ROS production and accumulation.
Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, and was accountable for an estimated 9.6 million deaths in 2018. Nowadays, about 1 in 6 deaths in the world is due to cancer. Another major global public health issue is HIV. Over 70 million people have been infected with the HIV virus and about 35 million people have died of HIV-related illness, since the start of the epidemic. We have been fighting against these two serious diseases by finding successful treatments. The discovery of effective drugs is important for fighting cancer and HIV. Natural products, which are secondary metabolites produced by various living organisms, have been playing a principal role in drug discovery and developments, because of their structural and biological diversity. Many clinically used drugs have come from natural products; for example, more than 60% of anticancer drugs currently in clinical use are derived from natural sources. This Special Issue aims to collect original research and review articles focusing on notable and recent contributions to the discovery and development of novel anticancer and anti-HIV drug candidates from natural sources. Up-to-date knowledge from various research fields is welcome. This could be of great interest for scientists working in different research areas, such as natural product chemistry, including isolation and structural elucidation; phytochemistry; medicinal chemistry, including chemically modified natural compounds with improved biological activity; pharmacology; molecular biology; mechanisms of action study using natural products or related compounds; pharmacognosy, etc. Biological studies of natural extracts without an appropriate chemical characterization may not be considered.
Process monitoring and control are fundamental to all processes; this holds especially for bioprocesses, due to their complex nature. Usually, bioprocesses deal with living cells, which have their own regulatory systems. It helps to adjust the cell to its environmental condition. This must not be the optimal condition that the cell needs to produce whatever is desired. Therefore, a close monitoring of the cell and its environment is essential to provide optimal conditions for production. Without measurement, no information of the current process state is obtained. In this book, methods and techniques are provided for the monitoring and control of bioprocesses. From new developments for sensors, the application of spectroscopy and modelling approaches, the estimation and observer implementation for ethanol production and the development and scale-up of various bioprocesses and their closed loop control information are presented. The processes discussed here are very diverse. The major applications are cultivation processes, where microorganisms were grown, but also an incubation process of bird''s eggs, as well as an indoor climate control for humans, will be discussed. Altogether, in 12 chapters, nine original research papers and three reviews are presented.
In recent decades, the development of ensemble learning methodologies has gained a significant attention from the scientific and industrial community, and found their application in various real-word problems. Theoretical and experimental evidence proved that ensemble models provide a considerably better prediction performance than single models. The main aim of this collection is to present the recent advances related to ensemble learning algorithms and investigate the impact of their application in a diversity of real-world problems. All papers possess significant elements of novelty and introduce interesting ensemble-based approaches, which provide readers with a glimpse of the state-of-the-art research in the domain.
The success of any activity and process depends fundamentally on the possibility of balancing (symmetry) needs and their satisfaction. That is, the ability to properly define a set of success indicators. The application of the developed new multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods can be eliminated or decreased by decision-makers'' subjectivity, which leads to consistency or symmetry in the weight values of the criteria. In this Special Issue, 40 research papers and one review study co-authored by 137 researchers from 23 different countries explore aspects of multi-criteria modeling and optimization in crisp or uncertain environments. The papers propose new approaches and elaborate case studies in the following areas of application: MCDM optimization in sustainable engineering, environmental sustainability in engineering processes, sustainable multi-criteria production and logistics processes planning, integrated approaches for modeling processes in engineering, new trends in the multi-criteria evaluation of sustainable processes, and multi-criteria decision-making in strategic management based on sustainable criteria.
This book entitled Marine Algal Antioxidants, as a special issue of the Antioxidants journal, encloses eleven scientific articles with a preface written by the two editors, Christophe Brunet and Clementina Sansone. Marine Algal Antioxidants book reports advances of the research on marine photosynthetic organisms for the growth of biotechnological pipelines aimed to enhance antioxidant molecules production by algae. More than twenty scientists share the results of their research and highlight the relevance of algae for developing marine biotechnology products to flourish the requirements of nutraceuticals or cosmeceuticals in the defense of human health. Multidisciplinarity of the scientific approaches presented in this book - such as physiological, molecular, chemistry, technical or technological methodologies - lays the foundation for harmonizing the links between them towards the unique goal of the improvement of marine algal factory processes.
