Böcker utgivna av Mdpi AG

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, and the disease now affects nearly every country and region. Nearly 18 months later, COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, continues to present significant challenges to health systems, public health, and the economy of countries across both hemispheres. The morbidity and mortality of the infection caused by SARS-CoV-2 has been significant, and various waves of disease outbreaks initially overwhelmed hospitals and clinics in many countries and continue to do so. This influences everyone, and public health countermeasures have been dramatic in terms of their impact on employment, social systems, and mental health.This Special Issue collection follows on from the Special Issue "COVID-19: Current Challenges and Future Perspectives" and provides an avenue for authors from various disciplines to provide feedback on the response to and our future global preparedness for COVID-19, as well as to disseminate critical information about SARS-CoV-2 and the associated COVID-19 pandemic.

This reprint gathers 16 contributions (13 research articles and 3 reviews) covering different areas of analytical chemistry. Many of these contributions deal with the development and application in real matrices of chromatographic methods interfaced with mass spectrometry, but also spectroscopic, electrochemical, and separation methods are also proposed.

The jubilee 10th MATBUD'2023 Conference on 'Building Materials Engineering and Innovative Sustainable Materials' was organized within the framework of the Welcome to Poland project financed by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA): "MATBUD'2023-Developing international scientific cooperation in the field of building materials engineering" BPI_WTP_2021_1_00002.The scientific committee worked under the chairmanship of Prof. Lech Czarnecki (Honorary Chairman) and Prof. Izabela Hager (Chairwoman; the project coordinator). The conference was hosted at Cracow University of Technology, Poland, and welcomed participants from 45 research units worldwide.The organizing committee would like to express great gratitude to all the authors, members of the scientific committee, reviewers, and participants for their valuable contributions to the conference.

This book collected a set of papers where our section Editorial Board Members discuss key topics that typify the very best insightful and influential original articles or reviews in the "Communications" field. We expect these papers to be widely read and highly influential within the field.

This reprint captures the latest advances in Electromyography (EMG) sensor development, EMG sensor applications, and EMG signal conditioning using theoretical and experimental approaches. This report is timely, as EMG sensors and signals have applications in many domains. This reprint provides a snapshot of several exciting EMG sensor and signal applications: swallowing, motion detection and prostheses control, muscle synergies, robotic exoskeleton, driver's behaviour, signal conditioning, and muscle assessment.

This Special Issue contains 28 papers covering a wide range of topics related to plant genomics and genetics. The papers utilize a variety of genomic tools and techniques to explore topics such as identification of quantitative trait loci associated with flax seed yield and oil quality, mucilage and hull content in flax seeds, and genomic prediction for pasmo resistance in flax. Other papers focus on the identification and characterization of specific genes, such as the EXO70 gene family in wheat and related species, hydroxycinnamoyl transferase in tea plants, and the WRKY transcription factor GmWRKY12 in soybeans. Several papers examine gene expression and regulation in response to abiotic stress, such as drought and salt tolerance in moso bamboo, and the response to chilling in bell peppers. Other topics include genetic diversity analysis of crested wheatgrass, genome-wide analysis of chitin-binding protein gene family in peppers, and genome-wide bioinformatics analysis of MAPK gene family in kiwifruit. Overall, this Special Issue provides a comprehensive view of the current state of plant genomics research, showcasing the diversity of approaches and tools being used to better understand and improve crop plants.

This book is a compilation of more than 20 scientific publications, both original research papers and review papers, assembled for the Special Issue of Molecules journal, Aquaphotomics; this Special Issue explores water molecular systems in nature, and is the first of its kind organized on this topic. Now available in a book format, this publication presents cutting-edge research work performed in the area of a young, but rapidly evolving scientific discipline, Aquaphotomics. The book includes topics that range from basic water science, material hydration, the water-material interaction and biocompatibility, novel scientific theories about the role of water in cell biology, the possibilities of using Aquaphotomics for monitoring food quality, estimating shelf-life, diagnosing stress in plants, determining diseases in animals and the outcomes of therapies in medicine. The book also provides the reader with an opportunity to improve their knowledge in the areas of spectral preprocessing, multivariate analysis and chemometrics, with focus on Aquaphotomics approach. For any reader already working in the field of Aquaphotomics, this will be a highly advantageous publication, in order to ascertain the latest research trends and discoveries; for novices, it offers a window into an exciting new world that is brimming with possibilities.

