A Practical Theory of Mechanisms
No detailed description available for "A Practical Theory of Mechanisms".
Easy HACCP
This book is dedicated to the subject of HACCP. The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point system is a preventative system for assuring the safe production of food products. It is based on a common sense application of technical and scientific principles to a food production process. The most basic concept underlying HACCP is that of prevention. The food processor/handler should have sufficient information concerning the food and the related procedures they are using, so they will be able to identify where a food safety problem may occur and how it will occur.
Robotics
RoboticsBy: Oksen BabakhanianRobotics is an in-depth look at the new age we are on the verge of and, soon will be an age that is totally different than what human beings have experienced before. The COVID-19 pandemic showed a glimpse of what the future is going to look like and how people will conduct their life and business affairs from inside their homes. Now, with the advent of new and highly technical robots who do most of the jobs for human beings, we will create a new world in which people do not need to work and will be travel by automated, robot-driven vehicles. In this insightful work, author Oksen Babakhanian and Ailin Babakhanian examine how people will survive and what will change about our society and culture. They believe the social life of the new age will be one of an "Educated Socialism" society.About the AuthorOksen Babakhanian is an accomplished structural engineer, who owned his consulting structural engineering business for more than thirty years. He has recently started writing a few mini books after the sale of his business, pursuing his childhood dream of being a writer. His booklets are mostly about his experiences and world knowledge. As an engineer, he tries to enhance the social and economic situation of the society both at home and abroad. His works include Rebirth of Cultural and Business Revolution in Armenia, Social Standing of African American People, Robotics, and Educated Socialism System and Economy of Waste.The author's first book; The Economy of Waste, has been published by Author house on 3/08/21. This book is about "Healthy" and "Unhealthy" economy and the balance between "Needs" and "wants" of people.His second book; The Pilgrimage: African American's Rebirth was published by Author house on 4/16/21. This book is to revolutionize African American culture and mindset of slavery to a freedom that comes from the heart and mind and flow to reality of life, a life of freedom and respect for the soul of the African Americans.
Biomedical Sensing and Imaging
This book mainly deals with recent advances in biomedical sensing and imaging. More recently, wearable/smart biosensors and devices, which facilitate diagnostics in a non-clinical setting, have become a hot topic. Combined with machine learning and artificial intelligence, they could revolutionize the biomedical diagnostic field. The aim of this book is to provide a research forum in biomedical sensing and imaging and extend the scientific frontier of this very important and significant biomedical endeavor.
Human Health Engineering Volume II
In this Special Issue on "Human Health Engineering Volume II", we invited submissions exploring recent contributions to the field of human health engineering, i.e., technology for monitoring the physical or mental health status of individuals in a variety of applications. Contributions could focus on sensors, wearable hardware, algorithms, or integrated monitoring systems. We organized the different papers according to their contributions to the main parts of the monitoring and control engineering scheme applied to human health applications, namely papers focusing on measuring/sensing physiological variables, papers highlighting health-monitoring applications, and examples of control and process management applications for human health. In comparison to biomedical engineering, we envision that the field of human health engineering will also cover applications for healthy humans (e.g., sports, sleep, and stress), and thus not only contribute to the development of technology for curing patients or supporting chronically ill people, but also to more general disease prevention and optimization of human well-being.
Coatings Imparting Multifunctional Properties to Materials
Coatings are traditionally used to protect materials from corrosion and erosion and improve the equipment's performance. At present, there are coatings that provide materials with new properties, for example, biocidal, hydrophobic and self-cleaning properties. A promising area of materials science is the development of "smart" coatings that simultaneously give materials several new properties. The coating propertiess are determined by the coatings' material, the structure and the properties of the substrate surface, and the methods of forming the coatings. This book contains the results of the latest research on the formation of coatings that impart complexes of new properties to various materials.
Methods of Machine Learning and their Application. The Basics of Markov Decision Processes and Reinforcement Learning
Bachelor Thesis from the year 2021 in the subject Engineering - Computer Engineering, grade: 1,3, Hamburg University of Technology (Embedded Systems), language: English, abstract: This bachelor thesis aims to illustrate the idea behind Markov Decision Processes (MDP) and to present a few basic methods of Reinforcement Learning (RL) namely Monte Carlo Learning and Q-Learning, which are the solutions for decision problems modelled by MDPs. For the last section we apply these methods on an application and in the end discuss the results. Let us imagine the scenario where we put a hamster inside a maze, we expect the hamster to go through the maze till it reaches some point we considered as the goal. Well, it may randomly work but most of the time it won't. At this place, the hamster does not know how important this particular point remains namely the goal. But how will it be, when we remunerate the hamster once the goal is reached, he receives a reward for example a piece of cheese. The hamster will start to remember the route, which leads to the cheese and he maybe will learn to go the easy and quick way to achieve this goal. What we did, is that we reinforce the good behavior of the hamster by giving it some reward.
