It has become clear in recent years from such major forums as the various international conferences on flexible manufacruring systems (FMSs) that the computer-controlled and -integrated "factory of the furure" is now being considered as a commercially viable and technically achievable goal. To date, most attention has been given to the design, development, and evalu ation of flexible machining systems. Now, with the essential support of increasing numbers of industrial examples, the general concepts, technical requirements, and cost-effectiveness of responsive, computer-integrated, flexible machining systems are fast becoming established knowledge. There is, of course, much still to be done in the development of modular com puter hardware and software, and the scope for cost-effective developments in pro gramming systems, workpiece handling, and quality control will ensure that contin uing development will occur over the next decade. However, international attention is now increasingly rurning toward the flexible computer control of the assembly process as the next logical step in progressive factory automation. It is here at this very early stage that Tony Owen has bravely set out to encompass the future field of flexible assembly systems (FASs) in his own distinctive, wide-ranging style.

This Special Issue compiles 11 scientific works that were presented during the International Symposium on Thermal Effects in Gas Flow in Microscale, ISTEGIM 2019, held in Ettlingen, Germany, in October 2019. This symposium was organized in the framework of the MIGRATE Network, an H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Training Network that ran from November 2015 to October 2019 (www.migrate2015.eu). MIGRATE intends to address some of the current challenges in innovation that face the European industry with regard to heat and mass transfer in gas-based microscale processes. The papers collected in this book focus on fundamental issues that are encountered in microfluidic systems involving gases, such as the analysis of gas–surface interactions under rarefied conditions, the development of innovative integrated microsensors for airborne pollutants, new experimental techniques for the measurement of local quantities in miniaturized devices and heat transfer issues inside microchannels. The variety of topics addressed in this book emphasizes that multi-disciplinarity is the real common thread of the current applied research in microfluidics. We hope that this book will help to stimulate early-stage researchers who are working in microfluidics all around the world. This book is dedicated to them!

The High Energy Accelerator Conference has always been the monitor of the state of the art and the new trends in planning, construction and operation of large particle accelerators. It is held every three years. The 1992 conference is devoted to High Energy Hadron Accelerators and Colliders, Linear Colliders, e⁺e⁻ Storage Rings and related Technologies for these machines. In addition to status reports and contributed papers, the program features twelve survey talks which include summaries of individual poster papers.