Control system engineering is a multidisciplinary discipline that applies automatic control theory to design systems with desired behaviors in control environments. Automatic control theory has played a vital role in the advancement of engineering and science. It has become an essential and integral part of modern industrial and manufacturing processes. Today, the requirements for control precision have increased, and real systems have become more complex. In control engineering and all other engineering disciplines, the impact of advanced mathematical and computational methods is rapidly increasing. Advanced mathematical methods are needed because real-world control systems need to comply with several conditions related to product quality and safety constraints that have to be taken into account in the problem formulation. Conversely, the increment in mathematical complexity has an impact on the computational aspects related to numerical simulation and practical implementation of the algorithms, where a balance must also be maintained between implementation costs and the performance of the control system. This book is a comprehensive set of articles reflecting recent advances in developing and applying advanced mathematics and computational applications in control system engineering.

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This reprint focuses on the recent advances in fluid power technology reporting results in a wide range of applications. Studies concerning the developments of pumps both at constant and variable displacement are reported. Analyses are focused on the improvement of efficiency, control, design and pressure ripple reduction. About fluid power, several applications are investigated with the aim of reducing energy losses, in particular implementations in an excavator, a hybrid transmission and a system for agricultural solutions are described. Applications are studied focusing also on the effects of a particular load holding valve, and facing the relevant aspects of the condition monitoring, failure modes and effects analysis. The fluid power covers a very wide range of application as demonstrated by the paper concerning an exoskeleton device. Finally, a particular application concerning a gas pressure regulator with lower noise emission is reported.

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This reprint aims to address the challenges modern-day buildings face in the context of high energy and resource consumption and climate change. One of the ways to address the issues is holistic design and operation of high-performance buildings in the area of energy efficiency, occupant health, and comfort. All this should be achieved through synergic interconnectedness between parameters such as the indoor–outdoor environment, sustainability, and resilience. Through different chapters, this reprint highlights the key areas, namely, the optimization of building design parameters, the impact of the use of modern-day phase-change materials, the adaptation of occupants and buildings to climate change, the mitigation of urban overheating by cool roofs, and reducing energy demand and CO2 emissions.

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This reprint, as a continuation of a previous Special Issue entitled “Efficiency and Optimization of Buildings Energy Consumption”, gives an up-to-date overview of new technologies based on Machine Learning (ML) and Internet of Things (IoT) procedures to improve the mathematical approach of algorithms that allow control systems to be improved with the aim of reducing housing sector energy consumption.

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The principle of sustainability should be strictly connected with safety, since both aim to conserve resources: in the case of sustainability, the resources are typically thought of as environmental, while in the case of safety, the resources are basically human. In spite of this common ground, discussions on sustainability usually give insufficient attention to safety. In the last years the EU has made large investments to increase the energy efficiency of the existing building stock, paving the way for a low-carbon future; however, less effort has been made to enhance its seismic resilience. Therefore, the safety and, consequently, the sustainability of towns situated in earthquake-prone countries remain inadequate. In such countries, energy renovation actions should be combined with seismic retrofitting. However, a number of barriers considerably limit the real possibility of extensively undertaking combined retrofit actions, especially for multi-owner housing and high-rise buildings. These barriers are of different kinds: technical (e.g., unfeasibility and/or ineffectiveness of conventional retrofit solutions), financial (e.g., high renovation costs, insufficient incentives/subsidies), organizational (e.g., occupants’ disruption and relocation, renovation consensus by condominium ownerships), and cultural/social (insufficient information and skills, lack of adequate policy measures for promoting renovation actions). This book aims to overcome these barriers and to bridge the gap between sustainability and safety, so to conserve both human and environmental resources.

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Future buildings require not only energy efficiency but also proper building automation and control system functionalities in order to respond to the needs of occupants and energy grids. These development paths require a focus on occupant needs such as good indoor climate, easy operability, and monitoring. Another area to be tackled is energy flexibility, which is needed to make buildings responsive to the price signals of electricity grids with increasing amounts of fluctuating renewable energy generation installed both in central grids and at building sites. This Special Issue is dedicated to HVAC systems, load shifting, indoor climate, and energy and ventilation performance analyses in buildings. All these topics are important for improving the energy performance of new and renovated buildings within the roadmap of low energy and nearly zero energy buildings. To improve energy performance and, at the same time, occupant comfort and wellbeing, new technical solutions are required. Occupancy patterns and recognition, intelligent building management, demand response and performance of heating, cooling and ventilation systems are some common keywords in the articles of this Special Issue contributing to future highly performing buildings with reliable operation.

