This book examines statistical methods and models used in the fields of global health and epidemiology. It includes methods such as innovative probability sampling, data harmonization and encryption, and advanced descriptive, analytical and monitory methods. Program codes using R are included as well as real data examples. Contemporary global health and epidemiology involves a myriad of medical and health challenges, including inequality of treatment, the HIV/AIDS epidemic and its subsequent control, the flu, cancer, tobacco control, drug use, and environmental pollution. In addition to its vast scales and telescopic perspective; addressing global health concerns often involves examining resource-limited populations with large geographic, socioeconomic diversities. Therefore, advancing global health requires new epidemiological design, new data, and new methods for sampling, data processing, and statistical analysis. This book provides global health researchers with methods that will enable access to and utilization of existing data. Featuring contributions from both epidemiological and biostatistical scholars, this book is a practical resource for researchers, practitioners, and students in solving global health problems in research, education, training, and consultation.

This book is the first one in which basic demographic models are rigorously formulated by using modern age-structured population dynamics, extended to study real-world population problems. Age structure is a crucial factor in understanding population phenomena, and the essential ideas in demography and epidemiology cannot be understood without mathematical formulation; therefore, this book gives readers a robust mathematical introduction to human population studies. In the first part of the volume, classical demographic models such as the stable population model and its linear extensions, density-dependent nonlinear models, and pair-formation models are formulated by the McKendrick partial differential equation and are analyzed from a dynamical system point of view. In the second part, mathematical models for infectious diseases spreading at the population level are examined by using nonlinear differential equations and a renewal equation. Since an epidemic can be seen as a nonlinear renewal process of an infected population, this book will provide a natural unification point of view for demography and epidemiology. The well-known epidemic threshold principle is formulated by the basic reproduction number, which is also a most important key index in demography. The author develops a universal theory of the basic reproduction number in heterogeneous environments. By introducing the host age structure, epidemic models are developed into more realistic demographic formulations, which are essentially needed to attack urgent epidemiological control problems in the real world.

In the tradition of its predecessor, the main purpose of this volume is the dissemination of statistical methodologies in the area of biological and medical sciences. The chapters are written by specialists with considerable experience in the application of statistical techniques for investigating biological issues. The volume is divided into four parts and the chapters illustrate some recent work on many issues. Most of the papers discuss the statistical principles in conjunction with specific applications. As a result biological as well as statistical readers will benefit from this exposition, and obtain the current state of knowledge in these areas. Many authors emphasize the open problems that might lead to further work on these subjects.

This volume gathers together selected, peer-reviewed papers presented at the BIOMAT 2020 International Symposium, which was virtually held on November 1-6, 2020, with an organization staff based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Topics covered in this volume include infection modeling, with an emphasis on different aspects of the COVID-19 and novel Coronavirus spread; a description of the effectiveness of quarantine measures via dynamic analysis of SLIR model; hemodynamic simulations in time-dependent domains; an optimal control model for the Ebola disease; and the co-existence of chaos and control in the context of biological models. Texts in agroforestry, economic development, and wastewater treatment processes complete this volume. Held every year since 2001, the BIOMAT International Symposium gathers together, in a single conference, researchers from Mathematics, Physics, Biology, and affine fields to promote the interdisciplinary exchange of results, ideas and techniques, promoting truly international cooperation for problem discussion. The 20th edition of the BIOMAT International Symposium has received contributions by authors from 18 countries: Algeria, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China (Hong Kong), Colombia, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Morocco, Nigeria, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, USA, and Uzbekistan. Previous BIOMAT volumes with selected works from 2017, 2018, and 2019 were also published by Springer.

This authoritative handbook reviews the most widely-used methods for studying the use and abuse of alcohol and illegal drugs. Its thorough coverage spans the range of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method approaches to documenting and measuring the complex psychological, behavioral, and physical experience of substance misuse and dependence, to ensure valid, useful results. Experts discuss special issues and considerations for conducting ethical research with specialized populations, including youth, inmates, and the LGBT community. Throughout these chapters, contributors demonstrate the multidisciplinary nature of substance abuse research, with emphasis on professional ethics and the critical role of research in developing best practices and effective policy for prevention and treatment. Among the topics covered: * Transdisciplinary research perspective: a theoretical framework for substance abuse research * Longitudinal methods in substance use research * Considerations in blending qualitative and quantitative components in substance abuse research * The use of biological measures in social research on drug misuse * Using surveys to study substance use behavior * Applications of GIS to inform substance abuse research and interventions * Evaluating substance use prevention and treatment programs Research Methods in the Study of Substance Abuse is an essential resource for health services and public health professionals, policymakers, and researchers working and training in the field of addiction. It encourages the rigor and understanding necessary to address widespread social and public health concerns.

