The health benefits associated with regular physical activity are now widely recognized. This book examines how social determinants such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation and disability can impact on physical activity and its associated health outcomes. It explores the social, cultural, political and environmental factors that influence engagement in physical activity in a range of diverse populations and presents evidence-based, culturally appropriate strategies for targeting and promoting physical activity participation. Each chapter considers how the social determinants that impact on health are formed by the environments in which people live, work, learn and play. Incorporating a series of original case studies, this book analyzes physical activity behaviors in groups such as: African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans military veterans and physically disabled populations low-income populations rural populations LGBT populations. It also includes a variety of useful features such as key terms, summary points and critical thinking questions, as well as a chapter on international perspectives. Physical Activity in Diverse Populations: Evidence and Practice is vital reading for any course touching on social factors in physical activity behavior.

Mosquitoes, Communities, and Public Health in Texas focuses on 87 known species of mosquitoes found throughout Texas. It includes information on the ecology, medical and public health importance, and biological diversity of each species. In addition, it provides detailed identification keys for both larval and adult stages of all mosquito genera and species known to occur in Texas, along a review of surveillance and control strategies. The expansion of invasive mosquitoes from other regions (including Mexico), together with climate change occurrences increase the likelihood for an increase in diseases, such as West Nile Virus, Yellow Fever, Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika. This unique work is the first unified reference and resource rich in mosquito information for medical entomologists, mosquito and vector control professionals, pest management professionals, biologists, environmentalists, wildlife professionals, government regulators, instructors of medical entomology and public health professionals who have disease or vector responsibilities, mosquito taxonomists, epidemiologists, entomology students, academia, pest control industry, and libraries, etc., with utility for medical, veterinary and health professionals.

Deciding what to eat and how to eat it are two of the most basic acts of everyday life. Yet every choice also implies a value judgement: 'good' foods versus 'bad', 'proper' and 'improper' ways of eating, and 'healthy' and 'unhealthy' bodies. These food decisions are influenced by a range of social, political and economic bioauthorities, and mediated through the individual 'eating body'. This book is unique in the cultural politics of food in its exploration of a range of such bioauthorities and in its examination of the interplay between them and the individual eating body. No matter whether they are accepted or resisted, our eating practices and preferences are shaped by, and shape, these agencies. Abbots places the body, materiality and the non-human at the heart of her analysis, interrogating not only how the individual's embodied eating practices incorporate and reject the bioauthorities of food, but also how such authorities are created by the individual act of eating. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from across the globe, The Agency of Eating provides an important analysis of the power dynamics at play in the contemporary food system and the ways in which agency is expressed and bounded. This book will be of great benefit to any with an interest in food studies, anthropology, sociology and human geography.

Targeting Cell Survival Pathways to Enhance Response to Chemotherapy encompasses recently developed molecular targeting agents and approaches that suppress cell survival signaling. Cell survival signaling attenuates the effectiveness of conventional chemotherapy and numerous mechanisms have been described, and continue to be described, which contribute to cell survival in the face of chemotherapy treatment. Key pathways leading to chemoresistance emanate from growth factor receptors, PI3K, STAT3, anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family members, autophagy, and the DNA damage response pathway. New advances have underscored the potential of targeting each of these cell survival mechanisms to improve responsiveness to chemotherapy. This book reviews these recent advances and provides a foundational background and hints of new opportunities for basic, translational, and clinical investigators focused on improving therapeutic responses to chemotherapy.

Despite what you may have read in the popular press and in social media, Precision Medicine is not devoted to finding unique treatments for individuals, based on analyzing their DNA. To the contrary, the goal of Precision Medicine is to find general treatments that are highly effective for large numbers of individuals who fall into precisely diagnosed groups. We now know that every disease develops over time, through a sequence of defined biological steps, and that these steps may differ among individuals, based on genetic and environmental conditions. We are currently developing rational therapies and preventive measures, based on our precise understanding of the steps leading to the clinical expression of diseases. Precision Medicine and the Reinvention of Human Disease explains the scientific breakthroughs that have changed the way that we understand diseases, and reveals how medical scientists are using this new knowledge to launch a medical revolution.

Anthrax is only one of many biological threats. We read and hear about the others in the news: mad cow disease, shark attacks, killer bees, the West Nile virus, polluted wells-countless stories of biological hazards in the U.S. and around the world. This compact reference handbook covers everything from disease-causing viruses and bacteria, to harmful insects, poisonous plants, dangerous animals, and other types of living threats to human life. Readers will learn the nature of these hazards, the associated risks, and where to find information for further study and research. Topics include: Human Pathogens in Water Human Pathogens in Food Human Pathogens in Air Human Pathogens Transmitted by Contact Crop and Livestock Pathogens and Pests Toxins and Allergens Predators and Other Biological Hazards Hazard and Controversy. In each category, the author presents the current scientific knowledge on causes, preventive measures, costs, outlook, and other topics of interest. Historical contexts are also provided. Every chapter ends with an anecdote illustrating its major themes. Primary source documents, statistical information, and a glossary are added features that make this resource the ideal starting point for anyone interested in biological hazards.

Western medicine, including psychiatry and psychology, has had a virtual monopoly of the health industry. This has led to economic incentives that literally keep people sick. Anthropologists, because of their holistic and comparative base, are in a unique position to apply their knowledge within clinical settings. Written for anthropologists, but useful to all clinicians, Rush's book offers a new model for understanding health and illness, provides a review of techniques found in many cultures for reducing individual and system stress, and offers processes for recovering health and individual and social balance. Rush establishes a model outlining the development of emotional problems and then offers the clinicial tools and techniques for helping individuals, families, and groups reduce stress and retranslate traumatic or distressing events. The reader will discover a very different view of emotional and physical stress; the approach taken is informational and anthropological in nature. From this approach arise numerous techniques designed to help clients achieve stress reduction and enhanced healing.