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Visualizing Immunity
by Dorian Mcgavern Michael DustinThe immune system is not bound by a single tissue but is instead bestowed with the challenge of warding off invading pathogens throughout the body. Constant surveillance of the body requires that the immune system be highly mobile and able to purge pathogens from all tissues. Because each tissue presents its own unique architecture and milieu, it is necessary for the immune system to be as malleable as it is dynamic. For example, how the immune system handles a pathogen in the lung can differ significantly from a pathogen encountered in the gut. Understanding immune complexity in diverse tissue environments is a challenge for researchers. However, advances in imaging have greatly improved our ability to probe the immune system. From snap-shots in time to 4D movies, imaging systems have been used to generate stunning visualizations of immune cells in action throughout the body. These visualizations are not only aesthetically pleasing but they have yielded great advances in our understanding of immune function. This volume provides a synopsis of major insights in immunology revealed using imaging approaches. "Seeing is truly believing", and this volume was assembled to recognize past accomplishments and to provide visions of what the future holds in store in this exciting field.
Visualizing Mathematics: The Role of Spatial Reasoning in Mathematical Thought (Research in Mathematics Education)
by Michael T. Battista Kelly S. MixThis unique volume surveys recent research on spatial visualization in mathematics in the fields of cognitive psychology and mathematics education. The general topic of spatial skill and mathematics has a long research tradition, but has been gaining attention in recent years, although much of this research happens in disconnected subfields. This volume aims to promote interaction between researchers, not only to provide a more comprehensive view of spatial visualization and mathematics, but also to stimulate innovative new directions in research based on a more coordinated effort. It features ten chapters authored by leading researchers in cognitive psychology and mathematics education, as well as includes dynamic commentaries by mathematics education researchers on cognitive psychology chapters, and by cognitive psychologists on mathematics education chapters. Among the topics included: From intuitive spatial measurement to understanding of units. Spatial reasoning: a critical problem-solving tool in children’s mathematics strategy tool-kit. What processes underlie the relation between spatial skill and mathematics? Learning with and from drawing in early years geometry. Communication of visual information and complexity of reasoning by mathematically talented students. Visualizing Mathematics makes substantial progress in understanding the role of spatial reasoning in mathematical thought and in connecting various subfields of research. It promises to make an impact among psychologists, education scholars, and mathematics educators in the convergence of psychology and education.
Visualizing Nature: Essays on Truth, Spririt, and Philosophy
by Stuart KestenbaumVisualizing Nature brings together contemporary visionaries to share deeply personal essays on nature, ecology, sustainability, climate change, philosophy, and more. Compiled by editor and poet Stuart Kestenbaum, the contributors represent a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, each honoring nature's power to heal, inspire, guide, amaze, and strengthen.Activist Maulian Dana of the Penobscot Nation writes on the intertwining relationship of motherhood and Mother Earth. Biology professor David Haskell tells the story of the resilient bristlecone pine trees, which live to be as old as 2,100 years. Iranian scholar Alireza Taghdarreh speaks to his experience of translating Emerson's "Nature" into Farsi. A previously unpublished 1962 speech by Rachel Carson complements the collection of more than twenty essays, each inviting the reader into a quiet space of reflection with the opportunity to think deeply about how they relate to the natural world.
