Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS), often referred to as per- (and poly) fluorinated compounds (PFCs), have been used for years in many everyday3/4 and some lifesaving3/4 products. However, their use has been linked to adverse health effects in humans, a problem compounded by their persistence in the environment. This book discusses the various challenges of PFAS in our environment today, including their historical use as well as their chemical and toxicological properties. It also presents robust discussion of analytical challenges and special considerations in sampling. The work goes on to give practical recommendations for dealing with these compounds in today's dynamic regulatory landscape and includes several chapters on various remediation techniques. Key Features: Comprehensive overview of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) historical use and chemical/physical properties which help us understand their persistence, transport, and transformation pathways in the environment In-depth analysis of PFAS toxicology Detailed descriptions of conventional and state-of-the-art remediation technologies Practical recommendations for dealing with PFAS in a dynamic regulatory landscape Robust discussion of important sampling and analytical considerations Perfluoroalkyl Substances in the Environment: Theory, Practice, and Innovation explores the challenges across the topical areas of regulation and management, toxicology, environmental remediation, and analytical sampling and analysis.Readers will find this text helpful in understanding complexities associated with PFAS and informing management strategies to effectively protect this and future generations.

Advances in Parasitology is a series of up-to-date reviews of all areas of interest in contemporary parasitology. It includes medical studies on parasites of major influence, such as typanosomiasis and scabies, and more traditional areas, such as zoology, taxonomy, and life history, which shape current thinking and applications.

This book presents an innovative method to improve workers' health and prevent occupational accidents: the Change Laboratory, a method of formative intervention that enables the organization's participants to identify, with the help of facilitators, the historical and systemic origins of work processes anomalies (environmental problems, work safety and health, quality and productivity problems, problems related to labor relations, etc). It proposes a cycle of expansive learning that evolves from recognition of the problem to the visualization, testing and consolidation of solutions.The Change Laboratory method was first developed by Finnish researchers in the 90s and has been improved since then by an international network of research centers in ten countries. This volume presents the results of the experiences conducted by the Brazilian research group to apply the methodology to workers' health programs. It adopts a translational approach and seeks to elaborate a method of intervention that goes beyond the mere diagnostics to present solutions to concrete problems based on systematized and participatory research. Collaborative Development for the Prevention of Occupational Accidents and Diseases - Change Laboratory in Worker's Health will be of interest to both researchers and professionals engaged in developing intervention programs to improve safety and health at work, such as occupational health professionals and researchers, organizational psychologists, safety engineers and public agents working with workers' health regulations. The book will also be of interest to occupational health students interested in learning how the Change Laboratory method can be applied to this field of research and activity.

Hypoxia is a constant threat throughout life. International experts from many different fields, including clinicians, clinical researchers, and basic scientists, have contributed to this volume, presenting state-of-the-art information regarding normal and abnormal (pathophysiological) responses to hypoxia. The topics covered include visitors to high altitude, the latest developments on high-altitude cerebral and pulmonary edema, the brain in hypoxia, high-altitude headache, and similarities between ischemic and hypoxic injury to the brain. In addition topics are covered such as blood-brain barrier in hypoxia, hypoxia interactions with vascular growth, and how humans adjust to extreme hypoxia.

This book covers current aspects of important infectious diseases affecting human and animal health in Latin American countries. Readers are equipped with details on arthropod vectors as well as on neglected health problems. Diseases covered include Neglected Tropical Diseases such as Chagas Disease, schistosomiasis, tungiasis, myiasis and leishmaniasis, but also Zika and Chikungunya viral infections, plague and yellow fever. One focus is given on parasitic transmission routes. In addition, the authors describe current therapeutic options and sustainable control measures, considering both human and animal health. By highlighting options within the interdisciplinary One Health approach, they round off this work into a cutting-edge reference for diverse expert readers. Scientists and clinicians concerned on public health, entomology, tropical medicine and parasitology not only in Latin America will find this collection particularly valuable. Finally, these contributions are essential in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals and the targets of SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) in order to combat and end epidemics of Neglected Tropical Diseases.

