RNA Interference: Challenges and Therapeutic Opportunities provides readers with recent advances in siRNA design, delivery, targeting and methods to minimize siRNA's unwanted effects. Preclinical and clinical use of synthetic siRNAs, the roles of miRNAs in cancer and the promise of extracellular miRNAs for diagnosis are also covered in this meticulous collection, along with novel methods for identifying endogenous siRNAs and the annotation of small RNA transcriptomes. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, chapters include the kind of detail and key implementation advice that ensures successful results in the laboratory. Comprehensive and cutting-edge, RNA Interference: Challenges and Therapeutic Opportunities will aid researchers, clinicians, teachers and biotechnologists interested in the power of RNA-based therapies.

This well-written text thoroughly addresses two quality of life issues in patients with a variety of neurological disorders: sexual and reproductive function. The de vasta stating effects of a variety of neurological diseases are well known to both the lay and medical communitIes, and are treated in numerous texts. However, as we continue to experience therapeutic breakthroughs in the tields of neurology and rehabilitation medicine, physicians and patients must become more aware of the issues discussed in this text. It is particularly important, as emphasized throughout the chapters, that the physician or therapist initiate conversations with the patients concerning both the possibility of parenting a child, as well as the ability of the patient to enhance his/her sexual functioning. Commonly in the patient who is otherwise perfectly normal, there is a reluctance to discuss these topics and couples often feel embarrassed to initiate a conversation with their physi cians. This reluctance to initiate a discussion is even more apparent in patients with a variety of neurological disorders, in which there are overriding fears concerning both function and survival, as well as deep concerns about their own attractiveness, and their sexual and repro ductive ability."

Sunshine plays an important role in all aspects of life but there has been little social analysis of the sun and its place in our world. Recently experts have warned us that the sun's rays are dangerous. Yet, a suntan can still be taken as a sign of health. How did we arrive at this ambivalent relationship to the sun and what does this say about our changing attitudes to the human body and environment? Rise and Shine takes as its starting point a view of sunlight as part of our material and social culture. How did the use of sunlight to treat tuberculosis and rickets in the early twentieth century alter our relationship with the sun? When was suntan lotion invented? By drawing on a range of archival and historical sources, Rise and Shine traces the network of social and medical forces that constitute our current, sometimes problematic, relationship with sun and sunlight.

This volume features contributions from participants of the ESRF symposium on "Immunotherapy in 2020a "Visions and Trends for Targeting Inflammatory Diseases" held in Potsdam near Berlin, Germany, in October 2006.

The symposium presentations covered the main mechanisms of immunoregulation such as peripheral and central tolerance, epigenetic programming, immunologic memory, and regulatory networks in inflammation as well as novel experimental and clinical approaches for targeting inflammation in autoimmunity and transplantation. An important related question is how recent findings in immunological research can lead to improved diagnostics, new drugs, and better therapies. The targeting of novel pathways and immunoregulatory mechanisms, the challenge of immunologic memory for lastingly successful anti-inflammatory therapy, new approaches for adoptive T cell and polyclonal antibody therapies, and the individualization of immunomodulatory therapies are thereby topics of this volume.

While millions of people in this country take moderate to massive doses of vitamins and minerals, only one in a thousand actually requires such a supplement in his or her diet. This book explores how vitamin supplements are a threat to public welfare, and looks intensively at legitimate and beneficial uses of vitamins.

"... well-written, informative and interesting". -- Library Journal

Principles and Applications of Therapeutic Ultrasound in Healthcare introduces concepts, principles, construction, and applications of therapeutic ultrasound: from bench to bedside. A comprehensive examination of the industry and medical application of ultrasound therapy, this book highlights working principles, research progress, and system structures of therapeutic ultrasound. It describes the principles of therapeutic ultrasound, details the system construction, introduces current and emerging applications, and discusses developing therapeutic ultrasound technologies. Divided into two parts, the book first introduces the fundamentals of biomedical acoustics, discusses ultrasound calibration methods, and the structures of available therapeutic ultrasound systems before moving on to the various applications of ultrasound therapy used in clinics. It includes a variety of extensive clinical trials, outcome photos and illustrating figures, and a critical commentary on the challenges in this field. The author discusses topics that include: The derivation of wave equation The mathematical solution of the wave propagation The phenomena of reflection Refraction and transmission in the acoustic field from different acoustic sources The radiation pattern of the ultrasound transducer The acoustical properties of biological tissues Ultrasound-induced bioeffects Cavitation The design of the ultrasound transducer The characterization method of the produced acoustic field An easy reference offering full coverage of popular ultrasound therapies, Principles and Applications of Therapeutic Ultrasound in Healthcare provides a simple explanation of fundamental acoustics, including wave equation, propagation, nonlinearity, and transducer design. It also discusses other potential applications, and is geared toward academia, industry, and researchers.

