Böcker utgivna av Mdpi AG

This reprint, as a continuation of a previous Special Issue entitled "Efficiency and Optimization of Buildings Energy Consumption", gives an up-to-date overview of new technologies based on Machine Learning (ML) and Internet of Things (IoT) procedures to improve the mathematical approach of algorithms that allow control systems to be improved with the aim of reducing housing sector energy consumption.

In recent years, we have seen a growing interest in various aspects of approximation theory. This happened due to the increasing complexity of mathematical models that require computer calculations and the development of the theoretical foundations of the approximation theory. Approximation theory has broad and important applications in many areas of mathematics, including functional analysis, differential equations, dynamical systems theory, mathematical physics, control theory, probability theory and mathematical statistics, and others. Approximation theory is also of great practical importance, as approximate methods and estimation of approximation errors are used in physics, economics, chemistry, signal theory, neural networks and many other areas. This book presents the works published in the Special Issue "Approximation Theory and Related Applications". The research of the world's leading scientists presented in this book reflect new trends in approximation theory and related topics.

This reprint focuses on new trials related to cataract surgery, intraocular lens power calculations for cataracts after refractive surgery, problems related to high myopia, toric IOL power calculations, etc. Intraoperative use of the 3D Viewing System and OCT, studies on the spectacle dependence of EDOF, IOL fixation status and visual function, and dry eye after FLAC are also discussed. Proteomic analysis of aqueous humor proteins is also discussed.

This Special Issue will focus on assistive technology (AT) to address biomechanical and control of movement issues in individuals with impaired health, whether as a result of disability, disease, or injury.All over the world, technologies are developed that make human life richer and more comfortable. However, there are people who are not able to benefit from these technologies.Research can include development of new assistive technology to promote more effective movement, the use of existing technology to assess and treat movement disorders, the use and effectiveness of virtual rehabilitation, or theoretical issues, such as modeling, which underlie the biomechanics or motor control of movement disorders. This Special Issue will also cover Internet of Things (IoT) sensing technology and nursing care robot applications that can be applied to new assistive technologies. IoT includes data, more specifically gathering them efficiently and using them to enable intelligence, control, and new applications.

The objective of this collection is to illustrate the most recent research on the development of novel and/or rapid methods for mycotoxin determination, and to propose new strategies for monitoring and/or reducing mycotoxin contamination. Innovative sample preparation techniques or protocols and the possibility of multiclass mycotoxin detection will be very positively considered for possible inclusion in this Special Issue. Both methods based on (bio)sensors and chromatography with various detectors (including mass spectrometry) are welcome. Applications of already published methods on new matrices without any modification will not be accepted. However, extensive studies and monitoring on the spread of contamination through the food production chain could be of interest for this collection.

Advancements in efficient energy sources have played a pivotal role in determining the present world energy structure. Renewable biomass energy has been incorporated in industrial regulations and policies in many European countries. Based on the statistics, more than one-seventh of the total world energy consumption is generated from biomass.The renewable energies movement was prompted by two important factors: a) growing world energy consumption and b) the abundance of generated biomass residues, especially in agriculture. In the case of the first, batteries containing different metals are considered, as is the production of items for human consumption (food, clothing, home comfort, etc.). In the second case, the biomass waste from plants and animals, as byproducts of cultivating and production processes, is the main source of generated waste.

The issues relating to the functioning of the tourism economy include both the activities of tourism enterprises and spatial units, i.e., tourism destinations, as well as tourism demand, including tourists' purchasing behavior. The aim of the Special Issue of Economies is to present the current results of research on the functioning of the tourism market and its individual elements. The presented studies refer to four groups of issues:the foundations of the tourism industry, including general rules and economic mechanisms related to the operation of this industry market;the functioning of tourism entrepreneurs, especially in the tourism industry, mainly in the area of accommodation offers;the operation of tourist destinations and the available offers in tourist areas;the trends in tourist demand, including the purchasing behavior of tourists in tourist destinations.

This reprint reviews a crop pest management use for several essential oils and the properties of an excellent lemon (citral) source. Research is reported on the biological properties of enhanced lemon oil along with the human intake of citrus beverages and the less common medicinal mastiha oil. Oils and hydrolates of rosemary and lavender were analyzed by headspace/GC-MS to better define their antibacterial, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities, and yeast particle encapsulation was investigated for the controlled release of bioactive terpenes.