Disease is everywhere. Everyone experiences disease, everyone knows somebody who is, or has been diseased, and disease-related stories hit the headlines on a regular basis. Many important issues in the philosophy of disease, however, have received remarkably little attention from philosophical thinkers. This book examines a number of important debates in the philosophy of medicine, including 'what is disease?', and the roles and viability of concepts of causation, in clinical medicine and epidemiology. Where much of the existing literature targets conceptual analyses of health and disease, this book provides the reader with an insight into these debates, and develops plausible alternative accounts. The author explores a range of related subjects, discussing a host of interesting philosophical questions within clinical medicine, pathology and epidemiology. In the second part of the book, the author examines the concepts of causation employed by clinicians and pathologists, how one should classify diseases, and whether the epidemiologist's models for inferring the causes of disease are all they're cracked up to be.

Human aging is perhaps the most complex and important subject that will be facing science and societies in the next century. People seem to be living longer and remaining more active than their parents and grandparents, caused by to social and demographic shifts that must be accommodated by society. On the other hand it presents perplexing questions about the underlying processes and determinants of healthy aging. This book gives a design for research that will increase our understanding of the factors that influence healthy aging and can lead to improvements in reducing the levels of disability in the population. Its focus is on bio-behavioural and psychological factors contributing to healthy aging. Since human aging is determined by many interacting conditions inside and outside of the organism, research should concentrate on ecological relationships between the human organism and its social and physical environment. Not only individual characteristics associated with aging are discussed in this book, but also their impacts on society. The information presented in 'Aging in Europe' has not been available in any single source before. In many ways this book provides a model of gaining knowledge through cooperation that should guide us in the next century and beyond.

In the current edition, Selenium: Its Molecular Biology and Role in Human Health expands extensively on the previous editions providing readers with the most significant advances in the rapidly developing selenium field. Evidence from epidemiology and veterinary science supports the essential role of selenium in (human) health, but its split personality in both preventing and supporting cancer and also in promoting insulin resistance has become more clearly defined. The pivotal role of glutathione peroxidase 4 in a new process of programmed cell death, ferroptosis, brings new impetus to the field. Recently defined mutations in selenoprotein and biosynthesis factor genes have been identified in patients, and the resulting disorders further emphasize the significance of selenoproteins in human health. The mechanism of selenoprotein biosynthesis, the functions of selenoproteins, and the roles of dietary selenium have been further elucidated, and new regulatory mechanisms involving selenoproteins discovered. The book, therefore, covers the breadth of current selenium research. With up-to-date chapters written by leaders in their fields, it serves as an invaluable resource for novices as well as specialists.

This volume collects selected, peer-reviewed contributions from the 2nd Conference of the International Society for Nonparametric Statistics (ISNPS), held in Cadiz (Spain) between June 11-16 2014, and sponsored by the American Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and Probability, the Journal of Nonparametric Statistics and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. The 15 articles are a representative sample of the 336 contributed papers presented at the conference. They cover topics such as high-dimensional data modelling, inference for stochastic processes and for dependent data, nonparametric and goodness-of-fit testing, nonparametric curve estimation, object-oriented data analysis, and semiparametric inference. The aim of the ISNPS 2014 conference was to bring together recent advances and trends in several areas of nonparametric statistics in order to facilitate the exchange of research ideas, promote collaboration among researchers from around the globe, and contribute to the further development of the field.

