Böcker utgivna av Mdpi AG

This reprint is a comprehensive compilation of both fundamental and applied research findings related to power system dynamics in the context of large-scale renewable energy integration. The reprint contains an analysis of the complex dynamic behavior of power systems when integrating renewable energy sources, covering a wide range of topics in the process. It particularly focuses on the many innovative technical developments that have emerged in this field and explores the various ways to achieve renewable energy integration. The covered topics include the impact of renewable energy integration on system stability, reliability, and resilience, as well as issues related to system optimization, control, and management. The reprint provides a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who are interested in the challenges and opportunities associated with the integration of renewable energy sources.

This Special Issue covers various aspects of materials engineering in the topic of the fabrication of hybrid and composite materials. It mainly focuses on the novel developments of new processing methodologies for the fabrication and modification of carbon and related hybrid and composite materials for magnetic, electronics, prosthetic and optoelectronics applications. These composite and hybrid materials composed mainly of the molecular structure of fullerenes, graphene, carbon fibers and nanotubes as well as metallic nanoparticles of great potential applications in nanotechnology. The Special Issue collected ten research articles describing diverse research topics of different carbon base materials like single-wall carbon nanotubes, carbon fibers, fullerenes, multi-wall carbon boron nitride and graphene hybrids and nanocomposites. We would like to thank all authors whose contributions are included in this Special Issue for their excellent work, and for their inspiring and interesting articles.

This reprint is a comprehensive compilation of both fundamental and applied research findings related to power system dynamics in the context of large-scale renewable energy integration. The reprint contains an analysis of the complex dynamic behavior of power systems when integrating renewable energy sources, covering a wide range of topics in the process. It particularly focuses on the many innovative technical developments that have emerged in this field and explores the various ways to achieve renewable energy integration. The covered topics include the impact of renewable energy integration on system stability, reliability, and resilience, as well as issues related to system optimization, control, and management. The reprint provides a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who are interested in the challenges and opportunities associated with the integration of renewable energy sources.

The Special Issue 'Churches in Europe and the Challenge of Cultural Witness' seeks to explore and articulate new ways for the Church and the Theological Academy to work together to make the culture-shaping resources of Christian faith more widely known and available within secular European contexts. The Church across Europe has in recent times struggled to make its voice heard in public life, especially when it comes to communicating core Christian ideas and perspectives. We discern a need to move beyond simplistic apologetic strategies of rationalist arguments for faith, purely reactive pronouncements on social or political issues, or framing Christian doctrines purely within the acceptable language of secular discourse to find a new framework and practice for the communication of Christian faith. This Special Issue brings together different voices from both the Academy and the Church and from various denominations to explore new paradigms for the task of bearing witness to Christian faith within the particularities of contemporary cultures. This Special Issue is linked to the launch of the new Centre for Cultural Witness in the UK, based at Lambeth Palace on invitation from the Archbishop of Canterbury, with key partners at the Center Faith & Society/Zentrum für Glaube & Gesellschaft at Fribourg University in Switzerland.

This volume addressess three theoretical questions that the contributions integrate into a unified subject of investigation. The first question pertains to narratology. Do religious narratives follow models of emplotment that are identical to the ones found in novels or historical accounts, do they rather tend to privilege some modes of emplotment over others, or do they craft specific plots that defy current categorizations? The second question pertains to structural rhetoric. Do these narratives preferentially follow rhetorical patterns such as the one of ring composition? How do modes of emplotment and rhetorical patterns interact in the crafting of narratives loaded with religious content? Do specific traditions privilege some patterns over others, or are rhetorical patterns evenly distributed among the various religious traditions? The third question pertains to the nature and channels of religious narratives: can rituals, architectural designs, or exhibits obey the same compositional models as the ones followed in the production of written or oral religious narratives? This reprint thus endeavors to elucidate the rules governing the composition of religious narratives in their dynamics, organization, and ornamentation, while applying a consistent set of rules to texts, oral accounts, and artefacts.

As a new class of photocatalysts, plasmonic noble metal nanoparticles with the unique ability to harvest light energy across the entire visible spectrum and produce effective energy conversion have been explored as a promising pathway for the energy crisis. This reprint focuses on the fundamental and applied research on plasmon-assisted near-field manipulation and plasmonic photocatalysis. The developments and advances related to the clear understanding of near-field manipulation and photocatalysis on both molecules and materials are presented in this reprint.