Biomimetic polymers and materials have been widely used in a variety of biomedical and pharmacological applications. Particularly, collagen-based biomaterials have been extensively applied in various biomedical fields, such as scaffolds in tissue engineering. However, there are many challenges associated with the use of mammalian collagen, including the issues of religious constrains, allergic or autoimmune reactions, and the spread of animal diseases. Over the past few decades, marine collagen (MC) has emerged as a promising biomaterial for biomedical and pharmacological applications. Marine organisms are a rich source of structurally novel and biologically active compounds, and to date, many biological components have been isolated from various marine resources. MC offers advantages over mammalian collagen due to its water solubility, low immunogenicity, safety, biocompatibility, antimicrobial activity, functionality, and low production costs. Due to its characteristics and physicobiochemical properties, it has tremendous potential for use as a scaffold biomaterial in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, in drug delivery systems, and as a therapeutic.In this Special Issue, we encourage submissions related to the recent developments, advancements, trends, challenges, and future perspectives in this new research field. We expect to receive contributions from different areas of multidisciplinary research, including-but not restricted to-extraction, purification, characterization, fabrication, and experimentation of MC, with a particular focus on their biotechnological, biomedical and pharmacological uses.

The need for electromechanical energy conversion that takes place in electric motors, generators, and actuators is an important aspect associated with current development. The efficiency and effectiveness of the conversion process depends on both the design of the devices and the materials used in those devices. In this context, this book addresses important aspects of electrical machines, namely their materials, design, and optimization.It is essential for the design process of electrical machines to be carried out through extensive numerical field computations. Thus, the reprint also focuses on the accuracy of these computations, as well as the quality of the material models that are adopted. Another aspect of interest is the modeling of properties such as hysteresis, alternating and rotating losses and demagnetization. In addition, the characterization of materials and their dependence on mechanical quantities such as stresses and temperature are also considered. The reprint also addresses another aspect that needs to be considered for the development of the optimal global system in some applications, which is the case of drives that are associated with electrical machines.

The interrelationship between economic growth, efficient use of natural resources, and sustainability has been of great interest to economists, researchers and policy makers. Knowledge of actual causality direction between sustainability, efficiency and growth has important implications for modeling environmental economic policies. Various serious environmental problems demand urgent attention and planning of adequate policies towards sustainability. Development of new economic and environmental policies and use of new econometric, operational research and mathematical and statistical techniques offers scope for further research. Studies were invited to address economic growth and environment: environmental problems; Air/water pollution; Health impact of pollution; Waste management; Natural resources management; Population economics; Environmental policy tools; Renewable energy sources; Business and sustainable development; Sustainable transport; Sustainable tourism; Urban and regional development.

Current practice involves the use of 3D surgical planning and patient-specific solutions in multiple surgical areas of expertise. Patient-specific solutions have been endorsed for several years in numerous publications due to their associated benefits around accuracy, safety, and predictability of surgical outcome. The basis of 3D surgical planning is the use of high-quality medical images (e.g., CT, MRI, or PET-scans). The translation from 3D digital planning toward surgical applications was developed hand in hand with a rise in 3D printing applications of multiple biocompatible materials. These technical aspects of medical care require engineers' or technical physicians' expertise for optimal safe and effective implementation in daily clinical routines.The aim and scope of this Special Issue is high-tech solutions in personalized surgery, based on 3D technology and, more specifically, bone-related surgery. Full-papers or highly innovative technical notes or (systematic) reviews that relate to innovative personalized surgery are invited. This can include optimization of imaging for 3D VSP, optimization of 3D VSP workflow and its translation toward the surgical procedure, or optimization of personalized implants or devices in relation to bone surgery.

The majority of newborns do not need medical interventions to manage the neonatal transition after birth. However, every year millions of newborns worldwide require respiratory support immediately after birth, and another considerable number of newborns additionally require extensive resuscitation including chest compressions and drug administration. Despite a significant increase in knowledge and development of enhanced therapy strategies over the past few years, morbidity and mortality caused by failures in neonatal transition remain an important health issue. The purpose of this reprint is to support or introduce novel concepts and add information in the area of the "Stabilization and Resuscitation of Newborns", aiming to improve neonatal care and, as the major objective, to enhance neuro-developmental outcomes.

This reprint contains 11 papers published in a Special Issue of Molecules entitled "Crystal Structures of Metal Complexes". I will be very happy if readers will be interested in the crystal structures of metal complexes.

Research on radiation tolerant electronics has increased rapidly over the last few years, resulting in many interesting approaches to model radiation effects and design radiation hardened integrated circuits and embedded systems. This research is strongly driven by the growing need for radiation hardened electronics for space applications, high-energy physics experiments such as those on the large hadron collider at CERN, and many terrestrial nuclear applications, including nuclear energy and safety management. With the progressive scaling of integrated circuit technologies and the growing complexity of electronic systems, their ionizing radiation susceptibility has raised many exciting challenges, which are expected to drive research in the coming decade.After the success of the first Special Issue on Radiation Tolerant Electronics, the current Special Issue features thirteen articles highlighting recent breakthroughs in radiation tolerant integrated circuit design, fault tolerance in FPGAs, radiation effects in semiconductor materials and advanced IC technologies and modelling of radiation effects.

