Announcements

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Viorel-Puiu Paun has been appointed Associate Editor of Fractal and Fractional (ISSN: 2504-3110). His term began in August 2022.

Prof. Dr. Viorel-Puiu Paun is a full-time university professor of physics at the “Politehnica” University of Bucharest, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Physics Department, and corresponding member of the Academy of Romanian Scientists.

His background (education and training) comprises:

• Postgraduate Diploma in Biomedical Engineering, EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland (1997);
• Diplôme Approfondi de Langue Française (1996);
• Doctor of Sciences (Ph.D. in Physics) from the Atomic Physics Institute of Bucharest (1992);
• Faculty of Mathematics, University of Bucharest (1985 – 1990);
• Master’s Degree in Solid-State Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest (1979);
• Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest (1974 – 1978).

Areas of Scientific Interest:
His main areas of scientific interest include nonlinear dynamics and chaos theory, and their applications in different physico-chemical systems such as nanostructures, polymers and composites. Moreover, he is also interested in biological systems and the human organs, such as the brain, lungs and liver. More precisely, he is an expert in biophysical modelling and fractal interpretation of common diagnostic medical imaging tests (X-rays, CT scan, MRI, etc.). Furthermore, he is preoccupied with learning about and using new composite materials, which he has successfully used in oral rehabilitation. He is interested in their physico-chemical properties, compatibility with human tissue and their validity over time in operations. He has extensive research experience in all the abovementioned fields, including in time series methods, fractal analyses, image processing and diffusion processes. Prof. Dr. Viorel-Puiu Paun has published more than 150 papers in national and international journals, 111 ISI journal papers, 50 communications in national and international meetings (more than 30 on invitation), 536 citations without self-citations, and 20 books, chapters in books and monographs. His Hirsch factor value is currently 20.

Visiting professor at nine prestigious European universities
He was a guest/visiting professor at nine prestigious universities in Europe, including the University of Cambridge, UK (2015), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland (1996-1997, 2014), University of Florence, Italy (2011), ENSICA Toulouse, France (2007), School of Physical Sciences, Kent University, Canterbury, UK (2004, 2006), Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France (2005), University of Padova (INFN), Italy (2001), etc.

Editor and Vice-Editor-in-Chief of ISI journals
Prof. Dr. Viorel-Puiu Paun has been active for decades in the management of international scientific journals. Here, his current involvement in ISI journals is listed:

1. Materiale Plastice, Vice-Editor-in-Chief (until May 2018);
2. Control Engineering and Applied Informatics, CEAI, Executive Editor;
3. Romanian Journal of Oral Rehabilitation, Vice-Editor-in-Chief;
4. Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark, Editor Board Member;
5. Fractal and Fractional, Associate Editor.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Viorel-Puiu Paun, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views regarding the research area and open access publishing:

1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take on the role as its Associate Editor?

2. What is your vision for the journal?

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?

4. What do you think of the development of open access in the publishing field?

The editorial team warmly welcomes Prof. Dr. Viorel-Puiu Paun as an Associate Editor, and looks forward to his contribution to the continued success of Fractal and Fractional.

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Sergei Fedotov has been appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of the Section “Life Science, Biophysics” in Fractal and Fractional (ISSN: 2504-3110).

Name: Prof. Dr. Sergei Fedotov Affiliation: Department of Mathematics, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK Interests: random walks; fractional PDEs; anomalous reaction-transport systems; non-Markovian random processes and their application in physics and biology; intracellular transport. Homepage: https://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/sergei.fedotov/

Prof. Dr. Sergei Fedotov obtained his Ph.D. (1986) from Ural Federal University. Fedotov held research positions in London (1990), Aachen (1993–1995), Wuppertal (1997), and Berlin (1998) before joining the Department of Mathematics, UMIST, in Manchester as a Lecturer in 1998. Since 2005, he is a professor of applied mathematics at the Department of Mathematics, University of Manchester, UK. He held visiting professor positions at Stanford University (USA), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain), University Lyon 1 (France), and the University of New South Wales, Sydney (Australia).

