The topic of stem cells has a high profile in the media. We've made important advances in our scientific understanding, but despite this the clinical applications of stem cells are still in their infancy and most real stem cell therapy carried out today is some form of bone marrow transplantation. At the same time, a scandalous spread of unproven stem cell treatments by private clinics represents a serious problem, with treatments being offered which are backed by limited scientific rationale, and which are at best ineffective, and at worse harmful. This Very Short Introduction introduces stem cells, exploring what they are, and what scientists do with them. Introducing the different types of stem cells, Jonathan Slack explains how they can be used to treat diseases such as retinal degeneration, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, heart disease, and spinal trauma. He also discusses the important technique of bone marrow transplantation and some other types of current stem cell therapy, used for the treatment of blindness and of severe burns. Slack warns against fake stem cell treatments and discusses how to distinguish real from fake treatments. He also describes the latest scientific progress in the field, and looks forward to what we can expect to happen in the next few years Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

This anthology is the culmination of some 20 years of interest in the field of bioethics. I began my studies in the philosophy of science while at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1970. My interest then, as now, continues to be the complex interrelationship between science and the humanities. While grounded in philosophy and molecular biology, I yearned for a more applied realm for exploration and integration of the value laden nature of science in the public policy arena. After receiving my medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, I continued my work in medical ethics focusing primarily on the ethics of human experimentation, newborn and reproductive technologies, and human genetics. As I completed my clinical training at the University of California at Los Angeles and at Harvard, I had the opportunity to use philosophical ethics in an attempt to understand, frame and resolve moral dilemmas in clinical practice. As a professor of medical ethics at Boston University for the past decade, I have taught bioethics at the undergraduate, graduate and post doctoral levels. Over these years I have become increasingly frustrated by the state of contemporary bioethics. Medicine continues to serve as an interesting paradigm for philosophers to explore novel theories about life, death, mind, suffering and meaning. Philosophy, however, has not served medicine quite so well as a source of knowledge and discipline to resolve the contemporary moral dilemmas found in health care.

From the ravages of the Ebola virus in Zaire to outbreaks of pneumonic plague in India and drug-resistant TB in New York City, contagious diseases are fighting back against once-unconquerable modern medicine. Public concern about infectious disease is on the rise as newspapers trumpet the arrivals of new germs and the reemergence of old ones.

In A Field Guide to Germs, Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Wayne Biddle brings readers face to face with nearly one hundred of the best-known (in terms of prevalence, power, historical importance, or even literary interest) of the myriad pathogens that live in and around the human population. Along with physical descriptions of the organisms and the afflictions they cause, the author provides folklore, philosophy, history, and such illustrations as nineteenth century drawings of plague-induced panic, microscopic photographs of HIV and Ebola, and wartime posters warning servicemen against syphilis and gonorrhea.

From cholera to chlamydia, TB to HIV, bubonic plague to Lyme disease, rabies to Congo-Crimean encephalitis, anthrax to Zika fever, and back to good old rhinitis (the common cold), A Field Guide to Germs is both a handy reference work to better understand today's headlines and a fascinating look at the astonishing impact of micro-organisms on social and political history.

This book contains the proceedings of the conference ANNIMAB-l, held 13-16 May 2000 in Goteborg, Sweden. The conference was organized by the Society for Artificial Neural Networks in Medicine and Biology (ANNIMAB-S), which was established to promote research within a new and genuinely cross-disciplinary field. Forty-two contributions were accepted for presentation; in addition to these, S invited papers are also included. Research within medicine and biology has often been characterised by application of statistical methods for evaluating domain specific data. The growing interest in Artificial Neural Networks has not only introduced new methods for data analysis, but also opened up for development of new models of biological and ecological systems. The ANNIMAB-l conference is focusing on some of the many uses of artificial neural networks with relevance for medicine and biology, specifically: * Medical applications of artificial neural networks: for better diagnoses and outcome predictions from clinical and laboratory data, in the processing of ECG and EEG signals, in medical image analysis, etc. More than half of the contributions address such clinically oriented issues. * Uses of ANNs in biology outside clinical medicine: for example, in models of ecology and evolution, for data analysis in molecular biology, and (of course) in models of animal and human nervous systems and their capabilities. * Theoretical aspects: recent developments in learning algorithms, ANNs in relation to expert systems and to traditional statistical procedures, hybrid systems and integrative approaches.

While supervising a small group of interns at a major New York medical center, Dr. Robert Marion asked three of them to keep a careful diary over the course of a year. Andy, Mark, and Amy vividly describe their real-life lessons in treating very sick children; confronting child abuse and the awful human impact of the AIDS epidemic; skirting the indifference of the hospital bureaucracy; and overcoming their own fears, insecurities, and constant fatigue. Their stories are harrowing and often funny; their personal triumph is unforgettable.

