It is my great pleasure to publish New Frontiers in Lifestyle-Related Dis eases, the proceedings of the Showa University International Symposium for Life Sciences, 3rd Annual Meeting, held at Showa University on Sep tember 13, 2006. This symposium was supported, in part, by Grants for the Promotion of the Advancement of Education and Research in Graduate Schools and Ordinary Expenses for Private Schools from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan. On behalf of Showa University, I would like to express my deepest thanks to all the authors and editors for their great contribution to the publication of this memorable book that accelerates research activity in lifestyle-related diseases. Akiyoshi Hosoyamada, M.D., Ph.D. President, Showa University Tokyo, Japan September 2007 v Preface The leading cause of death in Western countries and some developing countries is atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases. Among them, acute myocardial infarction is the most common type of fatal disease, caused by the progression of atherosclerosis characterized by accumulation of choles terol in vascular walls. Development of atherosclerosis is greatly enhanced by major risk factors for cardiovascular diseases such as obesity, hyperlip idemia, diabetes (hyperglycemia), and hypertension. Among those, obesity frequently initiates a metabolic change that subsequently induces hyperlip idemia, diabetes, hypertension, and eventually atherosclerotic cardiovascu lar diseases. Because obesity and its related disorders largely depend on lifestyle factors such as high calorie intake and low physical activity, a series of disorders are termed lifestyle-related diseases.

Since 1982, Ras proteins have been the subject of intense research investigation by the biomedical research community. The wide interest in Ras has been stimulated for three key reasons. This book features chapters contributed by leading investigators in the field that highlight the current state-of-the art in Ras biochemistry, structure and biology. This book is an excellent reference for students in the biomedical sciences and for investigators in the field.

Screening for disease has become a widely accepted concept in health care. Screening in Disease Prevention takes a critical look at the practice of screening throughout the various stages of life. The book highlights three current challenges: the increasing consumer, media and commercial focus on health in general and screening in particular; providing accurate and understandable information; and tackling the continuing variation in the uptake of screening between different areas of the country and different socio-economic groups. Screening in Disease Prevention is important reading for public health professionals, particularly those involved in screening programmes. Policy makers and shapers, medical researchers, pressure groups and support organisations for people with screenable conditions will also find it a valuable reference.

This book, the proceedings of Falk Symposium 100, Gut and the Liver', held in Freiburg, Germany, 29-31 May 1997, comprehensively reviews the physiological and pathophysiological interactions between the intestine and the liver as well as between intestinal and hepatic diseases. Apart from the basic aspects of the intestinal microflora and the immune system of the gut, gastrointestinal permeability and translocation as well as the contribution of the intestine and the intestinal bacteria to the metabolism of bile acids, amino acids and drugs are discussed. In addition, experimental as well as clinical data demonstrating the significance of gut-derived bacterial toxins for the development of liver diseases and the effect of liver diseases on gastrointestinal functions are discussed. The major aim of this book, therefore, is to highlight the interactions between gut and liver at the molecular level as well as in clinical disease.

This volume describes state-of-the-art protocols that serve as "recipes" for scientists concentrating on fibrosis research. This book is divided into four sections. Part I focuses on animal models of fibrosis and covers topics such as mimicking fibrosis in the lungs, skin, liver and heart, and generating transgenic mouse models. Part II discusses cell culture systems, where the chapters explore cell types important for the development of fibrosis. Part III looks at the purification, quantification, and analysis of the ECM proteins, and Part IV describes computer-assisted methods such as quantifying fibrillar collagen alignment and exploring the nano-surface of collagen with atomic force microscopy (AFM). Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Cutting-edge and practical, Fibrosis: Methods and Protocols is a valuable resource aimed at outstanding quality and repeatability of research experiments in the fibrosis field.

Recently, artificial intelligence technology has achieved much success in multiple fields, such as healthcare, security, precision agriculture, smart city, and autonomous driving. AI provides many benefits for social development, economic growth, wellbeing management, and human healthcare. Various intelligent healthcare applications have been created in order to assist in patient healthcare. The book discusses the advances of AI applications in healthcare such as disease diagnosis, diet proposal, drug prescription and trucking, and physical and psychological assistance. It also examines the applications of AI tools in healthcare such as machine learning, deep learning, soft computing, evolutionary computing techniques in the design, and implementation of healthcare solutions. This book is ideal for healthcare administrators, radiologists, medical imaging and signal specialists, diagnosticians, medical professionals, data analysts, computer science professionals, IT consultants, researchers, academicians, and students.