10th Anniversary of Applied Sciences-Invited Papers in Chemistry Section
This book consists of 12 original research articles and one comprehensive review from invited chemists from around the world covering different fields of chemistry. The article on analytical chemistry features the analysis of highly polar metabolites in biological fluids, the determination of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs with a gas chromatography coupled to ion trap mass spectrometry, and the synthesis of MoS2 nanostructures for the production of near-infrared photodetectors. The environmental chemistry articles include discussions on weekly and longitudinal elemental variability in hair samples, use of bottom ash as a stabilizing agent, the removal of phosphorus from the effluent of a paper company, and the chemistry and consequences of arsenic contamination of groundwater. Polymer/coating chemistry coverage includes the incorporation of superabsorbent polymers into cementitious-based composite materials, the use of licorice root extracts for edible coatings and postharvest quality improvement, and the use of mucin-grafted polyethylene glycol-based micro- for the oral delivery of insulin. The reported research on nanomaterials chemistry covers the synthesis of ZnO-doped ceria nanorods made up of CeO2/ZnO mixed oxides, and the production of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic bonded joints with novel carbon nanotube (CNT) adhesive films. A final paper on flavonol chemistry utilizes LC-MS/MS to investigate the stability of four common types of dietary flavonols.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil Quality, Safety, and Authenticity
The prevention and bioactivity effects associated with the so-called "Mediterranean diet" make olive oil the most consumed edible fat in the food intake of the Mediterranean basin.The road to quality demands that legislation should be followed. Hence, official European Union classifications such as protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI), etc. guarantee the quality and the origin of the labeled foodstuff.The profiling of volatile components and the aroma of olive oil are key factors in the quality dimension and are affected by various factors and conditions such as cultivar; atmospheric, pedologic, and fostering conditions; the ripening degree; olive and oil storage; and the technology of oil extraction from drupes, as well as the quality of the pre-extraction procedures.In extra virgin olive oil production, as in all kinds of production, the maintenance of high quality standards is assured by the olive fruits' and the final products' quality. Modern milling technologies can aid in the direction of quality and safety and thus can be employed in the production of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), which can be directly consumed without any further manipulation. The overall quality of EVOO should be determined by quality characteristics including sensory analysis, stability, and nutritional value and safety (microbiology, absence of contaminants and toxins), along with authenticity.Food authenticity issues are very important for the food industry due to legislation aspects, economics, quality specifications and conformance, safety concerns, and religious matters. Authentic EVOO should comply with the producer's declaration regarding the quality of olive fruits, natural components, the absence of extraneous substances, production technology, the geographical and botanical origin, the production year, and the genetic identity. Hence, olive oil authenticity can be implemented by the validation of the application of accurate specifications for olive fruits and the selection of trustworthy suppliers with a quality assurance system in place.Authenticity methodologies will avoid adulteration but will also aid the control of accidental contaminations, e.g., in factories, where several oils are produced or used at the same time, or cross-contaminations.
Modelling the Deformation, Recrystallization and Microstructure-Related Properties in Metals
In the special issue related to Modelling the Deformation, Recrystallization and Microstructure-Related Properties in Metals, we presented a wide spectrum of articles dealing with modelling of microstructural aspects involved in deformation and recrystallization as well as simulation of microstructure-based and texture-based properties in various metals. The latest advances in the theoretical interpretation of mesoscopic transformations based on experimental observations were partially discussed in the current special issue. The studies dealing with the modelling of structure-property relationships are likewise analyzed in the present collection of manuscripts. The contributions in the current collection evidently demonstrate that the properties of metallic materials are microstructure dependent and therefore the thermomechanical processing (TMP) of the polycrystalline aggregates should be strictly controlled to guarantee the desired bunch of qualities. Given this, the assessment of microstructure evolution in metallic systems is of extraordinary importance. Since the trial-error approach is a time-consuming and quite expensive methodology, the materials research community tends to employ a wide spectrum of computational approaches to simulate each chain of TMP and tune the processing variables to ensure the necessary microstructural state which will provide desired performance in the final product.Although many hidden facets of various technological processes and related microstructural changes were revealed in the submitted works by employing advanced computational approaches, nevertheless, the contributions collected in this issue clearly show that further efforts are required in the field of modelling to understand the complexity of material's world. The final goal of modelling efforts might be a development of a comprehensive model, which will be capable of describing many aspects of microstructure evolution during thermomechanical processing.
Wind Power Integration into Power Systems
Power network operators are rapidly incorporating wind power generation into their power grids to meet the widely accepted carbon neutrality targets and facilitate the transition from conventional fossil-fuel energy sources to clean and low-carbon renewable energy sources. Complex stability issues, such as frequency, voltage, and oscillatory instability, are frequently reported in the power grids of many countries and regions (e.g., Germany, Denmark, Ireland, and South Australia) due to the substantially increased wind power generation. Control techniques, such as virtual/emulated inertia and damping controls, could be developed to address these stability issues, and additional devices, such as energy storage systems, can also be deployed to mitigate the adverse impact of high wind power generation on various system stability problems. Moreover, other wind power integration aspects, such as capacity planning and the short- and long-term forecasting of wind power generation, also require careful attention to ensure grid security and reliability. This book includes fourteen novel research articles published in this Energies Special Issue on Wind Power Integration into Power Systems: Stability and Control Aspects, with topics ranging from stability and control to system capacity planning and forecasting.