Visualizing Nuclear Power in Japan: A Trip to the Reactor (Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology)
by Morris LowThis book explores how Japanese views of nuclear power were influenced not only by Hiroshima and Nagasaki but by government, business and media efforts to actively promote how it was a safe and integral part of Japan’s future. The idea of “atoms for peace” and the importance of US-Japan relations were emphasized in exhibitions and in films. Despite the emergence of an anti-nuclear movement, the dream of civilian nuclear power and the “good atom” nevertheless prevailed and became more accepted. By the late 1950s, a school trip to see a reactor was becoming a reality for young Japanese, and major events such as the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and 1970 Osaka Expo seemed to reinforce the narrative that the Japanese people were destined for a future led by science and technology that was powered by the atom, a dream that was left in disarray after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
Visualizing Quantum Mechanics with Python
by Steve SpicklemireQuantum Mechanics can be an abstract and complex subject. Students often complain of confusion, struggle, and frustration as they try to master the topic. The goal of this book is to reduce the complexity and clarify the abstractions with concrete visual examples driven by simple python programs. It is assumed that the reader is concurrently taking a course in quantum mechanics, or self-studying quantum mechanics, but is looking for supplementary material to help with understanding and visualizing how quantum mechanics works.The focus of this book is writing python programs to visualize the underlying behavior of the mathematical theory. The background needed to understand quantum mechanics is differential equations, linear algebra and modern physics. We need a strong foundation in differential equations and linear algebra because the behavior of quantum systems is governed by equations that are written in terms of these concepts. Modern physics includes concepts such as special relativity and quantum phenomena like the photoelectric effect and energy quantization that the theory of quantum mechanics seeks to explain. This book is also not an introduction to the python programming language, or to numpy, or even to VPython. However its programming examples start simply and grow more complex as the chapters progress, so deep expertise in any of these is not a pre-requisite.Key features:· Provides an accessible and practical guide to the abstractions in quantum mechanics with concrete visual examples driven by simple python programs.· Contains few derivations, equations, and proofs.· For complete beginners of python programming, appendix B serves as a very brief introduction to the main concepts needed to understand the code in this book.Dr. Stephen Spicklemire is Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Indianapolis, USA. He has been teaching physics at the University of Indianapolis for more than 30 years. From the implementation of "flipped" physics class to the modernization of scientific computing and laboratory instrumentation courses, he has brought the strengths of his background in physics, engineering and computer science into the classroom. Dr. Spicklemire also does IT and engineering consulting. He is an active participant in several national research initiatives relating to improving physics education. These range from improving materials to help students prepare for class, to supporting students success through standards based grading. He is an active developer of the VPython and WebVPython projects and a contributor to the Matter and Interactions textbook.
Visually Observing Comets
by David A. J. SeargentIn these days of computers and CCD cameras, visual comet observers can still contribute scientifically useful data with the help of this handy reference for use in the field. Comets are one of the principal areas for productive pro-amateur collaboration in astronomy, but finding comets requires a different approach than the observing of more predictable targets. Principally directed toward amateur astronomers who prefer visual observing or who are interested in discovering a new comet or visually monitoring the behavior of known comets, it includes all the advice needed to thrive as a comet observer. After presenting a brief overview of the nature of comets and how we came to the modern understanding of comets, this book details the various types of observations that can usefully be carried out at the eyepiece of a telescope. Subjects range from how to search for new comets to visually estimating the brightness of comets and the length and orientation of tails, in addition to what to look for in comet heads and tails. Details are also given of 20 periodic comets, predicted to return between the years 2017 and 2027, that are expected to become suitable targets for visual observing, in addition to information on a famous comet potentially visible each year and subject to great outbursts of brightness.
Visuospatial Processing for Education in Health and Natural Sciences
by Juan C. Castro-AlonsoVisuospatial processing is key to learn and perform professionally in the domains of health and natural sciences. As such, there is accumulating research showing the importance of visuospatial processing for education in diverse health sciences (e.g., medicine, anatomy, surgery) and in many natural sciences (e.g., biology, chemistry, physics, geology). In general, visuospatial processing is treated separately as (a) spatial ability and (b) working memory with visuospatial stimuli. This book attempts to link these two research perspectives and present visuospatial processing as the cognitive activity of two components of working memory (mostly the visuospatial sketch pad, and also the central executive), which allows to perform in both spatial ability and working memory tasks. Focusing on university education in the fields of health sciences and natural sciences, the chapters in this book describe the abilities of mental rotation, mental folding, spatial working memory, visual working memory, among others, and how different variables affect them. Some of these variables, thoroughly addressed in the book, are sex (gender), visualizations, interactivity, cognitive load, and embodiment. The book concludes with a chapter presenting VAR, a battery of computer-based tests to measure different tasks entailing visuospatial processing. With contributions by top educational psychologists from around the globe, this book will be of interest to a broad array of readers across the disciplines.