This book describes how epigenetic context, in a large sense, affects gene expression and the development of an organism, using the asymptotic limit theorems of information theory to construct statistical models useful in data analysis. The approach allows deep understanding of how embedding context affects development. We find that epigenetic information sources act as tunable catalysts, directing ontogeny into characteristic pathways, a perspective having important implications for epigenetic epidemiology. In sum, environmental stressors can induce a broad spectrum of developmental dysfunctions, and the book explores a number of pandemic chronic diseases, using U.S. data at different scales and levels of organization. In particular, we find the legacy of slavery has been grossly compounded by accelerating industrial decline and urban decay. Individual chapters are dedicated to obesity and its sequelae, coronary heart disease, cancer, mental disorders, autoimmune dysfunction, Alzheimer's disease, and other conditions. Developmental disorders are driven by environmental factors channeled by historical trajectory and are unlikely to respond to medical interventions at the population level in the face of persistent individual and community stress. Drugs powerful enough to affect deleterious epigenetic programming will likely have side effects leading to shortened lifespan. Addressing chronic conditions and developmental disorders requires significant large-scale changes in public policy and resource allocation.

Features modern research and methodology on the spread of infectious diseases and showcases a broad range of multi-disciplinary and state-of-the-art techniques on geo-simulation, geo-visualization, remote sensing, metapopulation modeling, cloud computing, and pattern analysis Given the ongoing risk of infectious diseases worldwide, it is crucial to develop appropriate analysis methods, models, and tools to assess and predict the spread of disease and evaluate the risk. Analyzing and Modeling Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Infectious Diseases features mathematical and spatial modeling approaches that integrate applications from various fields such as geo-computation and simulation, spatial analytics, mathematics, statistics, epidemiology, and health policy. In addition, the book captures the latest advances in the use of geographic information system (GIS), global positioning system (GPS), and other location-based technologies in the spatial and temporal study of infectious diseases. Highlighting the current practices and methodology via various infectious disease studies, Analyzing and Modeling Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Infectious Diseases features: * Approaches to better use infectious disease data collected from various sources for analysis and modeling purposes * Examples of disease spreading dynamics, including West Nile virus, bird flu, Lyme disease, pandemic influenza (H1N1), and schistosomiasis * Modern techniques such as Smartphone use in spatio-temporal usage data, cloud computing-enabled cluster detection, and communicable disease geo-simulation based on human mobility * An overview of different mathematical, statistical, spatial modeling, and geo-simulation techniques Analyzing and Modeling Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Infectious Diseases is an excellent resource for researchers and scientists who use, manage, or analyze infectious disease data, need to learn various traditional and advanced analytical methods and modeling techniques, and become aware of different issues and challenges related to infectious disease modeling and simulation. The book is also a useful textbook and/or supplement for upper-undergraduate and graduate-level courses in bioinformatics, biostatistics, public health and policy, and epidemiology.

Over the last twenty years there has been a dramatic upsurge in the application of meta-analysis to medical research. This has mainly been due to greater emphasis on evidence-based medicine and the need for reliable summaries of the vast and expanding volume of clinical research. At the same time there have been great strides in the development and refinement of the associated statistical methodology. This book describes the planning, conduct and reporting of a meta-analysis as applied to a series of randomized controlled clinical trials.

• The various approaches are presented within a general unified framework.

• Meta-analysis techniques are described in detail, from their theoretical development through to practical implementation.

• Each topic discussed is supported by detailed worked examples.

• A comparison of fixed and random effects approaches is included, as well as a discussion of Bayesian methods and cumulative meta-analysis.

• Fully documented programs using standard statistical procedures in SAS are available on the Web.

As economic and demographic conditions change, and technology advances, world leaders are becoming increasingly concerned with the future of health care. This comprehensive volume brings together North American and European experts in demographics, public administration, management, and health sciences to examine the challenges confronting health care personnel and systems in the industrialized countries. Following an overview of the general problems and methods of health care planning, contributors discuss such crucial topics as changes in the health status of populations; the impact of an aging population on health care systems; the prospects for reorganizing health care systems; the effects of new technology and drugs on health care; and the future of health care financing.

Contains all you need to know to understand statistics in medicine. Medical Statistics Made Easy has been a perennial bestseller since the first edition was published (it is consistently a #1 bestseller in medical statistics on Amazon). It is recommended worldwide on a variety of courses and programmes, from undergraduate medicine, through to professional medical qualifications. It is a book of key statistics principles for anyone studying or working in medicine and healthcare who needs a basic overview of the subject. It is ideal for non-statisticians who need to understand how statistics are used and applied in medicine and medical research. Using a consistent format, the authors describe the most common statistical methods in turn and then rate them on how difficult they are to understand and how common they are. The worked examples that demonstrate the statistical method in action have been updated to include current articles from the medical literature and now feature a wider range of medical journals. This fourth edition continues with the same structure as the previous editions, with new sections on cut-off points and ROC curves, as well as a new chapter on choosing the right statistical test. It also features a completely revised and updated 'Statistics at work' section.

