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This Proceedings reprint comprises a collection of the papers presented at the second International Conference on Computational Engineering and Intelligent Systems, held online in the period 18-20 November 2022. The conference focused on computational engineering including modeling, simulation, analysis, and intelligent systems driven by computing and artificial intelligence. The papers included in this collection deal with a range of topics including smart grids, renewable energies, intelligent safety and control systems, power quality and cloud computing.

This reprint contains different corrosion resistance topics like: corrosion behavior of coated low-carbon steel in a simulated PEMFC environment; some brassicaceae extracts as potential antioxidants and green corrosion inhibitors; electrochemical impedance analysis for corrosion rate monitoring of Sol-Gel protective coatings in contact with nitrate molten salts for CSP applications; comparing the corrosion resistance of 5083 Al and Al2O33D/5083 Al composite in a chloride environment; microstructural, corrosion resistance, and tribological properties of Al2O3 coatings prepared by atmospheric plasma spraying; the influence of friction stir surface processing on the corrosion resistance of Al 6061; the preparation of one-dimensional polyaniline nanotubes as anticorrosion coatings; in vitro analysis of FeMn-Si smart biodegradable alloy; corrosion resistance of electrochemically synthesized modified zaccagnaite LDH-type films on steel substrates; new Zn3Mg-xY alloys; characteristics, microstructural evolution, and corrosion and immersion behaviors of carbon steel; phosphate carbon steel and phosphate and painted carbon steel in saltwater.

Mountain forests and alpine ecosystems are rich in biodiversity and endemism, and they are also large global carbon stores. They are highly threatened by climate change, population growth and land use change. Mountains represent an ideal natural laboratory in which the evolution of social-ecological systems can be investigated and to the current challenges and opportunities that this past evolution has created can be assessed. Mountains have been centres of past development and conduits for the spread of crops, populations and technologies. They were and remain a locus for cultural interaction, as manifested recently in many parts of the world at the local level through pastoral-agricultural-urban interactions over access to space and resources, particularly water. The relevance and impact of this Special Issue on mountains goes beyond academia, as practitioners and policymakers need key information on the dynamics and changes in threatened ecosystems to help design and implement appropriate management strategies for sustainable mountain futures.

Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, is a multicultural country with abundant biodiversity, forests, and water sources. The country has experienced rapid urbanization and industrialization in recent decades, creating considerable social and economic progress. However, countless environmental and occupational risks that follow unregulated development still threaten the health of exposed children and adults from urban and rural areas. Despite a complex scenario of exposure to multiple contaminants, studies on the impacts on human health and well-being are sorely needed. Thus, building up comprehensive evidence on environmental and occupational health in Brazil is crucial to improving practices and policies toward stronger social development. This Special Issue comprises cutting-edge epidemiological, clinical, and experimental studies, as well as literature reviews on all aspects of environmental and occupational health in Brazil. Studies on children, adults, and vulnerable populations related to toxicology, epidemiology, and public policies are especially welcomed. Manuscript topics include, but are not limited to, the adverse health effects of physical, chemical, and biological risks; exposure to air, water, soil and food pollution; metals and pesticides; organic solvents; dust; and climate change.

The value of this volume, entitled "Anti-Racist Perspectives on Sustainabilities", which includes insights from Black, Indigenous, immigrant, and settler communities, lies in its potential to transform our approach to environmental and social challenges. These communities have long endured the adverse effects of environmental degradation and climate change, often due to historical injustices and systemic racism. We developed more comprehensive and contextually appropriate sustainability solutions by integrating our unique knowledge, experiences, and cultural values. In this reprint, by emphasizing inclusivity and representation in decision making, we ensure that policies and initiatives address these communities' diverse needs and aspirations. Moreover, dismantling systemic racism within sustainability efforts is ethically imperative and vital to foster a more equitable and resilient society. Ultimately, embracing anti-racist perspectives on sustainability paves the way for a more sustainable future that uplifts and empowers all individuals and communities, promoting social justice alongside environmental stewardship.

Transportation is one of the most crucial aspects across the world, supporting the daily life of human beings and the sustainable development of the whole of society. Generally, meteorology causes various impacts on transportation operation, safety and efficiency. In the context of global warming, increasing numbers of extreme weather and climate events (such as fog, icy roads, and extreme winds) have been detected worldwide and are expected to occur more frequently in the future. Meanwhile, extreme events, such as dense fog, rainstorm, and blizzard, tend to damage transportation and traffic facilities (such as express ways, port, airport, and high-speed railway) and induce serious traffic blocks and accidents. In recent decades, concentrated and continuous efforts have been made to carry out meteorological analyses regardless of urban traffic or transportation conditions, including those of highways, shipping, aviation, etc. A number of methods and techniques have been intensively developed to promote the qualities of both observations and forecasts. More recently, state-of-the-art machine learning frameworks have also been widely introduced into studies regarding transportation meteorology and many other fields.