Consumers and stakeholders are increasingly demanding that the meat industry guarantees high-quality meat products with stable and acceptable sensory and safety properties. To do this, it is necessary to understand the mechanisms that underlie the conversion of muscle into meat, as well as the impact of pre- and post-harvest procedures on the final quality and safety of meat products. Over the last two decades, sophisticated OMICs technologies-genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, peptidomics, metabolomics and lipidomics, also known as foodomics-have been powerful approaches that extended the scope of traditional methods and have established impressive possibilities of addressing meat quality issues. Foodomics were further used to elucidate the biological basis/mechanisms of phenotypic variation in the technological and sensory quality traits of meat from different species. Overall, these techniques aimed to comprehensively study the dynamic link(s) between the genome and the quality traits of the meat that we eat compared to traditional methods, hence improving both the accuracy and sensitivity thanks to the large quantities of data that can be generated. This Special Issue focused on the cutting-edge research applications of OMICs tools to characterize or manage the quality of muscle foods. The research papers applied transcriptomics, targeted and untargeted proteomics, metabolomics, and genomics, among others, to evaluate meat quality, determine the molecular profiles of meat and meat products, discover and/or evaluate biomarkers of meat quality traits, and to characterize the safety, adulteration, and authenticity of meat and meat products.

This reprint focuses on the assessment, screening and intervention of perinatal depression and anxiety, which have been internationally recognized as relevant mental health problems affecting the whole family system. The contents are of interest for all professionals working in the field of perinatal mental health. Special attention in the reprint is given to three main domains: clinical characteristics of perinatal depression and anxiety in women and men; psychometric properties and usefulness of screening tools; and types of intervention.The first area focuses on the investigation of prevalence, risk factors and predictors of perinatal depression and anxiety, considering different samples of women and/or men, during the prenatal and postpartum period; a glance is also given to perinatal mental health difficulties experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The second area is focused on the description of psychometric properties of tools for the detection and screening of perinatal anxiety and depression. This section includes contributions regarding: comparisons among different tools, further validation of already existing questionnaires and validation of new instruments, which could enhance the early detection of depressive and anxiety symptoms. The third area focuses on different approaches of intervention to reduce perinatal depression and anxiety, including gender-transformative interventions to address perinatal mental health and clinical guidelines for the pharmacological management of both depression and anxiety.

This reprint is a compilation of ten publications, including original-research and review articles, and the accompanying editorial within the scope of a Special Issue entitled: "State of the Art in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis" published in Cells.

This reprint encompasses fourteen contributions that offer avenues towards a better understanding of complex systems in human behavior. The phenomena studied here are generally pattern formation processes that originate in social interaction and psychotherapy. Several accounts are also given of the coordination in body movements and in physiological, neuronal and linguistic processes. A common denominator of such pattern formation is that complexity and entropy of the respective systems become reduced spontaneously, which is the hallmark of self-organization. The various methodological approaches of how to model such processes are presented in some detail. Results from the various methods are systematically compared and discussed. Among these approaches are algorithms for the quantification of synchrony by cross-correlational statistics, surrogate control procedures, recurrence mapping and network models.This volume offers an informative and sophisticated resource for scholars of human change, and as well for students at advanced levels, from graduate to post-doctoral. The reprint is multidisciplinary in nature, binding together the fields of medicine, psychology, physics, and neuroscience.

Open Mathematics is a challenging notion for theoretical modeling, technical analysis, and numerical simulation in physics and mathematics, as well as in many other fields, as highly correlated nonlinear phenomena, evolving over a large range of time scales and length scales, control the underlying systems and processes in their spatiotemporal evolution. Indeed, available data, be they physical, biological, or financial, and technologically complex systems and stochastic systems, such as mechanical or electronic devices, can be managed from the same conceptual approach, both analytically and through computer simulation, using effective nonlinear dynamics methods. The aim of this Special Issue is to highlight papers that show the dynamics, control, optimization and applications of nonlinear systems. This has recently become an increasingly popular subject, with impressive growth concerning applications in engineering, economics, biology, and medicine, and can be considered a veritable contribution to the literature. Original papers relating to the objective presented above are especially welcome subjects.Potential topics include, but are not limited to: Stability analysis of discrete and continuous dynamical systems; Nonlinear dynamics in biological complex systems; Stability and stabilization of stochastic systems; Mathematical models in statistics and probability; Synchronization of oscillators and chaotic systems; Optimization methods of complex systems; Reliability modeling and system optimization; Computation and control over networked systems.

