Böcker utgivna av Mdpi AG

Concerns relating to energy supply and climate change have driven renewable energy targets around the world. Marine renewable energy could make a significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating the consequences of climate change, while providing a high-technology industry. The conversion of wave and tidal energy into electricity has many advantages. Individual tidal and wave energy devices have been installed and proven, with commercial arrays planned throughout the world. The wave and tidal energy industry has developed rapidly in the past few years; therefore, it seems timely to review current research and map future challenges. Methods to improve understanding of the resource and interactions (between energy extraction, the resource and the environment) are considered, such as resource characterisation (including electricity output), design considerations (e.g., extreme and fatigue loadings) and environmental impacts, at all timescales (ranging from turbulence to decadal) and all spatial scales (from device and array scales to shelf sea scales).

Today, there is a great deal of attention focused on sustainable growth worldwide. The increase in efficiency in the use of energy may even, in this historical moment, bring greater benefit than the use of renewable energies. Electricity appears to be the most sustainable of energies and the most promising hope for a planet capable of growing without compromising its own health and that of its inhabitants. Power electronics and electrical drives are the key technologies that will allow energy savings through the reduction of energy losses in many applications. This Special Issue has collected several scientific contributions related to energy efficiency in electrical equipment. Some articles are dedicated to the use and optimization of permanent magnet motors, which allow obtaining the highest level of efficiency. Most of the contributions describe the energy improvements that can be achieved with power electronics and the use of suitable control techniques. Last but not least, some articles describe interesting solutions for hybrid vehicles, which were created mainly to save energy in the smartest way possible.

Open data and policy implications coming from data-aware planning entail collection and pre- and postprocessing as operations of primary interest. Before these steps, making data available to people and their decision-makers is a crucial point. Referring to the relationship between data and energy, public administrations, governments, and research bodies are promoting the construction of reliable and robust datasets to pursue policies coherent with the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as to allow citizens to make informed choices. Energy engineers and planners must provide the simplest and most robust tools to collect, process, and analyze data in order to offer solid data-based evidence for future projections in building, district, and regional systems planning. This Special Issue aims at providing the state-of-the-art on open-energy data analytics; its availability in the different contexts, i.e., country peculiarities; and its availability at different scales, i.e., building, district, and regional for data-aware planning and policy-making. For all the aforementioned reasons, we encourage researchers to share their original works on the field of open data and energy analytics. Topics of primary interest include but are not limited to the following: 1.Open data and energy sustainability; 2.Open data science and energy planning; 3.Open science and open governance for sustainable development goals; 4.Key performance indicators of data-aware energy modelling, planning, and policy; 5.Energy, water, and sustainability database for building, district, and regional systems; 6.Best practices and case studies.

Many biodegradation pathways, both aerobic and anaerobic, have already been characterised, and the phylogenetic relationships among catabolic genes within them have been studied. However, new biodegradation activities and their coding genes are continuously being reported, including those involved in the catabolism of emerging contaminants and those generally regarded as non-biodegradable. Gene regulation is also an important issue for the efficient biodegradation of contaminants. Specific induction by the substrate and over-imposed global regulatory networks adjust the expression of the biodegradation genes to meet bacterial physiological needs. New biodegradation pathways can be assembled in a particular strain or in a bacterial consortium by recruiting biodegradation genes from different origins through horizontal gene transfer. The abundance and diversity of biodegradation genes, analysed by either genomic or metagenomic approaches, constitute valuable indicators of the biodegradation potential of a particular environmental niche. This knowledge paves the way to systems metabolic engineering approaches to valorise biowaste for the production of value-added products.