With increasing attention on the reduction of CO2 emissions, the sustainability of construction materials has become one of the most growing issues in concrete science and engineering research fields. New sustainable construction materials, such as alkali-activated materials, calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) cement, and limestone calcined clay cement (LC3), have been suggested and high-performance and/or highly durable construction materials using special admixtures, such as nanomaterials, have been studied to reduce the environmental impact during the life cycle of construction materials.This Special Issue aims to highlight and share recent findings in developing new sustainable cementitious materials, modeling their hydration kinetics, investigating their microstructure, improving the performance and durability of cementitious materials using functional supplementary ingredients, suggesting novel test methods for new construction materials, etc. In this Special Issue are presented the following areas:Sustainable concrete and alternative binders;Hydration kinetics of sustainable cementitious materials;Characterization of sustainable cementitious materials;Re-utilization of industrial by-products for construction materials;High strength and durable cementitious materials;Property enhancement by functional additives;Energy storage through construction materials.

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are a heterogeneous group of complex diseases characterized by neuronal loss and progressive degeneration of different areas of the nervous system. NDs represent a significant health problem worldwide, with an increasing incidence rate. Although the exact pathogenesis of NDs remains unclear, a complex interaction among genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors has been proposed. To date, no effective therapeutics have been developed to slow, halt, or prevent any NDs. Thus, information on the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of NDs is strongly sought after. This Special Issue collected papers discussing advances in the field of NDs.

This volume is a reprint of the Honorary Special Issue dedicated to the 60th birthday of Professor Dr. Kalyanmoy Deb, published in the journal Mathematical and Computational Applications (MCA). Kalyanmoy Deb has been a pioneer and highly impactful and influential proponent of Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimization (EMO) since 1994. He is currently a Koenig Endowed Chair Professor and University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Michigan State University, USA, and holds additional appointments in Mechanical Engineering and in Computer Science and Engineering. Professor Deb's research interests are in evolutionary optimization and its application in multi-objective optimization, modeling, machine learning, and in multi-objective decision making. He has been a visiting professor at various universities across the world, including IITs in India, Aalto University in Finland, the University of Skovde in Sweden, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He was awarded the IEEE Evolutionary Computation Pioneer Award, the Infosys Prize, the TWAS Prize in Engineering Sciences, the CajAstur Mamdani Prize, the Distinguished Alumni Award from IIT Kharagpur, the Edgeworth Pareto Award, the Bhatnagar Prize in Engineering Sciences, and the Bessel Research Award from Germany. He is a fellow of IEEE, ASME, and three Indian science and engineering academies.

This volume collates the main recent developments from studies on quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) worldwide. The most important studies focused on the study of the main agronomic practices, ecophysiological traits, genetics, and post-harvest aspects of quinoa. The result of the most recent pieces of research carried out by scientists from international universities and research centers are included.

Tumor progression is linked to a switch in the balance between positive and negative regulators, and mainly depends on the release by inflammatory or neoplastic cells of specific growth factors. Inflammatory infiltration contributes to tumor progression and metastatic process, and there are many reports of associations between tumor inflammatory infiltration, progression and prognosis. New therapeutic approaches have been developed with the aim to control tumor progression through the targeting of different components of the tumor microenvironment. This reprint will be useful for anyone who wants to learn about cancer: professors and students at universities, scientists at research institutes, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical labs, and lawyers trying to understand the patent literature.

The present reprint contains all of the articles accepted and published in the Special Issue " Advances in Artificial Intelligence and Statistical Techniques with Applications to Health and Education" from the MDPI journal Mathematics. This Special Issue aims to develop more efficient and effective approaches to healthcare and education, leveraging the increasing availability of big data and advancements in artificial intelligence. By sharing new methods, applications, and case studies, this reprint is dedicated to the development of innovative solutions that improve healthcare and education for all. The topics addressed in this Special Issue cover a wide range of areas, including data mining, machine learning, learning analytics, prediction methods, pattern recognition, decision analysis, probabilistic reasoning, fuzzy systems, student or patient modelling, adaptive systems, collaborative systems, recommendation systems, experimental design, and empirical study cases. We hope that this reprint will enable the scientific community in both medicine and education to leverage the techniques from statistics and artificial intelligence to drive significant advances in their respective fields. These approaches hold promise for improving patient outcomes and enhancing the quality of education for students around the world.

