Böcker utgivna av Mdpi AG

Today, there is a huge demand for advanced materials capable of providing technological innovations. Among these, "organic semiconductors" combine the progress of semiconductors and plastic of the last century, becoming the subject of intense industrial and academic research. More recently, organic-inorganic hybrid functional materials have become a potential platform for applications in extremely diverse fields such as optics, microelectronics, transportation, health, energy, and energy storage. The interest in them is explained by the fact that it is possible to combine the best characteristics of both components in a large variety of combinations; in this way, they represent an intriguing class of materials with a large spectrum of applications.This reprint contribution will consider recent developments in the field of organic and hybrid materials in two of the most useful and promising applications of the millennium: photovoltaics and photonics. Multiple aspects of the materials will be taken into consideration, from the synthesis and the photophysical characterization to the application.

Marine ecosystems encompass a wide variety of invertebrates, including pelagic and benthonic ones, from intertidal to deep-sea habitats in polar and tropical regions. In addition to their high environmental importance, some marine invertebrates also have great economic value. However, despite all of the research that has been conducted so far, much still remains to be learned about these animals. This Special Issue collects articles providing new and relevant information about some marine invertebrates, namely, echinoderms, crustaceans, placozoans, molluscs and annelids. In these articles, a variety of research methods were applied in order to progress our understanding of these marine animals, including light and electron microscopy, liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, flow cytometry, and cell and tissue cultures.

This reprint focuses on electroencephalography (EEG) signal processing in biomedical engineering applications. EEG signals are used widely in clinical and research settings to provide cognitive and emotional state information. In addition to capturing complex neural patterns at high speeds, EEG signals are a reliable and non-invasive way of measuring the electrical activity in the brain. By examining various novel analysis and signal processing methods, this collection of papers provides a better understanding of cognitive states and brain activity.

In the study of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), we know that virally induced malignancies behave differently than those generated through other carcinogenic mechanisms. This paradigm extends into differences in tumor growth, treatment response and resistance, as well as invasion and metastasis. The inability to correctly diagnose and appropriately treat HNSCC at early stages has contributed to reduced survival for HNSCC patients, particularly those with HPV-negative disease. The examination of the molecular differences between HPV-positive and HPV-negative HNSCC will provide support for early diagnostic markers and guide appropriate treatment selection to improve patient care and survival.This Special Issue highlights current research efforts to understand the evolving contribution of human papillomavirus in HNSCC.

This reprint addresses the unique opportunities and challenges associated with human-computer interaction with intelligent systems. First, state-of-the-art reviews are presented about speech emotions, automatic spelling correction, and art usage in virtual reality. We encouraged authors to submit reports describing systems built for different languages and multilingual systems. The linguistic, emotional, prosodic, and dialogue aspects of speech communication are investigated. Special attention is given to sentiment and emotional analysis from text and speech. Speech audiometry, offline speech recognition, and text-independent speaker verification systems are elaborated. The rapidly growing domain of virtual reality applications is of interest both as an application domain in which new interfaces and interaction methods are needed and as a potential testbed for evaluating speech and other interface modalities.

This reprint focuses on PLA-based materials and the modification of their properties for biomedical applications. Special emphasis is placed on the supramolecular strategies that lead to unique structures in the micro- or nanoscale. The development and testing of novel biomaterials as drug delivery carriers, implants, or tissue engineering scaffolds are of particular interest. Special attention is given to understanding the structure-properties relationship, since this allows for the development of the most effective biocompatible materials.

Halophytes are a fascinating group of wild plants adapted to highly saline natural habitats, where most plant species and all our conventional crops would not survive. In fact, some halophytes can withstand even seawater salinity. In the current climate change scenario, increasing average temperatures and drought episodes contribute to the accelerated salinisation of irrigated cropland, especially in arid and semiarid regions, by the progressive accumulation in the soil of salts dissolved in irrigation water. This 'secondary salinisation' is one of the major causes of reducing crop yields worldwide. In this context, halophytes represent ideal experimental systems to investigate the mechanisms plants use to respond to high-salinity conditions. This knowledge will be essential for the genetic improvement of crop salt tolerance, which represents the most sensible strategy to address the abovementioned problem. Furthermore, halophytes could be the basis of a sustainable, 'saline' agriculture, after domestication and some breeding to improve agronomic characteristics. Then, they could be commercially cultivated for food, feed, fibre, or the production of biomolecules of industrial interest. Since they could be grown in saline land and irrigated with brackish water, they will not compete with our conventional crops for these limited resources, fertile land and good-quality water for irrigation. The articles included in this Special Issue address these different aspects of halophytes' research, although most focus on basic studies on salt-tolerance mechanisms.