Systems Engineering for Sustainable Development Goals
The recent pandemic has united the world in an unprecedented solidarity and appreciation for the unknown and the unseen. The variety of governmental and individual responses is evidence of our global lack of preparedness for such situations. A renewed appreciation for the importance of holistic and systemic thinking permeates both industry and academia. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) contain thematic areas that are relevant for reflection as the countries regroup, repair, and move forward.Systems engineering is a discipline appropriate beyond its initial benefits, creating complex technological systems. Domains such as healthcare, transportation, natural resource management, social economics, and governance recognize the value of applying system thinking and systems engineering practices to finding solutions that go beyond band-aid symptomatic issues to address root cause fixes. This Special Issue of Sustainability profiles researchers and practitioners, using systems engineering approaches to share their practices and findings as they address SDG thematic areas. They explore the ways in which systems methods help to mitigate and resolve socio-economic and natural environmental challenges, such as engineering personalized education, access to clean water, maintaining and improving urban infrastructure, and applying systems engineering to help shape resilient and trustworthy policies related to these and similar challenges. This issue highlights the most promising and innovative techniques for working toward and achieving the UN SDG.
Power Converters, Electric Drives and Energy Storage Systems for Electrified Transportation and Smart Grid
This book is a printed version of the Special Issue entitled "Power Converters, Electric Drives and Energy Storage Systems for Electrified Transportation and Smart Grid" on MDPI Energies journal. It presents 10 accepted papers from 18 submitted, as well as an Editorial, with authors from Europe, US, Asia, and Africa. The published papers are related to the emerging trends in solar power, energy storage, electric drives, and power electronic converters based on specific optimization and control methods and algorithms, with focus on electric vehicles and charging stations-based RES towards smart/micro grids. An extensive exploitation of renewable energy sources is foreseen for smart grid, as well as a close integration with the energy storage and recharging issues of the electrified transportation systems.
Safe, Secure and Sustainable Oil and Gas Drilling, Exploitation and Pipeline Transport Offshore
Immediately after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico on 20 April 2010 in the United States waters on the Macondo prospect about 60 km offshore the Texas coast, numerous worldwide efforts took place to increase the overall safety level related to offshore oil and gas operations. These have continued until today, with relevant changes and improvements in the offshore oil and gas sector mostly focusing on: 1) regulations and regulatory authorities; 2) working groups and industrial associations; 3) safety technologies, focusing especially on the most relevant developments that have been introduced, particularly with respect to well integrity, blow out preventers (BOPs), and capping and containment devices; 4) technical and operational standards; 5) risk management practices, especially concerning the management of human and organizational factors, which greatly contribute to the occurrence of major accidents in the offshore oil and gas sector. This book is not focused only on safety in offshore oil and gas operations, but all onshore efforts are also acknowledged. All methods, computational procedures, innovations, and technologies, which can increase the production rate, safety of pipelines, usability, and efficiency, are within the scope of this book. So are all aspects related to the production of oil and gas and drilling, both offshore and onshore, as well as those related to an increased degree of utilization and efficiency of drilling, all safety aspects, and all aspects of security of supply. Contributions from academia, standardization and regulatory bodies, manufacturers of equipment, service and exploitation companies, and from all other types of industry were welcome.
Kinematics and Robot Design I, KaRD2018
This volume collects the papers published on the Special Issue "Kinematics and Robot Design I, KaRD2018" (https: //www.mdpi.com/journal/robotics/special_issues/KARD), which is the first issue of the KaRD Special Issue series, hosted by the open access journal "MDPI Robotics". The KaRD series aims at creating 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". KaRD2018 received 22 papers and, after the peer-review process, accepted only 14 papers. The accepted papers cover some theoretical and many design/applicative aspects.
Bioenergy and Biofuels
The condition of the fuel and energy sector reflects the state of the economy around the world. New technologies in the energy sector and management of its development, together with a dynamically changing environment, as well as care for sustainable development and energy security, make the energy and automotive industry the most important sectors of the economy, whose dynamic development has been observed for many years. It should be emphasized that an important factor mobilizing the search for modern technologies, especially in energy and transport, is progressive climate change, closely related to greenhouse gas emissions.The Special Issue "Bioenergy and Biofuels" of the journal Sustainability was dedicated to the publication of works on obtaining energy from biological sources. Obviously, bio-based biomass contains mainly carbon and hydrogen and can be converted into various types of fuel or burned directly to provide heat. From the composition of biomass, it can be easily deduced that its combustion mainly causes the emission of carbon dioxide and water. Carbon dioxide from biomass is assumed to have been absorbed from the atmosphere during plant growth and will be reabsorbed. Therefore, it is not a source of climate warming, and it only temporarily increases the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This situation is the main reason for the use of plant biomass for energy purposes. Due to the variety of applications, there are many technologies for obtaining energy from biomass. New technologies for obtaining as well as technologies for converting bio-based fuels into various forms of energy may also emerge. The use of renewable energy sources is governed by a number of legal provisions on various aspects of the conversion of biomass into fuels, the use of waste biomass, etc.
Anticancer Drugs Activity and Underlying Mechanisms
Cancer is a multifactorial and very complex disease representing the second leading cause of death worldwide. Prevention, early diagnosis and the old and new arsenal of chemotherapics are useful tools in the fight against this disease. This Special Issue collects the last researches and literature reviews in the field of Medicinal Chemistry and Cancer Research, with particular regard to the metal complexes and drug repurposing and with a glance at the drug formulation and biological targets discovered through the combined use of in silico and in vitro studies.
