Böcker utgivna av Mdpi AG

This book focuses on recent advances in the clinical care of patients with acute and chronic coronary syndromes. We must accumulate novel scientific and clinical knowledge in this field to develop seamless treatments and preventive strategies for this patient population. Furthermore, accumulated data have implicated that there are some residual risk factors for coronary syndromes, and the clinical management of cardiovascular/non-cardiovascular complications associated with coronary syndromes is also a critical concern.We hope that this book will facilitate the management of future patients with coronary syndromes; however, further research is still required. It is also our hope that this book will promote future research to enable a better understanding of the clinical practice of coronary syndromes.

As contemporary and emerging engineering applications demand increasingly high performance from metallic materials, research into their degradation in a variety of environments is a hot topic in the scientific community. This book is dedicated to providing the readership with an up-to-date overview of current corrosion research on different metallic materials (steels, aluminum alloys, magnesium alloys, and copper alloys), exploring fundamental and practical aspects related to corrosion mechanisms and protection methods to advance the current knowledge in this field. The content of this book provides new and insightful concepts to promote the development of optimized surfaces with high corrosion protection ability.

In this Special Issue, we will seek advanced knowledge in both basic and clinical research presented in original articles and comprehensive reviews highlighting the latest advances in MCC. Articles focus on but are not restricted to the molecular basis of the disease, translational investigations of biomarkers for prospective clinical applications, and innovative diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in MCC.Dr. Virve KoljonenDr. Weng-Onn LuiProf. Dr. Jürgen C. BeckerGuest Editors

The discipline of aquaculture ecology is developing rapidly and has generated much valuable progress in recent decades. This book mainly describes the recent advances in the individual ecology of commercial aquatic organisms, the ecology of aquaculture systems, the interaction between aquaculture activities and the environment, the structure of function of microbial communities, the principles of environmental management in aquaculture ecosystems, etc.Aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing human activities, and has achieved high and predictable yields in recent decades. However, the industry is also facing numerous long-term challenges, such as environmental pollution, excessive resource consumption, etc. Aquaculture ecology aims to lay an ecological foundation for the sustainable development of aquaculture. This book hosts 10 papers and 1 editorial, with topics including, but not limited to, the impact of floating raft aquaculture on the hydrodynamic environment of an open sea area; the bioremediation of aquaculture wastewater using seaweed; the production environment in biofloc systems; the effects of various environmental factors, including temperature, carbonate alkalinity and protein levels in compound feed on commercial aquatic species; advances in ecology research on major integrated rice field aquaculture models in China, etc. The advances in aquaculture ecology research collected in this book can provide references for the sustainable development of aquaculture.

This book focuses on the key concepts and contemporary issues related to corporate governance, social responsibility, innovation, and sustainable business development goals. It highlights the importance of integrating these principles into the operations of modern businesses. The book aims to explore these concepts, providing theoretical foundations, practical frameworks, and real-world examples to inspire responsible, innovative, and sustainable business practices.

Regular sports practice has a positive influence on the physical, mental, and psychological health of athletes at different levels and in a variety of contexts. Sports performance depends not only on the physical qualities of athletes, but also on psychological variables. In a competitive context, knowledge and manipulation of psychological variables such as attention, self-confidence, stress control, anxiety, motivation, cohesion, self-control or emotional self-regulation, moods, and interpersonal skills can influence the performance and health of an athlete.This publication brings together the latest research on these psychological factors that influence sports performance, physical health, the mental and psychological well-being of athletes, and adherence to sport.

This reprint focuses on applications of machine learning models in a diverse range of fields and problems. It reports substantive results on a wide range of learning methods; discusses the conceptualization of problems, data representation, feature engineering, machine learning models; undertakes critical comparisons with existing techniques; and presents an interpretation of the results. The topics within the chapters of the publication fall into six categories: computer vision, teaching and learning, social media, forecasting, basic problems of machine learning, and other topics.

