Böcker utgivna av Mdpi AG

This book, entitled "Microbial Diseases of Marine Organisms", was conceived to raise awareness of threats to the sustainability of marine environments that we are increasingly facing today and are caused by various human activities. Each marine organism plays a unique role in the marine ecosystem, regardless of whether it is prey or predator or its status in the food chain. Microorganisms such as protists, bacteria, fungi, and viruses mostly share mutually beneficial symbiotic relationships, with their hosts. However, environmental changes, including climate change, which are mostly induced by anthropogenic impacts, can affect these relationships and consequently influence the health, welfare, physiology, and ecology of marine organisms and environments. Many microorganisms have exhibited changes in nature and have been reported as causes of diseases or mortality of marine organisms. These disease outbreaks may lead to declines in the host populations, resulting in changes in diversity and imbalances in marine environments.

It was recently reported that pollution was responsible for 9 million premature deaths in 2015, making it the world's largest environmental risk factor for disease and premature death. Human and industrial activities generate various forms of residual wastes and by-products in a solid, liquid, or gaseous state. Waste generation starts with simple processes such as living, eating, and breathing. Managing waste and minimizing associated environmental impacts have become more challenging as worldwide populations and economies continue to grow. Once these hazardous chemicals are present in the environment, people can become exposed to them. Human health can be influenced by many factors, including exposure to physical, chemical, biological, and radiological contaminants in the environment.This reprint comprises research papers related to the aspects of environmental exposure to multiple toxic chemicals and human health. The manuscripts are focused on toxicology, biomonitoring, exposure and risk assessment, and endocrine disruptors.

Today, a great variety of contraceptive techniques are available to women; this, coupled with improving the educational levels of female children and adults, is hastening a decline in fertility and consequently, population growth. With the advent of sustained fertility rates lower than replacement levels in many countries, including China and India, we are already witnessing major economic, social, environmental, and geopolitical consequences.Given this situation, today, the promotion of the use of contraception means improving health, not demography, placing emphasis on individuals and not just on methods alone; on the quality of services, and not simply on availability. Indeed, there is an increasing awareness that contraception can help women reduce health risks that are associated with reproductive events and specifically, with unwanted pregnancies. This means that, no matter how ideal a method may be from a purely scientific viewpoint, it must be submitted to the free, decision-making of well-informed women.To contribute to this new user-centric perspective, this reprint presents a series of articles in which technology is considered withing the broader concept of women's health. Five articles deal with issues related to the users' and providers' perspectives; three discuss a modality that is receiving increasing attention, the so-called Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC); and the last three contributions highlight the new advances in oral hormonal contraception.

The prevalence of dietary supplement is increased in the world. The primary purpose of dietary supplements is the provide nutrients, such as vitamin and mineral, to maintain health. However, the functional ingredients in food, especially polyphenols, have attracted attention in recent decades, and these ingredients have beneficial effects on human health. On the other hand, a lot of ingredients with poor evidence as to their effects have also been marketed as dietary supplements, and adverse events associated with dietary supplement use have been reported. It is important to choose dietary supplements whose efficacy and safety for our health have been studied. In this regard, you are invited to submit proposals for manuscripts that fit the objectives and the topics of this Special Issue.

Dear Colleagues, Zoological institutions contribute a large amount of fundamental and applied knowledge on a diverse array of animal species. Despite this significant contribution, research conducted within zoos or other captive wildlife facilities has historically been skewed toward charismatic mammals, which comprise only a small proportion of the species that are held in captive collections. Modern zoos play an important role in animal welfare, conservation, and environmental education; therefore, this shortfall in knowledge may have large, unseen, and negative impacts on these "forgotten species". Hypothesis-driven, experimental research plays a key role in filling these knowledge gaps; however, other avenues of data collection exist which may be equally important. These include observational data (collected without experimental interventions), operational data (data collected within the general management activities of a facility), and incidental data (data collected for one purpose which may reveal further important information when explored in more detail). These unpublished datasets may provide fundamental information on species for which comparatively little is known.

The scope of this reprint, entitled "Emerging Protein Sources for Food Production and Human Nutrition", encompasses the latest advancements in analytics and the application of new methods in the processing of proteins, both plant and animal, as well as methods of producing and testing foods enriched with these proteins.

