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The primary scope of these articles is to contextualize their mystical writings and life events in their own historical times. The aim of this volume is to expand on the existing literature currently available and to make clear why these mystics from different cultures and religious traditions were involved in the most urgent political, economic, social, and religious issues in their times. The overall focus of this issue is to examine their contemplative, mystical, spiritual, prophetic, social, political, artistic, and religious legacies in greater depth. In this collection of articles, the reader will find a clear trend of interdisciplinary studies proving, once and for all, the innumerable interconnections and mutual influences exhibited by the great mystics in their own times.

This book on ‘Cooperative Learning in Higher Education’ addresses the development of both reflective teaching and learning in higher education to promote sustainable education in several disciplines where reflection is at the core of sustainable development. The book explores reflection within higher education and/or within instructional approaches to higher education, not only via in-house and external individuals, collective initiatives and activities that focus on reflection and the generation of knowledge, but also on the transformative outputs of learning communities. We place an emphasis on reflective practices and communities, as well as linking reflective learning and the development of professional identity through reflection. The book also addresses the connections between theoretical and applied research on reflective practices and knowledge generation in all areas, as well as professional practice and identity through theoretical definitions, situated and grounded practice

The Special Issue papers comprise classified into four categories: The first category includes three papers that examine the practical application of design theory in different contexts. The second category comprises three papers exploring the role of technology in design education. The third category includes three papers that analyze the intersection of design education and cross-cultural communication. The final category encompasses two papers investigating the application of design education in diverse fields.  It offered invaluable insights into the latest pedagogical approaches, technologies, and trends in the field of design education. It provided a rich and nuanced view of the challenges and opportunities faced by design educators today. It was an invaluable resource for researchers, educators, and practitioners in the field of design education. Related Books Learning Environment Design and Use Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities Engineering Education and Technological / Prof

We invite you to read the Special Issue on The Financial Industry 4.0. It is a collection of 13 articles published in a Special Issue of International Journal of Financial Studies (MDPI) in 2020-2022. The main emphasis of this reprint is on The Financial Industry 4.0 to provide insightful understanding about the benefits as well as the challenges that financial institutions are facing under the Industry 4.0 era. The articles in this Special Issue discussed the potential of blockchain technology, the impact of fintech on financial inclusion in developing countries, the role of fintech in the insurance industry, and so on. It highlights the benefits of fintech, such as improved efficiency, accuracy, and customer experience, but also notes the challenges and risks involved, such as data privacy and security concerns. Collaboration between financial institutions, regulators, and technology firms is seen as necessary to promote innovation and ensure the stability and security of the fina

The rapid development of polymer science has brought convenience to people's lives. At the same time, more and more waste is produced from the use of polymer products, which causes harm to the environment. In order to protect the living environment, scholars have researched and developed the recycling technology of waste plastics. On the other hand, many contemporary medicines contain polymers as a component, so a detailed study of the decay of such polymers, at least to their exit from the body, is required. Related Books Degradation and Recycling of Polymer Materials Chemistry & Materials Science ... Natural Degradation: Polymer Degradation under Different Conditions Medicine & Pharmacology ... Polymer Biodegradation and Polymeric Biomass Valorization Environmental & Earth Sciences Modification and Processing of Biodegradable Polymers Chemistry & Materials Science Advances in Biocompatible and Biodegradable Polymers Chemistry & Materials Science The recommendations have been gene

This Reprint presents a curated collection of nine articles from the Systems Special Issue “AI-Augmented Human–Machine Systems: Engineering and Design in Education”, launched in response to the profound reshaping of education by large language models and generative AI. Adopting a systems perspective, the contributions examine how AI tools can be engineered to enhance learning outcomes while mitigating risks such as over-reliance, trust erosion, and ethical misalignment. Spanning K–12, vocational, and higher education, the collection employs diverse methodologies including quasi-experiments, surveys, grounded theory, systematic reviews, and neuro-symbolic development. Key contributions include the following: a dual-dimension trust model distinguishing system-like from human-like trust; empirical evidence establishing individual autonomy and moderate constraints as design principles for LLM-integrated project-based learning; ARGUS, a neuro-symbolic architecture generating actionable feedback; and domain-specific fine-tuning with transparent performance reporting. Vocational and K–12 studies, along with a stakeholder-driven privacy framework and a systematic review, further enrich the volume. Together, these articles offer both theoretical depth and actionable guidance, demonstrating that the challenge lies not in whether to adopt AI, but in how, under what principles, and governed by which ethical structures. This Reprint is an essential resource for researchers, educators, and policymakers.