We invite you to read the Special Issue on The Financial Industry 4.0. It is a collection of 13 articles published in a Special Issue of International Journal of Financial Studies (MDPI) in 2020-2022. The main emphasis of this book is on The Financial Industry 4.0 to provide insightful understanding about the benefits as well as the challenges that financial institutions are facing under the Industry 4.0 era.The articles in this special issue discussed the potential of blockchain technology, the impact of fintech on financial inclusion in developing countries, the role of fintech in the insurance industry, and so on. It highlights the benefits of fintech, such as improved efficiency, accuracy, and customer experience, but also notes the challenges and risks involved, such as data privacy and security concerns. Collaboration between financial institutions, regulators, and technology firms is seen as necessary to promote innovation and ensure the stability and security of the financial system while addressing the challenges and risks associated with fintech.

This volume collects the recent progress in cellulose-based hydrogels, including gels prepared from natural cellulose and its derivatives, cellulose graft co-polymers, and composite gels based on cellulose, covering key aspects of cellulose-based hydrogels, including design, characterization, as well as application-focused research.

The book focuses on the latest research in cybersecurity and data science. Digital transformation turns data into the new oil, so the increasing availability of big data, structured and unstructured datasets, raises new challenges in cybersecurity, efficient data processing and knowledge extraction. The field of cybersecurity and data science fuels the data-driven economy. Innovations in this field require strong foundations in mathematics, statistics, machine learning and information security. The unprecedented increase in the availability of data in many fields of science and technology (e.g., genomic data, data from industrial environments, network traffic, streaming media, sensory data of smart cities, and social network data) ask for new methods and solutions for data processing, information extraction and decision support. This stimulates the development of new methods of data analysis, including those adapted to the analysis of new data structures and the growing volume of data. The papers included in this book discuss various topics ranging from cyberattacks, steganography, anomaly detection, evaluation of the attacker skills, modelling of the threats, and wireless security evaluation, as well as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning. Given this diversity of topics the book represents a valuable reference for researchers in cybersecurity security and data science.

This book, guest edited by Anne-Marie Caminade, gives an impressionist overview of the current state of the art about "Personalized and Precision Medicine". Twenty contributions illustrate the diversity of the topic, including new approaches about cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, infectious diseases, lungs obstruction, skeletal diseases, intestinal microbiomes, new tools such as ultra-high-frequency ultrasound or non-oncological radiotherapy, and a new class of drugs (dendrimers). This book is an illustration of the present and future impact of Personalized and Precision Medicine on all the therapeutic domains.

This reprint focuses on artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) all over the world, as well as its impact on the economy, environment, and health, providing sustainable solutions to severe ASGM problems. This book presents a total of 20 published articles of regions including Southeast Asia, South America, and South Africa, as well as a general overview of ASGM issues. Studies included in this book posit that (1) ASGM activity is still widely practiced as an alternative livelihood in rural areas in many countries around the world, using toxic elements such as Hg and cyanide due to a lack of legal enforcement on the ASGM sector; (2) ASGM has a negative impact on environmental ecosystems, causes occupational health problems for miners, and causes chronic health disorders in both ASGM communities and those living far from ASGM areas. However, some studies propose that specific potential bioindicators could be used to monitor the environment and health of those living in ASGM communities, providing sustainable solutions to severe ASGM problems.

The Apennine orogenic system is a natural laboratory for multidisciplinary and integrated studies. The evolution of the Apennines is framed by the fragmentation of Pangea and the development of the Tyrrhenian Basin. Thus, the Apennines have carried this memory from the Permian and Triassic-Early Jurassic rifting, to the Oligocene-Miocene collision, and finally to the Miocene-Present, during which extension and compression have progressively migrated eastwards. Magmatism, hydrothermalism, and sedimentation in the Apennines have accordingly evolved in time and space.In this Special Issue, multidisciplinary and integrated studies have been published improving our knowledge of the Apennines and discussing:(a) the development of deformation and metamorphism in different tectonic environments, from the rifting stage to the subduction, exhumation, and late-orogenic stages; (b) the Meso-Cenozoic tectono-stratigraphic evolution of sedimentary basins, and their role in the Apennine orogeny; (c) the thermochronological evolution of sedimentary units and the dating of deformation episodes through geochemical techniques; (d) the magmatism and its connection to geodynamic evolution, from the mountain chain to the Tyrrhenian Basin; (e) recent tectonics, as reconstructed through seismological and paleo-seismological studies; and (f) the crustal structure, as derived by geophysical methods and their interpretation.

