Announcements

Conference: The 25th International Conference on Digital Audio Effects
Website: https://dafx2020.mdw.ac.at/
Date: 6-10 September 2022
Place: Vienna, Austria

In 2020, we organized the first virtual DAFx: the eDAFx2020. Due to the persisting travel restrictions and uncertainties in the organization of large events, in 2021, we hosted another virtual edition of DAFx: the DAFx20in21.

Although we do not believe that any virtual experience could replace in-person DAFx's, both online editions of DAFx20's Vienna were a great success and reached a broader audience than usual.

A Special Issue to appear on Applied Sciences (ISSN: 2076-3417) is planned for 2023, which will feature extended versions of the best DAFx20in22 papers and beyond.

We thank all our generous sponsors for supporting us, the authors for submitting excellent scientific work, the army of hundreds of reviewers for helping us select and improve the papers, as well as the keynote and tutorial speakers for their patience over the years.

Contributions are invited within the following general areas:

• capture and analysis;
• representation, transformation, and modeling;
• transmission and resynthesis;
• effects and manipulation;
• perception, psychoacoustics, and evaluation;
• spatial sound analysis, coding, and synthesis;
• source separation;
• physical modeling, virtual acoustic, and analog models;
• sound synthesis, composition, and sonification;
• hardware and software design;
• music information retrieval and intelligent audio engineering.

Details on the Call for Papers, the review process, and more topics can be found on the DAFx20’s Vienna Website https://dafx2020.mdw.ac.at (Authors Section), with a submission deadline of 1 April 2022.

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new initiative—the Special Issue Mentor Program.

This program intends to provide an opportunity for early career scientists to enhance their editing, networking, and organizational skills and to work closely with our journal to gain more editorial experience. Early career scientists who have novel ideas for new Special Issues of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417) will act as Guest Editors under the mentorship of an experienced scientist; this mentor could be a member of the Applied Sciences Editorial Board or may be from other well-established research institutes or laboratories.

Early career scientist’s responsibilities:

• Providing a CV that includes a list of publications;
• Proposing a Special Issue title and preparing a short introduction;
• Writing a brief promotion plan for the Special Issue;
• Writing an editorial for the online Special Issue;
• Reviewing and making decisions for submissions under the mentorship of our Editorial Board Members.

Mentor’s responsibilities:

• Conducting a final check before the Special Issue is published online;
• Co-editing Special Issues with younger scholars and performing quality control for the publications in the SI;
• Providing suggestions to younger scholars if they have doubts or concerns regarding submissions;
• Organizing video calls with young scholars and the office regularly to discuss problems and improvement suggestions for the Special Issue.

Certificates and awards:

When the Special Issue is closed, the Editorial Office will provide official certificates for all of the mentors. The young scholars involved in the program will be prioritized as future candidates for the Applied Sciences 2022 Early Career Investigator Award (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/awards).

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send your Special Issue proposal to the Applied Sciences Editorial Office (applsci@mdpi.com) or complete and submit the form at the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journalproposal/sendproposalspecialissue/applsci. We will discuss the process (i.e., mentor collaboration, Special Issue topic feasibility analysis, etc.) in further detail after receiving your application.

In addition to the new Special Issue Mentor Program, Applied Sciences will continue to welcome all Special Issue proposals based on hot research topics as usual.

Applied Sciences Editorial Office

The goal of the “Editor’s Choice Articles” project is to promote high-quality articles published in Applied Sciences (ISSN: 2076-3417). Please find below the list of articles carefully handpicked by the scientific editors of the journal, which we believe will be of interest to you.

We would like to thank all of the research groups that authored these exceptional papers for their contribution. We sincerely hope you find these articles of Applied Sciences as useful and insightful as we have found them.

Conference: The 30th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation (MED 2022)

Date: 28 June–1 July 2022

Venue: Divani Apollon Palace & Thalasso, Athens, Greece

Machines (ISSN: 2075-1702) will be attending the 30th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation (MED 2022) as an exhibitor and will be sponsoring a Best Paper Award. This meeting will take place from 28 June to 1 July 2022, at the Divani Apollon Palace & Thalasso seaside resort in Vougliameni, Greece.

MED 2022 is co-sponsored by the IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS), the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS), and the ICUAS Association, Inc.

