This open access book examines health trajectories and health transitions at different stages of the life course, including childhood, adulthood and later life. It provides findings that assess the role of biological and social transitions on health status over time. The essays examine a wide range of health issues, including the consequences of military service on body mass index, childhood obesity and cardiovascular health, socio-economic inequalities in preventive health care use, depression and anxiety during the child rearing period, health trajectories and transitions in people with cystic fibrosis and oral health over the life course. The book addresses theoretical, empirical and methodological issues as well as examines different national contexts, which help to identify factors of vulnerability and potential resources that support resilience available for specific groups and/or populations. Health reflects the ability of individuals to adapt to their social environment. This book analyzes health as a dynamic experience. It examines how different aspects of individual health unfold over time as a result of aging but also in relation to changing socioeconomic conditions. It also offers readers potential insights into public policies that affect the health status of a population.

Unique selling point: Combines theory with practice and applications for advanced intelligent healthcare informatics Core audience: Researchers and academics in healthcare informatics and machine learning Place in the market: Reference work

1. This volume critically engages with narratives that have dealt with pandemics/epidemics in the past and also in contemporary times to see how these texts present human life coming to terms with and trying to deal with all what pandemics/epidemics entail. 2. It ranges from Camus' The Plague, the writings of Pandita Ramabai, Mary Shelly, to Jack London, Lawrence Wright, and Christina Sweeney Baird, among others. The essays cover a wide spatio-temporal trajectory and make a substantial contribution to mapping the contours of the pandemic in terms of psychology, economics, society, politics and philosophy, thereby offering a variety of perspectives and disciplinarian trajectories. 3. It will be of interest to departments of English literature, social science, gender studies, cultural studies, psychology, society, politics, and philosophy across the US/UK. General readers too will find this exciting as it covers authors from across the world.

* The first book to explore the complex challenges of the Covid19 pandemic from an inter-disciplinary perspective. * Written by leaders across a range of different sectors that are impacted by the pandemic - medicine, business, law, higher education, government. * The book provides an accessible overview of some of the key tensions presented by the Covid19 pandemic to enable policymakers and researchers to gain insight quickly.

COVID Transmission Modeling: An Insight into Infectious Diseases Mechanism provides an interdisciplinary overview of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and covers various aspects of newer modeling techniques and practical solutions for health emergencies. This book aims to formulate various innovative and pragmatic mathematical, statistical, and epidemiological models using COVID-19 real data sets. It emphasizes interdisciplinary theoretical postulates derived from practical insights and knowledge of public health. Each of the book's 12 chapters provides invaluable and exploratory tools to enable explicit assumptions, highlights key health indicators, and determines the geometric progression and control measures of the disease. The present developed models will allow readers to extrapolate the exact reason for the outbreak and pave the way for scientific information on vaccine trials and socioeconomic, psychological, and disease burden worldwide. These advanced techniques of modeling and their applications are in greater need than ever for effective connection between mathematicians, statisticians, epidemiologists, researchers, clinicians, and policymakers for making appropriate decisions at the right time. With the advent of emerging health science, all models are demonstrated with real-life data sets and provided with illustrations and eye-catching graphs and diagrams so that the readers can easily understand the concept of COVID-19 pandemic interventions and their control measures, and their impact. Features Addresses all aspects of mitigation/control measures, estimation of transmission rate, economic impact assessment, genetic complexity of COVID-19, herd immunity, and various methods, including newer mathematical, statistical, and epidemiological models in the analysis of COVID-19 pandemic outbreak Covers the application of innovative, advanced statistical and epidemiological models and demonstrates possible solutions toward supportive treatment aspects of COVID-19 and its control measures Includes models that can easily be followed in formulating the mathematical derivations and key points Supplemented with ample illustrations, images, diagrams, and figures This book is aimed at postgraduate students studying medicine and healthcare, mathematics, and statistical information. Researchers will also find this book very helpful.