The only book to deal specifically with constipation for specialists has been updated to include all the new advances since the first edition (1995). These advances include biofeedback, surgery for constipation, sacral nerve stimulation, the use of laparoscopy for rectal prolapse, treament and our understanding of some of the psychological problems of these patients. Innovations also include Professor Norman Williams Malone Procedure and the newer pharmacologic treatments such as nitric oxide and botulinum toxin injections.

Most symposia on chronic inflammatory bowel disease during the last few years have focused on new aspects of aetiology and pathophysiology. However, based on such new aspects, changes in diagnosis and treatment have been developed over the last few years and some others are currently under investigation. This book, the proceedings of Falk Symposium 97, `Clinical Challenges in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases - Diagnosis, Prognosis and Treatment', held in Lugano, Switzerland, 18-19 April 1997, summarizes these changes and new developments, discusses their value and defines further new approaches. The topics include primary diagnosis, definition of different patient groups, special problems of these patients in daily life and very new therapeutic principles. This volume opens new possibilities of diagnosis and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease to physicians and provides stimulation for further development.

Like the successful first edition, this improved, updated and expanded second edition covers the presentation of the common orofacial disorders and a wide range of less common and some rare disorders. It also now includes treatment recommendations for the most common oral diseases, tailored to the pediatric age group.

Any health professional called upon to diagnose and treat children who have orofacial problems will benefit from the wealth of material offered here.

This book describes our current understanding of the transport of ions, amino acids, nucleosides, sugars, water and gases across the red blood cell membrane. It also outlines the necessary theoretical background to understand the dynamics of membrane constituents together with the mechanisms of transport pathways (pumps, channels, carriers/cotransporters, residual passive permeability). Separate chapters describe our present ideas about membrane and metabolic disorders as well as red blood cell diseases like malaria, sickle cell disease, and hypertension. The latest findings are explained on the basis of well-established principles. The book and its chapters are thus structured in a manner that makes the material accessible to beginners in the field of red blood cell physiology and biophysics. Active researchers will also benefit from this carefully organized compilation. 51 worldwide leading experts in the field of erythrocyte research contributed to the 31 chapters of this book.

Learn to handle the problems that Parkinson's patients face
Through Parkinson's Disease and Quality of Life, you will discover common problem areas seen in patients with Parkinson's disease. This book explores problems that interfere with functional independence of patients and gives examples of occupational therapy intervention and treatment techniques. Parkinson's Disease and Quality of Life boldly deals with many seldom talked about real-life issues facing people with Parkinson's disease, including continued sexual intimacy and urinary incontinence. Although these issues may not be curable, this book provides you with effective treatments through data and case studies.
Parkinson's Disease and Quality of Life offers caregivers a step-by-step plan to get organized. It includes a plan to put together a workbook of all relevant information, as well as tips on how to safeguard every room for a Parkinson's disease patient. This book helps remind you that the families of the patient must not be forgotten and that they can get the help they need through support groups, community resources, and from professional staffing such as nurses and aides. Parkinson's Disease and Quality of Life will assist you in helping your patients by:

• using music therapy to help calm patients
• realizing the legal impact of Parkinson's disease by discussing living wills, health care proxies, durable power of attorney, and revocable and irrevocable trusts with your clients
• discovering that cognitive changes, dementia, and depression can complicate the treatment of the disease and be more disabling than the loss of motor function
• exploring the nursing home as a viable options for clients as well as their families

Ever since Edwina Currie's salmonella, Britain has seemed cursed by major food safety scares, with E.coli and BSE particularly prominent. Amidst tabloid frenzy and recrimination, the public is dependent upon sober scientific risk assessment and rational evaluation of what went wrong. Hugh Pennington has been at the forefront of this as a scientist, expert witness and commentator, and this book is his accessible but rigorous account of these diseases and the events surrounding them. This is a disaster book for the general reader giving authoritative but non-technical accounts of BSE/variant CJD and E.coli O157 - what happened, what went wrong, the human interest, and the science - all in the context of disasters (like Piper Alpha, Aberfan, and rail crashes), history and politics.

Syringobulbia offers neurologists a thorough discussion of the disease and the literature on it-- brought up to the present. In addition, the book presents a number of case studies--valuable because they trace the course of the disease from initial presentation to death.

