Liang Li

Qing Yang

Provides a comprehensive, yet practical source of reference, and excellent foundation for comparing the properties and performance of coatings and selecting the most suitable materials based on specific service needs and environmental factors. Coating technology has developed significant techniques for protecting existing infrastructure from corrosion and erosion, maintaining and enhancing the performance of equipment, and provided novel functions such as smart coatings greatly benefiting the medical device, energy, automotive and construction industries. The mechanisms, usage, and manipulation of cutting-edge coating methods are the focus of this book. Not only are the working mechanisms of coating materials explored in great detail, but also craft designs for further optimization of more uniform, safe, stable, and scalable coatings. A group of leading experts in different coating technologies demonstrate their main applications, identify the key bottlenecks, and outline future prospects. Advanced Coating Materials broadly covers the coating techniques, including cold spray, plasma vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, sol–gel method, etc., and their significant applications in microreactor technology, super(de)wetting, joint implants, electrocatalyst, etc. Numerous kinds of coating structures are addressed, including nanosize particles, biomimicry structures, metals and complexed materials, along with the environmental and human compatible biopolymers resulting from microbial activities. This state-of-the-art book is divided into three parts: (1) Materials and Methods: Design and Fabrication, (2) Coating Materials: Nanotechnology, and (3) Advanced Coating Technology and Applications.

Advanced Coating Materials

Degeneration of nociceptive afferent axons and terminals in the heart is associated with painless sudden cardiac death. However, innervation, distribution and morphological structures of sympathetic cardiac nociceptive afferent axons and terminals have not yet been fully characterized. The aim of the present study is to characterize the density, arrangement, and structural features of differentiated sympathetic afferent axons and terminals in whole-mount FVB mouse atria. FVB mice (3-6 months old) were perfused and the tissues were fixed. The right and left atria were processed with immunohistochemistry. Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and substance P (SP) are two neuropeptides which have been widely used to label sympathetic nociceptive afferent axons in many tissues. CGRP (rabbit anti-CGRP) and SP (Goat anti-SP) primary antibodies were applied, followed by Alexa Fluor 594 and 660 conjugated secondary antibodies. Whole-mount preparations of right and left atria were examined using a laser scanning confocal microscope. We found that 1) CGRP immunoreactive (IR) axon bundles innervated the right and left atria including the auricle and entrance area of the superior vena cava, the inferior vena cava, left precaval vein and pulmonary veins. Large axon bundles entered the area from the major veins and bifurcated into smaller axon bundles and single axon fibers to form terminal end-nets and free endings in the epicardium at each region with a similar pattern. In the atrial muscle layer, varicose CGRP-IR axons had close contacts with muscle fibers. In addition, CGRP-IR axons terminated in the intrinsic cardiac ganglia (ICGs) with varicosities surrounding individual ganglionic principle neurons (PNs). In the aortic arch, the CGRP-IR fibers exhibited similar terminal structures to those seen in the atria. 2) SP-IR axons also projected to the right and left atria and aorta. Similar to CGRP-IR axons, these SP-IR axons also formed end-nets and free endings in these areas. In cardiac ganglia, SP-IR axons formed varicose endings around many individual PNs. However, a salient difference was found: There appeared to be fewer SP-IR axons and terminals than CGRP-IR axons and terminals in the atria. 3) None of the cardiac PNs in ICG were CGRP-IR or SP-IR. 4) Many SP-IR axon terminals around PNs within ICGs and atrial muscles were found to have colocalized expression of CGRP-IR. Collectively, our data for the first time documented the distribution patterns and morphology of sympathetic afferent axons and terminals in each region of the atria in the mouse model. This will provide a foundation for future analysis of the pathological changes of sympathetic afferent nerves in the atria in different disease models (e.g., diabetes, sleep apnea, and aging). This study was supported by NIH R01 HL-79636.

Innervation, Distribution and Morphology of Calcitonin Gene Related Peptide and SubstanceP Immunoreactive Axons in the Whole-mount Atria of FVB Mice

Satoshi Tanaka

Kyoko Hasegawa

This volume constitutes the proceedings of the 18th Asia Simulation Conference, AsiaSim 2018, held in Kyoto, Japan, in August 2018. The 45 revised full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 90 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on modeling and simulation technology; soft computing and machine learning; high performance computing and cloud computing; simulation technology for industry; simulation technology for intelligent society; simulation of instrumentation and control application; computational mathematics and computational science; flow simulation; visualization and computer vision to support simulation.

18th Asia Simulation Conference, AsiaSim 2018, Kyoto, Japan, October 27–29, 2018, Proceedings

Methods and Applications for Modeling and Simulation of Complex Systems

Avis Ridgway

Gloria Quiñones

This book re-theorizes the relationship between pedagogy and play. The authors suggest that pedagogical play is characterized by conceptual reciprocity (a pedagogical approach for supporting children’s academic learning through joint play) and agentic imagination (a concept that when present in play, affords the child’s motives and imagination a critical role in learning and development). These new concepts are brought to life using a cultural-historical approach to the analysis of play, supported in each chapter by visual narratives used as a research method for re-theorising play as a pedagogical activity. Whenever a cultural-historical approach is applied to understanding pedagogical play, the whole context of the playful event is always included. Further, the child’s cultural environment is taken into account in order to better understand their play. Children from different countries play differently for many reasons, which may include their resources, local cultural beliefs about play and specific pedagogical practices. The inclusion and acknowledgement of social, cultural and historical contexts gives credence and value to understanding play from both child and adult perspectives, which the authors believe is important for the child’s learning and development. As such, the relationships that children and adults have with human and non-human others, as well as any connections with artefacts and the material environment, are included in all considerations of pedagogical play.

A Cultural-Historical Interpretation Using Visual Methodology

Early Childhood Pedagogical Play

The editors of this book have brought together contributors from many parts of the world. As such, the book offers a truly diverse, international flavour reflecting a broad range of research on babies and toddlers. Examining examples from both Eastern and Western cultures, the book’s overarching focus is on relationships, yielding a coherence beneficial to early childhood researchers and educators alike. Employing visual methodologies to help bring the chapters to life, the varied research studies presented concern babies’ and toddlers’ relationships and cultural contexts. Taken together, they offer a unique opportunity to conceptualise the use of a wholeness approach for studying babies and toddlers – our youngest citizens.

Relationships in Cultural Contexts

Studying Babies and Toddlers

Structural and Biochemical Charaterization of the C. Elegans SMG8-SMG9 Core Complex

This book offers a rich collection of international research narratives that reveal the qualities and value of peer play. It presents new understandings of peer play and relationships in chapters drawn from richly varied contexts that involve sibling play, collaborative peer play, and joint play with adults. The book explores social strategies such as cooperation, negotiation, playing with rules, expressing empathy, and sharing imaginary emotional peer play experiences. Its reconceptualization of peer play and relationships promotes new thinking on children's development in contemporary worlds. It shows how new knowledge generated about young children's play with peers illuminates how they learn and develop within and across communities, families, and educational settings in diverse cultural contexts. The book addresses issues that are relevant for parents, early years' professionals and academics, including the role of play in learning at school, the role of adults in self-initiated play, and the long-term impact of early friendships. The book makes clear how recent cultural differences involve digital, engineering and imaginary peer play. The book follows a clear line of argument highlighting the importance of play-based learning and stress the importance of further knowledge of children's interaction in their context. This book aims to highlight the narration of peer play, mostly leaning on a sociocultural theoretical perspective, where many chapters have a cultural-historical theoretical frame and highlight children's social situation of development. Polly Björk-Willén, Linköping University, Sweden

Liang Li

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