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Summary: Both the acquisition of new and the modification of previously acquired motor skills are necessary to achieve optimal levels of motor performance in everyday functioning as well as to attain expert performance levels that are evident in sports and arts. A multitude of factors have been shown to influence the various stages of the learning process, from the acquisition (i.e., motor memory encoding) to the consolidation and subsequent retention of a skill. These factors, or modulators, can affect learning through online processes taking place during practice of a new motor skill or through offline processes occurring in the absence of task performance (i.e., after training sessions). Although much of the recent research from various disciplines has placed an increased emphasis on identifying factors that can influence the motor learning process, we lack an integrated understanding of online and offline determinants of motor skill behaviours. Potential motor learning modulators include, but are certainly not limited to, stress, anxiety, attention, executive functioning, social interaction, stimulus-response mapping, training schedule/regimen, learning environment, vigilance/consciousness states including sleep, wakefulness or meditation, brain stimulation, interference as well as resting state brain connectivity. Pathological and non-pathological (i.e., development or aging) changes in the brain can also be conceptualized as potential modulators. The aim of this Research Topic is to bridge research from the cognitive, sensory, motor and psychological domains using various behavioural paradigms and neuroimaging techniques in order to provide a comprehensive view of the online and offline modulators of motor learning, and how they interact to influence motor performance. Critically, the overarching goal is to gain a better understanding of how motor behaviour can be optimized. We believe that merging research from diverse neuroscientific communities would contribute to fulfilling this goal and potentially highlight possible shared neurophysiological mechanisms influencing motor learning.

Summary: This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

Summary: Burn-out and suicide rates among physicians and scientists in academic medicine are at an all-time high and jeopardize the future of our entire profession. In the last 4 years alone, burn-out rates among physicians have increased by 25%. In a recent 2017 Medscape publication, burn-out rates in Critical Care physicians ranked in 9th place and Pediatricians ranked 13th among 27 subspecialties. Astonishingly, over 50% of the participants reported burn-out symptoms, with clear race and gender disparities. While men generally report higher burn-out rates than women, it is important to emphasize that response rates from women in these surveys were notoriously low and may not represent the complete picture. These numbers are even more dismal for tenured academic faculty at research-extensive universities. In this group, emotional exhaustion (i.e. high burn-out) is reported at 35% with a clear association with age and lower burn-out levels in the older tenured faculty. While no gender or racial/ethnic differences were found in this particular group, higher levels of burn-out were identified in individuals with financial responsibilities beyond a spouse and child. While it is comforting to note the increasing public interest and research activities in this field, successful approaches to ameliorate the burden and consequences of physician burn-out are still inadequately developed. Academic centers increasingly offer some type of work-life balance program to their employees but, unfortunately, these programs are frequently adopted from corporate business models and remain largely ineffective in the academic environment. It should be evident to most administrators that the stressors of academic clinicians and scientists substantially differ from those of corporate employees. Based on these observations and over 75 years of combined experience in academic medicine amongst the three editors of this Research Topic, we collected 26 manuscripts from 22 authors at different career stages and different genders, ethnicities, marital status and subspecialties to identify and stratify common and specific stressors and therapeutic approaches to ameliorate burn-out and achieve work-life balance in academic medicine. We are confident that each reader will identify with at least one, if not several, of the authors' opinions, experiences and approaches to attain greater work-life balance and thereby avoid the consequences of burn-out in modern academic medicine.

Summary: Tuberculosis (TB) remains the prime bacterial infection worldwide with 10.4 million infections and a death toll of 1.7 million people in 2016 according to WHO statistics. Tuberculosis is caused by members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, facultative intracellular bacteria able to thrive within otherwise potent innate defense cells, the macrophages. In a world of increasing numbers of infections with drug resistant M. tuberculosis strains, the daunting race between developing new therapeutics and emerging resistant strains will hardly produce a winner. This cycle can only be broken by enhancing population wide immune control through a better vaccine as the only one currently in use, M. bovis Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG). The protective efficacy of BCG against pulmonary tuberculosis in all age groups is dissatisfying and geographically highly diverse with the tropical areas showing the lowest efficacy rates. Despite worldwide vaccination coverage, the impact of BCG on the steep decrease of tuberculosis incidence rates in the developed world seems therefore questionable and can rather be attributed to improved social, housing and nutritional conditions, better health care, surveillance and treatment systems. The last 15 years saw tremendous efforts to improve vaccination strategies against tuberculosis. Different paths of vaccine approaches were followed including genetically improved BCG strains, attenuated M. tuberculosis variants, recombinant viral vectors and subunit vaccine candidates combined with novel more potent adjuvants. With the first novel vaccine candidates being evaluated in clinical phases II and III and initial results chastening the expectations, a critical reassessment of all candidates is inevitable. Here, we assembled experts to review and assess the current status of novel anti-tuberculosis vaccine candidates, their efficacy and prospects for implementation as well as the pitfalls and possible measures for improvement.

Summary: Music is a complex, dynamic stimulus with an un-paralleled ability to stimulate a global network of neural activity involved in attention, emotion, memory, communication, motor co-ordination and cognition. As such, it provides neuroscience with a highly effective tool to develop our understanding of brain function, connectivity and plasticity. Increasingly sophisticated neuroimaging technologies have enabled the expanding field of music neuroscience to reveal how musical experience, perception and cognition may support neuroplasticity, with important implications for the rehabilitation and assessment of those with acquired brain injuries and neurodegenerative conditions. Other studies have indicated the potential for music to support arousal, attention and emotional regulation, suggesting therapeutic applications for conditions including ADHD, PTSD, autism, learning disorders and mood disorders. In common with neuroscience, the music therapy profession has advanced significantly in the past 20 years. Various interventions designed to address functional deficits and health care needs have been developed, alongside standardised behavioural assessments. Historically, music therapy has drawn its evidence base from a number of contrasting theoretical frameworks. Clinicians are now turning to neuroscience, which offers a unifying knowledge base and frame of reference to understand and measure therapeutic interventions from a biomedical perspective. Conversely, neuroscience is becoming more enriched by learning about the neural effects of 'real world' clinical applications in music therapy. While neuroscientific imaging methods may provide biomarking evidence for the efficacy of music therapy interventions it also offers important tools to describe time-locked interactive therapy processes and feeds into the emerging field of social neuroscience. Music therapy is bound to the process of creating and experiencing music together in improvisation, listening and reflection. Thus the situated cognition and experience of music developing over time and in differing contexts is of interest in time series data. We encouraged researchers to submit papers illustrating the mutual benefits of dialogue between music therapy and other disciplines important to this field, particularly neuroscience, neurophysiology, and neuropsychology. The current eBook consists of the peer reviewed responses to our call for papers.