The new frontier of pharmaceutical sciences is gene therapy, which is the use of molecules able to interact directly with the expression of the genetic material of the patient as well as of the disease-causing guest (bacteria, virus, parasites, and tumor cells). Among the molecules of interest for gene therapy, a relevant role is played by small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules able to interfere with the expression of genes of interest for some diseases. However, siRNA molecules, even if they are powerful as drugs, are difficult to deliver since they are sensitive to enzymes present in plasma and they are large and negatively charged, so are difficult to administer into the cell nuclei, since the cell walls are scarcely permeable to large molecules and are also negatively charged. Therefore, the focus of research on siRNA-based therapies is their delivery, which can be performed by chemical modification, association with aptamers or polycations, or embedding them into properly designed liposomes. This book is centered on the more recent development in siRNA delivery techniques toward the clinical applications of this potent class of drugs.

Grains are fundamental in the daily diet of many people worldwide. They are used for the production of popular foods, such as bread, bakery products, breakfast cereals, pasta, couscous, bulgur, snacks, etc. Botanically, they are the seeds of plants-mainly cereals, pseudocereals and legumes. They contribute macronutrients to the human diet, mainly carbohydrates, but also proteins and lipids, and micronutrients, such as vitamins and minerals. They are also an important source of dietary fibre and bioactives, particularly wholegrains, which are important for the manufacture of high-value foods with enhanced health benefits. They can be used for the production of gluten-containing but also gluten-free products. A key objective of the food industry in producing grain-based foods is to manufacture safe, attractive products with enhanced nutritional value, to respond to consumer expectations. This book, Nutritional Value of Grain-Based Foods, contributes to existing knowledge on important ingredients such as fat substitutes and on the technological quality and nutritional role of grains and grain-based foods, such as bread, muffins and muesli bars, both gluten-containing and gluten-free.

Cake products with highly acceptable flavor and mouthfeel are not always successful in the marketplace. Sales of identical cake products sold in two different bakery shops often differ. Patrons'' choices of specific cake items differ depending on menu designs at restaurants. Such examples suggest that consumer behavior related to eating, preparing, or purchasing foods and beverages is typically complex, dynamic, and sensitive to environmental cues surrounding them. The nine original research articles and two systematic review articles addressed in this book provide recent informative and insightful findings on how sensory cues related to eating/drinking environmental contexts can serve as "sensory nudges" that induce healthy eating and drinking along with consumer satisfaction.

The dynamic development of global industry and growing demand for new material technologies generate constantly increasing problems regarding premature material degradation and the requirement to determine corrosion mechanisms and to develop new protection/evaluation approaches. Corrosion resistance depends on numerous determinants, such as material structure, chemistry, and complex environmental factors. It is highly challenging to obtain consensus between high corrosion resistance and an economic approach. On the other hand, inadequate levels of corrosion control create serious hazards to life and the environment. This Special Issue, "Recent Advances in Corrosion Science", brings together fourteen articles and one review, providing a snapshot of the recent activity and development in this field. The book contains studies related to the development of new corrosion-resistant alloys and the determination of microstructure-dependent properties; it also provides an insight into recent approaches towards anticorrosion technologies, such as corrosion inhibitors and composite and metal protective coatings.

Plasmonics and metamaterials are growing fields that consistently produce new technologies for controlling electromagnetic waves. Many important advances in both fundamental knowledge and practical applications have been achieved in conjunction with a wide range of materials, structures and wavelengths, from the ultraviolet to the microwave regions of the spectrum. In addition to this remarkable progress across many different fields, much of this research shares many of the same underlying principles, and therefore, significant synergy is expected. This Special Issue introduces the recent advances in plasmonics and metamaterials and discusses various applications, while addressing a wide range of topics, in order to explore the new horizons emerging for such research.