The agricultural, agroforestry, and aquacultural sectors are facing challenges due to climate change, making it difficult for them to achieve economic sustainability and improve farmers' livelihoods. The increasing occurrence of extreme events has led to extensive research into epidemiology, management, and impact on livelihoods, particularly for households dependent on agriculture, forestry, and aquaculture. However, there remains a need for comprehensive research into the effects of climate change on vulnerable (mountain) regions and their communities. Consequently, there is modest knowledge about the adaptation responses and strategies of different farmers, with the existing literature consisting of isolated cases that provide limited insights into common effects across different regions and over time. Similarly, the effects of COVID-19 and the Russo-Ukrainian military conflicts on smallholder farming are poorly understood. Although there are national and international policies and interventions promoting the transition of agri-food production systems towards circular bioeconomy, the specific direction of these strategies remains unclear. This reprint aims to bridge the existing gaps by offering insights into the impact of external shocks such as climate change, COVID-19, and the Ukraine-Russian military conflicts on farmers across different regions and time periods. It also presents evidence of the strategies adopted by farmers to address these challenges.

This Special Issue aims to showcase current work at the interface of pragmatics (the linguistic discipline that studies meaning in context) and argumentation theory (the study of the way people argue). These two disciplines have much in common, from overlapping research objects to shared theoretical frameworks, and have accordingly been in constant dialogue for approximately half a century. The objective of this Special Issue is to explore this interface by taking stock of existing work and discussing new contact points between the disciplines.The 17 papers comprising this Special Issue consider different lines of inquiry, from methodological questions (how can one discipline be of use in the investigation of research questions belonging to the other discipline?) to theoretical (how and to what extent do pragmatic phenomena related to meaning play out in argumentative exchanges? How is argumentation expressed?) and practical questions (under which conditions can we consider argumentation to be successful? What are the key argumentative skills displayed by competent arguers?). Overall, the selection of papers comprising this Special Issue represent key reading for anyone interested in the relationship between what people mean and how people argue.

In this Special Issue, we seek to respond to and present current research relating to how the arts, especially children's literature, can support young children in communicating with others and developing their imaginative and creative potential in the contemporary world. The development and use of each individual's cultural and linguistic resources provide the basis for learning how to interpret meaning and also how to make connections to their own lives. A teacher's pedagogical stance, including storying and the choice of quality literary texts and other resources, should ideally reflect these goals. To this end, this Special Issue will explore current topics including the relationship between different ways of making meaning through various art forms and the centrality of the development of wellbeing and the affirmation of identity.

The third volume of this Special Issue, similarly to the first two, covers a wide range of topics: obtaining and characterization of new materials, from the nano- to the macroscale, involving new alloys, ceramics, composites, biomaterials, and polymers, as well as procedures and technologies for enhancing their structure, properties, and functions. In order to be able to determine the future use of new materials, we first must understand their structure and ascertain their characteristics, utilizing modern techniques such as microscopy (SEM, TEM, AFM, STM, etc.), spectroscopy (EDX, XRD, XRF, FTIR, XPS, etc.), mechanical tests (tensile, hardness, elastic modulus, toughness, etc.), and understand their behavior (corrosion, thermal, DSC, STA, DMA, magnetic properties, and biocompatibility, both in vitro and in vivo), among many other areas of research.

Placing film, theory, and philosophy in dialogue with work in critical plant studies, and drawing upon plant life and scholarship to pose innovative questions within film studies, this reprint explores how engaging with a myriad of aspects of the vegetal world through film has the capacity to open up new lines of thought, in cinema and beyond. The volume brings together film scholars working on the vegetal from a range of different methodological positions: from the historical and archival through film theory and philosophy to film practice. Considering a wide selection of plants in film from experimental filmmaking to a Netflix production, and across varied genres, from natural history film to arthouse cinema, and from a Hollywood studio comedy of the 1950s to a longform streaming television series, contributors question what it means to think cinema with plants from cinema's moment of inception to the present.

In this Special Issue, chemical properties, nutritional quality, and bioactive components of horticulture food are explored. Studies on the linkage between food quality, territory, environment, and several factors that can affect food quality are here presented.

The construction industry has long been a driving force behind global economic growth; however, despite its boom, it still faces a host of challenges, including lagging productivity, labor, and environmental sustainability. It is therefore crucial for the industry to undergo industrial transformation and upgrade to ensure its continued and healthy development. Intelligent construction provides a promising solution to these challenges. Over the past two decades, intelligent and computer technologies have revolutionized the construction industry, improving sustainability, safety, and productivity. These technologies have become indispensable tools for construction professionals, enabling them to collaborate, communicate, and perform tasks more efficiently. As these technologies continue to advance, there is still much scope for researchers and industry practitioners to promote digital and intelligent transformation in this field. This Special Issue aims to provide a platform to explore state-of-the-art knowledge, practical implementations, and cutting-edge innovations in the area of intelligent and computer technologies and their applications in construction. Intelligent construction is a complex topic that encompasses the entire project life cycle. The papers in this Special Issue provide excellent examples of the development and application of Building Information Modeling (BIM), blockchain, and deep learning to improve safety, quality, and sustainability in construction projects.