Summary: Elite sport typically provides obvious rewards in terms of recognition, finance and acclaim for athletic performance. Increasingly, we are becoming aware of the risks that elite athletes, their entourage, including families, sport-science support team and coaches are exposed to. Twelve original articles, seven commentaries and a corrigendum, are structured in a five chapter format. Chapter 1, comprising the Editorial is titled "An Overview of Mental Health in Elite Sport: Changing the Play Book" to reflect the advocacy role of this article. Chapter 2 ("Finding the Sweet Spot") amplifies the voice of key stakeholders across three qualitative studies with three additional commentaries. Quantitative evidence is presented in Chapter 3 which has the sub-title the "State of Play." Chapter 4, entitled the "Field of Play" includes three original publications which present contrasting conceptual approaches to guide researchers in hypothesis generation, formulation and implementation science. Finally, in Chapter 5, "Seeing the Ball Early" prospective perspectives are provided in three publications reinforced by two commentaries. The future thinking ideas includes the use of virtual reality training, a broadening of the concept of mental health literacy, tackling stigma and focusing on the potential positive effect of the natural environment on well-being and recovery.To date the research topic has generated widespread in the field. For example, several articles have generated an Altmetric score above 40 with one publication meriting an Altmetric score of 102. We envisage that the impact of this e-book will not simply be measured in citations, views, downloads nor social media impact, but in the discourse that emerges from this collection of contributions from a combined total of 53 authors from across three continents. It is our hope that this e-book, providing a snapshot of global challenges for elite athletes mental health and well-being, becomes a touchstone for researchers and practitioners in the field.

Summary: The state of Qatar is preparing to stage the 17th International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships later this year (September 27 to October 6, 2019). While the Qatari capital Doha has an extensive history as a host of international athletics events (from the first ever IAAF Grand Prix in 1997 to the 2010 IAAF World Indoor and the Championships Doha Diamond League over the last decade), the IAAF World Championships will have be bigger in terms of global reach and impact. Doha will be welcoming 205 countries and 3,500 athletes with approximately 10,000 international guests, 30,000 spectators from outside Qatar and more than 2,000 media personnel. These 2019 IAAF World Championships are a fantastic opportunity for the scientific community to provide up-to-date knowledge and propose solutions to solve real-world problems for elite competitors. In particular, athletes are likely to encounter challenging hot temperatures and potentially high humidity levels that may eventually impair performance during middle and long distance events and increase the risk of exertional heat. The IAAF is providing information leaflets explaining various protective or countermeasures to mitigate these risks. Additionally, Doha is working with the IAAF to research innovative new solutions for competition timing, scoring, measurement and television production, using the latest technology. Doha also is determined to further accelerate the growth of women's athletics and Paralympics champions across the region. This may in turn drive the development of new knowledge, using an integrative sports science approach to improve performance of special athletic populations.

Summary: Precision Public Health is a new and rapidly evolving field, that examines the application of new technologies to public health policy and practice. It draws on a broad range of disciplines including genomics, spatial data, data linkage, epidemiology, health informatics, big data, predictive analytics and communications. The hope is that these new technologies will strengthen preventive health, improve access to health care, and reach disadvantaged populations in all areas of the world. But what are the downsides and what are the risks, and how can we ensure the benefits flow to those population groups most in need, rather than simply to those individuals who can afford to pay? This is the first collection of theoretical frameworks, analyses of empirical data, and case studies to be assembled on this topic, published to stimulate debate and promote collaborative work.

Summary: In 2003, Rachel A. Volberg wrote: "Why is it that gambling is not even on the radar when we consider the array of risks that adolescents must confront as they move towards adulthood?" Nowadays, after thirteen years, although much more is known about this particular form of risk behavior, there is still a general tendency, at least among laypersons, to not perceive gambling as a potential danger for youth and other population segments (e.g., individuals with migration background, seniors, sports professionals). However, the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5, American Psychological Association, 2013) included Gambling Disorder as the only condition in the Section Non-Substance-Related Disorders. Moreover, it is specified that the disorder can indeed occur in adolescence or young adulthood. Despite this fact, theoretical and applied research on problem gambling with regard to adolescence and other risk groups is still in its infancy. For this reason, it seems to be important to organize a Research Topic on gambling in Frontiers in Psychology in order to i) highlight the necessity of considering gambling as a potential harmful activity; ii) summarize the state-of-art of international research on different aspects of the topic; and iii) offer important novel findings relevant for advancing knowledge in the field of gambling. Different types of research articles will be provided including original articles, systematic/scoping reviews, meta-analyses, case reports, and commentaries. These contributions will be focused on the following most important areas in gambling research: Measurement (Which are the most widely used instruments to assess gambling-related problems as well as proximate constructs and what are their psychometric properties? Are there new instruments to detect adolescent problem gamblers?), Protective and risk factors (What do we know about ecological and individual influences on gambling behavior? Which factors affect problem gambling most and in which way?), Prevention (Which are the most promising prevention programs implemented until now? Which are necessary ingredients for effective prevention?), Treatment (When individuals seek help for their gambling-related problems, which are the clinical treatments that are offered? Do we have evidence for treatment effectiveness for different subgroups?). To try to fulfill this goal in the most comprehensive way, researchers from different countries and with specific competencies and interests will be contacted and encouraged to submit a contribution. Through the integration of international and multidisciplinary contributions, i) new challenges in the field of gambling will be identified (e.g., definition of specific at-risk groups, specification of effective interventions in terms of best practices) and ii) new research routes (e.g., the use of behavioral data) will be outlined in order to build a comprehensive understanding of problem gambling. The overall aim is to summarize the state of art, to propose original novel findings, and to outline new directions in gambling research.

Summary: This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

Summary: This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

Summary: Crop plants are continuously under attack by pathogens, both during pre and post-harvest stages, often causing economically important food losses. Chemical treatments can pose a serious treat to human health and the environment. Furthermore, there is an increasing market, especially in OECD countries for organic produce, for which most pesticides and inorganic fertilisers are unacceptable. There is therefore a pressing need to develop more effective, sustainable and environmentally friendly tools for disease control. The use of beneficial microorganisms for the control of plant pathogens is very attractive, and the availability of novel molecular techniques and a plethora of genomic information open unexplored avenues for plant protection approaches. Genome-enabled integration of research became a major strategy in the era of the 2000's (the post-genomic era) and set the basis for a different way to understand interactions in plant-pathogen-beneficial microorganisms systems. In recent decades we have moved from the sequencing of single genomes, to the comparison of different genomes, their expression (from single organism to communities) and, more recently, we can apply novel techniques to edit a genome in a precise manner. Together with the complete sequencing of plant genomes, the genome sequences of plant pathogens as well as that of some beneficial organisms (bacteria, fungi, viruses), and the furnished information on their virulence, gave support to relatively new strategies such as transcriptome, proteome, metabolome and secretome analysis. Analyses of avirulence and resistance genes, their products and the cross-talking mechanisms, as well as proteins and metabolites - at an "omics" level - in highly performing beneficial microorganisms/pathogens interactions, represents a major contribution to plant protection, providing information at an unprecedented level of resolution. While single genomes are explored to infer the range of biological activities accomplished by a single organism or species, and comparative genomics allows evaluating the diversity and evolution of biochemical pathways adopted by individual species to perform a common function, information is being obtained about processes carried out by a diverse set of organisms interacting with each other. Environmental genomics, popularized by the metagenome concept, can generate billions of DNA sequences from a given environment furnishing a comparative assessment of a community in situ. Metagenomics (sequence-based approaches applied across genomes in an environment) provides information about functional capabilities and responses of organism (plant, pathogen and beneficial agent) assemblages in different niches, giving a different perspective in the management of plant diseases at a multitrophic level. Advances in functional genomics and genome editing approaches have recently provided new tools to manage the plant-pathogen-beneficial microorganism system, for preventing or controlling disease. The use of RNA-based technologies is extremely appealing, and these include artificial micro-RNA and transacting small interfering RNA, which are currently being used for generating plant virus-resistant plants, thus fostering plant virus control researches. Finally, targeted genome editing strategies - exemplified by, but not limited to, the CRISPR-Cas technique - are among the most modern ways for inducing targeted deletions, insertions and precise changes in the genome of host plants or pathogens, as well as in the genomes of beneficial microorganisms. The aim of the present Research Topic is to give an exhaustive and up to date overview of examples of genomic techniques (genome sequencing, genome comparison, transcriptomics, metagenomics, RNA based technologies and genome editing strategies) applied to plants, pathogens or beneficial microorganisms to promote the exploitation of these modern tools as a new frontier in plant disease management.