The number of males diagnosed with prostate cancer (PCa) is increasing all over the world. Most patients with early-stage PCa can be treated with appropriate therapy, such as radical prostatectomy or irradiation. On the other hand, androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is the standard systemic therapy given to patients with advanced PCa. ADT induces temporary remission, but the majority of patients (approximately 60%) eventually progress to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), which is associated with a high mortality rate. Generally, well-differentiated PCa cells are androgen dependent, i.e., androgen receptor (AR) signalling regulates cell cycle and differentiation. The loss of AR signalling after ADT triggers androgen-independent outgrowth, generating poorly differentiated, uncontrollable PCa cells. Once PCa cells lose their sensitivity to ADT, effective therapies are limited. In the last few years, however, several new options for the treatment of CRPC have been approved, e.g., the CYP17 inhibitor, the AR antagonist, and the taxane. Despite this progress in the development of new drugs, there is a high medical need for optimizing the sequence and combination of approved drugs. Thus, the identification of predictive biomarkers may help in the context of personalized medicine to guide treatment decisions, improve clinical outcomes, and prevent unnecessary side effects. In this Special Issue Book, we focused on the cytobiology of human PCa cells and its clinical applications to develop a major step towards personalized medicine matched to the individual needs of patients with early-stage and advanced PCa and CRPC. We hope that this Special Issue Book attracts the attention of readers with expertise and interest in the cytobiology of PCa cells.

REDD+ represents countries'' efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and foster conservation, the sustainable management of forests, and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks. The basic idea is that more carbon can be sequestrated and stocked in tropical forests by improving their conservation, management, and sustainable use, thus contributing to mitigating climate change. The developing countries and relevant stakeholders concerned will be financially compensated for these endeavors, either through public funds or private carbon markets. Given this context, this book will address the need to assess the political and socio-economic dimensions of the performance of REDD+, which is relevant to policy-makers, practitioners, and scholars. This implies taking into account the various levels (from global to local) and dimensions (e.g., results-based payments, MRV, co-benefits, and community engagement), as well as divergent (disciplinary) connotations, of performance. We, therefore, pose the following question: What does performance mean? In answering this question, we provide examples of assessments of performance. We present 9 cases of how REDD has performed on local, national and international scales, and reflect on the representativeness of these examples and their limitations when looking at the current range of REDD initiatives, along with what is missing in terms of evaluating the performance of REDD+. We conclude by establishing why performance assessment remains so relevant today.

Carbon-based nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes, graphene and its derivatives, nanodiamond, fullerenes, and other nano-sized carbon allotropes have recently attracted a lot of attention among the scientific community due to their enormous potential for a wide number of applications arising from their large specific surface area, high electrical and thermal conductivity, and good mechanical properties.  The combination of carbon nanomaterials with polymers leads to new nanocomposites with improved structural and functional properties due to synergistic effects. In particular, the properties of carbon-based polymer nanocomposites can be easily tuned by carefully controlling the carbon nanomaterial synthesis route and additionally the versatile synergistic interactions amongst the nanomaterials and polymers. This book provides selected examples of the most recent advances regarding carbon nanomaterial-reinforced polymeric composites. It includes the most representative types of polymeric matrices and covers aspects of new processing techniques, novel surface modifications of carbon nanomaterials and their applications in diverse fields, in particular in electronics and energy storage.

The multiverse is a concept that acknowledges the existence of a multiplicity of worlds or universes. The designs of these universes do not have to be the same as our universe, but we have no clear view of what the "other" designs might be. It is suspected that they can obey different laws of physics and different constants of physics, which further implies different chemistry, biology, and life. Some say that the universes within the multiverse allow for different mathematics or even for different metamathematical logic.This book discusses most of the above aspects of the multiverse concept starting with the philosophy, through all the mathematical and physical subtleties, finally exploring the origin of life and consciousness. This book provides a satisfying intellectual exploration of front-edge advances in contemporary cosmology.

Recent research in the fields related to the quantum information theory (QIT) is becoming some of the most intriguing and promising investigations in contemporary physics. Many novel QIT concepts are discussed in the literature, and the broad range of new models of quantum optics and solid-state physics have been recently considered in the context of QIT. Theideas of symmetry are widely discussed in all physical sciences, becoming keystones of various concepts and considerations, leading to novel discoveries in physics. Thus, this Special Issue is devoted to the broad range of QIT topics that are related to the ideas of symmetry. It covers a broad range of ideas that can develop upon the basic research and applications in the field of quantum information, and in general, quantum theory.

