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Summary: Based on five Special Issues in Coatings, this e-book contains a series of 15 articles demonstrating actual perspectives and new trends in advanced coatings in buildings. Innovative materials and multiperformance solutions provide a basis, contributing also to the better protection of buildings' surfaces during the service life, and the users' wellbeing.

Summary: According to the National Research Council, the use of embedded systems throughout society could well overtake previous milestones in the information revolution. Mechatronics is the synergistic combination of electronic, mechanical engineering, controls, software and systems engineering in the design of processes and products. Mechatronic systems put "intelligence" into physical systems. Embedded sensors/actuators/processors are integral parts of mechatronic systems. The implementation of mechatronic systems is consistently on the rise. However, manufacturers are working hard to reduce the implementation cost of these systems while trying avoid compromising product quality. One way of addressing these conflicting objectives is through new automatic control methods, virtual sensing/estimation, and new innovative hardware topologies.

Summary: 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 electrical machines and drives because of their reliability, efficiency, performance, and fault-tolerant structure. In particular, there is a focus on the importance of utilizing these new trends in technology for energy saving and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This Special Issue will provide the platform for researchers to present their recent work on advances in the field of electrical machines and drives, including special machines and their applications; new materials, including the insulation of electrical machines; new trends in diagnostics and condition monitoring; power electronics, control schemes, and algorithms for electrical drives; new topologies; and innovative applications.

Summary: The reprint provides a comprehensive review of various topics related to sustainable building design and operation, with a particular focus on energy efficiency and environmental impact. It covers a wide range of topics, including visual comfort assessment, decision-making processes of residents, low-cost devices for CO2 monitoring, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on residential energy use. The reprint also includes discussions on solar energy in urban planning, cost-optimal measures for energy renovation, and passive solar solutions for buildings. It provides insights into the use of different materials and strategies for improving the energy efficiency of building envelopes, including the integration of phase change materials and the use of reflective coatings on building roofs. Several case studies are presented in the book, which explores the implementation of sustainable design strategies in different building types and climates. The authors also discuss the use of advanced modeling techniques to simulate the performance of different building systems, including vertical greenery systems and the solar cadaster.

Summary: Buildings are responsible for almost one third of global energy consumption. The building and construction sector could thus make a significant contribution to the communal effort needed to meet the Paris Agreement that would substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change. Given the importance of decarbonizing buildings and making them energy efficient in order to meet the Paris Agreement, and bearing in mind the promising role of biomimetic solutions in achieving this goal, this book reports on some recent research in the field related to bio-inspired approaches for reducing building energy use. This book includes a review of the use of biomimicry in modern building design; how both the Saharan ant and the zebra have inspired strategies for reducing energy use in Panama City; how the study of biomimetics can contribute to city regeneration; the description of a method to connect the thermal physiology of plants and animals to thermal challenges in buildings; how biomimicry could contribute to creating a circular economy in the construction sector; and how advances in electricity storage could benefit from a biomimetic approach. This book thus covers a combination of research and review articles to offer a glimpse into current biomimetic design strategies together with new directions for future research.

Summary: This book results from a Special Issue related to the latest progress in the thermodynamics of machines systems and processes since the premonitory work of Carnot. Carnot invented his famous cycle and generalized the efficiency concept for thermo-mechanical engines. Since that time, research progressed from the equilibrium approach to the irreversible situation that represents the general case. This book illustrates the present state-of-the-art advances after one or two centuries of consideration regarding applications and fundamental aspects. The research is moving fast in the direction of economic and environmental aspects. This will probably continue during the coming years. This book mainly highlights the recent focus on the maximum power of engines, as well as the corresponding first law efficiency upper bounds.

Summary: The circular economy, as a new business model that is different from the economy, can achieve the reuse and recycling of waste for waste minimization, improve the efficiency of resource utilization, and mitigate carbon emissions. It is no doubt that promoting the development of the circular economy can facilitate the transition to low-carbon processes and carbon-neutral development. However, there are still several questions that need to be answered: (1) How can the circular economy contribute to a low-carbon transition? (2) How do we address the fact that the circular economy model may also cause some new environmental problems, and how should we identify what the most environmentally friendly solution is among multiple alternatives for the circular economy? (3) Governmental regulation, policies and incentives play a significant role in promoting the development of the circular economy, so what are the policy instruments that can contribute to its development? (4) How can technological progress and solutions contribute to the circular economy? (5) How can environmental impact assessments contribute to the circular economy? (6) How can we achieve a circular economy or low-carbon transition through changes in consumption behaviors? In order to answer the above-mentioned questions, we launched a Special Issue in Energies. There are a total of six papers published in this Special Issue. This e-book collects these papers to build a platform for sharing advanced concepts, tools and methods for the users to take actions to achieve a circular economy.

