This book demonstrates that nutrients play a direct role as co-factors and regulators of the immune system. The book also shows that modulating the immune response with nutrients can provide a fundamental approach to preventive medicine.;Containing nearly 2300 bibliographic citations as well as illustrative figures, tables, and micrographs, this book is designed to be of interest to clinical immunologists, immunology and vitamin researchers, nutrition specialists, paediatricians, neonatologists, and upper-level undergraduate, graduate, and medical school students in these disciplines.

Biomathematical Problems in Optimization of Cancer Radiotherapy provides insight into the role of cell population heterogeneity in the optimal control of fractionated irradiation of tumors. The book emphasizes the mathematical modeling aspect of the problem and presents the state of the art in the stochastic description of irradiated cell survival. Some of the results are of general theoretical interest and can be applied to other areas of optimal control methodology. Detailed explanations of all mathematical statements are provided throughout the text. The book is excellent for biomathematicians, radiotherapists, oncologists, health physicists, and other researchers and students interested in the topic.

Understanding immunology is increasingly important in obstetrics and gynecology. Written primarily to meet the needs of practicing obstetricians and gynecologists, this book explores the role of immunological processes in reproduction. It presents immunologic concepts and illustrates important points with examples familiar to the clinician. The book is organized into four sections that explore the fundamentals of the immune system, the immunological paradox of pregnancy, clinical applications of immunology in obstetric and gynecologic practice, and immunopathology in obstetric and gynecologic practice. Written mainly for practicing obstetricians and gynecologists, the research results cited in the book are based on human experimentation. Fully illustrated with clear schematic drawings that highlight important concepts and processes, The Immunology of Human Reproduction gives readers an essential overview of immunology as it relates to human reproduction.

Over the last two decades, attempts to control the problem of tuberculosis have become increasingly more complex, as countries adopt and adapt to evolving global TB strategies. Significant funding has also increased apace, diagnostic possibilities have evolved, and greater attention is being paid to developing broader health systems. Against this background, this book examines tuberculosis control through an anthropological lens. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from China, India, Nepal, South Africa, Romania, Brazil, Ghana and France, the volume considers: the relationship between global and national policies and their unintended effects; the emergence and impact of introducing new diagnostics; the reliance on and use of statistical numbers for representing tuberculosis, and the politics of this; the impact of the disease on health workers, as well as patients; the rise of drug-resistant forms; and issues of attempted control. Together, the examples showcase the value of an anthropological understanding to demonstrate the broader bio-political and social dimensions of tuberculosis and attempts to deal with it.

Reflecting the past 20 years of intense research in radioimmunotherapy, this timely reference surveys an expansive breadth of topics on the evolving developments in radiation therapy. Placed in the context of advances in cancer treatment, chapters progress systematically from basic principles and properties of radionuclides to detailed summaries of current cancer therapy. With contributions from nearly 50 international experts and containing over 1300 literature references, drawings, photographs, tables, and equations, Radioimmunotherapy of Cancer is an invaluable and indispensable reference for physicians in nuclear medicine and medical physicists; oncologists, radiologists, radiochemists, and radiopharmacists; immunologists, pulmonologists, and cancer researchers; pharmacologists and drug delivery pharmaceutical chemists; and upper-level undergraduate, graduate, and medical school students in these disciplines.

Taking readers from the research laboratory to the bedside, this Second Edition compiles essential information on the pharmacodynamics of all major classes of the antimicrobial armamentarium including penicillins, cephalosposorins, cephamycins, carbapenems, monobactams, aminoglycosides, quinolones, macrolides, antifungals, antivirals, and emerging agents currently in development. Written by experienced professionals in the field, this guide uses an abundance of examples to depict methods to apply pharmacodynamic concepts to everyday clinical practice.