Electromagnetic Scattering and Its Applications
Electromagnetic scattering is a very wide research topic and is behind the development of many devices and systems in everyday life: from mobile communication to radar apparatuses, from medical diagnostics to innovative materials, and so forth. Despite the significant advances made in the study of this subject, that goes back centuries, new applications are continuously emerging and stimulating researchers to face both theoretical and practical issues. This book aims at presenting innovative research contributions in different fields where electromagnetic scattering phenomena play an important role, which include scattering theory and modeling, numerical techniques, and applications. We would like to thank all the contributors to this Special Issue and the reviewers who took the time to provide the authors with very valuable and constructive comments and suggestions. Without their invaluable contribution, this Special Issue would not have been possible. Gian Luigi Gragnani Alessandro Fedeli
Novel Nanocomposites
The present Special Issue, "Novel Nanocomposites: Optical, Electrical, Mechanical and Surface Related Properties", presents a collection of eight original, high-quality research papers covering a broad range of subjects, from nanocomposite synthesis/fabrication to the design and characterization of various nanocomposites materials with enhanced optical, electrical, mechanical, and surface-related properties as well as practical applications.
Advances in Processing and Mechanical Behavior in Lightweight Metals and Alloys
Lightweight metals and alloys have represented for many years the most suitable solution for many high-tech applications, including sport equipment and automotive components where alternate movements required low inertia. Aerospace has probably been the sector where most of the potential of aluminum and titanium resides. The term light alloy is focused on materials based on aluminum, titanium, and magnesium systems, including the intermetallic-reinforced matrices.Nevertheless, the processing of light alloys has always been faced with low-formability and narrow-thermal processing windows with respect to the steel family.Thanks to researchers' creativity, new processes have been invented based on complex forming steps, i.e., gas-superplastic diffusion bonding, or hot isostatic postprocessing to overcome this drawback and obtain net-shape or near-net shape components.What is the new frontier of processing? What are the innovative thermal treatments to improve the toughness and fatigue limits? Further, what about the properties that are possible to reach with innovative additive forming processes, based on powder metallurgy?These are only a few of the pending questions in the field. This Special Issue is intended to provide a wide set of articles on various aspects of light alloy processing innovation and characterization. The idea is to collect a wide range of articles focused on light alloy characterization, including innovative metallurgy solution correlated with mechanical property effects. Innovation on production methods, including those based on powder metallurgy and performance in final products, is desired.
Responses of Forest Ecosystems to Nitrogen Deposition
Despite effective global-scale legislation to restrict the emissions of nitrogen (N) into the atmosphere, atmospheric deposition of N remains high in many forested regions. In addition, many N-impacted forests still retain the imprint of N saturation, such as altered species composition and leaching of essential base cations. Accordingly, we need a further understanding of the complexities of N cycling in forest ecosystems and the effects of excess N on forest biodiversity and biogeochemical cycling. This volume explores these complexities, including effects on plants, plant assemblages, and forest biogeochemistry, by synthesizing research from Asia, Europe, and North America. Because of the widespread nature of current declines in N deposition, this book ends with a look to the future as N-impacted forests experience a return to lower levels of atmospheric deposition of N.
Carbon Nanotube-Based Nanocomposites
The Special issue, "Carbon nanotube-based nanocomposites", provides an extensive overview of current trends in the area of polymer matrix nanocomposites based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) from the papers contributed by internationally recognized specialists. The Special Issue brings together 7 papers that deal with the various aspects of processing, as well as experimental and analytical approaches to carbon nanotube-based nanocomposites fabrication, characterization and application. Each paper demonstrates how enhancements in materials, processes and characterization techniques can improve performance in the field of engineering. The Special issue gives a unique opportunity to discover the latest research on carbon nanotube-based nanocomposites from different laboratories. Numerous references are given at the end of each paper to enable the reader to explore the topics covered in greater detail. Most of the papers describe the improvement of electrical and mechanical properties of polymer-based nanocomposites due to the application of CNTs, independently on the matrix used: (ethylene vinyl acetate) copolymer, hot melt copolyamides, epoxy and silicone resins. In each case, the relationships between the processing parameters and microstructure of obtained nanocomposites were described.The synergistic effect of hybrid nanofillers was also explored in nanocomposites with carbon and halloysite nanotubes. The effect of carbon nanotubes on the wear behavior of nanocomposites based on epoxy resin was investigated as well.The original results on the synthesis and characterization of composite shear thickening fluids containing carbon nanofillers are presented. The addition of the CNTs modified the impact absorption ability of such fluids. The presented Special Issue results also proved that CNTs can be used to obtain more resistant and durable cement-based composites.
Synthesis, Chracterization and Applications of Coated Composite Materials for Energy Applications
The formulation of coated composite materials is an important field of research around the world today. Coated composite materials include inhomogeneous and anisotropic materials. These materials are formulated by an amalgamate minimum of two or more materials that accommodate different properties. These materials have a vast field of appealing applications that encourage scientists to work on them. Due to their unique properties, such as their strength, liability, swiftness, and low cost, they are used as promising candidates for reliable applications in various fields, such as biomedical, engineering, energy devices, wastewater treatment, and agriculture. Different types of composite materials have had a noticeable impact in these fields already, such as glass, plastic, and, most promisingly, metal oxide nanoparticles.