Social scientists have long been interested in the functions of religion for the individual and larger groups comprising any number of people. While psychologists have led the way with hundreds of empirical studies showing the association between religion and various individual-level outcomes, far fewer sociological studies have examined the impact of religion on social groups and organizations. This Special Issue Reprint attempts to fill this gap by featuring contemporary articles that examine the sociological functions of religion for the individual and marginalized groups defined by race, sexuality, generation, immigration status, and political party identification. Two research questions frame the Special Issue: What are the functions of religion for minority communities? How do organizations draw on religious communities to promote their mission? To answer these questions, a group of international scholars analyzed qualitative and/or quantitative data gathered through in-depth interviews and surveys from respondents in the United States, China, the Middle East and North Africa. As Emile Durkheim originally theorized, and as the articles in this volume confirm, religion/spirituality continues to give meaning and purpose to life while also providing a sense of social solidarity via shared rituals and beliefs, especially among marginalized communities.

In recent decades, climate change and biodiversity loss have emerged as critical drivers of the global environmental crisis, significantly affecting human health and well-being, and underscoring the need to rethink contemporary urban systems. With approximately 55 \% of the world’s population living in urban areas, cities are experiencing rapid transformations. A key challenge lies in creating sustainable urban environments designed to meet residents’ needs while reducing environmental impacts. Simultaneously, technological advancements—particularly digital innovation—are reshaping private and public sectors, industrial production, and individual behaviour. Cultural and digital shifts are altering social interactions, work habits, mobility, and consumption patterns, with urban areas serving as both arenas and drivers of these changes. Ecological and digital transitions thus present significant opportunities and complex challenges for cities worldwide. This reprint addresses these issues through theoretical and empirical analyses of contemporary urban dynamics and transitions, focusing on their implications for citizen health and well-being. It showcases innovative approaches and practical solutions fostering sustainable urban development and provides critical assessments of urban challenges and responses from diverse global contexts. The insights offered aim to inform and enhance urban public policies, guiding the construction of greener, digitally advanced, and socially equitable cities.

Heart failure prevalence continues to rise globally. Regardless of the underlying etiology, heart failure remains a progressive disease, largely irreversible and end-stage heart failure requires transplantation. Book focuses on the challenges and recent advances of diagnosis, treatment and prevention of heart failure with or without associated comorbidities. We hope that readers will appreciate the wide breadth of topics and clinical utility of the articles and reviews included to this book collection. Related Books Clinical Management of Patients with Heart Failure Biology & Life Sciences ... Acute and Chronic Heart Failure Biology & Life Sciences ... Clinical Management of Patients with Heart Failure Medicine & Pharmacology Advancements in Heart Failure Research Biology & Life Sciences ... New Advances in Pharmacologic and Non-pharmacologic Therapy in Heart Failure and Heart Transplant Medicine & Pharmacology The recommendations have been generated using an AI system. About: Ab

Natural polysaccharides, such as cellulose and chitin, possess unique hierarchical nanoarchitectures that can never be artificially reconstructed, and their nano-organized structures are involved in the hidden materials functions with great potential. Pioneering the emerging functions of nano-organized polysaccharides will break through to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Related Books Polysaccharide-Based Materials Chemistry & Materials Science ... Advanced Biopolymer-Based Nanocomposites and Hybrid Materials Chemistry & Materials Science Advanced Cellulose-Based Materials Chemistry & Materials Science Functional Natural-Based Polymers Biology & Life Sciences Advances in Chitin/Chitosan Characterization and Applications Chemistry & Materials Science The recommendations have been generated using an AI system. About: About MDPI Books Advisory Board Legal Information: MDPI Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions Terms of Use Accessibility Sales: Order and Delivery Indexin

Cities, infrastructures, and territories are undergoing transformations driven by environmental, technological, and social shifts. These dynamics call for new tools and methodologies aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this context, cultural and natural heritage—both tangible and intangible—emerges as a key resource for resilience, reinforcing social cohesion and adaptive capacities in urban and rural areas. This Special Issue brings together original research and review articles that examine the role of heritage in building more resilient cities, territories, and landscapes. Contributions address diverse contexts—from small and medium-sized cities to metropolitan areas—highlighting hybrid urban legacies and the need for long-term resilience strategies. Cities, infrastructures, and territories are undergoing transformations driven by environmental, technological, and social shifts. These dynamics call for new tools and methodologies aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this context, cultural and natural heritage—both tangible and intangible—emerges as a key resource for resilience, reinforcing social cohesion and adaptive capacities in urban and rural areas. This Special Issue brings together original research and review articles that examine the role of heritage in building more resilient cities, territories, and landscapes. Contributions address diverse contexts—from small and medium-sized cities to metropolitan areas—highlighting hybrid urban legacies and the need for long-term resilience strategies.