This casebook profiles exceptional traumatic injury prevention programs from all over the globe. Its detailed description and analysis employ a multi-stage process of identifying, evaluating, and casing effective prevention practices. The case studies reflect how legislative and regulatory information impact prevention efforts and provide insight into how national centers for injury prevention and control inform prevention practices on countrywide levels. The authors work with outcome-based research criteria to select and develop their comprehensive and contextually aware profiles of the programs. All included case studies follow the BRIO approach (Background, Resources, Implementation, and Outcome) - a model designed to provide a consistent way of describing programs that have been evaluated and found to be exceptional practices. The scope of the Casebook ranges across: The challenge of traumatic injury prevention Sports and recreation-related traumatic injury prevention Fall-related traumatic injury prevention Road traffic-related traumatic injury prevention Traumatic injury prevention within complex systems In its recognition of traumatic injury prevention across the lifespan as a critical and complex public health challenge, the Casebook of Traumatic Injury Prevention promises to be an influential and authoritative resource for professionals and students in public health, safety, injury prevention, medicine, psychology, sociology, nursing, and engineering. Government agencies and institutions such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), public health departments, and safety associations also would find the Casebook relevant to their work.

During the last four decades, tremendous advances have been made towards the understanding of transport characteristics of contaminants in soils, solutes, and tracers in geological media. Transport & Fate of Chemicals in Soils: Principles & Applications offers a comprehensive treatment of the subject complete with supporting examples of mathematical models that describe contaminants reactivity and transport in soils and aquifers. This approach makes it a practical guide for designing experiments and collecting data that focus on characterizing retention as well as release kinetic reactions in soils and contaminant transport experiments in the laboratory, greenhouse), and in the field. The book provides the basic framework of the principals governing the sorption and transport of chemicalsin soils. It focuses on physical processes such as fractured media, multiregion, multiple porosities, and heterogeneity and effect of scale as well as chemical processes such as nonlinear kinetics, release and desorption hysteresis, multisite and multireaction reactions, and competitive-type reactions. The coverage also includes details of sorption behavior of chemicals with soil matrix surfaces as well the integration of sorption characteristics with mechanisms that govern solute transport in soils. The discussions of applications of the principles of sorption and transport are not restricted to contaminants, but also include nitrogen, phosphorus, and trace elements including essential micronutrients, heavy metals, military explosives, pesticides, and radionuclides. Written in a very clear and easy-to-follow language by a pioneer in soil science, this book details the basic framework of the physical and chemical processes governing the transport of contaminants, trace elements, and heavy metals in soils. Highly practical, it includes laboratory methods, examples, and empirical formulations. The approach taken by the author gives you not only the fundamentals of understanding of reactive chemicals retention and their transport in soils and aquifers, but practical guidance you can put to immediate use in designing experiments and collecting data.

Board Review in Preventive Medicine and Public Health prepares physicians for their initial and recertification board exams in the related specialties of preventive, occupational and aerospace medicine. Formatted in a question and answer based style that imitates material on specialty exams, each question is linked to a detailed answer. The book contains over 640 question and answer sets covering areas such as general public health, health management, health law, community health, infectious disease, clinical preventive medicine, occupational medicine, aerospace medicine, environmental medicine, correctional (prison) medicine, emergency preparedness, epidemiology and biostatistics. The book is an essential board preparation for physicians with a background in the fields of preventive medicine, occupational medicine, and aerospace medicine. It is also useful for medical students, public health students and those wishing to gain an understanding of the key points in these fields.