New Trends in Algebraic Geometry and Its Applications
Unirrational algebraic varieties, particularly curves and surfaces, play an important role in many fields, such as Algebraic Geometry, Computational Geometry, Computer-Aided Design, Computer Graphics, and Geometric Modeling. Consequently, algorithms and results dealing with the different algebraic and geometric problems involving these geometric objects are very important.This Special Issue on "New Trends in Algebraic Geometry and Its Applications" is directed at mathematicians and computer scientists with a particular interest in algebraic geometry and its applications. This Special Issue aims to facilitate communication between researchers addressing the fundamental algorithmic issues in the treatment of curves and surfaces (from symbolic and numeric perspectives).The contributions presented in this Special Issue explore the interplay between geometry, algebra, and numerical computation when designing a variety of algorithms, or provide a complexity analysis of the running time of such algorithms.This Special Issue focuses on recent problems concerning algebraic geometry and its applications as an algorithm for visualizing algebraic varieties, in scientific and computational algebra, computational and algebraic geometry, and computer algebra problems, solved by means of symbolic-numeric techniques.
Visual and Camera Sensors
This book includes 13 papers published in Special Issue ("Visual and Camera Sensors") of the journal Sensors. The goal of this Special Issue was to invite high-quality, state-of-the-art research papers dealing with challenging issues in visual and camera sensors.
Mining Innovation
Contemporary exploitation of natural raw materials by borehole, opencast, underground, seabed, and anthropogenic deposits is closely related to, among others, geomechanics, automation, computer science, and numerical methods. More and more often, individual fields of science coexist and complement each other, contributing to lowering exploitation costs, increasing production, and reduction of the time needed to prepare and exploit the deposit. The continuous development of national economies is related to the increasing demand for energy, metal, rock, and chemical resources. Very often, exploitation is carried out in complex geological and mining conditions, which are accompanied by natural hazards such as rock bursts, methane, coal dust explosion, spontaneous combustion, water, gas, and temperature. In order to conduct a safe and economically justified operation, modern construction materials are being used more and more often in mining to support excavations, both under static and dynamic loads. The individual production stages are supported by specialized computer programs for cutting the deposit as well as for modeling the behavior of the rock mass after excavation in it. Currently, the automation and monitoring of the mining works play a very important role, which will significantly contribute to the improvement of safety conditions. In this Special Issue of Energies, we focus on innovative laboratory, numerical, and industrial research that has a positive impact on the development of safety and exploitation in mining.
Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Titanium Alloys
Titanium and its alloys are widely used engineering materials within the aerospace, automotive, energy and chemical industries. Their unique combination of high strength-to-weight ratio, strong resistance to creep, excellent corrosion resistance, and low heat conductivity makes them suitable for a wide range of applications. A large variety of microstructures, including lamellar, martensite, equiaxed globular and bimodal (duplex) microstructures can be obtained in titanium alloys depending on the thermomechanical processing routes. Despite a large amount of work in the field of investigation of microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of titanium alloys, detailed studies of the effect of their microstructure on the mechanical behavior are still necessary because of ever-increasing demands for structural materials to optimize their properties for different applications by varying processing parameters and resulting microstructures.This Special Issue is focused on various aspects of microstructure evolution in titanium alloy samples obtained using traditional and additive technologies and subjected to different processing techniques as well as on the relation between their microstructure and mechanical behavior. The presented original articles cover the areas of preparation and experimental characterization of titanium alloys as well as computer simulation of their mechanical behavior under different loading conditions.
Selected Papers from the 15th OpenFOAM Workshop
This Special Issue will publish selected papers from the 15th OpenFOAM Workshop, June 22-25, 2020 in Arlington, Virginia, USA. The workshop is hosted by the Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech.During this community driven event, conference presentations and poster sessions will be held and work in progress is gladly seen as well. In addition to the conference aspect, trainings on OpenFOAM technology and other related software tools are held mostly from users for users. This underlines one of the goals of the workshop: bringing users, developers and researchers together and providing a nurturing ground for open discussions and future projects. The conference will cover the following main topics: - Aerodynamics;- Civil engineering;- Complex materials;- Compressible flows;- Fluid-structure interaction;- General CFD;- Heat and mass transfer;- Lagrangian methods;- Naval hydrodynamic;- Offshore and renewable energy;- Optimization and control;- Porous media;- Pre/post-processing;- Reacting flows;- Turbomachinery;- Turbulence modeling.Papers presented in this workshop and having enough quality can be further considered for publication in Fluids. The papers will be peer-reviewed for the validation of research results, developments, and applications.
High-Temperature Behavior of Metals
The design of new alloys or metal-based composites as well as the optimization of any of the processes involved in high-temperature deformation must take into account the characterization and/or modeling of the high-temperature mechanical responses of the material. This is not a new concept. Nevertheless, there is still much to be done both in terms of data accumulation, specifically for innovative materials, and in terms of material modeling for proper process management, specifically when innovative deformation processes, including more complex time and temperature combinations, are considered. Microstructural changes induced by the process can also severely affect both the further processability of the material as well as its final properties (structural or functional). Similar considerations hold in the case of conventional or innovative metallic materials, where high-temperature deformation occurs due to high-temperature service of the structural components. Thus, knowledge of the effects on the initial microstructure as well as the microstructural changes taking place during in-service deformation are of paramount importance for the optimization of high-temperature structural alloys.This book 'High-Temperature Behavior of Metals' contains contributions dealing with a wide range of metallic materials, illustrating some of the most recent and interesting advances in the field of the high-temperature structural behavior of metallic materials.
