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It is a great pleasure to provide you this Special Issue of Nutrients related to the 5th International Conference "Vitamin D-Minimum, Maximum, Optimum", under the auspices of the European Vitamin D Association (EVIDAS).The conference and the forthcoming papers serve as an international forum for the presentation and discussion of current basic and clinical research in the field of vitamin D. Organizing this subsequent Special Issue was truly challenging, given that vitamin D has recently been shown by prestigious medical journals to be an epiphenomenon that coincides with diseases, and that the correction of vitamin D deficits has limited clinical meaning. On the other hand, it was recognized that vitamin D deficiency is a global health problem with potential negative consequences on health, welfare, and morbidity during growth and adulthood, therefore influencing healthcare services worldwide. Thus, due to mutually exclusive conclusions, it was essential to discuss and share scientific reports and evidence demonstrating both the benefits and lack thereof in relation to human health.Prof. Dr. Pawel PludowskiGuest Editor

Foods derived from grains and grain-based ingredients represent a crucial source of energy and nutrients for humans. Cereals are conventional food materials, while interest is growing in the utilization of pseudocereals, pulses, oilseeds, and other grains to develop various foods and food ingredients. Grain and food processing converts raw grains into functional ingredients and creates palatable and nutritious end-products. During processing, various physical and chemical changes and interactions take place, affecting the nutritional, textural, sensory, and other quality properties of the products. Methods, protocols, and equipment have been developed to process, monitor, and control processing parameters to achieve the desired end-product quality or functionality. This book covers diverse topics related to grain-processing innovations and the effect of both conventional and innovative grain processes on the properties of grain-derived ingredients, intermediates, and end products.

Optical technology is one of the key technologies that have been widely used for communication, computing and sensing. By utilizing different degrees of freedom for photon, optical signals can be detected and processed in different dimensions including amplitude, phase, polarization, time, frequency, and spatial mode. Multidimensional signal processing technologies have thus been broadly studied for improving the performance of communication, sensing and even computing systems. Recently, innovative optical signal processing methods and devices have been emerged to serve those needs driven by applications including but not limited to optical fiber transmission, supercontinuum generation, phase conjugation, free space optical communication, optical beamforming, photonic integration, fiber amplification, pose estimation and so on. This Special Issue aims to explore those emerging and enabling technologies of signal processing methods and devices for optical communication, optical computing, and optical sensing. The Special Issue consists of two review papers, one communication and seven articles within the areas of optical fiber transmission, specialty fiber design, 3D pose estimation, free space communication, digital signal processing, as well as photonic integration. Optical signal processing powered next generation communication, computing and sensing can be highly expected.

Diet contributes to the development of many chronic conditions including obesity, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, some cancers, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and potentially some neurological diseases. This book addresses associations between diet (and specific nutrients including vitamin D) and various chronic diseases including obesity, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, neurological conditions, and age-related macular degeneration. More specifically, the impacts of plant-based diets, dairy products, and ketogenic diets are explored in relation to chronic disease risk as well as some benefits of the consumption of oral nutritional supplements in the prevention of malnutrition and sarcopenia and in the treatment of wounds in individuals with diabetes. Additional topics that are covered include some roles of the fatty acid arachidonic acid in the body and the impact of cellular mitochondrial dysfunction on the progression of age-related macular degeneration. The effectiveness of a variety of nutraceuticals is covered as a means for the prevention or treatment of age-related macular degeneration. Lastly, the use of olive oil in reducing gut permeability in those with pre-diabetes is addressed, as well as the complex relationships of diet/food and of disease (metabolic syndrome) with the gut microbiota.

This reprint addresses the relationship between education and sustainability from various perspectives. The main issues discussed in the 12 collected papers are concerned with (1) the quality of education, (2) SDG policy and implementation, (3) education and societal development, (4) students' learning, and (5) global experience.

The Special Issue "Mapping, Monitoring and Assessing Disasters" includes recent advances and results from research in the field of disaster detection and monitoring, and disaster impact assessment and mapping. It includes 10 research articles on multiparametric and interdisciplinary research on disaster phenomena related to geophysical and hydrometeorological hazards (e.g., earthquakes, landslides, tsunami, medicanes, megafires) that have occurred in various regions of Greece, New Zealand and Chile. These approaches constitute a useful and effective tool for mapping, monitoring and assessing disasters in areas with similar geodynamic settings and geoenvironmental properties worldwide.

