This Special Issue is committed to focusing on highly relevant state-of-the-art advances in the monitoring, diagnosis, and optimisation of water systems, aiming to provide a broad spectrum of reference methods and techniques specially focused on water cycle applications, including fault detection (namely, leak localisation to reduce the loss of water due to leaks, which may account for up to 65…
Gibberellins (GAs) and abscisic acid (ABA) are two phytohormones that antagonistically regulate plant growth, as well as several developmental processes from seed maturation and germination to flowering time, through hypocotyl elongation and root growth. In general, ABA and GAs inhibit and promote cell elongation and growth, respectively. Consequently, this mutual antagonism between GAs and ABA…
Electrical machines and drives dominate our everyday lives. This is due to their numerous applications in industry, power production, home appliances, and transportation systems such as electric and hybrid electric vehicles, ships, and aircrafts. Their development follows rapid advances in science, engineering, and technology. Researchers around the world are extensively investigating electrica…
This book mainly focuses on the processing and applications of polymer and its composites. With the fast development of the petroleum industry, polymer materials have been widely utilized in our daily lives. The various processing methods of polymers determine the final properties and performance of products. In addition, the introduction of different fillers, including inorganic fillers, metal…
Abrasion is the primary type of wear in almost all fields of industry. It is particularly relevant to the longevity of pipelines and pumps and to almost all processing industries and applications where a constant interface exists with abrasive substances such as dust, sediments, or fluids with mineral particles. The performance of systems can be degraded depending on the properties of abrasive …
Using hyperspectral imaging (HSI) to exploit data has been found in a wide variety of applications. This reprint book only presents a small glimpse of it. Many other important applications using HSI which have emerged in data exploitation are not covered in this reprint book. For example, such applications may include water pollution and toxic waste in environmental monitoring, pesticide residu…
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, …
This is a reprint of the articles from the Special Issue entitled "10th Anniversary of Actuators", published in the open-access journal, Actuators. It consists of 18 representative works with four main topics: systematic reviews for specific types of actuators, performance evaluation, design and controls, and new actuators' applications. This reprint helps readers to understand the challenges a…
Energy markets are already undergoing considerable transitions to accommodate new (renewable) energy forms, new (decentral) energy players, and new system requirements, e.g. flexibility and resilience. Traditional energy markets for fossil fuels are therefore under pressure, while not-yet-mature (renewable) energy markets are emerging. As a consequence, investments in large-scale and capital in…
Soybean is the most important oilseed and livestock feed crop in the world. These dual uses are attributed to the crop's high protein content (nearly 40% of seed weight) and oil content (approximately 20%); characteristics that are not rivaled by any other agronomic crop. Across the 10-year period from 2001 to 2010, world soybean production increased from 168 to 258 million metric tons (54% inc…