Vita Sexualis: Karl Ulrichs and the Origins of Sexual Science
by Ralph M. LeckKarl Ulrichs's studies of sexual diversity galvanized the burgeoning field of sexual science in the nineteenth century. But in the years since, his groundbreaking activism has overshadowed his scholarly achievements. Ulrichs publicly defied Prussian law to agitate for gay equality and marriage, and founded the world's first organization dedicated to the legal and social emancipation of homosexuals. Ralph M. Leck returns Ulrichs to his place as the inventor of the science of sexual heterogeneity. Leck's analysis situates sexual science in a context that includes politics, aesthetics, the languages of science, and the ethics of gender. Although he was the greatest nineteenth-century scholar of sexual heterogeneity, Ulrichs retained certain traditional conjectures about gender. Leck recognizes these subtleties and employs the analytical concepts of modernist vita sexualis and traditional psychopathia sexualis to articulate philosophical and cultural differences among sexologists. Original and audacious, Vita Sexualis uses a bedrock figure's scientific and political innovations to open new insights into the history of sexual science, legal systems, and Western amatory codes.
Vital Decomposition: Soil Practitioners and Life Politics
by Kristina M. LyonsIn Colombia, decades of social and armed conflict and the US-led war on drugs have created a seemingly untenable situation for scientists and rural communities as they attempt to care for forests and grow non-illicit crops. In Vital Decomposition Kristina M. Lyons presents an ethnography of human-soil relations. She follows state soil scientists and peasants across labs, greenhouses, forests, and farms and attends to the struggles and collaborations between farmers, agrarian movements, state officials, and scientists over the meanings of peace, productivity, rural development, and sustainability in Colombia. In particular, Lyons examines the practices and philosophies of rural farmers who value the decomposing layers of leaves, which make the soils that sustain life in the Amazon, and shows how the study and stewardship of the soil point to alternative frameworks for living and dying. In outlining the life-making processes that compose and decompose into soil, Lyons theorizes how life can thrive in the face of the violence, criminalization, and poisoning produced by militarized, growth-oriented development.
Vital Forces, Teleology and Organization: Philosophy of Nature and the Rise of Biology in Germany (History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences #21)
by Andrea GambarottoThis comprehensive account of vitalism and the German philosophy of nature in the eighteenth century proposes an innovative thesis. The author restates the theories formulated by the G#65533;ttingen School, but also shows that some of its central tenets are drawn directly from the Naturphilosophie developed in Jena. In this sense the Biologie consists substantially of a compilation of theories elaborated in the previous decades, yet Treviranus rearranges them in a unitary framework and interprets them with a peculiar emphasis on the interaction between organism and environment. On the basis of this new approach he was the first naturalist in the German speaking world to sketch the outline of a theory concerned with the historical transformation of living forms. The book begins by considering the problem of generation, focussing on the debate involving Wolff, Blumenbach, Kant and Reil on the notion of "formative force. " Readers are invited to engage with the question of the origin of form and the epistemological status of the Bildungkraft as a principle of organization. The second chapter is concerned with the problem of functions and shows how this debate intersected Haller's theory on the vital properties of nerves and fibers. Readers are shown how Blumenbach and Kielmeyer both understand the animal kingdom as a graded series of organisms characterized by increasing functional complexity. The problem of classification is treated in the third chapter, showing how this model was developed in Goethe's morphology, Schelling's Naturphilosophie and Oken's comparative anatomy. The author explores their common character, which is an understanding of classification based on the idea of a unity of plan connecting all living forms with one another, and that of living nature as a universal organism. Finally, an analysis of the fundamental tenets of Treviranus' Biologie shows how the three instances of the pre-biological discourse on living beings converged as unified disciplinary matrix of a general biology. This overall account and its innovative thesis will be of interest to scholars of classical German philosophy, particularly those researching the philosophy of nature and the history and philosophy of biology.
Vital Organs
by Suzie EdgeThe remarkable stories of the world's most famous body parts.Louis XIV's rear end inspired the British National Anthem. Queen Victoria's armpit led the development of antiseptics.Robert Jenkin's ear started a war.All too often, historical figures feel distant and abstract; more myth and legend than real flesh and blood. These stories of bodies and its parts remind us that history's most-loved, and most-hated, were real breathing creatures who inhabited organs and limbs just like us - until they're cut off that is.Medical historian Dr Suzie Edge investigates over 40 cases of how we've used, abused, dug up, displayed, experimented on, and worshipped body parts, including why Percy Shelley's heart refused to burn; how Yao Niang's toes started a 1000 year long ritual; why a giant's bones are making us rethink medical ethics; and the strange case of Hitler's right testicle.