Traditional wood composites are produced with synthetic, formaldehyde-based adhesives, commonly made from fossil-derived constituents, such as urea, phenol, melamine, etc. Along with their undisputable advantages, these adhesives are characterized by certain problems, connected with the emission of hazardous volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including free formaldehyde emission from the finished wood composites, which is carcinogenic to humans and harmful to the environment. The growing environmental concerns, connected with the adoption of circular economy principles, and the new, stricter legislative requirements for the emission of harmful VOCs, e.g., free formaldehyde, from wood composites, have posed new challenges to researchers and industrial practice, related to the development of sustainable, eco-friendly wood composites, optimization of the available lignocellulosic raw materials, and use of alternative resources. This reprint presents a collection of 10 high-quality original research and review papers providing examples of the most recent advances and technological developments in the fabrication, design, characteristics, and applications of eco-friendly wood and wood-based composites.

Available research has indicated a decline in physical fitness and motor competence over the last several decades. Movement restrictions and policies that have emphasized social distancing, due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, may have further increased the prevalence of youth with insufficient physical fitness and motor competence. As physical fitness and motor competence are critical contributors to an active and healthy lifestyle, it is important to re-emphasize their role in the general health and development of children and adolescents and, accordingly, future public health. Particularly with the re-opening of schools, sports clubs and public parks, the promotion of activities that enhance physical fitness and motor competence in children and adolescents is warranted. This reprint highlights the importance of physical fitness and motor competence for the health and well-being of children and adolescents, by providing an interdisciplinary platform for research addressing this topic.

This monograph "Earth Observations for Environmental Sustainability for the Next Decade" is a collection of original viewpoints and knowledge advancements regarding the use of Earth observations to address a number of urgent issues of great concern for humanity and covers such topics as land use/land cover (LULC) classification, debris flow assessment, precipitation estimates, drought assessment, hyperspectral image classification, Kuroshio-induced wakes, sea water primary production, weather system (tropical cyclone) interaction, habitat suitability, and biodiversity conservation. Evidence of the rapid degradation of the Earth's natural environment has gained strength in recent years. Sustaining our planet has become the greatest concern faced by humanity. In the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Earth observations are identified as major contributors to nine of these: 2 (Zero Hunger), 3 (Good Health and Well-being), 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), 12 (Sustainable Consumption and Production), 13 (Climate Action), 14 (Life Below Water), and 15 (Life on Land). Achieving the SDGs by turning knowledge into action is the critical challenge facing scientists and other subject matter experts throughout the world.

Toxins are biologically active substances produced by most kinds of living organisms, bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals. They present a vast diversity of molecular structures and target a wide variety of receptors involved in a range of physiological processes. As toxins are selected during evolution to acquire/improve their disabling/lethal effects, they display finely tuned functional properties often associated with high affinities and selectivity. Moreover, toxins are valuable tools to unravel cellular processes due to their extreme specificity for cell surface and/or intracellular targets. Therefore, toxins are very attractive compounds because of their Janus-like character; while they mostly act as deadly poisons like monstrous Mr. Hyde, they can also be tamed into good remedies like admirable Dr. Jekyll. As such, they have been primarily investigated not only for the light they can throw on fundamental physiological processes but also for their potential therapeutic applications. This book, emerging from the 27th Annual Meeting of the French Society of Toxinology (SFET, http://sfet.asso.fr/international), will be of great interest for those in the scientific community who want to know more about the fascinating world of toxins.

Advanced multifunctional coatings have made great unexpected advances in synthesis, characterization and properties, and they are also used in a variety of different fields. The mechanical properties of multifunctional coatings play a vital role in their interaction with external forces and environmental factors. Therefore, it is necessary to fully study the mechanical properties of advanced multifunctional coatings. After the launch of the Special Issue, thirteen papers have been collected and published. These original research articles cover not only the relevant research of advanced multifunctional coatings but also the interesting mechanical behaviour of surfaces and interfaces. We feel that the Special Issue provides a forum to share current research results and to promote further research into the mechanical behaviour of advanced multifunctional coatings.

