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Recently, the attention paid to self-care tests and the easy and large screening of a high number of people has dramatically increased. Indeed, easy and affordable tools for the safe management of biological fluids together with self-diagnosis have emerged as compulsory requirements in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, to lighten the pressure on public healthcare institutions and thus limiting the diffusion of infections. Obviously, other kinds of pathologies (cancer or other degenerative diseases) also continue to require attention, with progressively earlier and more widespread diagnoses. The contribution to the development of this research field comes from the areas of innovative plastic and 3D microfluidics, smart chemistry and the integration of miniaturized sensors, going in the direction of improving the performances of in vitro diagnostic (IVD) devices.In our Special Issue, we include papers describing easy strategies to identify diseases at the point-of-care and near-the-bed levels, but also dealing with innovative biomarkers, sample treatments, and chemistry processes which, in perspective, represent promising tools to be applied in the field.

Viruses of the Parvoviridae family constitute a most diverse and intriguing field of research. Parvoviruses can differ widely in their structure, genome organization and expression, virus-cell interactions, and impact on hosts. The translational implication of research on parvoviruses is relevant, since many viruses are important human and veterinary pathogens, while other viruses can be engineered as tools for oncolytic therapy or as sophisticated gene delivery vectors.Exploring the diversity and inherent complexity in the biology of these apparently simple viruses is a still challenging topic for the scientific community. The Special Issue of Viruses is a collection of recent contributions in the field of parvovirus research, encompassing many aspects of basic and translational research on viruses of the family Parvoviridae, including on their structure, replication, and gene expression in addition to virus-host interactions and the development of vaccines and viral vectors.

The development and promotion of teaching-enhanced learning tools in the academic field is leading to the collection of a large amount of data generated from the usual activity of students and teachers. The analysis of these data is an opportunity to improve many aspects of the learning process: recommendations of activities, dropout prediction, performance and knowledge analysis, resource optimization, etc. However, these improvements would not be possible without the application of computer science techniques that have demonstrated high effectiveness for this purpose: data mining, big data, machine learning, deep learning, collaborative filtering, and recommender systems, among other fields related to intelligent systems. This Special Issue provides 17 papers that show advances in the analysis, prediction, and recommendation of applications propelled by artificial intelligence, big data, and machine learning in the teaching-enhanced learning context.

In collaboration with the MDPI publishing house, we are pleased to introduce the reader to our new project, a Special Issue entitled "Advanced Eco-friendly Wood-Based Composites". This Special Issue provides an opportunity to investigate advanced eco-friendly wood-based composites from a broader perspective. The coronavirus pandemic and shutdown measures employed to contain it, as well as the ongoing war in Ukraine, have influenced and decelerated the world economy and adversely impacted research activities on most levels in all countries. Surprisingly, researchers in the field of wood-based composites have continued to make progress, which is also described in this Special Issue.

Water pollution from biorefractory pollutants and emerging contaminants is still a very relevant problem worldwide. Examples of these pollutants include disinfection by-products, pharmaceutical and personal care products, persistent organic chemicals, as well as their degradation products. The occurrence of these contaminants in water has raised increasing concern due to their accumulation and persistence in the environment and the threat they pose to the ecological system and human health. In this Special Issue, papers regarding the advancements in materials and processes for use in the electro- and photoelectrochemical removal of different pollutants from water are collected. The synthesis, characterization and application of materials for use in electrochemical or photoelectrochemical techniques are presented, as well as studies concerning catalytic processes and reaction kinetics.

Pulsed lasers are lasers with a single laser pulse width of less than 0.25 s, operating only once in every certain time interval. Commonly used pulsed lasers are nanosecond, femtosecond, and picosecond lasers. A pulsed laser produces short pulses with a short interaction time with the material, which can largely avoid impact on the thermal movement of molecules and has a minimal thermal impact on the surrounding materials, thus having significant advantages in precision microfabrication. It is now widely used in flexible electronics, chips, medicine, and other fields, such as photographic resin curing, microwelding, vision correction, heart stent manufacturing, etc. However, as an emerging processing technology, the application prospects of pulsed lasers have yet to be fully expanded, and there is still a need to continuously explore the mechanisms of interaction with materials, to manufacture advanced functional structures, and to develop advanced process technologies.