Like an army of millions ready to defend its territory, the human immune system acts as the body's primary line of defense-a complex network of interacting cells that protects us from pathogens and other foreign substances. But many components of the immune system exhibit change after prolonged, heavy exertion, indicating that it is suppressed and stressed, albeit transiently, following prolonged endurance exercise. For marathon runners, distance swimmers and any other endurance athlete who undergoes repeated cycles of heavy exertion, a weakened immune system could lead to health complications such as respiratory infection. As a result, interest in various nutrient supplements with the potential to counter exercise-induced immunosuppression has grown. Nutrition and Exercise Immunology reviews the link between nutrition and immune function, with special application to athletic endeavor. Written by respected researchers in sports medicine and exercise immunology, this text covers topics such as carbohydrates and the immune response to prolonged exertion; protein, exercise, and immunity; and vitamins, immunity, and infection risk in athletes. It also takes a look at future directions in nutrition and exercise immunology. For sports medicine professionals, dietitians, nutritionists, exercise immunologists, as well as endurance athletes, Nutrition and Exercise Immunology provides an important and in-depth look into this exciting, new area of scientific research.

Based on a Tumor Immunology Symposium held in Pittsburgh, this work provides comprehensive coverage of the most important aspects of tumor immunology. It reveals novel approaches to the immunotherapy of cancer and presents complex issues in an accessible manner.

In the past, disease pattern mapping depended on census tracts based on political units, such as states and counties. However, with the advent of geographic information systems (GIS), researchers can now achieve a new level of precision and flexibility in geographic locating. This emerging technology allows the mapping of many different kinds of geographies, including disease rates in relation to pollution sources. Geocoding Health Data presents a state-of-the-art discussion on the current technical and administrative developments in geographic information science. In particular, it discusses how geocoded residential addresses can be used to examine the spatial patterns of cancer incidence, staging, survival, and mortality. The book begins with an introduction of various codes and their uses, including census geographic, health area, and street level codes. It goes on to describe the specific application of geocodes to cancer, detailing methods, materials, and technical issues. The text illustrates how to compile data maps for analysis and addresses issues, such as mismatch correction and data quality. It describes the current state of geocoding practices and discusses the use of individually geocoded cancer incidences in spatial epidemiology, distance estimation and spatial accessibilities, and tips for handling non-geocoded cases. Special consideration is given to privacy and confidentiality issues by focusing on disclosure limitation methods. With recent disease outbreaks and escalating concerns about bioterrorism, interest in the application of GIS to individual data is growing. The fundamental concepts presented by this book are of great value to anyone trying to understand the causes, prevention, and control of cancer as well as a variety of other diseases.

This practical book covers all aspects of the biology of malaria vectors, with notes on the vectors of dengue. It is the first work in this field to concentrate on mosquitoes, rather than covering all disease vectors. Authored by renowned field entomologist Jacques Derek Charlwood, it disseminates his vast experience working on mosquito biology, ecology and the evaluation of new vector control tools across five continents over the past 40 years. Covering all aspects from classification and systematics, population dynamics, vector control, to surveillance and sampling, epidemics, and a selection of case histories, the book also considers genetics and resistance, Aedes biology, and malaria and dengue models. It is designed to fill the gap between very specialized texts and undergraduate books on general disease vectors, and is ideal as a textbook for postgraduate courses in entomology and mosquito vectors of disease.

Award-winning author, Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., whose 1978 book ""The Politics of Cancer"" shook the political establishment by showing how the federal government had been corrupted by industrial polluters, has written a book that is sure to be of equal consequence. ""Cancer-Gate: How to Win the Losing Cancer War"" is a groundbreaking new book. It warns that, contrary to three decades of promises, we are losing the winnable war against cancer, and that the hand-in-glove generals of the federal National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the private ""nonprofit"" American Cancer Society (ACS) have betrayed us.These institutions, Epstein alleges, have spent tens of billions of taxpayer and charity dollars primarily targeting silver-bullet cures, strategies that have largely failed, while virtually ignoring strategies for preventing cancer in the first place. As a result, cancer rates have escalated to epidemic proportions, now striking nearly one in every two men, and more than one in every three women. This translates into approximately 50 percent more cancer in men, and 20 percent more cancer in women over the course of just one generation.