This Special Issue includes manuscripts on mechanistic understanding, development, and implementation of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for the removal of contaminants of emerging concern in water and wastewater treatment. The main goal was successfully achieved under the joint effort of authors, anonymous reviewers, and editorial managers. In total, one review and 15 research papers are included in the Special Issue. These are mainly focused on catalyst synthesis, reactor design, treatment performance, kinetic modeling, reaction mechanisms, and by-product formation during electrochemical, photocatalytic, plasma, persulfate, chlorine, ozone-based, and Fenton-related AOPs at different scales. This Special Issue has received attention from researchers from different parts of the world such as Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Mexico, and the USA. The guest editors are happy to see that all papers presented are innovative and meaningful, and hope that this Special Issue can promote mechanistic understanding and engineering applications of AOPs for the removal of contaminants of emerging concern in water.

This Special Issue aims to cover the recent research results being developed, both theoretically and experimentally, on the laboratory, pilot, and industrial scale about thermal processes in power plants. This reprint focuses on thermal and flow processes and their impact on highly efficient and low-emission electricity generation and heat production in thermal power plants. Special attention is given to steam condensers and separators for application in thermal power plants, development systems and tools for heat production forecasting in combined heat and power plants, presenting such ideas as the negative CO2 emission gas power plant cycle and production of gas fuels by sewage sludge gasification as well as about methods and techniques for CO2 capture.The research investigation results can find implementation in real-scale power technologies such as steam power plants, gas power plants, nuclear power plants, and hybrid power plants based on renewable energy sources.

Safety and sustainability are becoming ever bigger challenges for the mining industry with the increasing depth of mining. It is of great significance to reduce the disaster risk of mining accidents, enhance the safety of mining operations, and improve the efficiency and sustainability of development of mineral resource. This book provides a platform to present new research and recent advances in the safety and sustainability of mining. More specifically, Mining Safety and Sustainability presents recent theoretical and experimental studies with a focus on: safety mining, green mining, sustainable development, risk management of mines, mining methods and technologies, damage monitoring and prediction. It will be further helpful to provide theoretical support and technical support for guiding the normative, green, safe and sustainable development of the mining industry.

With increasing requirements for energy, resources and space, rock engineering projects are being constructed more often and are operated in large-scale environments with complex geology. Meanwhile, rock failures and rock instabilities occur more frequently, and severely threaten the safety and stability of rock engineering projects. It is well-recognized that rock has multi-scale structures and involves multi-scale fracture processes. Meanwhile, rocks are commonly subjected simultaneously to complex static stress and strong dynamic disturbance, providing a hotbed for the occurrence of rock failures. In addition, there are many multi-physics coupling processes in a rock mass. It is still difficult to understand these rock mechanics and characterize rock behavior during complex stress conditions, multi-physics processes, and multi-scale changes. Therefore, our understanding of rock mechanics and the prevention and control of failure and instability in rock engineering needs to be furthered. The primary aim of this Special Issue "Mathematical Problems in Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering" is to bring together original research discussing innovative efforts regarding in situ observations, laboratory experiments and theoretical, numerical, and big-data-based methods to overcome the mathematical problems related to rock mechanics and rock engineering. It includes 12 manuscripts that illustrate the valuable efforts for addressing mathematical problems in rock mechanics and rock engineering.

This reprint is focuses on how recent urbanization processes modifies the organization and management of the land uses at integrated rural areas in peri-urban and intra-metropolitan areas at local, national, and global levels.The Guest Editors expect that this reprint could serve to provide some answers regarding the impacts of urbanization on rural areas.