This Special Issue will include papers related to the planning, protection, and control of smart grids and microgrids, and their applications in the industry, transportation, water, waste, and urban and residential infrastructures.Authors are encouraged to present their latest research; reviews on topics including methods, approaches, systems, and technology; and interfaces to other domains such as big data, cybersecurity, human-machine, sustainability, and smart cities. The planning side of microgrids might include technology selection, scheduling, interconnected microgrids, and their integration with regional energy infrastructures. The protection side of microgrids might include topics related to protection strategies, risk management, protection technologies, abnormal scenario assessments, equipment and system protection layers, fault diagnosis, validation and verification, and intelligent safety systems. The control side of smart grids and microgrids might include control strategies, intelligent control algorithms and systems, control architectures, technologies, embedded systems, monitoring, and deployment and implementation.

This reprint is intended for a broad readership of phytopathologists. It includes different scientific contributions focused on many crucial aspects, such as the identification, characterization and rapid detection of plant diseases; predictive models and deep learning networks; and ecofriendly measures for disease management.

This Special Issue aims to bring together the various aspects of plant cell tissue and organ culture with a special emphasis on the production of phytochemical compounds, considered therapeutically valuable for their antioxidant, antiviral, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties.Secondary metabolites play a key role in the diverse defense mechanisms of the plant organism in response to environmental stimuli, such as climatic fluctuations, pathogenic organisms, predatory herbivores, and competing plants. Therefore, by providing the opportunity for controlled modifications of environmental conditions, in vitro culture is an easy-to-manage experimental system that can be utilized as a source of secondary metabolites for industrial applications, as well as for food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical purposes.This Special Issue will highlight the modern use of different plant cell tissue and organ culture approaches for successfully producing plant secondary metabolites, particularly those with high economic value.

This reprint focuses on state-of-the-art vibration sensing and energy harvesting technologies. The 11 chapters can be divided into three aspects: (i) new materials for vibration energy harvesting applications, (ii) design and fabrication of vibration energy harvesters (VEHs), and (iii) system-level integration and testing of VEHs.

This reprint, "Flexible Micromanipulators and Micromanipulation," is a collection of 12 full research articles that provide insights into the latest development and applications in the field of micromanipulation which has important applications in areas, such as metal additive manufacturing, medical devices, and robotics. The topics of the reprint cover the design and fabrication of magnetic actuators, electromagnetic levitation systems, compliant manipulators and robots, micromanipulation of microparticles and microcapsules to characterize mechanical properties of microscale objects, and inchworm robot for inspection, assembly, and maintenance.

Pharmacology and Pharmacognosy is organized into twelve articles that explore therapeutic potential of different natural products from land and marine. The articles contain highly detailed coverage of information that has been overseen by an editorial board made up of well-respected, field-leading experts. The content in this book offers readers an in-depth and easily accessible reference work on every aspect of natural product research surrounding the pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, pharmacognosy, and bioinformatics of all natural products and their scaffolds, their mechanism of action, and their therapeutic values. These elements are essential to be selected as future drugs are almost never tested and developed in the actual therapeutic system, but rather in test systems from which parameters must be determined to predict activity in systems of varying ambient physiology. As different technologies rapidly evolve, there is an ever-increasing level of knowledge about the natural products, along with increasing capability to utilize bioactive molecules to predict new drugs against chronic diseases, all of which must be communicated to professionals in varying fields.

