Open Access Books

The complexity of radiation damage effects in materials that are used in various irradiation environments stems from the fundamental particle–solid interactions and the subsequent damage recovery dynamics after the collision cascades, which involves multiple length and time scales. Adding to this complexity are the transmuted impurities that are unavoidable from accompanying nuclear processes. Helium is one such impurity that plays an important and unique role in controlling the microstructure and properties of materials used in fast fission reactors, plasma-facing and structural materials in fusion devices, spallation neutron target designs, actinides, tritium-containing materials, and nuclear waste. Their ultra-low solubility in virtually all solids forces He atoms to self-precipitate into small bubbles that become nucleation sites for further void growth under radiation-induced vacancy supersaturations, resulting in material swelling and high-temperature He embrittlement, as well as surface blistering under low-energy and high-flux He bombardment. This Special Issue, “Radiation Damage in Materials—Helium Effects”, contains review articles and full-length papers on new irradiation material research activities and novel material ideas using experimental and/or modeling approaches. These studies elucidate the interactions of helium with various extreme environments and tailored nanostructures, as well as their impact on microstructural evolution and material properties.

Changing the temperature of a substance can stimulate dramatic changes of its state. These changes can be intermolecular (physical) and intramolecular (chemical) in nature. Physical changes occur without breaking intramolecular bonds, and lead to transitions between the four major phases: gas, liquid, crystal, and glass. Chemical changes are associated with chemical reactions that originate from breaking intramolecular bonds. Phase transitions as well as chemical reactions occur at finite rates. Measuring the rates of processes is the realm of kinetics. The kinetics of thermally stimulated processes is routinely measured using thermal analysis techniques such as differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Knowing the process rates and their dependence on temperature is of vital importance for understanding the behavior of materials exposed to variations in temperature. In recent years, thermal analysis kinetics has made significant progress by developing computational tools for reliable kinetic analysis. It has also expanded its traditional application area to newly developed nano- and biomaterials. This Special Issue is a series of papers that reflect recent developments in the field and highlight the essential role of thermal analysis kinetics in understanding the processes responsible for the thermal behavior of various materials.

Written by experts in the field of bariatrics, this edited volume reviews the multidisciplinary process of treating the obese patient, from the reception of the obese patient and their dietary, social, and psychological evaluations to individual management, discharge, and follow-up. It offers a holistic approach, providing the knowledge required to implement treatment effectively. Chapters cover surgical procedures in the abdomen, physical exercise, psychological and social support, nutritional strategies, and pharmacologic options. This book is a valuable resource for physicians, surgeons, bariatric anesthesiologists, nutritionists, psychologists, nurses, physical therapy specialists, and others involved in the care of obese and overweight patients.

This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

The renowned Russian writer Leo Tolstoy created a realistic masterpiece in Anna Karenina (1878). In the same work, moreover, he utilized allegory and symbol to an extent and at a level of sophistication unknown in his other works. In Browning’s study, the author identifies and analyzes previously unnoticed or only briefly mentioned “linkages and keystones” found in two highly developed clusters of symbols, arising from Anna’s momentous train ride and peasant nightmares, and of allegories, rooted in Vronsky’s disastrous steeplechase. Within this labyrinth of symbol and allegory lies embedded much of the novel’s most significant meaning. This study will be of particular interest to students and scholars of Russian literature, Tolstoy, symbol, allegory, structuralism, and moral criticism.

This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

Accessible Elements informs science educators about current practices in online and distance education: distance-delivered methods for laboratory coursework, the requisite administrative and institutional aspects of online and distance teaching, and the relevant educational theory. Delivery of university-level courses through online and distance education is a method of providing equal access to students seeking post-secondary education. Distance delivery offers practical alternatives to traditional on-campus education for students limited by barriers such as classroom scheduling, physical location, finances, or job and family commitments. The growing recognition and acceptance of distance education, coupled with the rapidly increasing demand for accessibility and flexible delivery of courses, has made distance education a viable and popular option for many people to meet their science educational goals.

"Using a range of social science methods and drawing on the sociology of the body, biomedicine and technology, Haddow invites readers of ‘Embodiment and everyday cyborgs’ to consider whether they might prefer organs from other humans or non-human animals (known as xenotransplantation), or implantable ‘cybernetic’ technologies to replace their own? In discovering that individuals have a very clear preference for human organs but not for the non-human, Haddow suggests that the inside of our bodies may be more important to our sense of identity than may have previously been thought. Whereas organs from other (once) living bodies can contaminate the body of the recipient (simultaneously altering subjectivity so they inherit traits e.g. gender), cybernetic technology is acclimatised to and becomes part of the body and subjectivity. In organ transplantation the organ has the potential to alter subjectivity – whereas with cybernetic technology it does not alter identity but is incorporated into existing subjectivity. Technologies are clean from previous organic fleshy associations and although they may malfunction or cause infection, they do not alter identity in the way that an organ might. Yet, we are arguably creating a 21st-century identity crisis through an increasing reliance on cybernetic technologies such as implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs) creating new forms of ‘un-health’ and a new category of patient called ‘everyday cyborgs’ who have to develop strategies to incorporate device alienation as well as reinserting human agency over ICD activation. "