Overwhelming studies have reached a consensus that cellular oxidative damage is involved in various human chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity, and various cancers. It is widely accepted that the health-promoting effects of natural products, including botanical food and herbal medicines, are generally associated with the antioxidative activities, free radical quenching, or inflammation suppression properties of phytochemicals.This Special Issue brought together current research and critical thinking on the health-promoting effects of phytochemicals in terms of their antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, antiaging, anticancer, antiobesity, antidiabetes, etc., properties. This Special Issue includes 11 original research papers and 6 reviews on recent findings in the field. We focused on topics such as the molecular mechanisms of phytochemicals in disease prevention and the role of phytochemicals in cell signaling, cell metabolism, cell cycle, cellular stress, and chronic diseases. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Prof. Maurizio Battino, the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, for giving us this opportunity to publish the Special Issue of the "Health-Promoting Effects of Phytochemicals". We also appreciate the contributions from authors and peer reviewers.

In recent years, the growth of the IoT has made an increasing amount of data available to be analyzed and exploited for the creation of intelligent models and solutions. In the Smart Home domain, new application scenarios have opened up, facilitated by the emergence of new techniques and paradigms that enable the development of smart devices. The application of Artificial Intelligence in this context aims to simplify and automate activities, increase security, reduce energy consumption, and generally optimize home-related processes.This Special Issue discusses the application of Artificial Intelligence to smart home automation through the use of various techniques, ranging from speech recognition, human behavior recognition, automatic home temperature control, electricity consumption monitoring, and the development of intelligent agents for building knowledge representations of unknown environments.

With the continuously growing need for more fuel-efficient and sustainable vehicles, the characterisation and modelling of metal forming processes has been indispensable in the development of new products. In the automotive and aviation sector, low-strength structural components are commonly produced from aluminium alloys, and higher-strength structural components are made from ultrahigh-strength steels (UHSS) and titanium alloys. The main issue experienced during the hot forming of complex-shaped components from difficult to form alloys is that they are time-, energy- and cost-intensive. The aircraft industry currently uses methods such as superplastic forming (SPF), superplastic forming with diffusion bonding (SPF-DB), hot stretch forming, hot gas pressure forming and isothermal hot forming. Moreover, novel techniques have been developed to produce complex-shaped structural components including the solution heat treatment, forming and in-die quenching (HFQ), quick-plastic forming, hot stamping using rapid heating and fast light alloy stamping technology (FAST). This Special Issue focuses on the characterisation techniques and advanced predictive models developed for such processes.

This reprint brings together the complete presentations of the IV International Ia-ValSe-Food Conference and VII Symposium of Chia-Link Network, held in the cities of La Plata and Jujuy, Argentina, on November 14 to 18, 2022. The topics are approached from diverse and articulated perspectives, such as agronomic and nutritional properties, the content of bio-functional compounds, technological characteristics, and the development of new products from ancestral Latin American crops, responding to the motto "Promoting research and innovation in food with valuable Ibero-American seeds".

This reprint explores the fascinating fields of biomechanics and bionics, revealing their profound impact on enhancing human performance and pushing the limits of the human body. Through in-depth research and innovative applications, we gain valuable insights into optimizing training techniques, reducing injury risks, and unleashing the full athletic potential within us. This comprehensive resource is a collaborative effort of esteemed authors, aiming to inspire scholars, athletes, and enthusiasts alike to embrace the remarkable possibilities at the nexus of science and sports. Join us on this exhilarating journey as we unlock the secrets of human potential.

Islamic liberation theology (ILT) refers to a diverse cluster of theologies that seek to reinterpret Islamic texts in the light of oppression and resistance to it. Based on a commitment to social justice, ILT shifts theological understanding away from the privileged center(s) of society, shifting the interlocutor, the conversation partner of theology to the neglected margins. Over the past few decades, a rich body of Islamic scholarship has emerged that has grappled with a variety of categories and frameworks, most notably gender and religious pluralism. The purpose of this Special Issue is to identify new directions in ILT by engaging the following questions: What is the current state of the field? What are the key contexts, problems, and thematic areas on which ILT has focused, and why have scholars prioritized these issues? How have establishment religion and its hierarchies of power and authority been deconstructed, and how have liberationist re-readings of religious texts been produced? How has ILT challenged dominant hermeneutical approaches and enabled more inclusive reading methods? To what extent are these alternative methods problematic and carry contestable assumptions? Which areas of human experience have received less attention from, or even been ignored altogether, by scholars? In the future, how can proponents of ILT study such thematic areas, unexplored intersectional realities, and changing global contexts, and what would critical theological scholarship in these new research areas look like? This is a non-exhaustive listing of the type of questions that this Special Issue seeks to engage.