Summary: Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a Gram-negative bacterium found in water, plant rhizospheres, animals, and foods. It is associated with a variety of infections in humans, involving respiratory tract (most common), soft tissue and bone, blood, eye, heart, and brain. This opportunistic pathogen is of serious concern to the immunocompromised patient population, and it is also being isolated with increasing frequency from the respiratory tract of individuals with cystic fibrosis. The observed increase worldwide in antibiotic resistance and the ability of this organism to make biofilms on epithelial cells and medical devices make it difficult for health-care personnel to treat infections caused by this pathogen. Recently, several genomes of S. maltophilia have been sequenced, revealing high genetic diversity among isolates. This pathogen uses a variety of molecular mechanisms to acquire and demonstrate resistance to an impressive array of antimicrobial drugs. Research has also focused on the pathogenesis of S. maltophilia in animal models and the resulting host immune response. S. maltophilia is recognized as an important organism in the plant microbiome. This environmental bacterium uses a diffusible signal mechanism for controlling its colonization and interaction with other bacteria and plants. S. maltophilia has also gained considerable research interest for its biotechnological applications, with recent studies on enzyme production, anti-biofilm strategies, biodegradation, and bioremediation. This e-book focuses on the latest developments in the areas of physiology, genomics, infection and immunity, host-pathogen interaction, pathogenesis, antimicrobial resistance and therapy, molecular epidemiology, applied and environmental microbiology, bioremediation and biotechnology.

Summary: Recent years have seen important developments in the computer and game industry, including the emergence of the concept of serious games. It is hypothesized that tools such as games, virtual reality, or applications for smartphones may foster learning, enhance motivation, promote behavioral change, support psychotherapy, favor empowerment, and improve some cognitive functions. Computers and games may create supports for training or help people with cognitive, emotional, or behavioral change. Games take various formats, from board games to informatics to games with interactive rules of play. Similarly, computer tools may vary widely in format, from self-help or assisted computerized training to virtual reality or applications for smartphones. Some tools that may be helpful for mental health were specifically designed for that goal, whereas others were not. Gamification of computer-related products and games with a numeric format tend to reduce the gap between games and computers tools and increase the conceptual synergy in such fields. Games and computer design share an opportunity for creativity and innovation to help create, specifically design, and assess preventive or therapeutic tools. Computers and games share a design conception that allows innovative approaches to overcome barriers of the real world by creating their own rules. Yet, despite the potential interest in such tools to improve treatment of mental disorders and to help prevent them, the field remains understudied and information is under-disseminated in clinical practice. Some studies have shown, however, that there is potential interest and acceptability of tools that support various vehicles, rationales, objectives, and formats. These tools include traditional games (e.g., chess games), popular electronic games, board games, computer-based interventions specifically designed for psychotherapy or cognitive training, virtual reality, apps for smartphones, and so forth. Computers and games may offer a true opportunity to develop, assess, and disseminate new prevention and treatment tools for mental health and well-being. Currently, there is a strong need for state-of-the-art information to answer questions such as the following: Why develop such tools for mental health and well-being? What are the potential additions to traditional treatments? What are the best strategies or formats to improve the possible impact of these tools? Are such tools useful as a first treatment step? What is the potential of a hybrid model of care that combines traditional approaches with games and/or computers as tools? What games and applications have already been designed and studied? What is the evidence from previous studies? How can such tools be successfully designed for mental health and well-being? What is rewarding or attractive for patients in using such treatments? What are the worldwide developments in the field? Are some protocols under development? What are the barriers and challenges related to such developments? How can these tools be assessed, and how can the way that they work, and for whom, be measured? Are the potential benefits of such products specific, or can these additions be attributed to nonspecific factors? What are the users' views on such tools? What are the possible links between such tools and social networks? Is there a gap between evidence-based results and market development? Are there any quality challenges? What future developments and studies are needed in the field?

Summary: Foreword by Richard J. Stevenson, Macquarie University (Australia): It was long thought that the human nose might be able to discriminate somewhere in the order of 10,000 different odourants. The recent finding that the human nose can discriminate something like a trillion different smells serves as yet another reminder that we have again underestimated the capacity of our sense of smell (Bushdid, Magnasco, Vosshall & Keller, 2014). This volume serves as a further corrective for anyone who should hold the view that olfaction is unimportant in human affairs. The papers presented in this ebook, carefully collated and overseen by Aldo Zucco, Benoist Schaal, Mats Olsson and Ilona Croy, showcase a large number of quite different reasons for studying the applied side of olfaction, and indeed human olfaction in general. The 23 contributions presented here cover a broad range of topics, which illustrate contemporary interests in our field. Although with a strong applied focus, a noteworthy feature of this ebook is the richness of the theoretical perspectives that are developed. These range from considerations of olfactory perception, memory, expertise, and priming right the way through to receptor genetics. These contributions, from many leading experts in the field, will surely shape much of the applied work linking olfaction to disease, which is a further focus of this ebook. In respect to health and disease, the chapters on aging, pregnancy, depression, alcohol dependency and environmental odours, present overviews and rich new data on many contemporary problems, to which the study of olfaction is now contributing. A particularly notable aspect of olfactory experience is the affective impact that odours can have on people and their lives. The ebook covers some particularly intriguing aspects of work in this area, with empirical studies investigating dissociations between wanting and liking, stress reduction in the elderly, mother-infant bonding, and the emotions that different odourants can evoke. This affective line of work is nicely complemented by empirical studies on expertise, the effect of odours on visual attention, and the relationship between particular personality traits and interest in olfaction. The gradual appropriation of methods from cognitive neuroscience into olfaction is also nicely represented in this ebook, with at least three of the chapters reporting data using neuroimaging, including a particular intriguing study looking at recognition of odours in mixtures. Finally, the close links between olfactory perception and sensory evaluation are also reflected in a chapter on wine. I hope that readers of this e-book will be struck, as I have been in reading its various chapters, how much olfaction affects our lives, and how the study of this sense can enrich it.