Summary: In recent years, the building sector has been turning towards intervening in the existing city building stock. In fact, it is generally accepted that the refurbishment of buildings and urban regeneration based on sustainability must form the axis of reformulation of the building sector. At present, achieving sustainable urban development inevitably involves improving existing buildings, thereby preventing the need for city growth, and for the emptying of established neighborhoods. Furthermore, considering the whole life cycle, the great amount of greenhouse emissions derived from the construction sector is well known; thus, in order to reach a decarbonized society, it is important to provide eco-efficient construction materials and solutions, adding the principles of the circular economy and resource efficiency. Therefore, the theme of this Special Issue is the "Decarbonization and Circular Economy in the Sustainable Development and Renovation of Buildings and Neighborhoods" in response to the objectives not only raised in the Horizon 2020 but by all the people who seek a more sustainable world. This Special Issue of Sustainability focuses on, but is not limited to: • Obtaining an overview of the environmental problems that arise from construction activity, focusing on refurbishment as an alternative to the current crisis in the construction sector, as well as on actions designed to minimize environmental effects on the environment; • Searching for new alternatives to conventional construction solutions that minimize the environmental impact of the construction activity, improve indoor environmental quality of buildings, build or refurbish, always from a rentable and optimal cost in time, and implement a circular economy and an efficient resource and waste management; • Minimizing the consumption of material resources, energy consumption and CO2 emissions in construction and looking for the proper management of construction and demolition waste and the opportunities for their recycling and reuse; • Sustainable planning and urban development, for an ordered and sustainable growth.

Summary: With the announcement of the European Green Deal, which defines a set of policy initiatives aimed at achieving a 50-55% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and making Europe climate neutral in 2050, the challenge of energy transition becomes even more critical. The transformation of national energy systems towards sustainability is progressing throughout all Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, yet the goals and results are different. Most EU Member States have made substantial progress towards meeting their long-term commitments of emissions reductions. However, some bloc members have struggled to meet their obligations. An effective energy transition requires the introduction of appropriately designed policy instruments and of robust economic analyses that ensure the best possible outcomes at the lowest costs for society. In this context, this Special Issue aims to bring into the discussion the challenges that CEE countries have to face and overcome while undergoing energy transition.

Summary: Vehicle electrification has been identified as one of the main technology trends in this second decade of the 21st century. Nearly 10% of global car sales in 2021 were electric, and this figure would be 50% by 2030 to reduce the oil import dependency and transport emissions in line with countries' climate goals. This book addresses the efficient power and propulsion systems which cover essential topics for research and development on EVs, HEVs and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV), including: Energy storage systems (battery, fuel cell, supercapacitors, and their hybrid systems); Power electronics devices and converters; Electric machine drive control, optimization, and design; Energy system advanced management methods Primarily intended for professionals and advanced students who are working on EV/HEV/FCEV power and propulsion systems, this edited book surveys state of the art novel control/optimization techniques for different components, as well as for vehicle as a whole system. New readers may also find valuable information on the structure and methodologies in such an interdisciplinary field. Contributed by experienced authors from different research laboratory around the world, these 11 chapters provide balanced materials from theorical background to methodologies and practical implementation to deal with various issues of this challenging technology. This reprint encourages researchers working in this field to stay actualized on the latest developments on electric vehicle efficient power and propulsion systems, for road and rail, both manned and unmanned vehicles.

Summary: The growing population is forcing us to look for new, more effective solutions to various problems. The rising demand for power, water supply and waste management, pedestrian safety, the efficient use of electric vehicles, traffic jams, commuting, the identification of all road users and prediction of their travel paths, and increasing air and noise levels are the most pressing issues in today's cities. Advance planning is a feature of green development that reduces dependence on vehicles associated with an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The development of eco-friendly cities includes the development and application of new efficient solutions and technologies, such as efficient transport management, emission control and pollution control, energy efficiency and the usage of renewable energy, resource efficiency, etc., which would ensure a better quality of life of the growing population.

Summary: This Special Issue summarizes, in a single reference, timely emerging topics related to power electronics for sustainable energy conversion. Furthermore, at the same time, it provides the reader with valuable information related to open research opportunity niches.