Quantum information and quantum computing are very rapidly developing research directions in recent years. This book introduces some of the latest developments in quantum theory, including basic physical theories such as quantum entanglement, and quantum information processing; and applications such as quantum secret key allocation, and several types of quantum algorithms. This book is suitable for some researchers or students to read.

Today, researchers are focused on studying and identifying new products that can be beneficial for both food and pharmaceutical purposes. In this context, sprouts and microgreens are widely recognized as functional foods due to their high nutritional value, and in particular, their high bioactive compound content, which is mainly composed of phytochemicals. However, despite extensive research on the germination of species cultivated under optimal conditions, knowledge gaps remain regarding various aspects of sprout and microgreen production. To address this research issue, interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial. This involves the identification of novel species for edible sprout cultivation, the exploration of innovative strategies to stimulate bioactive compound production, and the development of new "nutraceutical" foods. Moreover, it is imperative to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of the consumption of microgreens. This reprint presents cutting-edge research on sprouts and microgreens, providing valuable insights for the academic community.

This reprint is a collection of studies on antimicrobial nanodrugs; it includes four review papers on anti-biofilm therapy, carbon dot-based antimicrobial materials, and supramolecular assemblies for combating antibiotic resistance, as well as six research papers on antibiotic-loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles, mesostructured spherical nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles, perfluorocarbon nanoemulsion, nano-polyoxometalates, and gold nanoprisms.

Radiofrequency (RF) heating has been identified as one potential thermal treatment method with which to replace chemical fumigation and other conventional thermal methods because it is relatively easy to apply and leaves no chemical residues. RF equipment is commercially available today and is commonly used by the baking industry for the final drying of crackers, as well as by other industries. It involves the direct transfer of electromagnetic energy into bulk materials, providing fast and volumetric heating.This Special Issue aims to focus on recent developments in and applications of RF heating in food processing, such as disinfestation, drying, pasteurization, sterilization, temping, and thawing. This Special Issue will provide major methods, research strategies, and protocols used in the development of environmentally friendly food processes based on RF energy.

Genetic aberrations and epigenetic modifications are critical drivers of cancer progression and metastasis. Although recurrent mutations in primary and metastatic cancers have been shown to be concordant, there are several metastasis-associated mutations responsible for resistance to specific therapies that are frequently located in genes that regulate DNA methylation and chromatin modifications. Recent studies have shown that distinct subgroups of poor-prognosis tumors lack genetic alterations but are epigenetically regulated, pointing to the critical role of epigenetic modifications in cancer progression. This Special Issue provides novel insights into the mechanisms underlying processes associated with cancer cell plasticity and the development of metastatic disease.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructure, one of most famous nanomaterials in past decades, provides extensive and adaptive applications to wide communities include material, physics, daily-use chemical industry and medical societies. Controlled synthesis, advancing characterization tools, and endless healthcare from materials, drive rapid evolution of understanding and engineering on ZnO nanomaterials. Here, in this reprint, novel research articles and mini reviews are included with the focus on the novel synthesis, applications on the air and liquid purifications by using the photocatalytic merits of ZnO. Additionally, antibacterial performance from the ZnO nanostructures were demonstrated by these original contributions, which directs the new possibility from ZnO towards medical usage.

This book focuses on the preparation of polymer nanocomposites for various fields, such as structural, electronic, sensing, energy harvesting, and biomedical applications. A wide variety of matrices have been considered, such as polymer-modified asphalt, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, polymethyl methacrylate, polydimethylsiloxane elastomer, polyvinylidene fluoride, polyvinyl amide, poly(e-caloprolactone), and ureasyl polyether. The results corroborate that incorporating nanomaterials into polymeric matrices facilitates developing advanced materials with improved properties. Issues such as filler¿matrix interactions, molecular organization and rearrangement, size-dependent functionality, etc., are addressed in detail. Advanced nanosensing, nanofabrication, and nanocharacterization procedures are advantageously applied.

This book focuses on new advances and developments in the topic of vibration control and structural health monitoring.In order to reduce the adverse impact of vibration on structures, vibration control and structure health monitoring have become increasingly important. In this book, frontier research topics in the following areas have been published: theory and computational methods of vibration control, materials and devices for vibration control, tests and applications of vibration mitigation or isolation techniques, structural health monitoring, vibration analysis, and tests and applications in relative fields.