This book is a compilation of some of the most remarkable contributions made by scientists currently working in Latin America to the understanding of virus biology, the pathogenesis of virus-related diseases, virus epidemiology, vaccine trials and antivirals development. In addition to recognizing the many fine virologists working in Latin America, Human Virology in Latin America also discusses both the state-of-the-art research and the current challenges that are being faced in the region, in hopes of inspiring young scientists worldwide to become eminent virologists.

This unique book provides a retrospective analysis of the changes in survival outcomes at the University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center over the past six decades. Since opening its doors in 1944, M.D. Anderson has kept a continuous, uninterrupted data repository of the treatment and outcomes of each of its patients. It is this visionary database from the center s tumor registry which makes this groundbreaking book possible. Tracking results across time, this book shows radical shifts in outcomes trends, where great progress has been made, and where there is still a long way to go, and offers a snapshot into the parallel history of developments in care. Such data is crucial to informing how patients are counseled, how treatment decisions are determined, and how prognoses are made.

"60 Years of Survival Outcomes at the University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center" is the only book to concurrently present longitudinal data on survival outcomes across the spectrum of rare and common cancers. Each chapter deals with a specific disease site, discussing current management approaches and presenting key data replete with illustrative charts, graphs, and tables. With the resources available only to the practitioners at this inimitable institution, this book heralds a cornerstone moment in the study of survival outcomes and the depth of our knowledge of cancer care. "

This stimulating volume uses multiple lenses to analyze the complex causes of health disparities affecting minorities, in particular African Americans, and explains how this knowledge can be used to reduce their destructive effects. Pinpointing genetic, non-genetic, and epigenetic factors underlying health conditions common to the population-including heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and cancer-the author traces intricate links among these factors in the current environmental and social context. The section on non-genetic factors in health disparities, such as social determinants and health behaviors, adds depth to the ongoing discourse on public health and health policy objectives. And the chapters on gene/environment interactions outline the vast potential for developing new multidisciplinary frontiers in shrinking health inequities and personalizing care. Included in the coverage: The African diaspora and disease-specific disparities The genetic basis to health disparities The role of epigenetics Economic factors and health Psychological issues and how they affect disparities Gene-environment interactions in health disparities Race, a biological or social concept Compelling and accessible, Health Outcomes in a Foreign Land will challenge and inspire medical students, epidemiologists, public health professionals, biomedical research scientists, and social scientists to go farther in their work. A wider audience would include policymakers, government officials, nurses, physicians, lawyers, economists, community outreach investigators, and interested general readers.

This book examines the toxicological and health implications of environmental epigenetics and provides knowledge through an interdisciplinary approach. Included in this volume are chapters outlining various environmental risk factors such as phthalates and dietary components, life states such as pregnancy and ageing, hormonal and metabolic considerations and specific disease risks such as cancer cardiovascular diseases and other non-communicable diseases. Environmental Epigenetics imparts integrative knowledge of the science of epigenetics and the issues raised in environmental epidemiology. This book is intended to serve both as a reference compendium on environmental epigenetics for scientists in academia, industry and laboratories and as a textbook for graduate level environmental health courses. Environmental Epigenetics imparts integrative knowledge of the science of epigenetics and the issues raised in environmental epidemiology. This book is intended to serve both as a reference compendium on environmental epigenetics for scientists in academia, industry and laboratories and as a textbook for graduate level environmental health courses.

This innovative reference examines how consumer health informatics (CHI) can transform healthcare systems stressed by staffing shortages and budget constraints and challenged by patients taking a more active role in their care. It situates CHI as vital to upgrading healthcare service delivery, detailing the relationship between health information technologies and quality healthcare, and outlining what stakeholders need to learn for health IT systems to function effectively. Wide-ranging content identifies critical issues and answers key questions at the consumer, practitioner, administration, and staff levels, using examples from diverse conditions, countries, technologies, and specialties. In this framework, the benefits of CHI are seen across service domains, from individual patients and consumers to healthcare systems and global health entities. Included in the coverage: Use of video technology in an aged care environment A context-aware remote health monitoring service for improved patient care Accessibility issues in interoperable sharing of electronic health records: physician's perspective Managing gestational diabetes with mobile web-based reporting of glucose readings An organizing vision perspective for developing and adopting e-health solutions An ontology of consumer health informatics Contemporary Consumer Health Informatics combines blueprint and idea book for public health and health informatics students, healthcare professionals, physicians, medical administrators, managers, and IT practitioners.