This book introduces the field of Health Web Science and presents methods for information gathering from written social media data. It explores the availability and utility of the personal medical information shared on social media platforms and determines ways to apply this largely untapped information source to healthcare systems and public health monitoring. Introducing an innovative concept for integrating social media data with clinical data, it addresses the crucial aspect of combining experiential data from social media with clinical evidence, and explores how the variety of available social media content can be analyzed and implemented. The book tackles a range of topics including social media's role in healthcare, the gathering of shared information, and the integration of clinical and social media data. Application examples of social media for health monitoring, along with its usage in patient treatment are also provided. The book also considers the ethical and legal issues of gathering and utilizing social media data, along with the risks and challenges that must be considered when integrating social media data into healthcare choices. With an increased interest internationally in E-Health, Health 2.0, Medicine 2.0 and the recent birth of the discipline of Web Science, this book will be a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners investigating this emerging topic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected communities of color while highlighting the prevalence of structural racism in the United States. This crucial collection of essays, written by leading scholars from the fields of communications, political science, health, philosophy, and geography, explores the manifold ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted upon Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities and the way we see race relations in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the significance of U.S. health inequalities, which the World Health Organization defines as "avoidable [and] unfair." It has also highlighted structural racism, specifically, institutions, practices, values, customs, and policies that differentially allocate resources and opportunities so as to increase inequity among racial groups. Navarro and Hernandez therefore argue that the COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed a race war in America that has further marginalized communities of color by limiting access to resources by different racial and ethnic minorities, particularly women within these communities. Moreover, the systemic policies of the past that upheld or failed to address the unequal social conditions affecting Blacks, Latinxs, and other minorities have now been magnified with COVID-19. The volume concludes by offering recommendations to prevent future humanitarian crises from exacerbating racial divisions and having a disproportionate impact upon ethnic minorities. This timely volume will be of great interest to those interested in the study of race and the social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

Cover simple modelling approaches as well as full Monte Carlo simulation of x-ray tubes Bremsstrahlung and characteristic contributions to the spectrum are discussed in detail Learning is supported by free open-source software and an online repository of code.

Unlike other books on epidemics, which either focus on the science behind how microbes cause disease or tell first-person accounts of one particular disease, Epidemics: The Impact of Germs and Their Power over Humanity takes a holistic approach to explaining how these diseases have shaped who we are as a society. Each of the worst epidemic diseases is discussed from the perspective of how it has been a causative agent of change with respect to our history, religious traditions, social interactions, and technology. In looking at world history through the lens of epidemic diseases, readers will come to appreciate how much we owe to our oldest and smallest parasites. Adults and students interested in science and history—and especially anyone who appreciates a good story and has a healthy curiosity for the lesser-known facts of life—will find this book of interest. Health-care workers will also benefit greatly from this text, as will college students majoring in biology or a pre-health field.

What disease is and how it affects humans is the focus of this primer. Designed to cover the basics of communicable and non-communicable diseases, the book provides a framework for understanding the major health problems in our society. Hurster uses the Biological Laws of Disease to frame each discussion and to demonstrate how these laws relate to the prepathogenesis and pathogenesis stages of the natural history of any disease. Considerable attention is given to the roles of the individual, the community, and the government in bringing about behavior change with respect to disease prevention, detection, control, and management.

Key Features: Provides the taxonomy of the concepts and a navigation tool for the field of DTx. Covers important strategic aspects of the DTx industry, thereby helping investors, developers, and regulators gain a better appreciation of the potential value of DTx. Expounds on many existing and emerging state-of-the art scientific and technological tools, as well as data privacy, ethical and regulatory considerations for DTx product development. Presents several case studies of successful development of some of the most remarkable DTx products. Provides some perspectives and forward-looking statements on the future of digital medicine.

This volume explores the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for the sustainability of the present global political and economic system and the extent to which that system may as a result be undergoing transformation. Towards this aim, the contributing authors raise a number of key questions. First, what is likely to be the impact of the pandemic on the current global order based on neoliberal hyper-globalization? Second, what insights do earlier pandemics along with other inter-related crises such as those of climate, inequality, social reproduction, and continued fallout of the global financial crisis offer for understanding the medium- to long-term implications of COVID-19? Third, to what extent might the COVID pandemic lead to progressive political transformations? Towards this latter goal, the contributors to this volume also offer a number of suggestions as to what a post-COVID-19 world might look like and how post-COVID transformations might be channeled in a direction more conducive towards social justice and equality. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Globalizations.