Prof. Dr. Fedotov’s research focuses on random walk theory and reaction-transport systems. He has successfully applied anomalous random walk ideas to a broad range of analytical studies related to non-Markovian transport phenomena in physics, chemistry, and biology.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Sergei Fedotov, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views of the research area and open access publishing:

1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take on the role as the Editor-in-Chief of the “Life Science, Biophysics” section?
I believe that the “Life Science, Biophysics” Section has great potential to promote cross-disciplinary studies involving fractals and fractional calculus and their applications in biology. I think that this new Section may have a direct impact on a range of disciplines in biophysics and life sciences by bringing new ideas from fractional analyses. At the same time, applied mathematicians, computer scientists, and physicists dealing with fractional problems will benefit from insights provided by biological data seen in the context of fractional calculus. The most important factor was that Fractal and Fractional has a history of publishing excellent mathematical papers, in which I have experience, in addition to touching upon applications of such work. In my experience, the "Life Science, Biophysics" Section is needed to further promote such papers in high-impact fields like biology and biophysics, so that these works can lead to real impacts in broader science and engineering.

2. What is your vision for the journal?
My vision for the journal is that this new Section will become a forum for cutting-edge and interdisciplinary research that bridges the fractal and fractional analysis community with biophysicists and biologists. Of course, the new Section will continue to focus on key research problems in fractional analysis while attracting new people from biology by expanding the scope of applications in life sciences. Given the history of the journal's publications, it is apt that the journal begins to look at new applications, particularly in the life sciences, so that papers focusing on fractal and fractional calculus can be applied to high-impact fields like biophysics and biology.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?
I expect a plethora of truly interdisciplinary works of all kinds at the interface of quantitative biology, physics, and mathematics involving fractals and fractional analysis. Due to the vast amount of published works in the fractal and fractional calculus field, it is time for applications of such results to be made in the life sciences. There is an overall positive atmosphere surrounding biological and biophysical applications for fractal and fractional calculus in our community and I am sure that there are many undiscovered applications to be found.

4. What do you think of the development of open access in the publishing field?
I think that the open access model stimulates the editorial body to make an effort in achieving competitive publishing times and ensuring wide promotion and the effective dissemination of published papers to a broader audience. Furthermore, it promotes equality and diversity in the publishing field and improves the robustness and fidelity of published results. Overall, I believe open access to be currently beneficial to all academics and for it to become increasingly beneficial as the number of peer-reviewed publications increases exponentially in the future.

The editorial team warmly welcomes Prof. Dr. Sergei Fedotov as the Section Editor-in-Chief of the “Life Science, Biophysics” Section and looks forward to his contribution to the continued success of Fractal and Fractional.

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Ivanka Stamova has been appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of the Section “General Mathematics, Analysis” in Fractal and Fractional (ISSN: 2504-3110).

Name: Dr. Ivanka Stamova
Email: Ivanka.Stamova@utsa.edu
Affiliation: Department of Mathematics, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA
Interests: nonlinear analysis; mathematical modeling; fractional order systems
Homepage: https://math.utsa.edu/directory/ivanka-stamova/