Work has never been as safe as it seems today. Safety has also never been as bureaucratized as it is today. Over the past two decades, the number of safety rules and statutes has exploded, and organizations themselves are creating ever more internal compliance requirements. At the same time, progress on safety has slowed to a crawl. Many incident- and injury rates have flatlined. Worse, excellent safety performance on low-consequence events tends to increase the risk of fatalities and disasters. Bureaucracy and compliance now seem less about managing the safety of the workers we are responsible for, and more about managing the liability of the people they work for. We make workers do a lot that does nothing to improve their success locally. Paradoxically, such tightening of safety bureaucracy robs us of exactly the source of human insight, creativity and resilience that can tell us how success is actually created, and where the next accident may well happen. It is time for Safety Anarchists: people who trust people more than process, who rely on horizontally coordinating experiences and innovations, who push back against petty rules and coercive compliance, and who help recover the dignity and expertise of human work.

This textbook - now thoroughly revised and updated - provides a practical guide for those in training, or practising within, occupational health nursing. Concerned with the health of people at work and the effects of work on health and health on work, this distinctive branch of public health nursing requires specific knowledge and skills. Contemporary Occupational Health Nursing includes chapters on: public health, leadership, health promotion and protection, health surveillance, health assessment, case management and rehabilitation, mental health, management of occupational health services and epidemiology and research, quality assurance and audit. The second edition includes additional content on health risk assessment and the Fit for Work Service, occupational health management systems, psychosocial factors and mindfulness, among other things. Discussion of ethical issues is woven throughout and each chapter is written by an experienced occupational health nurse practitioner and includes features such as case studies, activities, learning objectives and chapter summaries. This book can be used as a text by those undertaking specialist community public health nursing qualifications and as an important resource for all nurses working in occupational health practice.

Originating from models of biological neural systems, artificial neural networks (ANN) are the cornerstones of artificial intelligence research. Catalyzed by the upsurge in computational power and availability, and made widely accessible with the co-evolution of software, algorithms, and methodologies, artificial neural networks have had a profound impact in the elucidation of complex biological, chemical, and environmental processes. Artificial Neural Networks in Biological and Environmental Analysis provides an in-depth and timely perspective on the fundamental, technological, and applied aspects of computational neural networks. Presenting the basic principles of neural networks together with applications in the field, the book stimulates communication and partnership among scientists in fields as diverse as biology, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, and environmental science. This interdisciplinary discourse is essential not only for the success of independent and collaborative research and teaching programs, but also for the continued interest in the use of neural network tools in scientific inquiry. The book covers: A brief history of computational neural network models in relation to brain function Neural network operations, including neuron connectivity and layer arrangement Basic building blocks of model design, selection, and application from a statistical perspective Neurofuzzy systems, neuro-genetic systems, and neuro-fuzzy-genetic systems Function of neural networks in the study of complex natural processes Scientists deal with very complicated systems, much of the inner workings of which are frequently unknown to researchers. Using only simple, linear mathematical methods, information that is needed to truly understand natural systems may be lost. The development of new algorithms to model such processes is needed, and ANNs can play a major role. Balancing basic principles and diverse applications, this text introduces newcomers to the field and reviews recent developments of interest to active neural network practitioners.

This edited volume provides a biosemiotic analysis of the ecological relationship between food and medicine. Drawing on the origins of semiotics in medicine, this collection proposes innovative ways of considering aliments and treatments. Considering the ever-evolving character of our understanding of meaning-making in biology, and considering the keen popular interest in issues relating to food and medicines - fueled by an increasing body of interdisciplinary knowledge - the contributions here provide diverse insights and arguments into the larger ecology of organisms' engagement with and transformation through taking in matter. Bodies interpret molecules, enzymes, and alkaloids they intentionally and unintentionally come in contact with according to their pre-existing receptors. But their receptors are also changed by the experience. Once the body has identified a particular substance, it responds by initiating semiotic sequences and negotiations that fulfill vital functions for the organism at macro-, meso-, and micro-scales. Human abilities to distill and extract the living world into highly refined foods and medicines, however, have created substances far more potent than their counterparts in our historical evolution. Many of these substances also lack certain accompanying proteins, enzymes, and alkaloids that otherwise aid digestion or protect against side-effects in active extracted chemicals. Human biology has yet to catch up with human inventions such as supernormal foods and medicines that may flood receptors, overwhelming the body's normal satiation mechanisms. This volume discusses how biosemioticians can come to terms with these networks of meaning, providing a valuable and provocative compendium for semioticians, medical researchers and practitioners, sociologists, cultural theorists, bioethicists and scholars investigating the interdisciplinary questions stemming from food and medicine.