Environmental analysis is one of the most relevant scientific fields in chemistry that contributes to the monitoring of environmental pollution. Green methodologies should be developed and applied in order to investigate the impact of pollution on the environment. The scope of this Special Issue was to describe the state of the art in both analysis and sample pretreatment with regard to the demands of green perspectives for the examination of the current status of environmental pollution. Analytical scientists were invited to present new strategies to fulfill all the requirements for reductions in waste, energy consumption, the use of solvents, etc. The Special Issue includes fourteen papers: 11 original articles, 2 review articles and 1 perspective.

This reprint focuses on fundamental and applied research on lithium-ion batteries, aiming to present state-of-the-art knowledge and technology. It covers research on new energy materials, modeling, and testing. This reprint delves into emerging areas such as all-solid-state lithium batteries, which offer enhanced safety and energy density. Additionally, it highlights the importance of battery recycling and remanufacturing, addressing growing concerns regarding sustainable practices and the environmental impact of battery technologies.

We live in a defining moment in history, a moment when the scientific community has come together to agree on an ambitious framework to resolve environmental issues associated with plastic waste. Plastics are the "workhorse" materials of the modern economy, with multiple functions that help to tackle a number of challenges facing our society. Plastic production has increased from 15 million tons in the 1960s to 311 million tons in 2014 and is expected to triple by 2050, as plastics come to serve increasingly more applications. Plastic packaging is and will remain the dominant sectoral use of plastics globally, representing nearly 40% of the plastic market. However, after a first short-use cycle, most of the economic value of plastics is lost. Furthermore, hundreds of millions of tons of plastics escape collection systems, ending up in the environment whether as microscopic particles or surviving in a recognizable form for hundreds of years. Therefore, it is high time to implement the principles of circular economy in the plastic sector. The game-changing strategy is to promote sustainable polymer technologies that decouple plastics from fossil feedstocks, drastically reduce the leakage of plastics into natural systems, and increase the quality and uptake of plastic recycling, where only biopolymers can really "close the loop". This reprint compiles recent research studies devoted to achieving a circular economy in the plastic packaging industry.

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a class of significantly important remote sensors that work effectively during all weather conditions and all times of day. SAR has the capability to provide very-high-resolution images and multi-dimensional data during limited periods of time, enhancing the spatial-time resolution of observations. In recent years, SAR technology has been developing towards the trend of multi-dimensional imaging and fine-grained image recognition. Meanwhile, the paradigms of SAR imaging and information perception have also been greatly changed to multi-mode, multi-dimensional and intelligent processing strategies. Recently, machine learning and deep learning methods have been applied to SAR imaging and target recolonization to drive various algorithms, which can be classified as model-based and data-learning techniques. Compared to model-based approaches, learning algorithms are more adaptive and show superior performance. However, when limited to small data sets, complex scenes, etc., these learning algorithms may suffer from bad generalization capability and low feature robustness. This Special Issue introduces some newly advanced signal processing and target recognition technologies in SAR, including some new theories, models, concepts and architecture designs for multi-mode/multi-dimensional SAR imaging and parameter inversion, sparse techniques of SAR and ISAR imaging, SAR interference and anti-interference, SAR/InSAR image enhancement, SAR target detection and recognition, SAR image classification and interpretation.

This reprint collects the papers published on the special issue "Kinematics and Robot Design V, KaRD2022", which is the fifth edition of the KaRD special-issue series, hosted by the open-access journal "MDPI Robotics".KaRD series is an open environment where researchers can present their works and discuss all the topics focused on the many aspects that involve kinematics in the design of robotic/automatic systems. Kinematics is so intimately related to the design of robotic/automatic systems that the admitted topics of the KaRD series practically cover all the subjects normally present in well-established international conferences on "mechanisms and robotics".KaRD2022, after the peer-review process, accepted 13 papers. The accepted papers cover some theoretical and many design/applicative aspects.

Natural extracts, particularly essential oils (EOs), represent a fascinating research topic due to the recognized biologically active properties (e.g., antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral, etc.) of their volatile compounds. These properties have gradually led EOs to become widespread in the food, pharmaceutical, and beauty/cosmetic industries. Taking into account the current trend of "green consumerism," which involves substituting synthetic additives with new additives of natural origin (which mainly involves EOs), along with the interests of the researchers whose research can be found in this Special Issue, not only is the current topic of significant interest, it also holds great potential as a future research direction.