Obesity epidemic is a global problem of the 21th century for women in reproductive age and also the obstetricians and pediatricians. There are influences of mother's prepragnancy and antepartal obesity, at delivery, for fetal programming and for maternal and fetal lifelong metabolism. The epidemiological results are important, but for the health care providers the skills for prevention of mother's obesity with all consequences are essential. Evaluated programms in nutrition and physical activity will be discussed.

Currently a great deal of public discourse around health is on the assumed relationship between childhood inactivity, young people's diets, and a putative steep rise in obesity. Children and young people are increasingly being identified as a population at 'risk' in relation to these health concerns. Such concerns are driving what might be described as new 'health imperatives' which prescribe the choices young people should make around lifestyle: physical activity, body regulation, dietary habits, and sedentary behaviour. These health imperatives are a powerful force driving major policy initiatives on health and education in a number of countries in the Western world. Schools in particular have been targeted for the implementation of a plethora of initiatives designed to help children and young people lose weight, become more active and change their eating patterns inside and outside school. Addressing these issues requires an innovative theoretical approach. Neither the fields of 'eating disorders' nor 'obesity research' has addressed these issues from a sociological and pedagogical perspective. The contributors to this edited collection draw on a range of social theories, including Michel Foucault and Basil Bernstein to interpret the data collected across three countries (Australia and New Zealand, United Kingdom) and from a range of primary and secondary schools. Each chapter addresses various aspects of the relationship between health imperatives as constituted in government policies, school programs and practices, their recontextualised in school practices and the impact of this on the subjectivities of children and teachers. This book was originally published as a special issue of Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education.

This latest addition to the Methods in Molecular Medicine series, Anti- ral Methods and Protocols, is opportune because there is an increasing int- est in discovering compounds that are effective against both chronic and acute viral infections. A number of the methods described in the volume are unp- lished and their inclusion indicates the speed at which this field is moving. This volume is not a review but each chapter contains methods validated by the experts who have spent time in developing the protocols. The hallmark of this series is the comprehensive way in which the me- ods are described, which includes a list of all the reagents needed for each protocol. Of importance is the section on tips and pitfalls that the authors have discovered while developing their protocols. The manual itself is designed to be used by researchers in universities and industry who are familiar with a range of biological techniques but who want to set up quickly a novel assay system. We encourage a dialog between readers and authors, which may also result in useful collaborations.

Aerosol therapy has significantly improved the treatment of a variety of respiratory diseases. Besides the treatment of respiratory diseases there is currently also a great interest to use the lungs as a portal to introduce drugs for systemic therapy.
The success of therapy with the application of aerosolized medicaments depends on the possibility to deliver the proper amount of drug to the appropriate sites in the respiratory system, thus limiting the side effects to a minimum. Aerosolized delivery of drugs to the lung is optimized if, for a given chemical composition of a medicine, the target of deposition and the required mass of drug to be deposited are precisely defined.
The next step is the specification of the number of respirable particles or droplets, to be generated by appropriate devices. Another very important factor for successful aerosol therapy is the condition of the patient coupled with his or her inhalation technique.

This addition to the British Dietetic Association Advanced Nutrition and Dietetics book series is written for clinicians and researchers who work with any aspect of obesity and its comorbid conditions. Featuring contributions from leading researchers and practitioners from around the globe Advanced Nutrition and Dietetics in Obesity offers a uniquely international perspective on what has become a worldwide public health crisis. Chapters cover a full range of new ideas and research on the underlying drivers of obesity in populations including discussions on the genetic and clinical aspects of obesity, along with expert recommendations on how to effectively manage and prevent this chronic and persistent disease. Providing a comprehensive overview of the key literature in this field, Advanced Nutrition and Dietetics in Obesity is an invaluable resource for all those all those whose work should or does embrace any aspect of obesity.