Summary: This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

Summary: This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

Summary: In 1960, the 9th Annual International Stoke Mandeville Games were supported, for the first time, by the Italian Olympic Committee. Taking place six days after the Closing Ceremony of the XVII Olympic Games, the paralympic games for disabled athletes were born. From Roma in 1960 to London in 2012, the Paralympic Games grew in terms of athletes' number from 400 to 4,237, and now brings together more than 164 nations (Perret, 2015). The word "Paralympic" derives from the Greek preposition "para" (beside or alongside) and the word "Olympic". Paralympics want to be the parallel Games to the Olympics and illustrate how the two movements exist side-by-side (Paralympics - History of the Movement, 2016). Now taking place after the Olympics Games, the Paralympic Games are the pinnacle of the career of athletes with physical impairments and have become the second largest sport event in the world (Perret, 2015; Paralympics - History of the Movement, 2016; Gold and Gold, 2011). The first statement of the vision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), i.e. "to create the conditions for athlete empowerment through self-determination" (Paralympics - History of the Movement, 2016; International Paralympic Committee, 2016), shows the importance of the place of the athlete with an impairment at the heart of the Paralympic Movement. The ultimate aim of the IPC is « to enable Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence and inspire and excite the world. » (International Paralympic Committee, 2016). The performance level of athletes with an impairment improved to a point that, in the present days, sport news and world sport movements focus on the potential advantage of artificial limbs among athletes with amputations and their integration in able-bodied competitions (Burkett, 2010). However, they do not represent the totality of athletes with an impairment at the Paralympic Games. Athletes with other physical impairments (visual deficit, spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy or else) are eligible to compete. These impairments induce typical functional and physiological (e.g., cardiovascular, thermoregulatory) responses to exercise. For example, spinal cord injury (athletes with tetraplegia or paraplegia) causes thermoregulatory impairment (Goosey-Tolfrey et al., 2008) and individuals with cerebral palsy have also demonstrated higher thermal and metabolic strain than matched controls during treadmill walking in the heat (Maltais et al., 2004). Thus, hyperthermia among these athletes with an impairment alters their performance compared to their Olympic counterparts (Bhambhani, 2002). Mechanical performance analysis, the description of physiological responses according to the functional impairment or else the response to training and the relationship between laboratory and field testing responses are different parts of a package introduced here to address the aim of the IPC: to enable Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence (Paralympics - History of the Movement, 2016; International Paralympic Committee, 2016).

Summary: Evolution of the horse has been an often-cited primary example of evolution, as well as one of the classic and important stories in paleontology for over a century and a half, due to their rich fossil record across 5 continents: North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The recent horse has served a profound role in human ancestry, including agriculture, commerce, sport, transport, warfare, and in prehistory, for the subsistence of humans. Many studies have examined the evolution of the Equidae and chronicled the striking changes in skulls, dentition, limbs, and body size which have long been perceived to be a response to environmental shifts through time. Most comprehensive studies heretofore have: (1) focused on the "Great Transformation"- changes that occurred in the early Miocene, (2) involved tracking long-term diversity or paleoecological trends on a single continent or within a geographical locality, or (3) concentrated on the 3-toed hipparions. The Plio-Pleistocene evolutionary stage of horse evolution is punctuated by the great climatic fluctuations of the Quaternary beginning 2.6 Ma which influenced Equus evolution, biogeographic dispersion and adaptation on a nearly global scale. The evolutionary biology of Equus evolution across its entire range remains relatively poorly understood and often highly controversial. Some of this lack of understanding is due to assumptions that have arisen because of the relatively derived craniodental and postcranial anatomy of Equus and its close relatives which has seemed to imply that that these forms occupied relatively homogenous and narrow dietary and locomotor niches - notions that have not been adequately addressed and rigorously tested. Other challenges have revolved around teasing apart environmentally-driven adaptation versus phylogenetically defined morphological change. Geochronologic age control of localities, geographic provinces and continents has improved, but in no way is absolute and can be reexamined in our proposed volume. Temporal resolution for paleodietary, paleohabitat and paleoecological interpretations are also challenging for understanding the evolution of Equus. Our proposed volume attempts to assemble a group of experts who will address multiple dimensions of Equus' evolution in time and space.

Summary: This eBook contains the 19 articles that were part of a Special Topic in Frontiers in Genetics entitled "Genetics Research in Electronic Health Records Linked to DNA Biobanks". The Special Issue was published on-line in 2014-2015 and contained papers representing the diverse research ongoing in the integration of electronic health records (EHR) with genomics through basic, clinical, and translational research. We have divided the eBook into four Chapters. Chapter 1 describes the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) network and its contri-bution to genomics. It highlights methodological questions related to large data sets such as imputation and population stratification. Chapter 2 describes the results of genetic studies on different diseases for which all the phenotypic information was extracted from the EHR with highly specific ePhenotyping algorithms. Chapter 3 focuses on more complex analyses of the genome including copy number variants (CNV), pleiotropy com-bined with phenome-wide association studies (PheWAS), and epistasis (gene-gene interactions). Chapter 4 discusses the use of genetic data together with EHR-derived clinical data in clinical settings, and how to return genetic results to patients and providers. It also contains a comprehensive review on genetic risk scores. We have included mostly Original Research Articles in the eBook, but also Reviews and Methods papers on the relevant topics of analyzing and integrating genomic data. The release of this eBook is timely, since several countries are launching Precision Medicine initiatives. Precision Medicine is a new concept in patient care taking into account individual variability in genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors, when treating diseases or trying to prevent them from developing. It has become an important focus for biomedical, clinical and translational informatics. The papers presented in this eBook are well positioned to educate the readers about Precision Medicine and to demonstrate the potential study designs, methods, strategies, and applications where this type of research can be performed successfully. The ultimate goal is to improve diagnostics and provide better, more targeted care to the patient.

Summary: Pregnancy has significant short- and long-term health impacts for mother and child, which may lead to pediatric- and adult-onset diseases. Understanding these gestational origins of disease and currently existing platforms for prenatal care has resulted in significant advances to detect and prevent adverse maternal and fetal outcomes. Existing and emerging prenatal interventions that are instituted at critical times in gestation take advantage of unique therapeutic windows and provide an opportunity to modify the risks. This research topic encompasses a variety of approaches and interventions, such as maternal screening for fetal disease, advanced fetal imaging, biomarker development, stem cell or gene therapies, and others.

Summary: Experts are persons who are very knowledgeable about or skillful in a particular area. The aim of this Research Topic is to advance knowledge in the understanding of the phenomenon of expertise by putting together different lines of research that directly or indirectly study expertise. Herbert Simon's expertise studies initiated two lines of research. One is interested in elucidating the cognitive processes underlying expertise, and the other investigates how expertise develops. These lines of research started with studies comparing experts and novices in chess, and then they extended to numerous areas of expertise such as music, medical diagnosis, sports, arts and sciences. In the field of judgment and decision making researchers investigate the quality of judgments and decisions of experts in different professions (e.g., clinical psychologists, medical practitioners, judges, meteorologists, stock brokers). Those lines of research explicitly investigate the topic of expertise, but there are other research areas that make a substantial contribution to understanding expertise. Scholars in language acquisition and in face perception, for example, investigate cognitive processes and development of expertise in areas in which almost everyone becomes an expert. Furthermore, skill acquisition research informs in detail about short term cognitive changes that may be important to understand how expertise develops. We are interested in original research that advances knowledge in the understanding of decision making, cognitive processes and development of expertise in sports, intellectual games, arts, scientific disciplines and professions, as well as expertise in cognitive abilities such as perception, memory, attention, language and imagery. We are also interested in theoretical articles in any of these areas, articles that describe computational or mathematical models of expertise, and articles offering a framework that would guide expertise research. Articles that offer integrative approaches of some of the areas described above are strongly encouraged. The goal of this Research Topic is to produce a hallmark piece of work in the field of expertise, which complements and does not overlap with the "Neural implementations of expertise" Research Topic in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