This Special Issue highlights the last decade's progress regarding new nanostructured materials. In this regard, the development of nanoscale syntheses and innovative characterization tools resulted in the tailored design of nanostructured materials with versatile abilities in many applications were investigated. Various types of engineered nanostructures, usually metal nanoparticles or nanoporous metal oxides, have been synthesized for various applications. This Special Issue covers the state-of-the-art of advanced nanoparticles in many disciplines (chemistry, pharmacy, nano-medicine, agriculture, catalysis, and environmental science). The Special Issue entitled, Synthesis, Characterization and Application of Sustainable Advanced Nanomaterials, including 18 original research works, focuses on highlighting the progress, challenges, and future directions in the area of the synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials and nanostructures with multiple applications in chemistry, physics, biology, and medicine [1-3].

Transportation, logistics, and supply chain systems and networks constitute one of the pillars of modern economies and societies. From sustainable traffic management in smart cities or air transportation to green and socially responsible logistics practices, many enterprises and governments around the world have to make decisions that affect the efficiency of these complex systems. Typically, optimization algorithms are employed to deal with these challenges, and simulation approaches are utilized when considering scenarios under uncertainty. However, better results might be achieved by hybridizing both optimization algorithms with simulation techniques to deal with real-life transportation, logistics, and SCM challenges, which often are large-scale and NP-hard problems under uncertainty conditions. Hence, simheuristic algorithms (combining metaheuristics with simulation) as well as other simulation optimization approaches constitute an effective way to support decision makers in such complex scenarios.This reprint presents a collection of selected articles on simulation optimization in transportation, logistics, and supply chain management. The reprint is strongly connected to the topics covered in the Winter Simulation Conference (WSC) track on logistics, transportation, and SCM, which includes a stream in simheuristic algorithms as well.

This book includes 16 original articles published in a Special Issue that focuses on the pathological significance of amyloid-¿ in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, the main cause of dementia. Collections in this book provide novel insights into the underlying mechanisms and therapeutic potentials of repositioning drugs and new agents for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. These findings are expected to contribute to the development of innovative strategies for the prevention and treatment of such diseases.

Musculoskeletal research deals with the effects of the orthopedic treatment of pathologies on the biomechanics of the affected areas and on the musculoskeletal system. Biomechanical measurement methods enable the quantitative determination of these influences and allow for an assessment of their extent and size for the patient (in vivo). The range of examination methods is particularly wide in this field of musculoskeletal research. On the one hand, in vitro examinations under laboratory conditions on simplified models, such as artificial bones or specimens from donors, will be implemented. With the help of these models, for example, new biomaterials or implants for the treatment of fractures are often examined for their primary stability or the influence of a joint replacement on the kinematics. In contrast to experimental in vitro studies, numerical methods will be increasingly applied to analyze a large number of implant configurations and loading scenarios. With the method of clinical motion analysis, a comprehensive view of the musculoskeletal system is performed directly in vivo on the patient. For example, it allows for the monitoring and control of therapeutic interventions. These are just a few examples from the field of musculoskeletal research and its methods. They all have the common goal of increasing patient safety. This Special Issue intends to provide the reader with an exciting overview of current research in the field of biomechanical investigations for the treatment of musculoskeletal diseases.

Unlike transistors, the continuous downscaling of feature size in CMOS technology leads to a dramatic rise in interconnect resistivity and concomitant performance degradation. At nanoscale technology nodes, interconnect delay and reliability become the major bottlenecks faced by modern integrated circuits. To resolve these interconnect problems, various emerging technologies, including airgap, nanocarbon, optical, and through-silicon via (TSV), have been proposed and investigated. For example, by virtue of TSV technology, dies can be stacked to increase the integration density. More importantly, 3D integration and packaging also offer the most promising platform to implement "More-than-Moore" technologies, providing heterogeneous materials and technologies on a single chip. The "Advanced Interconnect and Packaging" Special Issue seeks to showcase research papers on new developments in advanced interconnect and packaging, i.e., on the design, modeling, fabrication, and reliability assessment of emerging interconnect and packaging technologies. Additionally, there are two interesting papers on carbon nanotube interconnects and interconnect reliability issues.