This reprint considers a vast range of questions devoted to environmental geochemistry. The themes of the research cover different problems of the geochemistry of sediments, such as the reconstruction of the paleoenvironment in the lake basins, climate evolution during the Late Carboniferous-Early Permian period, and the study of the paleoenvironment in the eastern Tethys. Several articles discuss the features of the geochemistry of sedimentation in places of prehistoric anthropogenic activity. Based on the geochronological analysis, the magnetic susceptibility anthropogenic sources of metals in south-eastern Baltic lake sediments from the Neolithic to the Medieval Age were determined. A new approach using the geochemical indication was developed for the determination of the functional zones of prehistoric archaeological sites in Eastern Europe. The application of geochemical multi-element and geochronological analyses of the Iron Age and early Roman cultural layers was considered at the archaeological site in the Netherlands. Some papers are devoted to the pollution hazard problem concerning, for example, the accumulation and distribution of a hazardous contaminant, mercury (Hg), in the basin of Onega Lake, Russia, the second largest lake in Europe, and the distribution of arsenic in the soils of the Verkhnekamskoe potassium salt deposit, Perm Krai, Russia. The ecological state of basins as a result of technogenic processes using a geochemical approach is illuminated in the papers devoted to the mineralogical and geochemical contents of the bottom sediments of Al-Kharrar and Al-Shuaiba Lagoons, Red Sea, Saudi Arabia.

This book contributes to the debate on the Ecological Transition and Circular Economy from a multidimensional perspective. Research from several scientific fields has been developed, providing a comprehensive picture of the complexity of the circular transition. Indeed, the book highlights how creating a functioning circular economy requires combining different knowledge, skills, perspectives and approaches to shift towards sustainable consumption and production patterns successfully.Special attention is given to the multiple dimensions of circular economy applications, with articles focused on different circular economy application levels, such as processes, companies, supply chains, and cities. Furthermore, the book explores in detail how a circular economy becomes applied to the energy, construction and agri-food sectors that are particularly committed to this circular transition.

The present text is an edited Special Issue in reprint form. This Special Issue took the opportunity to invite researchers to contribute their latest original research findings, which were either advances in the state-of-the-art of mathematical methods, theoretical studies, or experimental studies that extend the bounds of existing methodologies to new contributions, addressing current challenges and engineering problems on "Recent Advances in Mathematical Aspect in Engineering". Although this reprint is not a formal textbook, it will definitely be useful for university teachers, research students and industrial researchers, and will assist in overcoming difficulties while dealing with the nonlinear governing equations of fluid mechanics, energy, heat transfer, steady and unsteady flow problems, nanofluids, thermodynamics, magnetohydrodynamics, peristaltic and blood flow. For nonlinear and coupled differential equations, it is often more difficult to achieve an analytic solution or even a numerical one. This reprint has successfully handled this challenging task with the techniques reported within. In addition, the findings of the simulations are logically realistic and meet the standard of sufficient scientific value.

This Special Issue contains new developments and advanced ideas in optical spectroscopy and imaging for their active translation to biological and clinical practice. The published manuscripts provide new insight into state-of-the-art modern methods of biomedical optics and provides new knowledge to potential readers about possible areas of their application. It highlights the advantages and unique features of using optical diagnostic technologies in the detection and analysis of lesions. The articles discuss the development and application of optical methods, expanding the current diagnostic capabilities of various diseases, and other aspects of the use of spectroscopy and imaging in biology and clinical practice.