The concept of the 'Zero Energy Mass Custom Home' or ZEMCH is emerging with the aim of exploring opportunities to make our built environment more socially, economically, environmentally, and humanly sustainable. The concept of 'Sustainable Development' has existed for quite some time. In 1987, it was first advocated by the World Commission on Environment and Development. In 1997, the text of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was eventually adopted at the 3rd Conference of the Parties (COP3). The Paris Agreement adopted by 196 Parties at COP21 came into force on 4th November 2016. The goal was to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius in comparison to pre-industrial levels. Buildings account for about 40% of global energy consumption, having a tremendous impact on global warming. The built environment is indeed a system of energy and environment that is occupied by the masses, embracing diverse cultural and economic backgrounds. Today, the United Nations articulates the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that reflect necessary global actions for humanity and the planet. In view of these agendas, the delivery of built environments is becoming more demanding and complex than ever, and it is now required that developers accommodate the social, economic, environmental, and human dimensions of these sustainability challenges. This volume encompasses a wide spectrum of ZEMCH research and development knowledge that concerns design engineering, construction management, material innovation, renewable energy technology, and community planning.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide public health problem that must be addressed. The global increase in CKD prevalence is associated with an increase in conventional disease risk factors (e.g., diabetes and hypertension), which may be exacerbated by additional variables such as environmental and occupational exposure to toxic compounds. Authors contributed to this Special Issue by highlighting the finding of potential novel biomarkers of the disease and more effective therapy alternatives, as well as works that enhance the understanding of CKD pathogenesis and its related complications.

Culinary herbs and spices confer characteristic flavors or coloring to food. In this Special Issue of Foods, we aim to focus on culinary herbs and spices from a health perspective. Substances of plant origin are often regarded as harmless. The intention of this Special Issue is to provide a science-based view of the health impact of naturally occuring ingredients in plants with a particular focus on the health impact of plants used as culinary herbs and spices. In this context, different aspects will be addressed, including toxicological, analytical, and regulatory issues regarding naturally occurring ingredients in culinary herbs and spices as well as in products, such as essential oils and the food supplements based on them. For this purpose, some select examples of these compounds will be utilized to illustrate potential effects on human health, together with knowledge gaps related to hazard and exposure assessment. Moreover, safety issues related to products, such as essential oils or food supplements containing extracts of culinary herbs and spices that have become widely available to consumers through several distribution channels in the EU, will be covered.

This Special Issue presents contributions from biological fields focusing on the identification of underlying principles in living systems, and manuscripts that apply findings obtained from existing systems to modern technologies. We greatly appreciate the time and effort that the Guest Editors devoted to this Special Issue.

This reprint collects ten papers (plus an introductory chapter) showing how actuarial mathematics principles and tools can provide substantial support when implementing QRM phases, in particular when facing new risks or risks with changing features. The following specific topics are specifically discussed: the design of post-retirement benefits, the design of life and health insurance policies against new risks, advancements in mortality modeling, advancements in risk measures and risk models, reserving disclosure tools, and innovative approximation formulae for the mean duration.

The year 2021 marks the 10th anniversary of Journal of Clinical Medicine, and as one of the major sections of JCM, we are launching a 10th anniversary Special Issue in the section "Gastroenterology & Hepatopancreatobiliary Medicine".We accepted papers for the Special Issue, titled "Recent diagnostic and therapeutic advance in Gastroenterology & Hepatopancreatobiliary Medicine". This medical field is a complex and wide-ranging field that deals with diseases in multiple organs such as the gastrointestinal tract and hepatobiliary pancreas. With recent advances in diagnostic imaging and interventional treatment, those in endoscopic diagnosis and treatment, those in functional test and those in genetic diagnosis and drug therapy, including the molecular-targeted therapy, many new medical findings have been accumulated.In this Special Issue, we looked for reports that make full use of advances in diagnostics and therapeutics in the field of Gastroenterology and Hepatopancreatobiliary Medicine.

This reprint contains 14 articles published in the Special Issue, "Use of Modern Materials in Technological Processes Accompanied by Frictional Heating". These articles can be divided into five groups:1) Analytical modeling of the frictional heating process in systems made of homogeneous and functionally gradient materials (FGMs) [1-7];2) Numerical simulations of the temperature mode of railway brake systems [8, 9];3) Experimental studies and numerical simulations of the influence of various types of additives added to the friction material in the wet clutch disc [10, 11];4) Inverse thermal problems of friction [12];5) The influence of friction on the stress distribution in a composite containing thin elastic homogeneous inclusions, or that made of FGM [13, 14].