Why do so many people try dieting, only to fail? What distinguishes those who succeed from those who do not? Are fat people really any different from thin people? What makes us eat, and how do we stop eating? And how can dieting trigger problems with eating normally? Originally published in 1989, Sara Gilbert discusses these questions in Tomorrow I'll Be Slim, and draws on what is known about the psychology of eating, overeating, and weight control to dispel a number of popular myths about dieting. She shows how unsuccessful dieting can lead to new problems with eating and weight control. She points out that long-term success in slimming has more to do with individual factors such as a dieter's expectations, self-confidence, or social and family circumstances than with 'will-power'; and as much to do with how a diet is managed as with the content of a diet sheet. She suggests ways in which people who want to be slimmer can make a realistic assessment of their need to diet. She explains how individuals who seriously need to lose weight or change the way they eat might draw up effective strategies for themselves and prepare for the inevitable difficulties we all face whenever we try to change old habits. Finally, she addresses the problems of taking the emphasis off dieting and examining our attitudes to a slim figure as the key to happiness itself.

Modern cell biology has brought improvements in therapy for advanced malignant diseases through immunomodulation, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and other advanced techniques. Collected here are selected papers from the Fifth International Symposium of Keio University for Life Sciences and Medicine on Cell Therapy.
All chapters include innovative basic research for clinical application: immunotherapy, cancer vaccination, molecular biology of hematopoietic stem cells, stem cell processing, and gene therapy.
The book is divided into three parts: Immunotherapy for malignant diseases; Hematopoietic stem cell biology and clinical application; and International collaboration in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Included in the third part is information on bone marrow registries from around the world.
The book thus presents up-to-date information on biological and clinical aspects of treatment, with insight into the future of cell therapy.

Nowadays, a plethora of treatment technologies is available to the consumer, each employing a variety of concepts of the body, self, sickness and healing. This volume explores the options, strategies and consequences that are both relevant and necessary for patients and practitioners who are manoeuvring this medical plurality. Although wideranging in scope and covering areas as diverse as India, Ecuador, Ghana and Norway, central to all contributions is the observation that technologies of healing are founded on socially learned and to some extent fluid experiences of body and self.

In "Therapeutic Applications of Ribozymes and Riboswitches: Methods and Protocols, " expert researchers in the field provide a complete overview of protocols used in the development of RNA molecule as drugs and drug target. These include methods and protocols on recent and precise RNA molecule approaches or studies in the development of an RNA therapeutic tool. We are convinced that these methods will help researchers from various domains of life sciences, including clinicians, biochemists and virologists. 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 key tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.

Authoritative and practical, "Therapeutic Applications of Ribozymes and Riboswitches: Methods and Protocols "seeks to aid scientists in the further development of new therapeutic applications implicating RNA molecules or directly targeting harmful RNA."

This volume focuses on recent advances in understanding T cells as key players in antitumor immune responses, and as a result T cell-based immunotherapy is starting to transform the treatment of advanced cancers. However, despite recent successes, many patients with cancer fail to respond to these treatments. Defective migration of T cells into and within tumors is considered as an important resistance mechanism to cancer immunotherapy.The volume includes three sections. The first section covers general knowledge about T cell trafficking during a normal immune response but also during tumor development. The second section provides an in-depth description of the different obstacles that prevent T cells from migrating and contacting tumor cells. The third section explores therapeutic strategies to improve trafficking of T cells into tumors and, thus, to enhance the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy.

Radiophannaceutical research has recently undergone a major change in direction. In past years it has been concerned mainly with the development of perfusion tracers, the biodistribution of which reflect the regional blood flow to areas of major organs such as the heart and brain. However, a major new direction of interest now lies in the development of receptor-binding radio-tracers which can be used to perform in-vivo characterisation of diseased tissues and it is likely that much of the future research in this field will follow this direction. The difficulties in developing such tracers are considerable. The researcher must first identify a promising target for radiopharmaceutical development. High specific activity radioactive molecules must be designed and synthesised which will both bind to the target receptor with high affinity, and also have the physicochemical characteristics which will allow them to reach the target site in sufficient quantity while at the same time showing minimal uptake in non-target tissues. Thus the knowledge base required for radiophannaceutical development has now expanded beyond the limits of radiopharmaceutical chemistry to include aspects of biochemistry, molecular biology and conventional drug design. The portfolio of basic knowledge required to support current radiopharmaceutical development is changing and scientists working in this arena need to be trained in this regard. At the same time, the very latest developments in the field need to be communicated to the scientific community in order to stimulate the advancement of this exciting new direction of research.