Green chemistry involves designing novel ways to create and synthesize products and implement processes that will eliminate or greatly reduce negative environmental impacts. The Green Chemistry Laboratory Manual for General Chemistry provides educational laboratory materials that challenge students with the customary topics found in a general chemistry laboratory manual, while encouraging them to investigate the practice of green chemistry. Following a consistent format, each lab experiment begins with objectives and prelab questions highlighting important issues that must be understood prior to getting started. This is followed by detailed step-by-step procedures for performing the experiments. Students report specific results in sections designated for data, observations, and calculations. Once each experiment is completed, analysis questions test students comprehension of the results. Additional questions encourage inquiry-based investigations and further research about how green chemistry principles compare with traditional, more hazardous experimental methods. By placing the learned concepts within the larger context of green chemistry principles, the lab manual enables students to see how these principles can be applied to real-world issues. Performing laboratory exercises through green experiments results in a safer learning environment, limits the quantity of hazardous waste generated, and reduces the cost for chemicals and waste disposal. Students using this manual will gain a greater appreciation for green chemistry principles and the possibilities for future use in their chosen careers.

A complete introduction to environmental chemistry, this book provides insight into the operation of the chemical processes near the Earth's surface. The four-part format groups together related environmental topics and introduces theoretical concepts. Part One brings together many essential basic geological, geochemical, and chemical ideas, and emphasizes the importance of oxygen to the chemistry of reactions near the Earth's surface. Parts Two and Three discuss systems depending on these reaction types, and Part Four examines the effects of human activities on elements that usually cycle naturally in small quantities. Also in this part, the perturbation of natural cycles by agricultural, industrial, and social developments is highlighted in terms of the consequent problems of environmental management.

This book features papers presented at a workshop discussing current knowledge about the biological effects of low level exposures (BELLE). The book is designed to help establish a scientific base for future BELLE initiatives and is focused on the issue of the toxicological implications of biological adaptations. Hormesis is considered in a broad, conceptual manner, as well as at molecular and biochemical levels. Other topics covered include the effects of low levels of radiation on biological systems, how the liver adapts to genetic insults, biostatistical considerations when designing studies that address issues associated with biological responses to low doses of chemicals and radiation, and the issues that surround the interpretation of findings from such studies.

This open access book deals with global sanitation, where SDG 6.2 sets a target of enabling access to sanitation services for all, but has not yet been achieved in low- and middle-income countries. The transition from the United Nations MDGs to the SDGs requires more consideration based on the socio-cultural aspects of global sanitation. In other words, equitable sanitation for those in vulnerable situations could be based on socio-cultural contexts. Sanitation is a system that comprises not only a latrine but also the works for the treatment and disposal of human waste. Sanitation systems do not function by themselves but have significance only through social management. The process of decision-making also largely depends on socio-cultural conditions, and the importance of sanitation needs to be socially acknowledged. The health benefits of sanitation improvement-among the significant contributions of sanitation-also need to be considered in the socio-cultural milieu. Further, the social-culture itself is affected, and potentially even created, by sanitation. In this context, more progress on the improvement of sanitation requires a more holistic approach across disciplines. In this book, we present the concept of the Sanitation Triangle, which considers the interconnections of health, materials, and socio-culture in sanitation, as a holistic approach, and the case studies based on the Sanitation Triangle by diverse disciplines such as Cultural Anthropology, Development Studies, Health Sciences, Engineering, and Science Communication. By the deep theoretical examinations and inter-dialogues between the different disciplines, this book explores the potentialities of inter-disciplinary studies on global sanitation.

