A gel is a state of matter that consists of a three-dimensional cross-linked polymer network and a large amount of solvent. Because of their structural characteristics, gels play important roles in science and technology. The science of gels has attracted much attention since the discovery of the volume phase transition by Professor Toyoichi Tanala at MIT in 1978. MDPI planned to publish a Special Issue in Gels to celebrate the 40th anniversary of this discovery, which received submissions of 13 original papers and one review from various areas of science. We believe that readers will find this Special Issue informative as to the recent advancements of gel research and the broad background of gel science.

The book retraces the history of the Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (AIMETA) since its establishment in 1965. AIMETA is the official Italian association of mechanics adhering to IUTAM (International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics), which organizes and coordinates a meaningful number of research activities, the most important of which are the biennial National Congress and the internationally renowned journal “Meccanica”, published by Springer. Besides collecting and organizing all related important data and information, as far as possible, by distinguishing among the five scientific areas – general mechanics, solids, structures, fluids, machines – encompassed by AIMETA, the history of the association is assumed as a proper perspective to overview the evolution of theoretical and applied mechanics in Italy over about the last fifty years. This is accomplished in the first part of the book. with also a specific focus on the mechanics of solids and structures, where the biographies of a meaningful number of recognized Italian scholars of mechanics in all areas are also provided, along with testimonials and memories by a few senior people meaningfully involved with AIMETA and Italian mechanics. The second part gives an account, although unavoidably incomplete, of recent developments of mechanical sciences in Italy, as reflected also in the activities of AIMETA and with reference to the international context. Contributions by a number of invited senior scholars, still very active, consist of overviews on some scientific themes in the various areas, summaries of achievements of research groups, expressions of research viewpoints, prospects for future developments.

This book presents resent research advances in the area of eco-triobology. In the last years, eco-tribology or environmentally friendly tribology has gained increasing importance in sustainable engineering. Environmentally acceptable tribological practices save resources by optimizing product usage and reducing energy. This book covers current developments in all areas covered by the term eco-tribology, including biomimetics surfaces, control of friction and wear, environmental aspects of lubrication and surface modification techniques as well as tribological aspects of green applications, such wind-power turbines or solar panels.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Cellular Automata for Research and Industry, ACRI 2008, held in Yokohama, Japan, in September 2008. The 43 revised full papers and 22 revised poster papers presented together with 4 invited lectures were carefully reviewed and selected from 78 submissions. The papers focus on challenging problems and new research not only in theoretical but application aspects of cellular automata, including cellular automata tools and computational sciences. The volume also contains 11 extended abstracts dealing with crowds and cellular automata, which were presented during the workshop C&CA 2008. The papers are organized in topical sections on CA theory and implementation, computational theory, physical modeling, urban, environmental and social modeling, pedestrian and traffic flow modeling, crypto and security, system biology, CA-based hardware, as well as crowds and cellular automata.