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This book looks at the increasing demand for energy of contemporary societies and economies from around the world. Energy is the driving force behind development. As such, the future challenge will be not only to meet the rising demand but also to implement less reliance on depleting fossil fuels, which cause damage to the environment. Moreover, the sustainability of supplied energy requires a reduction of emissions to control the absorption capacity vis-à-vis the environment. Globally, policymakers have largely recognized the significance of the relationship between energy and economic progress. Policymakers usually consider the social and economic aspects of energy security in terms of affordability and accessibility of service. The conditions of socioeconomic development depend on safe, secure, and sustainable energy at affordable prices. One of the prime concerns of policymakers should be to ensure energy security at the national level. These factors result in an increasing interest in undertaking activities in developing renewable resources. Energy efficiency is treated as the most cost-effective way to reduce energy demand while maintaining stable economic activity. Increasing energy efficiency is an important contributive aspect to solving issues in relation to climate change, energy security, and energy competitiveness. As a result, no country can afford to waste energy—giving rise to this Special Issue of “Energy Security as a Key Driving Factor for Socioeconomic Development: From Mitigation to Solution” in the journal Energies.

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The Building sector requires a conspicuous considerable amount of energy for services related to annual air-conditioning and the thermal comfort of indoor spaces. The design of highly efficient low-energy buildings is often a challenging task, especially in the mediterranean area, where the balanced requirement for heating and cooling energy does not usually permit a high level of envelope insulation in order to avoid summer overheating. This topical Special Issue of Energies is dedicated to “High Efficient Buildings in Mediterranean Area: Challenges and Perspectives” and collects studies related to the assessment and evaluation of systems and technologies for building energy management and control in the Mediterranean climate, with the aim of optimizing the building–plant system and reducing energy use. This collection of papers presents the latest research results related to the topic; these articles offer valuable insights into the energy simulation of highly efficient buildings, propose innovative envelope solutions, such as green roofs, Trombe walls, and PCM, and investigate the use of renewable sources such as photovoltaic systems. The topics also include the innovative use and control of Venetian blinds and fixed solar shades in order to reduce energy consumption and preserve visual comfort, as well as an interesting economic analysis based on the cost-optimal approach.

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Growing environmental concerns caused by increasing consumption of naturalresources and pollution need to be addressed. Manufacturing dictates the efficiencywith which resource inputs are transformed into economically valuableoutputs in the form of products and services. Consequently, it is also responsiblefor the resulting waste and pollution generated from this transformation process.As a matter of fact, about one-third of the global total energy consumption isassociated withmanufacturing activities; thus, achieving higher energy efficiencyin this sector has been the focus of research as well as of policy and industrialprogrammes in recent years. In particular, being able to effectively manageenergy and energy-related activities has proved to be a fundamental capabilityfor companies willing to improve their sustainability, as it constitutes the first,critical step to understanding their processes and to identifying and correctlyevaluating improvement opportunities.This Special Issue focuses on energy management and sustainability of bothmanufacturing processes and systems, including methods, practices, tools, applicationsand experiences.

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This book focuses on aspects related to new perspectives and challenges in traffic and transportation engineering supporting energy saving in smart cities. Transportation, like other spheres of human activity, is constantly changing due to economic development. People are constantly improving the ways of moving using various energy sources, expanding infrastructures, and adapting cities to increasing traffic volumes. Many of the contents presented in this book are characterized by a multidisciplinary approach to a global problem. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: road traffic measurements; data analysis; road traffic (micro-, meso-, macro-) modeling; simulation models; road and intersection capacity; optimization, route choice; human factor in road traffic and transportation engineering; road safety; pedestrian and bicycle traffic and infrastructure; public transportation solutions; parking issues; contemporary problems of road traffic engineering and sustainable transportation; intelligent transportation systems (ITS); traffic control and management; smart grid services; electric mobility; environmental impacts of transportation systems; life cycle analysis (LCA) of alternative energy vectors for road vehicles; transportation systems and process modeling; sustainable transportation development; life cycle impact; fuel consumption; and emissions.