Developing an effective computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system for lung cancer is of great clinical importance and can significantly increase the patient's chance for survival. For this reason, CAD systems for lung cancer have been investigated in a large number of research studies. A typical CAD system for lung cancer diagnosis is composed of four main processing steps: segmentation of the lung fields, detection of nodules inside the lung fields, segmentation of the detected nodules, and diagnosis of the nodules as benign or malignant. This book overviews the current state-of-the-art techniques that have been developed to implement each of these CAD processing steps. Overviews the latest state-of-the-art diagnostic CAD systems for lung cancer imaging and diagnosis Offers detailed coverage of 3D and 4D image segmentation Illustrates unique fully automated detection systems coupled with 4D Computed Tomography (CT) Written by authors who are world-class researchers in the biomedical imaging sciences Includes extensive references at the end of each chapter to enhance further study Ayman El-Baz is a professor, university scholar, and chair of the Bioengineering Department at the University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering in 1997 and 2001, respectively. He earned his doctoral degree in electrical engineering from the University of Louisville in 2006. In 2009, he was named a Coulter Fellow for his contributions to the field of biomedical translational research. He has 17 years of hands-on experience in the fields of bio-imaging modeling and noninvasive computer-assisted diagnosis systems. He has authored or coauthored more than 500 technical articles (132 journals, 23 books, 57 book chapters, 211 refereed-conference papers, 137 abstracts, and 27 U.S. patents and disclosures). Jasjit S. Suri is an innovator, scientist, a visionary, an industrialist, and an internationally known world leader in biomedical engineering. He has spent over 25 years in the field of biomedical engineering/devices and its management. He received his doctorate from the University of Washington, Seattle, and his business management sciences degree from Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. He was awarded the President's Gold Medal in 1980 and named a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering for his outstanding contributions in 2004. In 2018, he was awarded the Marquis Life Time Achievement Award for his outstanding contributions and dedication to medical imaging and its management.

Appraising cancer as a major medical market in the 2010s, Wall Street investors placed their bets on single-technology treatment facilities costing $100-$300 million each. Critics inside medicine called the widely-publicized proton-center boom "crazy medicine and unsustainable public policy." There was no valid evidence, they claimed, that proton beams were more effective than less costly alternatives. But developers expected insurance to cover their centers' staggeringly high costs and debts. Was speculation like this new to health care? Cancer, Radiation Therapy, and the Market shows how the radiation therapy specialty in the United States (later called radiation oncology) coevolved with its device industry throughout the twentieth-century. Academic engineers and physicians acquired financing to develop increasingly powerful radiation devices, initiated companies to manufacture the devices competitively, and designed hospital and freestanding procedure units to utilize them. In the process, they incorporated market strategies into medical organization and practice. Although palliative benefits and striking tumor reductions fueled hopes of curing cancer, scientific research all too often found serious patient harm and disappointing beneficial impact on cancer survival. This thoroughly documented and provocative inquiry concludes that public health policy needs to re-evaluate market-driven high-tech medicine and build evidence-based health care systems.

This reference supplies a comprehensive and current overview of every aspect of gastrointestinal microbiota. Expertly written chapters cover conventional and molecular techniques for the study of differing microbial populations, as well as the analysis of microbial activity and interaction with host bodies. Illustrative and up-to-date, this source showcases how fluctuations in our diet, environment, and pharmaceutical intake affect microbial composition and behavior.

Unlike any other source on the subject, this reference provides an up-to-date account of fungal syndromes in immunocompromised patients and provides expert descriptions of their clinical manifestations and settings in which they cause illness-covering the pros and cons of current and emerging diagnostic measures, techniques to incorporate new diagnostic tools and treatments into established clinical practices, and the most recent therapeutic strategies in patient care.

With new infectious agents, antibiotics, and instances of antimicrobial resistance constantly on the horizon, this field is an ever growing discipline that requires constant vigilance. This book responds to burgeoning growth in the field and provides a comprehensive and expert armamentarium of guidelines for the treatment and diagnosis of the entire breadth of adult and pediatric anaerobic infections.