The theme of MED 2022 centers on control and automation challenges and opportunities in the 21^st century and focuses on system design for autonomy and resilience in high-confidence cyber physical systems. The international conference committee is soliciting technical papers as well as inviting sessions, workshops, and tutorial proposals.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Machines;
• Systems;
• Robotics;
• Automation;
• Smart Cities;
• Applied sciences;
• Applied System Innovation (ASI);
• AI;
• Standards;
• Technologies;
• Big Data and Cognitive Computing (BDCC);
• Modelling.

If you are planning to attend this conference, please do not hesitate to start an online conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions you may have. For more information about the conference and virtual booth, please visit the following website: https://www.med-control.org/med2022/.

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Applied Sciences 2020 Best Paper Awards in Environmental and Sustainable Science and Technology, sponsored by MDPI and Applied Sciences (ISSN: 2076-3417). Each winner (corresponding author) will receive CHF 400 and a certificate.

The awards have been granted to:

One Article:

“Chromium(III) Removal from Wastewater by Chitosan Flakes”
by Loris Pietrelli et al.
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(6), 1925; doi:10.3390/app10061925

One Review:

“Unravelling the Environmental Application of Biochar as Low-Cost Biosorbent: A Review”
by Antía Fdez-Sanromán et al.
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(21), 7810; doi:10.3390/app10217810

The selection process was incredibly difficult due to the high number of exceptional candidates. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the nominated research groups of the above exceptional papers for their contributions to Applied Sciences.

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Applied Sciences 2020 Best Paper Awards in Applied Biosciences and Bioengineering, sponsored by MDPI and Applied Sciences (ISSN: 2076-3417). Each winner (corresponding author) will receive CHF 400 and a certificate.

The awards have been granted to the following papers:

One Article:

“Observation of Potential Contaminants in Processed Biomass Using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy”
by Jingshun Zhuang et al.
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(12), 4345; doi:10.3390/app10124345

One Review:

“Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis 2020: Where We Stand”
by Angelo Iacobino et al.
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(6), 2153; doi:10.3390/app10062153

The selection process was incredibly difficult due to the high number of exceptional candidates. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the nominated research groups of the above exceptional papers for their contributions to Applied Sciences.

For more information about the Applied Sciences awards, please see the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/awards.

Date: 28 January 2022
Time: 14:00–15:50 (GMT+9)
Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XL5vSJg2Qze5yItyZXOsog
Participation fee: None
Language: Japanese

The WHO (World Health Organization) has warned that air pollution causes seven million premature deaths every year. PM_2.5, fine inhalable particles measuring 2.5 micrometers and smaller in the atmosphere can contain a variety of toxic chemicals, including carcinogens. In addition, the annual arrival of Yellow Sand has been linked to chronic coughs and congestion, making air pollution a serious public health issue. Three researchers based in Japan who are investigating atmospheric pollution, Yellow Sand, PM_2.5, toxic chemicals, and chronic coughs will present their latest work at this webinar and lead discussions that go beyond the scope of conventional academia.

Chairperson:

• Dr. Kazuichi Hayakawa, Professor Emeritus
  Institute of Nature and Environmental Technology, Kanazawa University
  Title of lecture: Combustion-Derived Organic Pollutants in the Atmosphere

Guest speakers:

• Dr. Akinori Takami, Director
  National Institute for Environmental Studies, Regional Environment Conservation Division
  Title of lecture: Long-Term Trends for Trans-boundary Air Pollutions in Western Japan

• Dr. Hiroyuki Nakamura, Professor
  Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Graduate School of Medicine, Kanazawa University
  Title of lecture: The Effects of Atmospheric Chemicals on Chronic Cough

Prof. Dr. Kazuichi Hayakawa and Prof. Dr. Hiroyuki Nakamura are guest-editing the Special Issue "PM_2.5 and PM₁₀: Atmospheric Behaviors and Correlation with Health Effects" (deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2022).

For any questions about the webinar, please contact MDPI Japan.

It is our great honor to congratulate the Editorial Board Members and Editors in MDPI's journals who have been distinguished as 2021 Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate, according to Web of Science data. We herewith express our gratitude for the immense impact the named researchers continue to make on scientific progress and on our journals' development.