Over the last decades, interest in forensic toxicology has continually increased. Consequently, the discipline assumed a leading role, becoming one of the reference sciences for elucidating events of judicial importance. The need to reconcile analytical problems (e.g., relating to the qualitative/quantitative analysis of substances of abuse in complex biological matrices) with judicial requirements (i.e., providing data that can be used as documentary evidence in proceedings) makes the discipline unique among all "analytical" sciences. Thus, the availability of validated procedures, the constant monitoring of analytical performance through quality assurance protocols, the availability of certified "in matrix" standards, and the analytical problems underlying the analysis of new psychoactive substances in the blood and other biological fluids represent the challenges of modern forensic toxicology. The correct interpretation of analytical data, especially to elucidate the extent of impairment induced by a certain substance, and "old" issues related to the correct interpretation of post-mortem data (given the impossibility of translating the therapeutic ranges defined in vivo) represent further areas of research and debate among scientists. Finally, the possibility of interacting with other disciplines (such as proteomics and social sciences) allows for extending the concept of analytical data acquisition/interpretation beyond the classical limits of forensic toxicology (for example, considering the influence of gender when interpreting the effect of a substance).

Recently, aluminium scandium nitride (AlScN) emerged as a material with superior properties compared to aluminium nitride (AlN). Substituting Al with Sc in AlN leads to a dramatic increase in the piezoelectric coefficient as well as in electromechanical coupling. This discovery finally allowed us to overcome the limitations of AlN thin films in various piezoelectric applications while still enabling us to benefit from all of the advantages of the parent material system, such as a high temperature stability, CMOS compatibility, and good mechanical properties. Potential applications include RF filters (bulk acoustic wave (BAW) or surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators), energy harvesting, sensing applications, and infra-red detectors. The recent progress in MOCVD- and MBE-grown AlScN has led to high-frequency and -power electronics, (high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs)). AlScN is the first wurtzite III-nitride where ferroelectric switching was observed, allowing for many new possible applications in semiconductor memories additionally, it enables the additional functionality of switching to applications where piezoelectric materials are already in use. This Special Issue was very successful in covering all of the main aspects of AlScN research, including its growth, the fundamental and application-relevant properties, and device fabrication and characterization. We can see that AlScN technology is mature enough to be utilized in wafer-level material development and complicated devices, but there is still much to discover in terms of deposition process control, anisotropy, and, in particular, ferroelectric behavior.

Advancements in medical imaging modalities have resulted in increasing the importance and demand of pediatric radiology. This reprint showcases various examples of advanced research in pediatric radiology and nuclear medicine. These include the use of medical imaging modalities such as computed tomography, general radiography, magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, single-photon emission computed tomography, and ultrasound for diagnosis, as well as the performance of artificial intelligence (AI) in computer-aided detection and diagnosis in the pediatric population. The radiation dose issue of pediatric radiological examinations and emerging AI technology for dose reduction, as well as the use of three-dimensional printing based on medical images for pediatric surgical planning, healthcare professional education, and patient-clinician communication are also covered.

This topic has been successfully completed. A total of 180 scientific articles were sent, of which 66 have been accepted for publication. These 66 articles are published in this reprint.

Marine engines are efficient machines, but stricter legislation about emissions makes continuous research necessary in order to reduce their consumption and improve their efficiency. This Special Issue, "Marine Engines Performance and Emissions II", is a continuation of "Marine Engines Performance and Emissions". It contains a set of peer-reviewed works about marine engine performance and emissions.

Dynamical system theory has been widely used to study scientific problems. The purpose of this reprint is to introduce the latest research results related to dynamical system theory. This reprint is a reference for researchers engaged in applied mathematics, biomathematics and related fields.

This reprint focuses on proteins as critical components of plant cell walls. They contribute not only to the overall architecture of the walls but also to the rearrangement of the cell wall polymers to enable growth, differentiation, and appropriate responses to biotic and abiotic stresses, thus allowing the adaptation of plants to their changing environment.Different experimental approaches are illustrated and the roles of a set of protein families are described. Moreover, new concepts involving the role of cell wall proteins in organ morphogenesis through calcium signaling are discussed.