The success of any activity and process depends fundamentally on the possibility of balancing (symmetry) needs and their satisfaction. That is, the ability to properly define a set of success indicators. The application of the developed new multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods can be eliminated or decreased by decision-makers'' subjectivity, which leads to consistency or symmetry in the weight values of the criteria. In this Special Issue, 40 research papers and one review study co-authored by 137 researchers from 23 different countries explore aspects of multi-criteria modeling and optimization in crisp or uncertain environments. The papers propose new approaches and elaborate case studies in the following areas of application: MCDM optimization in sustainable engineering, environmental sustainability in engineering processes, sustainable multi-criteria production and logistics processes planning, integrated approaches for modeling processes in engineering, new trends in the multi-criteria evaluation of sustainable processes, and multi-criteria decision-making in strategic management based on sustainable criteria.
Heat-transfer equipment, typically represented by, for example, heat exchangers, process furnaces, and steam boilers, is among the essential equipment used for production processes in a number of industries (e.g., chemical and petrochemical, food, pharmaceutical, power, aviation and space) as well as for processes and applications in the communal sphere (e.g., waste incineration plants, heating plants, laundries, hospitals, server rooms, agriculture applications). Increasing demands for economical and efficient heat energy management can only be met when not only the layout of the whole system but also the individual heat-transfer equipment and its details are designed according to state-of-the-art knowledge. The purpose of this Special Issue is to present the latest advances in designing, modeling, testing, and operating heat-transfer equipment, including unconventional and innovative designs of heat-transfer equipment and their applications.
Nature represents an amazing source of inspiration, since it produces a great diversity of natural compounds selected by evolution, which exhibit multiple biological activities and applications. A large and very active research field is dedicated to identifying biosynthesized compounds, to improve/develop new methodologies, to produce/reuse natural compounds, and to assess their potential for pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries, among others, and additionally, to understand their mechanism of action. This book is dedicated to presenting the most recent results on the development of natural compounds'' applications. Ten original research works, organized by applications, and two reviews are included. Each of them contributes to the knowledge advance, insofar as they present new applications for known products, new methodologies to obtain new products, or the evaluation of a given application, with the applications related to health promotion being the most frequently considered. These works are significant contributions and reinforce the dynamic field of natural products'' applications.
The economical and efficient recovery of waste heat produced by industrial processes (such as chemical and petrochemical, food, pharmaceutical, energetics) and processes and applications in the municipal sphere (such as waste incinerators, heating plants, laundries, hospitals, server rooms) are priorities and challenges. This Special Issue focuses on heat exchangers as key and essential equipment for the practical realization of these challenges. The purpose of this Special Issue is to outline the latest insights and innovative and/or enhanced solutions from the design, production, operation, and maintenance points of view of heat exchangers in different applications of effective waste heat utilization.
It is now recognized that workplace aspects (scheduling, shift work, physically demanding work, chemical exposure) not only increase the risk of injury and illness, but also impact health behaviors (smoking, physical activity) and health outcomes (sleep disorders and fatigue, obesity, musculoskeletal disorders). In turn, ill health and chronic conditions can affect performance at work, increasing risk for injury, absenteeism, and reduced productivity. In the past few decades, programs that expand the traditional focus of occupational safety and health to consider nontraditional work-related sources of health and well-being have been shown to be more effective than programs that separately address these issues. This Total Worker Health approach has been recognized by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) as a method for protecting the safety and health of workers, while also advancing the overall well-being of these workers by addressing work conditions. This compendium presents work from an international collection of scholars exploring the relationship between workplace factors and worker safety, health, and well-being. It provides guidance for improving the organization and design of work environments, innovative strategies for promoting worker well-being, and novel methods for exposing underlying occupational causes of chronic disease.