Improving the measurement of symptoms of emotional disorders has been an important goal of mental health research. In direct response to this need, the Expanded Version of the Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms (IDAS-II) was developed to assess symptom dimensions underlying psychological disorders. Unlike other scales that serve as screening instruments used for diagnostic purposes, the IDAS-II is not closely tethered to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM); rather, its scales cut across DSM boundaries to examine psychopathology in a dimensional rather than a categorical way. Developed by authors David Watson and Michael O'Hara, the IDAS-II has broad implications for our understanding of psychopathology. Understanding the Emotional Disorders is the first manual for how to use the IDAS-II and examines important, replicable symptom dimensions contained within five adjacent diagnostic classes in the DSM-5: depressive disorders, bipolar and related disorders, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, and trauma- and stressor-related disorders. It reviews problems and limitations associated with traditional, diagnosis-based approaches to studying psychopathology and establishes the theoretical and clinical value of analyzing specific types of symptoms within the emotional disorders. It demonstrates that several of these disorders contain multiple symptom dimensions that clearly can be differentiated from one another. Moreover, these symptom dimensions are highly robust and generalizable and can be identified in multiple types of data, including self-ratings, semi-structured interviews, and clinicians' ratings. Furthermore, individual symptom dimensions often have strikingly different correlates, such as varying levels of criterion validity, incremental predictive power, and diagnostic specificity. Consequently, it is more informative to examine these specific types of symptoms, rather than the broader disorders. The book concludes with the development of a more comprehensive, symptom-based model that subsumes various forms of psychopathology-including sleep disturbances, eating- and weight-related problems, personality pathology, psychosis/thought disorder, and hypochondriasis-beyond the emotional disorders.

The autoimmune thyroid diseases and familial thyroid cancers are the current target of molecular thyroid genetics. Unlike the situation in monogenic thyroid diseases, for which the molecular genetics has largely been clarified over the past 20 years, a methodological approach to these more complex forms of thyroid disease has not yet been well established. The determination of susceptibility genes, for example, remains a major challenge. The contributors to this volume are attempting to meet that challenge in research on molecular genetics. Meeting at the first International Symposium on the Genetics of Complex Thyroid Diseases, held in Kyoto, Japan, 20 distinguished researchers from five countries in addition to Japan shared their latest results and engaged in intense discussion, focusing on the autoimmune thyroid diseases and familial thyroid cancers. Their papers collected here are a valuable contribution to the field of the genetics of complex thyroid diseases.

Dr. Jay A. Goldstein 's Betrayal by the Brain can be a daunting treatise to the layperson as well as a challenge for the physician who is not versed in neurology, psychiatry, immunology, and endocrinology. Here, in A Companion Volume to Dr. Jay A. Goldstein 's Betrayal by the Brain: A Guide for Patients and Their Physicians, Author Katie Courmel, a longtime sufferer of chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, presents in layperson 's terms the salient points of the book to lead readers to an understanding of Dr. Goldstein 's theory and methods of treatment. This guide provides CFS and FMS patients with an understanding of how their brains should function as opposed to how they are now dysfunctioning. It explains the proper role and function of each brain structure and neural assembly and the neurochemicals believed to be implicated in CFS and fibromyalgia along with the dysfunctions found in CFS/FMS patients. These dysfunctions, as a whole, form the basis of Dr. Goldstein 's unified theory behind the possible causes of CFS and FMS. Patients involved in or contemplating Dr. Goldstein 's treatment can use A Companion Volume to Dr. Jay A. Goldstein 's Betrayal by the Brain to gain an explanation of the process from a firsthand perspective and can follow along to learn why they are given particular drugs and what response Dr. Goldstein hopes to elicit from their bodies. This understanding gives patients a sense of control and helps them weather the ups and downs their bodies experience as a normal response to the treatment. The strength of A Companion Volume to Dr. Jay A. Goldstein 's Betrayal by the Brain lies in its ability to simplify without sacrificing the body of information that one must understand to make sense of the multitude of seemingly unrelated manifestations of these diseases of the brain. A thorough understanding will allow sufferers of CFS/FMS to approach Dr. Goldstein 's treatment method with an open mind and improve their chances for success. Specific questions answered for readers include: how safe is this protocol? should I go alone or take a companion? what should I expect during my initial consultation? what are the effects of so many drugs? why doesn t the same drug work for everyone? if my treatment is successful, how long will it last? what happens when I leave Dr. Goldstein 's care? A Companion Volume to Dr. Jay A. Goldstein 's Betrayal by the Brain prepares readers for a unique, sometimes scary, often perplexing, hopefully miraculous, leap-of-faith experience. It helps patients deal with the very natural sense of uneasiness they may be feeling and helps them understand, in layperson 's terms, what Dr. Goldstein 's protocol can accomplish and how it can be so successful.