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have had a profound impact on a wide range of applications. The degree of miniaturization made possible by MEMS technology has significantly improved the functionalities of many systems, and the performance of MEMS has steadily improved as its uses augment. Notably, MEMS sensors have been prevalent in motion sensing applications for decades, and the sensing mechanisms leveraged by MEMS have been continuously extended to applications spanning the detection of gases, magnetic fields, electromagnetic radiation, and more. In parallel, MEMS resonators have become an emerging field of MEMS and affected subfields such as electronic timing and filtering, and energy harvesting. They have, in addition, enabled a wide range of resonant sensors. For many years now, MEMS have been the basis of various industrial successes, often building on novel academic research. Accordingly, this Special Issue explores many research innovations in MEMS sensors and resonators, from biomedical applications to energy harvesting, gas sensing, resonant sensing, and timing.

The use of the energy and its resources have changed dramatically in last few decades. The increasing use of technology and electrification increases the demand for energy, with impacts natural energy resources. At present, industries are trying to reduce the direct use of traditional energy by utilizing renewable energy as an alternative energy resource. Recent studies have attempted to optimize consumed energies for entire systems by using alternative energies. These alternatives are different kinds of renewable energies which provide numerous new possibilities to survive without using non-renewable energies. The production industry is moving toward smart production using the technology of the fourth industrial revolution. In this book, energy consumption for production and supply chain management are explained through presentation of some the latest major research advances. These studies collectively contribute new ideas and strategies in enriching the literature.

The most important environmental challenge today's society is facing is to reduce the effects of CO2 emissions and global warming. Such an ambitious challenge can only be achieved through a holistic approach, capable of tackling the problem from a multidisciplinary point of view. One of the core technologies called to play a critical role in this approach is the use of energy storage systems. These systems enable, among other things, the balancing of the stochastic behavior of Renewable Sources and Distributed Generation in modern Energy Systems; the efficient supply of industrial and consumer loads; the development of efficient and clean transport; and the development of Nearly-Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB) and intelligent cities. Hybrid Energy Storage Systems (HESS) consist of two (or more) storage devices with complementary key characteristics, that are able to behave jointly with better performance than any of the technologies considered individually. Recent developments in storage device technologies, interface systems, control and monitoring techniques, or visualization and information technologies have driven the implementation of HESS in many industrial, commercial and domestic applications. This Special Issue focuses on the analysis, design and implementation of hybrid energy storage systems across a broad spectrum, encompassing different storage technologies (including electrochemical, capacitive, mechanical or mechanical storage devices), engineering branches (power electronics and control strategies; energy engineering; energy engineering; chemistry; modelling, simulation and emulation techniques; data analysis and algorithms; social and economic analysis; intelligent and Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems; and so on.), applications (energy systems, renewable energy generation, industrial applications, transportation, Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) and critical load supply, etc.) and evaluation and performance (size and weight benefits, efficiency and power loss, economic analysis, environmental costs, etc.).

The need for energy is increasing and but the production from conventional reservoirs is declining quickly. This requires an economically and technically feasible source of energy for the coming years. Among some alternative future energy solutions, the most reasonable source is from unconventional reservoirs. As the name “unconventional” implies, different and challenging approaches are required to characterize and develop these resources. This Special Issue covers some of the technical challenges for developing unconventional energy sources from shale gas/oil, tight gas sand, and coalbed methane.