This book presents models describing HIV transmission rates at population level, discussing the main statistical methods and analytical interventions. It also assesses the practical applicability of the various modelling techniques, offering readers insights into what methods are available and, more importantly, when they should be used to address HIV transmission at global level. The book includes realistic simulation models fitted to clarify the rate of HIV mother-to-child transmission (HIV MTCT), and substantiates the conclusions that can be drawn as well as the appropriate time for making global-level clinical decisions concerning people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIVs). Intended for students, academics and researchers, the book offers more than just an introduction to the topic - it also features in-depth, yet easy-to-understand, descriptions of a new mathematical/statistical HIV mother-to-child transmission model, making it a useful resource for clinicians, public health workers and policymakers involved in implementing HIV-prevention programmes at national /global level.

Takes the fear out of statistics through a combination of visual and practical learning! "Statistical acumen and confidence have evaded many nurses for multiple reasons requiring educators to find alternate ways to bridge this knowledge gap. [This book] fills a void and meets this need. Students and educators alike will benefit from its straightforward, pragmatic style in explaining applied statistical analysis. Drawing on the deep expertise of its authors, the book should become a go-to reference for anyone looking to gain knowledge in applied statistics." -Mary Ellen Smith Glasgow, PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, ANEF, FAAN Dean and Professor Duquesne University School of Nursing The only biostatistics resource written specifically for MSN and DNP nursing students, this text provides a unique graphic representation of data to help students understand difficult analytic information. Modelled on an effective and proven method of learning-graphical illustrations first, technical details second-the text helps students understand appropriate research design, measurement, and analysis of how results are calculated. Providing a gentle progression into the complexities of statistics, it builds upon concepts step-by-step, helping students to reinforce prior knowledge before moving on the new information. Chapters initially focus on the practical application of content to illustrate how statistics are used, followed by working examples-addressing both research and evidence-based content and epidemiology and population health content-to enhance understanding and underscore the importance of the methodology. The book integrates the latest changes from the ASA related to statistical significance tested and addresses recent deliberations about sample size. Abundant Instructor Resources include PowerPoints, a test bank, data sets, information on how to obtain online programming classes, and sample lesson plans and activities. Key Features: Uses a proven, step-by-step method including a graphic representation of data followed by analytic content Follows graphical representation with examples of appropriate research design, measurement, and analysis of how results are calculated Includes a basic review checklist Provides chapter objectives, summaries, review questions, and key terms Offers data sets for those instructors/students who wish to do analyses Addresses SPSS and other software, including open source (JAMOVI, JASP, and R-Studio) Includes a comprehensive Instructor Resource Package to ensure faculty have the tools they need to work with students

Statistics for Bioinformatics: Methods for Multiple Sequence Alignment provides an in-depth introduction to the most widely used methods and software in the bioinformatics field. With the ever increasing flood of sequence information from genome sequencing projects, multiple sequence alignment has become one of the cornerstones of bioinformatics. Multiple sequence alignments are crucial for genome annotation, as well as the subsequent structural, functional, and evolutionary studies of genes and gene products. Consequently, there has been renewed interest in the development of novel multiple sequence alignment algorithms and more efficient programs.

Weaving together political, sociological, psychological, and epidemiological analyses, Social and Political Representations of the COVID-19 Crisis provides revealing insights into the transformations wrought by the pandemic and the social divisions it has exposed. Accounting for the realities of the pandemic across the globe, with a strong focus on experiences in the Global South, this book challenges readers to question their beliefs about the societies they live in and how these societies should respond to collective catastrophes. Originally published in Spanish, this English edition is thoroughly revised and updated. Social and Political Representations of the COVID-19 Crisis analyzes the varied strategies attempted in different parts of the world to deal with the pandemic, including elimination, mitigation, flattening the curve, and herd immunity, and the ramifications of these approaches. It argues that the different strategies are guided by social representations that can be analyzed on epistemological, emotional, and ethical-moral levels. Drawing upon a wide range of thinkers, the book also investigates the key role of psychological defense mechanisms, including different ways of denying the seriousness of the pandemic and different paranoid responses to pain and frustration, such as scapegoating and conspiracy theories. This timely book analyzes the transformations in the social fabric brought about by the pandemic and the questions it poses for the future of our societies. It will therefore be of great interest to students and researchers in the humanities, social sciences, and public health, as well as the general reader.