This Special Edition Issue on the "Pathogenesis and Treatment of Chronic Pruritus" contains an overview of various known causes of chronic pruritus and emerging therapeutics. Chronic pruritus is an itch that lasts longer than six weeks, and is associated with a variety of dermatologic, systemic, neurologic, and psychiatric etiologies. Itch negatively impacts patient quality of life, and has devastating psychosocial consequences. The manuscripts published in this Special Issue are also a showcase of the current understanding of the pathogenesis of chronic pruritus, along with its epidemiology, diagnostic workup, and therapeutic approaches used to treat chronic pruritus. A special focus is also placed on prurigo nodularis, a severely pruritic chronic inflammatory skin disease.
This Special Issue deals with the theory and applications of differential and difference equations, and includes papers for different branches of differential equations, such as - Boundary Value Problems for Fractional Differential Equations and Inclusions - Spectral Theory for Fractional Differential Equations - Generalized Abel''s Integral Equations - Oscillation Results for Higher Order Differential Equations - Stability of Equilibria under Stochastic Perturbations - Harmonic Functions - Coincidence Continuation Theory for Multivalued Maps - Generalized Briot-Bouquet Differential Equation - Nonlocal Inverse Problem - Lyapunov Type Theorems for Exponential Stability - Fuzzy Functions on Time Scales - Modified Helmholtz Equation on a Regular Hexagon
The progress in the area of nanotechnology has opened the door for the fabrication of soft, biological, and composite nanomaterials for targeted applications. Nanomaterials are known to enhance the properties and functionality of composite materials several fold. The properties for the desired applications can often be achieved by the addition of small amounts of nanomaterials into soft materials such as polymers, gels, and biomaterials. This book condenses investigations by scientific groups from highly diverse research fields, which will be beneficial for the wider scientific community.
The optimization of motion and trajectory planning is an effective and usually costless approach to improving the performance of robots, mechatronic systems, automatic machines and multibody systems. Indeed, wise planning increases precision and machine productivity, while reducing vibrations, motion time, actuation effort and energy consumption. On the other hand, the availability of optimized methods for motion planning allows for a cheaper and lighter system construction. The issue of motion planning is also tightly linked with the synthesis of high-performance feedback and feedforward control schemes, which can either enhance the effectiveness of motion planning or compensate for its gaps. To collect and disseminate a meaningful collection of these applications, this book proposes 15 novel research studies that cover different sub-areas, in the framework of motion planning and control.
This is a collection of 18 papers, two of which are reviews and seven are invited feature papers, that together form the Photonics Special Issue "Semiconductor Laser Dynamics: Fundamentals and Applications", published in 2020. This collection is edited by Daan Lenstra, an internationally recognized specialist in the field for 40 years.
This special issue brings together cutting edge research and insightful commentary on the currentl state of the Cancer Nanomedicine field.
Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are members of an enzyme family and are critical for maintaining tissue allostasis. MMPs can catalyze normal turnover of the extracellular matrix (ECM) together with other metalloproteinases such as ADAM (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase) and ADAMTS (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motif) families. MMP activity is also regulated by a group of endogenous proteins called tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMPs). All these proteins have a pivotal role involving ECM remodelling in normal physiological processes such as wound healing, embryogenesis, angiogenesis, bone remodelling, immunity, and the female reproductive cycle. An imbalance in the expression or activity of MMPs can also have important consequences in diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, chronic leg ulcers, and multiple sclerosis. In recent years, MMPs have been found to play an important role in the field of precision medicine, as they may serve as biomarkers that may predict an individual''s disease predisposition, state, or progression. MMPs are also thought to be a sensible target for molecular therapy. The aim of this Special Issue is to explore the most recent findings in this field that may have an impact in healthcare systems.
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