Vital Organs
by Suzie EdgeThe remarkable stories of the world's most famous body parts.Louis XIV's rear end inspired the British National Anthem. Queen Victoria's armpit led to the development of antiseptics.Robert Jenkin's ear started a war.All too often, historical figures feel distant and abstract; more myth and legend than real flesh and blood. These stories of bodies and its parts remind us that history's most-loved, and most-hated, were real breathing creatures who inhabited organs and limbs just like us - until they're cut off that is.Medical historian Dr Suzie Edge investigates over 40 cases of how we've used, abused, dug up, displayed, experimented on, and worshipped body parts, including why Percy Shelley's heart refused to burn; how Yao Niang's toes started a 1000 year long ritual; why a giant's bones are making us rethink medical ethics; and the strange case of Hitler's right testicle.
Vital Organs
by Suzie EdgeThe remarkable stories of the world's most famous body parts.Louis XIV's rear end inspired the British National Anthem. Queen Victoria's armpit led to the development of antiseptics.Robert Jenkin's ear started a war.All too often, historical figures feel distant and abstract; more myth and legend than real flesh and blood. These stories of bodies and its parts remind us that history's most-loved, and most-hated, were real breathing creatures who inhabited organs and limbs just like us - until they're cut off that is.Medical historian Dr Suzie Edge investigates over 40 cases of how we've used, abused, dug up, displayed, experimented on, and worshipped body parts, including why Percy Shelley's heart refused to burn; how Yao Niang's toes started a 1000 year long ritual; why a giant's bones are making us rethink medical ethics; and the strange case of Hitler's right testicle.
The Vital Psoas Muscle: Connecting Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Well-Being
by Jo Ann Staugaard-JonesLocated deep within the anterior hip joint and lower spine, the psoas major (usually just referred to as the psoas) is critical for optimal postural alignment, movement, and overall well being. The psoas is the only muscle in the human organism that connects the upper body to the lower body, and its importance extends to the nerve complex and energy systems. As modern-day populations grow more sedentary, psoas-related lower back and hip pain, and the ailment of "sitting too much," are on the rise. Even the most active of athletes can suffer from psoas imbalance and pain. The Vital Psoas Muscle demonstrates how to keep the muscle in balance through specific exercises designed to strengthen and utilize this amazing muscle, and discusses its vital role in the emotional and spiritual state of the human being. The interconnection between the psoas and the root chakra is explored, along with yoga poses and postures that stimulate the psoas. Eighty full-color illustrations depict anatomical details, and show the key stretching and strengthening exercises in this practical and comprehensive treatment of the most important skeletal muscle in the human body.
The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life
by Nick LaneTo explain the mystery of how life evolved on Earth, Nick Lane explores the deep link between energy and genes. The Earth teems with life: in its oceans, forests, skies and cities. Yet there's a black hole at the heart of biology. We do not know why complex life is the way it is, or, for that matter, how life first began. In The Vital Question, award-winning author and biochemist Nick Lane radically reframes evolutionary history, putting forward a solution to conundrums that have puzzled generations of scientists. For two and a half billion years, from the very origins of life, single-celled organisms such as bacteria evolved without changing their basic form. Then, on just one occasion in four billion years, they made the jump to complexity. All complex life, from mushrooms to man, shares puzzling features, such as sex, which are unknown in bacteria. How and why did this radical transformation happen? The answer, Lane argues, lies in energy: all life on Earth lives off a voltage with the strength of a lightning bolt. Building on the pillars of evolutionary theory, Lane's hypothesis draws on cutting-edge research into the link between energy and cell biology, in order to deliver a compelling account of evolution from the very origins of life to the emergence of multicellular organisms, while offering deep insights into our own lives and deaths. Both rigorous and enchanting, The Vital Question provides a solution to life's vital question: why are we as we are, and indeed, why are we here at all?