Dr. Ivanka Stamova received her Ph.D. degree in Mathematics from the Higher Accreditation Commission of Bulgaria in 1996. In 2010 she was awarded a D.Sc. degree in Mathematical Modeling and Applied Mathematics from the Higher Accreditation Commission of Bulgaria in recognition of a substantial and sustained contribution to scientific knowledge beyond that required for a Ph.D. degree. Dr. Stamova has many years of teaching experience at the university level, including at the Technical University of Sofia (Bulgaria) and Burgas Free University (Bulgaria). Due to her reputation in both teaching and research, Dr. Stamova has been invited to give many serial lectures to graduate students and junior researchers in different universities internationally, including the Technical University at Kemnitz (Germany); Virjie University of Amsterdam (Netherlands); ETH in Zurich (Switzerland); Marmara University (Turkey); and ISAS Trieste (Italy). She also served as a Dean of Research in the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Sciences at the Burgas Free University (2003-2008). Dr. Ivanka Stamova is currently affiliated with the Department of Mathematics, University of Texas of San Antonio, Texas, USA. She is the author of numerous books and articles on nonlinear analysis, stability, and control of nonlinear systems, including the books Stability Analysis of Impulsive Functional Differential Equations (Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 2009); Applied Impulsive Mathematical Models (Springer, Berlin, 2016); and Functional and Impulsive Differential Equations of Fractional Order: Qualitative Analysis and Applications (CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2017). Her current research interests include the qualitative analysis of nonlinear dynamical systems, nonlinear observer design, and impulsive control and applications. Dr. Stamova is a member of the editorial boards of several internationally recognized journals in Pure and Applied Mathematics and an invited speaker at numerous research conferences and seminars. She is also a member of the American Mathematical Society, Association for Woman in Mathematics, and International Society of Difference Equations.

The following is a short Q&A with Dr. Ivanka Stamova, who shared her vision for the journal with us as well as her views on the research area:

1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take on the role as its Editor-in-Chief?
   I joined the Editorial Board of Fractal and Fractional in 2019. Since then, I have actively contributed to the journal’s development, including the organization of Special Issues and attracting research articles that highlight the scientific achievements in the field of “Fractal and Fractional”. I consider the Section Editor-in-Chief position an excellent opportunity to apply my research and organizing experiences and to contribute to the progress of the journal.

2. What is your vision for the journal?
   My work as a Section Editor-in-Chief will be to promote and support the growth of the journal as an important medium for researchers in the general fields of fractional calculus and general mathematical analysis. I am very enthusiastic about contributing to the development of the Section as a strong component of the journal.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?
   The methods and obtained results of the field have already played a crucial role in modeling numerous problems in studies in physics, thermodynamics, biophysics, aerodynamics, electrical circuits, electron-analytical chemistry, control theory, optimization, programming, associative memory, fitting of experimental data, etc. Rigorous mathematical analysis has contributed to a real understanding of the system behavior and the achievement of significant results based on fractals and fractional-order models. Developing more sophisticated models and methods, introducing new fractional and related modeling methodologies, elaborating effective modeling methods, and the guaranteed learning of dynamical processes in such models are some of the goals of future research contributions in the field.

4. What do you think of the development of Open Access in the publishing field?
   The recognition of using open access platforms in the publishing field is increasing because of the fast development of the research area, as well as the development in computing and artificial intelligence methods.

The editorial team warmly welcomes Dr. Ivanka Stamova as the Section Editor-in-Chief of the “General Mathematics, Analysis” Section, and looks forward to her contribution to the continued success of Fractal and Fractional. For further information on the journal sections, please check here.

In order to acknowledge our reviewers, who so generously dedicate their time to reviewing papers and demonstrate diligence, professionalism, and timeliness when reviewing manuscripts, MDPI journals regularly offer outstanding reviewer awards to scholars who participate in the peer-review process.

We are proud to recognize this year’s winners in the “Physical Sciences” category for their outstanding contributions among extensive competition by presenting them with an Outstanding Reviewer Award.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the winners on their achievement. MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Entropy:

• Jim W. Kay, University of Glasgow, UK;
• Christophe Chesneau, University of Caen, France;
• Esteban Tlelo-Cuautle, Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica (INAOE), Mexico;
• Dennis Dieks, Utrecht University, The Netherlands;
• Claudio Cremaschini, Silesian University in Opava, Czech Republic.

Photonics:

• Carlos A. F. Marques, University of Aveiro, Portugal;
• Tatiana Latychevskaia, Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland.