Satellite measurements of night-time lights are widely recognized as a valuable indicator of human activity on Earth. These measurements capture the amount of light emitted from Earth at night and provide significant insights into a range of fields, including urbanization processes, socio-economic dynamics, local and regional GDP, economic impacts of conflicts, effects of epidemics on economic activity, and the various impacts of natural and man-made disasters. This reprint includes 16 articles that were published in the Remote Sensing Special Issue "Remote Sensing of Night-Time Light" and that highlight novel research on the remote sensing of night-time lights. The reprint aims to stimulate progress in the remote sensing research domain related to the utilization of night-time lights in a wide range of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary domains, including urban studies, ecology, economics, oceanography, sociology, epidemiology, and more.

Speech is the most spontaneous and natural means of communication, as well as the preferred modality for interacting with mobile or fixed electronic devices, but speech in-terfaces have drawbacks, such as a lack of user privacy; non-inclusivity for certain users; poor robustness in noisy conditions; and the difficulty of creating complex man-machine interfaces. The Special Issue "Future Speech Interfaces with Sensors and Machine Intelligence" assembles eleven contributions that cover multimodal and silent speech interfaces; lip reading applications; novel sensors for speech interfaces; and enhanced speech inclusivity tools for future speech interfaces. The articles make important improvements beyond the state of the art, advancing the state of the art to new frontiers in some cases. Short summaries of all articles, grouped by topic, are presented, followed by a global commentary and evaluation.

This book focuses on the application of groundwater models developed with the aim of optimizing the management of water resources in urban environments, coastal areas, karst aquifers, and riparian zones, among other environments. The testing of innovative techniques applied to traditional models, including machine learning techniques, is of particular interest. Special attention is given to the application of tools for the evaluation of climate change effects on groundwater.

This Antimicrobial Prescribing and Stewardship Issue (volume 1) consist of manuscripts, including original research, review articles, case series, and opinion papers for topics related to antimicrobial (antibiotic, antifungal) stewardship, including:Disease-based/organism-based antimicrobial stewardship;Diagnostic stewardship;Influence of antimicrobial utilisation changes in antimicrobial resistance;Impact of antimicrobial stewardship on quality performance measures and patient outcomes;Novel antimicrobial stewardship education and training approaches or interventions aimed at the public and/or healthcare workers;Behavioural change approaches to antimicrobial stewardship;Collaborative practice agreements in antimicrobial stewardship;Antimicrobial stewardship in special populations (e.g., paediatrics, geriatrics, emergency medicine, hematology/oncology);Tackling AMR through antimicrobial stewardship in low- and middle-income countries;Antimicrobial stewardship for animal health;Antimicrobial stewardship in alternative settings (e.g., community practice, long-term care, and resource-limited small and rural hospitals);Antimicrobial use and stewardship in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic;Global collaborations to tackle AMR through antimicrobial stewardship.

This reprint includes contributions focusing on theoretical and experimental studies that report on the innovative processing and characterization of materials and nanostructured materials engineered for photovoltaic applications. In particular, the reprint presents a collection of twelve high-quality articles, among which are two comprehensive reviews, one communication letter and nine original research papers. These articles exhaustively cover state-of-the-art aspects of the four essential constitutive building-blocks of a photovoltaic element: the main absorber component, the "window" layer, the electron- and hole-transporter media, as well as the back- and top-electrodes of the solar cell.

By joining the two previous editions, this Special Issue completes the trilogy of Special Issues entitled "Biological and Pharmacological Activity of Plant Natural Compounds", which deal with the properties and effects of phytonatural products in preclinical models. This third edition has also remained focused on their therapeutic potential, with the aim of increasing and contributing to the expansion of our scientific knowledge on plants in human health. We hope readers will enjoy this Special Issue as much as the previous publications.