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 technologi

The issues relating to the functioning of the tourism economy include both the activities of tourism enterprises and spatial units, i.e., tourism destinations, as well as tourism demand, including tourists' purchasing behavior. The aim of the Special Issue of Economies is to present the current results of research on the functioning of the tourism market and its individual elements. The presented studies refer to four groups of issues: the foundations of the tourism industry, including general rules and economic mechanisms related to the operation of this industry market; the functioning of tourism entrepreneurs, especially in the tourism industry, mainly in the area of accommodation offers; the operation of tourist destinations and the available offers in tourist areas; the trends in tourist demand, including the purchasing behavior of tourists in tourist destinations. Related Books Current Trends in Tourism under COVID-19 and Future Implications Business & Economics Economic Susta

This Special Issue (SI) explores how language, identity, and power intersect in multilingual, multicultural, and digitally mediated environments—from households and classrooms to boardrooms and online platforms. The SI centers on historically underrepresented perspectives in the field, especially those from non-Western and Global South contexts. Challenging the dominance of Western-centric frameworks, the contributors highlight how colonial legacies, indigenous knowledge, and regional dynamics reshape intercultural theory and practice. In the opening article, “knowledge strategies” are introduced that position indigenous perspectives as global contributions, reframing community building as a third key dimension of intercultural communication alongside interaction and exchange. Subsequent articles adopt a decolonial, multilingual, and multiscalar lens. Topics include family language policy, bilingual development, youth identity in digitally saturated settings, and multilingualism in corporate communication. Digital media emerges as both a communication tool and a contested space where ideology and identity are negotiated. Two articles examine how media shape public discourse. The SI concludes with a study exploring students’ development of intercultural competencies and proposing inclusive co-curricular strategies. Together, these contributions reconceptualize intercultural communication as a dynamic, plural, and power-laden process. By amplifying diverse voices, this SI expands the field’s boundaries and advances a more inclusive global conversation on what it means to communicate—and coexist—across cultures.

As renewable energy integration continues to expand, electricity market participants face growing uncertainty in both prices and volumes. These evolving conditions underscore the urgent need for advanced tools and strategies to support effective decision-making and ensure system reliability. Recognizing these challenges, the current Reprint presents a collection of innovative research on forecasting and risk management in electricity markets undergoing rapid transformation. The featured papers explore a range of approaches, including load forecasting under uncertainty, agent-based simulations for peer-to-peer trading, blockchain-based electricity market mechanisms, and the development of energy and weather derivatives to hedge market risks. Together, these contributions span both centralized and decentralized systems and offer practical insights for energy producers, grid operators, and financial engineers. Several studies also align risk-management strategies with broader policy goals such as carbon neutrality and sustainable electricity market design. In summary, this Reprint serves as a timely reference for researchers and practitioners seeking interdisciplinary methods to enhance forecasting accuracy and market resilience. The collection reflects the evolving nature of electricity markets and brings together perspectives from energy economics, finance, control theory, and data science to address pressing challenges and emerging opportunities worldwide.

This reprint examines the panorama of contemporary Islamic revivalism in the modern world. Constituted by methodologically and ideologically a wide variety of revivalist movements, Islamic revivalism is a complex multidimensional global reality. In a local context, it is a socio-religious reaction to the failure of state-led modernization projects and to general socio-economic quandaries, and in international context, it is a reaction to the wide-ranging crises of modernity. The collection provides important insights into the reality of contemporary Islamic revivalism through an examination of myriad socio-cultural, economic, and political problems facing Muslims at micro- and macro-levels of everyday living. It explains how Islamic revivalist movements are engaged in revivalist activities commonly known as Islamization at an individual level as well as at a community level and reveals that as a global reality, contemporary Islamic revivalism is neither necessarily violent nor anti-m

Success, injuries, future career opportunities of athletes, and the societal gains of participating in sports and organizing (mega) sports events are all related to individual risk-taking behavior. Although the sports economics and management literature has broadly addressed these issues, it is surprising that less attention has been paid to the implications of risk-taking on the organization of sports in general and, more particularly, on the design and behavior of sports organization members. Related Books Topics in Sports Finance Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities Risks Public Health & Healthcare ... Risk, Ruin and Survival Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities ... Risk and Financial Consequences Business & Economics Rethinking Sport and Social Issues Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities The recommendations have been generated using an AI system. About: About MDPI Books Advisory Board Legal Information: MDPI Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions Terms of Use Accessibility Sales: Or