Vital Signs: Core Metrics for Health and Health Care Progress
by David BlumenthalThousands of measures are in use today to assess health and health care in the United States. <P><P>Although many of these measures provide useful information, their usefulness in either gauging or guiding performance improvement in health and health care is seriously limited by their sheer number, as well as their lack of consistency, compatibility, reliability, focus, and organization. To achieve better health at lower cost, all stakeholders - including health professionals, payers, policy makers, and members of the public - must be alert to what matters most. What are the core measures that will yield the clearest understanding and focus on better health and well-being for Americans? "Vital Signs" explores the most important issues - healthier people, better quality care, affordable care, and engaged individuals and communities - and specifies a streamlined set of 15 core measures. These measures, if standardized and applied at national, state, local, and institutional levels across the country, will transform the effectiveness, efficiency, and burden of health measurement and help accelerate focus and progress on our highest health priorities. "Vital Signs" also describes the leadership and activities necessary to refine, apply, maintain, and revise the measures over time, as well as how they can improve the focus and utility of measures outside the core set. If health care is to become more effective and more efficient, sharper attention is required on the elements most important to health and health care. "Vital Signs" lays the groundwork for the adoption of core measures that, if systematically applied, will yield better health at a lower cost for all Americans.
Vital Signs: The Trends That Are Shaping Our Future (Vital Signs #Volume 20)
by The Worldwatch InstituteFrom meat consumption to automobile production to hydropower, Vital Signs, Volume 20 documents over two dozen trends that are shaping our future in concise analyses and clear tables and graphs. The twentieth volume of the Worldwatch Institute series demonstrates that while remarkable progress has been made over the past year, much remains to be done to get the planet on a more sustainable track. Worldwide, people are waking up to the realities of a resource-constrained planet: investments and subsidies for renewable energy have reached new heights, consumers are slowly shifting away from meat-heavy diets, and new employment structures like co-operatives are democratizing the global economy. Yet with over 1 billion people lacking access to electricity, natural disasters that are more costly than ever before, and an adherence to the factory farm model of food production, it is clear that many obstacles loom on the horizon. Covering a wide range of environmental, economic, and social themes, Vital Signs, Volume 20 is the go-to source for straightforward data and analyses on the latest issues facing an increasingly crowded planet. By placing each trend within a global framework, Vital Signs, Volume 20 identifies the solutions we need to transition toward a more sustainable world. This bookwill be especially useful for policymakers, environmental nonprofits, and students of environmental studies, sustainability, or economics.
Vital Signs Volume 21: The Trends That Are Shaping Our Future (Vital Signs #Volume 20)
by The Worldwatch InstituteVital Signs Volume 21 is all about growth. From natural disasters to cars to organic farming, the two dozen trends examined here indicate both increasing pressure on natural resources and scaled up efforts to live more sustainably. In 2012, world auto production set yet another record with passenger-car production rising to 66.7 million. That same year, the number of natural disasters climbed to 905, roughly one hundred more than the 10-year annual average, and 90 percent were weather related. Alongside these mounting pressures come investments in renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. The number of acres of land farmed organically has tripled since 1999, though it still makes up less than 1% of total farmland. Not all the statistics are going up. Key measures of development aid have fallen, as have global commodity prices. Yet the overall trend is expansion, both for the good and ill of the planet. Vital Signs provides the latest data available, but its value goes beyond simple numbers. Through insightful analysis of global trends, it offers a starting point for those seeking solutions to the future's intensifying challenges.
Vitalism and Its Legacy in Twentieth Century Life Sciences and Philosophy (History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences #29)
by Charles T. Wolfe Christopher DonohueThis Open Access book combines philosophical and historical analysis of various forms of alternatives to mechanism and mechanistic explanation, focusing on the 19th century to the present. It addresses vitalism, organicism and responses to materialism and its relevance to current biological science. In doing so, it promotes dialogue and discussion about the historical and philosophical importance of vitalism and other non-mechanistic conceptions of life. It points towards the integration of genomic science into the broader history of biology. It details a broad engagement with a variety of nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first century vitalisms and conceptions of life. In addition, it discusses important threads in the history of concepts in the United States and Europe, including charting new reception histories in eastern and south-eastern Europe. While vitalism, organicism and similar epistemologies are often the concern of specialists in the history and philosophy of biology and of historians of ideas, the range of the contributions as well as the geographical and temporal scope of the volume allows for it to appeal to the historian of science and the historian of biology generally.