'Foodborne Pathogens: Detection Methods, Food Safety, and Public Health' is a collection of papers that document the logical sequence of the occurrence of foodborne outbreaks. The papers in this reprint document the occurrence and characteristics of foodborne pathogens (Salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus, and Norovirus) in foods. This is followed by the application of sensitive and specific detection and diagnostic methods (MALDI-TOF, PCR, WGS), as well as potential interventions using processes such as drying, in order to reduce the degree of contamination and the multiplication of pathogens in foods. Finally, data were provided on the involvement of pathogens in investigated outbreaks. The reprint provides information that could lead to the prevention and control of the contamination and multiplication of pathogens in foods in order to reduce the occurrence of foodborne outbreaks in humans.

Despite the extensive number of years that medical science has employed oxygen, we have not totally mastered its use. Hypoxia (normobaric or hypobaric), normobaric hyperoxia and hyperbaric hyperoxia refer to the various "levels" of oxygen that humans are submitted to, either in the medical field or during sports activities such as scuba diving or mountaineering. In chronic situations such as living at high altitudes, we submit our bodies to prolonged hypoxia. One such example of a human settlement at extreme altitudes is the town of La Rinconada in Peru (around 4500-5500 m, approximately 11% of inspired oxygen). In physiological situations, hypoxemia is frequently observed in the absence of hypoxia in athletes who experience very high maximum oxygen consumption during maximal exercise (Dempsey effect); in this case, we find an extremely high pulmonary blood flow associated with a reduced capillary transit time, which does not allow the blood to complete sufficient oxygen loading. Prolonged hyperoxia is more difficult to achieve than prolonged hypoxia, but is possible, for instance, if people live below sea level, such as near to The Dead Sea in Israel. This Special Issue aims to provide an overview of the various approaches and physiological mechanisms or reactions to oxygen variations, and will be of great interest to scholars, physicians, researchers, sportsmen, coaches, and biologists, or, indeed, anyone interested on oxygen.

The field of thin films has undergone significant developments in recent decades. Besides the multiple applications of thin films, increasing competence can be observed with regard to tailoring the film microstructure using composition and deposition parameters. This Special Issue contains cutting-edge research and review articles regarding the preparation and characterization of materials with excellent properties, as well as the related modelling approaches. The papers published in this Special Issue cover a wide range of topics, including high-entropy alloys, hard materials, effects of additives on structures and properties, and the identification of Magnéli phases. Computer modelling of magnetic properties and optical modelling of dielectric function are also represented in this volume. The reader can find strong indications of the importance of extending existing knowledge through the exploration of the mechanisms of the ongoing processes via in situ monitoring.

Members of the Italian Association of Archaeometry (AIAr) are conducting an archaeometric study of the frescoes by Saturnino Gatti (1463-1518) in the apse of the Church of San Panfilo in Villagrande di Tornimparte (L'Aquila) as part of a second National Research Project. The research was as part of a 2020 scientific agreement between the AIAr and the Abruzzo Regional Secretariat of the Ministry for Culture and Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the provinces of L'Aquila and Teramo. This reprint aims to illustrate the results of this study. The macro-objectives were: To document the state of conservation of architectural building and painted surfaces; To analyse microclimate and inertia level of the church with respect to outdoor conditions; To understand degradation phenomena of pictorial surfaces and the mural structures; To identify non-original materials overlapping with pictorial surfaces during previous restoration works; To characterize original materials of the frescoes and "a secco" mural paintings; To identify the artistic technique and typical features of Saturnino Gatti and the other painters who worked on the frescoes in San Panfilo.

In this thought-provoking guide, readers will embark on a journey through the fascinating realm of big data analytics, discovering how vast volumes of data can be collected, processed, and analyzed with remarkable precision. Through the lens of artificial intelligence, the reprint delves into the realm of machine learning, neural networks, natural language processing, and computer vision, demonstrating how these AI techniques can be leveraged to extract valuable insights and patterns from massive datasets. Key features of "Big Data Analytics Using Artificial Intelligence" include Comprehensive Coverage. Real-World Applications, Practical Guidance, Ethical Considerations, and Future Trends. Whether you are a data scientist, business analyst, or simply curious about the transformative power of big data and AI, "Big Data Analytics Using Artificial Intelligence" is your comprehensive guide to unlocking the potential of these technologies. Dive into this illuminating reprint and discover how the synergy of big data and AI can propel your understanding, decision-making, and innovation to new heights.