There is an increasing need for educational resources for statisticians and investigators. Reflecting this, the goal of this book is to provide readers with a sound foundation in the statistical design, conduct, and analysis of clinical trials. Furthermore, it is intended as a guide for statisticians and investigators with minimal clinical trial experience who are interested in pursuing a career in this area. The advancement in genetic and molecular technologies have revolutionized drug development. In recent years, clinical trials have become increasingly sophisticated as they incorporate genomic studies, and efficient designs (such as basket and umbrella trials) have permeated the field. This book offers the requisite background and expert guidance for the innovative statistical design and analysis of clinical trials in oncology. Key Features: Cutting-edge topics with appropriate technical background Built around case studies which give the work a "hands-on" approach Real examples of flaws in previously reported clinical trials and how to avoid them Access to statistical code on the book's website Chapters written by internationally recognized statisticians from academia and pharmaceutical companies Carefully edited to ensure consistency in style, level, and approach Topics covered include innovating phase I and II designs, trials in immune-oncology and rare diseases, among many others

As the coronavirus pandemic swept across the globe in recent months, many countries have had to implement strategies to fight the virus and keep its people safe. These strategies, particularly in the West, have not been as effective at keeping the numbers of infected people as low as the governments would have hoped.

Charles R Stith predicted the trajectory the virus would take as its spread progressed and developed a critical analysis of the western countries’ responses to the pandemic. He specifically focuses on South Africa’s response to the virus as it spearheads the surge of cases on the African continent.

The crisis has far reaching consequences that impacts the most vulnerable people in the country. A recent OXFAM report draws connections between the lockdown, to hunger, to deaths which confirms the statement Stith made at the beginning of the outbreak about how people would die of hunger as they lose their jobs, their ability to provide for their families and access to fresh foods.

Stith wrote this book in real time in response to the growth and spread of the coronavirus and analyses the results of South Africa’s response to it. He gives answers to the questions politicians should have been asking and gives his view of what Africa will require to recover

The growing number of cancer survivors presents a new challenge to generalists and specialists involved in their care. Prior cancer treatments may compound known comorbidities or contribute to future health risks. The ultimate success of cancer treatments ultimately depends on the meticulous management of post-cancer care, and this requires a clinical workforce that is engaged and ready. Cancer survivorship has now become recognized as an independent field of research and clinical practice. This new concise guide is intended for cancer clinicians as well as generalists and specialists who meet cancer survivors in their practices for routine check-ups or specialized consultations. With an expanding population known to have complex medical, psychosocial and emotional needs, we hope this book sparks interest and provides answers for those involved in their care.

In this thought-provoking portrait of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the world s largest HIV/AIDS medical care provider, award-winning journalist Patrick Range McDonald reveals the nonprofit s unlikely rise from a feisty grassroots organization during the 1980s AIDS crisis in Los Angeles to its position today as an aggressive, global leader in the ongoing fight to control HIV and AIDS. This riveting story highlights the motivations behind AHF s life-saving efforts, its battles against (and alliances with) governments and various political establishments, and its work today to provide free HIV treatment and prevention services to vulnerable, lower-income people in more than thirty countries. With unrestricted, insider access, McDonald follows AHF for a year as it clashes with the Obama administration, the state of Nevada, and the World Health Organization. He interviews AHF s key players, including firebrand president Michael Weinstein, and he travels to AHF outposts around the globe, from Miami to Uganda, Cambodia to Russia, Estonia to South Africa. Along the way, McDonald discovers that AHF is a passionate, smart, and tenacious people power organization that brings hope and change to nearly all corners of the world. Beyond its work as a highly effective global AIDS organization, the AHF story also provides a blueprint for every kind of righteous rebel who wants to make the world a better place."