Antimicrobial resistance is the intrinsic capability of microorganisms to survive unfavorable conditions; such traits are mainly transferrable through movable genetic elements, enabling the rapid and homogeneous diffusion of resistance genes over diverse ecosystems and sectors including human medicine, veterinary medicine, and the environment. In this view, the One Health approach allows for a comprehensive depiction of the mechanisms responsible for the onset and spread of antimicrobial resistance traits, as well as enabling a clear definition of the dynamics that occurs among microbial members harboring diverse ecological niches that favor the orthogonal diffusion of antibiotic resistance between apparently separate milieus.

Despite major medical advances in recent decades, colorectal cancer remains a major public health problem with significant unmet medical needs. This reprint presents new scientific and clinical data, and discusses the need to identify new theranostic biomarkers from tissue and fluid biopsies, to go further in terms of personalised medicine and thus overcome current limitations.

It is crucial that scientists and engineers develop their expertise and capability through research and practice to quantify the interaction of infrastructure with the surroundings and the ground upon which they are founded. Therefore, the engineering concept 'soil-structure interaction' forms an integral part of delivering successful project outcomes. As the Lead and Honorary Editor for this Special Issue, Soil-Structure Interaction, I cordially invited the submission of esteemed articles related to recent projects, research, or case studies. These articles detail how geosciences (soil, rock, ground water, geochemistry, geology, hydrogeology, surface run-off, rain, wind, and temperature) directly interact with and impact the performance of human-made structures, buildings, or infrastructure through the following aspects:i) Underground construction; ii) Innovative ground improvement methods; iii) Geological explorations and interpretation; iv) Instrumentation and field observational method; v) Use of artificial intelligence or algorithms; vi) Forensic engineering or inverse-analysis methods; vii) Geophysical methods for soil or rock characterization; viii) Advancement in laboratory and field testing of geomaterials; ix) Advancement in numerical analysis; x) Advancement in multi-disciplinary design theories, codes of practice, and engineering education.

This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive collection of works on recent advances and developments in smart polymer hydrogels applied to the biomedical and nanotechnological fields. The research topic covers all hydrogels, including polymer hydrogels, supramolecular gels, hybrid hydrogels, metallohydrogels, etc.Stimulus-responsive polymer hydrogels have attracted considerable interest as promising smart materials due to their tremendous potential in biomedical and nanotechnological applications. They can respond to different chemical and physical external stimuli, including pH, temperature, light, enzyme activity, redox agents, the electric or magnetic field, and chemicals. Compared to single stimulus-responsive polymer hydrogels, multiple-responsive hydrogels exhibit higher flexibility and tunability to realize multiplefunctionality in a synergistic manner. The structural and phase transition of polymer hydrogels triggered by external stimuli offers enormous potential for drug delivery, tumor therapy, tissue engineering, and biodevices.

This Special Issue of the journal Microorganisms highlights recent publications on the importance of the antimicrobial effect of probiotics. Current research is focused on finding novel or next-generation probiotic strains with antimicrobial properties that can efficiently modulate the ecological taxa composition and functionality of the human microbiota in the gut and beyond. Overall, this Special Issue has brought together new studies on the antimicrobial effects of various novel probiotics from the Weissella, Bacillus, Leuconostoc and Levilactobacillus genera, as well as well-known probiotic food supplements. It also highlights successful applications of probiotics for different infectious diseases including rotaviral gastrointestinal infections, wound infections and even COVID-19.

Sustainable education and social networks are two important concepts that are closely related. The combination of sustainable education and social networks can be powerful in promoting positive change and creating a more sustainable future. Here are some ways in which these two concepts can be integrated:1. Online learning.2. Awareness raising.3. Collaboration.4. Engagement.5. Sharing of best practices.In conclusion, the integration of sustainable education and social networks has the potential to promote positive change and create a more sustainable future by making education more accessible, engaging, and impactful.

The book showcases a review and empirical studies on life satisfaction and its related aspects. The studies are from several countries on a wide range of samples including university students, faculty, nurses, entrepreneurs, adolescents, national databases, refugees, and community samples.