This Special Issue captures the latest research advances regarding remote sensing technologies and their applications in climate change research. A total of 16 original research articles authored by 105 researchers are included in this Special Issue, presenting recent advances in remote sensing technologies and the application of remote sensing technologies to climate change modeling, monitoring, and impact assessment.

Composites can be engineered to exhibit high strength, high stiffness, and high toughness. Composite structures have increasingly been used in various engineering applications. In recent decades, most fundamentals of science have expanded in length by many orders of magnitude. Nowadays, one of the primary goals of science and technology seems to be to develop reliable methods for linking the physical phenomena that occur over multiple length scales, particularly from a nano-/microscale to a macroscale. To engineer composites for high performance and to design advanced structures, the relationship between material nano-/microstructures and their macroscopic properties must be established to accurately predict their mechanical performance and failure. Multiscale simulation is a tool that enables studying and comprehending complex systems and phenomena that would otherwise be too expensive or dangerous, or even impossible, to study by direct experimentation and, thus, to achieve this goal.This reprint assembles high-quality chapters that advance the field of the multiscale simulation of composite structures, through the application of any modern computational and/or analytical methods alone or in conjunction with experimental techniques, for damage assessment or mechanical analysis and prediction.

Ciguatoxins (CTXs), which are responsible for Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP), are liposoluble toxins produced by microalgae of the genera Gambierdiscus and Fukuyoa. This book presents 18 scientific papers that offer new information and scientific evidence on: (i) CTX occurrence in aquatic environments, with an emphasis on edible aquatic organisms; (ii) analysis methods for the determination of CTXs; (iii) advances in research on CTX-producing organisms; (iv) environmental factors involved in the presence of CTXs; and (v) the assessment of public health risks related to the presence of CTXs, as well as risk management and mitigation strategies.

This Special Issue collected original contributions, both research papers and reviews, showing recent results and/or positive advances in the behavior of new sustainable bio-materials under applied mechanical stress, both in static and dynamic mode, and evaluating the characteristics of resistance, moduli and/or viscoelasticity, in view of potential applications, such as tissue engineering, medical devices, surgical or dental implants, manufacturing of human parts, agriculture, packaging, textiles, electronics, automotive and aerospace, green buildings, and architecture and construction.

In the last few years, huge amounts of progress have been made regarding remote sensing in the field of computer vision. This success and progress is mostly due to the effectiveness of deep learning (DL) algorithms. In addition, the remote sensing community has shifted its attention to DL, and DL algorithms have been used to achieve significant success in many image analysis tasks. However, with regard to remote sensing, a number of challenges caused by difficulties in data acquisition and annotation have not been fully solved yet.This reprint is a collection of novel developments in the field of remote sensing using computer vision, deep learning, and artificial intelligence. The articles published involve fundamental theoretical analyses as well as those demonstrating their application to real-world problems.

As we know, a large amount of research confirms that physical activity (PA), physical fitness (PF), and motor competence (MC) are associated with health benefits in individuals of all ages. Achieving a sufficient level of PA and PF will consequently further contribute to better health-related biomarkers. Moreover, holding a good MC allows better participation in PA and exercise in life, promoting greater physical literacy.It is true that the measurement of PA in children and young people is subject to several conditioning factors which threaten validity and reliability. Additionally, it is good to remember that the World Health Organization guidelines on PA and sedentary behaviour for children recommend: (1) 180 min of PA (at any intensity) for two-year old children; (2) 180 min of PA, of which 60 min is moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), for 3- to 4-year-old children; and (3) at least 60 min of MVPA for children and adolescents from 5 to 17 years old.Therefore, understanding and developing strategies to promote PA behavior is now more important than in the past, because it is essential to improve fitness levels and MC in early ages. These strategies should cover all generations, children and youth, adults and the elderly, equally, because negative outcomes are visible in individuals of all ages.In this Special Issue, we show contributions that describe and list the link, monitoring and promotion between PA, PF, and MC.