Summary: Alzheimer disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by significant cognitive deficits, behavioral changes, sleep disorders and loss of functional autonomy. AD represents the main cause of dementia and has become a major public health issue. In addition, the number of patients suffering from AD is growing rapidly as the population ages worldwide. Memory impairment is usually the earliest clinical and core symptom of this disease. The diagnosis at a late clinical stage is relatively easy. However, a delay in the diagnosis is damageable for the handling of patients in terms of optimal medical and social care. The actual interest of the scientific head-ways is to optimize the diagnosis in prodromal stage of the disease and to propose personalized therapeutic solutions to individual patients. New revised AD diagnostic criteria include early alteration of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers: decrease of amyloïd peptides (Aß42), and increase in tau and phosphorylated-tau (p-tau) protein concentration. This recognition of CSF biological biomarkers for the diagnosis of AD is a major step towards the "molecular" diagnosis and follow-up of the disease. Many issues are however still subject of debate. This e-book provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art of fluid biomarkers for AD, e.g. which novel biomarkers should be implemented in clinical practice for diagnosis or for monitoring treatment or side effects, which ones are new for AD or related dementias or what is the potential of peripheral blood markers. Moreover, the e-Book provides practical guidelines how to optimally and efficiently develop and validate novel biomarker assays, and to document and control pre-analytical variation.

Summary: There is a large market demand for new drugs. The existing chronic or common ailments without cures, development of new diseases with unknown causes, and the widespread existence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens, have driven this field of research further by looking at all potential sources of natural products. To date, microbes have made a significant contribution to the health and well-being of people globally. The discoveries of useful metabolites produced by microbes have resulted in a significant proportion of pharmaceutical products in today's market. Therefore, the investigation and identification of bioactive compound(s) producing microbes is always of great interest to researchers. Actinobacteria are one of the most important and efficient groups of natural metabolite producers. Among the numerous genera, Streptomyces have been recognized as prolific producers of useful natural compounds, as they provide more than half of the naturally-occurring antibiotics isolated to-date and continue to emerge as the primary source of new bioactive compounds. Certainly, these potentials have attracted ample research interest and a wide range of biological activities have been subsequently screened by researchers with the utilization of different In vitro and In vivo model of experiments. Literature evidence has shown that a significant number of interesting compounds produced by Actinobacteria were exhibiting either strong anticancer or neuroprotective activity. The further in depth studies have then established the modulation of apoptotic pathway was involved in those observed bioactivities. These findings indirectly prove the biopharmaceutical potential possessed by Actinobacteria and at the same time substantiate the importance of diverse pharmaceutical evaluations on Actinobacteria. In fact, many novel compounds discovered from Actinobacteria with strong potential in clinical applications have been developed into new drugs by pharmaceutical companies. Together with the advancement in science and technology, it is predicted that there would be an expedition in discoveries of new bioactive compounds producing Actinobacteria from various sources, including soil and marine sources. In light of these current needs, and great interest in the scope of this research, this book seeks to contribute on the investigation of different biological active compound(s) producing actinobacteria which are exhibiting antimicrobial, antioxidant, neuroprotective, anticancer activities and similar.

Summary: In a context where the role of biofuels will continue to grow, it is necessary to take into account the current state of their various manufacturing processes and to anticipate the expansion of the market. Thus, current biodiesel production processes generate a significant amount of glycerol as a by-product (about 100 kg per ton of processed vegetable oil). An explosion of the biodiesel market must integrate the valorization of glycerol whose current market of distribution (cosmetics, drugs, polymers, etc.) is not guaranteed such an expansion. This valuation will contribute effectively to the profitability and sustainability of the processes from which it derives. Glycerol physicochemical and toxicological properties give it the potential to be used as solvent, biolubricant, dispersant, and surfactant, among others. It is also widely used in the food industry as a preservative and sweetener. Beyond these applications, glycerol can also be used as a raw material for a wide range of chemicals. Glycerol is a highly functionalized molecule with specific physico-chemical properties, which can be used in different reactions as a reactant or a building block. For example, glycerol can be used as a starting material for antibiotic production, biosurfactants, organic acid production (lactic, propionic, succinic, citric acid, glyoxylic acid, glyoxalic acid, amino acids, etc.), alcohols (propanediols), glycerol esters, acrolein production, etc. These products can be obtained either through chemical reactions such as acetalization, dehydration, glycerolysis, esterification, etherification, aqueous phase reforming, oxidation, carboxylation, electrochemical routes, or through enzymatic reactions. However, it must be kept in mind that the development of industrial processes relies on the use of crude glycerol from biodiesel production. For that purpose, robust processes involving impurities-insensitive catalysts or pre-purification have to be developed. Finally, the separation of the chemical products obtained after glycerol conversion is also a key step toward the development of viable glycerol-based processes.

Summary: This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

Summary: This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

Summary: Systems Biomedicine is a field in perpetual development. By definition a translational discipline, it emphasizes the role of quantitative systems approaches in biomedicine and aims to offer solutions to many emerging problems characterized by levels and types of complexity and uncertainty unmet before. Many factors, including technological and societal ones, need to be considered. In particular, new technologies are providing researchers with the data deluge whose management and exploitation requires a reinvention of cross-disciplinary team efforts. The advent of "omics" and high-content imaging are examples of advances de facto establishing the necessity of systems approaches. Hypothesis-driven models and in silico validation tools in support to all the varieties of experimental applications call for a profound revision. The focus on phases like mining and assimilating the data has substantially increased so to allow for interpretable knowledge to be inferred. Notably, to be able to tackle the newly generated data dimensionality, heterogeneity and complexity, model-free and data-driven intensive applications are increasingly shaping the computational pipelines and architectures that quant specialists set aside of the high-throughput genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics platforms. As for the societal aspects, in many advanced societies health care needs now more than in the past to address the problem of managing ageing populations and their complex morbidity patterns. In parallel, there is a growing research interest on the impact that cross-disciplinary clinical, epidemiological and quantitative modelling studies can have in relation to outcomes potentially affecting the quality of life of many people. Complex systems, including those characterizing biomedicine, are assessed in both their functionality and stability, and also relatively to the capacity of generating information from diversity, variation, and complexity. Due to the combined interactions and effects, such systems embed prediction power available for instance in both target identification or marker discovery, or more generally for conducting inference about patients' pathological states, i.e. normal versus disease, diagnostic or prognostic analysis, and preventive assessment (e.g., risk evaluation). The ultimate goal, personalized medicine, will be achieved based on the confluence of the system's predictive power to patient-specific profiling.