Vitalism and the Scientific Image in Post-Enlightenment Life Science, 1800-2010
by Sebastian Normandin Charles T. WolfeVitalism is understood as impacting the history of the life sciences, medicine and philosophy, representing an epistemological challenge to the dominance of mechanism over the last 200 years, and partly revived with organicism in early theoretical biology. The contributions in this volume portray the history of vitalism from the end of the Enlightenment to the modern day, suggesting some reassessment of what it means both historically and conceptually. As such it includes a wide range of material, employing both historical and philosophical methodologies, and it is divided fairly evenly between 19th and 20th century historical treatments and more contemporary analysis. This volume presents a significant contribution to the current literature in the history and philosophy of science and the history of medicine.
Vitalizing Nature in the Enlightenment
by Peter Hanns ReillThis study redraws the intellectual map of the Enlightenment and reassesses the legacy of that highly influential period for us today. Peter Hanns Reill argues that in the middle of the eighteenth century, a major shift occurred in the way Enlightenment thinkers conceived of nature that caused many of them to reject the prevailing doctrine of mechanism and turn to a vitalistic model to account for phenomena in natural history, the life sciences, and chemistry.
Vitamin Analysis for the Health and Food Sciences
by Ronald R. Eitenmiller W. O. Landen Jr. Lin YeEmploying a uniform, easy-to-use format, Vitamin Analysis for the Health and Food Sciences, Second Edition provides the most current information on the methods of vitamin analysis applicable to foods, supplements, and pharmaceuticals. Highlighting the rapid advancement of vitamin assay methodology, this edition emphasizes the use of improved
Vitamin B12: Advances and Insights
by Rima ObeidCobalamin (vitamin B12) was discovered in the first half of the 20th century. Vast amount of information on the role of the vitamins in human health and disease became available. Cobalamin science was, however, based on theoretical concepts that have been accepted without further proof of facts and hypotheses. Recently, the breath-taking pace of development in research technologies has changed our understanding for the role of nutrients and the complex interaction between diet, environment and diseases. Conditions like aging, diet and drugs increase the risk of developing cobalamin deficiency, probably because of diminished ability to liberate, absorb or distribute the food-derived vitamin. From a basic science point of view, understanding of the transport and function of the vitamin, may pave the road for using this system for drug delivery. This book represents up-to-date literature on the discoveries and developments in the field of cobalamin. It includes multifaceted aspects of the vitamin in health and disease conditions. The book has been written by leading scientists who have significant contributions in this field and represents therefore, a timely unique encyclopaedia on cobalamin.
Vitamin-Binding Proteins: Functional Consequences
by Krishnamurti Dakshinamurti Shyamala DakshinamurtiDiverse in chemical nature, water soluble and lipid soluble vitamins are essential micronutrients that react with specific protein entities and are transported to sites for participation in intracellular events, both at the genomic and non-genomic levels. Thus, metabolic pathways and intracellular signaling are influenced by vitamins or their deriv
Vitamin C: New Biochemical and Functional Insights (Oxidative Stress and Disease #1)
by Qi Chen Margreet C.M. VissersVitamin C holds a unique place in scientific and cultural history. In this book, a group of leading scientific research explore the myriad ways Vitamin C is employed during normal physiological function. This book also provides updates on recent uses ofVitamin C in cancer treatment through high dose intravenous therapies, the ways Vitamin C reduces or prevents sepsis and in the treatment of infectious disease, and the ways Vitamin C improves succesful stem cell transplantation, as well as other health implications. Key selling features: Reviews the history and recent research on the benefits and uses of Vitamin C Focuses special attention on the ways Vitamin C can be used in the treatment of cancers Discusses how Vitamin C is employed against infectious disease Includes chapters from a team of leading international scholars