Coastal areas are remarkable regions with high spatiotemporal variability. A large population is affected by their physical and biological processes-resulting from effects on tourism to biodiversity and productivity. Coastal ecosystems perform several critical ecosystem services and functions, such as water oxygenation and nutrients provision, seafloor and beach stabilization (as sediment is controlled and trapped within the rhizomes of the seagrass meadows), carbon burial, as areas for nursery, and as refuge for several commercial and endemic species. Knowledge of the spatial distribution of marine habitats is prerequisite information for the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources. Remote sensing from UAVs to spaceborne sensors is offering a unique opportunity to measure, analyze, quantify, map, and explore the processes on the coastal areas at high temporal frequencies. This Special Issue on "Application of Remote Sensing in Coastal Areas" is specifically addresses those successful applications-from local to regional scale-in coastal environments related to ecosystem productivity, biodiversity, sea level rise.

This book is about supramolecular gold chemistry. This book provides a unique international forum aimed at covering a broad description of results involving the supramolecular chemistry of gold with a special focus on the gold-sulfur interface leading to hybrid materials ranging from gold-thiolate complexes to thiolate-protected gold nanoclusters and gold-thiolate supramolecular assemblies or nanoparticles. The role of thiolates on the structure and optical features of gold nanohybrid systems (ranging from plasmonic gold nanoparticles and fluorescent gold nanoclusters to self-assembled Au-containing thiolated coordination polymers) is highlighted in the 12 papers presented in this book.

The sensation of flavor reflects the complex integration of aroma, taste, texture, and chemesthetic (oral and nasal irritation cues) from a food or food component. Flavor is a major determinant of food palatability-the extent to which a food is accepted or rejected-and can profoundly influence diet selection, nutrition, and health. Despite recent progress, gaps in knowledge still remain regarding how taste and flavor cues are detected at the periphery, conveyed by the brainstem to higher cortical levels, and then interpreted as a conscious sensation. Taste signals are also projected to central feeding centers where they can regulate hunger and fullness. Individual differences in sensory perceptions are also well known and can arise from genetic variation, environmental causes, or a variety of metabolic diseases, such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, and cancer. Genetic taste/smell variation could predispose individuals to these same diseases. Recent findings have opened new avenues of inquiry, suggesting that fatty acids and carbohydrates may provide nutrient-specific signals informing the gut and brain of the nature of the ingested nutrients. This Special Issue, Taste, Nutrition, and Health, presents original research communications and comprehensive reviews on topics of broad interest to researchers and educators in sensory science, nutrition, physiology, public health, and health care.

This book is a collection of papers published in the Special Issue of Pharmaceutics, entitled "Pharmaceutical Particulates and Membranes for Delivery of Drugs and Bioactive Molecules". A drug release profile is a consequential factor for nanoparticle application, directly related to drug stability and therapeutic results, as well as formulation development. Pharmaceutical particulates of different sizes and shapes (e.g., liposomes, oil-in-water emulsions, polymeric nano- and microspheres, metallic nanoparticles (NPs) such as gold, silver and iron oxide crystals, and core-shell hybrid NPs) offer many diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Membranes are also extensively utilized in many applications. They are especially beneficial to the distribution of macromolecular drugs and biopharmaceutical drugs (peptides, proteins, antibodies, oligonucleotides, plasmids, and viruses) with physicochemical and pharmacokinetic vulnerability. The delivery of drugs and bioactive molecules using particulates and membranes has gained a great deal of attention for various applications, such as the treatment of secondary infections, cancer treatment, skin regeneration, orthopaedic applications, and antimicrobial drug delivery. In addition, several production techniques have been utilized for the fabrication of particulates and membranes in the last decade, which include lyophilisation, micro-emulsion, nano-spray dryer, nano-electrospinning, slip casting and 3D printers. Therefore, pharmaceutical particulates and membranes possess excellent prospects to deliver drugs and bioactive molecules with the potential to improve new delivery strategies like sustained and controlled release. This book deals with the following topics: (1) particulate preparation techniques (nano- to micron-scale particulates), (2) membranes fabrication techniques (e.g., nano-electro spinner, slip casting, and 3D printers), (3) in vitro and in vivo studies of pharmaceutical particulates or membranes, and (4) modelling and optimization of drug release from pharmaceutical particulates or membranes