This volume presents the procedings of an "Advanced Research Workshop," held under the auspices of the NATO International Scientific Exchange Programme, on the Environmental and Non-environmental Determinants of the East-West Life Expectancy Gap in Europe. The workshop brought together individuals from Eastern and Western Europe and North America who had a common interest in understanding the evolution of the relative declines in life expectancy in Central and Eastern Europe, compared to the West, over the past 30 years. Between 1989 and 1993, I carried out a series of investigations into the effects of environmental pollution on human health in Central and Eastern Europe, at first, under the auspices of the World Bank, and later, under a broader multilateral, multi-agency arrangement known as the "Environment for Europe" Process. These investigations provided unparalleled access to environmental health data from the region, and offered a glimpse of what the contribution of pollution to health status was, and what it was not. At the same time, the Program in Population Health of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR) and the International Centre for Health and Society (ICHS) at University College, London, were embarking upon multi-disciplinary inquiries into the broad determinants of health in modern societies. The work of the CIAR provided a framework for conceptualizing the East-West life expectancy gap and its potential determinants; the work of the ICHS provided specific insights into the relative contributions of these determinants.

This volume of the Biostatistics and Health Sciences Set focuses on statistics applied to clinical research. The use of Stata for data management and statistical modeling is illustrated using various examples. Many aspects of data processing and statistical analysis of cross-sectional and experimental medical data are covered, including regression models commonly found in medical statistics. This practical book is primarily intended for health researchers with basic knowledge of statistical methodology. Assuming basic concepts, the authors focus on the practice of biostatistical methods essential to clinical research, epidemiology and analysis of biomedical data (including comparison of two groups, analysis of categorical data, ANOVA, linear and logistic regression, and survival analysis). The use of examples from clinical trials and epideomological studies provide the basis for a series of practical exercises, which provide instruction and familiarize the reader with essential Stata packages and commands.

A Historical Introduction to Mathematical Modeling of Infectious Diseases: Seminal Papers in Epidemiology offers step-by-step help on how to navigate the important historical papers on the subject, beginning in the 18th century. The book carefully, and critically, guides the reader through seminal writings that helped revolutionize the field. With pointed questions, prompts, and analysis, this book helps the non-mathematician develop their own perspective, relying purely on a basic knowledge of algebra, calculus, and statistics. By learning from the important moments in the field, from its conception to the 21st century, it enables readers to mature into competent practitioners of epidemiologic modeling.

The disability-adjusted life year (DALY) is a generic measure of health effect that can be used in cost-effectiveness analysis as an alternative to the quality-adjusted life year (QALY). Infectious diseases are one of the major to cause significant losses of DALY and QALY. Human infectious diseases are disorders that are triggered by the micro-organisms such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, or parasites. The majority of such diseases are contagious and create a public health menace. There are several reasons why infectious diseases are deadly diseases, and one of the primary reasons is the drug resistance developed over time. Drug resistance-associated mutations are linked to increasing drug efflux, modifications of the drugs, or their targets. Every year, new drugs are being approved by FDA to treat infectious diseases. Nonetheless, the infectious diseases will undoubtedly persist as permanent and main threats to humanity for now and in the future. A total of four books are covered under the series of Infectious drug diseases. - Malarial drug delivery systems - Tubercular drug delivery systems - Viral drug delivery systems - Infectious disease drug delivery systems Infectious diseases are the world’s greatest killers that present one of the most significant health and security challenges. Humans have lived with emerging and re-emerging pathogens since before the documented history of civilization. The only determining fact today is - If the situation is “worse” or “better” than in past. The answer is probably “worse”, may be due significant increase in human population, increased cross-continent mobility, imbalanced (stressed) life style, irregular food habits leading to compromised innate immunity and over or under practiced hygiene routine. When the incidence of such a disease in people increases over 20 years or threatens to increase, it is called an “emerging” disease, and a growing number have made watch lists and headlines in nearly every country -like highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Ebola virus, food- and waterborne illnesses, and a range of antimicrobial-resistant bacterial diseases TB. This book addresses current and new therapy developments in treating such infectious diseases, updates on finding new drugs, identification of innovative diagnostic methods, understanding of disease research models and clinical trials performances of new treatment modalities. Audiences from a broad range of groups, from researchers, academicians, and public health bodies to regulatory experts, can benefit from the compiled information to learn more about patient needs and current research advances in the field of infectious diseases and related research.