This reprint provides a comprehensive overview and critically explores the recent trends in the zirconia additive manufacturing process or 3D printing and various surface treatments and their characterization for application in the dental and biomedical fields. It will be a valuable resource for the researchers to design or fabricate the implants according to clinical demands.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is closely linked with the pathogenesis of cervical cancer and many other cancers. HPV vaccines are vaccines that prevent infection from certain types of human papillomavirus. However, despite the various prevention strategies and treatments, such as HPV screening, prophylactic HPV vaccines, surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, the disease burden remains heavy worldwide. Currently, three types of prophylactic vaccines-quadrivalent HPV vaccines, bivalent HPV vaccines, and a new nonavalent HPV vaccine-are commercially available. Although these vaccines protect against 90% of HPV infections, their capacity to eliminate pre-existing infections is limited.In this Topical Collection, we aim to systematically cover the progress, current status, and future prospects of various vaccines being developed for the prevention and treatment of HPV-associated lesions and cancers.

Hot deformation is a key method of processing metallic materials and controlling their final properties through structure-forming processes. The ability to exploit the structural potentiality of both traditional alloys and new progressive materials is crucial in terms of sustainable development and economic growth. This reprint focuses not only on conventional technologies (e.g., rolling or forging) but also on modern procedures, such as various types of complex thermomechanical processing and controlled cooling. Most papers are based on the application of advanced hot deformation simulators and structural analysis methods, as well as computer simulations of bulk-forming processes.

This reprint is a collection of research that contributes to a better understanding of energy transfer related to alternative vehicles. The hybridization of power units and alternative propulsion systems are the mainly developed technology in the automotive field today. The modernization of conventional propulsion sources is justified by the increasingly stringent economic, ecological, and comfort requirements. The common link in any renewable energy source or propulsion system today is electric motors. Their correct use in propulsion offers the possibility of reducing or eliminating harmful emissions both in the form of toxic compounds and noise or unwanted vibrations. The research works were related to energy transfer in both hybrid and electric vehicles, and conversion of energy from renewable sources such as photovoltaic installations to power alternative vehicles. However, you will also find in this reprint papers that are related to modules of alternative propulsion such as drivetrain efficiency analysis, ways of energy accumulation in batteries, and influence of the charging method on the energy consumption of a vehicle during its life cycle.

This reprint includes papers from different research fields, reflecting the sectional talks presented at the 10th edition of the Scientific Conference of the Doctoral Schools of "Dun¿rea de Jos" University of Galäi, which took place in June 2022. The objective of the 2022 Conference was to bring together perspectives and challenges in doctoral research in a common forum and to provide a platform enabling doctoral researchers to meet and share state-of-the-art developments in their fields. It comprises 13 papers presented at the conference from several fields, including mechanical and industrial engineering, food science and biotechnology, electrical/electronic engineering, systems engineering and information technologies, chemistry, electrochemistry, and economic models and strategies.

This reprint is tightly related to minerals engineering. The solution mining (heap leaching, in situ leaching, etc.) offers an environmentally friendly, low-cost, and efficient method to extract these minerals, especially copper sulfides (chalcopyrite, chalcocite, etc.), sandstone uranium, and sandstone gold deposits. After years of development, solution mining has made great progress, but it has also encountered some technical bottlenecks. To better understand the current status of low-grade minerals and mine wastes recovery, we carefully collected 13 contributions in this Special Issue, which are mainly divided into following three aspects:· Reaction mechanisms of chemical/bio-leaching-includes the leaching kinetics of copper sulfides, assisted leaching (chloride acidic leaching, iodide assisted leaching, etc.), in situ leaching of uranium and salt deposits, etc.· Process detection, characterization, and visualization-includes the detection of reaction products, visualization of fluid flow and mass transfer, pore strucutre characterization of leaching systems (ore-packed beds, etc.), microbial successions of leaching bacteria, etc.· Recovery, recycle, and reuse of mine wastes-includes cleaner leaching, disposal or production methods (dump leaching, etc.), the recovery of mine waste (waste rock, tailings, etc.), assessment of operations problems, etc.

This reprint gathers several works focused on recent and novel research in solar radiation modeling and forecasting where remote sensing techniques and retrieval information is employed as a part of the methodology. The use of machine learning algorithms in solar irradiance modeling and solar power forecasting is included in some of the works here presented. This is a topic with high interest nowadays because of the impact in solar energy deployment and in atmospheric studies as well. The recent improved remote sensing information and available data and the advances in machine learning algorithms have a relevant presence in this reprint indicating the current ad near future path of the contributions in solar radiation modeling.