Nanoengineering, energized by the desire to find specific targeting agents, is leading to dramatic acceleration in novel drug design. However, in this flurry of activity, some issues may be overlooked. This is especially true in the area of determining dosage and evaluating the effects of multiple agents designed to target more than one site of metastasis. Offering the unique perspective of a medical physicist who has worked directly with cancer patients for over three decades, Radiopharmaceuticals: Introduction to Drug Evaluation and Dose Estimation starts by exploring the recent history and current state of the field. Then, citing key research and practical examples, the author looks at how to run studies and employ estimation and evaluation methods that lead to the best multiple agents with the least amount of trial and error. He discusses methods that will allow researchers to more rigorously: Differentiate one radiopharmaceutical (RP) from another Estimate radiation doses Correlate results across various species to realize more informed data from clinical trials Incorporating developments in nanotechnology and radiology, with the ultimate goal of achieving personalized patient-specific treatment, this book crosses disciplines to addresses a range of topics including: Preclinical RP development Organization of clinical trials Determination of activity in vivo Modeling and temporal integration with a look at the mass law for tumor uptake as a function of tumor size (discovered by the author) Absorbed dose estimates with and without clinical correlations Multiple-modality therapy Dr. Lawrence Williams has devoted most of his life's research to tumor detection and treatment, and his discoveries continue to influence evolving therapies. As s a medical physicist, he is eminently qualified to bring unique insight into the discussion of radiopharmaceutical dosage rates and efficacy.

In this issue of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics, guest editor Dr. Thomas (Quin) Throckmorton brings his considerable expertise to Shoulder Rehabilitation. Top experts in the field cover key topics such as shoulder impingement syndrome; non-operative treatment of rotator cuff tears; post-operative rehabilitation following rotator cuff repair; non-operative treatment of the biceps-labral complex; post-operative rehabilitation after SLAP repair; and more. Contains 12 relevant, practice-oriented topics including post-operative rehabilitation after surgery for shoulder instability; scapular dyskinesis; adhesive capsulitis; post-operative rehabilitation after shoulder arthroplasty; muscular re-training and rehabilitation after tendon transfer surgery in the shoulder; and more. Provides in-depth clinical reviews on shoulder rehabilitation, offering actionable insights for clinical practice. Presents the latest information on this timely, focused topic under the leadership of experienced editors in the field. Authors synthesize and distill the latest research and practice guidelines to create clinically significant, topic-based reviews.

This is the second book in Oxford's Guidebooks in Clinical Psychology series. This book provides practical guidelines on the treatment of anxiety disorders (the second most frequent clinical diagnosis), linking guidelines to empirical evidence. The authors review the several classifications of anxiety disorders using the latest DSM-IV categories, covering specific phobias, social phobia, panic disorder and agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder, among others. The chapters assess the efficacy of various treatments, and the authors conclude with a discussion of how treatment standards can be implemented in clinical training and practice.

The place of drugs in American society is a problem more apt to evoke diatribe than dialog. With the support of the Na tional Science Foundation's program on Ethics and Values in Science and Technology, and the National Endowment for the Humanities' program on Science, Technology, and Human Values, * The Hastings Center was able to sponsor such dialog as part of a major research into the ethics of drug use that spanned two years. We assembled a Research Group from leaders in the scientific, medical, legal, and policy com munities, leavened with experts in applied ethics, and brought them together several times a year to discuss the moral, legal and social issues posed by nontherapeutic drug use. At times we also called on other experts when we needed certain issues clarified. We did not try to reach a consensus, yet several broad areas of agreement emerged: That our society's response to nontherapeutic drug use has been irrational and inconsistent; that our attempts at control have been clumsy and ill-informed; that many complex moral values are entwined in the debate and cannot be reduced to a simple conflict between individual liberty and state paternalism. Of course each paper should be read as the statement of that particular author or authors. The views expressed in this book do not necessarily represent the views of The Hastings Center, the National Science Foundation, or the National En dowment for the Humanities."