This reprint compiles the articles, communications, and review articles from top researchers describing novel or new cutting-edge designs, developments, and/or applications of unmanned vehicles. This reprint encompasses the key topics related to drone design, communications as well as autonomous Flight and Navigation. Special attention is paid to the drones' applications to environmental and earth sciences, including in agriculture, forestry, water, and marine environments; other innovative applications are also explored including in relation to the field of application, such as the inclusion of new deep learning techniques.

Since the launch of Seasat, TIROS-N, and Nimbus-7 satellites equipped with ocean observation sensors in 1978, a new era of ocean remote sensing has opened. Today, remotely sensed data have been widely used in oceanographic studies. This reprint collects various advanced ocean remote sensing technologies and their applications, including the use of artificial intelligence techniques to explore ocean information and bibliometric analysis to assess researchers and trends in this scientific field. The observations of various sensors enrich the application of ocean environment monitoring and ocean dynamical analysis. If you are interested in understanding the application of ocean remote sensing, this monograph should be very helpful.

The need to find suitable biomaterials and procedures from alternative sources able to imitate or even enhance the performance of currently used products has become an important focus of research today due to the depletion of non-renewable resources and the increasing concern related to climate change, sustainability and environmental preservation. Thus, this reprint gathers different original articles and review manuscripts from the Special Issue "Development of Bio-Based Materials: Synthesis, Characterization and Applications". The development of partial or fully bio-based materials has been included, with excellent outcomes in many different applications, as well as alternative procedures that can reduce the carbon footprint or optimize both production and energy consumption.

The Covid-19 pandemic is having an undeniable impact on all the statements of society. Regarding teaching and learning activities, most educational institutions suspended in-person instruction and moved to remote learning during the lockdown of March and April 2020. Although nowadays many countries have progressively re-opened their educational systems, blended learning is a common practice aimed to reduce the spread of the Covid-19 disease.This disruption has supposed an unprecedented acceleration to the digitalization of teaching and learning. Teaching professionals have been forced to develop their digital competence in a short amount of time, getting mastery in the management of information, the creation of audiovisual contents, and the use of technology to keep their students connected. This Special Issue presents contributions regarding the adoption of distance learning strategies, experiences, or lessons learned in this domain.

Metallurgy involves the art and science of extracting metals from their ores and modifying the metals for use. With thousands of years of development, many interdisciplinary technologies have been introduced into this traditional and large-scale industry. In modern metallurgical practices, modelling and simulation are widely used to provide solutions in the areas of design, control, optimization, and visualization, and are becoming increasingly significant in the progress of digital transformation and intelligent metallurgy. This Special Issue (SI), entitled "Metallurgical Process Simulation and Optimization", has been organized as a platform to present the recent advances in the field of modelling and optimization of metallurgical processes, which covers the processes of electric/oxygen steel-making, secondary metallurgy, (continuous) casting, and processing. Eighteen articles have been included that concern various aspects of the topic.

Due to its low adaptability to climate change, the MENA region has become a "hot spot". Water scarcity, extreme heat, drought, and crop failure will worsen as the region becomes more urbanized and industrialized. Both water and food scarcity are made worse by civil wars, terrorism, and political and social unrest. It is unclear how climate change will affect the MENA water-food-energy nexus. All of these concerns need to be empirically evaluated and quantified for a full climate change assessment in the region. Policymakers in the MENA region need to be aware of this interconnection between population growth, rapid urbanization, food safety, climate change, and the global goal of lowering greenhouse gas emissions (as planned in COP27). Researchers from a wide range of disciplines have come together in this SI to investigate the connections between water, food, energy, and climate in the region. By assessing the impacts of climate change on hydrological processes, natural disasters, water supply, energy production and demand, and environmental impacts in the region, this SI will aid in implementation of sustainable solutions to these challenges across multiple spatial scales.

In China, serious air pollution has been apparent since the 1990s, and this is complicated due to human activities and partly due to natural factors. It is worth mentioning that local air pollution has greatly improved in the past 5 years, mainly due to the progress of institutional and technical measures since the 2010s. However, the appearance of air pollution in China is changing, as the compound pollution of photochemical pollution and aerosol pollution has been formed, and air pollution control has entered a new phase. In order to record the Chinese atmospheric environment's development with the passage of time and to identify what we are going to face in the future, we invite papers in our latest Special Issue, "Air Pollution in China", which will focus on air pollution trends throughout China or in each region of China over the past 30 years, the effects of countermeasures, analysis of the latest atmospheric environment, etc.