Knowledge of the different elements that determine the optimal method for drug loading and delivery nanosystems using nanoparticles of different natures is experiencing a remarkable boom in many scientific fields, especially in medicine, chemistry, biology, materials science and molecular biotechnology. Not only is it necessary to fully understand what type of nanoparticle is most appropriate in each particular situation, but the interactions of the used nanoparticle with the system under study and the analysis of the release process are important as well. To design nanoparticle drug delivery agents well, a high ratio of drug to nanoparticles must be achieved. Furthermore, biocompatibility and knowledge of the time that the release process takes are fundamental factors for the construction of operative NPs as drug delivery vectors.Today, efforts on the development of appropriate nanosystems are focused on producing new materials that release drugs in a sequential manner with different therapeutic efficacy. To achieve optimal results among researchers from various areas, this reprint of Nanomaterials will try to consider all of these key factors that need to be taken into account for nanosystems to be suitable for drug release. "New Avenues of Research for Nanoparticle Drug Delivery Systems" brings together the recent research articles published in Nanomaterials. Specifically, five original research articles, with one of them being a review, were published by authors from different countries on current issues in this field of research.

Antimicrobial resistance remains a major concern in medicine, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, where microbial infections were frequent complications. To combat drug-resistant pathogens, there has been a renewed interest in the use of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). This reprint focuses on the in-silico approaches used for the rational discovery and design of AMPs. Such computational methodologies range from classical homology-based and machine-learning prediction algorithms to complex similarity networks and evolutionary algorithms that use models of sequence evolution. Furthermore, the reprint explores the improvement of high-throughput screening techniques in the discovery of AMPs from biological samples, which has also led to the evolution of computational approaches that aid in this biodiscovery process. The reprint contains original research and review papers, which serve as valuable references for researchers dedicated to peptide drug development.

This reprint covers a wide range of topics related to collective intelligence, exploring the interplay between swarm intelligence, network intelligence, and other emerging technologies. The first set of chapters focuses on the behavior and mechanisms of swarming. One chapter describes a locust-inspired model of collective marching on rings, while another demonstrates the experimental validation of entropy-driven swarm exploration under sparsity constraints using sparse Bayesian learning. These studies provide new insights into the principles of swarming and its potential applications in fields such as robotics and mobile crowdsensing. The next set of chapters discusses the integration of swarm intelligence with other emerging technologies such as deep learning and graph theory. These studies show how swarm intelligence can be combined with other advanced technologies to solve complex problems and improve decision-making processes. The reprint also covers the topic of network intelligence, including the study of social network analysis, Twitter user activity, and crowd-sourced financial predictions. These studies provide insights into how network intelligence can be harnessed to understand social dynamics and improve decision-making processes in various domains. The reprint concludes with a chapter that proposes a generative design approach for the efficient mathematical modeling of complex systems.

In Canada, survival from breast cancer has steadily increased since 1989, and breast cancer mortality has decreased by 48%. While 82% of women with breast cancer are diagnosed at stage 1 or 2, there are still 18% who present at a late stage and 25% who develop metastatic disease. Improved survival has been achieved through early diagnosis of breast cancer with screening, allowing for more effective and targeted treatments. This reprint summarizes the latest evidence on the early detection of breast cancer and highlights areas where this may be improved.

This Special Issue explores recent developments and advanced concepts related to the valorisation of organic wastes and other biomass through the application of anaerobic digestion (AD). Biological phenomena, the efficiency of the AD process, the viability of full-scale AD installations, the integration of hydrogen and biomethane concepts, and biorefineries are some of the themes covered. While AD is addressed under different perspectives, the results all strengthen AD to fulfil its important role as a sustainable and highly versatile technology. Further research and development needs are also presented.