Summary: This Special Issue deals with improvements in the energy efficiency of electric devices, machines, and drives, which are achieved through improvements in the design, modelling, control, and operation of the system. Properly sized and placed coils of a welding transformer can reduce the required iron core size and improve the efficiency of the welding system operation. New structures of the single-phase field excited flux switching machine improve its performance in terms of torque, while having higher back-EMF and unbalanced electromagnetic forces. A properly designed rotor notch reduces the torque ripple and cogging torque of interior permanent magnet motors for the drive platform of electric vehicles, resulting in lower vibrations and noise. In the field of modelling, the torque estimation of a Halbach array surface permanent magnet motor with a non-overlapping winding layout was improved by introducing an analytical two-dimensional subdomain model. A general method for determining the magnetically nonlinear two-axis dynamic models of rotary and linear synchronous reluctance machines and synchronous permanent magnet machines is introduced that considers the effects of slotting, mutual interaction between the slots and permanent magnets, saturation, cross saturation, and end effects. Advanced modern control solutions, such as neural network-based model reference adaptive control, fuzzy control, senseless control, torque/speed tracking control derived from the 3D non-holonomic integrator, including drift terms, maximum torque per ampere, and maximum efficiency characteristics, are applied to improve drive performance and overall system operation.

Summary: The world needs an accelerated energy transition to meet sustainable development goals. Energy planning has a critical role in providing the information that can guide decision-makers, and energy planning methods continue to evolve rapidly. This Special Issue provides new insights for long-term energy planning, drawing on the Clean Energy Ministerial Long Term Energy Planning Scenarios initiative and the IRENA LTES network.

Summary: The global electric car fleet exceeded 7 million battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in 2019, and will continue to increase in the future, as electrification is an important means of decreasing the greenhouse gas emissions of the transportation sector. The energy storage system is a very central component of the electric vehicle. The storage system needs to be cost-competitive, light, efficient, safe, and reliable, and to occupy little space and last for a long time. It should also be produced and disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner. This leaves many research challenges, and the purpose of this book is therefore to provide a platform for sharing the latest findings on energy storage systems for electric vehicles (electric cars, buses, aircraft, ships, etc.) Research in energy storage systems requires several sciences working together, and this book therefore include contributions from many different disciplines; this covers a wide range of topics, e.g. battery-management systems, state-of-charge and state-of-health estimation, thermal-battery-management systems, power electronics for energy storage devices, battery aging modelling, battery reuse and recycling, etc.

Summary: Information and communication technology (ICT) is reponsible for up to 10% of world power consumption. In particular, communications and computing systems are indispensable elements in ICT; thus, determining how to improve the energy efficiency in communications and computing systems has become one of the most important issues for realizing green ICT. Even though a number of studies have been conducted, most of them focused on one aspect-either communications or computing systems. However, salient features in communications and computing systems should be jointly considered, and novel holistic approaches across communications and computing systems are strongly required to implement energy-efficient systems. In addition, emerging systems, such as energy-harvesting IoT devices, cyber-physical systems (CPSs), autonomous vehicles (AVs), and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), require new approaches to satisfy their strict energy consumption requirements in mission-critical situations. The goal of this Special Issue is to disseminate the recent advances in energy-efficient communications and computing systems. Review and survey papers on these topics are welcome. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following: • energy-efficient communications: from physical layer to application layer; • energy-efficient computing systems; • energy-efficient network architecture: through SDN/NFV/network slicing; • energy-efficient system design; • energy-efficient Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial IoT (IIoT); • energy-efficient edge/fog/cloud computing; • new approaches for energy-efficient computing and communications (e.g., AI/ML and data-driven approaches); • new performance metrics on energy efficiency in emerging systems; • energy harvesting and simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT); • smart grid and vehicle-to-grid (V2G); and • standardization and open source activities for energy efficient systems.

Summary: Everybody has made use of grease in their daily lives. The word "grease" originates from the early Latin word "crassus," meaning fat. For our purposes, in this Special Issue, we will be focusing on lubricating grease, for publication in the eponymous journal Lubricants. According to ASTM, lubricating grease may be defined as "a solid-to-semi-fluid product of dispersed thickening agents in a liquid lubricant". Other functional ingredients, such anti-wear and extreme pressure additives, may be included, with the overall goal of inducing special properties/functionalities. Grease is a very complex lubricant. We have never had a Special Issue focusing on this key product, and lubricating greases are often underrepresented in the technical literature. In recent years, there has been significant progress in research on greases, ranging from the specific chemical formulation of greases for special applications to how grease interacts with various surfaces, tribological advances in grease properties, new techniques for grease property measurements, etc. Recently, greases have also been evolving, as they and play a key role in the lubrication of electric vehicles. We aim to select the top research avenues and papers worldwide related to lubricating greases to form this compilation. This Special Issue wishes to be the first of its kind, and we plan to make this an annual exercise, where our compendium aims to discuss the latest developments worldwide encompassing all areas related to greases.