Universe:

• Amit Kashi, Ariel University, Israel;
• Dominik Elsaesser, Technical University of Dortmund, Germany;
• Isaac Tutusaus, Instituto de Ciencias del Espacio, Spain;
• Jose A.R. Cembranos, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain;
• Kazuharu Bamba, Fukushima University, Japan;
• Przemyslaw Malkiewicz, National Centre for Nuclear Research, Poland;
• Szymon Piotr Harabasz, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany;
• Theocharis Kosmas, University of Ioannina, Greece;
• Viktor Toth, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Canada;
• Vitor De Souza, Universidade de São Paulodisabled, Brazil.

We are proud to recognize the winners of MDPI’s 2021 Travel Awards in the “Physical Sciences” category for their outstanding presentations and to present them with the prize.

MDPI journals regularly offer travel awards to encourage talented junior scientists to present their latest research at academic conferences in specific fields, which helps to increase their influence.

The winners mentioned below were carefully selected by the journal editors based on an outline of their research and the work to be presented at an academic conference.

We would like to warmly congratulate the winners of this year’s Travel Awards and wish them the greatest success with their future research endeavors. MDPI will continue to enhance communication among scientists.

Galaxies:

• Mahdis Ghodrati, Yangzhou University, China;
• Sandra Etoka, University of Manchester, UK.

Instruments:

• Adriana Dias, University of London, UK.

Photonics:

• Aleksandrs Leitis, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland;
• Elena Losero, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland;
• Zhifeng Zhang, University of Pennsylvania, USA.

The purpose of our Best Paper Awards is to promote and recognize the most impactful contributions published within MDPI journals.

The editors of each journal carefully selected reviews and research papers through a rigorous judging process based on criteria such as the scientific merit, overall impact, and the quality of presentation of the papers published in the journal last year.

We are honored to present the winners in the “Physical Sciences” category, who were selected amongst extensive competition, and congratulate the authors for their outstanding scientific publications.

MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Entropy:

• “Classical (Local and Contextual) Probability Model for Bohm–Bell Type Experiments: No-Signaling as Independence of Random Variables”
  By Andrei Khrennikov and Alexander Alodjants
  Entropy 2019, 21(2), 157; doi 10.3390/e21020157
• “Nonlinear Information Bottleneck”
  By Artemy Kolchinsky, Brendan D. Tracey and David H. Wolpert
  Entropy 2019, 21(12), 1181; doi 10.3390/e21121181
• “Dynamic Maximum Entropy Reduction”
  By Václav Klika, Michal Pavelka, Petr Vágner and Miroslav Grmela
  Entropy 2019, 21(7), 715; doi 10.3390/e21070715
• “Topological Information Data Analysis”
  By Pierre Baudot, Monica Tapia, Daniel Bennequin and Jean-Marc Goaillard
  Entropy 2019, 21(9), 869; doi 10.3390/e21090869

Universe:

• “Nonsingular Black Holes in ƒ (R) Theories”
  By Gonzalo J. Olmo and Diego Rubiera-Garcia
  Universe 2015, 1(2), 173-185; doi 10.3390/universe1020173
• “Is It No Longer Necessary to Test Cosmologies with Type Ia Supernovae?”
  By Ram Gopal Vishwakarma and Jayant V. Narlikar
  Universe 2018, 4(6), 73; doi 10.3390/universe4060073
• “A Universe that Does Not Know the Time”
  By João Magueijo and Lee Smolin
  Universe 2019, 5(3), 84 ; doi 10.3390/universe5030084
• “Seeing Black Holes: From the Computer to the Telescope”
  By Jean-Pierre Luminet
  Universe 2018, 4(8), 86; doi 10.3390/universe4080086

The 2021 citation metrics have been released in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), and we’re pleased to announce the following results for MDPI journals:

For more information on Impact Factors and what it means to index academic journals, please visit our related blog posts.