Even a cursory perusal of any analytical journal will demonstrate the increasing important of trace and ultra-trace analysis. And as instrumentation continues to develop, the definition of the term "trace element" will undoubtedly continue to change. Covering the composition and underlying properties of freshwater and marine systems, Analytical Measurements in Aquatic Environments provides the basis for understanding both. It discusses all aspects of analytical protocols from the handling of representative samples to the metrological evaluation of specific steps and whole procedures. The book covers: handling of representative samples sample preservation techniques extraction techniques speciation analytics solvent-free sample preparation for analysis application of biotests bioanalytical methods for monitoring green analytical chemistry-application of the concept of sustainability in analytical laboratories application of the Life Cycle Assessment approach quality control and quality assurance of analytical results enhanced techniques of sample preparation hyphenated analytical techniques Ecotoxicological considerations and the effort to achieve an increasingly accurate description of the state of the environment challenge analytical chemists who need to determine increasingly lower concentrations of various analytes in samples that have complex and even non-homogenous matrices. The newly coined expression "analytics" emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of available methods for obtaining information about material systems, with many methods that exceed the strict definition of analytical chemistry. Drawing on the disciplines of chemistry, physics, computer science, electronics, material science, and chemometrics, this book provides in depth information on the most important problems in analytics of samples from aquatic ecosystems.

This book critically examines the available literature on oceanic acidification: including a historical review of pH and atmospheric CO2 levels over the millennia; natural and anthropogenic sources of CO2 to the atmosphere and sea surface; chemical, physical, and biological mode of action; biological effects of acidification to marine plants and animals under laboratory conditions; field observations on seawater chemistry and effects of declining pH; and various technical and political mitigation strategies. Written by Dr. Ronald Eisler, a noted authority on chemical risk assessment, the book summarizes real and projected effects of oceanic acidification.

Over the years, Oxfam has been involved in a wide variety of health-related projects. The Practical Health Guides draw on this experience to put forward ideas on best practice in the provision of health care and services in developing countries The number of refugees and displaced persons has increased greatly in recent years. At least 80 per cent of them are living in tropical or semi-tropical countries where vector-borne diseases, such as malaria, dengue fever and sleeping sickness are common and cause widespread sickness and death in the crowded conditions of refugee camps. This work is intended to help development workers and planners to identify and assess the risks of vector-borne diseases in a camp and to plan and implement cost-effective ways of controlling them. The main vector-borne diseases are described, the importance of identifying the particular disease and its vector and of considering a variety of methods of control is emphasized. The book discusses the need for a community-based approach to vector control, the safe use of insecticides and selection of spraying equipment. Also included are lists of suppliers of insecticides and equipment, sources of advice and recommended texts.

Environmental Fate and Transport Analysis with Compartment Modeling explains how to use the powerful, highly flexible, and intuitive compartment approach to estimate the distribution of chemical contaminants in environmental media in time and space. Add this Easy-to-Use Approach to Your Environmental Modeling Toolbox This numerical technique enables readers to easily develop the equations that describe complex environmental problems by assembling the equations out of compartmental building blocks. The compartments may describe spatial subunits of single- or multi-environmental media, and the way one hooks them together implicitly provides the dimensionality of the problem. With this approach, assembling the equations to describe chemical fate and transport in a three-dimensional, multimedia system is fundamentally no more challenging than a one-dimensional, single-medium problem. Go Beyond "Black Box" Modeling with the Flexible GEM Software The book includes access to the Generic Environmental Model (GEM), a new software package developed by the author. This software implements the compartment approach based on user-prepared input files and solves the resulting mathematical equations. It allows readers to solve linear, nonlinear, and steady-state problems and offers four methods for solving dynamic problems. Each solution technique is reviewed, along with the error properties and the criteria for avoiding or minimizing numerical errors. The book also describes solution techniques and the underlying mathematical theory for solving nonlinear systems. Compartment Modeling from the Ground Up, Made Accessible to Non-Mathematicians A user-friendly introduction to environmental compartment modeling for the beginning modeler, this is also a useful resource for the experienced modeler. It combines a reference on compartment modeling with a user's guide to the GEM. Throughout, the GEM is used to illustrate the theory with numerous examples, while the theoretical discussions illuminate the GEM's functionality.