Summary: The sustainability of the built environment can only be achieved through the maintenance planning of built facilities during their lifecycle while also considering social, economic, functional, technical, and ecological aspects. Stakeholders should be conscious of the existing tools and knowledge for the optimization of maintenance and rehabilitation actions in consideration of the degradation mechanisms and the risk of failure over time. Knowledge concerning the service life prediction of building elements is crucial to the definition, in a rational and technically informed way, of a set of maintenance strategies over the building's life cycle. Service life prediction methodologies provide a better understanding of the degradation phenomenon of the analyzed elements, enabling the relation of the characteristics of these elements and their exposure, use, and maintenance conditions with their performance over time. This SI intends to provide an overview of the existing knowledge related to various aspects of "Life Cycle Prediction and Maintenance of Buildings". Relevant topics to this Special Issue include: Methodologies for service life prediction of buildings and components; Maintainability of buildings and components; Serviceability of building elements; Maintenance and repair actions of buildings and components; Definition and optimization of maintenance policies; Financial analysis of various maintenance plans; Whole life cycle costing; Life cycle assessment.

Summary: The book is a collection of scientific contributions that highlight how scientific and technological evolution can change the paradigm of organic waste as an environmental problem into a renewable resource of energy and materials. Numerous researchers and research institutions that are located in different countries with varying levels of socio-economic development and other traditions were involved in this work. The materials that were considered include household waste, including human excreta and those generated by typical urban activities. The organic waste was derived from the agro-industrial sector and from packaging labelled as being biodegradable. Problems related to the detoxification of aquatic plants are discussed and the use of these plants for their ability to produce biomethane is documented simultaneously. An organic waste management strategy that was developed in the Albania context is also presented and discussed. Anaerobic digestion is one of the most widely studied technologies in this field, and this process is responsible for the production of biogas or methane, even in fossil resource-rich countries. On the other hand, aerobic fermentation is considered for the degradation of very toxic organic substances that can be dissolved into aqueous solutions that aid in the recovery of valuable materials from electrical and electronic equipment that do not have further use. There are a wide range of arguments and experiences that support the use of waste as a resource through disposal with simultaneous energy enhancement and the production of new materials, thus limiting the use of non-renewable resources for more sustainable development for the benefit of future generations.

Summary: Processing and Conversion of Oil and Gas: Modeling, Control, Simulation, and Optimization describes the core of the activity of petrochemical engineers, process controller engineers, industrial engineers, energy engineers, and researchers in the oil and gas field. This reprint explores the modeling, control, simulation, and optimization of new and revamped petrochemical processes using proven software. Thus, it offers novel illustrative examples, prospective applications, and solutions to improve these processes. This reprint aims to combine theoretical principles with examples modeled by commonly used simulation software employing steady-state or dynamic process simulation. Furthermore, applying numerical methods and optimization at both the theoretical and practical levels is within the scope of this reprint.

Summary: In 2018, the 16th International Symposium on Magnetic Bearings (ISMB16) was held in Beijing, China. Herein, eight distinguished papers were selected to be published as Special Issues of Actuators. These papers are suggested to provide new insights for the development of magnetic bearings, with emphasis on thermal behavior analysis, electrodynamic thrust bearings analysis, viscoelastic damping design, magnetic spring, condition monitoring, self-bearing motors performance.

Summary: In the competitive business environment or public domain, the sustainability assessment in supply chain and infrastructure management are important for any organization. Organizations are currently striving to improve their sustainable strategies through preparedness, response, and recovery because of increasing competitiveness, community, and regulatory pressure. Thus, it is necessary to develop a meaningful and more focused understanding of sustainability in supply chain management and infrastructure management practices. In the context of a supply chain, sustainability implies that companies identify, assess, and manage impacts and risks in all the echelons of the supply chain, considering downstream and upstream activities. Similarly, the sustainable infrastructure management indicates the ability of infrastructure to meet the requirements of the present without sacrificing the ability of future generations to address their needs. The complexities regarding sustainable supply chain and infrastructure management have driven managers and professionals to seek different solutions. This Special Issue aims to provide readers with the most recent research results on the aforementioned subjects. In addition, it offers some solutions and also raises some questions for further research and development toward sustainable supply chain and infrastructure management.

Summary: This book comprises components associated with smart water which aims at the exploitation and building of more sustainable and technological water networks towards the water-energy nexus and system efficiency. The implementation of modeling frameworks for measuring the performance based on a set of relevant indicators and data applications and model interfaces provides better support for decisions towards greater sustainability and more flexible and safer solutions. The hydraulic, management, and structural models represent the most effective and viable way to predict the behavior of the water networks under a wide range of conditions of demand and system failures. The knowledge of reliable parameters is crucial to develop approach models and, therefore, positive decisions in real time to be implemented in smart water systems. On the other hand, the models of operation in real-time optimization allow us to extend decisions to smart water systems in order to improve the efficiency of the water network and ensure more reliable and flexible operations, maximizing cost, environmental, and social savings associated with losses or failures. The data obtained in real time instantly update the network model towards digital water models, showing the characteristic parameters of pumps, valves, pressures, and flows, as well as hours of operation towards the lowest operating costs, in order to meet the requirement objectives for an efficient system.