Nachdem die Debatte um eine sogenannte Materialisierung bislang vor allem im Privatrecht geführt wurde, hat sie mittlerweile auch das Zivilprozessrecht erreicht. Dabei ist die grundlegende Frage: Inwieweit ist und soll das Zivilprozessrecht streng formal, inwieweit von außerprozessualen Wertungen geprägt sein? Roman F. Kehrberger beleuchtet daher unterschiedliche Quellen möglicher außerprozessualer Wertungen - etwa Grundrechte, materiell-rechtliche Sonderwertungen oder die kompensatorische Prozessleitung durch Richter - und deren Einflüsse auf das Zivilprozessrecht. Zur Frage, ob sich richterliche Aktivität im Sinne einer Materialisierung auswirkt, betrachtet er rechtsvergleichend das englische Recht. Zur Bewertung einer möglichen Materialisierung wird grundlegend darauf rekurriert, warum im modernen Rechtsstaat überhaupt ein Zivilprozess existiert und wie dieser idealerweise ausgestaltet sein sollte.

The world has come to understand only recently the importance of plants in our life. Therefore, we have brought together such book chapters that will help strengthen the scientific background of the readers on plants and deliver the message regarding plants for the future, in food security, health, industry, and other areas. This book will add to the scientific knowledge of the readers on the molecular aspects of plants.

Despite being described about 200 years ago, the pathophysiology of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is not well understood due to its complex etiology and heterogeneity of symptoms and progression. Animal models provide a great opportunity to follow the progression of neurodegeneration and to screen potent therapeutic molecules, knowledge of which can be critical for different levels of clinical trials. Contemporary health technologies are coming in handy to accelerate the pace of developing novel and refined therapeutic strategies for PD. This book, Parkinson’s Disease - Animal Models, Current Therapies and Clinical Trials, provides a comprehensive overview of PD, presenting information on animal models of PD and contemporary therapeutic strategies, health technologies, clinical trials, and their influence on the quality of life of patients with PD.

La autoridad política no constituye si no un aspecto del control social y para comprender sus peculiaridades es preciso distinguirla de los demás aspectos de aquél. En control puede considerarse desde dos puntos de vista: primero desde la persona que lo ejerce y segunda, el de la persona sometida a el. Parece más conveniente adoptar el último de esos puntos de vista y estudiar los tipos de control segun el modo como afectan al sentido de la libertad de individuo. En contenido de esta obra es: 1. El control político 2. La función del gobierno 3. La estructura política 4. La naturaleza de la acción política 5. El problema político central 6. Gobierno y estratificación 7. El concepto de un Estado mundial

This book focuses on recent advances in both theoretical and experimental studies of material behaviour at the micro- and nano-scales. Special attention is given to experimental studies of nanofilms, nanoparticles and nanocomposites as well as tooth defects. Various experimental techniques were used. Magneto- and thermoelastic coupling were considered, as were nonlocal models of thin structures.

This Special Issue, entitled “Design and Optimization of Pharmaceutical Gels”, in Gels, was established to shed light on gels in terms of material development, system construction, structural characterization, and the effect for disease treatment, since research on gels with high translational potential is particularly sought after. We received submissions from around the world, reflecting high cultural diversity.

Mastering the sensorimotor capabilities of our body is a skill that we acquire and refine over time, starting at the prenatal stages of development. This learning process is linked to brain development and is shaped by the rich set of multimodal information experienced while exploring and interacting with the environment. Evidence coming from neuroscience suggests the brain forms and mantains body representations as the main strategy to this mastering. Although it is still not clear how this knowledge is represented in our brain, it is reasonable to think that such internal models of the body undergo a continuous process of adaptation. They need to match growing corporal dimensions during development, as well as temporary changes in the characteristics of the body, such as the transient morphological alterations produced by the usage of tools. In the robotics community there is an increasing interest in reproducing similar mechanisms in artificial agents, mainly motivated by the aim of producing autonomous adaptive systems that can deal with complexity and uncertainty in human environments. Although promising results have been achieved in the context of sensorimotor learning and autonomous generation of body representations, it is still not clear how such low-level representations can be scaled up to more complex motor skills and how they can enable the development of cognitive capabilities. Recent findings from behavioural and brain studies suggests that processes of mental simulations of action-perception loops are likely to be executed in our brain and are dependent on internal motor representations. The capability to simulate sensorimotor experience might represent a key mechanism behind the implementation of further cognitive skills, such as self-detection, self-other distinction and imitation. Empirical investigation on the functioning of similar processes in the brain and on their implementation in artificial agents is fragmented. This e-book comprises a collection of manuscripts published by Frontiers in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, under the section Humanoid Robotics, on the research topic re-enactment of sensorimotor experience for cognition in artificial agents. This compendium aims at condensing the latest theoretical, review and experimental studies that address new paradigms for learning and integrating multimodal sensorimotor information in artificial agents, re-use of the sensorimotor experience for cognitive development and further construction of more complex strategies and behaviours using these concepts. The authors would like to thank M.A. Dylan Andrade for his art work for the cover.