This Reprint includes articles published in the Special Issue "Droplet-Based Microfluidics: Design, Fabrication and Applications". This Special Issue focuses on the fundamentals of fluid mechanics, fabrication of microfluidic devices, and the generation, manipulation, and applications of droplets.

This reprint aims to bring together cutting-edge research on machine health monitoring and fault diagnosis techniques. Machine health monitoring and fault diagnosis are crucial aspects of maintaining the reliability and efficiency of industrial machinery. With the increasing complexity of modern machines, there is a growing need for advanced techniques that can quickly detect and diagnose potential faults before they become serious problems. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art methods in machine health monitoring and fault diagnosis techniques and stimulate further research in this important field.

Assessing the risk of difficult-to-treat bacterial superinfections, such as multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative bacilli, according to comorbidities, lung abnormalities or systemic diseases, the severity of pneumonia and the risks of drug-related effects are crucial points for the clinical management. Despite the wide-and not always appropriate-use of broad-spectrum antimicrobials, specific data about bacterial and fungal co-infection in COVID-19 patients are lacking, and confirmed evidence is urgently required to build prospective evidence and to support the development of antimicrobial policy and appropriate stewardship interventions. The present Special Issue aims to focus on the following key points: Importance of superinfections in COVID-19 patients who are typically characterized by immunosuppression related to viral infection, need for prolonged hospitalization, treatment with immunomodulatory therapies (steroids, monoclonal antibodies, etc.); Their impact on the outcome of a cohort of patients who are relatively young, with few comorbidities, but requiring prolonged invasive support; Incidence, characteristics and impact of bacterial infections caused by multidrug-resistant, Gram-negative pathogens in the context of COVID-19 disease; Incidence, characteristics and impact of fungal infections, such as the most known invasive aspergillosis but also candidemia and/or other fungal infections (e.g., mucormycosis); Antimicrobial surveillance, control and management measures as implemented on a local, national and international basis.

The focus of this reprint is to draw attention to Greening Urban Spaces. Cities play a central role in advancing economic and social developments and addressing the challenges that humanity face today. Although cities provide access to better health services, urban life is also associated with factors that are deleterious to human health, such as increased stress, mental fatigue, pollution, as well as sedentary lifestyles and a disconnection to the natural environment. There is a growing consensus across many academic fields and health promotion policy areas that the provision of accessible and high-quality greenspace is a vital element in the effort against the adverse health effects of urbanization. However, there are still research gaps that need to be addressed before the health benefits of greenspaces can be fully integrated into practice.

Advanced fluid machinery is the key component in the sustainable development of energy and water resources, including various transport processes for liquids. Where fluid flows, fluid machinery works. Therefore, fluid machinery occupies an important position in the social economy. This Special Issue, entitled "Optimization and Flow Characteristics in Advanced Fluid Machinery", provides a platform for the sharing of knowledge among researchers in the field of fluid machinery, and includes theoretical analyses, numerical simulations, and experimental studies. This Special Issue covers a wide range of disciplines as follows: (1) optimization of advanced fluid machinery using different advanced algorithms; (2) flow characteristics of advanced fluid machinery using numerical and experimental methods; (3) vibration and noise of advanced fluid machinery; (4) fluid-structural coupling analysis of advanced fluid machinery; (5) cavitation and multi-phase flow of advanced fluid machinery; (6) simulation and optimization of new energy systems; and (6) other aspects of fluid machinery.This Special Issue contains 27 manuscripts, including 1 Editorial and 26 scientific articles. We would like to thank all of the authors and peer reviewers for their valuable contributions to this Special Issue.

This Reprint is a compilation of recent studies published in the Special Issue titled, "Crosstalk between Depression, Anxiety, Dementia, and Chronic Pain: Comorbidity in Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry 2.0." This reprint explores the intricate nature of these common mental symptoms and their underlying mechanisms. It provides valuable insights into the coexistence of these conditions and their implications for behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry. The reprint showcases cutting-edge research that reflects the dynamic and evolving nature of the field. The comprehensive coverage of the latest advancements in the reprint makes it an essential resource for researchers, clinicians, and practitioners seeking to stay informed about the recent progress in the field and gain insights into the potential of interdisciplinary research. To place an order for this Reprint, please visit the relevant website provided by MDPI.