Summary: This research topic aims to integrate scattered findings on sex differences in neuroscience into a broader theory of how the human brain is shaped by sex and sex hormones in order to cause the great variety of sex differences that are commonly observed. It can be assumed that these differences didn't occur arbitrarily, but that they rather determined and still determine evolutionary success of individuals and were shaped by the processes of natural and in particular sexual selection. Therefore, sex differences are not negligible and sex difference research cannot be discriminating against one sex or the other. In fact a better understanding of the underlying causes of sex differences has great advantages for both men and women and society as a whole, not only in terms of health care, but in every aspect of life. Gender equality can only work out if it is equally well understood for men and women what their individual resources and needs are. Therefore, it is of great importance to pave the way for identifying the underlying principles of structural and functional brain organization that cause men and women to act, think and feel differently. To this end it is of particular interest to identify possible similarities and interrelations between sex differences that did so far stand separately, in order to investigate whether they share a common source. To understand, where a specific sex difference comes from and whether or not it is caused by the same principle as other sex differences, it is necessary to explicitly link sex differences in behavior to their neuronal correlates and vice versa link sex differences in brain structure and function to their behavioral outcomes. In particular a new understanding of male and female brain functioning may arise from findings on how sex hormones interact with various neurotransmitter systems. In the past few years several findings demonstrated that women's behavior is influenced by the sex hormone fluctuations they experience naturally during their menstrual cycle to the extent that sex differences may only be detectable in one cycle phase but not another. The study of menstrual cycle dependent effects gives important hints about which sex differences are activational and which are organizational. Additionally it only recently came to attention, that hormonal contraception may alter a women's mood, cognition and behavior as a consequence of changes in brain structure and function. The underlying mechanisms are so poorly understood that it is even hard to predict, whether hormonal contraception will mask or amplify sex differences in a given task. Since the oral hormonal contraceptive pill is meanwhile used by 100 million women worldwide and even by teenagers whose brains are not yet fully developed, the question of how the synthetic steroids contained in hormonal contraceptives act on the brain is to be studied hand in hand with naturally occurring sex differences. This topic summarizes the current state of the art in sex difference research and gives new perspectives in terms of hypothesis generation an methodology. Both are necessary to gain a complete picture of what it is that makes a brain male or female and move towards a neuroscience of sex differences.

Summary: This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

Summary: Kidney disease is a complex health problem, often coinciding with cardiovascular pathology (e.g. hypertension) and metabolic disturbances (e.g. obesity and diabetes). It is also a disturbingly fast growing global public health problem, e.g. chronic kidney disease affects an estimated ~9-16% of the population. Besides the public health issues this results in a large economic burden as kidney diseases contributes disproportionally to about a quarter of total health care costs. Experimental and clinical data solidly support the view that kidney tissue hypoxia plays a critical and intricate role during the genesis and progression of both chronic and acute kidney diseases. This research field is currently at the very beginning of integrating pre-clinical with clinical research in which hypoxia related mechanism are quantified by non-invasive imaging. In combination with the fact that some key questions remain unanswered, this offers exciting new research perspectives that are waiting to be explored. With this Research Topic we aim to discuss and find answers to the following research question: 1) What are the temporal relationships between hypoxia and kidney disease? 2) Can we demonstration causation between hypoxia and kidney disease? 3) Can renal hypoxia be considered as a treatment target in kidney disease? 4) Can hypoxia (e.g. in the urine) be considered a biomarker of kidney disease? 5) Does hypoxia ramp-up sympathetic activity? 6) Does hypoxia trigger inflammation? 7) Is hypoxia caused by changes in sodium reabsorption and/or mitochondrial function? 8) Which molecular mechanisms are involved in hypoxia in kidney disease? 9) Which gene expressions change due to hypoxia in kidney disease? 10) Can we generate new and translational insights using non-invasive imaging technologies? Our overall aim is identify the mediators/controllers of hypoxia in kidney disease. If we understand more about the sequence of events leading to hypoxia, its regulation and consequences in renal disease, we might be able to have a major impact in clinical practice. I.e. more accurate and earlier diagnosis, novel treatment targets, and novel therapies.

Summary: Brain-immune interactions are essential to maintain health and their dysfunction contributes to diverse human diseases. Recent data show that haematopoietic processes and immune organs are under central autonomic control. Deficient regulation of inflammatory events contributes to brain diseases, whereas acute or chronic brain injury is linked with the development of systemic inflammatory conditions or immunosuppression. At present, common disorders with high socio-economic burden such as cancer, cardiovascular-, neuroinflammatory- and neurodegenerative diseases, asthma, allergies, autism, psychiatric conditions and sepsis are believed to be influenced, at least in part, by the dysfunction of brain-immune communication. Since the median age of the world's population is increasing rapidly, it is expected that the burden of common non-communicable diseases will further increase, which represents a huge challenge to the health care systems worldwide. Thus, there is an increasing demand to understand and treat complex diseases, many of which are age-related, and this is not possible unless the fine-tuned communication between large systems -such as the nervous and the immune system- is comprehensively understood. Although it is impossible to cover all areas of relevant research in this field, papers in this eBook give some insight to a few important aspects of brain-immune interactions and their contribution to disease. We hope that this collection could stimulate further relevant research and facilitate discussions to support the understanding of the highly complex interactions between the immune system and the brain in health and disease.

Summary: This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

Summary: Progressive aging of the Baby Boomer generation, early workplace withdrawals and international trends towards longevity place increasing pressure on governments to provide economic solutions. One possibility involves promoting financial self-sufficiency and shifting responsibility from governments back to individuals. This involves, in part, promoting the abolishment of mandatory retirement ages and devising strategies to keep people at work for longer. At an individual level choosing how and when to transition can deliver psychological benefits while continuing to work provides opportunities to remain socially and intellectually connected. There are also obvious economic benefits for disadvantaged groups such as women, immigrants and less qualified workers who may be ill equipped to retire comfortably. When combined these sufficiently motivate the pursuit of solutions that overcome constraints and encourage later life employment. There are, however, two sets of competing demands, namely balancing the desire and economic demand to work longer within current contemporary workplace designs and the cognitive, physical and psychological capacities of workers to fulfill these demands indefinitely. The study of the psychological mechanisms that underlie economic behavior may increase our understanding of how bridge employment opportunities, flexible work schedules, training to move to new careers, and starting new business and franchisees might result in higher proportions of older workers remaining in the labor market. Such an approach is expected to lead to a better understanding of employer attitudes and responses to older workers with innovative workplace and human factors that encourage more years of labor force participation.

Summary: Since the discovery of the luminescent properties of porous Si by L. Canham in 1990, the anodization process has attracted enormous interest for the fabrication of porous semiconductors. To date, this technique has been widely used to design new materials with advanced physico-chemical properties for many applications in optics, microelectronics, energy, biology and medicine.

Summary: There is now strong evidence demonstrating that the brain simulates action and other functions. Such action simulation can be evoked through conscious mental rehearsal of movement or imagery, but also through passive action observation watching movements in others. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that mental rehearsal of movement, or mental practice, can produce improvements normally attributed to practising actual movements. It is currently assumed that such improvements are due to neural activation associated with action simulation. However the neuroscience of mental practice efficacy is still poorly understood. The aim of this research topic is to clarify the underlying mechanisms of mental practice, bringing evidence from cognitive neuroscience, experimental neuropsychology, sport and movement science, and clinical neurology. It also attempts to address confusion regarding the concepts of imagery and observation, which has hampered the progression of mental practice research both scientifically and applied. As well as reviews, theoretical, and position articles, this research topic includes original neuroimaging, experimental, and patient research addressing, among others, the following issues. Neuroimaging studies provide strong evidence for action simulation, but the link to behavioural change and functional outcome is weak. What is the evidence that mental practice efficacy is driven by neuroplasticity processes evoked by action simulation? This research topic includes contributions on neural correlates and behaviour with regards to imagery and action observation. Much of the mental practice efficacy evidence comes from longstanding research within sport science. However, what does mental practice entail in these contexts, and to what extent is it compatible with the cognitive neuroscience perspective of action simulation? This research topic will include contributions that consider both evidence and concepts with regards to imagery and action observation, in an attempt to build an interdisciplinary consensus on the nature and application of mental practice. Mental practice is perceived as a promising motor rehabilitation technique, but critically there is lack of clarity or consensus on what mental practice treatment should entail. It is also not clear what are the most appropriate outcomes to measure imagery ability and cognitive or behavioural change following mental practice. A further important issue that needs consideration as part of this research topic is dosage, as it is currently unclear how much mental practice is appropriate and whether this depends on patient variables such as age, cognitive functioning, motor function, or pathophysiology.