This book attempts to set communicable diseases and the efforts to control them in a social and historical context. The primary focus is on England with its particular history, culture and traditions. The timescale covered is extensive and ambitious, and the many strands that came together in the nineteenth century to form the English public health service are clearly highlighted. However the main emphasis of the narrative is on developments from the Second World War onwards, in some of which the author has had a degree of personal involvement as a schoolchild, medical student, hospital doctor, Army doctor and public health physician. The work as a whole reveals the persisting nature of communicable diseases throughout history and strongly argues that, although the relevant importance of individual infections may vary over time, man's struggle against the microbiological world can never be relaxed. How England has been affected is described in detail and evidence is put forward to suggest that complacency (or at least misjudgement) concerning the ever-present risks of emerging and re-emerging infections, led unwisely to the dismantling in 1974 of its established arrangements for their control, along with the subsequent need, frequently repeated, to create new structures for this purpose. This book will appeal strongly to all students and practitioners of public health along with those interested in English social history.

The Geographical Structure of Epidemics is an accessible and in-depth examination of the ways in which geographical and environmental concepts can enhance our knowledge of the ways in which epidemics spread through human populations, written by a leading expert with over 30 years' experience in the field.

This research monograph provides a synthesis of a number of statistical tests and measures, which, at first consideration, appear disjoint and unrelated. Numerous comparisons of permutation and classical statistical methods are presented, and the two methods are compared via probability values and, where appropriate, measures of effect size. Permutation statistical methods, compared to classical statistical methods, do not rely on theoretical distributions, avoid the usual assumptions of normality and homogeneity of variance, and depend only on the data at hand. This text takes a unique approach to explaining statistics by integrating a large variety of statistical methods, and establishing the rigor of a topic that to many may seem to be a nascent field in statistics. This topic is new in that it took modern computing power to make permutation methods available to people working in the mainstream of research. lly-informed="" audience,="" and="" can="" also="" easily="" serve="" as="" textbook="" in="" graduate="" course="" departments="" such="" statistics,="" psychology,="" or="" biology.="" particular,="" the="" audience="" for="" book="" is="" teachers="" of="" practicing="" statisticians,="" applied="" quantitative="" students="" fields="" medical="" research,="" epidemiology,="" public="" health,="" biology.

The book is the first one published exclusively on the field of nutritional epidemiology of breast cancer. It summarizes the currently existing knowledge, with an updated and comprehensive international bibliography (~ 1.000 references). The authors also performed a review on the epidemiological studies on nutrition and breast cancer carried out in Uruguay between 1994 and 2011, which allowed exploring and identifying the main risk and protective factors for the disease in this high-risk country. Epidemiologists, Nutritionists, Public Health managers and breast specialists -from the prevention to the treatment fields - will find in this book a unique source of technical information, which will contribute in expanding their knowledge and view of the disease.

The exploding field of epigenetics is challenging the dogma of traditional Mendelian inheritance. Epigenetics plays an important role in shaping who we are and contributes to our prospects of health and disease. While early epigenetic research focused on plant and animal models and in vitro experiments, population-based epidemiologic studies increasingly incorporate epigenetic components. The relevance of epigenetic marks, such as DNA methylation, genomic imprinting, and histone modification for disease causation has yet to be fully explored.This book covers the basic concepts of epigenetic epidemiology, discusses challenges in study design, analysis, and interpretation, epigenetic laboratory techniques, the influence of age and environmental factors on shaping the epigenome, the role of epigenetics in the developmental origins hypothesis, and provides the state of the art on the epigenetic epidemiology of various health conditions including childhood syndromes, cancer, infectious diseases, inflammation and rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, psychiatric disorders, diabetes, obesity and metabolic disorders, and atherosclerosis. With contributions from: Peter Jones, Jean-Pierre Issa, Gavin Kelsey, Robert Waterland, and many other experts in epigenetics!