The Special Issue papers comprise classified into four categories: The first category includes three papers that examine the practical application of design theory in different contexts. The second category comprises three papers exploring the role of technology in design education. The third category includes three papers that analyze the intersection of design education and cross-cultural communication. The final category encompasses two papers investigating the application of design education in diverse fields. It offered invaluable insights into the latest pedagogical approaches, technologies, and trends in the field of design education. It provided a rich and nuanced view of the challenges and opportunities faced by design educators today. It was an invaluable resource for researchers, educators, and practitioners in the field of design education.

Numerous biotic and abiotic stresses can significantly decrease crop growth and yields. In the context of climate change, stresses will be more frequent in the coming years and will have an even more severe impact on agricultural systems. As a result, crop production could be drastically reduced, with the consequences aggravated by the fact that the world's growing population will require more food production. Furthermore, among abiotic stresses, the salinity of soils and water for agricultural use, as well as drought, particularly impact crops. For these reasons, sustainable measures need to be implemented to maintain/increase crop production and ensure the resilience of agricultural systems. To this end, biostimulants, materials that can increase crop productivity and the quality profile of end products, are an increasingly popular solution. The primary function of biostimulants is improving nutrient use efficiency, quality traits, and stress tolerance, as well as ensuring the bioavailability of nutrients in the soil or rhizosphere. Therefore, this Special Issue published research on the effects of biostimulants on helping crops to cope with abiotic stresses, focusing on salt and drought stress. In addition, scientific contributions on the use of biostimulants to counteract other abiotic stresses, such as potentially toxic metals and extreme temperatures, are also welcome. New substances with biostimulant action and studies investigating the mechanisms of action of biostimulants and their qualitative, economic, and environmental benefits will also be considered.

Extreme hydrometeorological events, which cause severe impacts in terms of injuries, casualties, and socioeconomic losses, are being reported more and more frequently worldwide. Climate variability and anthropogenic changes amplify the impacts of these events. This reprint showcases studies which address challenges related to monitoring, modeling, forecasting, and assessing the impacts of hydrometeorological hazards. These studies focus on: (i) the description of recent relevant extreme hydrometeorological events, accompanied by analyses of spatiotemporal features and trends; (ii) the estimation and projection of the impacts of climate change and land-use transformations on the occurrence and severity of hydrometeorological extreme events, with associated uncertainties; (iii) the integration of remote sensing data or climate forecasts and models to provide timely warnings or reliable predictions; and (iv) the use of advanced statistical methodologies to characterize extreme hydrometeorological events, among other topics.

Neurodegenerative disorders (NDs) are becoming more prevalent in our aging population, and traditional methods of monitoring ND symptoms can be challenging. Wearable technology offers several advantages, such as continuous monitoring, objective measurements, and remote monitoring. The present reprint includes a collection of eleven research and review articles that propose wearable solutions and explore signal processing, machine learning, and deep learning approaches for the computerized diagnosis and monitoring of NDs. Topics covered include using wearable technology to measure blood pressure, movement, sleep patterns, and brain activity, and developing predictive models to support clinicians in making informed decisions about treatment and care. This reprint is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the potential of wearable technology to improve the diagnosis and management of NDs.

The welfare of an individual could be severely affected by stressful events. Mainly for this reason, the scientific community is interested in finding specific and quantifiable characteristics which could indicate or predict specific signs of acute or chronic stress exposure. The aim of this reprint is to reflect this interest in the field of companion animal physiology. The authors engaged in publishing this reprint are experts in the multiple mechanisms involved in stress response, including the detection of behavioral and physical signs which can be measured through biological indicators of homeostasis displacement. The editors strongly believe this topic will be of interest not only to researchers in this field, but also to dog trainers, dog shelter workers and veterinary behaviorists.