Energy systems have played an essential role in the history of human civilization. As our civilization evolves, energy systems are expected to adapt to the environment and desire of people for more sustainable development whilst meeting the ever-increasing energy demand of society. To address global warming and its threats to sustainable development to multiple ends, major economies around the world have announced low-carbon, carbon-neutral, or negative-carbon development targets. To meet these goals, the energy systems as we know them today need to undergo substantial structural changes in terms of the way primary energy is extracted from nature, converted to secondary energy, transmitted from conversion sites to end use, and shifted between time slots to coordinate supply and demand. The share of renewable and fossil energy in the overall energy portfolio could experience unprecedented structural change of a kind not witnessed since industrialization. To cope with this harsh transition, energy systems should be planned, designed, retrofitted, and operated in a revolutionary manner.This reprint aims to present the most recent advances in energy systems analysis towards low/zero/negative carbon emission targets via integration amongst different primary energy supplies, between multiple energy supplies and demands, across geographically separated regions, and over different time scales from seconds to seasons.

The book is a reprint of a Special Issue with the same title published online in the chemical journal Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049) within the section of Medicinal Chemistry. It was edited by academic guest editors from September 2020 to April 2022. In total, it includes eighteen research/review articles including the editorial.

This reprint contains a Special Issue of the MDPI journal Machines on Italian advances in mechanism and machines science through a collection of selected papers from the Fourth International Conference of IFToMM Italy, IFIT 2022.The included papers belong to a broad range of disciplines in MMS, with research and design results that can be of interest not only to scholars in the field of MMS and mechanical engineering but also to professionals and even students, broadening their understanding of the problems and solutions under development, mainly, but not only, from the Italian community.

The global financial crisis plunged the global economy into a great recession. Many central banks responded with unconventional monetary policies such as quantitative easing, negative policy rates, and forward guidance to calm down financial markets. The COVID-19 pandemic led the global economy, financial markets, and central banks to face even more severe problems. Central banks set up further asset purchase programmes to complement existing unconventional monetary policy measures that have already been in place to help the economy to absorb the COVID-19 shock. The new crisis has increased the importance of preserving financial stability through the international cooperation of central banks around the globe. Managing the expectations of market participants plays a crucial role in the context of financial stability. Therefore, the aim of this Special Issue is to disseminate important empirical and theoretical research questions concerning the connection between monetary policy and international financial markets and to stimulate discussion among academics and policymakers. A special focus is devoted to emerging and developing economies.The Special Issue covers several different articles on a variety of topics from the fields of monetary policy and international financial markets. The contributions address research questions on exchange rates, cryptocurrencies, stock markets, the connection between money supply and inflation after the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of commodity price shocks for banking system stability in developing countries, global liquidity effects, the twin deficit, and the Taylor rule.

Let us introduce this new reprint published by MDPI. This volume is the second part of a previous one devoted to Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Materials, published by MDPI in 2021. As expected, these unique ten contributions fully agree with the definition of hybrid material as per the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) recommendations, defining hybrid materials as the composed of an intimate mixture of inorganic or both types of components interpenetrating scales of less than one micron. Therefore, the reader may deduce that this definition offers many approximations to investigate in the field. Orrganic-inorganic materials are multi-component systems with at least one of their organic (the polymer) or inorganic components in the nano-metric size domain, which confers the material as a whole greatly enhanced properties respecting the constitutive parts in isolation. The works compiled in this volume are at the forefront of Organic-Inorganic Hybrid material research. So, these ten new articles would provide information and inspiration for future applications in this fantastic and fascinating scientific field.

This reprint focuses on original research articles on the use of geodetic measurement techniques for land deformation identification, monitoring, and impact assessment. The development and application of modern surveying techniques for understanding land deformation is of particular interest. There is a special focus on examining the current and advanced geodetic measurement techniques, including radar interferometry (InSAR), global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), light detection and ranging (LiDAR), close-range photogrammetry (CRP), Robotic Total Station (RTS), digital levelling etc., to detect and monitor land deformation.

This reprint focuses on quantitatively assessing the impact of climate change on agricultural production based on multi-source model simulation and reveals the role and mechanism of improved management measures in adapting to climate change.Modeling is a key tool for exploring the impacts of climate change on agriculture and proposing adaptation strategies. The insights derived from this reprint will be helpful for relevant decision makers in the areas of agricultural adaptation and food security.