This book illustrates the exciting possibilities being opened up by X-ray computed tomography (CT) to follow the behavior of materials under conditions as close as possible to those encountered during their manufacture or in operation.The scientific chapters selected for this book describe results obtained using synchrotron or laboratory devices during in situ or ex situ experiments. They characterize microstructures across length scales ranging from tens of nanometers to a few tens of micrometers.In this collection, X-ray CT shines a light on the mechanical properties of engineering materials, such as aluminum or magnesium alloys, stainless steel, aluminum, polymer composites, or ceramic foam. In these experiments, X-ray CT is able to image and quantify the damage occurring during tensile, compression, indentation, or fatigue tests.Of course, X-ray CT can illuminate the structure and behavior of natural materials too. Here it is applied to bone or natural snow to study their mechanical behavior, as well as materials from the agri-food sector. Its versatility is exemplified by analyses of topics as diverse as the removal of olive oil from kitchen sponges by squeezing and rinsing, to the effect of temperature changes on the structure of ice cream.Some chapters focus on changes occurring over time, at different temperatures, humidity levels, pressure, as in the case of heat treatments of aluminum alloy, concrete ageing, or ceramic foaming processes.In response to the challenges of climate change, research activities on batteries have intensified. The non-destructive and three-dimensional nature of X-ray CT have made it a very valuable tool for monitoring their evolution during charge and discharge cycles, as illustrated by some of the contributions.Issues relating to the technical development of CT are also covered, for example, helical CT, diffraction contrast tomography, or the use of contrast agents. The effects induced by the exposure of materials to X-ray radiation are also discussed.Finally, aspects relating to post-processing (e.g., procedures to improve the reconstruction of samples that move during in situ tests) and data analysis (e.g., the application of digital volume correlation (DVC) the 3D analogue of digital image correlation (DIC), and the comparison between in situ experiments and finite element simulations) are covered. Taken together these studies show the art of what is possible, the ways to further enhance the existing methods, and the possibilities for the future in relation to the In situ X-ray Tomographic Study of Materials.

In recent years, peptides have received increased interest from the pharmaceutical industry. The high potency, specificity, and safety profile are the main strengths of bioactive peptides as new and promising therapies that may fill the gap between small molecules and protein drugs. These positive attributes have renewed interest in the discovery, optimization, and development of peptides as pharmacological therapy. Among bioactive peptides, those released from food sources have acquired importance as nutraceutical and active components in functional foods because they possess regulatory functions that can lead to health benefits. This Special Issue covers a selection of recent research papers and reviews in the field of bioactive peptides. It covers all aspects of peptide research in relation to health promotion. In particular, it emphasizes current knowledge and research trends concerning bioactive peptides, including identification and quantification of peptides from new sources, methods for their production and purification, structure-function relationships, mechanisms of action, in vitro and in vivo assays for the evaluation of their bioactivity, physiological evidence to support health benefits, and peptide stability and bioavailability. Papers regarding the development of new drugs, functional foods, or nutraceuticals based on bioactive peptides were also considered.

This book is a comprehensive set of articles reflecting on the application of symbolic and/or numerical computation in a range of scientific areas within the fields of engineering and science. These articles constitute extended versions of communications presented at the 4th International Conference on Numerical and Symbolic Computation-SYMCOMP 2019-that took place in Porto, Portugal, from 11 to 12 April 2019 The different chapters present diverse perspectives on the existing effective connections between mathematical methods and procedures and other knowledge areas. The intrinsic multidisciplinary character is visible throughout the whole book as a result of the applicability of the scope and the applications considered. The reader will find this book to be a useful resource for identifying problems of interest in different engineering and science areas, and in the development of mathematical models and procedures used in the context of prediction or verification computational tools as well as in the aided-learning/teaching context. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the recent developments and applications of symbolic and numerical computation for a number of multidisciplinary engineering and science problems.