This updated edition of The Intern Blues includes a new preface from the author discussing the status of medical training in America today and a new afterword updating the reader on the lives of the three young interns who first shared their stories with readers more than a decade ago.

Case-based learning is a fundamental part of teaching at medical school because it links theory to practice. Case-Based Discussions in Medicine is designed to help prepare students for clinical practice by working through authentic cases. This updated edition has been revised to reflect recent changes in guidelines. All cases are presented in a consistent style, and cover: history of presenting complaint examination and interpretation differential diagnoses investigations diagnosis and management Each case concludes with background information covering the pathophysiology, diagnostic criteria and clinical guidelines. The book is a study companion for medical students and foundation doctors and will help you: become proficient at writing up a patient's history and examination findings improve your clinical decision-making and patient management build your clinical knowledge From back pain and breathlessness to post-partum psychosis, via abdominal pain and jaundice, placenta praevia, and alcoholic liver disease, the book guides you through common cases in medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics and psychiatry.

Have you ever gone into a doctor's office and come out feeling like a laboratory project rather than a human being? This book offers a refreshing perspective. In Dr. Daniel's forty years in the medical community, he has discovered an important truth: people find more complete healing when treated as integrated persons - with minds as well as bodies, emotions as well as muscles, spirits as well as skin. Through real-life stories and insightful studies, Fountain uses his experience to explore a balanced relationship between faith, medicine, and ultimate spiritual hope.

Covering the core concepts, activities and approaches involved in medical education, Medical Education at a Glance provides a concise, accessible introduction to this rapidly expanding area of study and practice. This brand new title from the best-selling at a Glance series covers the range of essential medical education topics which students, trainees, new lecturers and clinical teachers need to know. Written by an experienced author team, Medical Education at a Glance is structured under the major themes of the discipline including teaching skills, learning theory,and assessment, making it an easy-to-digest guide to the practical skills and theory of medical education, teaching and learning. Medical Education at a Glance: * Presents core information in a highly visual way, with key concepts and terminology explained. * Is a useful companion to the Association for the Study of Medical Education s (ASME) book Understanding Medical Education. * Covers a wide range of topics and themes. * Is a perfect guide for teaching and learning in both the classroom and clinical setting.

This is the third in a series of conferences devoted primarily to the theory and applications of artificial neural networks and genetic algorithms. The first such event was held in Innsbruck, Austria, in April 1993, the second in Ales, France, in April 1995. We are pleased to host the 1997 event in the mediaeval city of Norwich, England, and to carryon the fine tradition set by its predecessors of providing a relaxed and stimulating environment for both established and emerging researchers working in these and other, related fields. This series of conferences is unique in recognising the relation between the two main themes of artificial neural networks and genetic algorithms, each having its origin in a natural process fundamental to life on earth, and each now well established as a paradigm fundamental to continuing technological development through the solution of complex, industrial, commercial and financial problems. This is well illustrated in this volume by the numerous applications of both paradigms to new and challenging problems. The third key theme of the series, therefore, is the integration of both technologies, either through the use of the genetic algorithm to construct the most effective network architecture for the problem in hand, or, more recently, the use of neural networks as approximate fitness functions for a genetic algorithm searching for good solutions in an 'incomplete' solution space, i.e. one for which the fitness is not easily established for every possible solution instance.

The Most Beautiful Man in Existence The Scandalous Life of Alexander Lesassier Lisa Rosner "A reassuring reminder that no single era has a corner on sexual license."--"Boston Globe" "Remarkable. . . . Reading this book is a bit like stumbling across a new Pepys, or discovering the journals of James Boswell."--Roy Porter, author of "London: A Social History" "Lesassier is a rogue more likely to pop up as a character in a Restoration comedy than anywhere else. But in historian Lisa Rosner's hands, the trunk full of journals he left behind provides fresh insights into the development of the medical profession and English society in the early 1800s."--"Boston Globe" "We are here given a vivid picture of the medical profession at the time, an officer's life in the British Army, and what may have been one of the more dissolute lives of the period. We follow our often-scandalous hero from medical training to his efforts to obtain an army commission to his service in places from Gibraltar to India, where he died in the first Afghan War in 1839."--"Library Journal" 1833, Catherine Jane Hamilton returned from India to Edinburgh to seek a divorce from her husband, the physician Alexander Lesassier. The charge was adultery, and proof for it lay in a trunk containing her husband's personal papers. Catherine won her suit without difficulty and the trunk was deposited in the library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Alexander Lesassier died in 1839 during the First Afghan War; his trunk and its contents remained untouched for the next century and a half. It has now been opened and a remarkable tale, told in remarkable detail, has spilled forth. The life of Alexander Lesassier, as expertly reconstructed by Lisa Rosner, affords startling insight into the sensibilities of an era and of the man who, in his own eyes and those of the women who adored him, was its most perfect creation. Affable and self-absorbed, engaging and ignoble Lesassier was a physician, military surgeon, and novelist, who was also a shameless opportunist, charming scoundrel, seducer, and survivor. His is the story of a failed medical man who wanted to be something different and saw himself as entitled to more than he had; someone who can always be guaranteed to make the wrong choice, and then protest that he has done well. This fascinating and deeply absorbing book offers rare insights into Georgian, Regency, and early Victorian Britain through the fortunes and misfortunes, hopes and whims, of "the most beautiful man in existence." Lisa Rosner is Professor of History at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. She is the author of "Medical Education in the Age of Improvement: Edinburgh Students and Apprentices, 1760-1826." 1999 288 pages 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 15 illus. ISBN 978-0-8122-3486-2 Cloth $42.50s 28.00 ISBN 978-0-8122-0316-5 Ebook $42.50s 28.00 World Rights History, Biography, Medicine, Military Science Short copy: "Reading this book is a bit like stumbling across a new Pepys, or discovering the journals of James Boswell."--Roy Porter, author of "London: A Social History"