Biotechnology for Sustainability and Social Well Being
This book covers the latest development of bioprocess technology including theoretical, numerical, and experimental approaches in biotechnology as well as green technology that bridge conventional practices and Industry 4.0. Bioprocessing is one of the key factors in several emerging industries of biofuels, used in the production of biogas, bioethanol, and biodiesel; industrial enzymes; waste management through biotechnology; new vaccines; and many more. It is hoped that the novel bioprocess and green biotechnologies presented in this book are useful in assisting the global community in working towards fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations.
UAV or Drones for Remote Sensing Applications in GPS/GNSS Enabled and GPS/GNSS Denied Environments
The design of novel UAV systems and the use of UAV platforms integrated with robotic sensing and imaging techniques, as well as the development of processing workflows and the capacity of ultra-high temporal and spatial resolution data, have enabled a rapid uptake of UAVs and drones across several industries and application domains.This book provides a forum for high-quality peer-reviewed papers that broaden awareness and understanding of single- and multiple-UAV developments for remote sensing applications, and associated developments in sensor technology, data processing and communications, and UAV system design and sensing capabilities in GPS-enabled and, more broadly, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-enabled and GPS/GNSS-denied environments.Contributions include: UAV-based photogrammetry, laser scanning, multispectral imaging, hyperspectral imaging, and thermal imaging;UAV sensor applications; spatial ecology; pest detection; reef; forestry; volcanology; precision agriculture wildlife species tracking; search and rescue; target tracking; atmosphere monitoring; chemical, biological, and natural disaster phenomena; fire prevention, flood prevention; volcanic monitoring; pollution monitoring; microclimates; and land use;Wildlife and target detection and recognition from UAV imagery using deep learning and machine learning techniques;UAV-based change detection.
Advances and Trends in Non-conventional, Abrasive and Precision Machining
The work included in this book pertains to advanced abrasive and nonconventional machining processes. These processes are at the forefront of modern technology, with significant practical significance. Their importance is also made clear by the case studies that are included in the research that is presented in the book, pertaining to important materials and high-end applications. However, the particularities of these manufacturing processes need to be further investigated and the processes themselves need to be optimized. This is conducted in the presented works with significant experimental and modeling work, incorporating modern tools of analysis and measurements.
Seismic Performance Assessment of Buildings
A Special Issue for Buildings, entitled "Seismic Performance Assessment of Buildings", comprises seven original research studies from international experts from Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, and New Zealand. The contributions address the seismic assessment of reinforced concrete wall buildings; reinforced concrete buildings at an urban scale; residential unreinforced masonry buildings, including timber diaphragms and structural irregularities; complex monumental unreinforced masonry buildings; and adobe buildings.
Trends in GPR and other NDTs for Transport Infrastructure Assessment
This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Trends in GPR and other NDTs for Transport Infrastructure Assessment" that was published in Remote Sensing. This compilation of papers has been published to offer an extensive up-to-date overview of the state-of-the-art research activities in the challenging field of applying Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) and other nondestructive testing (NDT) methods for the assessment of transport infrastructure. New findings are addressed in 12 original research papers and 1 review paper, including various subjects such as pavements, railways, bridges, tunnels, and retaining walls. The best practices, troubleshooting, and future perspectives of the method for infrastructure inspection are also discussed in this reprint.
Ultrasound for Material Characterization and Processing
Ultrasonic waves are nowadays used for multiple purposes including both low-intensity/high frequency and high-intensity/low-frequency ultrasound. Low-intensity ultrasound transmits energy through the medium in order to obtain information about the medium or to convey information through the medium. It is successfully used in non-destructive inspection, ultrasonic dynamic analysis, ultrasonic rheology, ultrasonic spectroscopy of materials, process monitoring, applications in civil engineering, aerospace and geological materials and structures, and in the characterization of biological media. Nowadays, it is an essential tool for assessing metals, plastics, aerospace composites, wood, concrete, and cement. High-intensity ultrasound deliberately affects the propagation medium through the high local temperatures and pressures generated. It is used in industrial processes such as welding, cleaning, emulsification, atomization, etc.; chemical reactions and reactor induced by ultrasonic waves; synthesis of organic and inorganic materials; microstructural effects; heat generation; accelerated material characterization by ultrasonic fatigue testing; food processing; and environmental protection.This book collects eleven papers, one review, and ten research papers with the aim to present recent advances in ultrasonic wave propagation applied for the characterization or the processing of materials. Both fundamental science and applications of ultrasound in the field of material characterization and material processing have been gathered.
Ubiquitous Technologies for Emotion Recognition
Emotions play a very important role in how we think and behave. As such, the emotions we feel every day can compel us to act and influence the decisions and plans we make about our lives. Being able to measure, analyze, and better comprehend how or why our emotions may change is thus of much relevance to understand human behavior and its consequences. Despite the great efforts made in the past in the study of human emotions, it is only now, with the advent of wearable, mobile, and ubiquitous technologies, that we can aim to sense and recognize emotions, continuously and in real time. This book brings together the latest experiences, findings, and developments regarding ubiquitous sensing, modeling, and the recognition of human emotions.
