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Ideal as a graduate textbook, this title is aimed at helping design effective biomaterials, taking into account the complex interactions that occur at the interface when a synthetic material is inserted into a living system. Surface reactivity, biochemistry, substrates, cleaning, preparation, and coatings are presented, with numerous case studies and applications throughout. Highlights include: Starts with concepts and works up to real-life applications such as implantable devices, medical devices, prosthetics, and drug delivery technology Addresses surface reactivity, requirements for surface coating, cleaning and preparation techniques, and characterization Discusses the biological response to coatings Addresses biomaterial-tissue interaction Incorporates nanomechanical properties and processing strategies

This volume is a collection of twenty-two cutting edge research papers from the symposia on Nano-Biotechnology and Ceramics in Biomedical Applications and Advances in Biomineralized Ceramics, Bioceramics, and Bioinspired Designs, which were presented at the 8th Pacific Rim Conference on Ceramics and Glass Technology (PACRIM-8). The symposia was focused on several key areas, including novel synthesis techniques, bioglasses and glass-ceramics, calcium phosphates for bone tissue applications, and oxide ceramic implant applications. These papers cut across disciplines - ceramic science and technology, bioengineering and nanoscience - showing that a new, exciting field has emerged in the ceramics community.

This work is a unique source for the rapidly growing biomaterials community on topics at the interface of biomaterials and nanotechnology. The book will cover an extensive range of topics related to the processing, characterization, modeling, and applications of nanostructured medical device materials and biological materials. The book will cover the science and technology of nanostructured ceramics, polymers, metals, and composites, including nanocomposites, self- assembled materials and biological macromolecules. Novel approaches for bottom-up and top-down processing of nanostructured biomaterials will be highlighted. Innovative techniques for characterizing and modeling nanostructured material properties, in vitro behavior, and in vivo behavior will also be included. In addition, applications of nanostructured biomaterials in bioMEMS, cardiology, drug delivery, gene therapy, orthopaedics, ophthalmology, sensing, separation, and tissue engineering will be featured. Finally, topics related to nanostructured material toxicology will be included. The book will serve many groups involved in the development and use of biomaterials, including engineering students, biological science students, and industrial researchers. Provides students and researchers with a concise and structured description of the materials and the technologies used in the development of nanostructured biomaterials, aiding impactful research An integrated approach discusses biological and engineering aspects of nanostructured biomaterials in one place, limiting time wasted in literature review Designed by intent rather than compiled loosely from random articles, the work builds sequential, building-block knowledge with course-suitable pedagogy, bringing researchers rapidly up to speed on any aspect of the are

Proceedings of the 30th Ascilite conference held in Sydney in December 2013. 141 papers were accepted (47 full papers and 94 concise papers), The predominant themes were elearning and learning design. Other themes included: assessment; professional learning; literacies (TPACK); virtual worlds; mobile learning; MOOCs/open education; and learning analytics.

The life and works of the mysterious Indian yogin, Saraha, who has inspired Buddhist practitioners for over a thousand years. Saraha, “the Archer,” was a mysterious but influential tenth-century Indian Buddhist tantric adept who expressed his spiritual realization in mystic songs (dohās) that are enlightening, shocking, and confounding by turns. Saraha’s poetic verses made the esoteric ideas and practices of Vajrayāna accessible to a wide audience on the Indian subcontinent and served as a basis for the exposition, in Tibet, of mahāmudrā, the great-seal meditation on the nature of mind that permeates every tradition of Buddhism on the Tibetan plateau. This is the first book to attempt a thorough treatment of the context, life, works, poetics, and teachings of Saraha. It features a search for the “historical” Saraha through evidence provided by our knowledge of the medieval Indian context in which he likely lived, the biographical legends that grew up around him in Tibet, and the works attributed to him in Indic and Tibetan text collections; a consideration of the various guises in which Saraha appears in his writings (as poet, social and religious critic, radical gnostic thinker, and more); an overview of Saraha’s poetic and religious legacy in South Asia and beyond; and complete or partial translations, from Tibetan, of over two dozen works attributed to Saraha. These include nearly all his spiritual songs, from his well-known Dohā Trilogy to obscure but important expositions of mahāmudrā, as well as several previously untranslated works.

In the 1950s and ’60s, Thomas Merton, a monk of the Trappist monastery of Gethsemani in Kentucky, published a string of books that are among the most influential spiritual books of the twentieth century—including the mega–best seller The Seven-Storey Mountain. He was something of a rock star for a cloistered monk, and from his monastic cell he enjoyed a wide and lively correspondence with people from the worlds of religion, literature, and politics. During that period he also explored and wrote extensively on Buddhism, Sufism, art, and social action. The man to whom he owed obedience in the cloistered life was a much more traditional Catholic, his abbot, Dom James Fox. To say that these two men had a conflicted relationship would be an understatement, but the tension their differences in orientation brought actually led to creative results on both sides and to a kind of hard-won respect and love. Roger Lipsey’s portrait of this unusual relationship is compelling and moving; it shows Merton in the years his imagination was taking him far beyond the walls of the monastery, and eventually, literally to Asia.

Merging Eastern concepts of devotion and the presence of the divine in everyday life with Western practicality, this book offers information on spirituality and relationships with God. Described is the lineage of each individual’s direct connection to God, the process of working with a spiritual master, and methods of screening a spiritual master.