Maximum retention in minimum time! Studying for the USMLE (R) Step 1 can be a race against time. This unique resource helps you beat the clock-and score big. Designed for rapid review, this grade-boosting sourcebook distills coursework into the need-to-know, high-yield concepts and topics that will give you the edge on exam day. The book features an at-a-glance, two-column "flashcard" Q&A format, which reinforces familiar material, while accelerating mastery of commonly tested topics. The Q&As help you efficiently absorb a large amount of pertinent information and streamlines study time by focusing only on the correct answers. Ideal for last-minute cramming, this quick-reference also enables you to pinpoint your weaknesses and strengths so you can fine-tune your preparation-and tackle the most difficult exam questions with confidence. *Provides a flashcard experience with the convenience of a book*USMLE (R) -style vignettes deliver review material in a board-simulating clinical presentation *Active recall questions allow readers to understand, not just memorize, the subject matter *Clinical correlations of basic science help readers gear up for coursework and board exams*Compact and easy to carry for on-the-spot studying

Finally, a female version of the popular Peter Bachin Muscular System chart The Female Muscular System Anatomical Chart shows anterior and posterior views of the muscular system. It also illustrates the right half of the diaphragm, the muscles of the posterior abdominal wall, the muscles of the right hand (palmar view) and the muscles of the left foot (plantar view).

Audit is now an essential aspect of health care provision. Increasingly, computers are becoming an integral part of the clinical audit function and this book provides an introduction to the principles of this application. It assumes to prior knowledge of either computing or audit, and avoids technical jargon. The book's focus on principles should give it international relevance.;Part one explains basic computing principles, hardware, operating systems and software packages including databases, spreadsheets, word processing, focusing on the types of data they should be used with. Part two deals with the application of computers to audit, leading to an overview of how to design and manage a computerized audi project. Small, intermediate and large systems are considered.;This book has been written for medical, nursing, para-medical and health service managerial staff who are involved in some form of audit.

Kaplan's MCAT 528 Advanced Prep 2023–2024 features thorough subject review, more questions than any competitor, and the highest-yield questions available—all authored by the experts behind the MCAT prep course that has helped more people get into medical school than all other major courses combined. Prepping for the MCAT is a true challenge. Kaplan can be your partner along the way—offering guidance on where to focus your efforts, how to organize your review, and targeted focus on the most-tested concepts. This edition features commentary and instruction from Kaplan's MCAT experts and has been updated to match the AAMC's guidelines precisely—no more worrying if your MCAT review is comprehensive! The Most Practice More than 500 questions in the book and online and access to even more online—more practice than any other advanced MCAT book on the market. The Best Practice Comprehensive subject review is written by top-rated, award-winning Kaplan instructors. All material is vetted by editors with advanced science degrees and by a medical doctor. Online resources, including a full-length practice test, help you master the computer-based format you'll see on Test Day. Expert Guidance Star Ratings throughout the book indicate how important each topic will be to your score on the real exam—informed by Kaplan's decades of MCAT experience and facts straight from the testmaker. We know the test: The Kaplan MCAT team has spent years studying every MCAT-related document available. Kaplan's expert psychometricians ensure our practice questions and study materials are true to the test.

