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Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Human biology & related topics
The complex, highly problematic, often thorny dynamics of trust and
authority are central to the anthropological study of legitimacy.
In this book, this sine qua non runs across the in-depth
examination of the ways in which healthcare and public health are
managed by the authorities and experienced by the people on the
ground in urban Europe, the USA, India, Africa, Latin America and
the Far and Middle East. This book brings comparatively together
anthropological studies on healthcare and public health rigorously
based on in-depth empirical knowledge. Inspired by the current
debate on legitimacy, legitimation and de-legitimation, the
contributions do not refrain from taking into account the impact of
the Covid-19 pandemic on the health systems under study, but
carefully avoid letting this issue monopolise the discussion. This
book raises key challenges to our understanding of healthcare
practices and the governance of public health. With a keen eye on
urban life, its inequalities and the ever-expanding gap between
rulers and the ruled, the findings address important questions on
the complex ways in which authorities gain, keep, or lose the
public’s trust.
Scientists are deciphering the biology of the tumor cell at a level
of detail that would have been hard to imagine just a decade or so
ago. The development of high-throughput DNA sequencing and genomics
technologies have allowed an understanding of the development,
growth, survival, and spread of cancer cells in the body. From this
information, we now have a basic blueprint or roadmap of how a
single damaged cell can develop into a pre-malignant lesion, a
primary tumor, and finally, a lethal tumor that may spread
throughout the body and resist both medical therapy and host immune
responses. In this book, we provide an overview of our current
understanding of this cancer blueprint, which has been aided both
by the study of familial cancer syndromes, in vitro studies of
cancer cells, and animal models. Three classes of genes have
emerged from these studies: tumor suppressor genes needed for
normal growth control and DNA repair; oncogenes that regulate cell
growth and survival, and epigenetic modifiers, enzymes that
regulate the modification of DNA and the proteins that form
chromatin. Each of these three classes of genes is mutated or
altered at least once in virtually all malignant cancer cells.
Current technologies permit the DNA sequencing of cancer exomes
(coding gene sequencing), whole genomes, transcriptome (all
expressed genes), and DNA methylation profiling. These studies show
that all tumors have unique constellations of mutated, rearranged,
amplified, and deleted genes. Single-cell sequencing further shows
that there is extensive variation in individual cells in the tumor;
that cancers evolve, and have many of the properties of a
multi-cellular entity. Lastly, cancer cells, through mutations in
epigenetic modifiers, can reprogram the genome and unlock entire
developmental and gene expression pathways to adapt and survive in
changing conditions. This reprogramming allows the tumor to elude
the host body's defenses, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted
therapy that we use in cancer treatment. Understanding this cancer
blueprint paves the way for the development of future therapies to
treat and eliminate cancer.
The lymphatic system develops and functions in parallel with the
blood circulatory system (termed the "hemovasculature") and
accomplishes transport of interstitial fluids, dietary lipids, and
reverse transport of cholesterol, immune cells, and
antigens-providing a critical homeostatic fluid balance and
transmission of immune cells and mediators back to the
cardiovascular system. Although the daily flow of lymph (normally
1-2 L/day under unstressed conditions) is far lower than that of
daily blood flow (which is 7,500 L/day), without the adequate
functioning of the lymphatics, virtually all organs and tissues
would acutely suffer many different physical and inflammatory
stresses ranging from edema to organ system failure. Although blood
and lymphatic vessels often form in anatomic parallels to one
another, our knowledge of the workings of the lymphatic system, the
fine structure of lymphatic networks, how they function in
different organs, and how they are regulated physiologically and
immunologically are far from parallel; our knowledge of the
lymphatic system still remains at only a tiny fraction of what is
understood about the cardiovascular system. Although both the
cardiovascular and lymphatic systems are important transport
systems, what they transport and how they transport and propel
these very different cargoes could not be more dissimilar. This
book provides an overview of the history of the discovery (and
re-discovery) of the components of the lymphatic system, lymphatic
anatomy, physiological functions of lymphatics, molecular features
of the lymphatic system, and clinical perspectives involving
lymphatics which may be of interest to scientists, clinicians,
patients, and the lay public. We provide a current understanding of
some of the more important structural similarities and differences
between lymphatics and the blood vascular system, their coordinated
control by angiogenic and hemangiogenic growth factors and other
modulators, the fate and lineage determinants which control
lymphatic development, and the roles that lymphatics may play in
several different diseases.
Hurricane Katrina forced the largest and most abrupt displacement
in U.S. history. About 1.5 million people evacuated from the Gulf
Coast preceding Katrina's landfall. New Orleans, a city of 500,000,
was nearly emptied of life after the hurricane and flooding.
Katrina survivors eventually scattered across all fifty states, and
tens of thousands still remain displaced. Some are desperate to
return to the Gulf Coast but cannot find the means. Others have
chosen to make their homes elsewhere. Still others found a way to
return home but were unable to stay due to the limited availability
of social services, educational opportunities, health care options,
and affordable housing. The contributors to Displaced have been
following the lives of Katrina evacuees since 2005. In this
illuminating book, they offer the first comprehensive analysis of
the experiences of the displaced. Drawing on research in thirteen
communities in seven states across the country, the contributors
describe the struggles that evacuees have faced in securing
life-sustaining resources and rebuilding their lives. They also
recount the impact that the displaced have had on communities that
initially welcomed them and then later experienced "Katrina
fatigue" as the ongoing needs of evacuees strained local resources.
Displaced reveals that Katrina took a particularly heavy toll on
households headed by low-income African American women who lost the
support provided by local networks of family and friends. It also
shows the resilience and resourcefulness of Katrina evacuees who
have built new networks and partnered with community organizations
and religious institutions to create new lives in the diaspora.
A chronicle that has been judged the 'single most authentic document of its kind.' Based on testimonies from descendants of Inca kings, who in the 1540s-50s still remembered the oral history and traditions of their ancestors. Beginning in 1551, Betanzos transcribed their memories and translated them from Quechua by order of Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza. Pt. I covers Inca history prior to the Spanish arrival and Pt. II deals with the conquest to 1557, mainly from the Inca point of view"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.
Environmental heat stress is associated with a marked decrease in
orthostatic tolerance (OT), which is defined as the ability to
stand or sit upright without symptoms of dizziness,
lightheadedness, presyncope, or fainting. In most healthy humans,
the autonomic nervous system makes rapid and balanced adjustments
to heart rate and peripheral blood flow, such that most people are
able to stand up "successfully" most of the time, in most
environments. The goal of this book is to discuss various aspects
of the sympathetic neural response to heat stress, how the
sympathetic nervous system coordinates the successful integrative
physiological response to orthostasis, and what happens when it
encounters both challenges simultaneously. We include overviews of
mechanisms of thermoregulation and blood pressure regulation in
humans, with particular focus on control of cardiac output and
neurovascular control mechanisms during heat stress. We discuss the
implications that these changes have for distribution of peripheral
blood flow and, in particular, for blood flow to the cerebral
circulation. The added stressor of dehydration is also discussed,
as it so often goes hand in hand with heat stress. We end with a
brief presentation of countermeasures against the decreases in OT
with heat stress.
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