We present our reprint dedicated to the study of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Despite advances in diagnosis and treatment, OSCC remains a challenge for scientists and clinicians worldwide. This compilation of articles addresses novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for the prevention and treatment of OSCC. Articles cover topics such as the combined use of pathway inhibitors in cancer control, the role of genes and microRNAs, the interaction between smoking and HPV infection, and potential biomarkers for diagnosis and therapy. These publications provide insights into the latest research and inspire further innovation.

The digitalization of the energy sector is of paramount importance and, at the same time, an ever-increasing phenomenon. For example, it is worth noting how IoT technologies and the widespread utilization of digital twins are changing the way in which energy systems and fluid machinery are conceived and designed. However, this can only be achieved if these new ICT technologies are posed on solid bases for the representation of energy systems and fluid machinery. Therefore, mathematical modelling is still relevant, and its importance cannot be underestimated. This Special Issue, which follows a previous one on the same topic, is intended for a collection of contributions about the mathematical modelling of energy systems and fluid machinery in order to build and consolidate this base of knowledge.

This Special Issue deals with a range of social and environmental applications of mathematics. First, articles deal with mediation analysis in studying the impact of socioeconomic factors on health, convergence analysis for assessing the sustainability of EU state economies using cluster analysis, access to economic independence using mutual information and kernel density information, verifying the impact of the location of residential properties in relation to poverty levels, ecosystem services in streets and spatial analysis in an economic model studying spatiotemporal interactions. The second topic discussed is environmental elements modelling, covering nonlinear models enabling the reconstruction of missing meteorological data, green and low-carbon rural development with the use of graph analysis and PM 2.5 and PM 10 prediction modelling with the Nonlinear Autoregressive Exogenous Model. The third is related to purifying the environment polluted by humans with the use of living organisms, and the fourth concerns the real estate market, utilizing a vector autoregressive model to identify the interrelationships between a housing market based on Google Trends and the housing process in Poland and using multiple linear regression to examine the residential real estate market based on intrinsic and extrinsic data.

Composites are the most promising material available in the twenty-first century. Composites reinforced with synthetic or natural fibers are becoming extremely prevalent as the demand for lightweight materials with high strength for specific applications grows. Fiber-reinforced polymer composite has a high strength-to-weight ratio and excellent properties, such as high durability, stiffness, damping property, flexural strength, and resistance to corrosion, wear, impact, and fire. Various properties of composite materials have led to applications in construction, aerospace, automobile, biomedical, marine, and many other industries. Because their constituent elements and manufacturing techniques primarily determine the performance of composite materials, the functional properties of various fibers available worldwide, their classifications, and the manufacturing techniques used to fabricate the composite materials must be investigated.

Elemental boron has attracted researchers because of its large number of allotropes, thus providing a variety of scientific aspects within physics and chemistry. Boron compounds and boron nanomaterials have also shown various polymorphs that have been investigated as functional materials for our society. The uniqueness of the boron atom is due to its high frequency of electron multi-center bonding with neighboring atoms, which is still a significant topic in theoretical and computational research. Recently, there have been reports on the realization of two-dimensional (2D) or planar boron nanomaterials, the so-called borophenes. As expected, observations of the various 2D polymorphisms have triggered a considerable number of research lines worldwide. This reprint presents a collection of such papers at the forefront. The contributed papers are transferred from the Special Issue of "New Science of Boron Allotropes, Compounds, and Nanomaterials" in the journal Molecules. The issue was launched in 2021, and it aimed to provide a forum for the dissemination of the latest information on boron allotropes, compounds, and nanomaterials.

Photoactive nanomaterials exhibit myriad customized properties, making them appealing for a wide range of practical applications. Photoactive nanomaterials can convert photon to photon (photoluminescence), heat (photothermal effect), and separated charged carriers (photocatalytic reaction, photovoltaic effect), which is very important for the manipulation of light and the utilization of solar energy. This reprint collates 12 papers on recent research progress in emerging photoluminescent, photothermal, and photocatalytic nanomaterials, as well as their applications in optoelectronics and energy conversion.

This Special Issue serves as a valuable resource for readers seeking to delve into the exciting field of flexible and wearable electronics and contribute to their further advancements. This Special Issue presents research papers, short communications, and review articles focusing on the following themes: (1) Novel structural designs, material fabrication, signal processing, and modeling of flexible and wearable sensors applying a wide range of mechanisms to flexible and wearable electronics;(2) MEMS techniques used in the production process of wearable and flexible sensors, along with simulation analysis with theoretical modeling;(3) Multiple application scenarios utilizing multivariable flexible and wearable sensor systems.