Practical yet complete reference to all aspects of veterinary medical education Veterinary Medical Education: A Practical Guide, Second Edition offers a comprehensive reference to all aspects of veterinary medical education, providing concrete guidance for instructors in a variety of settings. The book gives real-world, practical, veterinary-specific advice on all aspects of designing and implementing a veterinary curriculum. This Second Edition includes new and expanded information on widening access on admissions, competency-based veterinary education, academic advising and student support, eLearning, transition to practice and career opportunities, educational leadership and global veterinary education. This revised edition has been significantly enhanced and updated, featuring twelve new chapters and many expanded chapters. It includes diagrams, figures, and informational boxes that highlight key points, clarify concepts, provide helpful tips and evidence from the literature, and examples of educational innovations that could be adopted in veterinary programs. Veterinary Medical Education covers: Student selection, including widening access Curricular innovations and competency-based veterinary education Learning theories, eLearning, and their application in the classroom Teaching in clinical and non-clinical settings and creating safe, inclusive learning environments Programmatic and technology-enhanced assessment, academic advising and study skills, coaching, and mentoring Professionalism and professional identity, cultural humility, and transition to practice Program evaluation, educational leadership, and global trends With comprehensive coverage of the field and a wealth of new and updated information, the Second Edition of Veterinary Medical Education is an indispensable resource for anyone involved with veterinary education, including instructors and faculty at veterinary colleges, continuing education instructors, veterinary technology instructors, and veterinarians training in internships and residencies.

Aimed at the pig industry professional, Piglet Nutrition Notes Volume 2 provides a quick look-up advisory guide on common practical issues in pig production. The second volume continues the series of Piglet Nutrition Notes by providing even more practical information regarding commercial piglet formulas, feeding practices, feed manufacturing, and additives. Each chapter is based on combined research and empirical evidence distilled through the practical, commercial experiences of Dr. Mavromichalis through his international consulting practice.

When confronted by the concerns of human sexual function or dys function, American medicine finds itself well impaled on the horns of a dilemma. Currently it is acceptable medical practice to treat sexual dysfunctions, disorders, or dissatisfactions that arise from psy chogenic etiologies, endocrine imbalances, neurologic defects or are side effects of necessary medication regimes. In addition, implanta tion of penile prostheses in cases of organic impotence is an increas ingly popular surgical procedure. These clinical approaches to sexual inadequacies, accepted by medicine since 1970, represent one horn of the dilemma. The opposite horn pictures the medical profession firmly backed into a corner by cultural influences. For example, when hospital admissions occur, a significant portion of the routine medical history is the section on system review. A few questions are asked about the cardio-respiratory, the genito-urinary, and the gastro-intestinal sys tems. But in a preponderance of hospitals no questions are permitted or, if raised, answers are not recorded about human sexual functioning. Physicians tend to forget that they are victims of cultural imposition first and of professional training a distant second."

Over the past two decades increasing interest has emerged in the contribu tions that the social sciences might make to the epidemiological study of patterns of health and disease. Several reasons can be cited for this increasing interest. Primary among these has been the rise of the chronic, non-infectious diseases as important causes of morbidity and mortality within Western populations during the 20th century. Generally speaking, the chronic, non infectious diseases are strongly influenced by lifestyle variables, which are themselves strongly influenced by social and cultural forces. The under standing of the effects of the behavioral factors in, say, hypertension, thus requires an understanding of the social and cultural factors which encourage obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, non-compliance with anti-hypertensive medica tions (or other prescribed regimens), and stress. Equally, there is a growing awareness that considerations of human behavior and its social and cultural determinants are important for understanding the distribution and control of infectious diseases. Related to this expansion of epidemiologic interest into the behavioral realm 'has been the development of etiological models which focus on the psychological, biological and socio-cultural characteristics of hosts, rather than exclusive concern with exposure to a particular agent or even behavioral risk. Also during this period advances in statistical and computing techniques have made accessible the ready testing of multivariate causal models, and so have encouraged the measurement of the effects of social and cultural factors on disease occurrence."

Mental retardation in the United States is currently defined as " ... signif icantly subaverage general intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior, and manifested during the development period" (Grossman, 1977). Of the estimated six million plus mentally retarded individuals in this country fully 75 to 85% are considered to be "func tionally" retarded (Edgerton, 1984). That is, they are mildly retarded persons with no evident organic etiology or demonstrable brain pathology. Despite the relatively recent addition of adaptive behavior as a factor in the definition of retardation, 1.0. still remains as the essential diagnostic criterion (Edgerton, 1984: 26). An 1.0. below 70 indicates subaverage functioning. However, even such an "objective" measure as 1.0. is prob lematic since a variety of data indicate quite clearly that cultural and social factors are at play in decisions about who is to be considered "retarded" (Edgerton, 1968; Kamin, 1974; Langness, 1982). Thus, it has been known for quite some time that there is a close relationship between socio-economic status and the prevalence of mild mental retardation: higher socio-economic groups have fewer mildly retarded persons than lower groups (Hurley, 1969). Similarly, it is clear that ethnic minorities in the United States - Blacks, Mexican-Americans, American Indians, Puerto Ricans, Hawaiians, and others - are disproportionately represented in the retarded population (Mercer, 1968; Ramey et ai., 1978)."