Azoospermia, defined as the absence of sperm in the ejaculate after examination of the centrifuged specimens, affects about 1\% of the male population and 10–15\% of infertile men. In about two-thirds of cases, this is caused by severe spermatogenic dysfunction, and it is commonly termed “nonobstructive azoospermia” (NOA) to differentiate it from the less severe form of azoospermia caused by the obstruction of the seminal tract (obstructive azoospermia—OA), the latter affecting the remaining one-third of cases. Managing patients with NOA is challenging due to the severity of spermatogenic dysfunction and the lack of medical treatments, with surgical retrieval of testicular sperm being the only way of enabling some of these patients to father their own biological children. In-depth clinical knowledge is key for supporting clinical reasoning and decision making when counselling patients with NOA, and surgical skill is required to maximize the outcome of surgical procedures that aim to re

The purpose of the Special Issue “Quantitative Methods in Economics and Finance” of the journal Risks was to provide a collection of papers that reflect the latest research and problems of pricing complex derivates, simulation pricing, analysis of financial markets, and volatility of exchange rates in the international context. This book can be used as a reference for academicians and researchers who would like to discuss and introduce new developments in the field of quantitative methods in economics and finance and explore applications of quantitative methods in other business areas. Related Books Quantitative Methods for Economics and Finance Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities ... Financial Econometrics and Quantitative Economic Analysis Business & Economics Advanced Methods in the Mathematical Modeling of Economics, Econometrics, and Financial Management Business & Economics Computational Methods for Risk Management in Economics and Finance Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities ... R

This Reprint comprises 25 papers covering various aspects of corporate governance, financial performance, and sustainability practices. Topics include the wealth effects of mergers and acquisitions (M&As), particularly the performance differences between cash- and stock-based transactions and the moderating influence of horizontal M&As on credit risk in the banking sector. The included studies also explore the implications of CEO characteristics for investment efficiency, focusing on the influence of political connections and leadership styles, and investigate the relationship between risk committee characteristics, agency costs, and financial performance, with a particular emphasis on financial firms. Further discussions address the role of sustainability report assurance and corporate governance in enhancing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores and highlight the importance of governance structures, such as gender-diverse boards, for corporate outcomes. These studies underscore the need for effective risk communication and strategic decision-making, especially in the context of economic uncertainty and regulatory changes. Collectively, they provide valuable insights into the evolving landscape of corporate finance and governance, offering practical recommendations for enhancing corporate practices and financial performance.

This book presents diverse contributions related to some of the latest advances in the field of personalization and recommender systems, as well as social media and sentiment analysis. The work comprises several articles that address different problems in these areas by means of recent techniques such as deep learning, methods to analyze the structure and the dynamics of social networks, and modern language processing approaches for sentiment analysis, among others. The proposals included in the book are representative of some highly topical research directions and cover different application domains where they have been validated. These go from the recommendation of hotels, movies, music, documents, or pharmacy cross-selling to sentiment analysis in the field of telemedicine and opinion mining on news, also including the study of social capital on social media and dynamics aspects of the Twitter social network. Related Books Text Mining Computer Science & Mathematics Semantic Web Tec

The most recent scientific literature on the treatment of social problems or controversial social questions in the Social Sciences classroom, and their inclusion into curricula, emphasizes the need to introduce students into large-scale social debates where different points of view exist, different interests are at stake, and where it is desirable that they construct their own opinions in that respect from a critical and reasoned perspective. Work with social problems permits a typology of analysis that includes the relative experience of the past and the expectations for the future in a present that is lived, and to consider the temporal relation on the basis of an analysis of changes and continuities that are observable from a comparative perspective. In the comprehension and interpretation of the historicity of the present and in planning the social future, social problems would have to represent a fundamental curricular tenant that gives relevance to the contemporaneousness of th

As globalization advances, trends and societal shifts influence several economic and socioeconomic aspects. As cross-border cooperation has been increasing across various regions, this leads to market changes, both established and emerging, trading methods and management aspects. As a result, it is crucial to study the negative and positive changes on an economic and social level emanating from this phenomenon. The inter-relationship between international environments, transactions, and cooperation projects can transform economic and socioeconomic conditions, leading to more enabling and sustainable cities, societies, and regions. The results from new and stronger business networks and cluster environments created through cooperation projects, strategies, synergies, and transactions are already reshaping the socioeconomic panorama.

Since the publication of Lotfi A. Zadeh’s seminal paper “Fuzzy Sets” in 1965 within the journal Information and Control, there has been constant growth in the theoretical developments and practical applications of fuzzy set theory and related mathematical tools. These tools have been applied widely, both by industry and academic research, to decision-making and economics due to their versatility. On the one hand, they can efficiently represent and handle uncertain and vague information such as subjective judgements, non-precise observations on variables, or ill-defined relations between variables. On the other hand, they make implementing computations or identifying patterns in data much easier. To do so, fuzzy set theory provides a lot of mathematical techniques in fields such as fuzzy data analysis, fuzzy multiple criteria decision making, fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis or fuzzy expert systems. Business management, decision-making, or the evaluation of public policies a