The replacement of the bridging H atom in H-bonds by a multitude of other, more electronegative, atoms has led to the rapidly growing study of related noncovalent bonds generally known as halogen, chalcogen, and pnicogen bonds. It has recently been recognized that elements of the tetrel family (C, Si, Ge, Sn, Pb) also engage in such bonds, wherein the tetrel atom serves as an electron acceptor to an incoming Lewis base, and that these bonds can be quite strong. This type of bond has the potential to be of importance comparable even to that of the well-researched H-bond, as it may be far more prevalent than has been realized, perhaps a common feature of chemical and biological systems too numerous to mention. The articles included in this volume delve into the many facets of tetrel bonds: the factors determining their strength, their geometrical requirements, various phenomena in which they play an outsized role, and the means by which they can be detected and measured.

Psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents are relevant both in terms of their prevalence (they are roughly estimated to affect about 20% of school-aged children and adolescents) and of their impact on the quality of life of the child/adolescent and their family, but also on the society as a whole. Disorders affecting children and adolescents are increasingly seen as having highly specific features, and, therefore, require an equally specific approach despite the coexisting need to integrate contributions from other professions (e.g., pediatricians, psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists of different sorts). However, the available data are still insufficient, especially for treatment options and too often therapeutic choices are still made based on studies conducted in adults. Even more important, the existence itself of some disorders is questioned especially outside the scientific field (e.g., ADHD). This Special Issue provided cutting edge data on different aspects of child and adolescent psychiatry, including etiopatogenesis, clinical characteristics and diagnosis, medical and neurological comorbidities (and psychiatric comorbidities of medical and neurological disorders), impact on patients/families/society (including school and other social groups), prognosis, and treatment options of the different disorders.

Several factors influence consumers' choices of food products. While price remains the main criterion, quality, pleasure, convenience, and health are also important driving factors in food market evolution. Food enterprises are making significant efforts to manufacture products that meet consumers' demands without compromising on safety standards. Additionally, the food industry also aims to improve the efficiency of transformation and conservation processes by minimizing energy consumption, process duration, and waste generation. However, foods are highly complex systems in which: (i) Non-linear dynamics and interactions among different temporal and spatial scales must be considered; (ii) A wide range of physical phenomena occur; (iii) Different food matrices, with different microstructures and properties are involved; and (iv) The number of quality and safety indicators (such as bacteria, total volatile basic nitrogen, color, texture, odor, and sensory characteristics) is substantial. Mathematical modeling and simulation are key elements that allow us to gain a deeper understanding of food processes and enable the use of tools such as optimization and real-time control to improve their efficiency. This Special Issue gathers research on the development of dynamic mathematical models that describe the relevant factors in food processes, and model-based tools to improve such processes. The contributions published in this Special Issue can be grouped into two categories: the evolution of safety and quality indicators in unprocessed food systems, and transformation and preservation processes.

This reprint presents the published papers of a Special Issue titled Antioxidant Activity of Essential Oils, of the journal Antioxidants, MDPI. Obviously, essential oils are a point of huge interest, due to them being rich in bioactive substances (with their recognised antioxidant, immunomodulatory, antibacterial, antiviral, etc., effects) and are also used extensively in the beauty/cosmetic industry, food products, etc. Considering the global trend of "return to nature", both in eating habits/nutrition, and in the adjuvant therapies (implying essential oils) addressed in the case of numerous diseases, and taking into account the interest of the authors who submitted their papers, the current topic can be considered to be of great interest and with increased and promising potential for future research.

This Special Issue contains contributions from colleagues, former students and collaborators of the late Prof. Miron Amusia, who was a world-leading figure in theoretical atomic physics over the past half a century. The focus of this Special Issue is on many-electron and multiphoton atomic processes that are at the forefront of contemporary atomic and molecular physics. Special attention is given to the many-electron correlation problem and its interplay with strong field laser-atom interactions. These scientific advances represent the lasting legacy of Prof. Amusia and his school.

Liquid biopsy shows promise for cancer screening and diagnostics. This reprint collects recent scientific literature on the identification and application of tumor biomarkers in biological fluids to improve the diagnosis of cancer and the identification of optimal therapeutic strategies.