Microalgae are photosynthetic unicellular microorganisms that represent an extremely important component of the aquatic ecosystem productivity, diversity, and functioning. Moreover, these microorganisms, using a network of signals, interact with all the other organisms present in their environment. Signals are often secondary metabolites that play an important role in competition, defense, attraction, and signaling. These molecules are recognized for having bioactive properties, but some of them are still largely underexplored and underexploited. This Special Issue focuses on studies aimed to improve knowledge on microalgal ecology (diversity and dynamics) in aquatic ecosystems, as well as on their capacity to produce bioactive compounds with potential biotechnological applications.

We thank all contributors of this Special Issue and the editorial staff of Crystals for helping this Special Issue achieve success; we are especially gratefully to the expert reviewers who agreed to review the papers submitted to this Special Issue for their diligence and timely effort. Under joint efforts, finally, this Special Issue published 15 papers, including 1 review paper and 14 original research papers. These published papers are mainly related to the mechanical properties of superelastic alloys, titanium alloys, shape memory alloys, various kinds of steels, medium-entropy alloys, high-temperature alloys, etc. Under the success of this Special Issue, the published papers will promote the development and progress of advanced metallic materials. We sincerely hope these papers can cause the readers to be informative and inspire them to obtain new ideas.

The objective of this reprint is to present the main evidence-based data on new developments and knowledge in diagnostic and treatment technologies in the orofacial field used in both children and adults. The published content has been met with great success in interdisciplinary fields, stimulating international authors to submit their original articles, reviews, or case reports based on various aspects of orthodontics as well as on the diagnosis and management of temporomandibular disorders and orofacial pain. Among the current highly debated topics, this reprint focuses on multiple disciplines as follows: gingival recessions and periodontal status after orthodontic treatment; a rare case of impacted central incisors; predictors of analgesic consumption in orthodontic patients; a systematic review about different dentoskeletal class III treatment approaches; evaluation of upper airway volumes; and cephalometric values in JIA patients.

Ribosome-inactivating proteins (RIPs) are rRNA N-glycosylases isolated mainly from plants that catalyze the hydrolysis of the N-glycosidic bond of a specific adenosine in the sarcin-ricin loop (SRL) of the major ribosomal RNA. Because the SRL is crucial for anchoring translation elongation factors, RIPs cause inactivation of ribosomes. They have been classified into two types based on the presence (type 2 RIPs) or absence (type 1 RIPs) of a lectin chain that can turn type 2 RIPs into potent toxins, such as ricin or abrin. The biological role of these proteins is unknown, but they are thought to be a defense mechanism of some plants against pathogens and predators. Because of their enzymatic action, RIPs show several biological activities, among which antiviral, antifungal and antiproliferative activities stand out. The most promising application of RIPs is their use as a component of immunotoxins, in which RIPs are linked to antibodies that mediate their binding and internalization by malignant cells. In agriculture, RIPs have been shown to increase resistance against viruses, fungi and insects in transgenic plants. The studies collected in this book provide the reader with an overview of the most current and interesting lines of research in the field of RIPs and their applications in medicine and agriculture. Thus, the reprint includes the isolation and biological properties of some new RIPs, both type 1 and type 2, the mechanisms of toxicity of previously described RIPs and two extensive reviews, one on the antiviral activity of RIPs and the other on the strategies used to improve their pharmacological properties.

The field of radiopharmaceuticals is constantly evolving thanks to the great contributions of specialists coming from different disciplines such as inorganic chemistry, radiochemistry, organic and biochemistry, pharmacology, nuclear medicine, physics, etc. In particular, the use of radiometals has experienced a great increase as a result of the development of radionuclides production technologies. In this particular area, inorganic chemistry skills are mainly involved in developing target-specific radiopharmaceuticals based on radiometals for non-invasive disease detection and cancer radiotherapy.The Special Issue "Metal-Based Radiopharmaceuticals in Inorganic Chemistry" includes eleven research articles and one review. The production and applications of conventional and newly emerging research radiometals for diagnosis, therapy, and theranostics are the main focus of this Special Issue.