This reprint highlights the current understanding of the soil hydrological processes in desert regions, as well as the plant responses to soil water. Likewise, this reprint will not present all the aspects, such as the challenges of soil hydrological process research and its opportunities in the desert regions. It only provides notable highlights to help understand the soil hydrological processes and their application in desertification control, particularly regarding the ecological engineering approach. In this context, we especially hope this reprint will enrich soil hydrology in the desert regions for advancing Critical Zone science in the Anthropocene.

In this Special Issue of Crystals, entitled "Crystallographic Studies of Enzymes (Volume II)", eleven research papers on key findings and methodologies of structure, function, and reaction mechanisms of enzymes are presented.

The main aim of this reprint is to highlight the contributions of advanced catalytic materials in the evolution of contemporary society, delivering practical and useful solutions with a positive societal, economic, and environmental impact.

The book contains papers published in a Special Issue of Axioms, entitled "New Developments in Geometric Function Theory". An Editorial describes the 14 papers devoted to the study of complex-valued functions which present new outcomes related to special classes of univalent and bi-univalent functions, new operators and special functions associated with differential subordination and superordination theories, fractional calculus, and certain applications in geometric function theory.

This reprint focuses on forged steels as an interesting material family, both from a scientific and commercial point of view, due to their many applications. Despite their diffusion as a consolidated material, many research fields are actively employing new applications. At the same time, innovations are arising from the manufacturing process of such materials, including the possibility to manufacture them from metal powders suitable for 3D printing. This reprint embraces the interdisciplinary work covering physical metallurgy and processing, reporting the experimental and theoretical progress concerning microstructural evolution during processing, and microstructure-properties relations.

This reprint focuses on the effective removal of organic and inorganic pollutants from water and wastewater using unique freestanding polymeric-based methods. It also examines innovative green methods for efficiently reusing various solid waste products. In addition, several new eco-friendly hybrid materials are being reviewed in order to alleviate the problem of water pollution in novel, rapid, and efficient methods.

This book focuses on recent advances in both theoretical and experimental studies of material behaviour at the micro- and nano-scales. Special attention is given to experimental studies of nanofilms, nanoparticles and nanocomposites as well as tooth defects. Various experimental techniques were used. Magneto- and thermoelastic coupling were considered, as were nonlocal models of thin structures.

Globally, the impact of differentiated thyroid cancers has significantly increased in the last decade, resulting in growth of public health spending. Many international scientific societies are actively involved in the difficult process of building updated guidelines in response to scientific research, especially in the genetic and immunohistochemistry fields.The watch, wait, and see policy has added a new possibility for patients in selected cases.Considering the recognized international interest in this disease, this Special Issue aims to analyze the most recent acquisitions in terms of the diagnosis and therapy of differentiated thyroid cancer.It will offer the reader an updated point of view of the most illustrious endocrinology and endocrine-surgery international schools.

The electrical power system is undergoing a revolution enabled by advances in telecommunications, computer hardware and software, measurement, metering systems, IoT, and power electronics. Furthermore, the increasing integration of intermittent renewable energy sources, energy storage devices, and electric vehicles and the drive for energy efficiency have pushed power systems to modernise and adopt new technologies. The resulting smart grid is characterised, in part, by a bi-directional flow of energy and information. The evolution of the power grid, as well as its interconnection with energy storage systems and renewable energy sources, has created new opportunities for optimising not only their techno-economic aspects at the planning stages but also their control and operation. However, new challenges emerge in the optimization of these systems due to their complexity and nonlinear dynamic behaviour as well as the uncertainties involved.This volume is a selection of 20 papers carefully made by the editors from the MDPI topic "Optimisation, Optimal Control and Nonlinear Dynamics in Electrical Power, Energy Storage and Renewable Energy Systems", which was closed in April 2022. The selected papers address the above challenges and exemplify the significant benefits that optimisation and nonlinear control techniques can bring to modern power and energy systems.

In the last century, the average life expectancy at birth increased from roughly 45 years in the early 1900s to more than 80 years of age at present. However, living longer is often related to different levels of frailty. There is no curative treatment for frailty-the interventions that have been described as effective to slow or delay the onset of frailty are physical activity and nutritional interventions. Maintaining adequate nutrition status is important to reduce the risk of chronic diseases, many of which are age-related. On the other hand, frailty itself may have a negative effect on eating and, thus, on the nutritional status.This Special Issue, "Nutrition, Diet Quality, Aging and Frailty", addresses the existing knowledge on nutrition regarding the causative factors of frailty and disease due to aging, i.e., strategies for delaying the pathological effects of aging. It consists of twelve peer-reviewed papers covering original research, protocol development, methodological studies, narrative or systematic reviews, and meta-analyses, to better understand these complex relationships.