CFD Simulations of Marine Hydrodynamics
CFD is an emerging area and is gaining popularity due to the availability of ever-increasing computational power. If used accurately, CFD methods may overcome the limitations of experimental and other numerical methods, in some respects. This Special Issue focuses on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Simulations of Marine Hydrodynamics with a specific focus on the applications of naval architecture and ocean engineering, and it comprises 24 original articles that advance state-of-the-art CFD applications in marine hydrodynamics and/or review the progress and future directions of research in this field. The published articles cover a wide range of subjects relevant to naval architecture and ocean engineering, including but not limited to; ship resistance and propulsion, seakeeping and maneuverability, hydrodynamics of marine renewable energy devices, validation and verification of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), EFD/CFD combined methods, fouling/coating hydrodynamics.
Salutogenesis and Coping
This volume of Proceedings gathers papers presented at XOVETIC2020 (A Coru簽a, Spain, 8-9 October 2020), a conference with the main goal of bringing together young researchers working in big data, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, HPC (High-performance computing), cybersecurity, bioinformatics, natural language processing, 5G, and other areas from the field of ICT (Information Communications Technology); and offering a platform to present the results of their research to a national audience in Portugal. This third edition aims to serve as the basis of this event, which will be consolidated over time and acquire international projection.
Novel Technologies to Enhance Energy Performance and Indoor Environmental Quality of Buildings
This Special Issue aims at reporting current investigations on emerging materials and devices taking up the challenge of pursuing a significant improvement in the energy performance of buildings and indoor comfort. What is the contribution of innovative technologies in the epochal transition to low environmental impact buildings? This is the question addressed in this Special Issue, in order to offer a wide and heterogeneous amount of data to readers, along with results of high scientific impact concerning the application of innovative technologies in construction. The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change following the COP 21 Conference on Climate Change, organized by United Nations, required the States to reduce carbon emissions in the building stock. In the European Union, almost 50% of final energy consumption is used for heating and cooling; out of this huge amount, 80% is used in buildings. It makes sense, then, that the Union's goals are inherently linked to the real effort to renovate the building stock. To do this, in the EU and worldwide, the priority is to enhance energy efficiency, by deploying low-cost renewable energies and innovative technologies, especially those derived from recent achievements in the field of nanomaterials research, with special reference to building integration of novel technologies, spanning from chromogenics to semitransparent photovoltaics, super-insulating materials, and phase change materials. Articles here proposed deal with every construction or plant component of the building organism, taking advantage of novel technologies to improve their performance, from the envelope to structures, HVAC, and other technical systems, as well as indoor climate analyses in buildings and indoor environmental quality (IEQ), as well as visual comfort indoors.
Open Data and Models for Energy and Environment
This Special Issue aims at providing recent advancements on open data and models. Energy and environment are the fields of application. For all the aforementioned reasons, we encourage researchers and professionals to share their original works. Topics of primary interest include, but are not limited to: Open data and models for energy sustainability; Open data science and environment applications; Open science and open governance for Sustainable Development Goals; Key performance indicators of data-aware energy modelling, planning and policy; Energy, water and sustainability database for building, district and regional systems; and Best practices and case studies.
Advanced Techniques for Ground Penetrating Radar Imaging
Ground penetrating radar (GPR) has become one of the key technologies in subsurface sensing and, in general, in non-destructive testing (NDT), since it is able to detect both metallic and nonmetallic targets. GPR for NDT has been successfully introduced in a wide range of sectors, such as mining and geology, glaciology, civil engineering and civil works, archaeology, and security and defense.In recent decades, improvements in georeferencing and positioning systems have enabled the introduction of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) techniques in GPR systems, yielding GPR-SAR systems capable of providing high-resolution microwave images. In parallel, the radiofrequency front-end of GPR systems has been optimized in terms of compactness (e.g., smaller Tx/Rx antennas) and cost. These advances, combined with improvements in autonomous platforms, such as unmanned terrestrial and aerial vehicles, have fostered new fields of application for GPR, where fast and reliable detection capabilities are demanded. In addition, processing techniques have been improved, taking advantage of the research conducted in related fields like inverse scattering and imaging. As a result, novel and robust algorithms have been developed for clutter reduction, automatic target recognition, and efficient processing of large sets of measurements to enable real-time imaging, among others.This Special Issue provides an overview of the state of the art in GPR imaging, focusing on the latest advances from both hardware and software perspectives.
Coastal Morphology Assessment and Coastal Protection
Sediment, which collects in rivers and seas to secure a large amount of aggregate, reduces the supply of earth and sand to coasts. Dams and breakwaters constructed in various places also impede the transportation of earth and sand. Furthermore, the maintenance dredging of dam lakes and waterways will also disrupt the supply of sediment to coasts if the dredged sediment is not released back into the water system. Due to these development activities, coastal erosion has become a serious problem in many beaches around the world. Moreover, due to the excessive industrial activities of human beings, the exacerbation of natural disasters caused by global warming is becoming a real problem. In addition, because great earthquakes with a magnitude of 9 or more have occurred about three times per 100 years at boundaries of the Pacific Crust Plate and the Nazca Crust Plate since 1700, the possibility of losing many lives and assets in the Pacific coastal areas due to a huge tsunami caused by a great earthquake should not be underestimated. Therefore, research into the prevention and mitigation of coastal erosion and coastal disasters is becoming increasingly important.This Special Issue, "Coastal Morphology Assessment and Coastal Protection", consists of five peer-reviewed papers, collected to contribute to the technological progress on the prevention of coastal erosion and coastal disaster resulting from large waves and tsunamis.