This reprint is aimed at presenting strategic and design elements for the development of low-cost, low-size Free Electron Lasers.Different points of view are considered here, attempting to consider technologies and design conceptions that are fairly mature and may be viable solutions in the near or midterm future.The design conceptions proposed here are based on the so-called hybrid (or broader-approach) technologies, which put together, e.g., combinations of oscillator and amplifier configurations.These solutions, although developed almost thirty years ago, appear nowadays within the present technological capabilities.Other possibilities offered, for example , by the recirculated wave undulator FELs, represent border line technologies, which are worth carefully studying as the architecture of the mid-term future. Finally, the reprint addresses both theoretical and design considerations regarding proposals for the enhancement of coherent emission on higher harmonics.

This book presents some of the selected works presented during the 5th Mexican Workshop on Fractional Calculus on October 5-7, 2022, hosted by the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Nuevo León. The works correspond to those recent proposals and applications on fractional calculus carried out in Mexico or by Latin American researchers related in one way or another to this country. Unfortunately, some of the papers we discussed during these three days of complete (not fractional) immersion in the non-integer operators were disregarded from this book, not because of their quality or relevance but due to reasons out of the academic domain. It is also worth mentioning that students of all levels, practitioners, and researchers attending this workshop participated in great critical discussions in every single session, including tutorials, plenary talks, accepted talks, and-not the least relevant to science-coffee breaks.

In this Special Issue, authors from nine countries on five continents provide overviews on and insights into current research topics related to the 'Genetic Complexity of Hormone-Sensitive Cancers'. The chapters cover topics on completely novel technologies and instruments revolutionizing our view of biological entities, and also, novel extensions and revisions of existing and well-established technologies such as genetic probes and bar-coding techniques, which add a new dimension to microscopy, as they allow us to visualize DNA sequences and mRNA in situ. With this Special Issue, the editors wanted to create a forum for the international biomedical research community to compile their data on the genetic complexity of cancer in a unique resource. While this collection of articles cannot certainly claim completeness in any way, it represents an attractive collection of the different aspects of hormone-dependent cancers and will hopefully encourage further targeted research.

Dear Readers,This book describes the ability of some foods or natural substances extracted by plants to counteract some of the most common diseases at present, such as obesity, diabetes, intestinal inflammatory diseases, and neurodegeneration. It is well accepted that high-fat diets that are rich in saturated fats are involved in the onset and progression of obesity and its dangerous comorbidities. It is also well accepted that a balanced diet is useful to maintain a good health status and the choice of certain foods could help to counteract the onset of chronic diseases. Foods and natural substances rich in compounds with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties should be paid attention. Most of these foods belong to the Mediterranean Diet, and they are famous for being rich of unsaturated fatty acids, such as the oleic acid found in extra-virgin olive oil, or the omega 3 contained in fish, vitamin D and vitamin C with their high anti-oxidant capacity, and spices and nuts that can counteract inflammatory status. These substances have also anti-obesity properties, because they are able to reduce fat mass and and restore the physiological role of fat tissue. Therefore, strict adherence to this healthy diet could be enough to prevent the onset of chronic diseases linked to fatty diets or aging.The scientific data collected in this book could provide new insights, allowing for readers to change their own dietary habits and make more informed food choices.

This book considers studies related to the bone graft materials used for bone regeneration in dental and medical areas, and particularly studies on new development and development directions, such as synthetic bone and heterologous bone. Bone regeneration is one of the most important challenges in medicine. Previously, patients' autologous bones were collected and transplanted for bone regeneration, but this had many limitations. Many researchers are currently developing a method that surpasses the bone regeneration ability of an autologous bone, via the use of artificial bone or heterologous bone. By developing and commercializing more functional, more efficient graft materials, both medical standards and patients' quality of life will be improved.This book reflects some of the related studies, but its greatest contribution to the field is its suggestions for future research and possible developments in this area.

As increasingly sophisticated and evasive malware attacks continue to emerge, more effective detection solutions to tackle the problem are being sought through the application of advanced machine learning techniques. This reprint presents several advances in the field including: a new method of generating adversarial samples through byte sequence feature extraction using deep learning; a state-of-the-art comparative evaluation of deep learning approaches for mobile botnet detection; a novel visualization-based approach that utilizes images for Android botnet detection; a study on the detection of drive-by exploits in images using deep learning; etc. Furthermore, this reprint presents state-of-the-art reviews about machine learning-based detection techniques that will increase researchers' knowledge in the field and enable them to identify future research and development directions.