Designed specifically for future allied health professionals, HUMAN DISEASES, Sixth Edition, includes everything you need to know about the diseases and disorders health care providers see and treat most often. Making pathology fully accessible, this best-selling text is packed with the most current research available and reflects the latest practices from the field. Following a basic review of anatomy and physiology, chapters present each disease's description, etiology, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and prevention, while detailed, full-color photos make it easier to gain a thorough understanding of key concepts. Completely up to date, the Sixth Edition includes information on new and emerging disorders, ICD-10 progress, pharmacology concerns, herbal and nontraditional remedies, current research and statistics and more. In addition, real-life cases and interactive learning tools give you hands-on experience to help you put what you learn into practice.

Manifesting Happy is a journey of self-care for educators. The book is recognition of the essential capacity that educators fulfill each and every day. By combining two foundational theories, the dimensions of wellness and applied behavior analysis, readers will create a comprehensive self-care plan by which they can manifest a stronger sense of self and well-being. The book provides an overview of the eight dimensions of wellness and introduces opportunities to gain a better sense of holistic balance. Readers will be exposed to the science of behavior analysis and the benefits of grounding wellness to the scientific principle of the functions of behavior. Through an easy to follow four step planning process of Discover, Define, Design, and Do educators can create a self-care plan that will help them to manifest their happy in order to best support students in the classroom. The book also includes self-care strategies to practice and even ideas to implement with students.

Constipation and incontinence are of considerable importance to a great number of patients but many put it under taboo. Both functional disturbances comprise a wide spectrum of pathophysiological findings of neuro-muscular changes of the colon or the pelvic floor, but psychological factors may play an important role as well. In recent years much progress has been made in several disciplines which are important for the understanding and handling of constipation and incontinence. This volume, the proceedings of Falk Symposium No. 95 held in Freiburg, Germany, October 28-30, 1996, concentrates on clinically relevant and open questions rather than trying to cover the whole field in all details.

Somatic psychology and bodymind therapy (the simultaneous study of the mind and body) are challenging contemporary understandings of the psyche, of what it means to be human and how to heal human suffering. This book discusses these areas of study.

This thoughtful new book presents strategies for helping end-stage renal disease patients and their families deal with the psychosocial aspects of the chronic long-term illness. Technological advances in the treatment of this disease have offered much hope for improved quality in living which has led caregivers to have a greater concern for preserving the quality of life of their patients. In Psychosocial Aspects of End-Stage Renal Disease leaders in the field of many disciplines share knowledge and reveal problems that are still evident to them in the confrontation with this potentially fatal illness.Five comprehensive sections devote special attention to the different areas of concern for the psychosocial well-being of end-stage renal disease patients. The impact of renal disease on family relationships is covered by examining issues of family responses and coping measures such as marital and family reactions to home and hospital dialysis treatment. Ethical issues in treatment are explored, including the ethics of treatment refusal and a Jewish perspective on kidney transplants. Relations between staff and patients and a timely section on renal disease and special populations, particularly the elderly and AIDS patients, make up the final two sections of this informative volume. Professionals in all allied health disciplines will benefit from this important volume as it demonstrates a model approach, if not the definitive one, for the treatment of the psychosocial aspects of end-stage renal disease as well as other chronic illnesses.

The mechanistic basis of chronic inflammation remains unclear. The research sheds new light on the immune cells expressing the activation markers HLA-DR and regulatory T cells (Tregs) and the cells expressing Siglec receptors as being key players in the immune system responsiveness to antigens and thus in lung tissue damage of chronic inflammation. The results help understand the mechanisms of action of common drugs used in COPD, such as formoterol, tiotropium, or corticosteroids, and point to novel drug targets. The chapters also deal with brain damaging effects, by far unrecognized, of inhaled corticosteroid therapy, a time-proven management of chronic inflammatory airway conditions; asthma being a case in point. Novel methods, likely less producing side effects, of macrolide antibiotics administration by inhalation are discussed, emphasizing not only bacteriostatic but also anti-inflammatory action.