Light is the main source of energy for the primary process that sustains life on our planet, known as photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the strategy adopted by many living organisms for capturing and incorporating energy, and it is under this context that light is primarily experienced, explored, and exploited. Plants perceive information from the ambient environment and communicate with other organisms using light. They have developed a plethora of photoreceptors that permit this communication with the surrounding environment. Additionally, the physical properties of light, such as the spectral quality, irradiance, intensity, and photoperiod, play an integral role in the morphogenesis, growth, and metabolism of many biochemical pathways in plants.To facilitate photosynthesis in controlled environments, light¿emitting diodes (LEDs) have been shown to offer interesting prospects for use in plant lighting designs in controlled-environment agriculture (greenhouses) and growth chambers for in vitro cultures. In high-technology greenhouses (for instance, vertical agriculture), artificial light may assume both assimilative (optimizing photosynthetic efficiency) and control functionality (guiding growth and development or the synthesis and accumulation of plant metabolites). In vitro cultures are regulated by different factors, and among them, light is the most important.

The thermal analysis of materials encompasses a variety of methods used to detect changes in material properties as a function of temperature. Before temperature measurement became routine in all stages of metal and ceramic processing, early metallurgists relied on the color and brightness of hot metal, and glassmakers used viscosity for guidance. Nowadays, techniques of differential thermal analysis (DTA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) routinely yield heat capacities, temperatures, and enthalpies of phase transformations in the temperature range from ¿150 to 1500 °C. The measurement of any physical property as a function of temperature brings the method into the realm of thermal analysis.This Special Issue provides a sampling of the current use, diversity, and ongoing developments of techniques and approaches in the thermal analysis of materials. It combines contributions solicited by editors that reflect their scientific interests and networks, with generally related submissions received over two years. It contains 16 articles and 1 short review submitted by authors from 10 countries.

In this book (Volume I), 13 papers have been published on different topics of the wide research areas of Semantic Web and Recommender systems. These papers have been carefully selected based on the peer review of several respectful reviewers organized by MDPI's BDCC journal. This issue has attracted well-known international research teams, who we would like to thank for their work.

This reprint discusses the relation between nonviolence and religion by adopting Mohandas K. Gandhi's concept of satyagraha as a starting point and by also discussing nonviolent hermeneutics of holy scriptures with a special emphasis on interpretations of the Qur'an. The first part consists of chapters that directly deal with Gandhi's concept of nonviolence and how it influenced later faith-based peace activists. By reading Gandhi's active nonviolence through the lens of Judith Butler's recent work on nonviolence, it engages with contemporary discussions about violence and nonviolence and also reflects on how nonviolence relates to gender. It also looks at how Gandhi related to different religions and further broadens the usual focus on physical violence by addressing economic violence and environmental degradation. Gandhi's view of Judaism and Zionism is critically discussed in one chapter. The second part comprises contributions that study the use of holy scriptures in relation to (non)violence, its problems, its boundaries and its inspiration. Religious authoritative texts play a major role in the continuation and legitimation of connected belief systems. Again, Gandhi's own nonviolent hermeneutics of holy scriptures are investigated and his interpretation of the biblical figure of Daniel is especially discussed. Three contributions deal with the interpretation of the Qur'an and its potential for nonviolence. A concluding chapter provides a range of hermeneutic guidelines for an Islamic theology of nonviolence.

This reprint covers some significant impacts in the recent research in both the private and public sectors of cancer diagnosis and therapy, in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning are significant. This reprint is also a collection of forty different complex and challenging problems arranged in five groups: AI in prognosis, grading, and prediction, AI in clinical image analysis, AI models for pathological diagnosis, ML and statistical models for molecular cancer diagnostics and genetics, and AI in triage, risk stratification, and screening cancer, which are all focused on using AI in cancer diagnosis and therapy.All the necessary concepts, solutions, methodologies, and references are supplied except for some fundamental knowledge that is well-known in the general ¿elds of AI and cancer diagnosis and therapy. The readers may, therefore, gain the main concepts of each chapter, with as little of a need as possible to refer to the concepts of the other chapters and references. The readers may hence start to read one or more chapters of the book for their own interests.