Population growth and climate change are leading to global water scarcity. Water shortages are thus hindering rural, urban and industrial development. These days, approximately half of the world's population is affected temporarily by water scarcity. To enable a secure water supply, alternative water sources must be generated to tackle the challenge of water scarcity. An important alternative resource is the reuse of treated wastewater. Water reuse processes are rarely considered and implemented. In contrast to the storage and use of rainwater, treated wastewater is a valuable resource, as it is available daily. Certain wastewater treatment processes are required to produce the new resource "reused water". The treatment processes depend on the quality of the wastewater since industrial and municipal wastewater flows are characterized by different concentrations. Moreover, water reuse methods must be developed in order to use the treated wastewater as efficiently as possible. Ideally, the reused water can be provided according to the "fit for purpose" principle and applied directly in areas such as irrigation, street cleaning, toilet flushing or make-up water for cooling systems.The Special Issue brings together new wastewater treatment technologies and water reuse concepts to tackle the challenges of climate change with the aim of bringing the resource "reused water" according to the "fit for purpose" principle to the user. This issue aims to draw on global experiences, approaches and solutions.

This reprint is concerned with the microstructural characterization and the defect analysis of metallic additively manufactured (AM) materials and parts. Special attention is paid to the determination of residual stress in such parts and to online monitoring techniques devised to predict the appearance of defects. Finally, several non-destructive testing techniques are employed to assess the quality of AM materials and parts.

This reprint covers a wide range of topics including, but not limited to, new analytical and bioanalytical methods relevant to the separation, identification, and determination of substances in pharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics, nanobiotechnology, clinical chemistry, and related disciplines; methods for the identification of bioactive compounds in functional foods and medicinal plants; applications of chromatography and allied techniques in biomedical sciences.

Essential hypertension is still an important health care problem. It is necessary to investigate its mechanisms in animal models. The potential clinical importance of such experimental research might be expected. This Special Issue concerned several important topics. First, several studies focused on the pathophysiological mechanisms responsible for blood pressure elevation during hypertension development, organ damage in chronic hypertension, and drugs targeting hypertension and/or its complications. Other studies were interested in the participation of central and peripheral blood pressure control, changes in vascular structure and function, and neural, humoral, and endocrine factors. Furthermore, the contribution of altered redox signaling, chronic inflammation, microbiome changes, and interactions of genetic and environmental factors were evaluated in multiple papers. Finally, special attention was paid to the progress in pharmacological tools for the control of hypertension and associated organ damage, genetic modifications to alter blood pressure levels, and non-pharmacological interventions attenuating hypertension or its complications. The original articles or reviews covered the interesting aspects of the pathophysiology of hypertension and associated end-organ damage, the use of various experimental hypertensive models, and the importance of specific environmental factors acting in distinct phases of the ontogeny. We especially appreciate the presentation of new ideas and the critical discussion of traditional theories.

With the second volume, we continue our mission to providing theoretical and experimental research that contribute new insights and practical findings in the field of crystal plasticity-related topics.Once again, a completely new set of 26 original works (including 22 research articles, 3 communications, and 1 review) has been collected. As in the case of the first volume, here, a full spectrum of topics belonging to the field of crystal plasticity is represented, including both numerical simulations and experimental works.By taking into account the investigated materials, the papers can be assigned to the following thematic groups:Steels and iron-based alloys;Non-ferrous alloys with fcc- (Ni- and Cu-based), or hcp crystal structure (Mg- and Ti-based). Other examples include Zirconium, Bi-Sn alloy, or polycarbonate resins;Multicomponent and high-entropy alloys;General theoretical studies on crystal plasticity.Specifically, the reprint should be interesting for students of material science and engineering, Ph.D. candidates, and researchers dealing with various theoretical and practical aspects of plastic deformation in crystalline materials.