Summary: Physiology in extreme conditions can reveal important reactions of the human body, which help our assessment of limits emerging under healthy conditions and critical signals of transition toward disease. While many mechanisms could simply be associated with adaptations, others refer to unexpected reactions in response to internal stimuli and/or external abrupt changes.

Summary: Oral health disparities are profound worldwide, and they affect the quality of life of individuals of all age groups. Disparities in oral health are seen in racial and ethnic minorities, at different socioeconomic levels and due to differences in environment and cultural factors. Several determinants of oral health have been identified at the population, community, family and individual levels. These determinants represent a complex interplay of the social, biological, cultural and economic factors that in turn affect the oral health behaviors, environmental exposures, health care utilization. To date, biological factors related to oral diseases have received much attention in oral health research; whilst social and cultural determinants have just started to receive recognition for their role in oral disease development and progression. This research highlights that interventions designed to reduce disparities should adopt a multi-level approach in order to identify the modifiable mechanisms and target all determinants of oral health disparities. In this Research Topic, we will focus on the role of social, environmental and cultural factors in the development and progression of oral diseases, their role in oral health disparities and interventions focusing on these factors to improve oral health and reduce disparities.

Summary: This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

Summary: Lignocellulose is the only renewable carbon source that can help replace oil-based chemicals and materials, in the process fighting global warming. However, because of its chemical and structural complexity, lignocellulose transformation into advanced products requires a better understanding of its composition and of its architecture at different scales, as well as a combination of physical, biological, and chemical processes, in order to render this transformation efficient and economically competitive. Tremendous efforts continue to be made toward the production of ethanol as a biofuel from various lignocellulosic feedstocks. Furthermore, recent successes have been achieved in extracting fibers to prepare composite materials that can compete with plastic fabrics. Importantly, lignocellulose chemistry can bring to the market original and complex chemicals that can lead to new applications, in particular when exploiting aromatic molecules or oligosaccharides from lignocellulose to produce solvents, surfactants, plasticizers, functional additives for food/feed/cosmetics, drugs, monomers, and polymers. In addition to this broad range of molecular products, fibers and particles fractionated from the lignocellulosic biomass are increasingly used to elaborate bio-based composite materials.

Summary: During the recent few decades, global economic growth has been driven largely by developing world economies. The ones with the most intensive pace of development were marked as "emerging" markets led by so called BRICS and N-11 countries. Such changes inevitably reflected the global health arena. A number of issues previously limited to established high-income economies became popularly discussed topics on the agendas of public health policy makers across these regions. Major challenges remain population aging, rising incidence of prosperity diseases, lack of universal insurance coverage and particularly provision of just and equitable access to medical care among the poor both in urban and rural communities. A significant part of the difficulties faced by these societies are attributed to inefficient resource allocation strategies in health care and unsatisfactory funding strategies. This Research Topic was created in order to address the core challenges of medical care financing and its affordability across the emerging global markets. Contributions of both undergoing or finished original research as well as review style papers are welcomed. All submitted manuscripts should deal with issues relevant to health care economics and policy in recognized global emerging markets. Outside the aforementioned key markets (BRICS- Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa; Next 11- Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, South Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkey and Vietnam) submissions referring to any of the dynamically developing Asian, Latin America, Eastern Europe or MENA countries are encouraged. In addition to a variety of health-economic evaluations and health policy analysis, methodological and resource use studies are within the Topic scope. Health policy considerations should be primarily focused on financing mechanisms and affordability of health care although other surrounding issues such as health insurance, reimbursement and cost-containment strategies will be considered.

Summary: US-Mexico border region area has unique social, demographic and policy forces at work that shape the health of its residents as well as serves as a microcosm of migration health challenges facing an increasingly mobile and globalized world. This region reflects the largest migratory flow between any two nations in the world. Data from the Pew Research Center shows over the last 25 years there has never been lower than 140,000 annual immigrants from Mexico to the United States (with peaks over 700,000). This migratory route is extremely hazardous due to natural (e.g., arid and hot desert regions) and human made barriers as well as border enforcement practices tied to socio-political and geopolitical pressures. Also, reflecting the national interdependency of public health and human services needs, during the most recent five year period surveyed the migratory flow between the US and Mexico has equaled that of the flow of Mexico to the US--both around 1.4 million persons. Of particular public health concern, within the US-Mexico region of both nations there is among the highest disparities in income, education, infrastructure and access to health care--factors within the World Health Organization's conceptualization of the Social Determinants of Health, and among the highest rates of chronic disease. For instance obesity and diabetes rates in this region are among the highest of those monitored in the world, with adult population estimates of the former over 40% and estimates in some population sub-groups for the latter over 20%. The publications reflected in this Research Topic, all reviewed from experts in the field, addressed many of the public health issues in the US Mexico Border Health Commission's Healthy Border 2020 objectives. Those objectives-- broad public health goals used to guide a diverse range of government, research and community-based stakeholders--include Non Communicable Diseases (including adult and childhood obesity-related ones; cancer), Infectious Diseases (e.g., tuberculosis; HIV; emerging diseases--particularly mosquito borne illnesses), Maternal and Child Health, Mental Health Disorders, and Motor Vehicle Accidents. Other relevant public health issues affecting this region, for example environmental health, binational health services coordination (e.g., immunization), the impact of migration throughout the Americas and globally in this region, health issues related to the physical climate, access to quality health care, discrimination/mistreatment and well-being, acculturative/immigration stress, violence, substance use/abuse, oral health, respiratory disease, and well-being from a social determinants of health framework, are critical areas addressed in these publications or for future research. Each of these Research Topic publications presented applied solutions (e.g., new programs, technology or infrastructure) and/or public health policy recommendations relevant to each public health challenge addressed.

Summary: This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

Summary: At present citizens are more aware of their health and care rights and more literate about their disease. Furthermore the continuous development of technological and bio-medical solutions are alimenting the expectation for longer and better life expectancy, even despite the diagnosis. Patients require to be higher involved in the decision making about their care and are willing to deeply entangle all the possible treatment options, their advantages, and their risks. In other terms, citizens today want to be treated not only as "client" but mainly as partners of the medical action and as co-authors of the success of their healthcare pathway. Due to this socio-psychological change in patients' attitude, healthcare systems today are claimed to a deep revision of their practices and organizational models in order to become better responsive to patients' expectation and more sustainable and effective in the management of their services. Patient participation and engagement in healthcare management, indeed, is today acknowledged by policy makers and healthcare experts as a valuable option to orient changes and actions of the healthcare systems. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the positive outcomes of a participatory care approach at the clinical, psychosocial, and economic levels. Patient Engagement, thus, appears today not only an ethical but also a pragmatic imperative for the innovation and the improvement of healthcare system. Moving from these premises, this e-book collects first research experiences, conceptual contribution and review of good practices in the area of Patient Engagement promotion. The e-book also discusses the relevance and the theoretical linkages between the concept of Patient Engagement and that one of Patient Centered Medicine.