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The following research articles provides insights into advanced fruit preservation and quality enhancement techniques. Mango Quality Enhancement: Studies show that treatments incorporating 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) and melatonin significantly improve mango appearance, sugar content, and antioxidant activities, highlighting their potential to extend shelf life. Modified Atmosphere Packaging for Fresh-Cut Melons: Research demonstrates the effectiveness of passive modified atmospheres in extending the freshness of fresh-cut melons, especially non-climacteric types, by adjusting packaging perforation levels. Natural Coatings on Blueberries and Grapefruit: Investigations into various coatings reveal inconsistent effects on weight loss in blueberries. Additionally, studies on thymol vapors indicate a natural method for controlling post-harvest diseases in grapefruit, enhancing fruit longevity. Optimal Storage Conditions and Fungal Infection Management: Comprehensive reviews suggest optimal storage temperatures for different apple and pear cultivars and detail how Penicillium expansum affects apple quality, offering strategies for decay management. Quality Testing and Soil Treatments: Advances in hyperspectral imaging for non-destructive quality testing in citrus and the impact of anaerobic soil disinfestation on winter melon juice quality are explored, showing how agricultural practices influence fruit characteristics. Loquat Fruit Post-Harvest Handling: A review of loquat fruit post-harvest technology discusses storage methods to mitigate deterioration and preserve quality.

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This book collects research activities focused on the development of new processes to replace obsolete practices that are often highly invasive, unsustainable, and socially unacceptable.Taking inspiration from real problems and the need to face real cases of contamination or prevent potentially harmful situations, the development and optimization of ‘smart’ solutions, i.e., sustainable not only from an environmental point of view but also economically, are discussed in order to encourage, as much as possible, their actual implementation.

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This Special Issue includes 20 contributions from across the world with very interesting and current research topics, such as insulation solutions and CO2 emissions; thermal transmittance of LSF walls; statistics for China’s building energy consumption; natural ventilation; thermal behavior of an earthbag building; thermal performance and comfort in a vernacular building; overheating risk under future extreme weather conditions; analytical methods to estimate the thermal transmittance of LSF walls; model simplification on energy and comfort simulation analysis; Trombe wall thermal behavior and energy efficiency of an LSF compartment; new metering hot box for in situ hygrothermal measurement; mechanical and thermal performance of compressed earth blocks; life-cycle assessment of a new house; energy analyses of Serbian buildings with horizontal overhangs; thermal properties of mortar blocks by using recycled glass; prediction of cooling energy consumption building using machine learning techniques; occupants’ behavior, climate change, heating, and cooling energy needs of buildings; a new method for establishing a hygrothermally controlled test room; nonintrusive measurements to incorporate the air renovations in dynamic models; and retrofit of existing buildings with aerogel panels.

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The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.tandfebooks.com/doi/view/10.4324/9781351127264, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Meeting the goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement and limiting global temperature increases to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels demands rapid reductions in global carbon dioxide emissions. Reducing energy demand has a central role in achieving this goal, but existing policy initiatives have been largely incremental in terms of the technological and behavioural changes they encourage. Against this background, this book develops a sociotechnical approach to the challenge of reducing energy demand and illustrates this with a number of empirical case studies from the United Kingdom. In doing so, it explores the emergence, diffusion and impact of low-energy innovations, including electric vehicles and smart meters. The book has the dual aim of improving the academic understanding of sociotechnical transitions and energy demand and providing practical recommendations for public policy. Combining an impressive range of contributions from key thinkers in the field, this book will be of great interest to energy students, scholars and decision-makers.

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The combination of global warming and urban sprawl is the origin of the most hazardous climate change effect detected at urban level: Urban Heat Island, representing the urban overheating respect to the countryside surrounding the city. This book includes 18 papers representing the state of the art of detection, assessment mitigation and adaption to urban overheating. Advanced methods, strategies and technologies are here analyzed including relevant issues as: the role of urban materials and fabrics on urban climate and their potential mitigation, the impact of greenery and vegetation to reduce urban temperatures and improve the thermal comfort, the role the urban geometry in the air temperature rise, the use of satellite and ground data to assess and quantify the urban overheating and develop mitigation solutions, calculation methods and application to predict and assess mitigation scenarios. The outcomes of the book are thus relevant for a wide multidisciplinary audience, including: environmental scientists and engineers, architect and urban planners, policy makers and students.

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