Planning and Scheduling Optimization
Although planning and scheduling optimization have been explored in the literature for many years now, it still remains a hot topic in the current scientific research. The changing market trends, globalization, technical and technological progress, and sustainability considerations make it necessary to deal with new optimization challenges in modern manufacturing, engineering, and healthcare systems. This book provides an overview of the recent advances in different areas connected with operations research models and other applications of intelligent computing techniques used for planning and scheduling optimization.The wide range of theoretical and practical research findings reported in this book confirms that the planning and scheduling problem is a complex issue that is present in different industrial sectors and organizations and opens promising and dynamic perspectives of research and development.
Waves and Ocean Structures
Ocean Structures subjected to actions of ocean waves require safety inspection as they protect human environment and everyday lives. Increasing uses of ocean environment have brought active research activities continuously. The newly developed technology of ocean energy even pushed the related needs forward one more step. This Special Issue focuses on Analysis of Interactions between wave structures and ocean waves. Although ocean structures may cover various practical and/or conceptual types, we hope in the years to come, the state-of-the-art applications in wave and structure interactions and/or progress review and future developments could be included. There are fifteen papers published in the Special issue. A brief description includes: Lee et al. [1] presented a concept of a water column type wave power converter. Li et al. [2] considered submerged breakwaters. Lin et al. [3] studied an ocean current turbine system. Thiagarajan and Moreno [4] investigated oscillating heave plates in wind turbines. Chiang et al. [5] proposed an actuator disk model. Tseng et al. [6] investigated Bragg reflections of periodic surface-piercing submerged breakwaters. Lee et al. [7] analyzed caisson structures with a wave power conversion system installed. Yeh et al. [8] reported motion reduction in offshore wind turbines. Wu and Hsiao [9] considered submerged slotted barriers. Tang et al. [10] studied floating platforms with fishnets. Chen et al. [11] calculated mooring drags of underwater floating structures with moorings. Jeong et al. [12] estimated the motion performance of light buoys using ecofriendly and lightweight materials. Zhang et al. [13] considered vibrations of deep-sea risers. On the other hand, Shugan et al. [14] studied the effects of plastic coating on sea surfaces.
Advanced Mathematics and Computational Applications in Control Systems Engineering
Control system engineering is a multidisciplinary discipline that applies automaticcontrol theory to design systems with desired behaviors in control environments.Automatic control theory has played a vital role in the advancement of engineering andscience. It has become an essential and integral part of modern industrial andmanufacturing processes. Today, the requirements for control precision have increased, and real systems have become more complex.In control engineering and all other engineering disciplines, the impact of advancedmathematical and computational methods is rapidly increasing. Advanced mathematicalmethods are needed because real-world control systems need to comply with severalconditions related to product quality and safety constraints that have to be taken intoaccount in the problem formulation. Conversely, the increment in mathematicalcomplexity has an impact on the computational aspects related to numerical simulationand practical implementation of the algorithms, where a balance must also bemaintained between implementation costs and the performance of the control system.This book is a comprehensive set of articles reflecting recent advances in developing andapplying advanced mathematics and computational applications in control systemengineering.
Structure-Seabed Interactions in Marine Environments
The phenomenon of soil-structure interactions in marine environments has attracted great attention from coastal geotechnical engineers in recent years. One of the reasons for the growing interest is the rapid development of marine resources (such as in the oil and gas industry, marine renewable energy, and fish farming industry) as well as the damage to marine infrastructure that has occurred in the last two decades. To assist practical engineers in the design and planning of coastal geotechnical projects, a better understanding of the mechanisms of soil-structure interactions in marine environments is desired. This Special Issue reports the recent advances in the problems of structure-seabed interactions in marine environment and provides practical engineers and researchers with information on recent developments in this field.
Advanced Topics in Systems Safety and Security
This book presents valuable research results in the challenging field of systems (cyber)security. It is a reprint of the Information (MDPI, Basel) - Special Issue (SI) on Advanced Topics in Systems Safety and Security. The competitive review process of MDPI journals guarantees the quality of the presented concepts and results. The SI comprises high-quality papers focused on cutting-edge research topics in cybersecurity of computer networks and industrial control systems. The contributions presented in this book are mainly the extended versions of selected papers presented at the 7th and the 8th editions of the International Workshop on Systems Safety and Security-IWSSS. These two editions took place in Romania in 2019 and respectively in 2020. In addition to the selected papers from IWSSS, the special issue includes other valuable and relevant contributions. The papers included in this reprint discuss various subjects ranging from cyberattack or criminal activities detection, evaluation of the attacker skills, modeling of the cyber-attacks, and mobile application security evaluation. Given this diversity of topics and the scientific level of papers, we consider this book a valuable reference for researchers in the security and safety of systems.