Ecology is cross-disciplinary field involving many different aspects of science. Written with this in mind, this book introduces ecological processes, ranging from physical processes, to chemical processes and biological processes. It contains all the necessary information on an ecological process: a clear, detailed but not too lengthy definition, some practical examples, the main mathematical models which have been used to describe the process, the key interconnections with other ecological processes that must be known in order to apply what has been learned from the book.

Most reported incidents of soil contamination include an array of heavy metals species rather than a single ion. The various interactions in these multicomponent or multiple-ion systems significantly impact the fate and transport of heavy metals, and competition for sorption sites on soil matrix surfaces is a common phenomenon. Because of this, considering competitive sorption is an important part of predicting contaminant transport. Competitive Sorption and Transport of Heavy Metals in Soils and Geological Media gives you the information needed to understand heavy metals' sorption and transport in the vadose zone and aquifers. The book brings together state-of-the art research on the competitive sorption and mobility of single versus multiple heavy metal species. It also relates the transport mechanisms to the processes that govern sorption mechanisms. The work offers new experimental evidence on the fate of multiple heavy metals in soil columns and new field results on how multiple ions influence the mobility of metals in the soil profile under water-unsaturated flow. Emphasizing modeling approaches, the book begins with an overview of the competitive behavior of heavy metals. It then takes a closer look at various heavy metals, discussing their behavior in tropical soils, speciation and fractionation, accumulation, migration, competitive retention, and the contamination of water resources at the watershed scale. The book also presents extensive data on phosphate, a commonly used fertilizer, and its role in facilitating the release of trace elements. The final chapter looks at the effect of waterlogged conditions on arsenic and cadmium solubilization. Edited by an internationally recognized researcher and featuring expert contributors, this comprehensive work addresses the complex physical and chemical phenomena of sorption mechanisms. Presenting the latest research, it helps you to better predict the potential mobility of multiple heavy metals in soils.

1. A guide to managing paediatric surgical patients in a remote and rural setting 2. Includes guidance on differences in presentation and problems relating to the Tropical environment 3. A key resource in understanding paediatric surgical patients needs when being managed remotely

What does it mean to help save someone's life? How does it feel to nearly kill a patient? Can we keep our patients safe at night? In the face of overwhelming pressures, can we thrive or only survive? And is a happy life as a doctor still possible? In the early months and years of work, it is these kinds of questions, rather than any technical or knowledge-based queries, which preoccupy many new doctors. This elusive, hidden curriculum is pervasive within departments, around hospitals and across health systems, but is rarely, if ever, explicitly examined and discussed. At its core is the issue that should matter above all others - how we can keep our patients as safe as possible. The Bleep Test combines gripping and startlingly vulnerable recollections of early experiences on the wards with an array of research findings, from psychology and human biology to anthropology, business and behavioural economics. Acknowledging that the truly complex challenges facing new doctors lie far beyond the realms of the traditional medical sciences in which they were trained, the book explains that the shift to being a doctor depends on first understanding how we think, reason and behave as someone we have been all our lives - a human amongst humans. Focused on the experiences of, and the issues facing, recently qualified medics, The Bleep Test is not only for young doctors, but also for anyone who manages them, works with them, cares for them or may, one day, depend on them.