* Journals given their first Impact Factor in 2022

Source: 2021 Journal Impact Factors, Journal Citation Reports ^TM (Clarivate, 2022)

We are pleased to announce that seven new scholars have been appointed Editorial Board Members for the journal Fractal and Fractional (ISSN 2504-3110):

• Prof. Dr. Dorota Mozyrska (Bialystok University of Technology, Poland);
• Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Da Prato (Piazza dei Cavalieri, Italy);
• Prof. Dr. Gisèle Mophou (Université des Antilles, France);
• Prof. Dr. Sze-Man Ngai (Georgia Southern University, USA);
• Prof. Dr. Andaluzia Cristina Matei (University of Craiova, Romania);
• Prof. Dr. Chien-Cheng Tseng (National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan);
• Dr. Gani Stamov (University of Texas at San Antonio, USA).

We wish them every success in their new position, and we look forward to their contributions to the journal.

Conference: The 2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2022)
Date: 23–27 October 2022
Place: Kyoto, Japan

Machines (ISSN: 2075-1702) will be attending IROS 2022 as an exhibitor. This meeting will take place from 23 to 27 October in Kyoto, Japan.

IROS is one of the largest and most impactful robotics research conferences worldwide. It provides an international forum for the international robotics research community to explore the frontiers of science and technology in intelligent robots and smart machines. The theme of IROS 2022 is “Embodied AI for a Symbiotic Society”. In addition to technical sessions and multimedia presentations, IROS conferences also hold panel discussions, forums, workshops, tutorials, exhibits, and technical tours to encourage fruitful discussions among conference attendees.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Machines;
• Robotics;
• Sensors;
• Computers;
• Applied Sciences;
• Systems;
• Technologies;
• Inventions;
• JMMP;
• Fractal Fract;
• ASI;
• Smart Cities;
• AI;
• Automation.

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 that you may have. For more information about the conference and virtual booth, please visit the following website: https://iros2022.org/.

1. “Structure, Fractality, Mechanics and Durability of Calcium Silicate Hydrates”
Shengwen Tang et al.
Fractal Fract. 2021, 5(2), 47
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/5/2/47

2. “Novel Expressions for the Derivatives of Sixth Kind Chebyshev Polynomials: Spectral Solution of the Non-Linear One-Dimensional Burgers’ Equation”
Waleed Mohamed Abd-Elhameed
Fractal Fract. 2021, 5(2), 53
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/5/2/53

3. “A Fractional SAIDR Model in the Frame of Atangana–Baleanu Derivative”
Esmehan Uçar et al.
Fractal Fract. 2021, 5(2), 32
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/5/2/32

4. “Utilizing Fractals for Modeling and 3D Printing of Porous Structures”
AMM Sharif Ullah et al.
Fractal Fract. 2021, 5(2), 40
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/5/2/40

5. “Inverse Problem for a Partial Differential Equation with Gerasimov–Caputo-Type Operator and Degeneration”
Tursun K. Yuldashev et al.
Fractal Fract. 2021, 5(2), 58
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/5/2/58

6. “Signal Propagation in Electromagnetic Media Modelled by the Two-Sided Fractional Derivative”
Jacek Gulgowski et al.
Fractal Fract. 2021, 5(1), 10
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/5/1/10

7. “Using Fractal Calculus to Solve Fractal Navier–Stokes Equations, and Simulation of Laminar Static Mixing in COMSOL Multiphysics”
Amir Pishkoo et al.
Fractal Fract. 2021, 5(1), 16
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/5/1/16

8. “Analysis of Hilfer Fractional Integro-Differential Equations with Almost Sectorial Operators”
Kulandhaivel Karthikeyan et al.
Fractal Fract. 2021, 5(1), 22
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/5/1/22

9. “Analytic Solution of the Langevin Differential Equations Dominated by a Multibrot Fractal Set”
Rabha W. Ibrahim et al.
Fractal Fract. 2021, 5(2), 50
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/5/2/50

10. “Some New Harmonically Convex Function Type Generalized Fractional Integral Inequalities”
Rana Safdar Ali et al.
Fractal Fract. 2021, 5(2), 54
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/5/2/54