On-treatment verification imaging has developed rapidly in recent years and is now at the heart of image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) and all aspects of radiotherapy planning and treatment delivery. This is the first book dedicated to just this important topic, which is written in an accessible manner for undergraduate and graduate therapeutic radiography (radiation therapist) students and trainee medical physicists and clinicians. The later sections of the book will also help established medical physicists, therapeutic radiographers, and radiation therapists familiarise themselves with developing and cutting-edge techniques in IGRT. Features: Clinically focused and internationally applicable; covering a wide range of topics related to on-treatment verification imaging for the study of IGRT Accompanied by a library of electronic teaching and assessment resources for further learning and understanding Authored by experts in the field with over 18 years' experience of pioneering the original forms of on-treatment verification imaging in radiotherapy (electronic portal imaging) in clinical practice, as well as substantial experience of teaching the techniques to trainees

Infectious Diseases and Antimicrobial Stewardship in Critical Care Medicine 4E has been fully updated and revised. The clinical diagnostic approach to common infectious disease problems in the CCU is the underlying theme in the book. Emphasized throughout is the importance of formulating an accurate early presumptive clinical syndromic diagnosis which is the basis for selecting optimal initial antimicrobial therapy in the CCU. Without an accurate presumptive clinical diagnosis, effective therapy is unlikely at best. Based on the most probable clinical diagnosis, optimal antibiotic empiric therapy, based on antimicrobial stewardship principles, minimizes resistance and antibiotic complications in the CCU. This new edition features chapters that explain the tenets of differential diagnostic reasoning, differential diagnostic characteristics of fever patterns in the CCU. The proper interpretation of rapid diagnostic tests, in the appropriate clinical context, is included. The diagnostic importance of cardinal clinical findings, particularly when combined, in the appropriate clinical context is emphasized and remains the basis for clinical problem solving in the CCU. Uniquely, critical diagnostic physical findings in the CCU, including color atlas of diagnostic eye findings, are included as important diagnostic determinants in the CCU. Written by infectious disease clinicians for CCU consultants, Infectious Diseases and Antimicrobial Stewardship in Critical Care Medicine 4E remains a useful evidence based and experience tempered key clinical resource for infectious disease problems in the CCU. Key Features Essentials of the tenets of clinical diagnostic reasoning is explained as it relates to formulating a rapid and accurate clinical syndromic diagnosis in the CCU The diagnostic significance of fever patterns and their relationship to the pulse rate in the proper clinical context is explained in depth as related to the CCU setting Formulating an accurate early clinical syndromic diagnosis is presented as essential since it is the basis of effective empiric antibiotic therapy in the CCU How to combine key non-specific laboratory and imaging findings to increase diagnostic specificity and diagnostic probability in the CCU is presented Clinical perspective on the proper interpretation of the clinical significance of rapid diagnostic test results in the CCU is included A clinical approach to apparent "antibiotic failure" in the CCU is presented either due to actual antibiotic failure or seeming but unrelated non-antibiotic failure Section focuses on the practical aspects of antimicrobial stewardship particularly as related to optimizing dosing effectiveness while minimizing resistance and adverse effects in the CCU

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a severe chronic illness and one of the world's most common genetic conditions, with 400,000 children born annually with the disorder, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa, India, Brazil, the Middle East and in diasporic African populations in North America and Europe. Biomedical treatments for SCD are increasingly available to the world's affluent populations, while such medical care is available only in attenuated forms in Africa, India and to socio-economically disadvantaged groups in North America and Europe. Often a condition rendered invisible in policy terms because of its problematic association with politically marginalized groups, the social study of sickle cell has been neglected. This illuminating volume explores the challenges and possibilities for developing a social view of sickle cell, and for improving the quality of lives of those living with SCD. Tackling the controversial role of screening and genetics in SCD, the book offers a brief thematic history of approaches to the condition, queries the role of ethnicity and includes a discussion of how the social model of disability can be applied, as well as featuring chapters focusing on athletics, prisons and schools. Bringing together a wide range of original research conducted in the USA, the UK, Ghana and Nigeria, Sickle Cell and the Social Sciences is anchored in the discipline of sociology, but draws upon a diverse range of fields, including public health, anthropology, social policy and disability studies.