This reprint is based on "Antimicrobial resistance and anti-biofilms" in the journal Antibiotics since November of 2020. This reprint has one editorial article, eight research articles, one review article, and one case report article, covering a time period of 15 months from December of 2021 to February of 2023. Containing three major sub-topics in this reprint, four manuscripts regarding the prevalence of resistant microbes, the emergence and evolution of resistance, and the molecular investigation of resistance mechanisms fall into the first sub-topic as "Antimicrobial resistance in microorganisms: epidemiology and molecular mechanism"; three manuscripts fall into the second sub-topic as "New antibiofilm strategy against fungal and/or bacterial biofilms"; and three manuscripts regarding the production and characteristics of these functional material encapsulated/ delivered natural compounds, in vitro and in vivo antimicrobial and antivirulent effects, and their potential applications, such as in food and medicine, fall into the third sub-topic as "Influence of Functional Material-Based Encapsulation/Delivery on the Antimicrobial and Antivirulent Effects of Natural Compounds". Articles contained in this reprint have provided comprehensive knowledge and insight in understanding of antimicrobial resistance epidemiology and molecular mechanism and new antibiofilm strategies.

In this Special Issue, we have a great collection of 11 outstanding articles that have been published. This Special Issue presents the recent progress on emerging low-dimensional materials and could encourage their future investigations. We hope that both researchers and the community in general can benefit from the outcomes of this Special Issue reprint.

Soil erosion caused by wind is significant to Earth systems and human health. There is a strong interest in understanding the factors and processes of soil erosion caused by wind as well as in developing and applying methods to control dust emission from soils and to stabilize active sands. The Special Issue contains information on applications of natural and synthetic materials to reduce soil erosion, development of materials and methods, experimental methods and modeling, impacts on the soil quality and the environments, and quantification of the efficiency in dust control and sand stabilization applications.

The Special Issue "Elastomers: From Theory to Applications" focuses on the current state of the art of elastomers, both in modern developments of rubber-like compositions and applications and from a theoretical perspective. The series of 13 publications offer the latest results in several specific sub-areas of elastomer research or review selected fields and concepts. Of particular interest are new structures and functionalities incorporated into elastomers, leading to the enhanced properties of crosslinked elastomeric materials for several applications, and/or to a better understanding of the structure¿property relationships and practical behaviour.

This Special Issue of the journal Axioms collects submissions in which the authors report their perceptions and results in the field of mathematical physics and/or physical mathematics without any preconditions of the specific research topic. The papers are intended to provide the reader with a broad window into the status of the research field showing our understanding of how a known concept changes our thinking in that area of science. The papers in the Special Issue highlight the current two issues in physics and mathematics under hot debate: fractional calculus and entropy.

Plasma technology has arisen as a novel approach in the processing and manufacturing of novel materials in recent years. Due to its benefits, such as its superior sterilizing performance, low cost, and environmental friendliness, atmospheric pressure plasma has drawn the attention of researchers. As a result, atmospheric pressure plasma manufacturing in different configurations (plan parallel and jet plasma) is becoming more popular. The necessity to characterize these types of plasmas has greatly expanded as a result of its wide range of applications. Due to these factors, "Recent Advances in Atmospheric-Pressure Plasma Technology" Issue in the journal Applied Physics that brings together experts in all areas of experimental, computational, and theoretical research on atmospheric pressure plasmas. This Special Issue brings together cutting-edge new research on the fundamental characteristics of these plasmas as well as their applications in the fields of medicine, the food industry, agriculture, 3D printing, materials processing science, and even the automotive and aerospace industries.Despite the fact that we were only able to touch on a small percentage of the potential applications for plasma discharge, we nevertheless hope that readers will find this reprint to be interesting and that they will discover new angles for their own future research on plasma.