This reprint addresses fundamental research about the integration of transport modes into unique mobility infrastructure and services, allowing for multimodal choices for passengers in their journey and increasing the sustainability of mobility. The reprint has important relevancy given the increasing attention devoted to sustainability aspects in aviation and the emerging need to achieve multimodality in transportation, by integrating the vertical dimension with the horizontal one, particularly in urban and peri-urban environments. New technologies and concepts are considered for implementing seamless door-to-door travel, which requires the implementation of fully integrated intermodal transport systems, allowing for passengers to have easy and seamless transfer between different transport modes, where Air Traffic Management (ATM) and air transport can play a fundamental role. The new paradigm in transport is of shifting from the optimization of the individual transport segments to the optimization of the overall journey, including all the possible transportation means that allow for achieving, in combination and with multimodal possible choice, a unique seamless door-to-door journey. Through this new paradigm, it will be possible to increase the efficiency of the overall transport chain by improving the interoperability of the different modes of transport, while simultaneously increasing environmental, social, and economic sustainability, prompting a more efficient use of existing and future infrastructure.

In order to be able to analyze and give proper advice on sport techniques, it is important to understand the biomechanical and physiological demands of different sports. In a coaching situation, feedback to the athlete should be given without too much delay. Over the past decades, sensor technology-related to sports monitoring has developed with huge steps. Senors are lighter, data transmission is mostly wireless, and software applications are more user-friendly.This book is addressed to all kinds of sensors that are currently being used for monitoring different sports.

Heusler type magnetic shape memory alloys (MSMAs) have gained a strong academic and practical importance during recent decades due to the giant effects they exhibit, particularly magnetostrain produced by magnetic field-induced twin boundaries motion and magneto(elasto)-caloric effects resulting from the magnetic field-induced martensitic transformation.This Special Issue intends to communicate the latest advances in R&D and theory of MSMAs. This book consists of a collection of eleven invited peer-reviewed papers, each detailing a particular aspect in the fundamental and/or applied investigation of MSMAs and related phenomena. The papers are a corpus of up-to-date information on the ongoing studies of MSMAs. It is hoped that this book will be useful to physicists and materials scientists, both specialists and graduate students, and enable future technological breakthroughs in engineering.

This book contains all the articles published in the Special Issue "Dynamic Modeling and Simulation for Control Systems" from the MDPI Mathematics journal. This Special Issue aims to cover important aspects of how to optimize the dynamic behavior of physical systems using special algorithms and artificial intelligence in the modeling, simulation, and optimization of components and systems from important fields such as astronautics, aerospace, avionics, robotics, manufacturing systems, mechanical engineering, power energy, materials technology, and neurorehabilitation. It is our hope that this Special Issue will contribute to the research on techniques for the modeling, simulation, and optimization of control systems in dynamic systems.

In this reprint, state-of-the-art research and review articles on emerging material systems for additive manufacturing (AM) are collected, with a focus on the process-structure-properties relationships.Additive manufacturing (AM) has grown and evolved rapidly in recent years. There are many exciting research and translational works in many areas of application, such as biomedical, aerospace and electronics. These advancements are typically coupled with materials development, which has resulted in more functionalities added to 3D-printed parts, such as multi-material fabrications and integration with machine learning or digital twins. Such enhancements in functionalities have enabled the evolution of AM from a rapid prototyping tool to an actual manufacturing solution. In this reprint, two reviews and thirteen original research articles are included to highlight the latest development in the field of materials science for AM.

The automotive industry has always been synonymous with research and innovation, but nowadays the industry is adding pressure and is establishing the agenda of the researchers from the field. Visions have been provided, and the hardware and the software exist; the only question remaining is: "who is going to deliver"?To answer this question, we encouraged scientists, researchers, industry specialists, and academics to share their vision of autonomous vehicles. What will the platform look like? What kind of hardware and software is most suitable? Who will make the connection between these two interdependent environments (and how), so that in the end the AI will define the process? These are the pressing issues of the current moment, and this Special Issue will help all those interested in the topic to promote their vision and ideas.Since the automotive field does not belong to a classical scientific field but has become an independent self-made scientific branch, all those who felt that they could contribute to this highly dynamic environment were requested to join in promoting their particular research or reviews in this Special Issue coordinated from both academia and the industry.