Summary: Neuro-oncology is a rapidly growing field concerned with scientific developments and clinical applications related to neuroscience, neuropsychology, cancer and oncology. Neuro-oncological disorders include cancers that directly affect the central nervous system (CNS), such as brain tumours and brain metastases, and non-CNS cancers with treatments that produce neurocognitive impairment. To date, the biological mechanisms and neuropsychological effects of brain tumour and cancer have been the dominant focus in neuro-oncology literature. In terms of psychosocial aspects of care, people's understanding of their diagnosis and symptoms and how they cope with their illness has a major influence on their emotional well-being and quality of life.The development and evaluation of psychological and supportive care interventions for people with brain tumour is an area of emerging research and of high interest to health professionals working in the field. This Research Topic aims to enhance understanding of the psychological and social consequences of brain tumour and other cancers impacting neurocognitive function. It also aims to showcase new developments in assessment and psychosocial intervention approaches.

Summary: Evaluations of intervention programs seek to present high-quality design, measures and data to assess their merit and worth. While evaluations differ in their purpose, theoretical framework and methodology, their collective aim is to obtain relevant and meaningful information to inform practice, research, and policy. As such, evaluation findings serve to build a body of knowledge on effective approaches to promote designated psychological outcomes, critical to an individual's overall health and well-being. However, as examined in this e-book, methodological weaknesses directly limit the potential of evaluations of intervention programs. As discussed by Chacón-Moscoso and Sanduvete-Chaves, methodological weaknesses can be attributed to how to define and measure methodological quality and the contextual dependency of instruments designed to measure this quality. In response, this e-book provides a collection of studies on methodological approaches to promote the quality of psychological interventions. Specifically, 10 original works published in the Research Topic Methodological Quality of Interventions in Psychology are included. The papers are organized into two chapters. Concretely, Chapter 1 includes studies pertaining to methodological approaches to enhance the quality of psychological intervention, being context independent solutions. Furthermore, Chapter 2 presents original work in different areas (health, education, sport and social welfare) where methodological quality has been better assessed. Collectively, the papers in this e-book serve to expand the awareness of practitioners and researchers interested in psychological interventions of the critical role of methodological quality in this work. This research was funded by the projects 1150096 (Chilean National Fund of Scientific and Technological Development, FONDECYT); and PSI2015-71947-REDT (Spain's Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness).

Summary: This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

Summary: Neuromuscular performance can be regarded as the ability of the neuromuscular system to functionally control and drive movements by an appropriate integration, coordination and use of sensory feedback, reflex activity, central motor drive, muscle recruitment pattern, muscular excitation-contraction coupling and energy availability. This ability, for instance, enables the human organism to maintain stability and posture within the gravitational field in static and dynamic situations, to generate an appropriate amount of force necessary to solve a given motor task successfully or to co-ordinate limb movements in order to protect body structures and to avoid tissue damage. It is widely accepted within the scientific community that a well-developed capacity of the neuromuscular system is highly relevant for fitness and health during the whole lifespan. In early years, the appropriate development of the neuromuscular capacity supports the acquisition of basic movement and motor skills and, thus, contributes to sports competency. In this regard, a high neuromuscular performance may lead children and adolescents into an active and sportive lifestyle. Furthermore, the capacity of the neuromuscular system is fundamental to achieve peak sports performance in late adolescence and young adulthood. In this regard, there is also convincing evidence that injury risk can be reduced by appropriate exercise interventions targeting particularly the neuromuscular system. During later stages of life, a well-trained neuromuscular capacity enables people to stay active and healthy as well as maintaining the ability to fulfil the job requirements. In elderly people, neuromuscular fitness may minimize the risk of falling. During the later stages of life, the capacity of the neuromuscular system remains relevant to deal with the demands of daily life and, thus, to stay mobile and independent as long as possible. Although the relevance of neuromuscular performance is widely recognized, there is a large diversity in assessment methods and potentially efficacious exercise interventions. Whereas the aerobic capacity or muscular strength are very similarly assessed from childhood to older age, for instance, by conducting a VO2 max or one-repetition maximum test, respectively, there is no such uniform assessment method for neuromuscular performance measures. The diversity of assessment methods is at least partly reflected by a large heterogeneity of intervention approaches. This phenomenon might be attributed to an anticipated task-specificity of neuromuscular co-ordination and adaptations. A valid comparison of neuromuscular performance during different stages of the lifespan is therefore difficult.

Summary: Neuroenhancement (NE) is a behavior conceptualized as the use of a potentially psychoactive substance to enhance ones' already proficient cognitive capacities. Depending on the specific definitions used, prevalence estimates vary greatly between very low 0.3% (for illicit substances) to astonishingly high 89% (for freely available lifestyle substances). These variations indicate that further research and more conceptual and theoretical clarification of the NE construct is dearly needed. The contributions of this research topic aim to do just that. Specific questions addressed are: How prevalent is NE behavior? How can NE research profit from the already more evolved field of social science research on doping in sports? How is NE perceived by the public? What psychological processes and variables play a role in the decision to neuroenhance? A wide array of methodological approaches is used to investigate these questions. The topics contributions range from theoretical to experimental accounts on NE, and they utilize a diverse set of methods ranging from qualitative to neuroscientific approaches. The research presented here represents a first step towards what we have labeled a psychological approach to NE. By addressing the questions above this research topic hopefully advances our understanding of NE behavior. As with every new field of research, new answers always prompt new questions. In light of what we know now about NE, we hope that the findings presented here will be pursued by other researchers in the future. Clearly, the endeavor to understand NE behavior has only just begun.

Summary: The global population aged over 60 is set to rise dramatically in the coming decades. In many countries, the older population now faces the prospect of spending a quarter of their lives aged over 65, and a significant proportion will have to cope with cognitive decline associated with normal ageing or with dementia disorders. Given that these fundamental demographic changes will pose a significant challenge to health care systems, a detailed understanding of age-related cognitive and neurobiological changes is essential in helping elderly populations maintain cognitive performance. In addition, developing sensitive biomarkers to identify those at risk of developing dementia is crucial for early and effective interventions. To make inferences about the ageing process from the animal model back to the human, rigorous behavioral paradigms must be used to ensure that the same function is being examined across species. Given that similar navigational paradigms can easily be applied to humans and animals, recent years have seen an expansion of studies attempting to bridge the gap between age-related changes in animal and human spatial cognition. These studies begin to suggest that disruptions in spatial computations are among the earliest indicators of impending cognitive decline. In addition, although many animal studies have identified pathological mechanisms with paradigms involving spatial navigation, these mechanisms support many nonspatial cognitive functions as well. As a consequence, a successful characterization of how spatial processing changes in the ageing brain could reveal fundamental effects of cognitive ageing that could inform about general mechanisms underlying decline in perception, mnemonic processing and multisensory integration.