When we think of plagues, we think of AIDS, Ebola, anthrax spores, and, of course, the Black Death. But in 1918 the Great Flu Epidemic killed an estimated 40 million people virtually overnight. If such a plague returned today, taking a comparable percentage of the U.S. population with it, 1.5 million Americans would die.

In Flu, Gina Kolata, an acclaimed reporter for The New York Times, unravels the mystery of this lethal virus with the high drama of a great adventure story. From Alaska to Norway, from the streets of Hong Kong to the corridors of the White House, Kolata tracks the race to recover the live pathogen and probes the fear that has impelled government policy.

A gripping work of science writing, Flu addresses the prospects for a great epidemic's recurrence and considers what can be done to prevent it.

Survival data analysis is a very broad field of statistics, encompassing a large variety of methods used in a wide range of applications, and in particular in medical research. During the last twenty years, several extensions of "classical" survival models have been developed to address particular situations often encountered in practice. This book aims to gather in a single reference the most commonly used extensions, such as frailty models (in case of unobserved heterogeneity or clustered data), cure models (when a fraction of the population will not experience the event of interest), competing risk models (in case of different types of event), and joint survival models for a time-to-event endpoint and a longitudinal outcome. Features Presents state-of-the art approaches for different advanced survival models including frailty models, cure models, competing risk models and joint models for a longitudinal and a survival outcome Uses consistent notation throughout the book for the different techniques presented Explains in which situation each of these models should be used, and how they are linked to specific research questions Focuses on the understanding of the models, their implementation, and their interpretation, with an appropriate level of methodological development for masters students and applied statisticians Provides references to existing R packages and SAS procedure or macros, and illustrates the use of the main ones on real datasets This book is primarily aimed at applied statisticians and graduate students of statistics and biostatistics. It can also serve as an introductory reference for methodological researchers interested in the main extensions of classical survival analysis.

This third edition volume expands on the previous editions with updated chapters on longitudinal studies, randomized trials, evidence-based decisions making, and a new section on changing health-related behaviors. The chapters in this book are organized into six parts: Part One focuses on framing clinical research questions and choosing a suitable design; biases that may occur in clinical research; and the ethics associated with doing conducting research on humans. Parts Two through Four discuss designs, measurements, and analysis that pertain to evaluation of risk in longitudinal studies; assessment of therapy in controlled trials; and evaluation of diagnostic tests. Part Five presents methods used in various components of evidence-based decision-making; and Part Six highlights interventions focused on changing health-related behaviors. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of various types of bias, step-by-step, readily reproducible protocols for different research designs, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Cutting-edge and thorough, Clinical Epidemiology: Methods and Protocols, Third Edition is a valuable resource for clinicians and researchers who want to expand their works to humans and use their findings in the health system.

Informed and Healthy: Theoretical and Applied Perspectives on the Value of Information to Health Care focuses on two major issues: the value attributed to information by users and its effect on health care; and, a new model of information behavior in which the value of information drives various information activities (unlike many information models which tend to give prominence to information needs). The inductive development of the model is explained, with associated implications for theory and transferability or applicability elsewhere. The book uses a case study of the health information system in Uganda and expands the analysis by comparing it to other systems utilized by different countries in diverse levels of development. Topics such as access and use of information; value attribution and effect on health outcomes; and modelling information behavior and its implications on health informatics are discussed in detail. This book is a valuable resource for health professionals, planners, and policy makers, as well as researchers interested in health information systems and their applicability in different environments.