Clarivate's annual list of Highly Cited Researchers^TM identifies the most highly cited scientists for the past decade. Their impactful papers are among the top 1 per cent in the citation distribution of one or more of 22 fields analyzed in the "Essential Science Indicators", distinguishing them as hugely influential among their peers.

The full list of 2021 Highly Cited Researchers  can be accessed at the following webpage in the Web of Science^TM https://recognition.webofscience.com/awards/highly-cited/2021/.

--- Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) is a Clarivate product.

Academic editors play a crucial role in leading our journals and ensuring that each article undergoes a robust and timely peer-review. With the launch of Topics this year and addition of Topic Editors to our family of academic editors, we decided it would be a good time to restructure our academic boards, thus providing more clarity and support for each role. MDPI is pleased to announce the launch of a new position—Topical Advisory Panel Member, that will replace the previous position of Topics Board Member. The Topical Advisory Panel will be comprised of early career researchers eager to gain experience in editorial work.

The main responsibility of the new members of the Topical Advisory Panel is to regularly provide support to Guest Editors, Topic Editors, and Section Board Members. The responsibilities of the Topical Advisory Panel are available here: https://www.mdpi.com/editors.

Each year, the members’ performances are evaluated, and outstanding members are promoted to the Editorial Board by the Editor-in-Chief.

To qualify as a Topical Advisory Panel Member, applicants must:

• Have expertise and experience in the field related to the journal;
• Have received a Ph.D. in the last 10 years, approximately;
• Have at least 6-8 published papers in the last 5 years as first author or corresponding author;
• Currently hold an independent research position in academia or a government institute.

If you are interested in this role, please contact the editorial office by email.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Founded in 1996, MDPI was one of the first fully Open Access publisher. Over 25 years MDPI has grown to become the largest Open Access publisher globally, publishing over 160,000 articles across more than 350 journals in 2020. At the core, MDPI was founded in response to a pressing need of fast publication and inclusion. The scholar was set at the centre of the publication process for the first time. Acting as a service provider, rather than a product provider, MDPI exists to help scientists achive their objective to disseminate research results. At MDPI, we believe scientists deserve a better service from the publishing world.

The International Open Access Week (Open Access Week), founded by the SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) Alliance and student partners in 2008, has been successfully running for 13 years. As an advocate and pioneer of open access publishing, MDPI actively responds to the call of International Open Access Week. This year’s theme of “It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity” highlights the Recommendation’s call for equitable participation from all authors and readers.

For the last 25 years, MDPI has been committed to disseminating open research. Here is a video showing MDPI’s Commitment to Equity, Inclusion and Diversity for More than 25 Years.

International Open Access Week is an important opportunity to catalyze new conversations, create connections across and between communities that can facilitate this co-design, and advance progress in the building of more equitable foundations for opening knowledge—discussions and actions that need to be continued, year in and year out. MDPI has always aimed to provide professional and efficient publishing services to scholars around the world.

Our mission is to make scientific research accessible to everyone; this year, we interview and hold discussions with open science ambassadors on how to build an equal and inclusive environment for open science. Academic editors help us collaborate with more institutions to advocate for open access ideas.

Read our anniversary blog post: "Sharing 'Collective Human Knowledge': The Benefits of Open Access Publication"

Besides this, our scientific community is a key driver of our success and MDPI’s remarkable growth. Despite the pandemic, we have prepared online conferences and workshops to gather scholars from different communities.

The Basel Sustainable Publishing online forum provides an equal opportunity for stakeholders and researchers from multi-cultural environments to exchange ideas and eliminate barriers to participation.

Conference date: 25 October 2021, online
Conference website: https://bspf2021.sciforum.net/
Main topics: MDPI discusses the current dilemma of open access science from various perspectives such as governments, libraries, and publishers, and related measures on how to change the status quo of discrimination from a global perspective.

We aim to support equality, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in scholarly communications. We collaborate with universities and key laboratories and have scholarly communications with researchers, teachers, and students on open access workshops.

• 25 October 2021
  Energies journal and Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

• 28 October 2021
  Machines journal and State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University

• 29 October 2021
  Processes journal and Beijing Institute of Technology

• 29 October 2021
  Coatings journal and Wuhan University of Technology

MDPI is committed to providing open access and high-quality publishing services for scholars and promoting rapid dissemination of academic achievements. We hope to promote the practices and policies of open access publishing and diversify the dissemination of academic achievements.