Books published by Mdpi AG

In the modern world, the competitiveness of bioenergy- and/or bioresources-related activities heavily depends on the effectiveness of supply chain management. A large number of multidisciplinary topics are involved in the bioresources and bioenergy production fields. Although the technical issues that are related with the topic are well-discussed and do not represent major barriers, supply chain management issues, such as design of the network, collection, storage or transportation of bioresources, are still considered as fundamental questions that need to be answered to enable the optimal exploitation of bioenergy and bioresources. Moreover, modeling of material and energy flows; identification of the dynamic character of the supply chains; available reverse logistics (waste management) alternatives; economic, social and environmental sustainability of bioresource supply chains; novelty in the applied business models; and decision support frameworks towards efficient supply chain management for bioenergy and bioresources present critical operational sustainability issues and business-making potential. This Special Issue, entitled "Supply Chain Management for Bioenergy and Bioresources", seeks to contribute to the bioenergy and bioresources agenda through enhanced scientific and multi-disciplinary knowledge that may boost the performance efficiency of supply chain management and support the decision-making process of stakeholders. To that end, the Special Issue includes one extensive review on yellow and woody biomass supply-chain management, together with six original papers which span a number of innovative, multifaceted, technical developments that are related to all different echelons of supply chain management for bioenergy and bioresources.

In recent years, heavy metals have been widely used in agricultural, chemical, domestic, and technological applications, causing environmental and soil contaminations. Heavy metals enter the plant system through soil or via the atmosphere, and can accumulate, affecting physiological processes, plant growth, yield, and human health if heavy metals are stored in edible tissues. Understanding the regulation mechanisms of plant heavy metals accumulation and partitioning is important to improve the safety of the food chain. In this Special Issue book, a total of 19 articles were included; four reviews covering phytoremediation, manganese phytotoxicity in plants, the effect of cadmium on plant development, the genetic characteristics of Cd accumulation, and the research status of genes and QTLs in rice, respectively, as well as fifteen original research articles, mainly regarding the impact of cadmium on plants. Cadmium was therefore the predominant topic of this Special Issue, increasing the attention of the research community on the negative impacts determined by cadmium or cadmium associated with other heavy metals. The articles have highlighted a great genetic variability, suggesting different possibilities for accumulation, translocation and the reduction or control of heavy metal toxicity in plants.

The Hedgehog signaling pathway is an evolutionarily conserved pathway that governs complex developmental processes, including stem cell maintenance, proliferation, differentiation, and patterning. Several recent studies have shown that the aberrant activation of Hedgehog signaling is associated with neoplastic transformation, cancer cell proliferation, metastasis, multiple cancers'' drug resistance, and survival rates. This book focuses on several aspects of Hedgehog signaling in organogenesis and the tumor microenvironment, and presents reviews and original papers on recent efforts in the field of Hedgehog signaling.

Nutritional deficiencies, and different nutritional and dietary lifestyles, whether poor or absent of essential nutrients, aside from excess intake, can lead to inflammatory complications and loss of function. Bioactive compounds are non-nutritional components derived from plants, foods, and beverages with a multitude of biological effects. The improvement of analytical techniques has allowed scientific community to state that the regular consumption of bioactive phytochemicals is related to the prevention of numerous pathologies, through mechanisms that involve oxidative stress reduction, gene expression modulation, and even enzymatic activation inhibition.

The search for bioactive marine natural products calls for the need of efficient chemical profiling strategies, together with the need to make advances in separation and characterization methodologies, in order to expedite their discovery. This Special Issue of Marine Drugs aims to highlight advances in extraction, isolation, purification and dereplication methodologies in the quest for bioactive marine natural products.